Life went on. As it always does. Even if it did not go on "as normal", after what had happened in the tiny village of Rolling Hills - and that, in itself, was normal.

Because of course there had been an aftermath. The calm, regular, indeed almost placid and sedate, way of life in a tiny farmer village in the middle of a practically deserted valley did not get violently disrupted without there being consequences, or at least an aftermath. The surprise visit of the Eurasian wolfess Joanna Wesker, and her ridiculously self-important, self-centered and bigoted behaviour and actions had left gashes - and not just the four on the cheek of the tall, freckled human woman Sasha.

Even if they did not vocalize it, or even actively thought it, the folk of the tiny village of Rolling Hills felt it in the general atmosphere. Their peaceful bubble had been invaded, the calm, established regularity of life had been disturbed. Life as normal, as it had been known and experienced for numbers of generations, had been knocked askew by a sudden shock. It would take a little time to recover.

Very importantly; not a single person in the tiny village or its surrounding spots of civilization put any kind of blame on either the tall freckled human woman Sasha or the chocolate-colored Labrador girl Millie. That was too easy; "ever since they came here, stuff like this started happening". No no no. 'Stuff like this', or at least vaguely similar, had been happening throughout the history of the empty valley. Neither Sasha nor Millie were held accountable for anything. In fact, they were praised for their actions. Because they fit in. Because they had adapted to the way of life in the valley. Because they had fully integrated into the tight-knit community. They had become part of the way of life in the valley, and because they felt at home, and fully embraced the homeliness, they [i]were[/i] at home.

And the valley's way of life brought with it a sober and relativizing state of mind. A simple and rational manner of looking at things and dealing with them. "Well, that happened. But now that it's happened, it's over. Now to move on and continue with everyday life". Even if it would take a little time.

After Millie had woken up from her sedation, it had taken Sasha the whole rest of that day and most of the following day to comfort the chocolate Labrador girl into a state of acceptance and the ability to process the psychological jolt that had so violently released a tidal wave of incredibly strong feelings and emotions. She'd had Millie drive her back to Butterfly Farm the next day, after having asked Mrs. Stebbins, the proprietress of the general store where Millie worked, to give the light brown canine girl an extra week off to stay on the farm and recuperate both physically and mentally. The presence of the purple and white vixen-taur Buddleia, and the steadiness of the vulpine taur's simpler mannerisms, helped a great deal in returning all of them to the more peaceful state of mind of how the situation had been right after the success that had been achieved with the roads in that small inhabited part of the valley. What helped even more was Buddleia actually nursing, breastfeeding Millie, as she'd had priestess Kyeeru give her a hormonal injection to trigger her lactation into production because she really wanted to be able to nurse Millie after experiencing the wonderful feeling it gave her when the chocolate Labrador girl had unwittingly suckled in her sleep once. The amazingly peaceful nurturing and bonding feeling of that process helped bucketloads in settling down Millie's mind and help her get over what had happened in the village.

There had only been one final result of that harrowing incident, several days later. The three-colored Basset Hound sheriff Leroy Rosco had visited Butterfly Farm, both to get Sasha's signature on several documents, and to tell her he had received information from Fossil City that Sasha's prediction had been very accurate. Appearing in court, the Eurasian wolfess Joanna had insulted the lesbian judge, which had cost her an additional twelve months of jail time on top of the eighteen she was sentenced to for her verbal and physical assault. Sasha only gave a nod of her head at the information that Joanna was being put away behind bars for two and a half years without the chance for parole, but the look that crossed between her and the canine sheriff betrayed a sense of satisfaction and vindication. That part of life, that unpleasant past was now certainly and definitively over.

And life, after all, did go on. The farm animals were not aware of the disruption of everyday life and had to be taken care of. The crops were not aware of the unexpected and unwanted jolt to the walking and talking creatures and had to be tended to. The equipment was not aware of anything at all, merely being subject to the passing of time, and had to be serviced and maintained. Regardless of any shock, life kept relentlessly continuing at its steady pace, and one had to fall into step with it and keep up.

Choco the goat was there, greeting Buddleia, Sasha and Millie every morning with her bleating calls and her rearing up to put her front paws on the fence as she eagerly awaited to be fingered and milked. The rabbits were there, four adults hopping around the runs and nibbling on the grass and the feed pellets, and five young juveniles hopping and tumbling around the run as they continued to grow and explore their developing life, nibbling on the grass and the feed pellets, nibbling on the metal mesh of the run and the wood of the hutch, nibbling on each other and the two adult females, and making funny sideways and backwards hops at every ladybug, butterfly, bee or other insect crossing their field of vision. It would only be about a month more before they would be self-reliant and the two males of the litter, one of the lop-eared ones and one of the ones with the upright ears, could be separated and put in the run with the two adult male rabbits.

And during the repeated picking up and petting of the young bunnies to socialize them, the fully lop-eared female of the litter had stolen Millie's heart by nibbling on her braids, and would therefore go home with the chocolate Labrador girl as a pet. It gave Buddleia a chance to pull Millie fully back into the regular pace of life by having the light brown canine girl help her build a new rabbit hutch for in Millie's backyard; a smaller one, for which they also used planks and beams that had been cut with the small portable sawmill machine they had gotten from the sawmill - and she also taught the chocolate Labrador a bit of welding as she had Millie help her construct several panels to build a run with from the rolls of mesh and the metal T-profiles they still had a lot left of. It helped. Millie was eager to learn and excitedly happy about the prospect of having such a cute pet rabbit at her little cottage in the village, and took to the project of building the hutch and the panels for the run with her regular bubbly enthusiasm and energy.

Aside from that project, despite having filled the two glass two-gallon jars with pounds of elderberries to ferment into wine, yet more clusters of berries hung ripe and purple from the branches of the replanted bushes and needed picking. Collecting and cleaning the sticky film off of the berries gave rise to bouts of hilarity as the process once again left all of them covered all over in weird purple stains that required some extra care to scrub off - it was even quite remarkable how they managed to get the purple stains in their faces and on their chests, tummies, legs and even on their butts, although some of the stains were shaped suspiciously like hand and paw prints. Buddleia retrieved her huge, wide cooking pot and spent two days mashing and boiling all the berries along with cupfuls of sugar and a touch of lemon juice, while Millie helped her ladling the resulting jam into jars. The small farmhouse smelled very sweet for several days, and inspired by the scent, Sasha spent a day or two indoors to do some research on her laptop, into other ways to preserve the large excess of elderberries they were left with even after three batches of jam had been cooked. Elderberry bushes did tend to grow quite rapidly and flower and fruit quite abundantly, and the ones in the small back garden behind the farmhouse certainly had even despite having been transplanted.

With the internet being the wealth of cats, porn [i]and[/i] information that it is, it didn't take the tall human woman all too long to find homesteader recipes for elderberry syrup. As she read more and more about it, Sasha became convinced it was the best route to take, considering how over-productive even the small number of elderberry bushes in their back garden were. The syrup, as pointed out in practically every article Sasha found about it, was tasty, healthy, beneficial, and even scientifically proven to boost the immune system and reduce the duration of the common cold and flu. It could be used to just take by the spoonful as a natural, preventative medication, it could be poured over pancakes, it could be used to flavor things like porridge and tea, or even plain seltzer water to make a natural soda, it even could be made into lollipops or gummy bears; it was super versatile and pretty much perfect. There was one important thing of note, however; to make the syrup actually syrupy, it called for the addition of honey.

Sasha had once mentioned she was interested in getting bees to produce their own honey, back when they had repaired the windmill and had been talking about the dandelion wine Buddleia's grandmother used to make. Of course they could procure the not very large amount of honey they would need from their new Dutch Spaniel neighbors Marian and Margot at Cherry Blossom Farm who had discovered hidden but still very productive bee boxes on their property, and who had already given them a few jars of fresh, raw honey. But this seemed like a great opportunity to actually look into beekeeping, on a small scale, for themselves, as now they would possibly be making something they would actually need honey for.

Looking into beekeeping on her laptop, it wasn't too long before Sasha found herself down a rabbit hole. From self-building honeybee boxes with detailed plans and steps, to ways to attract honeybees to a bee box, to harvesting honey and beeswax, to properly caring for bees - the article on which mentioned bees preferred local, native flowers and bright colors like whites, yellows, blues and purples, and one specific plant species Sasha noticed being repeatedly mentioned in several different articles was coneflowers. Which brought her right back to the beginning, to the elderberry syrup, as the recipe-article she had found stated that to give homemade elderberry syrup a good shelf life, it ought to be mixed with a neutral-flavored 80-or-higher-proof alcohol like vodka, and the author of the article mentioned that they preferred to mix their homemade syrup with tincture of Echinacea for even more additional health benefits; the tincture was made with vodka, and Echinacea... were coneflowers. It all came together perfectly.

