Podcasts about Green Meadows

children seuss burgess west wind green forest day mother world read aloud day green meadows

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 28, 2023 25:00

Every year I do some reading in honor of World Read Aloud Day. It's every March 2nd in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday. Sometimes I do something Laura specific, but lately I've been doing Mother West Wind's Children by Thorton W. Burgess. For awhile I was doing short episodes as I tested various microphones, but today's is going to be my standard equipment. Learn more about Burgess and find a list of links to the other stories. Today we're doing "Why Peter Rabbit's Ears Are Long."

Life As A New Hire: part 19

Steamy Stories Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 5, 2022

Being known by the company you keep.By FinalStand. Listen and subscribe to the podcast at Steamy Stories.Life exists in both seconds and years. Don’t ignore one for the other.I would like to thank the phone operator and Chief of the Burnham, Illinois Police Department for answering my questions, despite their bizarre nature.(Monday Night)I should have known to not have too good a time. My karma was wacky enough as it was. It was about to get worse in a way I should have foreseen. Ain’t hindsight grand?Inside of five seconds I knew how much sharing Libra and Brooke did; a lot. On the plus side, it gave me some wiggle room with Libra where sex with Brooke was concerned. On the super-plus side, Brooke was looking forward to ratcheting up our sex play. I took her to Libra’s experiences with all the extra bells and whistles.In this case it meant adding a blindfold and ball-gag to the hand restraints. Brooke handed me a high level of trust unexpected at this early moment in our sexcapade. With a quick empathic insight, I pulled her ball-gag down as her orgasm erupted. She rejoiced in the sound of her rapture echoing around my bedroom.I deceived her into her next climax by whispering a promise to release her then hammering her instead. The whole specter of powerlessness tore her up inside. Best of all, even as she spasmed beneath me, I released her cuffs then pulled up her mask. Her fingernails dug into my trapezius muscles. For over a minute, she clung to me with a deep hunger to feel my heat and sweat against her body.“My turn,” she rasped. I pressed my shoulders and head up so I could look into her eyes. She was waiting for this opportunity since she’d talked with Libra. Without question, she’d never been tied down before, or tied a man down and had her way with him. She’d manipulated men most of her life; that was old hat.This was primal, physical and forbidden. She was taking complete control of my person. God, I thought she’d orgasmed when she finished cuffing me to the headboard. Taunting, teasing and hot body contact followed as she put the ball-gag in. Sizzling lips sealed my fate as the blindfold was slipped in place.Having invested so much time using all my senses soaking up the hungry beast that Brooke possessed right beneath her urbane surface, losing my eyesight wasn’t a major drawback. For Brooke, this had all the benefits of anonymous sex in a blacked-out room with the bonus of her having the lights on for her use alone. My bet was she had studied stuff on-line.From being sure she wasn’t going to have sex with me when she first met, she had graduated to running naked across my living room for what turned out to be lemon slices. The ‘fumph’ of the Nerf gun made me assume Timothy shot her in the buttocks as she raced into my room. By the yip from Brooke, I knew Timothy’s aim remained frighteningly accurate.Lemon juice and cuts don’t mix, or, Brooke enjoyed watching my body jolt as said juice interacted with said 'workplace’ mistakes. Was I angry? Nah. Every hiss of pain was followed by lavished kisses, licks and hair lashings. I loved her long black hair draped over my body, flicked around whisk-like and tickling my nose.Brooke was learning my keystone technique; figure out what your partner wants and give them a quick sample. Don’t use any one thing too much; make it a treat and they’ll appreciate the taste they get even more. When Brooke finally sated us both, it was my turn again. We talked a while. She invited me to a friend’s place in the Hamptons which suggested to me the destination was more than some made-up place on TV.I promised to think about it. Brooke took that to mean she needed to work harder to convince me. I honestly had little desire to be trotted around as Brooke’s boy toy. Hoping that wouldn’t be the case relied a lot on faith. I wasn’t sure what I would have in common with any of that crowd, which guided me back to being a stuck up snob for treating a people as a social class and not as human beings.I took out my social anxiety on Brooke. Poor girl; three holes, ten positions and I’m not sure how many times I took her from frenzied peak to frenzied peak. All I knew was when she’d passed all points of previous primeval ecstasy, I finally released her. Brooke curled into a semi-fetal ball and began burrowing into me.“Happy?” I asked as I stroked her sweat-drenched hair. She nodded happily against my chest. “Are you glad you came over?” I continued. Brooke bit me because she knew I was teasing her. “Ow,” I grumbled. “I think we have a misunderstanding who is whose sex toy here.”“Do I need to bite you again?” Brooke mumbled into my chest.“Point taken,” I conceded. Brooke snuggled in even tighter. We wrestled out of bed, stumbled into the shower and took some time off with Timothy. He looked at us and smirked.“Cáel is going to be my boyfriend,” Brooke tossed out there. Huh?“What in God’s green earth makes you want to do that?” Timothy chuckled.“He’s been there when I needed him. Cáel is a real man and it has taken me having a really tough spill to realize that it doesn’t matter which alumni your Daddy belongs to, but what you put on the line for your friends that really matters,” Brooke enlightened us both.“Seriously Dude,” Timothy looked at me with pity.“Cut down on the awesome dicking until somehow polygamy becomes legal,” he added, but then, “Brooke, you know he’s seeing about a dozen different ladies, right?”“Cáel is looking for a serious relationship,” Brooke insisted. Timothy chortled because he knew the likelihood of me settling down was right up there with us sharing a White Christmas in the Bahamas.“Let’s go back to bed, Babe,” I redirected things to safer waters. “It is your turn to be on top.” Brooke, wearing one of my fresh t-shirts and nothing else, hopped off the sofa and let me lead her back to the bedroom for another round of 'not thinking about any other part of my fucked up life except the beautiful woman with me right now’ sex.Twenty minutes later, Brooke had encased my rod in her wanton elixirs, was gyrating her hips as she stroked my rod inside her vagina while keeping me bound, blind and muffled. My phone rang.“Should I get that?” Brooke teased me. She moved enough to seize my cellular device.“The number is unlisted,” she mused. “Who could it be?” I gave a muffled response. She removed the ball-gag enough for me to speak.“Work,” I repeated. “It might be work. I’m on-call 24/7.”“Damn,” Brooke undoubtedly pouted (still blindfolded). She answered the call then placed the phone to my ear.“Cáel, a Security Detail detachment is on their way to your quarters as we speak. You will recognized the code they will use,” Katrina’s icy calm voice informed me.“Katrina, what is wrong?” I inquired. Normally, I wouldn’t get an answer. Katrina’s tone made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.“There has been an incident at your Father’s home in Chicago. We do not have clear intelligence at this time. I may have more when you get in,” she related.“Understood,” I replied. My passionate storm abated and I felt empty inside. Dad.“Cáel?” Brooke sounded worried.“We need to get dressed,” I murmured. I had to let Timothy know something was truly wrong. I needed to get Brooke home safely. I…I needed to know more than I did right then. Brooke uncuffed me quickly. I barely had my boxers on when there was a light series of raps on the door. I sprang up, opened my bedroom door, surprising Odette.She must have come back to work a few minutes earlier and was unwinding with some low-volume TV and some sofa time. Timothy was asleep already.“Odette, go back to Timothy’s room and warn him something bad may have happened. Go!” I warned. Odette scampered back. Brooke was at my back, trying to move into the main room.“Brooke, stay here. If something unusual happens, hide in the bedroom and don’t come out until the police get here. Do you understand?” I met her confusion with an iron stare. She nodded. There was another, more insistent, rapping at my apartment door. I crept up to the portal and gave a counter-knock.“Crab Fisher-woman,” a female voice said from the other side.“My Father’s Sister,” I responded. It was an imperfect code, but effective given the circumstances. I double checked through the spy hole, unlocked the door and let three SD Amazons inside. How bad was it? I doubted these ladies would know more than I did.“[OKH] Ishara,” the leader said, “we have orders to escort you to Havenstone immediately.”They weren’t blindly expecting me to follow instructions. They had a directive they were following to the best of their ability.“[OKH] Will a team be watching my domicile?” I asked. The leader nodded. “We need to take a female I have been with tonight to her dwelling before going on to Havenstone.”The SD team leader nodded again. There was no condescension, or argument. They were following orders as if it was my right to issue them. That was how bad things were. Time to get back to English.“Brooke, finish getting dressed. I’m taking you home,” I called out.Quite frankly, along with my desire to see Brooke back home safely was my instinct to not split up my guardians. Better a longer trip than two smaller, more vulnerable groups. I was in the process of getting dressed in the living room when Timothy and Odette came out.“Bro?” Timothy asked.“My Father’s home was attacked. I have no other details right now,” I explained with a sinking feeling in my heart. Timothy read my soul, came up and engulfed me in his mighty arms. Odette added herself to the heart-felt love-pile.“Do you want me to take Odette and head back to Queens for a while?” Timothy asked.He sensed we had limited time.“They,” and by 'they’ he knew I meant Havenstone, “will have a team watching this place. There are not enough resources to go back and forth to work. I wish I could tell what would keep you safe, but I don’t know anymore.”“We’ll stay put,” Timothy declared. Odette nodded. “We’ll be here for you when you get back. If any of these psycho-broads want to stop by from time to time, I won’t say no.” I shot a look to the security team leader and she gave a curt 'okay’.“You’ll need an overnight bag!” Odette squeaked. Off she went.Brooke finished getting dressed and came to my side. To your average Lothario, what she did might seem odd. To me, it was the normal refrain; Brooke shoved her panties into my jean’s pocket. That was a not so subtle 'Call Me’ for when I got back.“Three minutes, Ish; Cáel,” the leader updated me.My amateur guess was this was the team from across the street. They had back-up vehicles and personnel streaking down from Havenstone to provide extra security for my move.“Velma,” she gave me her name. A quick description was in order. The three Amazons all had Bluetooth devices, shooting glasses and steel-gray long coats that had to be uncomfortable in this upper seventies evening heat.Underneath, they had on light ballistic body armor on their torsos, arms, and legs. Even their dull grey, all-terrain boots looked armored. They had a hip holstered sidearm, most likely a back-up pistol at the small of their backs and a deadly blade, or three. Their main deterrence was their H&K UMP-40; my second favorite Amazon killing device.Timothy snuck off to get my toiletries, returning around the same time Odette trundled out with an overnight (or three) bag. There was a final round of hugs then Velma indicated it was time to leave. The fourth member of the team was stationed at the top of the third floor stairs. That gave her a good view of my hallway as well as the passage going up and down.Two SD’s to the front, Velma and the fourth watching our backs and Brooke caught between giddy and freaking terrified. Things got even more exciting when we hit the bottom of the stairs. Two more ladies were waiting. They put a trench coat on Brooke and she nearly collapsed. The freed up Amazon took my bag while the second put a trench coat on me.I grunted as well. This bitch had to weigh 25 kg. That was some serious ballistic and blast protection. The closest newcomer began attaching my pistol with hip holster on my side while Brooke was 'buttoned up’. I was slipped a few spare clips then was buttoned up as well.“I’m not sure I can walk in this thing,” Brooke gave me a weak smile.“Don’t worry,” I smiled, “I’ll carry you.” I slipped my arm around Brooke’s waist and, on Velma’s signal, we rushed out to the middle of three Mercedes Armored GL550s. The doors had barely shut before we were racing away from my favorite home. I walked Brooke up to her apartment, we hugged, kissed and she insisted I go to the Hamptons with her this weekend.I left with that promise unanswered. I didn’t ask the Security Detail to do anything else outrageous and they didn’t give me any crap about Brooke. Their vigilance didn’t end at Havenstone either. No; they formed a tight knot of outward hostility until we marched into Katrina’s office. Even then, they spread out over the Executive Services offices as an extended perimeter.Katrina’s office was another step up on the unsettling meter. It was Katrina, Saint Marie, Buffy, Helena, and a woman I didn’t know yet seemed to belong.“Excuse me?” Saint Marie shot a hostile look my way; actually right behind me.“Don’t mind me,” Pamela snorted. She was in the process of sneaking into the room.“I’m here for moral support,” she concluded then took a seat.“Cáel?” Katrina queried, as if I could somehow exile Pamela from the room.“What’s going on?” I began the meeting instead.“Your Father is dead,” Katrina reported. If someone ever asked me what it felt like to have an arm cut off, I could truthfully answer them 'Yes’. Dad.“From what we have been able to gather from the video and audio gear the four Amazon Security Detail team assigned to watch over him transmitted, the team was setting up a perimeter when three vehicles with ten men stopped on the juncture of Janus and Kerr streets and approached the house. The team leader made formal recognition and was attacked,” Katrina told me.“Are they okay?” I mumbled. I didn’t want to know how my Dad died. Had he been in pain? Which side had killed him? Would knowing make a damn bit of difference?“Three of the four members were killed,” Saint Marie interjected. “The team commander was killed instantly. The second died defending that corner of your Father’s domicile.The third member was killed attempting to rescue your Father. The surviving member stopped the enemy from escaping with your Father’s body, but was too badly injured to extricate herself and is now in police custody.”“What are we going to do about this?” I inquired. Pamela was a lying bitch.She’d lied to Brianna because the truth would have gotten me and Dad killed. Dad had still died, but Pamela had kept me alive.“There is nothing we can do,” the stranger spoke up. “Troika of House Šauška.”“You are joking, right?” I stared at her.“He was a male, not of…” Troika began to state.“You do know your Amazon law, correct?” I countered. She gave a curt tilt of the head. “Recount the means of succession to the Head of a House then please explain to the room how my Father, the descendant of Vranus, fits into all that.”Cha-ching!“Oh, by the Seven Goddesses!” Saint Marie jumped up. “They murdered the Head of House Ishara!” Katrina was already back on top; ahead of the game.“But what does that make him?” Troika pointed at me.“It confirms him as the Head of House Ishara. We can sugar-coat it and say Cáel, being the only 'active’ member of Havenstone 'represented’ the Head of House Ishara. By our traditions though, Ferko Nyilas was the lawful head of a 'First’ House. Certainly four days were not enough time to settle the manner in an acceptable way,” Katrina said.“At the very least, House Ishara would have been given 28 days to resolve any matters of succession internally,” Katrina pointed out. “There was no deception. Cáel worked for Havenstone, so was our active member. The existence of his Father was known. It is in his basic file. It was highly unlikely that ANY House wanted to bring another male into the mix so the matter of his ascension was left unquestioned.”“This is Casus Belli,” Troika stood up and declared in a firm voice. “I will inform Hayden. We must know the perpetrators of this act, Katrina. I will prepare to relate this breach of the Protocols to the other Signatories.”“To make sure I have this straight, I can defend any member of my family, no matter who they are, without violating the Protocols?” I questioned. “Can I kill them?”“That is correct,” Troika appeared confused. “Other Signatories cannot harm, or detain your family in any way.” I gave a bitter, hollow laugh. Dad…Dad wouldn’t have understood, but Mom would have, no doubt.“Troika…hell, everyone but Pamela and Katrina, I am Cáel Nyilas, grandson of THE Cáel O'Shea and those people who murdered my Dad very well may have been my family,” I felt like crying.That was good because I was crying. I had talked to Dad early Monday morning. I had been so nervous about not leaving any trace of Mom behind that I couldn’t recall if I said 'I love you’ to him. I’d never get the chance to make up for that oversight. As I began to take in the faces around me, I realized Ishara had gifted me with a respite. No one else knew who Cáel O'Shea was; yet.“Troika,” I started out. I could tell she was still having difficulty with the 'Man as someone worthy of stating an opinion’ moment. “When the Council decides that the Illuminati have breached the Protocols, do I have a deciding vote on what we do; since Dad was my family?”“No,” Troika clarified, “and what makes you think it was the Illuminati?” Pamela laughed at her.“Because I killed Cáel’s Grandfather when that man was head of the Illuminati; slit his throat and rendered him incapable of resuscitation. The rest of that twisted clan have only now discovered that there is a successor, genetically, to the Old Man and you are looking at him,” Pamela related in an amused tone.“Perhaps; just perhaps; they were interested in what happened to Cáel’s Mother and the man she mated with to produce Cáel…who also happened to be the Head of House Ishara and now leaves this man (me) as the last of his kind; coming and going,” Pamela finished, “for both the Amazons and the O'Shea family/the Illuminati.”Troika was having problems fitting all the puzzle pieces. Saint Marie cut to the heart of the matter because she listens to me.“If you go to war against the O'Shea’s you are being forced to fight your own family,” the Golden Mare stared at me in shock.“Let me get this straight,” Troika stood up, waving for silence. “When the O'Shea’s killed Ferko Nyilas, they murdered the Head of a First House. They also murdered a member of their own family by way of marriage.” She seemed totally flummoxed. Everyone agreed about how fucked up everything was. Breach? No Breach?“Welcome to life working with Cáel Nyilas,” Katrina declared. There was a pause.“I’ll let the professionals figure out the finer points of diplomacy. I have to go,” I said.“Were do you think you are going?” Buffy popped up. Until this moment, she’d had no role in affairs. My safety though…“I am going home to bury my Father, Buffy,” I announced. This was not a discussion.“Shouldn’t we take his body to the cliffs?” Troika suggested.“My Father will face the Afterlife with my Mother at his side. It was his wish and I’m not going to start dictating to my Ancestors now,” I sighed.I was trying to make light of my pain. By the looks on their faces, I was failing. I had barely exited the office, Buffy, Helena and Pamela in tow. The security team was closing in and my phone rang.“Cáel Nyilas,” I answered sadly.“Mr. Nyilas, this is Investigator Brewster of the Burnham Police Department. I need a few moments of your time,” a man’s voice requested. I hesitated. I looked at my watch.“Yes…Dad?” I finally spoke.“Mr. Nyilas, your father seems to have been murdered late this evening in a bungled attempted burglary,” he lied. It was a good lie.If he really believed a bungled robbery consisted of two heavily armed groups shooting a small residential home to pieces he was…nah, he was lying.“I’m on the next flight to Chicago,” was the response I chose. I had so many 'loser’ replies to choose from.“That would be helpful, Mr. Nyilas,” he told me. “Do you know when I can expect you?”“Ah…I have no idea when the next plane from New York to Chicago is, but if I can buy a ticket on it, I’m there,” I countered. Admittedly, me having a plane ticket for home would have been damn suspicious.“One last thing, Mr. Nyilas, do you have any idea why someone would want to murder your father? Anything you could tell us could be of great assistance,” he pressed.“Yes, I have a clue who murdered my Father and I’ll point you to the dead bodies when I’m done,” I snapped; quite literally and mentally snapped. Pause.“Mr. Nyilas, I understand you are upset, but do not do anything rash. Now, could your father have been murdered for anything you might have done, or are doing?” Det. Brewster kept is game face on.“We’ll have this chat when I get to Chicago. Until then, take care,” I said before hanging up.“Smooth,” Pamela gently chastised me.“I actually liked him going all 'Mafia Don’ on that cop,” Buffy countered.“I’ll arrange for Havenstone to get us transportation to Chicago,” Helena added.“No,” I countermanded her. “You two stay here and finish up business. Join me late Tuesday night, or early Wednesday morning.”By the looks Buffy and Helena gave me they were surprised…and proud. I was keeping to my 'Runner’ induction time table. My family would not be diminished by this tragedy. It would grow. Come Wednesday morning, we would add twenty new voices to Ishara’s war cry.“I’ll take the first commercial flight available,” I continued.“We cannot protect you on a civilian aircraft, Ishara,” Velma warned me.“They; the authorities are expecting me to show up at O'Hare, so I’m showing up at O'Hare, like a normal person,” I reminded her. “I’ll also need to know at what hospital they are keeping our sister.” Our sister; the sole surviving Amazon who nearly gave her life for Dad.The SD picked up on that immediately. Another leap had been made. I wasn’t a masculine monster, raging against a female warrior who had failed. By the tone of my voice, they knew I was in grief yet not overcome by it. She was the last member of the Host to see my Father alive and she might hold the closure I needed.“It will be done,” Velma decided. “We will have your team meet you at O'Hare.”“My team?” I asked.“Rachel; her team,” Velma clarified. That was enough good for me.“Oh, and get Pamela a ticket as well. I’d hate to have her mug another passenger and take theirs,” I sighed. Pamela patted me on the back; an 'atta boy’.(Monday Noon)(The hospital)That was not the first time I wondered about how fatal Pamela had been in her prime. In fact, I wasn’t sure that post-60 wasn’t her best time yet. The only mistake the police officer guarding the Amazon’s hospital room made was to sit in a chair. Pamela had long ago mastered the peon-craft that Rosetta had started to teach me.The policeman looked up, stared right through her then looked the other way. His gaze never swept back in my direction. She jabbed him quickly underneath both arms, paralyzing them for a few seconds. That was all she needed. Hers hand clamped over his eyes and on his throat, cutting off the blood flow to the brain before his hands could recover.He appeared to the outside world to have taken a nap. According to Pamela, we had roughly three minutes before he came around. Pamela kept walking down the hall as if nothing happened. I came ten steps behind, guarded by a gun-less Rachel as I entered the Intensive Care Unit. A few of the staff looked our way, but no one impeded our progress.According to the Duty Nurse, the Amazon had exited surgery barely an hour ago. Her eyes opened to slits as I approached her beside.“We stand before the Eye of the World,” I whispered. That meant surveillance. “I cannot tell you what is in my heart. My name is Cáel Nyilas. Does that name mean anything to you?”Her hand flopped. I put two fingers into her feeble gasp. One squeeze; yes. “I am grateful for your prowess and I share in your sorrow for those who will no longer fight in this life. Please heal and grow strong for this is the start, not the finish,” I completed. She squeezed my fingers once more. I stepped aside, letting Rachel take my place.They didn’t exchange words but communicated volumes. We slipped out of the room while the guard was still groggy. Pamela was nowhere to be seen. That proved to be pre-sentient when a group of people with the propensity to flash IDs caught up to me at the ground floor.Had the backdrop of this fiasco not been the death of my Father, I might have enjoyed the twitching/counter-twitching going on between Rachel, who desperately wanted any one of her guns, and the cops who were picking up on that desire.