Chapter One Hundred and Eleven: Field Work

Viv, Patsy, Sally, and Bob were scouring the rows of the commune’s cropland looking for whatever vegetables they might have missed.  As they were gathering up the last of the season’s harvest, Chuck, Angel, and Luna were over in the EcoGreenHouse with Birch and Winter going over the cold weather crops they had planted there.

Meanwhile, Sally made a discovery.

“Hey, I found a zucchini,” Sally said.  “It was hidden under some leaves.”

“Yeah,” Bob said.  “Their leaves can get pretty big.”

Patsy looked up.  “I found another zucchini over here.”

“I thought we planted cucumbers over there,” said Sally.

“Well, this is definitely a zucchini,” Patsy said, holding it high.

“Yeah,” Bob said.  “Sometimes they migrate.”

“I guess they do,” said Viv.  “And I think that’s the last of it. It looks like we’ve got this field pretty much cleaned out now.”

“I love that we’ve got the EcoGreenHouse so we can grow food almost all year round,” said Patsy.

“So cool,” Sally said.  “We can keep going while our fields are empty.”

“Not like the farming I used to do,” Bob said.  “Nine months of the year, you were out sweating in the fields, and then you had whole three months to relax and…”

“And…” Viv prompted.

“And try to figure out how you were going to pay all your bills with nothing to sell,” Bob finished.

                                                                   *

A few days later the entire farming crew was out in the fields, planning for next year.

“As far as I’m concerned, the layout from last year was pretty good,” said Luna.  “I think we should basically keep the same plan.”

“Cat says that we should plant more carrots and tatsoi next year,” said Viv. “She said that they could barely keep up with the demand.”

“And pumpkins,” said Sally.  “We need more pumpkins!”

“Can we please put in another batch of turnips?”  Angel asked.  “We could stick it over there.  I don’t think that space is being used for anything.”

“That’s where I was hoping that we’d put the trellis for the extra-hardy kiwis,” Luna said.

“I thought that was where we were going to put the hazelbert tree,” Winter said.

“No,” said Chuck.  “The hazelbert tree was going over there.”

“Oh, no,” Patsy said.  “I was hoping to put an extra crop of zucchini over there.”

“There’s a real simple solution to all this,” Bob said.

“Really?” asked Luna.

“Yep.”  Bob paused a moment.  “You just gotta buy more land.”