Shawn’s mouth was hanging open as he gawked at Arthur. “Wow,” Shawn mumbled.
Nodding, “Yeah, that sums it up rather nice,” Andrea admitted.
The back door opened again and Kirk stuck his head out, “Breakfast is ready,” he called out.
“That fast?” Arthur asked in mock surprise.
“You don’t have any boxes so it takes a long time,” Kirk huffed, ducking back inside.
“Why don’t you have boxed food and stuff?” Shawn asked.
“Don’t want the extra shit they put in,” Arthur told him. “Many of the things that companies put in food here, other countries won’t allow for human consumption. Besides, I would’ve had to buy those and that meant the government got money from me just because I wanted to eat. Wendy and I learned to do everything we could on our own. Hell, we make serious money selling stuff from here.”
“Yeah, even a crop of marijuana,” Shawn said, opening the door.
Stopping and giving a long sigh, “Shawn, I told you. That’s hemp, not marijuana,” Arthur groaned.
“It looks just like it,” Shawn cried out. “Our neighbor grew it and I saw it.”
“Why grow hemp?” Andrea asked, walking in and Arthur and Shawn followed to see everyone at the table waiting.
“Because I can make so much from it,” Arthur chuckled, heading for his chair. “Fuel, paper, cloth, rope… Hell, it’s a one plant shopping center.”
“Clothes?” Andrea asked, putting Robin in her highchair.
“Hello?” Arthur said, sitting down. “Canvas is called ‘canvas’ because it first came from ‘cannabis’.”
Sitting down Andrea nodded, clearly impressed. “Now that is cool,” she said. “And you do that?”
“Are you kidding?” Shawn chuckled. “They have silkworms.”
Giving a remorseful sigh, “Yeah, that was Wendy’s pride and joy, being able to produce silk,” Arthur mumbled, rocking Nicole in his arm. “I only helped, but I guess I’m going to have to learn so I can teach all of you.”
Leaning over, Andrea looked at Arthur’s pants. “That’s why the material for your clothes look so different, you made it,” she gasped.
“Duh,” Shawn sang out from across the table and Andrea cut her eyes toward him.
“But even you got boots the day we met,” Andrea said.
Giving a regretful sigh, Arthur started loading his plate with his right hand as his left arm cradled Nicole. “That’s one thing I’ve never done; shoemaking. I’ve got the books and tools, but never put the time into learning or doing it. Maybe one day.”
Kirk and his brothers, along with Shawn stared at Arthur in shock. “But you can do everything!” Kirk cried out. “You sewed that sling up for Nicole to make it bulletproof and then showed us how to make boxes and wire those batteries up to those solar things and hundreds of other things.”
“I wish I could do everything,” Arthur said, trying to butter his biscuit with one hand. “What I know, I will and I am teaching all of you because you will need it now more than ever.”
“Are we going to shoot guns?” Jim asked hopefully.
“If we get done early, we will,” Arthur said and Jim pumped his fists in the air. “Jim, if you could recite the gun commandments from heart, I would be more willing to give you the chance to carry the AR I made for you.”
Closing his eyes, Jim concentrated so hard his face was turning red. “One: Treat every gun as if it is loaded. Two: Always keep your gun pointed in a safe direction.” Jim paused, squinting his eyes closed so hard his eyelids were turning white. “Three: Never point your gun at anything you don’t intend to shoot. Four: Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot. And five: Be aware of your targets foreground and background before you fire.”
Jim opened his eyes and slumped sideways in his chair and his brother Pat reached out, catching Jim before he fell out of the chair. “My head hurts now,” Jim mumbled as he rubbed his face.
Arthur just stared across the table at Jim. “Never seen that kind of effort in reciting anything,” Arthur mumbled.
“Shit, I’m willing to let him carry my gun after watching that,” Shawn chuckled.
“Jim, if you do good on the range today, you will get assigned your AR but it will be probationary,” Arthur told him. Jim forgot about his head hurting as he bounced in his chair. “Jim, don’t run from the lambs anymore.”
Jim froze in midbounce, gasping at Arthur. “They attack me and try to eat my clothes to get to me!” Jim whined as the others turned away and snickered.
Looking up at the ceiling, “You can stop with the challenges any time now. I have learned humility,” Arthur announced, then went back to eating.
Chapter Twenty Nine
You can’t hide a road
After breakfast, the morning caravan of buggies descended the slope to the barn and tended to the animals. Pat drove Arthur and Nicole down in the lead with six buggies following behind. This was by Arthur’s design, he wanted all the kids to know how to drive.
So far only Beth, Robin, and the babies hadn’t driven. Beth had driven sitting in Shawn’s lap a few times. The one time Robin had left her clothes on for half an hour, Arthur had tried to let her drive him around, but that stopped fast. Robin tried to run over the goats. The next trip into town, two electric kid cars came back to the farm, one for Beth and one for Robin.
Shawn moved to the milking area since they now milked four cows at a time. Shawn would empty the pumps as new cows were brought in. Now, they had twenty more dairy cows and that was when Shawn had learned what Kit and Kat were good at.