Soon, the tall, freckled human woman found herself jotting down a quite long list of bullet points. Things to keep in mind, things they'd have to do, people in the village to talk to, things to talk with people in the village about. She even took her clipboard outside with her when she had to stretch her legs from sitting behind her laptop for so long, walking up and down the driveway while smoking a cigarette and looking around at the possibilities while all the information she had gathered rolled around inside her head. The rocks and boulders jutting out from the sharp dip in the slope right next to the small field in front of the house tapered and gradually petered out towards the front of the farmgrounds, where the row of elm, spruce and birch trees wrapped around it and formed a thicker cluster; that seemed like a super suitable spot for a bee box, or even more than one. Almost directly opposite that area, on the other side between the driveway and the pond, were the cherry trees Millie had given them as a wedding gift and those needed to pollinate each other, and there was a smaller, square-ish area of packed dirt where an old shelter used to be; that would be perfect to turn into a mini field to purpose-grow coneflowers both for bees and for harvesting as the tincture required both the plants and the roots of the plants. They still had the bags of flowering perennials seed Daniel had given them and which Sasha had suggested would be nice to sprinkle in the area between the driveway and the pond; that would make it even more perfect for bees as well. Not to mention several articles had also mentioned that one of the best flowers to plant for bees were... sunflowers.

It all fit together, [i]so[/i] well. However, all the different parts that fit together so well all came with their own requirements. Very importantly, with not having any fur on her body, Sasha would need a full beekeeper outfit. Plus a smoke blower, and more specialized tools. But that was something she could talk with the Caspian tiger man Jasper Nicla about, as he was the beekeeper in the village who provided the crafts store with beeswax and the general store with honey. He was actually the most important person Sasha would have to have a long talk with, as he would most likely be the one who could either provide her with, or at least advice her on, all the things she would be needing and all the steps she'd need to take. The two fuchsia-pink and white leopardess sisters, the new botanists in the village, were also important people to talk to, for the acquiring of seeds or seedlings of, mainly, coneflowers, but also a variety of other flowers.

More glass jars would be needed, with actual metal lids instead of fabric tops, both for the syrup and for the honey; perhaps Mrs. Stebbins of the general store would know, or have a source, to get those, but if not, it was simple enough to order them online. However, those jars would also need to be properly sealed, and how was that done? Back behind her laptop, Sasha searched for an answer to that, and found she would need an appliance known as a water bath canner - which also came in many varieties and sizes, so that would need more research as well. And the tincture, that required keeping in small bottles of amber or brown glass, Sasha noticed as she looked into that recipe. Where would she be able to get those? From Mrs. Stebbins? Perhaps from priestess Kyeeru? They were more or less medicine bottles, after all. Yet another thing she'd have to look into.

And speaking of things to look into; the tincture needed to be made with a flavorless or neutral-flavored alcohol such as vodka. Easy enough to get; Mrs. Stebbins sold bottles of Smirnoff in the general store, and Ralph Murray, the black and white Norwegian Forest cat owner and bartender of the Rolling Hillside Tavern & Bar sold a vodka from Estonia called Blue Diamond. Sasha was certain he would be willing to sell full bottles of it for the purpose of making tinctures and syrups. Plus, contrary to popular belief, vodka was not made [i]just[/i] of potatoes; it could also be made out of a wide range of grains, including winter rye. Interesting! Further down the rabbit hole Sasha went; would they be able to possibly distill their own vodka from the winter rye that they were growing? However, not even halfway through an article on how to home-distill vodka, Sasha rejected the idea. Way too many steps and way too many specialized appliances were needed for that to do it on a small scale, as a side-project between all the regular farming work.

Which brought up a very important point in and of itself; how much time would all the processes require? Would it even be viable to do honey, syrup and tinctures as side-projects between their regular farming work? They had a lot of time in between the work their farm brought them; it only took a couple of days to cultivate and sow a field with a crop, and once the crop was in, that was pretty much it. Only occasional tending was needed with a stage of fertilization and a stage of weeding, both of which only took about a day with the size of the fields they had, and for the rest, the crop just had to sit there for months and months to grow and ripen before it required another few full days of work to harvest, sell the grains to the appropriate channels and bale the straw if the harvest left behind straw. The more frequently recurring work was with the grass fields, which required a week at the start of every month to be mowed, windrowed, baled and wrapped, and a day or two by the end of each month to collect and transport the fermented bales to either the livestock dealer or the BGA plant - but in between, there were a few weeks of downtime as the bales just sat there fermenting. So there was a good amount of time to undertake other projects.

Down the rabbit hole Sasha went again. This was getting more complicated and intricate by the minute! The tall freckled human decided it would be better to divide everything up into separate projects and look at them one by one. First off, as the activity by the stove behind her was clear proof that a stock of elderberries was readily at hand, she looked at the making of the plain syrup. That was simple enough; boil berries in water on a low temperature, strain, let cool to add raw honey, mix thoroughly for a couple of minutes, and the whole process would be done in a bit over half an hour. Next, making their own honey. Well, that was even easier; the bees would do that for them. And according to several sources she found online, Sasha learned that harvesting honey was only done between one and three times per year, right during summer so between harvesting winter crops and harvesting spring crops, so that was definitely a very doable project. And just to be absolutely certain of all the details, she decided to let herself be fully educated by the beekeeper Jasper Nicla in Rolling Hills.

Finally, the tincture; take whole coneflower plants, flowers and roots and all, clean thoroughly, shred into little pieces, put into a one-pint or similar wide-necked mason jar with an airtight lid, submerge in vodka and let it sit in a cool and dark place for four to six weeks while gently shaking it every day to aid the extraction, then strain and decant into little amber or brown bottles. Easy; she could set it in the underground bunker, which was dark and cool, and she had to be there every day to filter and chill Choco's milk anyway so she could also give the jar a light shake each day before or after she was done with the milk. Most of the work was in the cleaning and shredding of the plants, and that should not take longer than fifteen to twenty minutes, or only a couple minutes if using a blender. And the article even had links to the mentioned equipment, including a batch of a dozen brown-glass 2-ounce tincture bottles with a dropper in the cap that cost less than $10 per dozen, or a bit over with shipping included. Perfect! That was hardly a cost, they would hardly take up any space, they were reusable as well as suitable for many other things, so Sasha right away ordered five dozen of them; might as well.

Subconsciously, the lanky human woman had thereby made the first step in making all the projects she had been looking at a reality. And that meant, there was work to do! Some of which would make Butterfly Farm more productive, some of which would make Butterfly Farm look prettier and more colorful. As Buddleia and Millie were still working on a last, smaller batch of elderberry jam; the fifth batch to fill up the last of the empty glass jars they had, Sasha used the rest of that day to make another list of bullet points; things she would be needing to acquire. More wicker baskets and a pair of secateurs to clip the clumps of berries from the bushes cleanly. Source; the crafts store and the Botany Boutique in Rolling Hills. Plastic food storage boxes with lids to keep the overflow of elderberries in the freezer until they could actually be used. Source; online. A wide-necked mason jar with an airtight lid. Source; yell out "mason jar needed" in the middle of Rolling Hills and all the inhabitants would show up with arms full of them found in cabinets, attics or cellars. Some kind of blender to shred plants with more easily and quickly. Source; Ebay or the websites of thrift and antique stores in the surrounding area - because why buy a brand new one when a used one from the 1950s was so much more attractive and at home in an old little farmhouse with its much cuter styling and pastel colors. Amber or brown tincture bottles. Source; online and already ordered. Seeds or seedlings of native flowers and coneflowers especially. Source; the bags of flowering perennial seed in the shed and the Botany Boutique in Rolling Hills. Wood for a bee box. Source; the pallets of planks and beams in the shed. Or possibly a pre-constructed bee box, because the actual frames for the bees to build their combs on might be more special and require different materials; that would depend on the education from Jasper Nicla. A full beekeeper outfit plus all accoutrements like a smoker. Source; probably Jasper Nicla as well, and otherwise online. According to the bee box building article, something to put the legs of the box in a bit of water to prevent ants and other insects from invading the box. Source; the empty soup cans after Buddleia had prepared lunch. Empty glass jars with metal screw-on lids and sealing rings. Source; maybe the general store in Rolling Hills, and otherwise online as well. A water bath canner. Source; online, and dependent on information from Jasper. Sasha was still writing by the time Buddleia and Millie had cleaned up the jam making utensils and Buddleia had prepared dinner, but as they relaxed after their dinner in the back garden, and Sasha went through all the points with them, a sense of excitement started slowly building as it became clear they were just about ready to add an additional new path to the productivity of Butterfly Farm.

Of course, when work is started, and especially when new work is started on a brand new project, something always happens as a result of that. Often unexpected, sometimes anticipated, and with a 50/50 chance of being pleasant or unpleasant. The next morning, the tingle of excitement was still in the air as all three of them had their warm porridge breakfast - sweetened with the elderberry residue from the jam making, fed the animals, collected eggs and goat milk, processed the milk and had their morning bath in the pond. While they were relaxing in the back garden after drying and brushing each other, Sasha's phone rang. The screen showed that it was the Katanga lion man Daniel from the Ag Co-op calling, and that usually meant some kind of positive news.

