My RA Ch. 02

"Zoe, Anne, and I rode into church today on horseback, we brought a lot of carrots and apples so you can feed them after church." After church, everyone went outside and fed and petted the horses. The last service was canceled, Sarah needed the people around her. Anne and Zoe rode their horses back to the farm holding Beauty's reigns. Noel and Jacob took Sarah to the hospital. About at the halfway point, all three horses got aggravated at the same time. Anne said, "His time had passed, he is home now." Zoe and Anne dismounted to say a prayer for their friend Buck.

Anne said," There is no way I am going to ride Sarah's Mom's horse, let's just put the horses away when we get there and stay the night. Sarah will go home with Noel and Jacob." Zoe nodded.

Sarah called Anne, "Anne, he is gone."

Anne said, "He is with your Mom, he never will be gone. The horses told us of his passing. We are going to put the horses away and feed the chickens and bunnies and will stay the night, you go with Noel. Sarah, how big is the farm?

"About 150 acres or so. Why do you ask?"

"Just thinking about ideas."

April finally lugged a huge box addressed to Zoe. "Hey, Zoe, who do you know who lives in Orlando? I got this from the mailroom."

Zoe tore into the box. "Look April, a tiny jacket with an upward-facing horseshoe, to hold the good luck in, with the word Brownie stitched into it." The clothes were extremely detailed and of the highest quality. Brownie modeled every piece and the girls were having loads of fun. "Zoe what are these pieces for?" said April.

"They look like tack pieces horses wear, not bears."

Soon all was explained when April took out a unicorn from the box. The manager thought Brownie needed a horse also so why not go with a unicorn. Zoe said," It will be named Blessing." Zoe texted Joy. Blessing and Brownie are inseparable. Thank you so much."

A lot of research went into Freedom; everything Brownie would need to take care of Freedom was included. Michelle got all the pictures of all the bears and labeled them with their names. Then she wrote a letter as a testimonial for the store in Orlando. The letter went something like this:

"Dear Reader:

Our bear story starts out with a three-year-old girl who got a bear and they were inseparable. After a very close call by her freshman roommate who almost died during a flood, she gave Bear to her because she needed something close by that she could hug. Three people in the bear family got their bears because of grief from the loss of a loved one. We at Northfield University have a select number of students and Moms who have to uphold a certain rule. We have a set of nine bears (soon to add a horse) to be given to those who are hurting.

You must be invited to be in the bear family. The owner is not allowed to buy her beer, it must be adopted. It must also have a bear name. The cloths are of the highest quality and they are very detail-oriented. We just give a bio of where the person lives and likes and dislikes. Some will be the same outfits as the others, but some are different to make the bear an individual. We let the seamstress dream big on a small scale. They seem to thrive on being given a chance to not being constrained. Once the entire wardrobe is finished, we send the entire box to the hurting person. Everyone needs something to hug. Consider buying custom made clothes for you or your children. The love you will receive will be beyond measure." The store was beyond ecstatic. The seamstresses took great pride in the acknowledgment of their jobs. They loved working on bears. The manager framed the photos and the letter. They were not sure about the horse, but the bio will help them.

Joy approached Sarah and said," Sarah, we the members of our bear family, are all in agreement that you are the perfect candidate to join our bear family. We also agree that you would be more comforted by a horse rather than a bear. We use our animals so we can be comforted the most in stressful times. We do not want to diminish your memories of your Mother by getting one like Beauty so we want your input as to how you want one."

Sarah replied," Really Joy, I am so honored. I would like to give you some material that still has the scent of Mom on it. A horse blanket would be ideal. With her scent, one like Beauty would be perfect." Joy sent the shirt Sarah gave her along with the Bio of Sarah. A note that reads "Do not clean. This shirt has the scent of her mother on it to keep her comforted. She wants a blanket made for the horse, maybe more made from it. Beauty was her Mom's horse (photo enclosed.) Could you try to find a horse about the same size as our bears?"