“Mr. Nyilas, I am…” and the introductions came pouring in.I had Theodora Chumwell and Brock Miklos, Special Agents of the FBI, John Rios, Special Agent with the ATF, Investigator Horace Brewster from the Burnham PD and Homicide Detective Lisa Capella from the Chicago PD.“We would like to talk with you,” Theodora took charge.“Can I ask a question first?” I raised my hand. That appeared to set them off their game plan.“Of course,” Theodora allowed.“Okay; FBI, ATF, a homicide detective from Chicago and the only law enforcement official who has any business being here,” I finished with Brewster.“I may not be a Rhodes Scholar, but this seems a bit extreme for the burglary/murder of a long-time employee of Illinois Power and Light. Does anyone care to fill me on what the hell is going on?” I looked over the group. “Oh, and thank you Investigator Brewster for your call. I know I didn’t take the news well.”“Was that the part where you said you would point to the dead bodies?” Theodora took charge.“Yes, I think that was the gaff I was referring to,” I agreed.“Why are you here, Mr. Nyilas?” Lisa Capella jumped in. She had decided to not go along with the FBI playbook.“I came to see the woman found alive in my family home,” I replied smoothly.“She is probably still in surgery,” Lisa gave a twist of the lips; sex.“Oh, she got out an hour ago,” I enlightened them.“Let’s take this conversation to FBI Headquarters,” Theodora 'suggested’; you know, in the way that really wasn’t a suggestion.“Have you gone to see that woman?” Lisa wouldn’t let up; good for her. It was upsetting Theodora and I’d already decided that Brewster was my go-to guy on this investigation.“Yes,” I responded to Lisa.“Isn’t she under police protection?” Lisa and Theodora blurted out together.“There was a policeman at her door,” I shrugged. “We went in and I talked to her.”“What did she say?” Theodora brushed Lisa aside.“Nothing. She had one of those tubes down her throat. Whatever I said…well, I was emotional,” I evaded. “She was barely conscious.”Lisa was urgently contacting her guy who was supposed to be watching the only person in custody they had. He claimed to have 'blacked out’. He couldn’t remember anyone coming in to see the woman and swore he hadn’t been unconscious for any length of time. He went in, checked up on the Amazon and she was fine; for someone who had been shot six times.“We should go to the FBI offices,” Theodora repeated.“I’m going home,” I sighed sadly. “I want to go home.”“It is still an active crime scene,” John told me. “There won’t be any civilian access for some time.” Translation: until they decided to give me the carrot instead of the stick.“Please, come with us,” FBI Special Agent Brock added his weight.“No. I’m going with Burnham PD,” I countered. “You can find me there.”“That’s not how it works,” Theodora upped her authority meter. Lisa had fallen back, trying to take in the bigger picture.Brewster was clearly trying to recall if he had ANY history with me, or my Dad, that would make me trust him over the others.“I may be a liberal arts major from northern New England, but I know how a larynx works,” I regarded Theodora. “Unless I choose to make a sound, it does nothing. Nothing is about to be all we have left to do and say.”“Don’t you want to help solve your Father’s murder?” Brock tried to sound both sympathetic and threatening at the same time. I was suddenly bombarded with the taste of Lime Sherbet and Jalapenos Ice Cream.“Really? Fine; I’m going to hang out with the only person in this room I know is working on my Father’s murder, not on their career,” I reposed.“We are all trying to…” Lisa got out.“You maybe,” I gave Lisa that much. “My Father made around $70,000 a year after twenty-six years for Illinois P&L. He had almost paid off the colossal debt built up by my Mother’s illness and my college expenses.”“As far as I know, he took out one loan his entire life; from a bank; and he paid it off,” I continued. “He was a lapsed Catholic, a member of the IBEW; Local 9, and he jogged. He barely used e-mail and had no close friends I am aware of. The only woman he loved was my Mother and he mourned her to the day he died.”“What about your activity?” Theodora inquired. We weren’t running off to her playground; yet. Handcuffing a grieving son would look bad and, by my attitude, wouldn’t make me talkative in the least.“I have the unfortunate habit of sleeping with every woman I meet,” I began.“So that’s over 200 erotic encounters. I get annoyed with people throwing their weight around,” I continued, “which is why you and I are getting off on the wrong foot, Special Agent Theodora Chumwell. I work for Havenstone Commercial Investments, getting paid an insane amount to fetch laundry and keep secrets. Good enough?”“No, it is not…” Theodora simmered.“How did you know about the existence of the woman upstairs and how did you know to come here?” Lisa interrupted.“I grew up in that house, know the neighbors and know this is the closest EMS center to home,” I lied convincingly.“Who are you?” Brewster decided that I wasn’t exiting the hospital gracefully so turned on Rachel. She didn’t speak, choosing to be creepy and brandishing a wallet instead. I kept forgetting that most full-blooded Amazons had minimal socialization with outsiders. Having graduated elementary school, everyone else knew this was a bizarre reaction.“Rachel Louis,” Brewster read off the license in the wallet. A normal person would have acknowledged that somehow; not Rachel. “You are Rachel Louis, aren’t you?”“Yes, she is,” I intervened. “Rachel is a co-worker at Havenstone and she is misanthropic misandrist.”There was a pregnant pause. The confusion wasn’t with 'misanthropic’. It was a grown-up word in usage with colorful police-types. It was 'misandrist’ that had them stumped.“Rachel is an unsociable man-hater,” I explained. “Standing at my side in this hospital is ten kinds of Hell for her.”“What kind of piece do you normal carry?” Rios asked her. Unsocial didn’t mean stupid.“I use a Glock-22 and Rachel carries a STI Perfect 10,” I answered. “We have been experiencing quite a gopher problem around the office.” I could have done better; I should have done better. I was just too tired inside to create an inventive lie.“Do have gun licenses for those weapons?” Mr. ATF kept prodding at our cover story.“It seems Ms. Louis; is it Ms. Ms. Louis?” Brewster continued. I flashed Rachel a look which she interpreted correctly.“Yes, my name is Ms. Rachel Louis,” Rachel replied. To me, “I find this distraction to be annoying. We should go.”“It would seem Ms. Louis has all kinds of…” Brewster got out before Rachel snatched the wallet from his grip with the speed of a Peregrine Falcon. Brewster had this stunned look familiar to crows, doves and starlings the world over as one of their kin passed into the next life in a flash. A combination of 'No you didn’t!’ with 'what the flock?’“Ah…” Brewster got out.“On that note, I think we will be going,” I shrugged. To Rachel, “You do not get out enough.”“Can I see your wallet again?” Brewster was still confused by Rachel’s rudeness. He was a cop for the love of God. People not wanting to go to jail do not snatch things from a cop’s hands.“I gave you my wallet. I am not to blame if you used its time in your possession unwisely,” Rachel counterattacked. “Unless there is a legal technicality, we shall be leaving. If there is a legal issue, here,” she produced a business card with a flourish, “is the contact information for our legal department.” Theodora took the card gingerly then read it.“Havenstone again,” she mused. “Are you sure this is the path you wish to take, Mr. Nyilas?”“Are you insane?” I trembled with emotion. “I want to be back in New York, working my queue and thinking about what my date and I will be doing tonight. I want my Dad to be alive. I don’t want to be thinking that the last time we talked I forgot to tell him I loved him.”“Path, you IDIOT!” I screamed at Theodora. Fuck it, I was crying again. “Not a damn thing any of you can do will bring my Dad back to me; so fuck off!” In a strange way, that was what they had been looking for. Not my wounded soul, but my rage and pain toward a World suddenly found to be cruel and pointless.Behind my crumbling façade was another worry. Outside in the parking lot were three Amazons with weapons ready to rush to my aid. It wasn’t that the Host was rash, or reckless, by nature. I was one of the fifty-six most important people in their society. Three other SD members had died in the defense of House Ishara already and they were damn sure those women would not have died in vain.I wasn’t leaving in federal custody willingly and if I walked out in restraints, I wasn’t sure if they would decide offing some law enforcement agents and staging my kidnapping was the best course of action. Remember, I wanted to bury my Father. They wanted to keep me alive. If those two goals collided, they would apologize after the fact.“Mr. Nyilas, I really believe we should…” Theodora got out then I brushed past her. It was a delicate moment and the chemistry between Rachel and I wasn’t lost on most of them. She was a bodyguard yet my servant too. It was professional tribalism; two words that don’t normally get along. Rios picked up on the other undercurrent.He recoiled from Rachel, retreating to buy space when/if Rachel attacked. Unlike the rest, he sensed that aggression by law enforcement would be met with lethal force. The Amazon didn’t care about the badge and the legions of fellow officers backing it up. She was fearless. Things weren’t over yet.“Mr. Nyilas, were are you going next?” Detective Lisa came after us.“I…I don’t know,” I muttered. “Where is my Father’s body? I know he wanted to be cremated and buried beside Mom…I guess.” Brewster came hurrying along.“He is at the Medical Examiner’s Office,” Lisa informed me. “Come with me.”“Why don’t you give me the address?” I sighed.“Do you and your buddy know your way around Chicago, Hometown Boy?” Lisa kept it up. She was hitting on me and lining me up at the same time.“How about we cut to the chase?” I looked at her with tear-soaked eyes.“We’ll take my cars; cars with an ’s’,” I offered. “I am a hometown boy. I’ve never had a reason to locate the Medical Examiner before. Since I have a boatload of angry women with guns who will not fit into your sedan and leaving them behind isn’t an option, mine is the only means of travel that makes sense.”Low and behold, the two cops looked at each other then followed Rachel and I to our little caravan. We were too close for the officers to have missed Rachel snapping off some quick, coded instructions to her team; most likely to hide the seriously illegal firearms. To say the Amazons were not pleased with my decisions spoke volumes to their concern for me and lack of police experience.Pamela, who had beaten us back to the cars, seemed privately entertained as always. Rachel was reluctantly sitting up front. Lisa, Brewster and I were in the second row and Pamela sat in back. Not only did the two not get a good look at Pamela, she was perfectly placed to do all kinds of mischief unseen.“So the woman upstairs works with you?” Lisa asked as we pulled out.“Where to?” Tiger Lily (I still wasn’t used to that name) requested of our Police 'buddies’. Lisa popped off the address. It was 'I’ll scratch your back, you’ll scratch mine’. Tiger Lily entered the data into the onboard computer and off we went.“No. She does not work for me, or my boss, directly. She was at my Father’s on my behalf though I was unaware of it,” I related.“Are you going to tell us what the hell happened?” Brewster prodded.“That I don’t know. I am not personally aware of anyone who would want to kill my Father, or me,” I answered.“Anyone who would want to get at me would come at me, not Dad,” I continued. “I don’t live in a fortress. It is a hardly spacious apartment near the East River. I share the place with my roommate, Timothy Denver, and a…companion by the name of Odette Sievert.”“Companion? Is she…a working girl?” Lisa went searching.“No, I use the term companion to indicate she’s too nice a girl for me. She’s sweet, conscientious and giving. My only wish for Odette is that she finds a guy who can appreciate her a hell of a lot more than I do,” I explained. “Timothy is my gay, body-building tattoo artist best friend. I’ve gotten the feeling he’s busted some heads in his time. Hardly anything noteworthy.”“Mr. Nyilas, have you ever considered that you live a very messy life?” Brewster pondered.“One does not 'consider’ what one knows to be true. One knows it to be true and moves on,” I grumbled. “Yes, I know I live a screwed up life.”“What about your friends here?” Lisa indicated the other three women in the vehicle. This elicited another groan from me.“Investigator Brewster; Horace and Detective Capella; Lisa, please call me Cáel. This is the point I accept that I am exhausted and not in any shape to make good decisions. I’ll plead the Fifth,” I confessed.“We already know you were in New York when your father was murdered, Mister…Cáel,” Brewster stated.“Everyone we’ve talked to says you and your father were very close. Barring some expensive Life Insurance policy being taken out on him, we have no reason to suspect you had a direct hand in his death. Not being a suspect, that implies you have no Fifth Amendment, or Miranda Rights to hide behind; just so we are clear,” Brewster schooled me.“I can make this game of footsy easy on all of you,” Pamela whispered. The officers jolted in their seats. “Cáel cannot talk to you for the very reason the Fifth Amendment exists.”“You are not like the rest of this menagerie,” Lisa noted.“Nah, I kill people for a living. The rest of the group has some code of conduct that keeps you two alive,” Pamela smiled.Those two didn’t know what to make of Pamela’s statement because it was so sincere yet incredible.“If Cáel tells you anything else he will be admitting to his involvement in a criminal conspiracy. Said conspiracy is why Ferko Nyilas is dead, but Cáel had nothing to do with it,” Pamela enlightened them.Fact digestion time for the two law dogs. Brewster recovered faster.“But why was Ferko Nyilas murdered?” he asked.“The men didn’t come to kill him,” Pamela kept talking about the tea and crumpets. “They probably showed up to escort him to a place where some far more important scumbags could talk with him.”“The all-girl squad was there and Ferko was caught in the crossfire,” Lisa mumbled. “Why was there a firefight if his life was in danger and both sides wanted him alive?”“Stupidity,” Pamela replied. “Give any group of people guns and then surprise them, stupid shit happens; I apologize Cáel.”“I don’t buy that,” Brewster said. “They simply started shooting at each other; no.”“Okay Horace, let me break it down for you. The ladies were told to go there and guard the guy without being told why. The men who showed up were most likely told to grab Ferko without knowing why either.”“That makes no sense,” Lisa protested.“Congratulations. That is why Cáel can’t talk to you anymore,” Pamela smirked. “This is the sort of crap he has inadvertently been caught up with; no fault of his own. If he did any of this on purpose, I’d kill him myself.”“He is some poor schmuck who only wanted a 7-5 job, to make tons of money and bedding a different girl every night,” Pamela teased me. “He’s no criminal mastermind, or even a convincing criminal. If he has a failing it is that he tends to merely beat up people who deserve to have their spleens ripped out instead. I’m training him to be smarter than that.”“Who are you?” Brewster gawked. Pamela gave a sinister smile. Lisa looked at me.“I’ve fought a woman with a twelve foot stick with a pointy bit of metal at the end with little thought to my personal safety. This lady (Pamela) scares me. She is with me because I have no means of stopping her and I put saving others a great deal of pain and suffering over my own unsettled nerves.”“Do you really think you are that good?” Lisa half-turned around to face Pamela.“Do you want your gun back?” Pamela offered up a police issue Glock-22, grip first. My kind of gun. How sad. I was too depressed to seduce Officer Lisa. Brewster reached around to check is firearm. It was still there, much to his relief.“How did you do that?” Lisa wondered as she retrieved and inspected her weapon. Pamela tapped Brewster’s shoulder with the man’s magazine. Brewster was aghast. She’d stolen his gun, taken out the ammo and returned it without him noticing.“I found it on the floor. The truth is a bit more expensive than you are willing to pay at the moment, believe me,” Pamela grinned.Why had Pamela showboated? She was buying me some mental respite. She was also exhibiting to the two police folks that there might be some truth to her outlandish tale of criminal conspiracies. Unlike the other Amazons, Pamela knew we had to maintain friendly relations with some part of law enforcement if I was going to bury my Father.(The Medical Examiner’s Office)So much happens in life we rarely put the timespan of events in context. Talking with a person in line who turns out to make your day better/worse, become a friend and/or a date. In a matter of a few seconds your life has been altered. Two minutes later and you would have missed getting the concert tickets where you meet your future; whomever.Two minutes sooner and you get caught in the 'speed trap’ instead of the other poor sap who you drive past as they sit on the side of the road keeping the patrol officer company. His/her insurance rate goes up while you have that extra money for later. Had we arrived two minutes earlier to the morgue; disaster aborted. Two minutes later would have equated to a frustrating mystery.Life was not so kind. It was the same group as before; Detective Lisa, Investigator Horace, Rachel and I. We had just added an Assistant Medical Examiner who was going over information garnered from the autopsy with the two cops. Pamela was 'checking things out’, whatever that meant. The key to it all was Rachel being Rachel.Security Detail are more than simply elite fighting-women. They are also bodyguards, security specialist and normally stack a third specialty into the mix. When Rachel spotted five armed people in the hallway right outside the Medical Examiner’s autopsy room, her alertness spiked. Only one was a uniformed police officer. Rachel was still gun-less.The two EMS personnel rolling an occupied body bag out on a gurney shouldn’t have had on their heavy jackets on a late June afternoon. The other two men were chatting about something. That wasn’t unusual. Where they were standing was; to Lisa’s experienced eye. Rachel’s heightened anxiety made Lisa double-check everything.Horace didn’t know what was wrong yet when Lisa’s hand came to rest on her piece, he put his hand on his Ruger SR45.“Excuse me,” Lisa called out. No one stopped moving. “Excuse me,” Lisa demanded in a louder voice. “I am Detective Lisa Capella, Chicago Police Department; Homicide Division. What is going on?”That was a reach. Bodies exit the morgue all the time. The two people with the body made sense. The two 'odd’ fellows weren’t breaking any law. In cop-talk, this was called 'gut instinct’. She produced her badge. There was a quick look by the two ambulance folk to the farther of the two 'talking’ men.That group were rather competent, just not competent conmen. The two EMS guys turned and tried to give Lisa a causal look.“What can we do for you, officer?” the designated diplomat asked nonchalantly.“Whose body is that?” Lisa inquired.“I’m not sure; all we do is pick 'em up and take them to the appropriate funeral home,” he shrugged.“Take ten seconds and show me the release order,” Lisa gave a chilly command. The cop at the far end of the hall; the one with the door that lead to the loading/unloading area, was starting to clue in that something wasn’t right.“Oh, by the Great Pumpkin, this is bad,” Brewster muttered under his breath like a thousand other fathers who engaged in the daily struggle to not curse at work so they wouldn’t curse around their children.“Of course, Detective Capella,” the diplomat nodded. “Is there a problem?” He carefully pulled out his smart phone and handed it over.Lisa wasn’t born yesterday. She handed the phone to me instead of looking at it herself. She was keeping her eyes on the guys with guns. They really did have an order to transfer my Father to a mortuary. Apparently I had requested this be done; without my knowledge.“Cáel Nyilas requested his father be taken to the Green Meadows mortuary in Cicero,” I informed Lisa, Rachel and Horace.“I need to talk to Mr. Nyilas,” Lisa informed them. “If I can’t talk to him, I can’t let the body leave this building. This is an ongoing investigation.” The 'diplomat’ was worried yet Lisa had given him an out. After I returned his phone, he called his off-site boss, who gave him a number which the diplomat gave to Lisa. Lisa called 'me’ without my phone ringing.Even so, 'I’ confirmed the authorization. The four gunmen relaxed as Lisa hung up.“One more question,” Lisa pulled a 'Columbo’, “was this a rush job, or are you all 'not ready for prime time players’?” The 'diplomat’ made one last lunge at deception.“Detective Capella, our work order is legitimate,” he shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know what you mean?”“Funeral homes have their own uniforms; they do not dress as EMS,” Lisa deconstructed their illusions. “The bodies of murder victim are not released by the Medical Examiner until a cause of death is known and that information is released to the homicide detective assigned to the case; that would be me, if there was any doubt.Your two buddies down the hall could have read and critiqued the Magna Carta in the time it has taken for you to do your 'song and dance’,” Lisa pointed out. “Oh, and the real Cáel Nyilas is standing next to me. Whoever talked with me on the phone is going to jail too. Now I suggest the four of you face the wall, put your hands over your head, palms against the wall and no one will get hurt.”Darwin check time; they drew their guns. Of course they drew their guns. Why would they not draw their guns considering the farthest enemy was all of 4 meters away and the only immediately cover was my Dad’s horizontal corpse? Gurneys tend to be lightweight and mostly empty space.The quickest on the draw was one of the two 'talkers’. He whipped out a .357 Magnum revolver and popped two shots into the police officer next to him; right in the center mass at less than 2 meters; ouch. Rachel was next, making a diving front roll between the two cops, toward the two fake EMS guys. I was right behind her, except my plan was to vault Dad’s body and get at the second talker. I was not acting sanely.The second talker went in the next split second. He had brought a sawed-off automatic shotgun to the fight. His first salvo blew a chunk out of the wall next to Lisa’s hip. She was less than an eye-blink behind as she put two slugs into the 'diplomat’s’ armored chest. He was kind enough to drop his Mac-11 from his twitching fingers and into Rachel’s hands.Less than a single heartbeat later, the 'diplomat’s EMS buddy revealed his own Mac-11. His mistake was not shooting his first target; Brewster. He was tracking Rachel and me instead, hoping to catch us together in a spray of lead. The general feeling was that, for all his law enforcement experience, Investigator Brewster had never actually shot at anyone before.His cop instincts kicked into overdrive. The perpetrators appeared to be wearing body armor and possessed a small arsenal of illegal weapons. His aim tweaked up, he pulled the trigger and a .45 ACP round effectively decapitated his target; our first confirmed casualty. My encounter with the Latin Kings had been a lesson in poor tactical flexibility.This time, by unspoken agreement, the two talkers were exercising their tactical acumen as they began withdrawing toward the exit. With the short range, width of the hall and lack of cover, being shot at by a shotgun, or a .357 didn’t make much difference. I was trying to jump onto the gurney and launch myself at the two when my toe caught on the bottom of Dad’s body, turning my heroic rush into a face-plant on Father.The men’s cover fire worked on Lisa and Horace. Lisa, being more exposed, had to dive flat. Horace crouch-ran to Rachel. Rachel, with her submachine gun, was firing a steady stream of bullets from between the gurney’s top surface and bottom shelf. Her shots shattered shotgun guy’s shins and blasted off his knee caps.As that bastard screamed and toppled forward, Rachel emptied the magazine into both his thighs and his right hip. By the copious nature of the blood spray, an artery had been clipped, if not severed. Horace grabbed the back of my jacket and yanked me off the gurney, down to his side. Lisa fired off a few shots at the vanishing leader, but he was already out the door.Rachel was rifling the closest EMS’s headless body, looking for a fresh clip for the M-11.“Don’t,” Horace cautioned her. Lisa was running to the door.“Rachel, leave the gun and follow me,” I commanded.“Wait,” Horace called out. He was in an impossible situation. The bold Assistant ME began looking for any survivors, starting with the diplomat.Detective Capella was chasing after a possible cop-killer. I was already running after Lisa and Horace couldn’t ride herd on Rachel, catch me and support Lisa all at once. Rachel muttered [OKH] 'dirty goat’ at my fleeting form. I was sure its true meaning was far nastier.“Da-darn it,” Horace grimaced as he started rushing after the three of us.I doubted it was any consolation to Horace that Lisa shot me an evil look when I caught up to her at the loading dock. T

