Disrupted: Day 5

Word Count: 30,036

Summary of Events:

Ezra monitored a cow while she calved before getting into an argument with the foreman, who'd wanted him to monitor a different cow and would not be convinced that two cows had calved at the same time. Gwendolen arrived at White Pine and shortly met Mrs. Harder, who took her in and told her the rather unfortunate history of the town, as well as refusing Gwendolen's insistence at paying her. After another long day of work Ezra put his children to bed and went to relax in front of the fire, but soon got to thinking about what would need to get done . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

"Once they got back from getting the colts it would be branding time and then there would be work for several days before finally he set to work on training the colts.

If he recalled correctly Wayne's second son, Thaddeus, would be joining them on their trek to pick a colt for his own that he was to work with Thaddeus on training, much like he'd done with Clay's second, William, the year before.

Next year it would be Joshua, Clay's third, and then in two years it would be Jeremiah, Jonathan three years later, Wayne's youngest son Darius the year after that, and then about three years until Ezekiel, Clay's youngest, was old enough.

Barring any other marriages, much less Dwight and Mary having sons, that was all the boys who'd yet to learn how to ride, much less train their own horses. He'd have to find some time somewhere to work with teaching Jeremiah how to ride, though, as Jerome was already teaching Darius, and he was six.

But Lachlan was too tall for either Jeremiah or Jonathan, and it didn't pay for Ezra to own another horse — Jerome kept enough to give him spares for the railhead drive — and even if he did, he was too tall to make buying a short horse worthwhile.

Thankfully Jeremiah and Jonathan already showed that they were going to have his height, as Jeremiah was nearly as tall as Joshua, and Joshua was two years his senior, while Jonathan was almost as tall as Christina, who was the same age as Jeremiah, until September, anyways, as she had a birthday early in the year.

Still, it would take them time to get to the height to be able to ride Lachlan properly enough to get lessons.

Ezra turned at the sound of little feet on the stairs and turned to see Sarah standing at the foot of the stairs.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I code," Sarah replied.

"Come here," Ezra sighed.

She crossed the floor rather quickly and crawled up onto his lap. He made sure she sat to face his right and kissed the top of her head once she was comfortable on his lap.

He looked over at Silver, curled up in her small crate, which seemed to be fast getting too small for her already. He might have to see what he could do to make something bigger.

Leaning back in his chair, Ezra sighed. One day off a week wasn't near enough time to tend to all that needed to be done. If it weren't for the fact that spring was on it's way ever more with each passing day he would be even more despairing.

Although spring didn't get him a shorter horse, it would get him more days off, a privilege he, Clay, and Dwight were afforded because they owned their own homes off of the ranch land, and they didn't really need all that much time in the wintertime."