| |
Katherine was frustrated, and despite a lengthy walk and talk with Troy today, was not any closer to knowing how she would address her father. She knew she had to respect and honor him, but that needed to be a two-way street now that she was an adult. In the last two years, he had changed and not in a way that was fostering positive influences on their relationship.
When Noah had gotten engaged to Margaret, Katherine’s dad amped up his attention toward the solo men living in the county looking for that perfect match for his daughter. The fact that he was convinced she, as a woman, could not run the farm was maddening to her. She was grateful to have been raised in a traditional family but discouraged when hearing about the freedoms her friends had when she attended college. Her work ethic and dedication to the family was the epitome of the traditional upbringing, so overall she knew that was a blessing of some sort.
Her dad wanted to have more children but unfortunately had been stuck with one daughter. In farming communities, it was natural to want boys to help run the operations that came with large farms or ranches in the area. Katherine loved going to the Living River Ranch these days, as there was such great energy about the place. Besides, Stormi was willing to share the information she had gained about horse husbandry. Katherine had wanted to move a part of their farm to horse care and develop boarding operations. She had even written a full business plan after she returned from school to present to her father. Her father again was having nothing to do with it; the Grazinski’s were dairy farmers he would tell her, had been for nearly eighty years and would be for eighty more.
Katherine loved dairy farming, but the market for dairy products was becoming a fiercer obstacle for honing out a living. Conglomerates were barging in on this necessary market and making farmers like her father feel the pinch. She wanted to get ahead of the issue and diversify the farm a bit to ensure the multiple streams of income would be forthcoming. She also had some brilliant ideas about crops they could plant to extend a diversified offering in the area. This might help them become a smidge more self-sustaining and maybe again turn a small profit. She was fiercely determined to make her family farm last into the next generation but wasn’t on board with doing so by acquiescing to her father’s demands. Marrying a family friend for anything short of love was not in the cards.
She had loved Noah for as long as she could remember. The not so secret crush had lasted into adulthood but waned and died in the last few years. He and Margaret were the ultimate couple, and she could no longer imagine a scenario where he should have ended up with her. Until then, Katherine had found no one else that measured up to Noah’s status in her mind, well at least until Troy Henson had arrived with Ben Baize a few weeks past. The instant camaraderie and ability to speak freely with him was unsettling at first. She hadn’t wanted to push the friendship further, as he was still healing from an assault that had bruised his ego, mind, and body. Just having someone that would stop what he was doing and listen so intently made her increasingly seek him out in recent days.
As she finished walking from Living River Ranch into her kitchen, she tried to clear her thoughts and focus on the afternoon chores listed in her mind.
“Hey mom,” she said, moving into the kitchen, grabbing a glass and going to the refrigerator to pour some juice.
“Hi, sweetie,” her mom Marcia responded. She was busy putting vegetables into a pot.
“What’cha making,” she said, moving over to take a deep inhalation of the amazing smells.
“Vegetable soup.”
“Smells like heaven,” Katherine responded.
“Is Margaret and Noah back from their honeymoon?”
“I think two more days,” she said with a huge smile. “I just went for a long walk with Troy and chatted with Emily, Ben, and Stormi. It seems like every time I am over there; they have new and interesting people joining the family.”
“I remember Holmer and Grace had this knack for taking in strays, and it would appear that Margaret is cut from the same cloth. Don’t tell your daddy about the Troy part though,” she said, with a sad down-turned face.
“They are growing so much, and the way they find a position for new people is amazing. Their growth is heaven-sent as they absorb and expand to include new people,” Katherine started. “And daddy will to have to hear about Troy sometime.”
“Is it getting serious with you two?”
“No, nothing like that,” Katherine said, but she could see it may be heading down that road, “I just need my father to honor my decisions as an adult. I had thought if I was an obedient daughter, tried to follow his rules and didn’t make waves, he might come around, but it appears he is becoming more difficult with each passing day. Any clues on what I should do?”
“I don’t know, my love,” her mother sighed. “He seems to be at a loss right now. I should tell you; he has invited Maxwell to dinner again this evening. They are out in the barn talking refurbishing the milking operation.”
Katherine felt her gut plummet. The fact that he was considering doing that meant that the money she had hoped for her horse boarding program would no longer be available. This meant that another long, uncomfortable dinner was in her future. She kissed her mother on the cheek and headed toward the barn.
In transit, she offered her eyes to heaven; please let us find a path toward understanding each other with grace. I don’t want to be at odds with my father; she mused silently. Squaring her shoulders, she forged into the barn and right into the middle of an engaging conversation between her father and Maxwell on the benefits of modernizing milking operations on farms to compete with other producers.