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Life As A New Hire: part 19

Steamy Stories

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 5, 2022

Being known by the company you keep.By FinalStand. Listen and subscribe to the podcast at Steamy Stories.Life exists in both seconds and years. Don’t ignore one for the other.I would like to thank the phone operator and Chief of the Burnham, Illinois Police Department for answering my questions, despite their bizarre nature.(Monday Night)I should have known to not have too good a time. My karma was wacky enough as it was. It was about to get worse in a way I should have foreseen. Ain’t hindsight grand?Inside of five seconds I knew how much sharing Libra and Brooke did; a lot. On the plus side, it gave me some wiggle room with Libra where sex with Brooke was concerned. On the super-plus side, Brooke was looking forward to ratcheting up our sex play. I took her to Libra’s experiences with all the extra bells and whistles.In this case it meant adding a blindfold and ball-gag to the hand restraints. Brooke handed me a high level of trust unexpected at this early moment in our sexcapade. With a quick empathic insight, I pulled her ball-gag down as her orgasm erupted. She rejoiced in the sound of her rapture echoing around my bedroom.I deceived her into her next climax by whispering a promise to release her then hammering her instead. The whole specter of powerlessness tore her up inside. Best of all, even as she spasmed beneath me, I released her cuffs then pulled up her mask. Her fingernails dug into my trapezius muscles. For over a minute, she clung to me with a deep hunger to feel my heat and sweat against her body.“My turn,” she rasped. I pressed my shoulders and head up so I could look into her eyes. She was waiting for this opportunity since she’d talked with Libra. Without question, she’d never been tied down before, or tied a man down and had her way with him. She’d manipulated men most of her life; that was old hat.This was primal, physical and forbidden. She was taking complete control of my person. God, I thought she’d orgasmed when she finished cuffing me to the headboard. Taunting, teasing and hot body contact followed as she put the ball-gag in. Sizzling lips sealed my fate as the blindfold was slipped in place.Having invested so much time using all my senses soaking up the hungry beast that Brooke possessed right beneath her urbane surface, losing my eyesight wasn’t a major drawback. For Brooke, this had all the benefits of anonymous sex in a blacked-out room with the bonus of her having the lights on for her use alone. My bet was she had studied stuff on-line.From being sure she wasn’t going to have sex with me when she first met, she had graduated to running naked across my living room for what turned out to be lemon slices. The ‘fumph’ of the Nerf gun made me assume Timothy shot her in the buttocks as she raced into my room. By the yip from Brooke, I knew Timothy’s aim remained frighteningly accurate.Lemon juice and cuts don’t mix, or, Brooke enjoyed watching my body jolt as said juice interacted with said 'workplace’ mistakes. Was I angry? Nah. Every hiss of pain was followed by lavished kisses, licks and hair lashings. I loved her long black hair draped over my body, flicked around whisk-like and tickling my nose.Brooke was learning my keystone technique; figure out what your partner wants and give them a quick sample. Don’t use any one thing too much; make it a treat and they’ll appreciate the taste they get even more. When Brooke finally sated us both, it was my turn again. We talked a while. She invited me to a friend’s place in the Hamptons which suggested to me the destination was more than some made-up place on TV.I promised to think about it. Brooke took that to mean she needed to work harder to convince me. I honestly had little desire to be trotted around as Brooke’s boy toy. Hoping that wouldn’t be the case relied a lot on faith. I wasn’t sure what I would have in common with any of that crowd, which guided me back to being a stuck up snob for treating a people as a social class and not as human beings.I took out my social anxiety on Brooke. Poor girl; three holes, ten positions and I’m not sure how many times I took her from frenzied peak to frenzied peak. All I knew was when she’d passed all points of previous primeval ecstasy, I finally released her. Brooke curled into a semi-fetal ball and began burrowing into me.“Happy?” I asked as I stroked her sweat-drenched hair. She nodded happily against my chest. “Are you glad you came over?” I continued. Brooke bit me because she knew I was teasing her. “Ow,” I grumbled. “I think we have a misunderstanding who is whose sex toy here.”“Do I need to bite you again?” Brooke mumbled into my chest.“Point taken,” I conceded. Brooke snuggled in even tighter. We wrestled out of bed, stumbled into the shower and took some time off with Timothy. He looked at us and smirked.“Cáel is going to be my boyfriend,” Brooke tossed out there. Huh?“What in God’s green earth makes you want to do that?” Timothy chuckled.“He’s been there when I needed him. Cáel is a real man and it has taken me having a really tough spill to realize that it doesn’t matter which alumni your Daddy belongs to, but what you put on the line for your friends that really matters,” Brooke enlightened us both.“Seriously Dude,” Timothy looked at me with pity.“Cut down on the awesome dicking until somehow polygamy becomes legal,” he added, but then, “Brooke, you know he’s seeing about a dozen different ladies, right?”“Cáel is looking for a serious relationship,” Brooke insisted. Timothy chortled because he knew the likelihood of me settling down was right up there with us sharing a White Christmas in the Bahamas.“Let’s go back to bed, Babe,” I redirected things to safer waters. “It is your turn to be on top.” Brooke, wearing one of my fresh t-shirts and nothing else, hopped off the sofa and let me lead her back to the bedroom for another round of 'not thinking about any other part of my fucked up life except the beautiful woman with me right now’ sex.Twenty minutes later, Brooke had encased my rod in her wanton elixirs, was gyrating her hips as she stroked my rod inside her vagina while keeping me bound, blind and muffled. My phone rang.“Should I get that?” Brooke teased me. She moved enough to seize my cellular device.“The number is unlisted,” she mused. “Who could it be?” I gave a muffled response. She removed the ball-gag enough for me to speak.“Work,” I repeated. “It might be work. I’m on-call 24/7.”“Damn,” Brooke undoubtedly pouted (still blindfolded). She answered the call then placed the phone to my ear.“Cáel, a Security Detail detachment is on their way to your quarters as we speak. You will recognized the code they will use,” Katrina’s icy calm voice informed me.“Katrina, what is wrong?” I inquired. Normally, I wouldn’t get an answer. Katrina’s tone made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.“There has been an incident at your Father’s home in Chicago. We do not have clear intelligence at this time. I may have more when you get in,” she related.“Understood,” I replied. My passionate storm abated and I felt empty inside. Dad.“Cáel?” Brooke sounded worried.“We need to get dressed,” I murmured. I had to let Timothy know something was truly wrong. I needed to get Brooke home safely. I…I needed to know more than I did right then. Brooke uncuffed me quickly. I barely had my boxers on when there was a light series of raps on the door. I sprang up, opened my bedroom door, surprising Odette.She must have come back to work a few minutes earlier and was unwinding with some low-volume TV and some sofa time. Timothy was asleep already.“Odette, go back to Timothy’s room and warn him something bad may have happened. Go!” I warned. Odette scampered back. Brooke was at my back, trying to move into the main room.“Brooke, stay here. If something unusual happens, hide in the bedroom and don’t come out until the police get here. Do you understand?” I met her confusion with an iron stare. She nodded. There was another, more insistent, rapping at my apartment door. I crept up to the portal and gave a counter-knock.“Crab Fisher-woman,” a female voice said from the other side.“My Father’s Sister,” I responded. It was an imperfect code, but effective given the circumstances. I double checked through the spy hole, unlocked the door and let three SD Amazons inside. How bad was it? I doubted these ladies would know more than I did.“[OKH] Ishara,” the leader said, “we have orders to escort you to Havenstone immediately.”They weren’t blindly expecting me to follow instructions. They had a directive they were following to the best of their ability.“[OKH] Will a team be watching my domicile?” I asked. The leader nodded. “We need to take a female I have been with tonight to her dwelling before going on to Havenstone.”The SD team leader nodded again. There was no condescension, or argument. They were following orders as if it was my right to issue them. That was how bad things were. Time to get back to English.“Brooke, finish getting dressed. I’m taking you home,” I called out.Quite frankly, along with my desire to see Brooke back home safely was my instinct to not split up my guardians. Better a longer trip than two smaller, more vulnerable groups. I was in the process of getting dressed in the living room when Timothy and Odette came out.“Bro?” Timothy asked.“My Father’s home was attacked. I have no other details right now,” I explained with a sinking feeling in my heart. Timothy read my soul, came up and engulfed me in his mighty arms. Odette added herself to the heart-felt love-pile.“Do you want me to take Odette and head back to Queens for a while?” Timothy asked.He sensed we had limited time.“They,” and by 'they’ he knew I meant Havenstone, “will have a team watching this place. There are not enough resources to go back and forth to work. I wish I could tell what would keep you safe, but I don’t know anymore.”“We’ll stay put,” Timothy declared. Odette nodded. “We’ll be here for you when you get back. If any of these psycho-broads want to stop by from time to time, I won’t say no.” I shot a look to the security team leader and she gave a curt 'okay’.“You’ll need an overnight bag!” Odette squeaked. Off she went.Brooke finished getting dressed and came to my side. To your average Lothario, what she did might seem odd. To me, it was the normal refrain; Brooke shoved her panties into my jean’s pocket. That was a not so subtle 'Call Me’ for when I got back.“Three minutes, Ish; Cáel,” the leader updated me.My amateur guess was this was the team from across the street. They had back-up vehicles and personnel streaking down from Havenstone to provide extra security for my move.“Velma,” she gave me her name. A quick description was in order. The three Amazons all had Bluetooth devices, shooting glasses and steel-gray long coats that had to be uncomfortable in this upper seventies evening heat.Underneath, they had on light ballistic body armor on their torsos, arms, and legs. Even their dull grey, all-terrain boots looked armored. They had a hip holstered sidearm, most likely a back-up pistol at the small of their backs and a deadly blade, or three. Their main deterrence was their H&K UMP-40; my second favorite Amazon killing device.Timothy snuck off to get my toiletries, returning around the same time Odette trundled out with an overnight (or three) bag. There was a final round of hugs then Velma indicated it was time to leave. The fourth member of the team was stationed at the top of the third floor stairs. That gave her a good view of my hallway as well as the passage going up and down.Two SD’s to the front, Velma and the fourth watching our backs and Brooke caught between giddy and freaking terrified. Things got even more exciting when we hit the bottom of the stairs. Two more ladies were waiting. They put a trench coat on Brooke and she nearly collapsed. The freed up Amazon took my bag while the second put a trench coat on me.I grunted as well. This bitch had to weigh 25 kg. That was some serious ballistic and blast protection. The closest newcomer began attaching my pistol with hip holster on my side while Brooke was 'buttoned up’. I was slipped a few spare clips then was buttoned up as well.“I’m not sure I can walk in this thing,” Brooke gave me a weak smile.“Don’t worry,” I smiled, “I’ll carry you.” I slipped my arm around Brooke’s waist and, on Velma’s signal, we rushed out to the middle of three Mercedes Armored GL550s. The doors had barely shut before we were racing away from my favorite home. I walked Brooke up to her apartment, we hugged, kissed and she insisted I go to the Hamptons with her this weekend.I left with that promise unanswered. I didn’t ask the Security Detail to do anything else outrageous and they didn’t give me any crap about Brooke. Their vigilance didn’t end at Havenstone either. No; they formed a tight knot of outward hostility until we marched into Katrina’s office. Even then, they spread out over the Executive Services offices as an extended perimeter.Katrina’s office was another step up on the unsettling meter. It was Katrina, Saint Marie, Buffy, Helena, and a woman I didn’t know yet seemed to belong.“Excuse me?” Saint Marie shot a hostile look my way; actually right behind me.“Don’t mind me,” Pamela snorted. She was in the process of sneaking into the room.“I’m here for moral support,” she concluded then took a seat.“Cáel?” Katrina queried, as if I could somehow exile Pamela from the room.“What’s going on?” I began the meeting instead.“Your Father is dead,” Katrina reported. If someone ever asked me what it felt like to have an arm cut off, I could truthfully answer them 'Yes’. Dad.“From what we have been able to gather from the video and audio gear the four Amazon Security Detail team assigned to watch over him transmitted, the team was setting up a perimeter when three vehicles with ten men stopped on the juncture of Janus and Kerr streets and approached the house. The team leader made formal recognition and was attacked,” Katrina told me.“Are they okay?” I mumbled. I didn’t want to know how my Dad died. Had he been in pain? Which side had killed him? Would knowing make a damn bit of difference?“Three of the four members were killed,” Saint Marie interjected. “The team commander was killed instantly. The second died defending that corner of your Father’s domicile.The third member was killed attempting to rescue your Father. The surviving member stopped the enemy from escaping with your Father’s body, but was too badly injured to extricate herself and is now in police custody.”“What are we going to do about this?” I inquired. Pamela was a lying bitch.She’d lied to Brianna because the truth would have gotten me and Dad killed. Dad had still died, but Pamela had kept me alive.“There is nothing we can do,” the stranger spoke up. “Troika of House Šauška.”“You are joking, right?” I stared at her.“He was a male, not of…” Troika began to state.“You do know your Amazon law, correct?” I countered. She gave a curt tilt of the head. “Recount the means of succession to the Head of a House then please explain to the room how my Father, the descendant of Vranus, fits into all that.”Cha-ching!“Oh, by the Seven Goddesses!” Saint Marie jumped up. “They murdered the Head of House Ishara!” Katrina was already back on top; ahead of the game.“But what does that make him?” Troika pointed at me.“It confirms him as the Head of House Ishara. We can sugar-coat it and say Cáel, being the only 'active’ member of Havenstone 'represented’ the Head of House Ishara. By our traditions though, Ferko Nyilas was the lawful head of a 'First’ House. Certainly four days were not enough time to settle the manner in an acceptable way,” Katrina said.“At the very least, House Ishara would have been given 28 days to resolve any matters of succession internally,” Katrina pointed out. “There was no deception. Cáel worked for Havenstone, so was our active member. The existence of his Father was known. It is in his basic file. It was highly unlikely that ANY House wanted to bring another male into the mix so the matter of his ascension was left unquestioned.”“This is Casus Belli,” Troika stood up and declared in a firm voice. “I will inform Hayden. We must know the perpetrators of this act, Katrina. I will prepare to relate this breach of the Protocols to the other Signatories.”“To make sure I have this straight, I can defend any member of my family, no matter who they are, without violating the Protocols?” I questioned. “Can I kill them?”“That is correct,” Troika appeared confused. “Other Signatories cannot harm, or detain your family in any way.” I gave a bitter, hollow laugh. Dad…Dad wouldn’t have understood, but Mom would have, no doubt.“Troika…hell, everyone but Pamela and Katrina, I am Cáel Nyilas, grandson of THE Cáel O'Shea and those people who murdered my Dad very well may have been my family,” I felt like crying.That was good because I was crying. I had talked to Dad early Monday morning. I had been so nervous about not leaving any trace of Mom behind that I couldn’t recall if I said 'I love you’ to him. I’d never get the chance to make up for that oversight. As I began to take in the faces around me, I realized Ishara had gifted me with a respite. No one else knew who Cáel O'Shea was; yet.“Troika,” I started out. I could tell she was still having difficulty with the 'Man as someone worthy of stating an opinion’ moment. “When the Council decides that the Illuminati have breached the Protocols, do I have a deciding vote on what we do; since Dad was my family?”“No,” Troika clarified, “and what makes you think it was the Illuminati?” Pamela laughed at her.“Because I killed Cáel’s Grandfather when that man was head of the Illuminati; slit his throat and rendered him incapable of resuscitation. The rest of that twisted clan have only now discovered that there is a successor, genetically, to the Old Man and you are looking at him,” Pamela related in an amused tone.“Perhaps; just perhaps; they were interested in what happened to Cáel’s Mother and the man she mated with to produce Cáel…who also happened to be the Head of House Ishara and now leaves this man (me) as the last of his kind; coming and going,” Pamela finished, “for both the Amazons and the O'Shea family/the Illuminati.”Troika was having problems fitting all the puzzle pieces. Saint Marie cut to the heart of the matter because she listens to me.“If you go to war against the O'Shea’s you are being forced to fight your own family,” the Golden Mare stared at me in shock.“Let me get this straight,” Troika stood up, waving for silence. “When the O'Shea’s killed Ferko Nyilas, they murdered the Head of a First House. They also murdered a member of their own family by way of marriage.” She seemed totally flummoxed. Everyone agreed about how fucked up everything was. Breach? No Breach?“Welcome to life working with Cáel Nyilas,” Katrina declared. There was a pause.“I’ll let the professionals figure out the finer points of diplomacy. I have to go,” I said.“Were do you think you are going?” Buffy popped up. Until this moment, she’d had no role in affairs. My safety though…“I am going home to bury my Father, Buffy,” I announced. This was not a discussion.“Shouldn’t we take his body to the cliffs?” Troika suggested.“My Father will face the Afterlife with my Mother at his side. It was his wish and I’m not going to start dictating to my Ancestors now,” I sighed.I was trying to make light of my pain. By the looks on their faces, I was failing. I had barely exited the office, Buffy, Helena and Pamela in tow. The security team was closing in and my phone rang.“Cáel Nyilas,” I answered sadly.“Mr. Nyilas, this is Investigator Brewster of the Burnham Police Department. I need a few moments of your time,” a man’s voice requested. I hesitated. I looked at my watch.“Yes…Dad?” I finally spoke.“Mr. Nyilas, your father seems to have been murdered late this evening in a bungled attempted burglary,” he lied. It was a good lie.If he really believed a bungled robbery consisted of two heavily armed groups shooting a small residential home to pieces he was…nah, he was lying.“I’m on the next flight to Chicago,” was the response I chose. I had so many 'loser’ replies to choose from.“That would be helpful, Mr. Nyilas,” he told me. “Do you know when I can expect you?”“Ah…I have no idea when the next plane from New York to Chicago is, but if I can buy a ticket on it, I’m there,” I countered. Admittedly, me having a plane ticket for home would have been damn suspicious.“One last thing, Mr. Nyilas, do you have any idea why someone would want to murder your father? Anything you could tell us could be of great assistance,” he pressed.“Yes, I have a clue who murdered my Father and I’ll point you to the dead bodies when I’m done,” I snapped; quite literally and mentally snapped. Pause.“Mr. Nyilas, I understand you are upset, but do not do anything rash. Now, could your father have been murdered for anything you might have done, or are doing?” Det. Brewster kept is game face on.“We’ll have this chat when I get to Chicago. Until then, take care,” I said before hanging up.“Smooth,” Pamela gently chastised me.“I actually liked him going all 'Mafia Don’ on that cop,” Buffy countered.“I’ll arrange for Havenstone to get us transportation to Chicago,” Helena added.“No,” I countermanded her. “You two stay here and finish up business. Join me late Tuesday night, or early Wednesday morning.”By the looks Buffy and Helena gave me they were surprised…and proud. I was keeping to my 'Runner’ induction time table. My family would not be diminished by this tragedy. It would grow. Come Wednesday morning, we would add twenty new voices to Ishara’s war cry.“I’ll take the first commercial flight available,” I continued.“We cannot protect you on a civilian aircraft, Ishara,” Velma warned me.“They; the authorities are expecting me to show up at O'Hare, so I’m showing up at O'Hare, like a normal person,” I reminded her. “I’ll also need to know at what hospital they are keeping our sister.” Our sister; the sole surviving Amazon who nearly gave her life for Dad.The SD picked up on that immediately. Another leap had been made. I wasn’t a masculine monster, raging against a female warrior who had failed. By the tone of my voice, they knew I was in grief yet not overcome by it. She was the last member of the Host to see my Father alive and she might hold the closure I needed.“It will be done,” Velma decided. “We will have your team meet you at O'Hare.”“My team?” I asked.“Rachel; her team,” Velma clarified. That was enough good for me.“Oh, and get Pamela a ticket as well. I’d hate to have her mug another passenger and take theirs,” I sighed. Pamela patted me on the back; an 'atta boy’.(Monday Noon)(The hospital)That was not the first time I wondered about how fatal Pamela had been in her prime. In fact, I wasn’t sure that post-60 wasn’t her best time yet. The only mistake the police officer guarding the Amazon’s hospital room made was to sit in a chair. Pamela had long ago mastered the peon-craft that Rosetta had started to teach me.The policeman looked up, stared right through her then looked the other way. His gaze never swept back in my direction. She jabbed him quickly underneath both arms, paralyzing them for a few seconds. That was all she needed. Hers hand clamped over his eyes and on his throat, cutting off the blood flow to the brain before his hands could recover.He appeared to the outside world to have taken a nap. According to Pamela, we had roughly three minutes before he came around. Pamela kept walking down the hall as if nothing happened. I came ten steps behind, guarded by a gun-less Rachel as I entered the Intensive Care Unit. A few of the staff looked our way, but no one impeded our progress.According to the Duty Nurse, the Amazon had exited surgery barely an hour ago. Her eyes opened to slits as I approached her beside.“We stand before the Eye of the World,” I whispered. That meant surveillance. “I cannot tell you what is in my heart. My name is Cáel Nyilas. Does that name mean anything to you?”Her hand flopped. I put two fingers into her feeble gasp. One squeeze; yes. “I am grateful for your prowess and I share in your sorrow for those who will no longer fight in this life. Please heal and grow strong for this is the start, not the finish,” I completed. She squeezed my fingers once more. I stepped aside, letting Rachel take my place.They didn’t exchange words but communicated volumes. We slipped out of the room while the guard was still groggy. Pamela was nowhere to be seen. That proved to be pre-sentient when a group of people with the propensity to flash IDs caught up to me at the ground floor.Had the backdrop of this fiasco not been the death of my Father, I might have enjoyed the twitching/counter-twitching going on between Rachel, who desperately wanted any one of her guns, and the cops who were picking up on that desire.“Mr. Nyilas, I am…” and the introductions came pouring in.I had Theodora Chumwell and Brock Miklos, Special Agents of the FBI, John Rios, Special Agent with the ATF, Investigator Horace Brewster from the Burnham PD and Homicide Detective Lisa Capella from the Chicago PD.“We would like to talk with you,” Theodora took charge.