Afternoon rounds were about to begin and his other animals would be waiting at the gate for their dinner so eventually he had to leave the new herd and go back to his normal day. It amazed him how quickly the other deer had fallen into the routine of greeting him for a feed of nuts. The vet had advised him to train them to follow the feed bucket because it would make it easier to move them and check on their health.
Determined to do everything properly so he made a success of this business, he’d researched the advice and found it to be correct. Now every time they saw him walking toward them with the stainless steel bucket in his hands, they came running, bleating for the deer nuts he fed them. Adam just had to maintain the distance from them as hard as it was becoming. Being sucked in by their melting brown eyes when he was rounding them up for the abattoir could be his downfall. I can stay strong. No point in having the farm if I can’t handle slaughter time.
He walked past the dairy, glancing at it again now the driver had made mention of it. So far there was nothing he needed to use it for. Oh well, might come in handy one day. It was old and sturdy, weather proof, and had running water and power to the building. It would have to sit and add character to the farm because he didn’t need it now he wasn’t milking anything on the farm. It was purely a meat producing venture with the possibility of breeding stock as a sideline.
The rich earthy scent of lucerne hay wafted through the air of the feed barn. A dog yapped at the gate and Adam turned to let him out of the house yard. Spencer was a city animal, born and bred. A long haired Chihuahua Adam had inherited from an aunt along with a generous bequest in her will. Generous enough to buy this farm and bypass his father’s valiant efforts to keep him in the law business after law school. The woman saved my life in more ways than one.
The law had been his first love when he was growing up. There was nothing he liked more than watching from the back of the court when his father was sitting on the bench putting away criminals to keep the streets safe for the general public. Each night after a heavy court session, Adam walked back with his father to the office before returning home. They would discuss every case, his father encouraging him to offer his opinion and Adam found he invariably agreed with the sentencing his father imposed believing it was for the public safety.
Until he’d been half way through law school and learned how other lawyers fought their cases. It was then Adam had started to argue against his father’s harsh sentencing regime.
“You’ll turn jaded and change your mind. Just wait and see how much good your weak attitude will do for society when you let these, these scum back out on the streets. I bet you change your mind when one of them steal that pretty BMW of yours when you’re busy defending the drug dealers and child molesters.” His father’s face turned red as he’d blustered on.
“I might have been easily impressed when I was a kid but now I know different. There’s such a thing as rehabilitation you know. It’s been proven to work a damn sight better than chucking everyone in jail which costs the taxpayer a fortune they can’t afford.”
“Don’t go turning into a nambie pambie do gooder, Adam. You have the family name to uphold to say nothing of the business. Get over your white knight attitude and start doing the job I’ve been paying you for all these years. Why do you think you went to university if not to take over the business? And you sure as hell aren’t going to turn it into a civil libertarians wet dream, let me tell you that for free.”
This was a better place for the both of them. Adam scratched Spencer around the chin and laughed at the difference time made. He’d finished law school and been offered a variety of positions apart from the expectation of starting work at the family firm. It had been fine for the first couple of years or so he’d told himself. Eventually it became too much. He’d taken the money his father’s spinster sister had left him, her little dog Spencer, and headed to the country to make a niche for himself. The first year had been a time to reflect on what he had left behind and what he could make of his future. All he knew was that he wanted to be away from the city doing something with his hands for a change.
A chance walk past the real estate agency on his way for a morning latte with Spencer on a lead had guided him to the farm. He’d fallen in love with everything he saw, from the sturdy old timber rail fences to the old buildings dotted around the farm. The house was more than adequate for him, but it was the rich green pastures and wide open spaces that had ticked all the boxes for Adam. He’d made the offer and signed the deal all within that day. From then on he was in research mode to find something he could do to make use of the land without employing someone to do it for him.
It was his Italian neighbor and her husband who suggested deer farming. “You have the grass for them, Adam. Think of the wonderful meat you could grow here in this peaceful hidden valley.” Plied with dried meats and more preserves than he could eat