Sasha actually expected some more information from the agricultural university in the city of Enfanor, about the special new super trees, so she answered her phone and set the loudspeaker function to have her hands free so she could continue brushing Millie's sleek chocolate-colored fur.
   "Dan, talk to me! When you call this early in the morning, it's usually for something exciting or amusing, so lay it on me. Did that university give you a medal for providing them with a real-life study ground for their super trees or something?"
   "Well, they did commend me and expressed their gratitude, yes," the voice of the light tan lion Ag agent sounded from Sasha's phone with a chuckle. "But they also said they would get in touch with you directly to make any direct appointments about viewing the area and all that stuff, so that's not what I'm calling for, that's something you can expect in the coming week or so."
   "In that case, give me that university's phone number, so I'll recognize it when my phone starts ringing with an unknown number."
   "Will do, Sasha. And are you ready for me to drop a fairly sizeable bomb in your lap?"
Sasha quirked an eyebrow and for a moment looked at Buddleia and Millie, who both sent her a rather clueless look back and shrugged.
   "Hm. I'm not too fond of bombs dropped in my lap, Dan. Remember when they suddenly showed up in your yard with giant pools full of fish and said, 'you're taking them because we say so'? I may just have a similar feeling as you had at that point."
   "Fair, but this is not that kind of bomb, Sasha. Matter of fact, I think rather than reaching through your phone to strangle me, you'd be reaching through your phone to hug me after what I have to tell you."
   "Okay, now you have tickled my curiosity as well as my interest. Lay it on me."
   "Remember that slurry spreader you had me looking out for? And that I had gotten a lead on one? It was from a farm near Fairy Haven, and the Co-op there contacted me to let me know it had been shipped to the Arfafield Co-op so we could go pick it up."
   "That's not even a tiny firecracker, let alone a bomb."
   "The bomb is still coming. I was gonna send Jack to Arfafield start of this week to pick it up, and called the Co-op there to confirm that appointment. And guess what they told me?"
   "It's not there yet, because it was secretly filled with molten gold and broke the axles of the trailer they were transporting it on."
   "Haha! Well, not [i]quite[/i]. It's there alright, and as far as I know, it's empty. But they told me that Cobby Farm, which is a fairly sizeable farm a bit northeast of Arfafield, has decided to switch over to keeping sheep."
   "That's nice for them, but that's hardly of any importance to us, now is it?"
   "Oh but it is, Sasha. Because you see, Cobby Farm used to grow hectares of corn and soybeans. Some of that land is being turned into grazing meadows now, and all the rest of the land is being converted into grass fields to harvest grass and hay for the sheep. That means they've had to change their equipment as well, and because their fields are so huge, they decided to go big and opted for a Krone BiG M four-fifty mower conditioner. Those machines have a price tag between a quarter and half a million bucks, even second-hand, so they traded in almost all their old equipment they won't be needing anymore to make as big a dent as they could in that price. And since they used to grow corn and soybeans before, that means... are you sitting down?"
   "I've been sitting down this whole time, and at the moment I'm also leaning up against Leia because I'm starting to get an idea of where this is going. Spill it, Dan."
   "Right, here we go. They traded in a nineteen eighty-six Fortshritt E five-sixteen B corn harvester with a twenty-five foot corn and bean header, a nineteen eighty-seven Horsch Maestro twelve SW planter, a nineteen eighty John Deere forty-eight forty tractor to pull it, a nineteen forty-nine Berliet GDR W tipper truck with extended box so they could use it as a grain truck, and a nineteen sixty-seven Fiat six-nineteen T semi-truck with a nineteen seventy-four Wilson forty-five foot hopper trailer on the back. They did have some more tractors and a round baler and cultivators and fertilizer spreaders and such, but they're keeping those because they have to redo the fields for the grass and collect that grass and all."
   "Holy jumping shitballs that's a list. And everything we're looking for is on that list, if I heard you correctly. Is it within our financial capabilities?"
   "I would definitely say so. Ben and Sophia Millder, from Waving Grain Farm, have already expressed interest in the Fiat truck with the Wilson trailer, and that one would be much too large for your needs anyway, but since the whole rest of it basically comes in a package deal, I can offer it to you for a package deal price."
   "Considering your generousness, I'm bracing myself for the price you're gonna quote me, Dan."
   "Yeah, ask Buddleia to hold and support you, haha. Forty-six and a half grand for the whole caboodle, minus the Fiat truck and Wilson trailer, but including the slurry spreader. Financing available."
Sasha bit her lower lip hard and pulled in a very deep breath through her nose which she held for several quite long moments, pressing the fingers of her free hand into her eyes under her glasses.
   "What about trade-ins?"
   "What would you trade in, Sasha?"
   "Our inoperative rustbucket nineteen fifty-nine International ninety-one corn harvester."
   "I can knock two grand off the price for that one."
   "And if the motor of it runs?"
   "Three."
   "When can we pick the stuff up?"
   "Tomorrow if you want. Jack just got back, and we do still have to point a pressure washer at the stuff and do a belts and chains check and fluids check."
   "Give me a moment, Dan." Taking off her glasses, Sasha closed her eyes and put her free hand over her eyes, mumbling quietly to herself under her breath for several moments. It actually took a decent while before she lowered her hand and put her glasses back on. "Okay. We'll see you tomorrow, Dan."
   "I figured you might be interested. I'll make sure Clarissa will have a cup of tea ready for you tomorrow, and I'll even have her throw in a cookie, how 'bout that. See you tomorrow, Sasha."
   "You're so generous. See you tomorrow, Dan."

Ringing off, Sasha tapped out her phone and lay it back on the small round garden table. As she looked around, she smiled softly; Millie was still sitting cross-legged and smiling happily while her slender tail still wagged slowly from the brushing, and Buddleia was still laying on the chest and tummy of her quadruped lower body, but with her upper body a bit more upright and both her paws partially on the sides of her slender muzzle and partially on her cheeks as if to contain the excited smile splitting apart her muzzle.
   "Is so exciting, Sasha! Such big expansion! Lots new equipment, I never done, grandparents never done, not so much in once!"
   "It's quite an investment all in once, I admit," Sasha nodded with a smile. "And I'm not sure what we'd need a second grain truck for, but hey, if it's part of such an awesome deal, it's part of the deal, and we'll find use for it. We could maybe keep one truck dedicated for grains and one for sunflowers or something." She curled her lips into a bit of a grin. "But this does change the plan for today and tomorrow, darlings. Because we have until tomorrow to get that heap of rust in there," she nodded at the rickety shed next to the house, "at least running."
   "We'll get it done, mom," Millie smiled. "We kinda have to, right? I mean, I can't really see how you would get a non-running combine all the way over to the Co-op, hee."
   "We have a trailer, choco-snoot, and it's damn well going on that trailer, running or not," Sasha chortled. "Because even if we get it running, there's no guarantee we'll get it driving as well, and even if we get it driving, [i]like hell[/i] I or any of you are gonna [i]drive[/i] that thing all the way over to the Co-op at seven to ten miles an hour."
   "Oh, hee, of course, that makes sense," Millie nodded with a light giggle. "You mean your bale trailer, though? Is that even strong enough to hold a combine harvester?"
   "It hold, grandparents moved it on bale trailer too," Buddleia nodded with a smile that showed her full upper canines and the front end of her dark pink tongue.
   "And don't forget, we re-decked that whole thing with planks that are twice as thick as what was on there, and Leia welded extra support crossbars to the frame before we put the new deck on," Sasha smiled. "So if it held that International combine before, I'm totally convinced it will hold that Fortshritt Dan has for us too."
   "Okay, that's good, mom," Millie smiled, wiggling a bit in the grass. "And that's such a nice combine! An E five-sixteen B! That's a newer and bigger and more powerful one than the ones auntie Ruth and uncle Chester have!"
   "Yeah, it's a bit overkill for us, but such a big and strong and reliable combine should last until at least this farm celebrates its millennial in the twenty-six forties," Sasha sniggered.
Buddleia chirped a gleeful chortle and clapped her paws.
   "We make work, Sasha! We grow lots and lots sunflowers, yes! Adjust crop to equipment we have, yee hee!"
   "Sure, why the hell not," Sasha sniggered again. "Hell, we got over twenty acres to the left of our farm now too, we could just make that one big field, minus the corner for the super trees, and fill it with sunflowers."
   "Yeeeee! Yes! We do, Sasha! We do!" Buddleia chirped gleefully, clapping her paws again and wagging her bushy tail so hard her entire rump wiggled left and right in the grass. "So much sunflowers! So prettyyy! I like! We do! Yes!"
   "Next year, fuzzbutt, next year!" Sasha laughed, shaking her head. "And either way, we're gonna run a dirt path through it to divide that patch up into two fields because that's [i]much[/i] more manageable." She leaned over and playfully patted the vulpine taur's wiggling rump. "And now, get up! We got a combine to get running!"
   "Yes!" Buddleia nodded, rising to her four feet and giving herself a quick shake, in the same motion lightly bapping Sasha with her tail. "We make old harvester run! I sure we can!"
   "I'll help too, mom," Millie nodded, giggling over Buddleia's wiggling and gleeful reactions as she scrambled to her feet.
   "Great, thank you, choco-snoot. Between the three of us, I'm sure we'll have that hunk of junk running in no time," Sasha smiled.