“Can I ask a question first?” I raised my hand. That appeared to set them off their game plan.“Of course,” Theodora allowed.“Okay; FBI, ATF, a homicide detective from Chicago and the only law enforcement official who has any business being here,” I finished with Brewster.“I may not be a Rhodes Scholar, but this seems a bit extreme for the burglary/murder of a long-time employee of Illinois Power and Light. Does anyone care to fill me on what the hell is going on?” I looked over the group. “Oh, and thank you Investigator Brewster for your call. I know I didn’t take the news well.”“Was that the part where you said you would point to the dead bodies?” Theodora took charge.“Yes, I think that was the gaff I was referring to,” I agreed.“Why are you here, Mr. Nyilas?” Lisa Capella jumped in. She had decided to not go along with the FBI playbook.“I came to see the woman found alive in my family home,” I replied smoothly.“She is probably still in surgery,” Lisa gave a twist of the lips; sex.“Oh, she got out an hour ago,” I enlightened them.“Let’s take this conversation to FBI Headquarters,” Theodora 'suggested’; you know, in the way that really wasn’t a suggestion.“Have you gone to see that woman?” Lisa wouldn’t let up; good for her. It was upsetting Theodora and I’d already decided that Brewster was my go-to guy on this investigation.“Yes,” I responded to Lisa.“Isn’t she under police protection?” Lisa and Theodora blurted out together.“There was a policeman at her door,” I shrugged. “We went in and I talked to her.”“What did she say?” Theodora brushed Lisa aside.“Nothing. She had one of those tubes down her throat. Whatever I said…well, I was emotional,” I evaded. “She was barely conscious.”Lisa was urgently contacting her guy who was supposed to be watching the only person in custody they had. He claimed to have 'blacked out’. He couldn’t remember anyone coming in to see the woman and swore he hadn’t been unconscious for any length of time. He went in, checked up on the Amazon and she was fine; for someone who had been shot six times.“We should go to the FBI offices,” Theodora repeated.“I’m going home,” I sighed sadly. “I want to go home.”“It is still an active crime scene,” John told me. “There won’t be any civilian access for some time.” Translation: until they decided to give me the carrot instead of the stick.“Please, come with us,” FBI Special Agent Brock added his weight.“No. I’m going with Burnham PD,” I countered. “You can find me there.”“That’s not how it works,” Theodora upped her authority meter. Lisa had fallen back, trying to take in the bigger picture.Brewster was clearly trying to recall if he had ANY history with me, or my Dad, that would make me trust him over the others.“I may be a liberal arts major from northern New England, but I know how a larynx works,” I regarded Theodora. “Unless I choose to make a sound, it does nothing. Nothing is about to be all we have left to do and say.”“Don’t you want to help solve your Father’s murder?” Brock tried to sound both sympathetic and threatening at the same time. I was suddenly bombarded with the taste of Lime Sherbet and Jalapenos Ice Cream.“Really? Fine; I’m going to hang out with the only person in this room I know is working on my Father’s murder, not on their career,” I reposed.“We are all trying to…” Lisa got out.“You maybe,” I gave Lisa that much. “My Father made around $70,000 a year after twenty-six years for Illinois P&L. He had almost paid off the colossal debt built up by my Mother’s illness and my college expenses.”“As far as I know, he took out one loan his entire life; from a bank; and he paid it off,” I continued. “He was a lapsed Catholic, a member of the IBEW; Local 9, and he jogged. He barely used e-mail and had no close friends I am aware of. The only woman he loved was my Mother and he mourned her to the day he died.”“What about your activity?” Theodora inquired. We weren’t running off to her playground; yet. Handcuffing a grieving son would look bad and, by my attitude, wouldn’t make me talkative in the least.“I have the unfortunate habit of sleeping with every woman I meet,” I began.“So that’s over 200 erotic encounters. I get annoyed with people throwing their weight around,” I continued, “which is why you and I are getting off on the wrong foot, Special Agent Theodora Chumwell. I work for Havenstone Commercial Investments, getting paid an insane amount to fetch laundry and keep secrets. Good enough?”“No, it is not…” Theodora simmered.“How did you know about the existence of the woman upstairs and how did you know to come here?” Lisa interrupted.“I grew up in that house, know the neighbors and know this is the closest EMS center to home,” I lied convincingly.“Who are you?” Brewster decided that I wasn’t exiting the hospital gracefully so turned on Rachel. She didn’t speak, choosing to be creepy and brandishing a wallet instead. I kept forgetting that most full-blooded Amazons had minimal socialization with outsiders. Having graduated elementary school, everyone else knew this was a bizarre reaction.“Rachel Louis,” Brewster read off the license in the wallet. A normal person would have acknowledged that somehow; not Rachel. “You are Rachel Louis, aren’t you?”“Yes, she is,” I intervened. “Rachel is a co-worker at Havenstone and she is misanthropic misandrist.”There was a pregnant pause. The confusion wasn’t with 'misanthropic’. It was a grown-up word in usage with colorful police-types. It was 'misandrist’ that had them stumped.“Rachel is an unsociable man-hater,” I explained. “Standing at my side in this hospital is ten kinds of Hell for her.”“What kind of piece do you normal carry?” Rios asked her. Unsocial didn’t mean stupid.“I use a Glock-22 and Rachel carries a STI Perfect 10,” I answered. “We have been experiencing quite a gopher problem around the office.” I could have done better; I should have done better. I was just too tired inside to create an inventive lie.“Do have gun licenses for those weapons?” Mr. ATF kept prodding at our cover story.“It seems Ms. Louis; is it Ms. Ms. Louis?” Brewster continued. I flashed Rachel a look which she interpreted correctly.“Yes, my name is Ms. Rachel Louis,” Rachel replied. To me, “I find this distraction to be annoying. We should go.”“It would seem Ms. Louis has all kinds of…” Brewster got out before Rachel snatched the wallet from his grip with the speed of a Peregrine Falcon. Brewster had this stunned look familiar to crows, doves and starlings the world over as one of their kin passed into the next life in a flash. A combination of 'No you didn’t!’ with 'what the flock?’“Ah…” Brewster got out.“On that note, I think we will be going,” I shrugged. To Rachel, “You do not get out enough.”“Can I see your wallet again?” Brewster was still confused by Rachel’s rudeness. He was a cop for the love of God. People not wanting to go to jail do not snatch things from a cop’s hands.“I gave you my wallet. I am not to blame if you used its time in your possession unwisely,” Rachel counterattacked. “Unless there is a legal technicality, we shall be leaving. If there is a legal issue, here,” she produced a business card with a flourish, “is the contact information for our legal department.” Theodora took the card gingerly then read it.“Havenstone again,” she mused. “Are you sure this is the path you wish to take, Mr. Nyilas?”“Are you insane?” I trembled with emotion. “I want to be back in New York, working my queue and thinking about what my date and I will be doing tonight. I want my Dad to be alive. I don’t want to be thinking that the last time we talked I forgot to tell him I loved him.”“Path, you IDIOT!” I screamed at Theodora. Fuck it, I was crying again. “Not a damn thing any of you can do will bring my Dad back to me; so fuck off!” In a strange way, that was what they had been looking for. Not my wounded soul, but my rage and pain toward a World suddenly found to be cruel and pointless.Behind my crumbling façade was another worry. Outside in the parking lot were three Amazons with weapons ready to rush to my aid. It wasn’t that the Host was rash, or reckless, by nature. I was one of the fifty-six most important people in their society. Three other SD members had died in the defense of House Ishara already and they were damn sure those women would not have died in vain.I wasn’t leaving in federal custody willingly and if I walked out in restraints, I wasn’t sure if they would decide offing some law enforcement agents and staging my kidnapping was the best course of action. Remember, I wanted to bury my Father. They wanted to keep me alive. If those two goals collided, they would apologize after the fact.“Mr. Nyilas, I really believe we should…” Theodora got out then I brushed past her. It was a delicate moment and the chemistry between Rachel and I wasn’t lost on most of them. She was a bodyguard yet my servant too. It was professional tribalism; two words that don’t normally get along. Rios picked up on the other undercurrent.He recoiled from Rachel, retreating to buy space when/if Rachel attacked. Unlike the rest, he sensed that aggression by law enforcement would be met with lethal force. The Amazon didn’t care about the badge and the legions of fellow officers backing it up. She was fearless. Things weren’t over yet.“Mr. Nyilas, were are you going next?” Detective Lisa came after us.“I…I don’t know,” I muttered. “Where is my Father’s body? I know he wanted to be cremated and buried beside Mom…I guess.” Brewster came hurrying along.“He is at the Medical Examiner’s Office,” Lisa informed me. “Come with me.”“Why don’t you give me the address?” I sighed.“Do you and your buddy know your way around Chicago, Hometown Boy?” Lisa kept it up. She was hitting on me and lining me up at the same time.“How about we cut to the chase?” I looked at her with tear-soaked eyes.“We’ll take my cars; cars with an ’s’,” I offered. “I am a hometown boy. I’ve never had a reason to locate the Medical Examiner before. Since I have a boatload of angry women with guns who will not fit into your sedan and leaving them behind isn’t an option, mine is the only means of travel that makes sense.”Low and behold, the two cops looked at each other then followed Rachel and I to our little caravan. We were too close for the officers to have missed Rachel snapping off some quick, coded instructions to her team; most likely to hide the seriously illegal firearms. To say the Amazons were not pleased with my decisions spoke volumes to their concern for me and lack of police experience.Pamela, who had beaten us back to the cars, seemed privately entertained as always. Rachel was reluctantly sitting up front. Lisa, Brewster and I were in the second row and Pamela sat in back. Not only did the two not get a good look at Pamela, she was perfectly placed to do all kinds of mischief unseen.“So the woman upstairs works with you?” Lisa asked as we pulled out.“Where to?” Tiger Lily (I still wasn’t used to that name) requested of our Police 'buddies’. Lisa popped off the address. It was 'I’ll scratch your back, you’ll scratch mine’. Tiger Lily entered the data into the onboard computer and off we went.“No. She does not work for me, or my boss, directly. She was at my Father’s on my behalf though I was unaware of it,” I related.“Are you going to tell us what the hell happened?” Brewster prodded.“That I don’t know. I am not personally aware of anyone who would want to kill my Father, or me,” I answered.“Anyone who would want to get at me would come at me, not Dad,” I continued. “I don’t live in a fortress. It is a hardly spacious apartment near the East River. I share the place with my roommate, Timothy Denver, and a…companion by the name of Odette Sievert.”“Companion? Is she…a working girl?” Lisa went searching.“No, I use the term companion to indicate she’s too nice a girl for me. She’s sweet, conscientious and giving. My only wish for Odette is that she finds a guy who can appreciate her a hell of a lot more than I do,” I explained. “Timothy is my gay, body-building tattoo artist best friend. I’ve gotten the feeling he’s busted some heads in his time. Hardly anything noteworthy.”“Mr. Nyilas, have you ever considered that you live a very messy life?” Brewster pondered.“One does not 'consider’ what one knows to be true. One knows it to be true and moves on,” I grumbled. “Yes, I know I live a screwed up life.”“What about your friends here?” Lisa indicated the other three women in the vehicle. This elicited another groan from me.“Investigator Brewster; Horace and Detective Capella; Lisa, please call me Cáel. This is the point I accept that I am exhausted and not in any shape to make good decisions. I’ll plead the Fifth,” I confessed.“We already know you were in New York when your father was murdered, Mister…Cáel,” Brewster stated.“Everyone we’ve talked to says you and your father were very close. Barring some expensive Life Insurance policy being taken out on him, we have no reason to suspect you had a direct hand in his death. Not being a suspect, that implies you have no Fifth Amendment, or Miranda Rights to hide behind; just so we are clear,” Brewster schooled me.“I can make this game of footsy easy on all of you,” Pamela whispered. The officers jolted in their seats. “Cáel cannot talk to you for the very reason the Fifth Amendment exists.”“You are not like the rest of this menagerie,” Lisa noted.“Nah, I kill people for a living. The rest of the group has some code of conduct that keeps you two alive,” Pamela smiled.Those two didn’t know what to make of Pamela’s statement because it was so sincere yet incredible.“If Cáel tells you anything else he will be admitting to his involvement in a criminal conspiracy. Said conspiracy is why Ferko Nyilas is dead, but Cáel had nothing to do with it,” Pamela enlightened them.Fact digestion time for the two law dogs. Brewster recovered faster.“But why was Ferko Nyilas murdered?” he asked.“The men didn’t come to kill him,” Pamela kept talking about the tea and crumpets. “They probably showed up to escort him to a place where some far more important scumbags could talk with him.”“The all-girl squad was there and Ferko was caught in the crossfire,” Lisa mumbled. “Why was there a firefight if his life was in danger and both sides wanted him alive?”“Stupidity,” Pamela replied. “Give any group of people guns and then surprise them, stupid shit happens; I apologize Cáel.”“I don’t buy that,” Brewster said. “They simply started shooting at each other; no.”“Okay Horace, let me break it down for you. The ladies were told to go there and guard the guy without being told why. The men who showed up were most likely told to grab Ferko without knowing why either.”“That makes no sense,” Lisa protested.“Congratulations. That is why Cáel can’t talk to you anymore,” Pamela smirked. “This is the sort of crap he has inadvertently been caught up with; no fault of his own. If he did any of this on purpose, I’d kill him myself.”“He is some poor schmuck who only wanted a 7-5 job, to make tons of money and bedding a different girl every night,” Pamela teased me. “He’s no criminal mastermind, or even a convincing criminal. If he has a failing it is that he tends to merely beat up people who deserve to have their spleens ripped out instead. I’m training him to be smarter than that.”“Who are you?” Brewster gawked. Pamela gave a sinister smile. Lisa looked at me.“I’ve fought a woman with a twelve foot stick with a pointy bit of metal at the end with little thought to my personal safety. This lady (Pamela) scares me. She is with me because I have no means of stopping her and I put saving others a great deal of pain and suffering over my own unsettled nerves.”“Do you really think you are that good?” Lisa half-turned around to face Pamela.“Do you want your gun back?” Pamela offered up a police issue Glock-22, grip first. My kind of gun. How sad. I was too depressed to seduce Officer Lisa. Brewster reached around to check is firearm. It was still there, much to his relief.“How did you do that?” Lisa wondered as she retrieved and inspected her weapon. Pamela tapped Brewster’s shoulder with the man’s magazine. Brewster was aghast. She’d stolen his gun, taken out the ammo and returned it without him noticing.“I found it on the floor. The truth is a bit more expensive than you are willing to pay at the moment, believe me,” Pamela grinned.Why had Pamela showboated? She was buying me some mental respite. She was also exhibiting to the two police folks that there might be some truth to her outlandish tale of criminal conspiracies. Unlike the other Amazons, Pamela knew we had to maintain friendly relations with some part of law enforcement if I was going to bury my Father.(The Medical Examiner’s Office)So much happens in life we rarely put the timespan of events in context. Talking with a person in line who turns out to make your day better/worse, become a friend and/or a date. In a matter of a few seconds your life has been altered. Two minutes later and you would have missed getting the concert tickets where you meet your future; whomever.Two minutes sooner and you get caught in the 'speed trap’ instead of the other poor sap who you drive past as they sit on the side of the road keeping the patrol officer company. His/her insurance rate goes up while you have that extra money for later. Had we arrived two minutes earlier to the morgue; disaster aborted. Two minutes later would have equated to a frustrating mystery.Life was not so kind. It was the same group as before; Detective Lisa, Investigator Horace, Rachel and I. We had just added an Assistant Medical Examiner who was going over information garnered from the autopsy with the two cops. Pamela was 'checking things out’, whatever that meant. The key to it all was Rachel being Rachel.Security Detail are more than simply elite fighting-women. They are also bodyguards, security specialist and normally stack a third specialty into the mix. When Rachel spotted five armed people in the hallway right outside the Medical Examiner’s autopsy room, her alertness spiked. Only one was a uniformed police officer. Rachel was still gun-less.The two EMS personnel rolling an occupied body bag out on a gurney shouldn’t have had on their heavy jackets on a late June afternoon. The other two men were chatting about something. That wasn’t unusual. Where they were standing was; to Lisa’s experienced eye. Rachel’s heightened anxiety made Lisa double-check everything.Horace didn’t know what was wrong yet when Lisa’s hand came to rest on her piece, he put his hand on his Ruger SR45.“Excuse me,” Lisa called out. No one stopped moving. “Excuse me,” Lisa demanded in a louder voice. “I am Detective Lisa Capella, Chicago Police Department; Homicide Division. What is going on?”That was a reach. Bodies exit the morgue all the time. The two people with the body made sense. The two 'odd’ fellows weren’t breaking any law. In cop-talk, this was called 'gut instinct’. She produced her badge. There was a quick look by the two ambulance folk to the farther of the two 'talking’ men.That group were rather competent, just not competent conmen. The two EMS guys turned and tried to give Lisa a causal look.“What can we do for you, officer?” the designated diplomat asked nonchalantly.“Whose body is that?” Lisa inquired.“I’m not sure; all we do is pick 'em up and take them to the appropriate funeral home,” he shrugged.“Take ten seconds and show me the release order,” Lisa gave a chilly command. The cop at the far end of the hall; the one with the door that lead to the loading/unloading area, was starting to clue in that something wasn’t right.“Oh, by the Great Pumpkin, this is bad,” Brewster muttered under his breath like a thousand other fathers who engaged in the daily struggle to not curse at work so they wouldn’t curse around their children.“Of course, Detective Capella,” the diplomat nodded. “Is there a problem?” He carefully pulled out his smart phone and handed it over.Lisa wasn’t born yesterday. She handed the phone to me instead of looking at it herself. She was keeping her eyes on the guys with guns. They really did have an order to transfer my Father to a mortuary. Apparently I had requested this be done; without my knowledge.“Cáel Nyilas requested his father be taken to the Green Meadows mortuary in Cicero,” I informed Lisa, Rachel and Horace.“I need to talk to Mr. Nyilas,” Lisa informed them. “If I can’t talk to him, I can’t let the body leave this building. This is an ongoing investigation.” The 'diplomat’ was worried yet Lisa had given him an out. After I returned his phone, he called his off-site boss, who gave him a number which the diplomat gave to Lisa. Lisa called 'me’ without my phone ringing.Even so, 'I’ confirmed the authorization. The four gunmen relaxed as Lisa hung up.“One more question,” Lisa pulled a 'Columbo’, “was this a rush job, or are you all 'not ready for prime time players’?” The 'diplomat’ made one last lunge at deception.“Detective Capella, our work order is legitimate,” he shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know what you mean?”“Funeral homes have their own uniforms; they do not dress as EMS,” Lisa deconstructed their illusions. “The bodies of murder victim are not released by the Medical Examiner until a cause of death is known and that information is released to the homicide detective assigned to the case; that would be me, if there was any doubt.Your two buddies down the hall could have read and critiqued the Magna Carta in the time it has taken for you to do your 'song and dance’,” Lisa pointed out. “Oh, and the real Cáel Nyilas is standing next to me. Whoever talked with me on the phone is going to jail too. Now I suggest the four of you face the wall, put your hands over your head, palms against the wall and no one will get hurt.”Darwin check time; they drew their guns. Of course they drew their guns. Why would they not draw their guns considering the farthest enemy was all of 4 meters away and the only immediately cover was my Dad’s horizontal corpse? Gurneys tend to be lightweight and mostly empty space.The quickest on the draw was one of the two 'talkers’. He whipped out a .357 Magnum revolver and popped two shots into the police officer next to him; right in the center mass at less than 2 meters; ouch. Rachel was next, making a diving front roll between the two cops, toward the two fake EMS guys. I was right behind her, except my plan was to vault Dad’s body and get at the second talker. I was not acting sanely.The second talker went in the next split second. He had brought a sawed-off automatic shotgun to the fight. His first salvo blew a chunk out of the wall next to Lisa’s hip. She was less than an eye-blink behind as she put two slugs into the 'diplomat’s’ armored chest. He was kind enough to drop his Mac-11 from his twitching fingers and into Rachel’s hands.Less than a single heartbeat later, the 'diplomat’s EMS buddy revealed his own Mac-11. His mistake was not shooting his first target; Brewster. He was tracking Rachel and me instead, hoping to catch us together in a spray of lead. The general feeling was that, for all his law enforcement experience, Investigator Brewster had never actually shot at anyone before.His cop instincts kicked into overdrive. The perpetrators appeared to be wearing body armor and possessed a small arsenal of illegal weapons. His aim tweaked up, he pulled the trigger and a .45 ACP round effectively decapitated his target; our first confirmed casualty. My encounter with the Latin Kings had been a lesson in poor tactical flexibility.This time, by unspoken agreement, the two talkers were exercising their tactical acumen as they began withdrawing toward the exit. With the short range, width of the hall and lack of cover, being shot at by a shotgun, or a .357 didn’t make much difference. I was trying to jump onto the gurney and launch myself at the two when my toe caught on the bottom of Dad’s body, turning my heroic rush into a face-plant on Father.The men’s cover fire worked on Lisa and Horace. Lisa, being more exposed, had to dive flat. Horace crouch-ran to Rachel. Rachel, with her submachine gun, was firing a steady stream of bullets from between the gurney’s top surface and bottom shelf. Her shots shattered shotgun guy’s shins and blasted off his knee caps.As that bastard screamed and toppled forward, Rachel emptied the magazine into both his thighs and his right hip. By the copious nature of the blood spray, an artery had been clipped, if not severed. Horace grabbed the back of my jacket and yanked me off the gurney, down to his side. Lisa fired off a few shots at the vanishing leader, but he was already out the door.Rachel was rifling the closest EMS’s headless body, looking for a fresh clip for the M-11.“Don’t,” Horace cautioned her. Lisa was running to the door.“Rachel, leave the gun and follow me,” I commanded.“Wait,” Horace called out. He was in an impossible situation. The bold Assistant ME began looking for any survivors, starting with the diplomat.Detective Capella was chasing after a possible cop-killer. I was already running after Lisa and Horace couldn’t ride herd on Rachel, catch me and support Lisa all at once. Rachel muttered [OKH] 'dirty goat’ at my fleeting form. I was sure its true meaning was far nastier.“Da-darn it,” Horace grimaced as he started rushing after the three of us.I doubted it was any consolation to Horace that Lisa shot me an evil look when I caught up to her at the loading dock. T

