They all agreed they did not want to sell all the bars at once. They had several reasons for that but foremost was the tax implication. Of course they now had to worry about how to safeguard their small fortune. Unfortunately for them the company they sold the gold to insisted on reporting the sale to the government so Seth had to pay taxes on his sale. They decided they would try to spread out the sales over several years to reduce taxes. Seth decided to keep his income as near the break point of personal exemptions as possible so it would not even be taxable. He and Tasha had filed the year before as married to make use of all the income exemptions possible.
Seth and the women made another trip to Reno with 17 bars of gold this time. They knew they would have to pay tax on this sale because Seth planned to continue working in town. They wanted the money from that sale however so they could pay for the renovations to their home. Seth decided to bury the remaining bars of gold in the shop under a heavy piece of equipment. They would dig up and sell them as needed. He would think of a more permanent solution later.
After a nice three day stay in the same hotel as before the three young people returned home and went back to work. The third day after they got home Charity came up to Seth and said, “Honey I have an idea of how I can be more help to you here. You remember I told you I grew up on a farm?”
When Seth nodded his head yes Charity continued, “Well Tasha and I were talking about how expensive food is and about our free time. One or both of us could try to find work in town if you want us to but I think at least for now we can help as much or more if we stay out here and take care of things. Anyway, I think we can turn a couple of the older buildings that are in better shape into small barns for animals. I would like to get some chickens to raise for food and eggs. I think there is enough grass in the valley that we could have a milk cow and maybe even raise a couple of steers every year for our beef.
Some of the land near the garden is good enough to raise a little grain we could use to fatten the beef and feed the chickens. I don’t think we could raise enough to do the whole job though. We can cut hay from some of the grass land to get the milk cow through the winter. Please can we take some of our money and get the animals? I know Tasha and I can take care of them and the garden too. I really want to do this Seth.”
Seth thought about Charity’s proposal for a moment then said, “I don’t have a problem with that. If it doesn’t work out we can always sell the animals and if it does we will have some cheaper meat. I’m getting tired of the wild game and fish anyway.”
Charity smiled and walked up to Seth. She gave him a tight hug and deep kiss. She stepped back and looked him in the face for a moment. Her voice broke slightly. She said, “Thank you Honey. You don’t know how much it means to me for you to believe in me like this. I promise we won’t let you down again like we did in the mine.”
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