Life Renewed Ch. 05

On a trip to town one day, James stopped at the Ford dealer where he had bought his pickup and bought Ana and Ruth each a new top of the line four-wheel drive Ford Expedition. Slightly larger than the Explorer Model so better able to handle the roads and weather. The only difference in them was the color. They were so thrilled and he got so many hugs and kisses he lost count.

Epilog:

James and Ana married in the spring with Leon and Mary as witnesses. Soon thereafter they discovered that Ana was going to get the thrill of flying down to see her OB/GYN doctor on a regular basis once the snow started falling as she was in a family way and everyone was thrilled.

James and Ana did not buy the fancy helicopter Leon had told them about but did buy a nice lightly used Bell Jet Ranger that would do anything they needed done. They both agreed that for the present time at least, they would not fly commercial or charter due to all the FAA regulations and the cost of all the associated insurance and bonds. They did say that they would gladly fly a friend or neighbor or even a stranger into town to the hospital in an emergency. They would, however, be available to fly hay and or other feed up to trapped and hungry animals whether they were domestic or wild, often using their own hay to feed with. Deer and Elk suffer a lot of winter kill from lack of feed, so if they could deliver a little hay here and there, lives could be saved and an American Legacy perpetuated. They soon earned the respect of everyone in that mountain range and earned many conservation and wildlife awards from so many government and private groups that they had more than a wall full to display.

Ana had her baby, a stapling baby boy named Michael James Crawford II. They would call him Michael or Duce for a nickname. He grew tall and straight and took to the ranching way of life like a fish does to water. In this case, he really was born into it. The kindly ranch manager they had hired taught him everything he would ever need to know about the cowboy and rancher life, and his family taught him work ethic and moral values. He graduated from the University of Wyoming with a degree in Agribusiness and a Masters in Agriculture and Agroecomonics. He also became a Helicopter pilot, but not for any reason other than to check on the ranch and its various pastures and meadows and to keep track of their cattle and horses and to know when it was time for another hay cutting. Besides, he enjoyed the heck out of it.

A few years after Duce was born, the wife of the rancher next door came to talk to James and Ana. Her husband had been badly hurt in an accident when a green broke horse fell and rolled over him breaking several bones and the saddle horn doing some major internal damage. She said she hated to do this, but that she did not want her husband to ever be near another horse or ranch and the only country she wanted him in was maybe in a cart on a golf course someplace in Florida. So, would they be interested in buying their 10,000 acres. She would make them a great deal for a fast sale. She told them what she wanted and after thinking for a bit James said that he could not see putting all that much capital into another ranch. She asked how much he would offer, and after thinking a minute, he said he wanted her to understand that he was not trying to take advantage of the situation, but that he could not see himself letting loose much over 5 million, or $500 an acre. She told him that while that was not what she wanted to hear, it was pretty much what she expected, and that if he was ready to buy they could call that afternoon and see when they could close on the sale.

They were going to be able to close on the property in 35 days, but with a cash advance and the rest placed in an escrow account, they moved out with the husband still in the hospital and let James and Ana have possession. Having never seen the inside of the house before they were anxious to see what they had bought. Both were pleasantly surprised to find a very modern house furnished with southwest style furniture and antique/primitive western/ranch things of all sorts hanging on the walls and placed on display on shelves. A virtual treasure trove of days gone by.

The house itself was larger and more livable even than the one Ana and James had made and lived in, so an immediate move seemed to be in order. The barns were modern and well maintained as well. James could tell that this was a ranch whose owner had taken pride in what he had.

They did move in and there was even an area in a wing off to itself for Ruth to live in with its own bath, bedroom, and a lounging area she used as an office to work on her next best seller. The old home was given to the ranch manager and his cabin given to the two ranch hands he had hired. Michael would get a newer log home for him and his wife when he married.

As has happened with many parts of Colorado and Wyoming, a deep pocket of natural gas was found under both the ranch properties and James and Ana began receiving royalties from them as the gas was pumped. This did not make them fabulously rich, but it did cushion the bank accounts considerably and allowed them to buy a better and nicer helicopter for their own use and keep the Jet Ranger for "cargo" like feed and needed parts or materials. Both James and Ana logged lots of hours into their logbooks.

Things again settled into a normal way of life. James and Ana's oldest daughter graduated high school after mostly being homeschooled, as were all the children, and was accepted by the University of Colorado in Boulder where she enrolled in Pre-Med studies with plans to become an ophthalmologist surgeon.

Her younger sister elected to also go to the University of Colorado where the two sisters could maintain an apartment together for several years before the younger one took her degree in Computer Science and went to Wharton for her MBA with a desire to head her own software company.

As they aged, James and Ana turned more and more of the ranch over to their son to run. They told him that he would probably never have enough money at one time to buy the place for himself, and that when he and Ana were both gone that each child would own a third of the property. James said that Michael could draw a nice salary and small percentage of the profits for his work, but his sisters would still own a piece of the action. James did promise that he would set it up so that the two girls or Michael and anyone one girl could not sell, or enter into a major economic decision, and that any such decision took a 100 % affirmative vote. He also told them that they should keep their eyes and ears out for any other bargain priced land that might become available and to consider buying it if they had enough cash available to pay for and to use the land to increase the size of the cattle herd and thus the profits. He also suggested they make a similar will and plan of action for their decendents if one or more of them wanted to run the ranch.

James passed in his sleep at the age of 82. Happy and content and still in the arms of the only woman he had loved in over 40 years. His funeral packed the local school gymnasium as that was the only building large enough to hold all the people.

Ana quietly moved into an assisted living facility as she was in her 70s then and she also passed soon thereafter. Most people said it was from a broken heart. I tend to agree.