They walked into the rickety open shed, where they were met by Buddleia who had grabbed the toolbox from the workshop. To start with, they moved the other vehicles that were in the shed; the 1959 Skoda 706 RT grain truck was parked in front of the windmill, the 1979 Deutz Fahr M 922 combine harvester, while it still needed repairs to its threshing mechanism and shaker, did run and drive so it was parked in the open area in front of the large shed, and the 1953 MAZ-200 truck was parked right next to the rusty old 1959 International 91 combine harvester all the way in the back of the open shed so they could stand on the flat deck of it to reach the upper areas of the combine, where on the right side, the engine was situated under a cowl.

The work got off to a great... mess of a start. The protective cowling over the engine had several removable panels that were held in place with small bolts and some random screws; all of which were solidly rusted in place. Even with a generous helping of penetrating oil, heating them until they glowed red hot with the oxy-acetylene torch and Buddleia's strength, they didn't budge; the ones Buddleia applied her strength to just shearing off so the purple and white vixen-taur simply resorted to doing that with all of them. And even still then, a pry bar was needed to remove the panels and get access to the engine. That was not very promising.

Buddleia grabbed the fan and tried to turn the engine over by hand; nothing. Sasha put a ratchet on the crankshaft bolt and tried to turn over the engine by hand; nothing. She slid a pipe over the handle of the ratchet to get more leverage; still nothing. Buddleia tried it; she just loosened the bolt. That motor was seized [i]solid[/i]. Fortunately, it was 'only' a four-cylinder gasoline engine, which would make it a tad easier to repair, but it was still as stuck as the sword in the stone.
   "Well, that is just wonderful," Sasha eventually said with a mild smirk, wiping some sweat off her forehead. "Any thoughts on how to proceed, anyone?"
   "We juice it," Buddleia said with a nod of her head. "Take out spark plugs, pour secret sauce in holes, let sit while we do other stuff. Then we try again, yes."
Sasha tilted her head a bit with an eyebrow quirked, while her smirk slowly turned into an amused grin.
   "Secret... sauce?"
Buddleia nodded with a quick, cheerful yip.
   "Yes! Grandfather make, he show me how to, I always keep some." She turned to Millie. "Millie, look in workshop, yes? Is tall cabinet, on top shelf is square white jug, is secret sauce written on there. You get, yes? And long funnel too, please."
   "Okay, I'll find it and get it, mom!" Millie nodded with a chortle.
   "If you're going to the workshop, choco-snoot, then on the bottom of that cabinet is a blue milk crate full of boxes with ignition parts," Sasha said with a light chortle of her own. "Grab that too, would you please? We're gonna need new plugs and wires, and I would say new points as well."
   "Okiedokie, I'll get that too, mom!" Millie nodded again.

She trotted out of the rickety open shed and over towards the large shed, disappearing into the workshop on the side of it. In the meantime, Sasha pulled off the cracked and chewed-on sparkplug wires and sprayed the rusty spark plugs with penetrating oil, sending Buddleia a cheerful smirk as the vulpine taur in her turn used a socket wrench which she smacked with the palm and largest pad of her paw to loosen the rusty spark plugs.
   "So what the hell is that secret sauce, fuzzbutt?"
   "Is secret! Yee yee hee!" Buddleia chortled in several cheery staccato yips.
Sasha grinned and pressed the tip of her right index finger against the cool, damp black pad of Buddleia's nose.
   "But we run this farm together now, fuzzbutt, and I just as much need to service the equipment as you do, so I should be let in on that secret, don't you think?"
   "I suppose! Yee hee! But is secret, you not tell anyone, Sasha, yee hee!" Buddleia chortled.
   "It smells like oil!" Millie giggled as she returned in the open shed and set a blue plastic crate on the deck of the MAZ truck.

On top of the random heap of small cardboard boxes filling the crate was a funnel with a long flexible spout, and a 1-gallon square white plastic jug. The front and back of the jug had the words "secret sauce" written on them in black marker, in large outlined letters filled with hatch marking and surrounded by a number of random lines, stars and asterisks to give the suggestion of pizzazz. Sasha shook her head with an amused snigger as Buddleia took the jug and unscrewed the cap.
   "Is mix grandfather make to lube and clean things," she yipped a chortle. "Is one quart Mystery oil, one can penetrating oil, three cups diesel, three cups white vinegar, one quart trans fluid, and small bit one-forty weight gear oil to make it thicker, yes. He always pour on stuck things or soak things in, they always come loose! Sometimes take short time, sometimes take long, but they always come loose, yes!" She let go another cheery yip. "Vinegar is the secret, yee hee! He never tell grandmother he use her vinegar in it, yee hee! But he show me how to make, and I always make sure I have in stock, yes!"
   "Well isn't that something," Sasha sniggered. "I guess we'd better see if it'll get this hunk of junk unstuck."
   "Yes!" Buddleia nodded cheerily. "You hold funnel in sparker hole, I pour in, yes?" They did just that, and Buddleia screwed the cap back on the jug and set it on the deck of the MAZ truck. "Now we let sit and soak and we do other things, yes."
   "Right," Sasha nodded with a light grin, handing Millie the four rusty spark plugs and damaged sparkplug wires. "Well then, go ahead and see if you can find some decent replacements for these, choco-snoot, I'll go see what state that distributor is in, and you, fuzzbutt, why don't you go see if the starter is still any good?"

With the tasks divided, they went back to work. Millie sat on the edge of the truck's deck and rummaged through the boxes in the blue crate, pulling out old spark plugs and comparing them to the rusty ones, and cleaning the terminals of four possible candidates with some fine sandpaper. Sasha leaned over the engine, unclipped the cap of the distributor and cracked it as she smacked it with the palm of her hand to loosen it as it had gotten rather stuck, smirking a bit and handing the cracked cap to Millie to find a replacement for as well while she checked and unscrewed the contact points and the small condenser in the distributor. Buddleia sheared off some more rusty bolts to remove a panel on the side of the harvester so she could lean into the innards of the old combine, using an adjustable crescent wrench as a hammer and a couple of spanners to unbolt the rusty starter and remove the wires from it so she could take it out and lay it on the deck of the truck to start disassembling it.

Giving the 'secret sauce' some more time to do its magic, they proceeded to shear off some more bolts and remove another panel on the side of the harvester, using a generous amount of penetrating oil and some force to pull out a rusty battery tray holding two crusty old batteries wired in parallel. More penetrating oil, a pair of channel-lock pliers and a small pry bar were utilized to undo and remove the rusty terminals, which Sasha cleaned as best as she could with a metal wire brush and an old screwdriver. Both she and Millie were constantly softly chortling to themselves as Buddleia lay on the chest and tummy of her quadruped lower body next to the truck and hummed a tune to herself by means of melodious whines and long-drawn yips while she cleaned all the parts of the old starter as best as she could.

As amusing as that looked and sounded, in any way the fluffy vulpine taur was successful. After she had reassembled the old starter and tested it with a booster pack, it made a loud whizzing sound as the bendix shot out and the gear spun rapidly. With another cheery yip, Buddleia took the starter and turned back to the side of the combine, but Sasha stopped her before she could put the starter back in place.
   "Wait, before you put that back in, babe," she smiled, pointing at the teeth of the ring gear visible through the hole where the snout of the starter fit into. "We can get a lot more leverage if we pry on those rather than trying to turn the crank from the bolt, so leave that starter out until we have the motor unstuck, okay?"
   "Okay, yes, is clever, Sasha!" Buddleia nodded. "We do that way, give us the best chance, yes."
   "Good," Sasha nodded with another smile, turning to Millie. "How're you getting on, choco-snoot?"
Millie looked up from the crate she was rummaging in and pointed at a row of old distributor caps she had set on the deck of the truck.
   "I could only find caps for six and eight cylinder engines, mom. There's no four cylinder caps in here as far as I can tell."
   "Greeeat," Sasha said with a playful smirk. "Guess we'll have to patch that cap, then." She turned to Buddleia again. "We got some RTV or JB Weld or something, babe?"
   "I know is some, I go find!" Buddleia nodded, trotting over to the workshop.

Sasha smiled and used a multi-meter to check several old condensers and contact points while waiting for Buddleia to return, taking one of each that checked out alright to screw them back into the distributor. Buddleia came back from the workshop with a slightly mangled tube of JB Weld, smearing a little of it on both the inside and the outside of the old distributor cap to seal the crack in it. In the meantime Millie, by Sasha's suggestion, disconnected the fuel line from the tank to the fuel pump, making a grimace as she snapped off the hard, brittle rubber hose and a few drops of old gasoline dripped out.
   "Golly, that [i]stinks[/i]!"
Sasha also wrinkled her nose while she sprayed some penetrating oil on the throttle linkage of the carburetor after having removed the air filter.
   "Yeah, I can smell the varnish from here. See if you can maybe drain that crap, choco-snoot."
   "Is drain on bottom of tank, I try, is easier," Buddleia said, grabbing a bucket and the pair of channel-lock pliers.