When the manager read the note and showed the photo to her seamstresses there was not a dry eye to be had. The emotional attachment was too great. No one seamstress could do this job, it had to be all of them. The manager would get the horse. Meanwhile, books about horses and their equipment were brought in.

They needed so many items, tack would not be enough. Some would have to make hay bales, carrots, apples, etc. They needed to make just about everything that you find on a farm. Horses do not have the wardrobe that they gave the bears, so they made up for it in other ways.

All the seamstresses being Moms, had a strong emotional attachment to the job. In their eyes, this was job one, no matter how long it took. They all told the manager to take the money out of their paychecks, they would not hear about Joy being charged. This was truly a labor of love.

Several weeks later Sarah received an extra-large and heavy box. She called Joy and said all were invited to dinner at the farm, our table can fit twenty so bring all our friends. We can Skype call the rest when we open the box. Joy called everyone she could think of. Then she called Molly's Mom to see if she could take Molly to dinner that night. Joy thought Molly would learn a lot from the experience. Her Mom agreed readily.

Sarah wanted Joy to call her back so she could plan the meal. When she found out Molly was coming to the menu became easy to decide. Spaghetti with meatballs, French bread and lots of milk. Chocolate or vanilla ice cream with the obligatory whipped cream and cherries for dessert.

Molly, David, Joy, and Buddy were the first to arrive. Buddy went directly to Sarah with Molly following right behind.

Molly was thrilled to be with the grown-ups. Spaghetti with meatballs was her favorite. Molly's eyes grew big as saucers when she saw the ice cream come out. She never had real whipped cream before, it was so light and fluffy. Much better than the canned stuff, although Molly liked that also.

When it came time to open the box Sarah was in the center with Anne and Zoe on either side with Buddy at her feet. The rest were scattered around the room as everyone got on Skype. When Sarah opened the box she saw it contained a letter with the returned photo; the seamstresses had the original scanned and framed separately and also had a picture of the stuffed horse with the bears.

"Dear Sarah,

"Your story affected all of us greatly. We all felt this job had to be the best job we have ever done. We are all Moms, so every stitch is full of love. I would have had a riot on my hands if I did not make this job one. I had to include everyone. We are sorry for your loss and all of us hope that Beauty will be a comfort to you in the coming times. Knowing nothing about horses, we had to all learn a lot. We got books and even called farmers to help us." All the seamstresses signed the letter.

Sarah just broke down, Anne and Zoe were comforting her in a split second. Molly went and got Miss Sarah some milk. Sarah then realized that her Mom was with her. In her mind, she was not showing her friends all of the creations that Beauty got, she was showing her Mom. Before everyone left, Molly gave Miss Sarah an extra-long hug. Anne and Zoe decided to stay the night, just in case they were needed.

Joy gave Sarah Noel's phone number just in case she wanted to talk to someone. They talked for some time. Noel just had a way to talk to people. Sarah decided to go to both services, maybe listening to both will help, she would bring her new Beauty with her. Soon every child was bringing their bear or dolly to church with them. Jacob knew all Pastors needed to speak to the needs of their entire flock, not just the adults. Jacob asked," Noel, how can I incorporate all the children's needs into my sermons while not alienating the adults?"

"That is easy dear. With all the stuff the kids are going through you could just stick to Love, Peace, and family. I heard all the kids asked their parents about prayer."

"Really, if that is important enough for them to ask the question, then I think I should address it." Jacob added," Noel if you see a child without their bear or dolly could you ask where it is. If they forgot it, offer to drive them home to get it. I consider all of them part of my church; they comfort the children and the children are part of my church."

That Sunday when Jacob started the service he announced," It is good to see all of you today especially the children. I like to see the children with their bears and dollies. Parents, can you make sure they have them every week? Some may frown upon them and think you are disrespecting God by having them with you. Remember God oversees everything that happens to us. If God did not want you to have your bear or dolly then you would not have it. So, when you bring His gift into His house it means you are honoring Him. Just like He brought your Mommy and Daddy together, He brought your bear or dolly to you." The children were happy when they heard that. They did not want to dishonor God.

