On the second Saturday in August, Curt delivered the last load of the summer to a riding stable near Seneca.
Eighty bales. When he unloaded the last one into the stable’s barn, the owner, a woman named Patrice, wrote him a check.
When Curt got home, he set the check on the kitchen table in front of me and said, “That’s it. Last one.”
I opened the HAYLINER ledger and counted, the way I count everything.
Two thousand bales sold. Not one left in the pole barn.
Two thousand bales at $9 each: $18,000. Plus $1,460 in delivery fees Curt had collected.
Then I added up the expenses, line by line, on a fresh page.
Retta’s twenty-five percent of the hay sales came to $4,500. Parts for the baler, $640, plus the twine knife, $34. Fourteen bales of baler twine at $38 each, $532. Diesel fuel for Cordell’s tractor, $980. Oil and filters for Cordell’s tractor, $86. A new sickle section for Brock’s mower after I hit a rock, $45. The hay lease from Mrs. Ochsner, $175. The insurance endorsement, $186. The boys’ wages, $4,550. The baler itself, $300.
Total expenses: $12,028.
Total income: $19,460.
Net: $7,432.
Marv Pettit said I’d report it on a Schedule F on our tax return, as farm income, and that I’d owe self-employment tax on the profit. “Set aside about twenty-five percent for taxes, Jana,” he said. “And keep that ledger forever. If the IRS ever asks, that notebook will make you look like a genius.”
I set aside $1,900 in a separate savings account for taxes.
That left $5,532 and one pink baler that worked.
I sat at the kitchen table that night after everyone went to bed and looked at the last page of the ledger.
Then I picked up my phone and called Prairie View.
“This is Jana Lindeman, Arvid’s granddaughter,” I said to the night nurse. “I’d like to sign him out on Saturday afternoon. For a few hours.”
“Of course. Is it a special occasion?”
“Yes,” I said. “It is.”
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