She walked to the back of the old combine and crawled under it. Sasha kept working the carburetor until the throttle linkage moved freely and snapped back again, while Millie fiddled about removing the hard and brittle pieces of rubber hose and old hose clamps between the fuel pump hardline and the carburetor. All three of them kept grimacing and making faces at the rancid smell drifting through the air as Buddleia drained the varnished old fuel out of the tank, pouring the brownish fluid into an old jerrycan which she closed tightly and set well out of the way downwind. Using the multi-meter, Sasha also checked the distributor coil and found it to check out alright enough to still use, so she left it in place, although she did replace the old wires. The old, crusty batteries were replaced for the batteries out of the Deutz Fahr combine just so they could test for short-circuits or melting wiring, and once that checked out alright, Sasha turned the key in the ignition - after spraying it with some penetrating oil as it was rather stuck as well - and checked for voltage at the coil and the starter solenoid. Nothing. She was not surprised; the old combine did not have a cabin, so all the controls and switches had been open to the elements for all the years it had sat in the rickety open shed.

Disconnecting the batteries again, they took a break for a lunch of soup, sandwiches with plum jam and elderberry jam and Buddleia's herbal tea, and a good hour of cuddling and petting each other afterwards as they relaxed to let the food settle. That also gave the 'secret sauce' they had poured into the combine's engine even more time to sit and do its magic in the cylinders and over the stuck pistons. Actually, they used that as an excuse to add another extra half hour to their cuddle-time.

When they eventually got back to work, Sasha took a longer pry bar, stuck it between the teeth of the ring gear on the flywheel and leaned on it with both arms, clenching her teeth as well as her eyes and groaning as she pushed down as hard as she could,
   "Hhnnnnnggh! Jeee-zus!" She let go and puffed. "Phew! God [i]damn[/i] that thing is [i]stuck[/i] stuck!"
   "I try," Buddleia smiled.
She took Sasha's place, braced herself with her four feral feet and started applying pressure to the pry bar, being careful not to snap any teeth off the ring gear. Unsuccessful at the first few tries, the purple and white vixen-taur gradually applied more and more pressure and even little jolts, eventually letting out a quick yip as with a crunch, the flywheel turned just a little bit.
   "It go!"

For the next hour, Buddleia kept working the pry bar, slowly and crunchily moving the flywheel further and further around, turning it the other way several times whenever it got stuck again, continually going back and forth until finally she managed to turn the flywheel two full rotations. The engine still made way too many scraping and crunching sounds for comfort, but at least it was not seized anymore. Some of the concoction they had poured into the cylinders had been pushed out again as the pistons slowly moved up and down, and Sasha lay half of an old towel over the row of spark plug holes for the next step in the procedure. If they were going to turn the engine over with the starter, it would rotate rapidly enough for the pistons to push the fluid out with force, so it would be best to at least try and prevent it from flying all over the place.

Buddleia bolted the old starter back in place, and as Sasha had found the ignition switch didn't work, they simply connected some wires directly to the starter and the batteries. The oil was checked, and while it was as black as tar, there was still plenty in it and it was good enough to at least try and turn the engine over. Once everything was ready for the first test, Buddleia took the wires and touched the stripped ends against each other with some sparks flying. The starter clunked, the engine gave a slow chug or two, and Sasha waved a hand as a bolt holding the main negative battery cable to the body of the combine began glowing a bright orange.
   "Whoa whoa whoa! Kill it!" She pointed at the glowing bolt. "Check engine light is on. We have a [i]very[/i] bad ground."

It took a little bit for the bolt to stop glowing, after which is was unscrewed and the rusty eyelet connector on the cable as well as the stud and a small part of the body panel around the stud were cleaned with a metal wire brush and some sandpaper. All the other ground connections were checked and cleaned as well before reconnecting them while they were at it anyway. With all of that taken care of, it was time for another test. Buddleia sent more sparks flying as she touched the stripped ends of the wires together, and again the starter clunked and the engine gave a few slow, irregular chugs before stopping.
   "Right, it's hitting a tight spot," Sasha said, taking the large ratchet and socket. "We better let it have a run at it."

As the engine was no longer seized, the human woman managed to turn it back the other way by the bolt on the crankshaft. She turned it all the way until it hit the tight spot again, took off the ratchet and stood back, nodding at Buddleia. The fluffy vulpine taur yet again sent sparks flying as she touched the wires together, and yet again the starter clunked and the engine started chugging, slowly and irregularly at first, then gradually quicker as it broke through the tight spot. The bit of old towel flew off as spurts of fluid shot from the spark plug holes and splattered all over, causing all three of them to duck as they got splashed, but they still cheered and cheerfully high-fived one another.
   "It work!" Buddleia chirped.
   "Well, it rotates, anyway," Sasha chortled. "Not sure yet if it'll actually run, but at least now we can try to make that happen."
   "It definitely makes a good fountain," Millie giggled, wiping her face with the back of a paw.
   "Yeah, she squirts even harder than you," Sasha sniggered.
   "Yeesh, mooooommm!" Millie whined, instantly blushing.
Sasha laughed and sent Millie a playful wink before turning to Buddleia, who was also yipping a cheery giggle.
   "Go on and wing her over for a while more, babe. We gotta get as much as that sauce of yours out of those cylinders as we can."

Buddleia nodded cheerily and touched the wires together again, making the engine chug in a gradually increasing tempo and sending puffs of colored mist shooting from the spark plug holes, then very gradually slowing down again as the batteries began losing power. Sasha checked the distributor, which was also rotating, and took the rotor to clean the terminal on it with some sandpaper, after which she used the old screwdriver to scrape the contacts on the inside of the distributor cap as clean as she could get them. While the freckled human woman clipped the distributor cap back in place, Buddleia wheeled an old battery charger from the workshop into the old open shed and connected it as well as the booster pack to the batteries to recharge them.

After Sasha had connected the coil to the distributor cap, she also plugged in one sparkplug wire and stuck a spark plug in the end of it, touching its metal threads against the side of the cylinder head and smiling at Buddleia again.
   "Give her another go, babe, let's see if we have spark." Buddleia again touched the wires together to make the engine spin over, and Sasha quirked an eyebrow as she monitored the spark plug. "Nothing. No-o-o sparky. Why no sparky? Coil is good, points are good, plugs are good, wiring is good. Why no sparky?"
   "Uhm, mom?" Millie giggled. "I'm not sure, you know, but like, maybe, you should put this in first?"
She held up the rotor button Sasha had cleaned and subsequently forgotten to put back in the distributor before she put the cap back on.
   "Gah! Jeez!" Sasha smirked, slapping her forehead. "Damn, I'm such a Scooby Doofus!"
Both Millie and Buddleia laughed at her cheerfully as she unclipped the distributor cap, put the rotor button back on the shaft and clipped the cap back in place. Holding the spark plug in the wire back against the cylinder head and having Buddleia run the engine again, the tall human woman nodded with a cheery smirk as she looked at the spark plug which now occasionally snapped small orange sparks.
   "Gee, wouldn't you know, it works [i]so[/i] much better when you put [i]all the goddam parts[/i] in place. News flash; I'm an idiot! But hey, at least we got spark now."

She took the spark plug from the wire and screwed it into one of the holes, and also screwed in the other three spark plugs and connected the wires - after first checking, double-checking and triple-checking the correct firing order. As another test, she had Buddleia run the engine again, which now chugged slower with the spark plugs in place and a distinct gallop in its rhythm.
   "Dead cylinder. But she should still run on three," Sasha said with a nod. "Okay, let's give her something flammable to chew on and see if she'll make some noise!" Filling a small bottle with a long thin spout on the cap with two-stroke fuel, she used that to fill the bowl of the carburetor via the vent tube, after which she also sprayed some straight down the intake. "Alright babe, give her the beans!"

Yet again Buddleia touched the wires together. The engine chugged and galloped, the gallop every now and then turning into a higher-pitched whine as the speed increased, thin tendrils of smoke rising from the exhaust pipe and the entire machine shuddering as Sasha manipulated the throttle linkage. Again and again they tried, feeding more fuel into the carburetor, holding the choke open or closed, and manipulating the throttle linkage. At one point, the engine gave a bark, which caused a cheer and increased their attempts. Not getting anything more than that, however, they decided to let the engine and the starter cool down for a little while before trying again.

Sitting on the edge of the truck's deck, Sasha calmly smoked a cigarette while Buddleia rummaged through the workshop for a small electric fuel pump, a small 2-gallon jerrycan and a roll of fuel hose and Millie took the spark plugs out of the combine's engine one by one and cleaned them as they were coated in oil. Buddleia set up a rudimentary fueling system, filling the small jerrycan with fresh gasoline, sticking a length of hose in it and connecting it to the small electric pump, and connecting another length of hose to the other end of the pump and the fuel inlet of the carburetor. With two long lengths of wire, she connected the pump directly to the batteries to activate it while Sasha checked the carburetor, tapping it with the crescent wrench as fuel started spilling from the vent tube.

