Page 166 of Merry Christmas, You Filthy Animal
“Yes, really,” I answer. “Probably the best cheddar broccoli soup I’ve ever had.”
“You’re not just saying that?”
I shake my head as I eat another spoonful. “No, this shit is good.” I blow through my first bowl, taking it down with ease, not even bothering to use the bread.
She’s on her third spoonful when I get up and help myself to seconds.
She chuckles and asks, “How is your mouth not completely burned?”
“I have a metal mouth,” I say as I ladle more soup into my bowl. I walk back over to the couch, and this time, I take a little more time, allowing the flavors to dance across my tongue rather than inhaling. “How was your day?”
“It was good. I took a long walk around the property, and I noticed what you meant by having to keep your forest clean. I’ve never thought about it before, but there were a lot of broken-down trees and dead logs all over.”
“Yeah, you have to clean those out and make room for the new stuff to grow. At Evergreen, we plant and cut by section, meaning we have split the back property. Each section has a cutting year, where people come in to grab their trees; then we clean out, replant, and move on to the next section. We continuethe process each year. It’s how we can continue to be kind to the land but also provide trees for our visitors.”
“I had no idea. That’s fascinating.”
“I agree,” I say with a smile. I could talk about trees all day.
“When I was on my walk today—which, by the way, was a workout thanks to the snow—I found this little creek toward the back end of the property that I thought would be neat to have a small hiking trail to. It’s maybe half a mile, so a whole mile to and from, but we could have a few benches there or even a picnic table and make it a quiet place for couples to go. It was really peaceful.”
“That’s a really good idea. Will you show me sometime?” I ask.
“I’d love to.”
I break apart a piece of bread and dip it into my soup. “So are you going to add that to the proposal you plan on giving Dwight?”
“Yeah. I took pictures and added them to my presentation today. Not sure what kind of clearing or marking we’re going to have to do for the trail, but I think it’s a good addition to things we could offer.”
“I’d definitely go there if I was staying at your cottages. See anything else fun?”
“Just some birds. I only spotted a few, given it’s winter, but I can only imagine how many varieties there are in summer. It must be stunning. I thought about maybe putting out some bird feeders with cameras, so people can see them up close.”
“Yeah, great idea if you want to attract those murderous bears to your property,” I say with a smirk.
She pauses. “Oh, I didn’t think about that.”
“Yeah, you have to be careful around here with wildlife. We have cameras set up all around the property, and we’re always catching bears skittering across it.”
“Really?” she asks, her eyes widening.
“Yeah. Why do you think I had the crowbar?”
“I just thought you were being your dramatic self.”
“I’m dramatic for a reason,” I tease. “I know about the killer bears out there, and bird feed will bring bears to your cottages in droves. Unless you want to hand out crowbars at check-in, I’d avoid the bird feeders if I were you.”
“I mean, the crowbars might be a fun way to spark some talk about the cottages, a real social media attention grabber, and if we painted them red and white like candy canes... could be a novel idea.”
“And bear attacks will also bring a lot of social media attention.”
She chuckles. “Yeah, might not be the best idea.” She scoops some soup into her mouth and then says, “This is why I need someone like you, to help me sift through things like this. If it were up to me, every cabin would have a bird feeder and probably be attacked by bears nightly while my forest died a slow death from not being cleared out.”
“You can run anything by me. You know I’m here to support you.”
“I appreciate the offer.” She dabs at her face with her napkin. “Not sure how I can repay you.”
“Really?” I ask, my brow raising. “You don’t know how to repay me?”
