Brandon crunched through his bite of apple and swallowed. “We’re gonna get the solar set up,” he said. “Just like we’re going to get that greenhouse moved this afternoon.” He gave her a quick smile and took another bite.
“And we’re going to fell trees on Monday,” she said. “And build a chicken coop on Tuesday.”
He nodded, still chewing. After he swallowed, he reached up and brushed his cowboy hat off his head. He set it on the TV stand next to him. “I’m going to power-wash the barn tomorrow after church. Then we’ll see what we need to fix. We’ll get that done, then seal it all up, and re-stain the wood.”
“How long does that take?” she asked.
“It’s a pretty big barn,” he said. “Probably a week, with most of that being the staining. I think we can fix any problems and get it all sealed up in a single day.”
Lenore nodded. “So maybe Wednesday.”
“Yeah,” Brandon said. “And then you’ll work on the low-level beds while I build the solar system.”
Lenore put both hands on her knees and pushed herself to a stand. She sighed as she walked into her kitchen and gathered a couple bottles of water. She brought one to him, and then returned to get her lunch.
She kept a cooler on her counter, and she opened it and took out a yogurt and a container of cottage cheese, then got two peach cups from the cabinet. Brandon had seen her eat this exact meal before, and he didn’t comment on it.
He also didn’t want to tell her about all the things that had been donated to her cause. So they ate in silence, and he led the way outside.
“Have you ever used one of these?” he asked, indicating the skid steer that he’d driven off the trailer and parked near the greenhouse.
Lenore eyed it like it might turn into a dragon and start breathing fire. “No.”
“I’ll show you,” he said. “We’ve got everything loosened along the roof. All we have to do is pick it up and move it.”
“You make it sound so easy,” she grumbled.
“We’ve got these straps here,” he said, ignoring her. “And that’s going to be your job. Once I get it balanced on that flat platform there.” He indicated the front of the skid steer, which could also hold a bucket attachment to dig trenches or a scraping attachment to clear land.
But right now, a long, flat shelf had been attached to the front and extended past the main body of the machine a few feet on each side. Brandon had measured to make sure that the eight-by-twelve-foot greenhouse would fit. It would—with a foot on each side for clearance.
The problem was that meant he had to come at the greenhouse from the front—the eight-foot side—and it was deeper than it was wide, and the shelf only extended about four feet under the greenhouse.
“So you’ll take these straps,” he said, indicating the dark gray canvas. “And it hooks right here to the back of the skid steer, and you go all the way around the greenhouse, and we’ll hook it to the other side before I even move.”
She nodded, her mouth set in a grim line. “Let’s do it.” She moved to pick up the straps, but she couldn’t do it. Brandon’s first instinct was to jump in to help her, but he held back.
“Just do one strap,” Brandon finally said.
“These metal hooks are really heavy,” she said, still struggling with them both.
“Yeah.” Brandon didn’t say more, because this was heavy-duty equipment meant to move buildings. Of course it was going to require a heavy-duty piece of metal to keep a building attached to a machine.
Lenore finally got the first hook up, and he helped her clip in the first one, and then he got into the seat of the skid steer. It barely accommodated his height, but he managed to ease the machine forward and slip the shovel-like shelf underneath the greenhouse.
He inched forward again and again as Lenore kept gesturing for him to do so. Her palm suddenly came toward him, and she yelled, “Stop!”
He did, the greenhouse rocking a little bit as he nudged it with the skid steer.
“All right,” he yelled. “Now you’re gonna have to haul that other one all the way around the greenhouse to this other side.”
Lenore managed to pick up the second hook, and she started to push the strap through the narrow gap they’d created between the greenhouse and the cabin. She couldn’t fit, so she jogged around the skid steer and down the length of the greenhouse and disappeared around the back corner.
Brandon locked the skid steer so that it wouldn’t rock, and he waited. And waited. And waited. Lenore had brought over a shovel to use to grab the hook and pull it toward her in the narrow alley between the greenhouse and cabin. Did she need help?
Finally, Lenore reappeared, and she had the heavy hook clenched against her chest. It seemed as big as her torso, though it wasn’t. He grinned at her, and he waited patiently while she fumbled to get it clipped onto the back of the skid steer.
“Ratchet it tight,” he said, and she started doing that. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion, and Brandon had employed more patience this week than he ever had. Lenore worked hard, and she wanted to learn, and he couldn’t expect her to do everything at the speed at which he did.