Once the spilling stopped, the freckled human woman took a can of brake cleaner and sprayed a jet of it down the intake, nodding at Buddleia again.
   "Alright, needle and seat are behaving, she has something even more flammable to chew on now; let's give it another try."
The engine started chugging again as Buddleia once more touched the wires together, and barked again, and again as Sasha sprayed another spritz of brake cleaner into the carburetor.
   "C'monnn, you bucket of bolts, you're [i]so[/i] close. Just stop resisting already and wake up, will you?"

Another attempt. An even larger and longer spritz of brake cleaner. The linkage held all the way open at full throttle. And all of a sudden, the engine barked to life, roaring and filling the old open shed with a cloud of thick smoke and bits of debris flying from the exhaust pipe.
   "Whooooo! Yeah! [i]There[/i] you go!" Sasha shouted, revving the engine loudly several times, although it slowed down and sputtered and died when she let the throttle linkage snap back - it definitely did not want to idle.
   "You did it, mom!" Millie cheered.
   "It run! Yay! I not hear it run in super long time!" Buddleia said happily, clapping her paws. "I not even remember last time it run!"
   "Well, congratulations my darlings!" Sasha smiled, coughing and waving her hands at the thick cloud of smoke. "We just made a thousand bucks!" She jumped from the combine to the deck of the truck and pulled one of the wires from the batteries to disconnect the electric fuel pump. "Hell, I don't even care of it drives, we'll [i]push[/i] it on the trailer if we have to. But this is such a bonus! It just made that thing worth a thousand bucks more for the trade-in."

They got some drinks from the small farmhouse and two cushions from the pillow-nest so Sasha and Millie could comfortably sit in the metal garden chairs around the small round table in the field by the rabbit hutches and runs while Buddleia lay down on the chest and tummy of her quadruped lower body next to them, taking some time to talk and let the cloud of smoke dissipate from the old open shed - and to let their excitement wind down a bit. Getting back to the open shed after a while, they cleaned up all the tools and parts, moved the old MAZ truck out of the way and walked around the old combine to inspect it more. The small steer wheels at the back were solid rubber so those were alright, but the large left tire at the front was flat, so Buddleia took the air compressor to pump it back up - it even took and held air. A small test with the Massey Ferguson tractor proved the old combine at least still rolled relatively freely so they could pull it out of the shed, and with the help of the ramps Buddleia had welded together and the tractor, they pulled it onto the heavy deck of the bale trailer.

After strapping the old combine down tightly, removing the jerrycan, hose, pump and the batteries from the Deutz Fahr combine, and backing the MAZ truck up to the trailer and attaching it, Buddleia set the batteries in the large shed and connected them to the battery charger to let them and the booster pack charge back up overnight on a trickle-charge. Sasha closed the workshop, got everything together she'd need to bring to the Ag Co-op and put it in the truck, and prepared dinner with help from Millie. They had the dinner in the back garden, followed by a long, extensive bath in the pond to wash off all the sweat, grime and the oil mixture they had been splattered with and enjoying a good long while of relaxation afterwards, filled with cuddling, which progressed into tantric cuddling, which in turn progressed into tantric sex, culminating into a super relaxed and satisfying orgasm for each of them to cap off a very successful day.

Bright and early the next morning, they were back in their steady morning routine. A porridge breakfast, a quick bath in the pond, drying, brushing, cuddling and relaxing for a bit in the back garden, feeding the chickens and collecting the eggs, feeding the rabbits and petting the young bunnies, pleasuring and milking Choco the goat and filtering and chilling the milk, and putting away the milk despite there being enough surplus to make both several cheeses and another batch of butter. But that could wait, as there were more important matters to take care of. Some clothes were put on, and all three of them climbed into the cab of the old MAZ truck, with Sasha behind the wheel, Buddleia sitting back to front with her quadruped lower body settled in the passenger footwell and Millie sitting on the back of the vulpine taur's lower body. Driving slower and more carefully than normal with the long trailer holding the large old combine behind the truck, it took them almost five hours to reach the Co-op - but the sight greeting them as they arrived made it worth it.

In the yard in front of the large building sat a neat row of vehicles and equipment. A huge light blue and white combine harvester with a wide corn header on it, a medium-sized green tractor with yellow wheels, a fairly sizeable faded red rectangular box on large wheels with a long trailer tongue and two folded-up bars on the back, a similar-sized somewhat dull stainless steel cylindrical tank on four large wide wheels with a triangular trailer tongue, and a PTO-driven pump on the front from which a thick pipe ran over the top of the tank to the back where it connected to a cross-pipe ending in two elevated nozzles, and a large dark blue truck with black front fenders and a tall wooden box in dark blue steel framing on the back.

Sasha parked the lavender MAZ truck and trailer near the glass wall and doors of the building and all three of them got out and walked into the building, where the light tan lion man Daniel waved at them from behind the counter.
   "Afternoon, y'all! Tea's been ready for a while now, I expected you to be here first thing in the morning," he chuckled.
   "We still have a morning routine to go through with our livestock, Dan," Sasha chortled, thumbing across her shoulder at the trailer outside. "Plus it took almost five hours to get here, we had to drive slow with that hunk of junk on the trailer."
   "That's fair," Daniel nodded, motioning at the white and rust-colored Border Collie woman. "Clarissa, tea and cookies for the ladies, please! We gotta soften the blow of the forty-four grand they're about to spend a bit."
   "Of course, and good afternoon, dears," Ms. Stebbins nodded with a smile, and Sasha grinned lightly as she sat down in one of the chairs by the counter.
   "Forty-three, Dan."
   "You seriously got it running!" Daniel chuckled. "That's amazing! Did you drive it onto the trailer as well?"
   "Hell no, we didn't even bother checking the transmission," Sasha chortled. "It already took us all day yesterday to even get that motor running and load that thing. It has a dead hole and it won't idle, either, but run it does!"
   "Excellent!" Daniel smiled. "That makes it so much more valuable as a parts vehicle that I'll even give you thirty-five hundred as a trade-in price for it, because I actually have a customer for it who's willing to pay a bit more if it has a motor that runs."
   "Lucky us," Sasha chortled, smiling at Ms. Stebbins setting down cups of tea for all three of them. "Thank you."
   "They have hard work to get parts off," Buddleia chirped a chortle. "Everything rusty! We broke all bolts of access panels yesterday!"
   "That's neither my nor your concern," Daniel chuckled. "They want a parts vehicle with a motor that runs for the money without specifying the condition of the vehicle, they'll get what's offered."
   "I like the way you think," Sasha chortled, finishing her tea and sticking the small cookie that was also on the saucer between her lips. "Well, let's go have a look at the machines you have for us before I part with more than forty of our precious big ones, shall we?"
   "That's also fair," Daniel nodded with another chuckle. He finished his own tea and stood up. "Do allow me to lead the way for you, ladies."

