When they stopped at the farm with the trailers, Shawn actually felt a little fear about herding the cows into the trailer. All Arthur did was open one trailer and turned to Kit and Kat. “Load ‘em,” he commanded and the labs took off.
The labs made it look really easy until one bull decided he didn’t want to go and charged the labs. That was when Donald and Daisy ran over and had words with the bull. It only took the bull a few seconds to figure out that leaving wasn’t so bad.
Keeping an eye on the kids as they worked, Arthur moved over to the playpen that held the babies. The barn and hydroponic greenhouse had playpens he’d left there so the babies could be put down. But if worst came to worst, Arthur had a chest carrier he had sewn up that held Nicole and Lucas in slings on the side with Pam in a pack carrier in the middle.
Watching the kids with the sheared sheep, Arthur chuckled at remembering Vicki dragging a bag of wool. “They are going to get cold now,” Vicki had pouted.
The sun was well up as they headed to the chicken coops. Even though the one they had moved from Jack’s farm could automatically feed and water, Arthur had turned it off and they fed and watered the chickens.
With the chores done, everyone loaded up and headed to Jack’s farm. This was where they parked all the vehicles and equipment now. Not to mention most of the stuff they had hauled back. There were mountains of stuff stacked in rows beside the barn.
As Shawn stopped in front of the barn, he looked at the long stack of chain link fence and a wall of pallets loaded with cinder blocks. Shawn didn’t think there were any cinder blocks or bags of concrete left in a fifty-mile radius.
“Shawn, hook up the trailer with the plugs of grass,” Arthur called out. “Andrea, hook up to the trailer with the trees. Kirk, you drive the tractor. Shelia, you take the tract steer. Pat, you drive the mini excavator.”
Seeing the kids take off, Arthur headed for the Suburban and backed up to a trailer he’d had the kids help him on. It had solar panels mounted on one side and was loaded down with batteries and a large water pump.
After hooking up the trailer, Arthur did his walk around and counted heads. Checking the kids in the Suburban, Arthur picked Robin up and hugged her tight at seeing that she still had all her clothes on. Climbing in, he led the caravan down the valley at ten miles an hour. They were only going three and a half miles away, but it took a little bit to get there.
Vicki was sitting up front with Arthur and of course, Nicole riding in the crook of Arthur’s arm. Beth and Jodi were in the back, singing to Lucas and Pam. Arthur was enjoying the sound of the kids as he slowly drove along, passing Tammy and Ted’s house. Glancing over, Arthur saw the two graves they had dug and buried Nicole’s parents in.
Turning south at the fork, Arthur couldn’t help but think about how much Wendy would’ve loved having all these kids at the house.
“Is that the house?” Vicki asked, pointing ahead.
“Yep, Mike Kercher,” Arthur said. “We call it the Kercher farm, but they don’t farm anything.”
“And we are going to hide this road?” Vicki asked with disbelief.
“You bet,” Arthur grinned, pulling in front of the house. “Where do we set up the baby area?” he asked Vicki as he put the Suburban in park.
Looking around the area and giving the question very deep thought, Vicki finally pointed at the front yard. “I think the front yard. That way, it will be easier for everyone to switch out,” Vicki answered.
“Then that’s where it will be,” Arthur said, climbing out.
Moving to the back of the Suburban, Arthur punched the fob to open the cargo door. Reaching in, he pulled out the playpen. Carrying it over to the shade of an oak tree in the front yard, Arthur grabbed one of the folded-up corners and jerked his hand back. He grinned as he watched the pen fold out, but not all the way. He placed Nicole in the bottom and then finished folding out the pen and locked the sides.
Turning around, he saw Vicki carrying Lucas and Betty carrying Pam over. Arthur watched as Betty placed Pam in the pen and then headed back to the Suburban. Nobody watched Vicki with the babies, that’s who the kids went and talked to. To everyone, Vicki was considered, ‘Little Momma’.
Carrying over three baby swings, Arthur grinned as the kids gathered around and Vicki told everyone the order that baby duty was going to go. It did hurt Beth’s feelings because she was one of the ones that had to be watched. But Vicki told Beth it was her job to watch Robin, and the others would watch her. Beth always seemed to like that and didn’t complain.
“Today by age, starting with the youngest and going to the oldest,” Vicki called out and Jim groaned, since he was the youngest of the babysitters. “Unless Arthur says your job can’t stop, you take your turn,” Vicki said, looking around at the group with hard eyes.
She stopped when her eyes reached Andrea. “If the baby poops, you’d better change them and not leave it for the next person,” Vicki told everyone but stared hard at Andrea.
“I only did that once,” Andrea cried out and Vicki held up her hand.
“At feeding time, I’ll come and help,” Vicki said, dropping her hand.
“I would
