A Time to Bloom (Leah's Garden #2)(79)

“But you don’t know exactly what he does?”

“Sorry, shoulda asked more questions. I know some people use a sheet to throw the threshed wheat in the air so the wind can blow away the chaff. Wheat head is heavier and falls back to the sheet. You can get it pretty clean that way. Someday when we get fields of wheat growing here, perhaps someone will build a mill. We’re going to need a granary to hold the harvest before it can be loaded on the train too.”

Lark stared at him. “I’d no idea how much there was to all this.”

“People have been growing wheat for hundreds of years. They had to figure a way to get the grain from the stalk.” He scratched his head. “You oughta talk to Caldwell. He digs into anything he might find useful or even just interesting. He might know if there are any new methods.” Head shaking this time, he shrugged. “Yup, that’s what I’d do.”

“Thank you, I’ll do that.” She picked up her purchases, including flour so Del could keep on baking. Good thing they’d learned to put bay leaves in the flour barrel to keep out the weevils. “Have a good day.”

“You too.” He paused. “You know, that sister of yours sure is doing a good job with those kids.”

Lark paused, mostly in shock. “Why, thank you. You might want to tell her yourself. It would mean a lot.” She noticed the red creeping up his neck. “By the way, your granddaughter is one smart little girl. Del said she knows the answers sometimes before the question gets finished.”

Jorgensen almost grinned. “She’s a pistol all right.”

Lark climbed up in her wagon. All the way home, she pondered threshing the wheat. What if she built a wooden frame with slats close together, raised a couple of inches off the ground with a canvas under it, and they all walked on it? She turned the wagon around and headed back to find Jesse at the boardinghouse.

She parked the wagon, tied Starbright to a post, and hailed RJ. “You know where Jesse is?”

“Good mornin’ to you too,” he said with an almost-smile, eliciting an answering smile from her. He sure has changed.

“It sure is. My land, but this building is coming together fast.”

“It takes a good crew, and now we have one.” He looked over her shoulder. “Here comes Jesse now.” After waving the young man over, he turned to answer a question from one of his workers.

Lark greeted Jesse. “Am I ever happy to see you. I have an idea, and only you can help me with it.”

Jesse leaned against her wagon, obviously waiting.

“You know we’re needing to thresh our wheat?” At his nod, she described her idea.

Watching him ponder something always made her marvel. “Patience is a virtue,” her mother had said so often, especially with her eldest daughter. When he took a pencil nub out of his pocket and picked up a piece of wood, she knew he was into the idea.

RJ approached, eyebrow raised. He paused to see what Jesse was drawing, then cocked that eyebrow again at Lark. “When you get done here, come and look at the cabinets Jesse’s been building for the kitchen.”

Lark nodded. How could she take him away from that job to work on another? But usually Jesse did his other woodworking at night.

“We need to build you a shop of your own, Jesse, with tools,” she said.

He glanced at her and snorted.

“Don’t give me that. I’m serious.”

He held out a rough sketch.

She studied the piece of wood. “Generally.” Amazement made her more anxious. “Do you think you could build it in time for us to use this year?” As she spoke the words, she knew the answer.

Jesse matched her shake of the head. “Not with the b-boardinghouse. Next year?”

Lark nodded acquiescence. “Next year.”

They’d go ahead with using a sheet. The oats were ready to be cut too. And the corn was drying. What they had left of the garden produce was ready to haul into the root cellar—at least what they’d not dried or canned or pickled. The replanted beans were growing well, and they prayed daily for a late frost so they’d have beans to can or dry.

“Thanks.” Lark climbed back up on the wagon seat and backed Starbright enough to turn around.

Back home, after letting Starbright out in the field, she joined Lilac at the packed earth spot where they would thresh the wheat. Lilac was hardening a floor similarly to how they’d done it in the sod house, with repeated coats of water and letting it dry, then sprinkling on water again.

Lark told Lilac what she’d learned from Mr. Jorgensen. “I should have brought Robbie and Sofie out. They would enjoy walking on wheat.”

“I think there will be plenty of chances for them to join us,” Lilac said as she sprinkled.

“We’ll toss the grain with a sheet here too. The hard floor will help us avoid missing any fallen grains. We can’t afford that. We’ve got to save every kernel. I showed Jesse an idea I had for the threshing floor, and he figured it out but said there’s no time to build it this year. Next year he’ll have it ready.”

Lilac nodded. “There must be an abundance of ideas popping up. I read the story of Ruth again. They were harvesting wheat. It sounds like the same way we are doing it. Not much progress in these hundreds of years.”

Lark watched her baby sister, amazed as always at how her brain worked and remembered things. Putting puzzles together had always been one of her favorite pastimes. Along with drawing and dreaming and music and animals and . . .