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Mike Van de Elzen: Kimchi burgers with Asian slaw & Gochujang sauce

The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 15, 2022 4:20

This week is a little bit different as we are launching our beef patty and meatball range with Green Meadows beef. So I want to share a recipe with the listeners around the Beef and Kimchi patty. This recipe calls for a Korean chili paste called Gochujang, which is a popular fermented red chilli paste. Its' sweet but also savoury flavours make it really good for meat marinades or combined with vinegar and sesame oil, a delicious condiment for crispy eggplant, world famous Korean fried chicken, or in our case, a kimchi burger. Readily available from most supermarkets now, and it's worth having some on hand. Kimchi burgers with Asian slaw & Gochujang sauce Cook time: 12 minutes Prep time: 20 minutes Serves: 4 1pkt Kimchi burger patties 4 soft burger buns, cut in 1/2 & toasted 1/4 white cabbage, finely shredded 1 carrot, peeled & grated 2 spring onions, washed & sliced 4 gherkins, sliced (I love sweet and sour) 1 tbsp mayonnaise 1/2 cup coriander, chopped 1 tsp sesame seed oil salt and pepper Gochujang sauce 3 tbsp tomato sauce 2 tbsp Gochujang 2 tbsp honey 1 tbsp brown sugar 2 tbsp soya sauce 4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed 1 tbsp sesame seed oil Make up the Gochujang sauce first. Combine the ingredients for the Gochujang sauce and mix well until combined, set aside. In a mixing bowl, combine the shredded cabbage with the carrots, spring onion, gherkins and mayonnaise. Season and mix well. Pan-fry or BBQ the beef and kimchi patties as per packet instructions. Once the patties are cooked, spoon some Gochujang sauce onto the top and bottom bun. Place a small mound of Asian slaw on the bottom bun and top with the pattie. Mike's website – goodfromscratch.co.nz LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Green Meadows - Relaxing Music for Spa , Meditation , Yoga

Relaxing Music - Sleep Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 27, 2022 30:00

Detox your mind and heart of thoughts and emotions that don´t serve you anymore, but are there out of habit.Close your eyes, take a minimum of six slow deep breaths, and begin focusing on relaxing every inch of your body.- Start by focusing on your toes and wiggle and relax your toes- Relax your feet, rotate your ankles and relax your feet- Work up to your calves, Relax your muscles- Continue working your way up your body, one body part at a timeWithin minutes as you work your way up to your head continue to take deep breaths. You will begin to feel relaxed as if you were floating. Your body and brain will be massaged into a deep sleep. Detach and let go. Feel at peace. Feel happy. Feel Free. Don't forget it may be useful for your family and friends too. Enjoy this amazing episode. Don't forget to Subscribe to our YouTube channel: The Mindset Meditation Link to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2RnSdjS Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Cannabis A to Z - Luke Anderson of Canabis Infused Cann Drinks and Bob & Rob Patton of Green Meadows

The Frankie Boyer Show

Play Episode Listen Later May 27, 2022 39:36

Luke Anderson is co-founder of Cann Social Tonics. Along with his good friend and former Bain & Company colleague, Jake Bullock, a session able cannabis-infused beverage line was born! Luke is making it his mission to share how Cann is the perfect option for a new wave of cannabis consumers looking for a guilt-free social buzz. Cann is not just for those exploring cannabis, but for anyone who is looking to moderate or reduce their alcohol consumption. https://www.drinkcann.com/Bob and Rob Patton of Green Meadows joins the program! Green Meadows is a family-owned company whose founders hail from generations of military renown. The Patton family has now applied a legacy of integrity, quality and responsibility to the production and sale of premium cannabis. https://greenmeadows.com/

Horsin' around at Green Meadows Petting Farm

Steeples & Peoples: All Things Frederick County Maryland

Play Episode Listen Later May 10, 2022 17:51

Oink, Gobble, Cluck, Moo…our guest this week on the Steeples and Peoples All Things Frederick County Maryland podcast is Farmer Gretchen the multi hat wearer of Green Meadows Petting Zoo in Ijamsville Maryland. We talk with Gretchen about the history of the farm and how it originated. She tells about the Noah's Ark variety of animals that inhabit the farm and all the events that they hold throughout the year. Gretchen talks about parties that can be booked at the farm and the importance of field trips returning. So get the family tractor fired up and make plans now to head over to Green Meadows Petting Farm. Address: 10102 Fingerboard Road Ijamsville, Maryland 21754 (301) 865-9203 Email: info@greenmeadowsevents.com Website: www.greenmeadowsevents.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UrbanaMaryland/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/gmpettingfarm Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/5885307/united-states/ijamsville-maryland/green-meadows-petting-farm/ ____________________________________________________________ Follow and Connect with Us ____________________________________________________________ Check out our websites, apps and much more www.steeplesandpeoples.com Like our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Steeples&Peoples Join the conversation on Twitter https://twitter.com/SteeplesPeoples Follow us on Instagram pics https://www.instagram.com/steeplesandpeoples Reach out to us on Snapchat at: steeplespeoples Watch our Tik Tok at: steeplesandpeoples =========================== Feel free to let us know if you have any comments or questions By emailing us at: SteeplesandPeoples@gmail.com Steve Medley: voice intro and outro Don't forget to like, subscribe, and join us weekly to find out what's going on with "All Things Frederick County, Maryland" on the Steeples and Peoples podcast!!!

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Green Meadows Farm - The Benefits of Growing Cannabis Organically

Grow Sessions

Play Episode Play 30 sec Highlight Listen Later Apr 29, 2022 50:05

On the latest episode of Grow Sessions we welcome Rob Patton & Josh Turner of Green Meadows. In an episode entitled, “The Benefits of Growing Cannabis Organically,” we learn how Green Meadow's grows their high-quality cannabis using organic & regenerative farming methods.Topics include conventional cannabis cultivation vs. organic cultivation, what it takes to classify as an organic business, how to reduce carbon footprint & how Green Meadows helps educate consumers on how to grow their own cannabis, while contributing to charities such as Veteran's Aide to help give back to the community.If you are a grower, owner of a facility or just interested in the industry, you don't want to miss this episode. Robert R. “Rob” Patton is co-founder & CMO at Green Meadows. As CMO, Rob leads all sales & marketing activities; dispensary efforts that generate in-store revenue; community engagement; wholesale activities, including both the procurement of partner products to be sold at the dispensary as well as cannabis produced by Green Meadows.Joshua Turner is VP of Cultivation. His experience with cultivating cannabis began in the '90s. During graduate school, his first research projects with cannabis was to study environmental restoration from contaminated soils. He moved to Nevada and began designing & building cannabis facilities. In 2016, he helped found & build Woodman Peak Farms in CA. His genetics have won awards for concentrates & flower.In 2020, he took his operation to MA and managed cultivation of hemp. He worked with MDAR to educate farmers on hemp cultivation & certified genetics. It was his love for organic cultivation and the close-knit family culture that brought him to where he is today. At Green Meadows he oversees the fully organic, living soil cultivation operation. About Green Meadows: Green Meadows is a vertically integrated cannabis company based in Southbridge, MA, committed to providing customers & medical patients the highest quality cannabis through curation & cultivation. Green Meadows' organic cannabis is grown in a 35,000-square-foot cannabis facility that sits in the same restored 19th century mill building as its dispensary. The facility has been designed to deploy organic & environmentally responsible methods, which includes a patent-pending fertigation system, integrated pest management program that exceeds Clean Green Certification standards, as well as new processes for fertilizer use, propagation, & soil blending. Founded by the Patton family, Green Meadows is committed to veteran & diversity employment, continued scientific study of potential benefits of cannabis in treating conditions of urgent importance to improving the quality of care for veterans. History of Military & Veteran Support: Green Meadows is owned and operated by descendants of WWII General George S. Patton and is founded on the Patton family's heritage of veteran advocacy, community service & organic agriculture. The Patton family's support for military veterans dates back generations. It grew stronger considering the difficult experiences and related burdens of PTSD endured by many veterans of the Iraq-Afghanistan era.George S. Patton IV, father of Chairman Bob Patton, founded Green Meadows Farm as an organic fruit & vegetable farm after retiring as army major-general in 1980, where he named its fields for soldiers who lost their lives under his command in Vietnam. Combining his devotion to organic, sustainable agriculture with the medical potential of cannabis for veterans & others was the inspiration behind the family's cannabis venture.For more information, visit: https://greenmeadows.com/

Ep 130 World Read Aloud Day Mother West Wind's Children Part 8

children seuss burgess west wind green forest day mother world read aloud day green meadows

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 12, 2022 18:00

Every year I do some reading in honor of World Read Aloud Day. It's every March 2nd in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday. Sometimes I do something Laura specific, but lately I've been doing Mother West Wind's Children by Thorton W. Burgess. For awhile I was doing short episodes as I tested various microphones, but today's is going to be my standard equipment. Learn more about Burgess and find a list of links to the other stories. Today we're doing "Johnny Chuck's Great Fight."

