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After talking to Jolie, he wasn’t so sure. Did increasing the biodiversity of the property mean that all the nests should stay? Were these birds part of the good predator list she had in her head?

Not that he had a clue what birds had made these nests. Even if he’d seen the birds, he likely still wouldn’t know.

But he would learn. He grinned at the thought. Even if Jolie wasn’t intriguing as hell on a personal level, her passion for nature and the farm would have lured him in.

He’d learned more about science and nature from her than he had from all his teachers put together. He’d always been a hands-on learner. Theorizing drove him a little batty. It was much better to get his hands on the pieces and figure it out that way. Whether it was a building project, a puzzle, or a math problem. Being able to manipulate the pieces always made it make sense.

Seeing and hearing Jolie put the puzzle pieces of the pond together had been fun. Hell, he wanted to invest in his own set of chest waders just to explore the pond. With or without her. With would be a lot better.

Ford pulled his phone out and took a picture of the latest nest, wondering what clues Jolie would find to put the pieces together here. Could she tell the type of bird from the nest?

Ford didn’t know if birds used nests throughout the year or if they were only useful for laying eggs in the spring. Maybe the nests were useless after that and could be discarded. Unless they reused them year to year. Lots of questions.

He recorded the location of the nest on his spreadsheet and assigned the photo number to it.

So far, he’d found no problems with rot, but debris clogged several air vents. Hopefully, the debris wasn’t nests as the vents needed to be cleaned whether the birds used them or not. The vents got the red priority marks. He’d need a taller ladder to get to the roof. Unless there was a way up from the inside, which would be cool.

This harvesting barn was the most important to keep properly ventilated and maintained. If Knox and his family wanted to get the farm producing lots of apples, they needed proper facilities to store and do whatever they did with the fruit.

He was looking forward to seeing those puzzle pieces fit together, too.

From his spot at the top of the ladder, Ford turned to survey the farm. This barn was behind the equipment barn on the same side of the property. Not that he could see the other barn or the farmhouses with the apple trees growing everywhere like a field of flowers. A hell of a pretty sight.

The entire farm was pretty. Well, the pond might not be pretty yet, but he was confident Jolie would fix that.

He climbed down the ladder, moved it a couple of yards to the left, and repositioned the sandbags. Taking a tumble from more than twenty feet up wouldn’t be fun.

It took over an hour to do a proper survey of the barn’s exterior and by the time he was done, he’d put most of the tasks in the green or yellow sections. Nothing serious to deal with so far, other than the vents.

He debated whether to do the exterior of another barn next or move to the inside of this one. Climbing the ladder another couple of dozen times didn’t appeal, so he headed to the front of the barn.

He unlocked the small door, then worked to open the main doors. They were heavy, and the hinges needed some oil. He added that to the spreadsheet with a red code.

He walked around the main floor first, getting a feel for the layout and the flow of the building. He knew the apples would be put on one of the two conveyor belts. One for perfect apples, the other for those with blemishes.

Could he improve the efficiency of this place? Did the layout work for a small harvest? For a full one?

Needing more research, he took his phone back outside. No point in wasting a nice spring day when he could do that research under the shade of an apple tree.

He watched a bunch of videos, grateful for the people who put them together for no reason other than to help others.

He took notes about the process and analyzed the setup in each video. Many of the farms were on a much smaller scale than Knox’s place. Others were warehouse-sized operations.

He took ideas from each of them and wished he had blueprints of the barn to study from an aerial view. Maybe Knox had found something like that.

The sound of the dinner bell had him grinning and checking the time. He’d been lost in a variety of plans for improving the harvesting process and hadn’t realized it was so late.

He returned the ladder and sandbags to their places within the barn, then locked up and headed toward the farmhouse.

Jolie was cooking tonight, and he was curious about what she would make.

Ford knew Knox missed his family and wanted to lure them all here. With their rotational cooking routine, it would be easy to slide in new people once they arrived.

Which reminded him he needed to check out the other bedrooms and bathrooms. When he’d picked his room, he’d noticed a few of the window frames had some rot and at least one window had a crack. He’d upgrade those items to red. Anything that helped his buddy lure his family to the farm would be priority red.

The scent of roasting chicken had him picking up his pace. He wasn’t a great cook, but he was a big fan of good food.

Mara had spoiled them all with her incredible baking, but she preferred that to cooking. Thankfully, Ford’s dad and two of his older brothers had enjoyed cooking and experimenting with recipes. Nate’s taco casserole was a thing of beauty. Ford would text him for the recipe later. Or at least the process, as Nate rarely followed a recipe. Maybe he’d bug him and Dan for simple things he could make on his nights.