I replied to the blatant threat with a raised eyebrow, "While I appreciate the warning, your tone leaves something to be desired, and I don't like what you're implying. Besides, I doubt Ashe intends to give up on her family farm."
Mr. Northwest let out a snobbish laugh and shook his head as if I had just said something hilarious, "Oh, you common folk are an endless source of amusement. Clueless as to how the world really works. But by all means, go ahead and try, my millions, will be here when you finally give up and realize all your efforts were pointless. Though, do tell Ms. Caledonia that my generosity has limits. If she keeps me waiting much longer, I'll be using a stick instead of a carrot."
With those final words, Mr. Northwest moved around me and walked towards the SUV, where one of the suits opened up the passenger door for him to enter.
Watching them pull off, I frowned, knowing for sure that I had just found out one of the reasons why my income had been artificially boosted over the week, 'I'm 100% confident that this isn't the last time I'll be seeing that asshole. Surpised, I managed to hold off on knocking his teeth in.'
Shaking my head, I turned away from the distant car and instead made my way into the house.
"Hello, anybody home?"
"In the family room!"
I followed Ashe's voice and found her slumped over in a beaten-up Lazy boy, her eyes staring at nothing in particular, but she was certainly pissed off.
"I met your friend outside," I spoke first into the silence, leaning against the door frame and crossing my arms. "I have to say, not really a fan."
"Always a fucking joke with you, isn't it?" Ashe muttered darkly as she turned her head to glare at me, "Can't you see I'm trying to brood sullenly over here?"
"Well, I'm afraid that I can't allow you to do that, because there's shit that needs to get done," I replied with a vocal whip crack as I reached into my pocket and pulled out two bound stacks of dollar bills.
Ashe's eyes went wide, and she sat up as I tossed the bundles at her, which landed in her lap with a tangible weight, "You've got to be shit'n me!"
"What, did you think I was bullshitting when I said the cider would sell?" I grinned, taking in Ashe's shock and visible look of surprise.
"You sold an entire barrel in five days?" Ashe asked in disbelief as she started to rifle through the bundles, and her eyes widened when she saw that every single bill had Ben Franklin's face on it.
"Technically, the barrel only lasted me three and a half dinner services, so I'm thinking I should stock up after we wrap things up today," I corrected and watched as a wave of emotions passed over Ashe's face before she settled on determination, "Let me get this straight, you made all of this off of one barrel of cider in three days?"
"The first ten thousand, yes, the other ten is an investment because I know and you know if I can make this much off of one barrel, there's a whole lot more to be made once this place actually functions," I answered before pushing off the door frame and stepping into the room, "But before we can do that, I gotta know what's going on with Mr. Scrouge who no offense seems like he's got a grudge against this place."
"No shit, he's the prick who started this whole damn shit show to begin with," Ashe muttered, "It was his daughter that fell off the tracker, and then he decided to sue the shit out of us. Now he's trying to buy the land for pennies and keeps threatening to come after me with lawyers or some other shady business."
I let out a disgruntled scoff, "Yeah, I've unfortunately dealt with his kind before; he has more cash than common sense, and unfortunately, throwing money at the problem works far more often than most people are willing to admit."
"So what are we going to do about it?" Ashe asked as she stood up, holding the two bundles of cash in her hands.
I pointed at the cash, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Now that we've got some money and a steady supply of it, I think it's time we start throwing it around."
---
"Alright, the first issue that we have to address, period, is the soil quality," Ashe grunted as she cleared the kitchen counter top to make room for an old map of the entire farm, broken up by square acreage. "Needless to say, the quality is absolute trash, with no management or cover cropping, everything we wanted to stay around has been swept away by wind and water. Speaking of water, there's none of it. With how hard-packed the dirt is, nothing infiltrates, and it all ends up flooding into the valley, which is why we have such a steep incline in the portion over here."
Ashe tapped various sections of the map as she spoke, and I followed along to the best of my ability, "Right now, we can't handle that big of a problem. What we need in this moment is a small plot of land we can rejuvenate and use to grow high-quality produce for my kitchen. I was thinking maybe some asparagus or potatoes to start with."
"After seeing what you pulled off with the cider, I'll leave it to you to figure out the finances and business model, but when it comes to putting shit in the ground and expecting to get something out of it, I'm the expert opinion, got it?"
I held up my hands after Ashe's tirade, "I've got no complaints. At the end of the day, it's your farm, you get the final call."
Ashe stared at me for a moment before looking away and coughing once, "R-right, as I was saying, asparagus and potatoes aren't good staple crops. With how depleted the soil is and how long they take to grow, it wouldn't be a sustainable choice. We want to stick primarily to leafy greens: your lettuce, kale, spinach, and arugula. Hell, maybe even some beets and radishes if you want to diversify a bit."
I scratched my chin, "I could definitely work those into my menu, a good chance to put more vegetarian options."
"Perfect, we got our crops, now all we need to do is choose what plot of land we want to farm on and figure out how hell we're going to undo years of neglect by ourselves," Ashe muttered sarcastically.
"Well, shouldn't we choose a plot of land closest to the farmhouse and the access road?" I asked while tapping on a random acre that fit that criteria.
Ashe shook her head, "You'd think that the wise choice, but what you gotta consider is that this section is sloped, meaning if we want to farm anything, we're gonna have to terrance, which basically means carving out a bunch of steps in the ground. And since we don't have any machinery, that means we would be doing it with hoes and picaxes."
"Alright then, clearly I'm out of my depth. Where do you think we should start?" I asked, and Ashe immediately placed her finger down on the map, "You were right to think about ease of access. We'll start at the bottom of the hill, opposite the access road. It'll be a bit harder to maneuver around, but it's got the perfect sunlight-to-shade ratio for leafy greens. There's also an old irrigation pipe that might provide us with easy access to water if it's still functional. But I wouldn't hold your breath."
"Sounds like we got a plan, so what's the next step?"
"The next step is that I buy an order of compost, some fertilizer, seeds, rototillers, and about a hundred other things that we need to even have even the slightest chance of making this shit pan out." Ashe muttered, but despite a seemingly negative outlook, I watched as the corner of her lip turned up into the barest hint of a smile, "It'll take a week or two to get everything on site, so you won't have to come back out here until then."
I reached into my back pocket and pulled out my phone. "Then let me give you my number so you can tell me when."
After exchanging numbers, Ashe walked me out to the front, but before I could leave, she cleared her throat, making me pause, "I know my manners ain't much to talk about and I tend to be a bit rough around the edges, but I do appreciate what you're doing for me. For the first time in a long time, I feel like I've got a fighting chance."
A broad grin spread across my face. "Don't get too sentimental on me now, the best part of this whole thing has been our little dynamic."
To my shock, Ashe actually smiled and leaned against the door, "I hate to say it, but it's growing on me as well."