Hometown Monday - Bart Bevins, the man who farmed The Homeplace

Hometown Monday

Bart Bevins, the man who farmed The Homeplace

[Image Credit: http://www.sheknows.com/living/articles/985133/spring-clean-your-finances]

This is the third of an expected irregular series of posts of excerpts from the novels, novellas, and short stories of "The Homeplace Series" Family Saga story-telling, to provide an insight into the story lines that may not be clear from other promotional pieces about "The Homeplace Series." These will also be coordinated with the content of the developmental Wiki, "Beyond the Books" - to expand the information available there, as well.

The following excerpt from "Back to the Homeplace" is from Tuesday, March, 1987, Chapter 7:

            “I had a real good talk with George Chambers, Bart. He mentioned that you might still be using what he called: “the Workbooks” and that I might want to talk with you about them. He said it might be a good way for me to pick up ideas on how things had been handled on the farm, over the years.” Jason was sharing a break in the morning work routine with Bart, in Bart’s kitchen.

            “Well, I suppose he would be right. Except, I haven’t done a real good job of keeping entries posted in the Crop Workbooks. Seems something that appears more important at the time always comes up about the time I want to make the entries. Actually, Jennifer has been doing the Cow/Calf Workbook and the Horse Workbook. She started the Cow/Calf in 4-H, then started doing the Horse Workbook for an FFA project. She seems to enjoy it, too!” Bart shook his head. “The information is all there, I do keep notes on everything; I have just fallen way behind on posting the Crop Workbook.” Bart got up, went over to a nearby shelf, and returned with a set of journals, and a box of loose papers; sitting them on the table.

            “You do have a lot of information there, it does appear.” Jason wanted to grab them out of Bart’s hands and start reading, but attempted to remain patient. “Would you mind if looked over some of that information? It would really be interesting for me. I do miss my financial planning business paperwork, I must admit!”

            “I can’t imagine “missing paperwork,” Bart replied, “that is a concept that does not compute in my brain. I loved the Real Estate business, except for the paperwork!” That brought chuckles from both. “You are welcome to look all you want; you can even record the entries, if you want… if you miss that part, too. You can follow what we were doing in the older books there.”

            “Do you mean it? I’d love to work on it! That would be the best way to learn… read the early ones, make the entries in the new ones.” Jason thumbed through the first journal Bart had handed him. “You are the expert, though. I will have a lot of questions.”

“I’ll be happy to answer any questions. I do know what I did, that is for sure. I can even interpret some of the notes. They are pretty good… but sometimes I do get in too big a hurry.” Bart pushed the rest of the collection toward Jason, along the tabletop.

*****

For 'the rest of the story' read the book:

"May each of us have a Homeplace to hold onto, if only in our minds."

Bill  ;-)