Berries and Native Plants 3/5/22 Hour 1

Green and Growing with Ashley Frasca

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 8, 2022 34:50

Berries, bluebirds at Green Meadows, and warnings about invasive plants from GA Native Plant Society

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General Patton's family - on the show

Project Sapient Podcast (Law Enforcement & Military Discussions)

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 5, 2022 68:40

We have all heard of the Great General Patton (you know, the guy that led the war effort to destroy pure evil- yea that guy) - well, the boys got 2 members of the family on the show. Ayman and Pete talk to Bob and Rob Patton who tell us about the extraordinary things their family is doing for the law enforcement and veteran community, along with their amazing business "Green Meadows" in MA. Throughout the show and especially Towards the end the family gives us some great details about their Grandfather. Truly an honor to talk to both of these gents. Check out our website: ProjectSapient.org Email us: ProjectSapient2020@gmail.com #StaySafe #StaySapient #ENOUGH Thanks to our thousands of listeners worldwide and check out our awesome (and NEW) supporters and sponsors links below! Till Valhalla Project DCD Automotive which is Boch Group, NUCAR Group out of MA and Delaware. www.AAAPoliceSupply.com www.HavokJournal.com and Our partners at Weekly Havoc Podcast Second mission www.LiveBoston617.org www.ODkit.com www.EagleEyeFirearmsMA.com GunTrack.app fitcops.com 22 Mohawks Joint Operation- Don't forget to follow us on FB / IG and TIK TOK (Police Podcast)

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The Wishing-Stone Stories (Version 2)

3dAudioBooks

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 30, 2021 311:11

Tommy is a young farm lad with a keen interest in all animals. On the edge of the Green Meadows, he finds an old grey rock. He discovers that when he sits there, Tommy can wish and become any animal. From frogs to geese to beavers and bears, the young boy experiences firsthand the joys and sorrows of animal lives. Genre(s): Animals & Nature --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/3daudiobooks0/support

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We Don't Care

Selling Weed

Play Episode Play 58 sec Highlight Listen Later Sep 28, 2021 62:41

Guest: Bob Patton, Chairman & Founder - Green Meadows / Evan Anderson - Birthday Boy Before we speak to our guest, Evan sits in to hear about Ari's terrible experience with an annoying vendor that dropped off one of the worst grams of rosin he's ever seen. Some vendors need help getting into stores, so Ari offers a few tips for sales reps to help them stop wasting everyone's time.Ari and Evan sample some joints from our last guest Dr. Jordan Zager while going though some listener feedback.[Interview starts at 25:30]Bob Patton of Green Meadows chats with Ari about the challenges he and his family have faced while realizing their vision of selling legal cannabis in Massachusetts. From trying to convince his mother to see the medicinal benefits of the plant, to battling with local prohibitionist residents, and everything else that comes with starting a successful grow; Bob and the Green Meadows squad have weathered the storm, and are finally open for business.Green Meadows embodies a family legacy of supporting and serving others. Founded by descendants of General George S. Patton, Green Meadows carries deep traditions of organic farming, positive community engagement, and support of military veterans. Our products and customer service reflect this by always focusing on each visitor's needs and wishes. We're passionate about cannabis, yes. Ultimately, we're passionate about you.Visit Green Meadows in Southbridge, MA ...........................................................................................Please Rate, Share, and Subscribe!Want to join the conversation? Email us at sellingweedpodcast@gmail.comFollow @arierrl on Instagram

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Insomniac Hour | Past Lives, Green Meadows, Wild Flowers and Willow Trees

Redpill Project - Waking Up The World

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 2, 2021 84:32

Show Sponsor: Join The Redpill CBD Team! https://redpills.tv/joincbd Insomniac Hour | Past Lives, Green Meadows, Wild Flowers and Willow Trees Guest Hosts: Vince and Insomniac 1717 Check Out The All New Redpills TV https://redpills.tv JOIN US ON THE Social Redpill - A Private Social Network - https://redpills.tv/social Visit Us & Find Out About All Of Our Guests! https://redpills.tv/visit We Are Linked Up! https://redpills.tv/links Join The Redpill CBD Team! https://bit.ly/3bJA1bG My Patriot Supply Be Prepared When Disaster Strikes redpills.tv/patriot Blue Blocker Sunglasses Help Those Eyes & Sleep Better redpills.tv/blue Get Redpill CBD – redpills.tv/cbd Shop Essential Oils – redpills.tv/oil GET GOLD NOW! NOBLE GOLD: Get Gold & SILVER NOW In Your Portfolio! https://redpills.tv/gold HELP SUPPORT The Repill Project! [Tip Jar] Bitcoin: 39Wbf3ScFxegBsqXZoNhiZ5N553HhrbYH9 Ethereum: 0xCAaBDc59CA49eBAC74bF6C5da41B557378e30Da0 Support The Redpill Project https://redpills.tv/paypal https://redpills.tv/venmo

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Spotty the Turtle

Sleep Tight Stories

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 3, 2021 21:13

Spotty the Turtle is a Merry Little Breezes story. Peter Rabbit, Reddy Fox, and Billy Mink are arguing over who is the fastest. They decide to go and ask Grandfather Frog who is can be. He suggests they have a race as that is the only way they can be sure. He says they will start together from the old butternut tree, race away across the Green Meadows to the little hill on the other side and bring back a nut from the hickory tree that grew there. The three animals are ready to go when Spotty the Turtle comes along and Peter jokingly asks if he'd like to join them. He says “Yes!” Sleep Tight!, Sheryl & Clark ❤️

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How Howler the Wolf Got His Name

Sleep Tight Stories

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 20, 2021 15:49

How Howler the Wolf Got His Name is a story where Peter rabbit hears an unusual sound. He asks his cousin Jumper the Hare who made the sound? His cousin tells him the story about Howler the Wolf got his name. Peter is very happy that Howler the Wolf does not come to the Green Meadows. Sleep Tight!, Sheryl & Clark ❤️

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World Read Aloud Day Mother West Wind's Children Part 7

god still waters green meadows

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 10, 2021 31:00

Today we're going to celebrate World Read Aloud Day by reading part of Mother West Wind's Children by Thornton W. Burgess. We're picking up from our 10 minute episodes last year where we were testing microphones. This time our story is "Reddy Fox the Boaster."

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Green Meadows, Still Waters

Filled With Messages

Play Episode Listen Later May 6, 2021 12:57

God uses nature to restore, redeem, and recreate us, so let’s work to restore, redeem, and recreate it.

World Read Aloud Day Mother West Wind's Children Part 6

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Play Episode Listen Later Mar 18, 2021 28:00

Today we're going to celebrate World Read Aloud Day by reading part of Mother West Wind's Children by Thornton W. Burgess. We're picking up from our 10 minute episodes last year where we were testing microphones. This time our story is "Striped Chimpmunk's Pockets."

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Riley and Kyle Frolic in Green Meadows (Games!) with Taylor

Desks & Dorks!

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 22, 2021 49:14

Kyle and Riley interview Taylor Hayward from Green Meadow Games this week. Check out his website; https://greenmeadowgames.com/ and be sure to keep an eye out for his Kickstarter for his new game Dawn!Join Kyle and Riley as they workshop their way through a March Madness-style bracket of board game ideas.Check out our website and vote for your favorite game ideas:https://www.desksanddorks.org/Watch us on Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChlVmQQQ--Crho8sgSEiaKw/featuredDon't have time to watch? Listen on Spreaker:https://www.spreaker.com/show/desks-dorksWe just got on the new Amazon Podcasts!https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/4dd9c682-291d-4d77-a62f-eb554b572dd0/Desks-DorksPandora lover like Riley?:https://www.pandora.com/podcast/desks-and-dorks/PC:33626Prefer Google Podcasts?:https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3ByZWFrZXIuY29tL3Nob3cvNDM5Mjc4OS9lcGlzb2Rlcy9mZWVkMore of an Apple Fan(Don't tell Kyle!)? We're on there too!:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/desks-dorks/id1516048178?fbclid=IwAR0tQRTCa-ILN10jrxhY1C0ciVljJBXwlwPgqn5gmwDMzPsX8qt2Bma3RXUMaybe Spotify is more your thing?:https://open.spotify.com/show/5blG8I3mNjBtaj4l7T6NZs?si=2q3_WGU1RYKpAqbMpRhfbACheck us out on Listennotes!:https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/desks-dorks-riley-parks--ijHhkea3_S/We'd love to have you rate us!:https://ratethispodcast.com/desksanddorksLike us on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/desksdorks/Follow the Page on Twitter:https://twitter.com/DesksDorksCheck out our upcoming secret project and behind the scenes moments on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/desksanddorks/Feel free to shoot us an email!:desksanddorks@gmail.com

Why Hooty the Owl Does Not Play on the Green Meadows

The Fighting Moose

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 13, 2020 20:08

Have you ever seen or heard an owl at night while in the woods? I don't know if I ever have but I can say without a doubt that I have seen and heard an owl at night in the woods. We did an owl prowl the other day at a local nature center and it was a lot of fun. We learned things about owls and like I said, we got to see and hear owls in the woods. It was a lot of fun. This is why we are reading the story “Why Hooty the Owl Does Not Play on the Green Meadows” from the book Mother West Wind's Children written by Thornton W. Burgess. Where you from...What book(s) are you reading? Survey https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FM8626C Website: http://www.thefightingmoose.com/ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fighting-moose/id1324413606?mt=2/ Story (PDF): http://ww.thefightingmoose.com/episode165.pdf Reading List: http://www.thefightingmoose.com/readinglist.pdf YouTube: https://youtu.be/PvrkW3ndiII/ Book(s): “Mother West Wind's Children” http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20877 Music/Audio: Artist – Analog by Nature http://dig.ccmixter.org/people/cdk National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA): http://www.nasa.gov Song(s) Used: cdk - Sunday by Analog By Nature (c) copyright 2016 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/cdk/53755

children song nature survey burgess reading list national aeronautics space administration nasa hooty green meadows analog by nature thornton w burgess

He lets me rest in green meadows

Sunday AM – Faith Media

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 15, 2020

He lets me rest in green meadows

worship sermon green meadows

He lets me rest in green meadows

Sunday AM – Faith Media

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 15, 2020

He lets me rest in green meadows

worship sermon green meadows

14 – Why Hooty the Owl Does Not Play on the Green Meadows

Mother West Wind's Children by Thornton W. Burgess

Play Episode Listen Later May 24, 2020 13:33

More great books at LoyalBooks.com

hooty green meadows

#054 Draw The Line Radio Show 25-06-2019 with guest mix in 2nd hr by Madame Electrifie

Draw The Line Radio Show

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 25, 2019 120:01

This is Draw The Line Radio Show with Jacki-e, featuring my mix in the 1st hr of music made by women and then, for the 2nd hr, I hand the decks over to a female DJ. Helping me Draw The Line this week it's Madame Electrifie, the alter ego of breaks/electro/techno DJ Little Jo, who comes from Northampton in the UK. Jo has amassed some 15 years on the decks, playing some of the UK’s leading venues. A festival favourite thanks to her eclectic taste; this summer sees her playing sets at Beatherder, Womad, Wilderness, Green Meadows, Trufest, Shambala and Level Fest. She has her own monthly radio show, Box of Tricks, on Data Transmission radio.and last year saw the launch of her live act, Cassini Circles. Fusing the best vintage beats with the best of the modern age; Madame Electrifie takes classic grooves and threads through everything from hip hop, to house, breaks and drum and bass to create a raucous dance floor focused party, all with that distinctive driving sound that’s a firm nod to her breaks and tech roots mixed with plenty of funk, fun and nonsense on the way. Links for Madame Electrifie- http://www.madame-electrifie.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Madameelectrifie/ In my mix in the first hour I’m featuring tracks by Ilona, Ellen Allien, Monika Kruse, Juliana Wolf, Nusha and lots more. It's time to say NO to gender imbalance in dance music. It's time to Draw The Line!! Track list 1st hour mixed by Jacki-e. 1. Jehnny Beth, Johnny Hostile = Let It Go (original mix) Pop Noire. 2. Nikka – Crushing Things (original mix) Faut Section. 3. Ilona Maras, Stellar Disco – Invitation ft Ana Coya (original mix) Suitebeats. 4. Liema – Insanity (original mix) OH Dynamics. 5. Isabelle Gaultier – Laboratonium (original mix) Analog Musiq. 6. Invinta – Superjam (original mix) Spinnup 7. Miraa May – Angles (original mix) Universal Island Records. 8. uon – Sweet Denial (original mix) uonmusic 9. Hannah Wants – How We You (original mix) Toolroom. 10. Ilona – Keeping Me Awake (original mix) Layer 909. 11. Juliane Wolf – Fly Me To The Juno (original mix) Wizarding Wolf. 12. Ellen Allien – Innocence (original mix) BPitch Control. 13. Monika Kruse, Timmo – Violet (original mix) Terminal M. 14. Nakadia – Serenity Now (original mix) Intec. 15. Mha Iri, Don Weber – My Body (original mix) Orange Recordings. 16. The SloaneRanger – Human Robot (Jacki-e remix) TheSloaneRangerProductions promo to be released 12th July 2019. 17. Nusha – Equality (T78 remix) Autektone. 18. Ann Clue – Mr. Pink ft Adrianos Roussidis (original mix) Fckng Serious. 19. Peder Mannerfelt – Sissel and Bass (Sissel Wincent remix) PMP 20. Peder Mannerfelt – Sissel and Bass (Perc remix) PMP 2nd hour Madame Electrifie - An Exclusive Guest Mix for Draw The Line Radio Show. 1. Unknown. 2. Softmal & Nytron - F.A.M.A (original mix) Prison. 3. Daniel Rateuke - Marimbo (original mix) Stil vor Talent. 4. Austin ATO - Oh Mama ft Brushy One String (extended mix) Defected. 5. Soulphiction - B3B4URD1 (original mix) Lumberjacks in Hell. 6. Claptone - Birdsong ft Zola Blood (Superflu remix) Different Recordings. 7. Funk the Beat - I Heard (original mix) Punta Del Este. 8. Khesis - Veil (original mix) Broken Music Syndicate. 9. Unknown. 10. Foals - In Degrees (Purple Disco Machine remix) Warner. 11. Unknown. 12. David Mayer, Floyd Lavine - Sondela ft Xolisa (original mix) 13. Unknown. 14. Fat Boy Slim - Praise You (Purple Disco Machine extended remix) Defected. 15. Savas Pascalides - Superman (original mix) Lasergun. Draw The Line Radio Show is produced for radio by Sergio Erridge and is A Darker Wave production.

hell dj united kingdom talent prison track tricks unknown wilderness pink funk radio show warner stil madame layer northampton lumberjacks ilona draw the line fusing defected toolroom shambala monika kruse mhairi womad david mayer ellen allien softmal intec data transmission terminal m punta del este bpitch control green meadows faut section nusha xolisa autektone brushy one string fckng serious

Peter Rabbit's Egg Rolling by Thornton W. Burgess

Nana Reads ...

Play Episode Listen Later May 14, 2019 14:58

It's spring in the Green Meadows and Peter Rabbit has a plan but who will help him? And what is an 'egg rolling' anyway? Listen to find out!

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The Merry Little Breezes Save the Green Meadows by Thornton W. Burgess

Nana Reads ...

Play Episode Listen Later May 2, 2019 8:25

Old Mother West Wind's children, the Merry Little Breezes, act quickly to save the little meadow and forest folk from a fire in the Green Meadows.

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Mother West Wind's Children Part 4

children mother west read aloud green forest green meadows

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 24, 2019 15:00

As part of my read aloud celebration AND as an experiment with microphones, I’m doing a series of short (around 10 minute) episodes. The story I'm finishing today is "Why Reddy Fox Has No Friends."

Mother West Wind's Children Part 3

children mother west green forest green meadows

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 27, 2019 13:00

As part of my read aloud celebration AND as an experiment with microphones, I’m doing a series of short (around 10 minute) episodes. The story I'm starting today is "Why Reddy Fox Has No Friends."

Mother West Wind's Children Part 2

children mother west read aloud green forest green meadows

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 23, 2019 11:00

As part of my read aloud celebration AND as an experiment with microphones, I’m doing a series of short (around 10 minute) episodes. I’m reading Danny Meadow Mouse Learns Why His Tail is Short.

Ep 97 Thorton Burgess Read Aloud

murder character cabaret callahan rocky horror livery bonfiglio green meadows

Play Episode Listen Later May 14, 2018 30:00

I missed the read aloud event this year (grump technical issues), but I still wanted to honor it and I thought it would be a great episode to get back up to speed. Burgess was a naturalist who wrote a column for children about wildlife. His stories were about humanized wild animals. They wear clothes and talk, but otherwise act as the real animals do. His stories were set in the Green Meadows and the Green Forest. Since they were originally written in a column each chapter begins with a recap and ends on a cliff hanger. They are perfect early reader (around 2nd grade) books. This one is The Adventures of Grandfather Frog.

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Murder in Green Meadows and Rocky Horror Cabaret; Breaking Character Episode 32

Breaking Character

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 26, 2017

This week Jeremy D. Bonfiglio and Paul Mow talk to Bill Klein from the Twin Cities Players about the upcoming performance of "Murder in Green Meadows;" the cast of the Rocky Horror Cabaret; and Callahan, who performs at the Livery.

Murder in Green Meadows and Rocky Horror Cabaret; Breaking Character Episode 32

Breaking Character

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 26, 2017

This week Jeremy D. Bonfiglio and Paul Mow talk to Bill Klein from the Twin Cities Players about the upcoming performance of "Murder in Green Meadows;" the cast of the Rocky Horror Cabaret; and Callahan, who performs at the Livery.

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Columbia, Missouri, Mayor Brian Treece

Columbia Morning with David Lile

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 5, 2017 27:07

The mayor talks about problems with the city's water and light department, about his skepticism to agree to a budget where utility rates are increased, about a roundabout at Green Meadows and Forum.