He walked around the counter and out of the building, followed by Sasha, Buddleia and Millie who was happily nibbling on the cookie. Outside in the large yard, the light tan Katanga lion man made a wide waving gesture with a paw at the row of vehicles.
   "So, here's what I have for you, my dear butterfly ladies of Butterfly Farm," he chuckled.
   "No kidding," Sasha sniggered. "It's a fine selection though, I gotta say." She tilted her head a bit at the dark blue truck, which looked as ancient as the MAZ truck with its long, narrow nose covered with a butterfly hood of which both sides hinged on top in the middle, its tall, upright rectangular radiator, the wide, curvy black front fenders connected by a thick bumper that had free-standing headlights on it and the cab that was only as long as the width of the door, with the two separate square front windows. "This thing looks freaking ancient."
   "It's from nineteen forty-nine, Sasha, what did you expect?" Daniel chuckled, patting the wide left front fender. "Very sturdy and durable French truck though, these have always been amazing workhorses, and it's served Cobby Farm reliably for a good three decades already."
   "Another truck Leia can't drive because she can't properly fit in it, though," Sasha chortled. "And if it's that old, I'm guessing it will be as slow and a pain to drive as our truck was before we put that other motor in it?"
   "Well, originally, these trucks only did about forty-seven, forty-eight an hour, yeah," Daniel nodded, chuckling and patting the left front fender again. "But the original motor from this one is long gone already, that used to be an inline-six diesel so they put in a much more modern inline-six Perkins diesel with close to three hundred horsepower and a four-speed transmission with high and low range, so it basically has eight forward gears and two reverse. She'll easily do eighty-five miles an hour, although I'm not really sure if it would be such a fantastic idea to actually drive that fast on the roads around here, haha!"
   "And this one has high roof, I can fit behind wheel if I sit up and not bump my head against the ceiling," Buddleia chirped a chortle from the right side of the truck, where she had opened the passenger door to look into the cab. "And simple seats, too! We take out easy, plenty room for me to sit, yes."
   "Alright, well, that's a bonus," Sasha smiled, knocking against the dark wood of the large box on the back of the truck. "Pretty standard dump box it looks like, I assume it only tilts backwards to unload? And does it have a hitch?"
Daniel nodded as he pointed at the dark blue-painted metal framework of the box, which appeared to consist of three similar stacked sections.
   "Yeah, originally the dump bed was just this high, but they heightened it to hold twelve thousand liters of corn. And as you can see, they did a pretty darn good job copying the design of the framework to basically give the bed two more sections on top and make it look original. It does indeed only dump at the back, where they kept only the original rear gate as the one that swings open. All the hydraulic hoses and the ram were replaced... three years ago, if I remember right, and it actually has a reversible hitch." He pointed at some kind of T-shaped bar attached to the rear of the truck's frame. "See, you flip it one way, it's a ball hitch, you turn it over and it's a pintle hitch."
   "That's actually pretty clever," Sasha smiled with an appreciative nod of her head. "And I actually kinda like the pre-war design; makes it fit right in on our farm, with all the old stuff we have." She let go a light chortle as she motioned at the green tractor sitting next to the truck. "Come to that, this one is gonna look a bit out of place among all the old equipment we have."
   "Ah yes, but I predict this will become the most-used tractor on your farm," Daniel chuckled, patting the nose of the green tractor. "As you can see, a John Deere forty-eight forty, which means it has a seven and a half-liter inline-six turbo-diesel motor with a hair over two hundred horsepower, and it has the John Deere PowerShift trans. That's eight forward gears and four reverse, clutchless shifting, and it has what they call an inching pedal for precision work and like hooking up implements. Two-wheel drive, hydraulic diff lock via a pedal, power steering, radio, they even put a GPS in this thing, so it will pull anything and everything you have on your farm and you'll ride in the lap of luxury while doing so."
   "Not sure if we'd have much use for GPS, but damn, that does all sound pretty damn nice," Sasha nodded with a chortle. "Looks like a pretty spacious cab, too."
   "Yes, I fit in this easy too!" Buddleia nodded. "And so much glass, so good view all around!"
   "Yep," Daniel nodded with a smile. "And look, they slightly modified the drawbar of this workhorse, so it has a reversible ball hitch and pintle hitch as well. Not quite sure why they did that though, because as I understood, this tractor was exclusively used for pulling this planter." He patted the side of the red box on wheels. "Good machine, this; a Horsch Maestro twelve SW planter, holds thirty-two hundred liters of seed, hydraulic fold-out arms for a spread of nine meters, floatation tires, and while they only used it for planting corn and soybeans, it also handles cotton, sugar beet, and most importantly for your application; sunflower."
   "Yeah, I'm thinking we'll be doing a lot more sunflowers than originally anticipated, with this kind of equipment," Sasha chortled.
   "Yes! Lots sunflowers! Lots lots lots! So pretty!" Buddleia chirped happily, clapping her paws.
   "Hahaha!" Daniel laughed cheerfully. "Well, even if you turn Butterfly Farm into a full-out sunflower farm, you'll still have a nice and easy time harvesting them all with this beauty here!" He patted the wide header on the light blue and white combine harvester. "Even better than what you asked me for; a Fortshritt E five-sixteen B! That means it has an updated V-eight diesel motor with slightly reduced engine speed, so it burns a bit over ten percent less fuel than the engine it first came with, while still having the full two hundred twenty-five horsepower output, and it comes with updated tires and portal axles over the regular five-sixteen and an engine start protection." He climbed the ladder to the cabin, opened the door and pointed at some of the controls. "That over there is something you may not be used to. It has a one-twenty degree concave with sixteen rasp bars, and with that lever, you can adjust the distance to the threshing drum in three steps, and fine-tune it with that knob next to it. The threshing drum has ten rasp bars and is belt-driven, and with that lever you can adjust the speed of it by changing the length of the belt, sort of like a CVT. And as this is originally a corn harvester, it has five seven-step straw walkers, so you may even get sunflower straw out of this one. The hopper folds out at the front, and it holds six thousand liters, so you can fill it up twice to fully fill the box of that Berliet truck once."
Sasha was standing a bit lower on the ladder, with Buddleia behind her having her feral front paws on the ladder as well and her upper body stretched out a bit, so they could both look into the cab.
   "I'm pretty impressed," the freckled human woman nodded. "For a mid-eighties combine, this is pretty advanced. Although I'm not sure what use we might find for sunflower straw; Millie said sunflower stalks are a bit too rigid to make decent straw, and she should know, she grew up on a sunflower and poppy farm."
   "The BGA will take it for their burners, they take the corn straw from Waving Grain Farm for that as well," Daniel smiled. "And if you ask Simon and Harry, I'm pretty sure they'll be happy to take some to make TMR with as well."
   "This such big cab!" Buddleia smiled with her upper canines and the front end of her tongue on display. "I fit in here even with seat there!"
   "Yeah, it's pretty damn spacious," Sasha nodded with a smile, getting down off the ladder. "And alright, we'll give the straw a shot. It'll be easy enough to give Simon and the BGA a call to ask if they'll take it, and I do like the idea of getting some extra income from the byproducts. Especially since we're about to see over forty grand disappear out of our account," she added with a light grin. "But just in case, Dan; can this thing shred as well?"
   "Yes, it has a stalk chopper, activating that will also activate the spreader wheel," Daniel nodded, climbing down the ladder as well and pointing behind the harvester. "Also, check it out; it also comes with a header trailer. Plus I actually have all the documentation that came with it as well, including the service manual and operating manual, so you can have a read through that to see what all the levers and knobs and switches and buttons do. The only thing that manual won't explain is the GPS system, because those folks at Cobby Farm also had a GPS put in this machine."
Sasha shook her head with a light snigger.
   "Why? What the hell use is a GPS in a combine?"
   "Headland and row routing, Sasha," Daniel smiled. "Farm GPS is different from what you see in your car, you know. You don't enter an address to be guided towards, you enter the size and dimension of your field, the number and width of the headlands you want to run and the working width of your equipment, and it gives you a route to cover the entire field efficiently with the proper amount of overlap and as little waste as possible. They needed that on Cobby Farm due to how large their fields are, you know. That's why the Deere has it too; if you start it up, you will find it has presets saved in it for the working width of that planter and a lime and fertilizer spreader. And speaking of fertilizer spreader..." He turned and patted the stainless steel tank on wheels. "Here we have your Reime ninety-five hundred vacuum slurry tanker. Sitting on floatation tires, with a PTO-driven centrifugal pump, double fan spreaders at the back for a working width of fourteen meters, and it holds ninety-five hundred liters of liquid shi... slurry, heh."
   "Damn, that's pretty impressive," Sasha nodded. "Fourteen meters, we can cover some of our fields in a single pass, damn. And it really only needs eighty horsepower like you said?"
   "Eighty to run that pump, yes," Daniel nodded with a light chuckle. "But you may still want to hang it behind the Deere to actually pull it when it's full because of how big it is."
   "Yeah, jeez, that's a monster," Sasha said with another slow nod. "I'm not even sure if we'd get enough digestate from our silage bales to fill that beast."
   "The BGA also sells the digestate they generate, Sasha, so you can still get this tank filled up full," Daniel smiled. "Sure, it will be a bit of a cost, but it's still cheaper than solid fertilizer, by a decent bit actually."
   "Alright, well, next time we're at the BGA, I'll know I'll have some things to talk about with them and learn from them," Sasha said, pulling out her phone and doing a bit of typing. "I'd better make some notes of that. There." She put her phone back in her pocket and grinned cheerfully. "Well, I suppose we stalled for as long as possible, so there's nothing more to it I guess... time to make a huge chunk of our money disappear. Damn, I hate this part, haha."
   "Hahaha! I'll be gentle on you, Sasha," Daniel laughed. "And like I said over the phone, I can actually offer financing as well, twelve months at one point three percent."
   "That's still a few thousand extra bucks I prefer to keep in our account, thank you," Sasha chortled. "We have the funds, and this is an amazingly great deal, so may as well bite the bullet and get it done."
   "In that case, farmer Farr, please do step into my office," Daniel chuckled with a wave of a paw at the glass doors.

He led the way back into the large building and stepped behind the counter, beginning to type on the computer. Sasha grinned lightly again at the bill of sale appearing on the second screen that was turned towards them at the other side of the counter; $46,500 for an equipment package, minus $3500 trade-in for an old combine harvester, and minus $500 loyal customer discount, for a final total of $42,500. Giving her head a small amused shake at that discount, Sasha took her company bank card from her wallet while Daniel set up a bank transfer; for that high an amount, it wasn't as simple as beeping her card on the scanner and entering her PIN code, they actually had to make a direct transfer on the bank's website. But that was just as quick and smooth, although Sasha did playfully close her eyes while she put her card back in her wallet and her wallet back in her pocket so she wouldn't have to see the reduced balance on their company account.