"Children, I heard you were asking about prayer. Prayer is very important for all of us. It is how we talk to God. If you have a problem or concern, then you should pray about it. God is just waiting to hear from you. If you hear someone is sick or hurt like Miss Joy, then you should talk to God about it. If you want to celebrate with someone about a good thing then you should pray to God to thank Him for that exciting thing that happened to you or a friend.

God does not just want to hear about sad things, He wants to hear about all the happy things that happen to you. You can think of God as your super best friend, always there for you when you are happy or sad. Wouldn't you want to tell your super best friend how happy you are? He would love to celebrate with you. From time to time, you will have a problem and you really need a lot of help because you just can't do it by yourself. Guess what, God is right there and He has the answer. Guess what, He brought your Mommies and Daddy's together. He wanted you to be with them. You should ask them for help, they might have that answer that God wants to give you.

"You do not need to have a lot of schooling to pray, people have problems before they go to school. If you have problems then you need to ask God and your parents for help. I am guessing that if you have that problem, you're Mommies and Daddy's probably had it also.

"Mommies and Daddy's you also have to ask God for help. How can you help your children if you do not have God on your side? You need to have Him as the cement for your family. God is waiting to hear from everyone. His Holy Spirit will give you guidance."

It was an abbreviated service, but it had deep meaning for the children. Lots of smiles. It was a load off the children's minds, they knew how to pray now. God was waiting for them to talk to Him about anything.

Sarah, Anne, and Zoe loved to race on the farm, it really was not a fair race Beauty was always faster. The farmers had gotten together and set up a plan to run the farm. Everyone wanted Sarah to have a sense of normality. Not having to worry about the business side took a lot of stress from Sarah. She trusted the older farmers to aid her with the farm. Sarah wanted to be in the loop about everything, she did not want to learn about things until after it was too late.

She took her Dad's words to heart. She wanted to bring life back into the farm. She asked her friends that were paying dorm fees if they would like to come out to the farm to live. The commute would be long but well worth it. April and Zoe jumped at the chance. Zoe spent time there anyway so as her Mistress April decided it would be good to live at the farm. Anne was undecided, classes were getting harder, so she was spending more time at the library.

The decision was made to inseminate Beauty, her foal would be a part of Mom. April would be in charge of it and in time it would be hers.

Sarah's new family was coming together. Sarah asked God if she should go to college and what courses she should take. She asked Noel who deferred her to The Dean as she did not know what the school had to offer.

"Miss Alkaia, I want to have my classes tie into my farm so I can run it better. Maybe land management, or business or some other area that might be useful." She asked all four farmers what areas they thought she would benefit the most. Sarah called for a meeting at her farm which included Miss Alkaia, the four farmers, and all her college friends plus Noel and Jacob. This meeting was to be a crossroads into her life. She would need all the support her friends could give her.

After dinner, they all convened to the living room. She addressed the entire group," I have looked to see what South Hill and NFU had to offer in the way of courses, that is to say, ranch management and business classes." She addressed the four farmers," I will need to rely on you four the most. I have no experience. I would be an idiot if I did not want to know how to run my ranch. I do not know how to fix a tractor, I do not know how to foal a calf, and I do not know how to get the best deals on supplies. I just plain do not know anything."

"I am willing to learn and to get my hands dirty. This will have to be a classroom and on the job training. There are four of you so perhaps I can learn from the best qualified for that problem while the other three work on other stuff. I am sure I will have to consult all four of you every day for a while. I want to find a way to pay you. Your advice will be invaluable to me so I want to give all of you a salary that will grow as the farm grows. The vet staff will be the hardest for me."

"I think in order for the farm to grow I might need to get cattle or sheep or whatever to phase them in. I need your help to advise me on such matters. This is all way over my head right now. If it is better to learn on the farm, perhaps I can go part-time to college."

