Rome - 25. Chapter 25

Life on the Villa seemed to follow the previous years, the animal sheds now represented a significant construction project, or so it seemed. My hunters were bringing back live animals. We now added deer to our Villa. They captured a young deer, Curzio took care of it, feeding it whey from when we made cheese. I wondered what they were going to do with it when it was full grown. Being a male, it will not be complacent about being in one of the animal cages.

“Aumen, have you been to the animal sheds recently?”

“No, I haven’t. Let’s go and check how the boys are doing.”

Walking toward the sheds, “I don’t remember having these many sheds.”

“I think I heard boys talking about making the sheep and goat sheds larger. Maybe that is what we are seeing.” “

There’s Nour, let’s ask him to show us around.”

“Nour, we haven’t been here for a long time and I see you have expanded.”

“Yes, Sir. The sheep shed has been doubled in size, we have a quite a few sheep.” I looked and remembered I started with three sheep.

“Nour, how many sheep do we have?”

“Not counting the ones who will birth in a month, we have one ram and sixteen sheep.”

Aumen started to laugh. “Will have a good amount of wool this year.”

“I wonder if I can pay someone to make cloth out of it for us.”

“Ask your grandfather, the one who gave us the three sheep.”

I looked at Nour, these boys were smart. “What else has caused the expansion of the sheds?”

“The goats are doing well. We have eight that we milk twice a day. One will deliver soon. If it’s male, you can sacrifice it our lord Apollo.”

Aumen looked at me and smiled.

“Didn’t we have rabbits?”

Nour smiled, “Those are Curzio’s pets.”

“There’s Curzio, let’s go and check the rabbit shed.”

“Curzio, I didn’t expect to see this large shed for a few rabbits.”

He started to laugh, “They multiply faster then any other animals. I separate the males. Those are the ones we offer to Apollo, I keep two males. The rest are separated from the group.”

“How many do you have now?”

“I have twenty males, and six are very young.”

“What other animals do we have, besides the pair of geese and guinea fowls?”

“Well, the pair of geese are now eight. We would have more. I’ve taken eggs to Felix. Guinea fowls, we would have more but we been eating them. I have twenty-four in the sheds now.”

Smiling, what else do you have?”

“We have eight pheasants.”

“Where did they come from?”

“Seth brought the eggs back from a hunting trip. I put them with the chickens. When they hatched, a built a separate shed for them.”

“Anything else our hunters brought back?”

“They were trying to catch a boar, so I think we will have one or two soon.” “

Where are you going to put them in with the pigs?”

“Yes, if they are small and momma has milk, hopefully, she will feed them.”

“Let’s see how many pigs we have?”

We walked to the pig shed. “Curzio, this is the largest shed. How many pigs do we have?”

He smiled, “We have thirty pigs, and I think I will have more soon.”

“Lucinius, do you want to see the chicken shed.”

“Yes, and any other sheds we haven’t seen." Walking to the chicken shed, “The pig sheds are larger, but the number of chickens is unbelievable. How many chickens do you have here?”

“The last count, which was two months ago, was eighty. We were not able to get all of the eggs, and those mother hens can be nasty.”

Walking back to the house, “Aumen, we need to reconsider the number of animals we have. Maybe we should take some to market.”

“We can do that, but before we start, let’s see what the other vendors are selling and what they are asking.”

“I wonder if my grandfather would like some meat. The next time I see him, I’ll ask.”

“What about your father?”

“I don’t know, I’ll ask Duccius. He’ll probably want to go hunting.”

“Since we are walking, let’s check the grapevines, we should be getting enough grapes to make wine.”

“Let’s walk through the grove and check on the fruit trees. You know, one tree I don’t have that my grandfather has, is a walnut tree. I like to use the shells for my scrolls. It is better than the back ink.”

“Do you think we could grow a tree from the nut?”

“Probably, it would take years to be mature enough to provide nuts.”

“Maybe you can check at the market. You might see a tree to buy or at least the nuts so you can make your ink.”

“Yes, that’s a good idea. We really haven’t spent much time at the market. Generally, we go and get what we need and then leave. We should look around. It’ll give us some ideas.”

“I think next year we’ll have enough grapes to make wine.”

“It’s too bad your grapes aren’t sweet; there are enough to press.”

“Maybe we should press them. It’ll give us some experience with that small press. I’ll bet Felix will use the juice.”

“Let’s plan on doing that. Ask the boys to pick those grapes when they have the time.”

Waking back to the house, we stopped and looked over the garden area. “Looks like we’ll have a good crop of wheat and oats this year.”

“Whose idea was it to switch fields?”

“I’m not sure. I think it was one of the older boys.”

“Well it was a good idea. We’ll do the same thing next year.”

“Those vegetables are doing well. Why is this area planted like this?”

“This is the seed plot. Some of the vegetables, like cabbage, will sprout back from the root, but some of them need seed. This is what this area is used for. We let the vegetable grow and then go to seed. Watch, and you will start seeing cloth wrapped around the plant to catch the seeds.”

"With all of this, why don’t we have bees to make our honey.”

“You need plants that will attract them. We don’t grow those plants. But I wonder if the boys see any bees in the woods. If you see any of the hunters, ask them, and I will also.”