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Fairy Tales and Ancient Mythology - British Goblins CT002

Celtic Tomes

Play Episode Listen Later May 24, 2017 20:38

Fairy Tales and Ancient Mythology British Goblins: Welsh Folk Lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions (1881) Book 1 Chapter 1 by Wirt Sikes A comprehensive exposition of ghosts, fairies, dragons, superstitions and supernatural folklore drawn from the Welsh traditions, 'British Goblins' is packed with information on fairy mythology. All proper names, and words in Welsh or other languages, will be found recorded in the show-notes below and we've done our best to get the pronounciations right for you. Running Order: Book 1: The Realm of Faerie 0:46 Section 1 1:24 Fairy Tales and the Ancient Mythology 1:46 The Compensations of Science 3:00 Section 2 3:58 Existing Belief in Fairies in Wales 4:02 The Faith of Culture 5:33 The Credulity of Ignorance 7:13 Section 3 8:48 The Old Time Welsh Fairyland 8:52 Section 4 11:26 The Fairy King 11:30 The Legend of St. Collen and Gwyn ap Nudd 12:32 Section 5 15:32 The Green Meadows of the Sea 15:35 Fairies at Market 17:34 The Land of Mystery 18:30 Fairies marketing at Laugharne Names Used in this Section Rev John Logan St. Collen Gwyn ap Nudd "foi scientifique" Archaeologia Cambrensis Mr. John Walter Lukis, President of the Cardiff Naturalists' Society Glamorganshire Merthyr Chaucer's Wyf of Bathes Tale: In olde dayes of the Kyng Arthour, ... Al was this lond fulfilled of fayrie; ... I speke of many hundrid yer ago; But now can no man see non elves mo. Dryden Gwerddonau Llion Gwydion Dyfed (Demetia) Mabinogion Lady Charlotte Guest Pembroke Carmarthen Cardigan Vale of Neath Craig y Ddinas Morgana Mor Gwyn Morgan king of Annwn Avalon of the Arthurian legends Parry's 'Welsh Melodies' British king Gavran Three Losses by Disappearance Merlin Madog Pembrokeshire Carmarthenshire Milford Haven Laugharne Flemings in 1113 British Goblins can be found on Sacred Texts. You can find out more about Wirt Sikes on Wikipedia. Try the Celtic Myth Podshow for the Tales and Stories of the Ancient Celts at http://celticmythpodshow.com or on Apple Podcasts. Our theme music is "Gander at the Pratie Hole" by Sláinte. You can find their music on the Free Music Archive. Save Save Save Save Save

time president culture stories science british land green mystery market tales sea legends belief wikipedia wales ancient traditions fairies welsh ignorance realm existing mythology sl fairy tales goblins meadows free music archive arthurian gander faerie sacred text fairyland compensations credulity green meadows nudd ancient celts wirt sikes celtic myth podshow

48: Inside the Legislation that Protects Historic Cemeteries

ThisisReno Radio

Play Episode Listen Later May 24, 2017 25:03

Episode 48 has us looking in depth at some topical news items plus some upcoming events in the Reno area. Issues we discuss:* Should you be concerned with hemlock growing along the Truckee River?* The inside scoop on legislation signed by the governor that will help protect the Hillside Cemetery from development* A review of Murder in Green Meadows at Reno Little Theater* A preview of Artown 2017* Five events to check out this coming Memorial Day weekend.Enjoy.Support the show (https://thisisreno.com/subscribe/)

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The story of Green Meadows Beef, and the success of their Paddock to Plate business model

Talking Better Business with Craig Oliver

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 4, 2016 36:45

Green Meadows Beef is an unique family business providing grass feed beef direct to the consumer. This is the story how the Carey family have built their business of providing raw materials to the end user and the way they have used social media to take it to market Today’s guest is Nick Carey, Director and General Manager of Green Meadows Beef based in Taranaki. Green Meadows Beef is a unique family business who have built their business primarily using online and social media platforms. The business has experienced tremendous growth over the last five years. Craig and Nick talk about what started as an offbeat idea that has become big business for his family. In 2012, his family decided they wanted to add value to their products. This propelled them to launch a paddock to plate system. This involved shipping products from their farm through their own processing and distribution channels. Their direct-to-market through online sales has formed a big growth part of their business. Nick’s father, suggested for them to try and market their beef product directly to the consumer. They sat together as a family and formed a new way to get their products to the market, and soon, they recognized the opportunity of selling online. This propelled them to launch a paddock to plate system. This involved shipping products from their farm through their own processing and distribution channels. Their direct-to-market through online sales has formed a big growth part of their business. Nick started his career as a commercial lawyer in Wellington and New Plymouth His role in this new family business was in the development, branding, and logistics. Soon enough this was taking most of his time and he eventually decided he needed to quit his job as a lawyer. That was a leap of faith for Nick, who has had to adjust to being an entrepreneur. There were four key problems Green Meadows Beef was solving for the consumer. These were (1) Time saving (2) Ease of purchase (3) Quality assurance, (4) Provenance. Nick and Craig also talk about how wildly successful My Food Bag has become. It is a website that allows it’s customers to order a food bag for a varied number of people. It is also customized for them in terms of the number of people and their diet. My Food Bag has revolutionized the industry. Countdown eventually came up with a similar concept of online selling. There was a big shift in the market of people being more open to purchasing food products online. That assured Green Meadows Beef of its market. In terms of marketing research, they were lucky that Green Meadows Beef was nimble enough to adapt their offering as well. This included having to tweak their operations on the way. They started out selling bulk-frozen packs and delivering them through chilled or frozen trucks. However, it has now evolved to a point where they can customize their own products and deliver them the next day, chilled, through a courier. Nick’s journey has not been without challenges. One day, his company’s freight company informed him that they were no longer going to deliver Nick’s frozen meat packs. As a result, he was forced to change his business model, which led to better results because they are now selling fresh produce instead of frozen produce. Another challenge Nick has had to face was the price of raw materials. Over the last three to four years, the price of raw materials has almost doubled. At the same time. One of the things that has raised the price of the raw product is the price that it can otherwise be sold elsewhere. Export of demand has been high. They now run their farm as a separate business from their meat processing. Each company has different governance, advisers, and processes. Ensuring that the two businesses were independent of each other will help with succession planning and will force each one to be profitable on its own. . However, with the easing off of demand in the United States, the farm gate prices have been affected. Nick learned to focus on the role of governance and the value of the right independent advice. Another crucial area that Nick has focused on is being able to get accurate and timely business information, dealing with changes in technology and how scalable that is, and finally, achieving a profitable core business before evolving into other paths. Another thing that Nick has focused on is learning how to work with his people. Getting the right staff onboard has been a good learning experience for him. He makes sure his employees have clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and reporting lines so that he could focus on working on the business and growing it. Nick has been able to retain his staff for 4 years now. He hardly needed to do cold hires because he utilized the benefits of his networks. As for online selling, Nick uses mostly social media such as Facebook and Twitter to connect with people and to build an audience. They do mostly paid advertising now. He initially did everything in-house but has started outsourcing it already using a marketing consultant who works remotely for them. In terms of content, Nick suggests that you keep it personal, relevant, and fun to keep his customers engaged. With competition sprouting up more, there is a need to ensure that you get heard. Nick’s friend once said that content is king but engagement is queen and she rules the house. You need to be able to engage your followers. Currently, they are on Pinterest and Instagram but it has been a challenge to maintain everything. They use third party tools to help with the marketing side. They also use cloud based systems that help cut costs and get things done. What Nick enjoys about being in business is building something from the ground up, seeing the evolution of that business, and having a chance to enjoy its success. As a lawyer, Nick had a structured and disciplined career. At the moment, he says he has very little structure in his life now. Working with creative types, for example, causes him to work longer hours and deadlines extended. He deals with it by communicating well with his people. He says that if you spend a good portion of your day through communicating, it makes the day go so much better. This goes back to having structures in place so the rest of the team can function harmoniously while you’re communication with them. Nick’s challenge working with his family is ensuring that there is regular communication in terms of what’s happening in the business as well as asking for feedback. He suggests that there has to be a clear distinction of business and family time. It is important that everyone gets their chance to have a say but at the end of it, they are able to sit down and have dinner together. In terms of having external professionals and mentors for his business, Nick says that one of the critical things is finding the right independent advice. His solution has been to persevere until you find exactly what you need at a particular time. As your business continues to change, so does the levels of advise. Nick has found that having an independent director has helped him fill the skills gap. Engaging the services of experts can be beneficial to his business as well. Nick does not dwell on the past. His company has a year end review where they identify what worked and what didn’t so that in the future, they can learn from these experiences. Nick says that in hindsight, he would have focused on margin analysis in his business and having a better handle on his cash flow and budget. This has become one of their strengths and has allowed them to diversify the business for a more consistent cash inflow. Being content in terms of business and the industry that you’re in is a mistake that business owners make. As an example, the evolution of online selling has had an effect on traditional purchasing. Nick suggests that you need to stay on top of things and not rest on your laurels because you don’t know what’s around the corner. Strengthen your core business and ensure that it is profitable and sustainable before you venture out into other business opportunities. At the moment, there is a need to develop relationships with consumers because people want to know where there food comes from, how it’s produced, and what’s going on. Visit www.GreenMeadowsBeef.co.nz for more information. TRANSCRIPT NICK CAREY Craig: Hi guys! Craig here from The Project Guys. Today in our podcast, really happy to introduce Nick Carey. Nick is a Director and General Manager of Green Meadows Beef based here in Taranaki. Green Meadows Beef is a unique family business who built the business primarily using online and social media platforms. They specialise in suppling New Zealand consumers’ grass fed premium beef, where you online, and delivered to your door in twenty four hours. And their business has experienced tremendous growth over the last five years. What started as an offbeat idea and working from home office is now having their own dedicated butchery and retail premises and offices. So, welcome Nick. Nick: Thanks Craig. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to tell a little bit about our story. Craig: No drama at all! . Tell us a little bit about your background and why you decided to go into business. Nick: Well, my background was as a commercial lawyer for a few years both in Wellington and New Plymouth. We as a family, I guess, back in 2012, decided that we wanted to add value to the products we were producing which was mainly meat or beef and as a way to, I guess, cement the family farm and those plans through a formal succession plan, we decided to launch an integrated pallet to plate business which is shipping products from our farm through our own channels and processing channels, as Craig mentioned, direct consumers New Zealand wide through the different channels we utilise it at supermarkets, restaurants, and caterers and of course, direct-to-market through online sales, which is our biggest growth part of the business. Craig: So, you’ve mentioned that you were a lawyer and then from a lawyer to an entrepreneur, it’s not a traditional path, was it your idea to do businesses with family? How did it all sort of evolve? Nick: Yeah. Evolve is probably the right thing to say. It was my father’s idea to try and market the products. Obviously, we soon recognised online was a much easier path than let’s say the traditional paths of standing at farmer’s markets or carport sales or whatever it may be where other people are maybe trying to sell similar products. So it’s at that time, all of us, I’ve got two siblings. We all became involved to help form a plan to get the products to market and I helped here on the side with development and branding and things and arranging all of that and then once we launched the business, it became pretty evident that I wouldn’t be able to continue in my day job and helping out with the business. So it was about, I guess, 3 months in that I gave up… Craig: Oh, that quick! Yeah. Yeah. Nick: Yeah. Yeah.…full-time paid employment to jump into the business. Craig: To be poor for a couple of years. Nick: Yes! Yes! Craig: [laughs] Nick: Forever. Craig: Forever. [laughs] Yes! Yes! So, when you started, obviously, it was just quite a bit different and there’s a new concept. Get away from the farmer’s markets or selling to a wholesaler, direct….did you guys do any market research and that actually work out where you had a legitimate market and business… Nick: Uhm… Craig: And what are the problems you’re solving which are and I suppose were time saving and ease for the purchaser, wasn’t it? Nick: That and also quality and provenance. So those are I guess the 4 key messages or key problems we’re solving for the consumer. Craig: Yeah. Yeah. Nick: In New Zealand, at that time, there was a limited range of producers doing what we were doing. Certainly that landscape has changed now and more and more are coming on board to be…whether it’s in meat or other ___ farm products or whatever. The launch of things like MyFoodBag and you know and the whole… Craig: Which is wildly successful. Nick: Exactly. Craig: Yeah. Nick: And a great example of success in this market. Craig: Yeah. Nick: So I guess in…when the business was in its infancy, there was only a couple of competitors in New Zealand. I don’t even think Countdown had really launched their… Craig: Right. Nick: Online sales at that time so obviously, we’ve noticed a big shift in the market and people being far more open to purchasing food products online. So, with our research, it was really based on looking at producers in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, seeing what they were doing, what offerings they had. Craig: Yeah. Nick: And obviously, because we…we were selling online, just online only at the start, it did allow us some chance to scale as time went on so there was no pressure of having products ready to go with no markets. Craig: Yeah. Nick: So I guess, we…we are currently on to building website number three. Craig: Right. Nick: So there has been multiple chances to refine the offering based on our own learnings… Craig: Yeah. Nick: Rather than…than doing too much… Craig: Yeah. Nick: market research at the beginning, I guess, which potentially a pitfall… Craig: Yeah. But… Nick: that were fallen into but we’ve been lucky that we’ve been nimble enough to be able to adapt that offering to… Craig: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah… Nick: to see that…what does that mean? Craig: Yeah. Oh, it’s a case sometimes of getting that ___ to market and then work out having to… and having to tweak everything on the way, isn’t it… Nick: Exactly. We’ve started out in our industry selling bulk frozen packs and delivering it via the chilled or frozen trucks… Craig: Yes. Nick: all over the country where it could take anything from a week to two weeks. Craig: Right. Nick: To be delivered to the model that we have now and it’s evolving as you can customise and pick and choose your own products… Craig: Yeah… Nick: …and it’s delivered the next day, chilled via courier, so… Craig: Yeah. Nick: You know, there’s different challenges that come at you and one of that for example was the freight company telling us, “No, we’re no longer gonna deliver your frozen meat packs.” So… Craig: Oh, is that right? Nick: So your business if often forced to change… Craig: Yes. Nick: …which can obviously lead to better results… Craig: Yeah. Nick: …because the consumer appreciates… Craig: Yeah… Nick: fresh produce versus… Craig: Yeah… Nick: frozen produce. Craig: So there. So tell us a bit more about the challenges and the learnings you had in those early years and maybe also the challenges you’re facing now and how that evolved? Nick: Definitely. I guess the critical challenge for us been the price of our raw materials. Craig: Alright. Nick: Just to put them in a little bit of context and background, we run the farm as a totally separate business from the meat processing… Craig: Yeah. Nick: Different governance, different advisers, everything and we thought that was a critical distinction from a… Craig: Uhm… Nick: …a governance point of view particularly in the family situation so that we had two separate business which were hopefully, hopefully independent of each other, both supporting… Craig: Uhm… Nick: …themselves. So… Craig: Also that. I guess it also helps with succession planning too. Exit strategy is one [incomprehensible]… Nick: Exactly. And obviously that’s what we’re focusing… Craig: Uhm… Nick: The meat processing business now is taking on a life of its own with contract manufacturing… Craig: Yeah… Nick: …and things like that so…obviously anytime, I mentioned it at the start that the farm is very much part of the succession plan but if there were something that caused the farm to go, well, we’ve got another business… Craig: Yeah… Nick: And vice versa, we could always onsell the meat processing side of things. Craig: Uhm…uhm…uhm… Nick: …and keep the farm… Craig: That’s right. Nick: But so…part of it is that the farm must obviously make a profit… Craig: Yes… Nick: So we have to purchase the animals that we’re using through the Green Meadows Business from the farm at the prevailing market rate… Craig: Yes… Nick: Over the last three to four years, that price of raw materials has almost doubled… Craig: Oh sh…. Nick: Without a corresponding rise in meat prices at the consumer end… Craig: Yeah… Nick: There’s still a certain barrier at the consumer end as to what a sausage or whatever may cost so I guess that’s been the critical challenge that we’ve face and we’ve had to really adapt and change our product offering. So… Craig: So what’s driven the price of the raw product up? Is it the price on the farm to produce that product? Nick: No, it’s the price that it can otherwise be sold elsewhere... Craig: Oh, okay. Nick: So, export demand, primarily out of the U_S where ground beef, easier ground beef is exported… Craig: Okay… Nick: …to the U_S and it’s been in quite high demand in particularly out of China as well… Craig: Right. Nick: So, depending on what’s happening in those markets, I’m assuming we’re seeing an easing off in the United States at the moment on demand which, of course, is then having a… Craig: Yeah… Nick: …a correlation back to farm gate prices here. Craig: Cool… Nick: So I guess with that challenge, we learned quite a lot and kind of like it’s focused a lot on what’s happened in the business so there are a couple of points off the top of my head… Craig: Yes…Yeah… Nick: I guess the role of governance and the value of the right independent advice has been a critical things that we’ve taken from it, I guess the information we’re pulling out of the business in terms or accurate and timely… Craig: Yup… Nick: …business information, technology and how scalable that is, what machines can really make our day better… Craig: Right. Nick: Versus culling out some of those manual processes, cause obviously, bearing in mind making food can sometimes be a relatively manual process… Craig: Yup! Yeah… Nick: And then it all comes back to achieving a profitable core business before evolving into other paths. So, we’ve really focused over the last year or two on what is our core business, how to make it profitable before launching into some other opportunities as well. Craig: So how do you take yourself out of the business to work on the business around those things you just… Nick: Yeah, well, as the businesses continue to grow, we’ve been able to put staff into roles that I was otherwise doing, so for example, we’ve just taken on an operations manager who is handling most of the day-to-day production and supply side of the business whereas I’m just handling the demand side and obviously everything else. So the finances and working on the business so, I guess that’s been a good learning is getting the right staff on board, making sure that they have clearly defined roles and responsibilities and reporting lines so that that then frees you up to do as you say, “working on the business,” and growing it. So we have that clearly…clear definition of okay, operations manager was gonna focus on the supply side and production, I was gonna handle the demand, so that’s where my focus is now…is on the demand side and when you’ve got the right people and the right positions, everything is fine and it works well. Craig: So, you’ve gotta run on a fierce podcast business and about staffing. How’d you go and find the right staffing? How’d you know? Do you know? [laughs] Nick: I guess, that’s a good question, “Do you know?” Craig: Cause that’s critical, isn’t it? Nick: It is and we are fortunate that in nearly 4 years, we’ve retained all our staff which I guess, obviously speaks of our environment also. The direction that we’re pushing the company. It…it’s…I guess it comes down to clear jobs…just clear job descriptions when you’re going so you know exactly who you’re looking for so when you find them, you know, they tick all the boxes and utilising the benefit of networks because all of our staff have been knowing to…. Craig: Someone…someone… Nick: Yeah. Craig: Someone who knows somebody…Yeah… Nick: Exactly, so now I’m doing that thing with cold hires but I can see that the next thing we’re already looking for our next staff member, which is scary… Craig: Yeah… Nick: But I can see that that will be a cold…a cold hire so I guess that will come down to getting clear…clear pre-employment checks and questions and also making sure they’re the right fit for the… Craig: thing… Nick: Exactly. Craig: Cool. Awesome. So, you have used a lot of online tools and platforms that you’ve touched on before to build the business to where it is. Tell us about the strategy and has that changed over the years and if so, how or….yeah… Nick: Yeah…It’s a different __part obviously with online selling. You wanna connect with customers in real time and I guess social media in particular is great for that. We’ve primarily used Facebook and Twitter for the connecting with people and building an audience at the beginning. I guess how that’s changed is we’ve now moved from just connecting with customers and building that brand and that relationship through the more paid advertising now. So we do a lot of online marketing in terms of ECO and pre marketing and also direct marketing through the likes of Facebook. So, I guess it’s building a network and a platform, which would then turn into an opportunity to market, so… Craig: Did you do all that in-house, or do you outsource it? Nick: We did start all that in-house but now I’ve outsourced it. We have a marketing consultant who works remotely for us, who handles all that ECO and ECM marketing. Craig: And what about all your Facebook engagement? Cause I know when you first start your business, you’re massive on engaging with your audience, you do a lot of that at the start. Is that still done in-house? Or… Nick: It’s still done in-house and obviously that’s been one of the challenges I found is that I handle that role as the businesses grow, keep it…personal, and keep it relevant and keep it fun which is how we engage with our customers and perhaps that’s something I could be doing better. Craig: [incomprehensible] Nick: I think as we came and set the so high with using that as a focus, it’s kind of…you can easily fall by the way, so… Craig: That’s so much of a big challenge, isn’t it because that’s how you built the brand and showing you some of the loyalty stats. Nick: And I’m definitely seeing that with other influences that I follow that they came out with a good solid two years of social media engagement and then now it’s sort of dropped back… Craig: Yes… Nick: And I don’t know whether that’s just the maturing of the market and there are a lot of these platforms now and monetising, they’re successors, so it now makes it difficult to instigate…seen whereas in the beginning it was relatively easy but I think you raise a good point about engagement because a lot of the focus on social media a few years ago was all about content and posting the right sort of content but now, I know a person who writes and used to podcast a lot of Facebook. She said that content is king but engagement is queen and she rules the house. Craig: Yes… Nick: And it’s sort of something that’s always always stuck with me because you can have great content but if you’re not getting anything back from the people you’re publishing it to, what’s the point? Craig: Yeah, you could have 100,000 followers but if you’re not engaging them, what’s the point? Nick: Yes. So I think, you know, that’s a key thing to keep it at the back of your mind because it’s not a question of numbers because it’s like you said, it’s how they’re engaging. Craig: You said when you sell your products you use Facebook and Twitter, yet have you tried the other platforms at all? Nick: We do have a little bit on Pinterest, obviously we’re in a food business and Instagram, but it’s again, it’s the challenge of maintaining everything. We do use a lot of third party tools to push the marketing side of things which we find works well and we obviously into the day to day side of things prefer to use online tools for managing the business, whether it be accounting software, our website is all run on a third party CMS which is obviously cloud based and what else do we use in the cloud? Design tools and everything like that that’s all accessible now which really help (a) cut costs and (b) get things done. Craig: So what do you enjoy most about being in business? What strokes your ties? Nick: Tough question, but I guess it’s with building something from the ground up and seeing the evolution it’s having the chancing to leap at success. There are days obviously that I don’t enjoy leading. Craig: You wish you were a follower there mate? [laughs] Nick: Yeah. Exactly. When you bring in HR and customer issues and things like that. Obviously, you want to do a good job, whether it be your staff or your customers but I guess that’s the critical thing is having that chance and opportunity which I do feel fortunate for that you know, we’re in a position that I was able to leave my fulltime employment to follow something which I could see working and it…with just a few challenges and refinements. We’re now well on a path to making a success. Craig: Yeah. Nick: So that’s pretty special and something that I hold dear and try not to abuse really but it is a bit of a privilege to do this so if I can keep looking at it like that, then it’ll keep me focused and also keep me grounded. Craig: Grounded, which is what New Zealand ___ is all about. Cool, you hear that? Nick: Yeah, I guess we at the start to kinda pushed the business and I do believe in it is we did a lot of PR work which is obviously the opposite to the grounded because you’re having to put yourself out there and tell your story and that can be difficult at times especially when you get…things like TV involved, so yeah, I think that’s a good balance to have. Craig: So, ____ what have you learned from you know, five or six years ago, when you left the safe little confines of a lawyer’s office… Nick: To me, just by one and a half years…whatever it was… Craig: You were very structured and disciplined to doing this. What have you learned as a leader? Here, professionally and personally? Nick: Yeah, I guess a couple of things, you do mean structure, I have very little structure in my life now. Craig: [laughs] Nick: Just by trying to plan things, you know, obviously things never really go to plan. So that’s been difficult in terms of deadlines and things like that as I’m understanding how things work in the real world versus a lawyer’s world where 5 o’clock Friday was your excellent deadline and you wouldn’t dare go past 5 o’clock Friday whereas when you start involving perhaps creative types into the mix and deadlines can often extend. Craig: Yes. Nick: So that’s been one challenge for me personally and also from a managing or leadership type of thing. Communication and understanding the importance of communication internally and externally and you can never really over communicate particularly with staff and things of concerns. Craig: Yeah. Nick: I guess that’s another that I’ve really learned is you spend a good portion of your day through communicating and it makes the day go so much better. Craig: Yes. Nick: But then it comes back to what I mentioned earlier about having the structures in place so that the rest of the team can function harmoniously while you’re communicating with them…the team… Craig: Yeah. And what about the family dynamic, isn’t that communications is key? Sometimes, the family businesses, they can either go really well which is good or goes real bad because one of the first rules of business is don’t ever do business with family members, isn’t it? Nick: It is. Craig: Yes, back to the question. Sorry about the rain everybody! So I asked Nick about the dynamic of working with some family members. One of the first rules of business is don’t go into business with family. So I guess it has worked here. From a leadership point of view, the communications point of view, have you managed that? Nick: Yeah, it has been both a benefit and a challenge to go into business with family. On a daily basis, I work with both of my peer, so on a day to day to basis, I mean, both of my brothers work externally from the business so two problems obviously, or challenges working with family day in day out but also having family interested in the business but not having the experience or benefit of seeing what’s happening day to day so we have pretty regular communications between in terms of what’s happening in the business, asking for feedback that they’re both very helpful and useful, these are my brothers who don’t work in the business. Craig: Yeah. Nick: But balancing that you also have a clear distinction of what’s business time and what’s family time because there’s always that tendency to make family time always business time and I think that’s critical particularly in terms of my own domestic situation as well, I’ve got a partner who doesn’t work and the person that’s end to end in terms of say my parents with their grandchildren and things like that. It’s still got to operate in a normal situation and we are very open with each other so there’s never any issues in terms of overstepping lines or boundaries. Craig: Yeah. Nick: And I think it’s really important that everyone gets their chance to have a say but at the end of it, we still sit down for dinner. Craig: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool. Cool. So you’ve always had external professionals and mentors for your business and I believe now you’ve got a Board of Directors and an independent director tell us about what made you decide that you needed this and the benefits of using these strategies and advise that is out there around using mentors or Board of Directors, etc. Nick: I guess one of the critical thing is finding the right advice, independent advice and it can be a struggle at times, so I guess what I sort of found is keep persevering until you find exactly what you need at that particular time and your levels of advice and who can advise you changes as the business continues to change…and… Craig: Evolves. As the business evolves… Nick: Exactly, so I think the best thing you can do is get out there and take advice as step one but then if you’re not getting the right sort of advice is going out and looking for some different advice. Craig: Yeah. Yeah. Nick: So, we’ve had, as you mentioned, a range from formal strategic planning with our accountants through the business mentors through to now an independent director who I work with closely on a daily basis and they’ve all had their uses and purpose but having an independent voice daily looks like some of the skill gaps that we have or that I have as well is really important and I guess that’s what I see the benefit…the main benefit of the independent board is to plug the skill gaps and I mean we are looking now at maybe bringing another independent onto the board who has some different skill set that none of us have secure around dealing with marketing to the end consumer… Craig: Right. Nick: And events cg and things like that so it’s… Craig: So it’s skill gaps or experience gaps? Nick: I guess both are incredibly relevant because you get the skills from experience so I think yeah. I think both are intertwined. Craig: And you said before that when you first started out your sort of a range of advisers, I mean, it’s the right advice. When you start out were you ever nervous and scared about what’s going on. So how do you know if you get some right advice? If you’re speaking to for example an accountant and they say you should be doing this strategy, how do you know, is that the gut instinct or it is…how do you know if it’s the right one or the wrong one? Nick: Yeah, it’s a good question because I guess when you go into business you’re always confident and pigheaded and you don’t really wanna take advice. Craig: No. Nick: And then to sit over the table with someone and, no offence when you’re listening to maybe to sit over the table with someone, no offence to any listeners who may be in the accounting profession or something. Craig: Someone’s profession… Nick: Who’s telling you you’re doing this wrong, you’re doing that wrong. You know, it can be difficult so I think it’s not a case of knowing or choosing what that right advice is at the start but getting a lot of advice and really going out there and getting as much in as you can and taking bits and pieces from different sources to kind of form that plan because you and only you, I guess will know exactly how the business is going internally or what your dreams and goals and things are but it does help to get as much advice from them. Craig: So that could be what we’ve talked about accountant, but there could be other business owners that could be lawyers, other professionals, and that’s where networking comes in, isn’t it? You realize that when you network, you understand that same…your peers to having the same issues you have even if they might be in a different industry. Nick: Exactly and as many people you can speak to as possible. You know, whether it’s just a friendly ear or someone that you admire, in your industry or a different industry. It can be really beneficial to have that engagement. Craig: Awesome, so the benefit of hindsight, we all do this. What would you do differently? Nick: Hindsight, oh yeah, it’s a great thing. Craig: No, it’s not. It’s a terrible thing! Nick: I guess that’s one thing our plan is not to dwell too much on the past. We do a year review the end of each year and pick out the points of what went good and bad and then put it together and then don’t really dwell on it too much because again, it’s what you’re looking into the future that really controls things. So I guess with hindsight, what I would do it has been more of a focus on margin analysis in our business, so which products work well, where we can extract the most value and also a better handle on cash flow and budget so that financial side of the business from the get-go. I spend a lot of focus now on cash flow and planning cash flow a couple of months in advance and… Craig: So you turned into an accountant? Nick: Yeah, well, I… Craig: [laughs] Nick: I think maybe I’m turning into an accountant but that was a chance to really tighten the skill gaps that I had. Craig: Right. Nick: In the financial management side of things and now that’s one of our strengths where a lot of similar sized businesses I see don’t have a handle on cash flow, which in my business, can actually be quite difficult with online selling because we don’t know when people are gonna bulk buy meat packs and what’s gonna happen which is why we’ve diversified the business from just straight online sales to other traditional sales so that we’ve got consistent cash flow coming in. Craig: A little bit of advice to people. Look after your cash flow and mind your budget, sounds like you’re good at. A couple of hours a week takes to analyse what else has happened that week which is critical. Nick: I guess that’s one thing that having an independent director allows me to do because we have a phone call every Friday afternoon, which… Craig: Hi guys, so from your experiences, what are some of the mistakes that you see business owners are making. So, we talked a little bit about cash flow. Anything else that… Nick: Yeah. I guess, something a little different and that I can see out there I see is that they are content both in terms of their businesses and their industries and not pushing their boundaries and or doing the… trying alternative ways to do things and obviously in the retail side of things. I guess something else I am saying is people being content in terms of their…inside their businesses and in terms of marketing their businesses as well so obviously, the example is that the evolution of online selling and the effect it has on traditional purchasing, and brick and mortar stores and it kinda seems like…to some of them that it’s come out of nowhere whereas the evolution of online selling has been happening in time over the last ten years or so. So I think, I see that both as established businesses and the traditional business being content can often come back to hurt them later on. So, i mean, that’s something else we noticed and why we’re doing things differently as well. Craig: So, the moral of the story is don’t be scared of pushing the boundaries and thinking outside the square box, just give it a go. Nick: And also staying on top of things and not just resting on your laurels because you don’t really know what’s around the corner. Craig: Don’t be scared of what’s around the corner. Nick: Yeah. That’s just saying a little bit no matter how established you are. Craig: So is that the sort of advice you’d give to…if you were to mentor for a better general word, either both established or a startup…what other things would you… Nick: Yeah, it’s different keeping on top of thinss, looking overseas, seeing what’s happening whether you’re selling shoes or cats, or whatever. It’s…there’s a lot to…we’re fortunate in this part of the world that we’re a little behind as well. Craig: Yes, yes…I was gonna ask that. Nick: So, it’s kind of a good thing I think for us because we can have a look and see what’s happening overseas. Craig: You think sometimes, people fall into the trap of going overseas either to Europe or America, seeing something, trying to do it New Zealand but they’re too soon Nick: And obviously given our market size as well as the other key issue here, and also how spread out the market is. It’s a long way from the top of the North Island to Steward Island. Yes, I know, I definitely think that’s true and that’s where the difficulty, I guess comes in with what I just see is…do you become an adopter or do you follow… Craig: Become second tier. Nick: Yeah and there’s lot of risk, in obviously going out and being an early adopter and it falling in your face which… Craig: But then fortune favours the brave and… Nick: But again coming back to what I mentioned earlier on in the podcast is that’s where you’ve got a profitable and sustainable core being you’ve got those opportunities to go out and expand and you’ve still got that core business to I say loosely, to fall back on but you know… Craig: Yeah. To pay the bills… Nick: Yeah. Yeah. Craig: Yeah. Cool. Awesome. And so where do you see your industry going in the next five to ten years? Nick: Yeah, well in the markets, the direct food market, there’s differently more choice for quality and more relationships with…between consumers and producers so I definitely see that as an important step in what we’re trying to stay ahead of because people increasingly do want to know where their food comes from and how it’s produced and what’s going on so I think it’s only gonna get more and we’re gonna see return as one kind of crystal ball return to a lot traditional ways of doing things because the end user or consumer’s putting a price on all those so in our case, it’s manufactured products and more real products and people are prepared to pay more even though it costs more to produce but that’s where I see it headed. Craig: Alright. Cool. Awesome! Nick: And you’ll be more disrupters, I’ve already talked about MyFoodBank and seeing markets online so we find those disrupters coming into the market so I guess, listening to my own advice that’s where I need to stay ahead of and say exactly what’s happening in the market and what trends are coming up. Craig: Awesome. Awesome. Hey Nick, we’ll wrap it up. Thanks very much for your time. . How do we find you? Nick: Yeah so we are an online business. Our website, so you can check out our products at greenmeadowsbeef.co.nz and find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram with our page will get you there. Craig: Awesome! Right. Thank Nick! Good stuff! Nick: Sure!

