Chapter 4

As much as it pleased me that we had found Colonel Montgomery, life had to go on. And I had a load of rice that needed to be taken to market. The only market close enough was the grange hall on Armstrong station. Myself and others that had followed my example and started their own farmsteads would meet at the grange and do our buying and selling.

Outsiders were allowed into the auction pits at the grange and could buy and sell. It could and usually did become loud and frantic as prices were publicly announced and the bidding started. By the end of the day, all bills were paid, and everybody shook hands, usually.

Sometimes there were disputes. Typically, the grange managers would mediate, and things would come to a satisfactory solution. However, there were rare times when the managers couldn’t get everybody to agree. Firearms were prohibited, but most folks did carry various kinds of blades, and there was always the standard Billy club. The grange even had a room that was set aside for those folks needing a more physical but unarmed dispute resolution. These would be to first blood.

But it rarely got to that level. Most times, everyone knew each other. Trust and respect were valued more than anything else. If a buyer offered a set amount and then failed to meet his contract, he might not be ejected from the grange, but nobody would deal with him from that point on. The same was true for the producers. If they were short on their weights or the product wasn’t up to the agreed standard. He would have a chance to make things right. But if he refused, the grange would refuse to handle his produce. In all, it was a stable arrangement that rarely had problems.

At the end of the trading day, most parties would adjourn to the bar. The grange charged its members, both buyers, and sellers monthly dues for the regulars. For the outsiders, they had to pay a hefty one-time entrance fee. And if they wanted to participate, they had to pay a premium. This was used to subsidize the grange operations. In other words, the bar and cafe ran on a cost basis. The auctioneers were grange employees and had to be bonded before they were hired.

Business could be conducted in the bar, but it was frowned on mainly because the grange couldn’t get their cut. But business was still conducted usually for things outside of the auction bill. Things like marriage offers, apprenticeships, and trades were generally done in the bar over a friendly beer or two.

Thad and I had planned on hauling my rice harvest to Armstrong but had been interrupted by the appearance of the Colonel’s ship. When doc Adams announced that his continued survival did not require our presence, we got back to homestead business and hauled the rice crop into the grange.

Rice wasn’t the only product we were bringing in. Several families had their own offerings for the market. And this being an opportunity, several of our of age youngsters were hitching a ride to town. Because we had the cat heavy hauler, we easily handled the extra weight.

After clearance and docking, everybody scattered to their destinations. Thad and I and the others with cargo pods in our train supervised the station handlers in moving our pods to the correct spaces. Once that was done, I headed to the auction pits. Thad had told me that he had other plans and begged off. I knew that he would be bored with the grange, and Armstrong had other attractions for him. He was old enough, and I trusted him to make the right decisions, so I smiled and told him to stay out of trouble and watched him head off to his own objectives.

The auctions went well. I was able to sell all of my rice at a comfortable price. Not too low and not too high. I had also bid on some seed products that we didn’t have. Primarily some mushroom spores that were guaranteed to produce high-quality chanterelle mushrooms. Martha had noticed the last time she was at Armstrong that there wasn’t much of an offering for mushrooms. What was there either as produce or as an ingredient in food offerings was high priced and rare. I was able to secure a package for next to nothing. Usually, this was a red flag, but the seller I was dealing with was well known to me. He supposedly lived on mars and would travel through the belt selling novelties. Like mushroom spores.

I was also able to buy several orders of spice seeds. We already had pepper and the usuals like dill and sage. But we lacked some of the rarer items. I was able to buy an order of thyme seeds and rosemary. I may have spent a bit much, but I knew Martha would be pleasantly surprised, as would the other wives once Martha spread the wealth and issued out the surplus.