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Badger tilted his head. “I was expecting about twenty-four,” he began, as he looked around the place and shook his head. “Then more men showed up,” he added, with a note of satisfaction. “If there’s one thing we’ve cultivated over the past few years, it’s a really strong sense of family.”

“Yeah, but some of them have families they need to go home to,” Kat pointed out.

“And those ones will head out with us later tonight, only to come back again in the morning,” Badger shared. “The rest are sticking around, and they’ll camp here, so…” He looked over at Kat and asked, “How much grub did you bring?”

She rolled her eyes and muttered, “Not nearly enough. We’ll need to get a bloody refrigerator truck in here if that many showed up and they plan to work around the clock.”

Badger laughed. “Let’s do it.” When Kat just shook her head, he smiled. “This isn’t something we budgeted for, but it seems to have taken on a life of its own. This is one of those times where we go with the flow and just see what happens.”

“How long is this team planning to work here?” Tiffany asked.

“A week,” Badger stated. “A week to see how much we can get done and then to reassess. Some of the men have to go back to other scheduled jobs. Some have families who are a little farther away and will need to go home occasionally. Others came for the whole week, and they’ll stay as long as they’re needed.

For all I know, at the end of that first seven days, Timber will have a crew of a half dozen guys sitting here, thinking it might be a good place to spend the summer. ”

Tiffany smiled. “I have never seen anything quite like it,” she murmured.

Badger nodded. “No, and I’m not sure you ever will again. It’s pretty special.”

Kat agreed, “I think both Toby and Dwight are hoping to each buy a piece of land from Andy and have a spot to call home here for themselves, while working full-time for Timber.”

Badger nodded and then murmured, “That’s not a bad thing. I’ve always tried to pay them wages for regular jobs, but they always refused. So I just put it in the bank. I don’t know if it’ll be enough to buy the land, but it might be enough to help throw up a cabin for each of them.”

Kat smiled. “I gather that’s what we’ll be doing now for a lot of our old-timers.”

“Considering they won’t let us pay them,” Badger noted in frustration, “it’s not a bad thing if we can find a place for a lot of them to settle down and to own their home. That would be huge.”

At that, Timber walked over, fatigue visible in every line of his body, and waved at Tiffany, a small smile on his lips.

Kat just looked at him and frowned. He shook his head and ordered, “No frowns.”

She sighed. “It won’t do you any good. I’ve just told Badger to take it easy, and he basically said the same thing.”

At that Timber smiled and shrugged. “When these men come and volunteer to help me do the work on my own project, you buckle down and you work beside them. I can be sore tomorrow, but I sure as heck can’t get this kind of help from anybody else.

” He looked over at Badger. “This is amazing, and I don’t even know how to begin to thank you. ”

“Don’t worry about it. You’ve got bigger issues right now,” Badger pointed out.

“You’ll soon be out of grub and beer, if you don’t have somebody to do a supply run.

These guys are here for a week at least. After that, some may stay on longer.

However, the bulk of them will likely leave over the weekend. ”

“Wow,” Timber muttered. “At this rate, we can get a lot of shit done in a week.”

“That’s what the hope is, and that’s why we brought tools and materials and food and beer, along with the manpower,” Badger stated, with a smile.

“Thanks again.” Then he sat next to Tiffany.

“Timber, I sent you an email about setting up a GoFundMe for supplies for the animals,” Tiffany pointed out, “and you never did answer.”

He shook his head and then confessed, “Sorry, I haven’t had time to check email. Plus, I don’t even know what a Go-whatever-you-called-it even is.”

Badger laughed. “Just say yes and leave it with her to handle.”

Timber frowned. “That means I won’t like it.”

“No, it’s just asking the community and other animal lovers to donate toward your animal rescue,” Tiffany explained.

“So, you may not like it, but the community often is looking for projects to help with, especially when it comes to animals. Even in the best of cases, running a shelter is really expensive, so I would suggest you keep your head down and accept the help. It may not be much. You never know. It might be a few hundred bucks, and it might be a whole lot more. I don’t even really know, but it’s something I do fairly regularly for a lot of the animals that come through the clinic. ”

He opened his mouth to say something, and she silenced him with a wave of her hand. “And I know you’re not an animal, but you are dealing with animals in need, and that’s just as important.”

Timber sighed. “Fine, go ahead. Do what you want with your Go-whatever-it’s-called.” He shook his head. “Do what you have to do.”

“Good.” Tiffany smiled. “That’s the best way to look at it.”

“Is it?” he asked.

Kat laughed and agreed. “Yes, it absolutely is.”

“Fine,” Timber muttered. “In that case, go for it.” He looked from Kat to Badger to Tiffany and added, “One of you will have to explain it to me later.”

Dwight walked past him and interjected, “I don’t understand either, but, if it’s bringing in money, just say yes. You know full well that plenty of money is out in that world, but getting some of it to come your way to help the animals? Now that’s a different story.”

And, with that, Timber and Badger headed out to get a burger, before getting back to work.

Tiffany looked over at Kat and asked, “What was that about Toby and Dwight never accepting any wages?”

“Yeah, it’s an atonement thing for them,” she whispered, followed by a sigh. “So, maybe finding them a place where they can call home would be a really good answer for them.”

Tiffany slowly nodded. “I think you may be right.”

Dwight came up just then and handed them each a plate of food.

“Remind Timber to ask Andy about selling me and Toby a small plot of land. We were talking this morning about maybe each buying a small piece of land from Andy. Somewhere out closer to the road. Then, if Timber needs the help, maybe the two of us can stay on and can help him on a permanent basis. This place is huge, and he can’t run it himself. ”

Kat looked at him in delight and nodded. “I think that’s an absolutely fabulous idea.”

“It depends on Andy though, right?” Dwight asked. “He’s struggling apparently.”

“He is,” Tiffany agreed. “But part of the reason is because he doesn’t want to see the land broken up into million-dollar homes, when the ranch was meant to be his family’s heritage.”

“He did build something beautiful,” Dwight admitted. “This will be a different vision than what he’d planned, but still an animal refuge is better than some McMansion village. Still, that’s where the challenge comes in.”

“Challenge, indeed,” Kat murmured, as she got up and pulled out her phone.

“Don’t ask him now,” Tiffany suggested.

“No, I’m not,” Kat replied, “but it just occurred to me that, if we’re doing a third round of work, we’ll need a whole lot more food. I get that there’s potato salad and burgers, but we’ll at least need more beer,” she noted, with an eye roll. Then she proceeded to call somebody in town.

When she got off the phone, Tiffany offered, “I can do a run into town, if you need me to.”

She smiled. “No worries. I’ve got a delivery truck coming. I don’t think your truck would hold it.”

“Hold just beer?” she asked in astonishment.

“No, I’m afraid we don’t have near-enough groceries for this many people, especially when staying a week and working two to three shifts each day.”

“Does Timber even have a place to put that much food?” she pointed out. “It’ll take an awful lot of cooler space.”

“Let’s go take a look.”

And, with that, the two women headed inside to sort out the logistics of feeding forty-odd men for a week.