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Know Your Small Business (Guest: Kronda Thimesch of Green Meadows Landscape)

Cleaning UP! with Debbie Sardone

Play Episode Listen Later May 10, 2016 55:12

Kronda & Jeff Thimesch own Green Meadows Landscaping. A company they started together in 1989 after both graduated from Texas Tech University with a degree in Landscape Architecture.

small business landscape texas tech university landscape architecture green meadows kronda

Ep. 134: Maintaining Your Clients

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 17, 2015 41:31

In this episode, Justin Flatow, director of landscape maintenance for Green Meadows Landscaping, talks about his position at the company, their business mix and the processes he uses each day to make Green Meadows run smoothly. He also discusses his responsibilities, how the company converts design/build into maintenance contracts, as well as how snow and ice management fit into the mix.

Ep. 134: Maintaining Your Clients

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 17, 2015 41:31

In this episode, Justin Flatow, director of landscape maintenance for Green Meadows Landscaping, talks about his position at the company, their business mix and the processes he uses each day to make Green Meadows run smoothly. He also discusses his responsibilities, how the company converts design/build into maintenance contracts, as well as how snow and ice management fit into the mix.

Ep. 134: Maintaining Your Clients

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 17, 2015 41:31

In this episode, Justin Flatow, director of landscape maintenance for Green Meadows Landscaping, talks about his position at the company, their business mix and the processes he uses each day to make Green Meadows run smoothly. He also discusses his responsibilities, how the company converts design/build into maintenance contracts, as well as how snow and ice management fit into the mix.

Ep. 134: Maintaining Your Clients

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 17, 2015 41:31

In this episode, Justin Flatow, director of landscape maintenance for Green Meadows Landscaping, talks about his position at the company, their business mix and the processes he uses each day to make Green Meadows run smoothly. He also discusses his responsibilities, how the company converts design/build into maintenance contracts, as well as how snow and ice management fit into the mix.

Ep. 39: Growing a Balanced Landscape Biz

president entrepreneur rich ny owner small business landscape business growth balanced treasurers goldstein landscaping townships landscapers design build rich goldstein green meadows

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 27, 2014 61:05

Growing a successful landscape design/build and maintenance business is incredibly difficult. Not only do we have the traditional headaches of employees and customers, managing payroll and insurance, as well as marketing and advertising. We also have to deal with the weather, language barriers, trucks, equipment, and enough governmental regulations to make you want to scream.Rich Goldstein, Owner and President of Green Meadows Landscape Contractors, gives us: -A step-by-step approach to growing your business -Design/Build vs. Maintenance -Commercial vs. Residential -Best management practices (BMP's) -Job descriptions and responsibilities -The importance of a good estimating system -Top quality customer service -How to attract good peopleGoldstein founded Green Meadows in 1982. His goal was to provide personalized service, high quality maintenance and skilled construction: characteristics that he felt were lacking in the business of landscape contracting.His commitment to customer service and his understanding of its importance is the reason why his book of business continues to expand and why his clients remain with him year after year. Goldstein has more than 30 years of experience in all phases of landscape construction and lawn maintenance; is also a licensed pesticide applicator, Landscape Industry Certified Technician and an ICPI-certified installer.He prides himself on maintaining the high quality of workmanship necessary to ensure that Green Meadows surpasses industry standards.In his free time, Rich is a firefighter for the Township of Monroe, NY, where he served as a past President and is currently the Treasurer. He also sits on the board of the New Jersey Landscape Contractors Association, where he is the treasurer as well.For more information, visit www.greenmeadowsinc.com.

Ep. 39: Growing a Balanced Landscape Biz

president entrepreneur rich ny owner small business landscape business growth balanced treasurers goldstein landscaping townships landscapers design build bmp rich goldstein green meadows

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 27, 2014 61:05

Growing a successful landscape design/build and maintenance business is incredibly difficult. Not only do we have the traditional headaches of employees and customers, managing payroll and insurance, as well as marketing and advertising. We also have to deal with the weather, language barriers, trucks, equipment, and enough governmental regulations to make you want to scream.Rich Goldstein, Owner and President of Green Meadows Landscape Contractors, gives us: -A step-by-step approach to growing your business -Design/Build vs. Maintenance -Commercial vs. Residential -Best management practices (BMP's) -Job descriptions and responsibilities -The importance of a good estimating system -Top quality customer service -How to attract good peopleGoldstein founded Green Meadows in 1982. His goal was to provide personalized service, high quality maintenance and skilled construction: characteristics that he felt were lacking in the business of landscape contracting.His commitment to customer service and his understanding of its importance is the reason why his book of business continues to expand and why his clients remain with him year after year. Goldstein has more than 30 years of experience in all phases of landscape construction and lawn maintenance; is also a licensed pesticide applicator, Landscape Industry Certified Technician and an ICPI-certified installer.He prides himself on maintaining the high quality of workmanship necessary to ensure that Green Meadows surpasses industry standards.In his free time, Rich is a firefighter for the Township of Monroe, NY, where he served as a past President and is currently the Treasurer. He also sits on the board of the New Jersey Landscape Contractors Association, where he is the treasurer as well.For more information, visit www.greenmeadowsinc.com.

Ep. 39: Growing a Balanced Landscape Biz

president entrepreneur rich ny owner small business landscape business growth balanced treasurers goldstein landscaping townships landscapers design build bmp rich goldstein green meadows

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 27, 2014 61:05

Growing a successful landscape design/build and maintenance business is incredibly difficult. Not only do we have the traditional headaches of employees and customers, managing payroll and insurance, as well as marketing and advertising. We also have to deal with the weather, language barriers, trucks, equipment, and enough governmental regulations to make you want to scream. Rich Goldstein, Owner and President of Green Meadows Landscape Contractors, gives us: -A step-by-step approach to growing your business -Design/Build vs. Maintenance -Commercial vs. Residential -Best management practices (BMP's) -Job descriptions and responsibilities -The importance of a good estimating system -Top quality customer service -How to attract good people Goldstein founded Green Meadows in 1982. His goal was to provide personalized service, high quality maintenance and skilled construction: characteristics that he felt were lacking in the business of landscape contracting. His commitment to customer service and his understanding of its importance is the reason why his book of business continues to expand and why his clients remain with him year after year. Goldstein has more than 30 years of experience in all phases of landscape construction and lawn maintenance; is also a licensed pesticide applicator, Landscape Industry Certified Technician and an ICPI-certified installer. He prides himself on maintaining the high quality of workmanship necessary to ensure that Green Meadows surpasses industry standards. In his free time, Rich is a firefighter for the Township of Monroe, NY, where he served as a past President and is currently the Treasurer. He also sits on the board of the New Jersey Landscape Contractors Association, where he is the treasurer as well. For more information, visit www.greenmeadowsinc.com.

Ep. 39: Growing a Balanced Landscape Biz