Saturday, 6th of Fall
Alma stood at the base of the silo. It felt like such an iconic farming structure, and she couldn't believe there was one on her property. She wagged her head in disbelief. "How long is it going to take for me to realize that this is my life now?" She turned and looked over the farm at all the grass that had grown. Nearly every area of ground was now covered in grass! She wasn't sure how much the silo would hold, but she hoped it would be a lot! If she needed a second one before winter, though, she knew that wouldn't be a problem. She moseyed back to the crops to harvest the wheat, eggplants, and corn that were ready before moving on with the rest of today's work.
When Alma went inside the coop to gather eggs, she saw she had another duck egg from Jemima. She had put a duck egg in the community center, she had one in her own inventory, and she had used one for mayonnaise; so she figured it was time to put one in the incubator to hatch another duck. She placed it in the hay, covered it, and turned on the incubator, watching the lamp heat over the egg. It suddenly occurred to her … this egg was not fertilized. It wouldn't produce a baby duck! … would it? Robin seemed to suggest it would! Well, she figured, only one way to find out! If it didn't hatch in a bit, she could always get a drake from Marnie to help sire some ducklings.
After gathering up her produce and organizing things in her chests, Alma decided it was time to start conquering this grass - but she reminded herself to keep an eye on the time too. She had to be at Pierre's before five if she wanted to sell her things. It was now about noon, so she hoped this would be enough time to get at least some grass under control. She pulled out her scythe and started with the area south of the crops, working all the way to the southern border of the farm and west to the lake. When she finished gathering up hay in this section, she wiped her brow and looked at her watch: it was nearly three. If she wanted to get to Pierre by five, she thought she should probably stop now while she was at a good stopping point.
On her way into town, she saw Harvey walking in the square. "Hey there!" he called, stopping to meet her.
They hugged, and she asked, "You coming back from the library?"
"Yeah, I was doing some research today but took some time to read a bit about that plane I came in contact with last week too. What about you? I was a-a bit surprised I didn't see you there."
"It's been a busy day," she sighed. "Robin finished my silo, so on top of the regular work, I've been cutting down grass to gather hay for the winter."
"Were you able to get it finished?"
"Oh, no, nowhere close. I just needed to take a break so I could run into Pierre's before he closed. I'm glad I caught you too before you locked yourself away in your tower."
He smirked. "You going to get back to it then when you finish at the store?"
"Well, I might fish for a bit since I'm here and keep trying to catch that salmon for Abigail. I'm hopefully not too late. But then, yeah, I'll probably cut more hay before bed."
"Don't overwork yourself, Alma," he said, rubbing her arm. "Doctor's orders!"
"I know, I know. I promise I'll keep an eye on the clock and get to bed at a reasonable hour."
"Good. Your health is important to me." He moved his hand down her arm and held on to her hand. "So you taking anything exciting to Pierre?"
She laughed. "As exciting as my produce gets! But actually," she said, pulling her bag around. She took out a nice purple eggplant. "It's the first harvest of these guys. You want one?"
He took it and said with a smile, "That's such a nice gift. Thank you!"
"You're welcome." It occurred to her that some might see that as quite a sexual gesture, but he didn't seem to take it that way; and she thought if she brought it up, it might embarrass him to death - maybe literally. "So, uh, I guess you're on your way home for the night?"
"Yes, and I might actually cook this up for my dinner. I've never cooked eggplant before, but I bet it will taste great with those pickles you gave me recently. A nice earthy taste with something so sharp and pungent - yum!"
"It will be nice to eat while watching a documentary or something."
"You sure you - you don't want to j-join me?"
She shook her head and sighed. "Maybe not this time. If I don't cut the grass, it's just going to keep growing. And I'm on a time crunch with this delivery for Abigail."
"Right, okay. Well, remember, don't work too hard," he said, giving her another hug. "Maybe I'll see you tomorrow. The forecast is calling for rain!"
"Great! Goodnight." He went off into the clinic, and she went into Pierre's just as he was closing up. She was happy to sell all those things and lighten her load a bit. Afterwards, she went to the river on the south side of town and tried to catch salmon but to no avail. She kept catching chub after chub after chub until she decided to call it quits. She went back to the farm and cut grass until it got late, then she crawled into bed for a good night's sleep.