"If a cow is sick, I want to know why, and I want to know what to do to fix it. I want to be here when the vet is here so I can see what he does. I know I can't do everything and not everything is fixable. I want to be a hands-on owner. I am used to hard work, but now with Mom and Dad both gone, I am going to have to learn twice as fast. I will need support and prayers from all of you. I will be overwhelmed."

Farmer one said," I will take you up on your offer. Think about taking the winter and spring season off and just a class or two during summer. Winter is when we do long term planning and can have weekly updates. The spring and summer are when the calves will foal, equipment will breakdown etc.

I applaud you for wanting to get so involved with the running of your ranch. It will be a lot of hard work and speaking for myself, I think you are up to the challenge. I will help you in any way I can. However, I do draw the line if I am doing all the work and you are not. If you lose interest, then I lose interest. If you are actively involved, then I will be actively involved in helping you." All of the farmers agreed to assist Sarah with her farm in the same way that farmer one described. The others agreed to help when they could with tasks. Jacob was the breadwinner, so Noel had a lot of time on her hands.

Noel was excited, she loved working on the farm. Noel stated," I want to help all I can, I will sit with you and April if an animal is sick, I will rake the hay, feed the horses, milk the cows. If you are willing to learn then I can learn with you. The more jobs we can multi-task the easier it will be to run the place. It will be a lot of hard work, but we will learn a lot of lessons along the way. We will be stronger for it. By the way, you need a name for your ranch."

Sarah thought," Well, I could never have this farm if it was not for your congregation Jacob, yet I want to honor my parents at the same time. How about 'The Image of God' ranch? I can have a sign out front. 'Strangers may enter, only friends may leave.'"

Jacob said," Excellent, which covers your Mom and Dad as well as everyone in my church."

Sarah remarked," Jacob, I was watching Molly the other day, she is eager. The kids are already asking religious questions that are prompted by her. You should think about a Sunday school that can answer those questions. You will need five teachers seeing that there are fifty of them. God will accept their request of faith if they are informed and they make a sincere confession."

Jacob was shocked," I have not thought about that, but they did ask about prayer and more questions will no doubt follow, some of their parents may not be able to answer them. I will have to pray about it."

Sarah added," I thank all of you for your support. I think we should start with just the animals we have now; the planning and budget will be an eye-opening experience. I guess I will have to mortgage or get a loan for this place to get the startup capital."

Everyone looked at each other, they did not think about the money part. It would put Sarah behind the eight balls until she started to make money. It was a part of being a rancher though. Sarah would reject partnerships; this was a family farm and it will be one hundred percent in the family. It will fail or rise in glory.

The best they could hope for is free labor. They will have to be creative to think of ways to help Sarah while making sure she does not consider it charity. There were five open stalls (four when April's foal grows up).

The farmers used their contacts to see if anyone would want to transfer a horse to Sarah's stable and give them the same care for a cheaper price. Since you can get $700/month for good care Sarah could charge $500/month and use the free labor to make sure all the animals were well cared for. The farmers asked those who had four or five horses in one place and asked for one adult as the calves would have higher vet bills.

The stables were the first thing to get improvements, higher-end equipment like automatic watering and feeding, they put an addition onto the stables. The owners appreciated that Sarah was making sure their horses were getting better care. They voluntarily raised their boarding fees accordingly. News about Sarah was spreading like wildfire. She was a dedicated owner who cared deeply about every animal she had in her care. If one got sick and had to be watched, she and Noel would take shifts. It was better cared for than many of the higher-end boarding ranches.

Many decided to give Sarah a monthly bonus such as feed, hay, money for vet bills (they knew April's foal was coming). She worked hard in order to give that service; it was long hours and it was all her unless she had to sleep and Noel took over. She was still behind on her budget.

Joy walked over to the club to talk to the kids. "Kids, do you remember that special account at the bank we got you for Mr. Buck's medical bills?" They all nodded," Well he is gone now, what do you want to do with that money?"

One little boy said," Well Miss Sarah is Mr. Buck's daughter, could she use that money?" All the kids nodded in unison.