Daniel printed out the bill of sale and a receipt, which he handed to Sasha with a soft chuckle, along with a small box filled with papers and booklets.
   "Congratulations farmer Farr, you are now the owner of a decent deal of old but very well-kept and maintained large equipment. Would you care for another cup of tea with a drop or two of brandy in it to ease the shock of such a large purchase?"
   "Thanks, Dan, but I'd better not," Sasha chortled. "We better go and figure out just how to load all that stuff so we can bring it all over in one go, because I'm expecting the trip back to take at least five hours as well with such big and heavy equipment, and that means we'll only be back home well after suppertime."
   "That's a good point," Daniel nodded. "Go on and start unstrapping your old combine, I'll get Jack over with the telehandler to yank it off your trailer." He walked over to the doors in the far right wall of the building and leaned through one of them. "Jack! Telehandler! We have an old immobile combine to yank to the trade-in area!"
   "Be right there!"

In the meantime, Sasha, Buddleia and Millie walked back outside and over to the lavender MAZ truck. Buddleia and Millie set up the ramps while Sasha started undoing the straps holding the rusty old International combine to the trailer after she had put the small box of paperwork in the cab of the MAZ truck. Daniel joined them, and a few moments later the timberwolf mechanic Jack drove from around the right side of the building in the old JCB telehandler. He carefully pulled the old rusty combine off the trailer and started pulling it around the right side of the building, wiggling a bit now and then as the large front left tire of the machine had lost a good deal of its air again.

Another several moments were taken by all of them to walk back and forth along the row of vehicles to figure out the best course of action. Sasha turned to Daniel and pointed at the John Deere tractor.
   "With an eight-speed in there, how fast can that thing go?"
   "Without any implements behind it, forty-six an hour max," Daniel said.
   "Hmmm." Sasha slowly ran a hand over her chin while she thought. "I don't think we'd be able to go much faster than that in the truck as well, so that's alright. I doubt that combine will go as fast, right?"
   "No, that will do twenty at most, and that would be pushing it," Daniel nodded.
   "Right. Okay, let's see now." Sasha checked the backs of the slurry spreader and the planter. "Damn, we can't daisy-chain them. Hmmm. Do you think Jack could lift that header trailer onto the back of our truck with that telehandler?"
   "Easy, but it'll stick out over the back," Daniel nodded again.
   "That's fine, we have to go slow anyway," Sasha said, leaning over by the header on the light blue and white combine to look at its front tires. "How wide is this thing? Will it fit on our trailer?"
   "I'm not quite sure of the track width, you'll have to check the manual," Daniel shrugged with a smile. "But looking at it, I'd say it'll fit, the drive wheels will sit on the edges of your trailer and only stick out a little bit. I'd be more worried about the load capacity of that trailer."
   "We strengthened it a good deal, so it should be fine," Sasha said with a smile as well. "Right, so, the combine is definitely gonna go on the trailer. That truck can be driven, the tractor too if need be. Alright, okay, with the header trailer on the back of our truck, we can hitch the planter to the tractor since they go together anyway, and we can hitch the slurry spreader to that other truck, that should work out. Leia, you're positive you can fit in that other truck to drive it?"
   "Yes, we take out driver seat, I can fit and drive easy," Buddleia nodded with a smile that showed the lower halves of her upper canine teeth.
   "Alright, good," Sasha nodded. "And we have ourselves an extra driver today, so choco-snoot, you'll get to drive the tractor, think you can handle that?"
   "Sure, yes, I can totally do that, mo... Sash!" Millie nodded happily.
   "Awesome, then we have a plan," Sasha smiled. "Dan, could you please ask Jack to bring that telehandler back here, and bring some tools as well so we can unbolt the driver's seat of that other truck? Leia, you unhitch the trailer from our truck and roll it out of the way, please, and Millie, you help me unhitch the trailer from that combine and roll it over here, okay?"

Everybody nodded and dispersed. Daniel walked back into the large building and through it to look for Jack behind the building, Buddleia disconnected the bale trailer from the back of the MAZ truck and pushed it backwards a good deal, and Millie followed Sasha to the back of the light blue and white combine harvester, where a long and very narrow light blue trailer looking like a single metal bar on small wheels with a sort of rack of thinner metal bars on it was attached to a pintle hitch at the rear of the large vehicle. They disconnected it and rolled it over to the old MAZ truck, where Jack handed Sasha a wrench and socket set and used the forks on the lift arms of the telehandler to carefully pick up the narrow trailer and set it down on the flat back of the lavender truck.

While Sasha started strapping the trailer tightly to the back of the truck, Millie took the tools over to the dark blue truck and unbolted the driver's seat, which Buddleia lifted out of the truck and set upside down on the passenger's seat. After that, the purple and white vixen-taur hopped into the cabin of the dark blue truck and sat down behind the steering wheel on the haunches of her quadruped lower body, wiggling about a little to find a good position and leaning over just slightly to reach the steering wheel and see through the left windshield. She started the truck with a smooth rumble and drove it forwards a bit, then backed it up towards the slurry spreader with Millie directing her and connecting the slurry spreader to the truck's hitch when it was in position.

A little excited, the chocolate-colored Labrador girl got into the John Deere tractor after that, starting it and driving it a bit forwards, then backing it up to the faded red planter and connecting it to the tractor's hitch, although she didn't connect the PTO and the hydraulics because that wasn't needed for just transport. In the meantime, Sasha moved the MAZ truck a bit, Buddleia re-hitched the bale trailer to it, and both she, Daniel and Jack directed Sasha as the tall human woman got into the combine harvester, started it and very slowly and carefully backed it onto the trailer. It was a very close fit indeed, almost half of the large front tires sticking out over the edges of the trailer, and the trailer creaked and groaned a bit under the load while it sank down so much its four large tires squished down a bit.

But it fit! Sasha did buy a few chains with hooks and come-alongs and several extra ratchet straps from Daniel so they could strap down the combine super tightly and secure to the trailer - they weren't going to take any risks. All in all, it took a bit over an hour before everything was ready to go. After thanking Daniel and Jack and accepting several small bottles of fruit juice and water for on the way back to their farm, Sasha told Millie to lead the way in the tractor pulling the planter, and to park them out of the way on the dirt path they had laid in front of Choco's pen once she got to the farm. Millie nodded happily and got into the tractor, setting off. Buddleia followed her in the dark blue Berliet truck pulling the slurry spreader, and Sasha made up the rear, maneuvering the lavender MAZ truck with the combine on the trailer off the Co-op's yard very slowly and carefully with help of directions from Daniel and Jack, as the wide header on the combine stuck out quite far from both sides of the trailer so she had to make much wider turns.

It was a slow convoy going down the wide dirt road. Sasha called Millie on her phone and told the light brown canine girl to keep the speed at 30mph for a decent compromise between safety and making half-decent time. At that speed, it took them almost six hours to make the long drive from the Co-op to their farm. Slow, monotonous, tedious, but safe, with risks kept to a minimum.

By the time they got back to their farm, dusk had already replaced the light of day. With headlights blazing - which showed the headlights of the old Berliet truck gave yellow light - they eventually pulled into the driveway. Millie turned left to park the tractor and planter on the dirt road running in front of Choco's pen, like Sasha had told her to, Buddleia pulled the Berliet truck and the slurry spreader into the open area in front of the large shed, and Sasha made a slow and very careful right turn at the end of the driveway to drive the MAZ truck onto the dirt path running in front of the windmill so they could carefully drive the Fortshritt combine harvester off the trailer once it had been unstrapped and easily swing it around ninety degrees to back it into the old open shed to sit next to the light green Deutz Fahr combine. After uncoupling and rolling the bale trailer out of the way, the freckled human woman used the Massey Ferguson 1135 tractor with the frontloader to carefully lift the header trailer off the back of the MAZ truck and set it down on the ground so they could roll it into the rickety open shed as well and put it all the way in the back along the right wall.

With it being as late as it was, Buddleia quickly trotted into the old little farmhouse to make a quick and easy dinner while Sasha and Millie played a little more musical implements. The dark blue Berliet truck was used to move the slurry spreader around and park it on the right side of the large shed, as far back and as close to the wall of the shed as they could get it so it wouldn't be in their way to the small dock of the pond, and the truck itself was parked in the patch of grass behind the old double silo, together with the lavender MAZ truck. A bit of wiggling and maneuvering back and forth was required with the John Deere tractor to back the Horsch planter into the large shed and park it a bit crookedly next to the seeder and the small solid fertilizer spreader, after which the tractor itself was parked in front of the Fortshritt combine in the rickety open shed. The equipment sheds suddenly looked quite full!

Millie was happy to take care of milking Choco the goat for the evening and filtering, chilling and storing the milk, giving Sasha time to file away the paperwork and update the farm's financial administration with the purchase information. Buddleia filled three bowls with canned beef stew she had heated up and mashed potatoes, which they took to the small round garden table and chairs in the field in front of the house to have their dinner by the rabbit hutches and in view of the sheds. Even during their relaxed cuddling afterwards, they were still all three talking somewhat excitedly about the events of that day and looking at all the additional equipment sitting in and around their sheds.

Butterfly Farm was definitely expanding and filling out! Exciting times!