My Ranch Chapter 22

Chapter 22: Mr. Anderson

Translated by me, edited by Kai.

“Hey Edward, you there?” Philemon yelled at the coastal cabin with 2 pickups currently parked in front of it.

“Just as I thought. Boss, you are extremely lucky, because only Philemon can convince this dude to come work for you.” Seeing Philemon yelling at the cabin, Robins can’t help but laugh. Sadly Jiang Hai still has no clue about what is going on.

“He is called Edward Anderson (1). A very famous fisherman here. Rumors has that his dad, a viking descendant, immigrated here from Iceland. When he was young, he went out to sea with a small boat and came back with a mature killer whale in tow. Afterwards he was hired by the government to train special ops members in diving. Sadly, due to his bad temper, he got kicked out after hitting an instructor or something. He is one of the best fishermen here. He previously earned more than enough money for his retirement, but Philemon married his little sister, otherwise there is no way we can convince him to go back onto a fishing trawler.” Robins explained to Jiang Hai.

Hearing what Robins has to say, Jiang Hai is shocked. Single handedly hunted a mature killer whale? If this isn’t a joke then he really can’t be described as normal. Thinking up to this far, Jiang Hai is suddenly interested in meeting him.

“Coming! Philemon, if it wasn’t for Vicki (2) then I would’ve already told you to shut up. Fk.” In response to Philemon’s yelling, a man with a large frame walked out of the cabin. From the looks of it this man is around 7” tall, roughly 50 years old with a thick beard. However, he does not look anywhere near 50 with all those bulky muscles covering his whole body. If it wasn’t for that big round pot belly then his appearance would be pretty scary.

“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d, I’m here to give you work!” Philemon did not take Edward seriously at all. However Edward is shocked to hear this.

In fact, it really is like how Robins described. He earned a lot of money when he was young. Since he doesn’t have a wife or a kid, this amount of money is more than enough to last for the rest of his life if he saves a bit. But family members all know about their family member’s’ situation.

This guy is currently living alone, without any bad habits. He doesn’t drink a lot, smokes very little, and never gambles. This kind of living can be supported with his current balance, but the problem is that he used to be married. Now he is divorced, but he still had a son. Although his son doesn’t have great marks but Edward still had to pay $50,000 for his college tuitions this year. With this bill, Edward’s bank balance really hit rock bottom. Adding on the tuitions for the next couple of years, he is really strapped for cash. He has the intention to look for a job, and with his experience, it is really easy to get hired if he goes to the west or south coast. But with his age, he really doesn’t want to move.

Currently, he is hesitant as this job offer from Philemon is really unexpected. This is mainly because there are no real large fisheries near Boston. The majority of fishing done here is when people drive their family owned trawler out to fish, or farm Maine lobsters. As such the fisheries here who are hiring outside workers can be said to be little, and the ones who are willing to hire him are next to none.

“Let me introduce to you my new boss starting today. He is the current owner of Green Forest, Jiang Hai.” Seeing Robins and Jiang Hai walking over, Philemon stopped beating around the bush and got straight to the point.

“h.e.l.lo. Green Forest? That’s a big piece of property. So are you planning on exploiting the coastal resources there?” Edward asked Jiang Hai.

“Of course, but plans for cultivating fishes need to be pushed back for a bit. Currently I’ve invested too much into the ranch, so I can only offer you a job to captain a couple of boats.” Jiang Hai replied. Seeing Jiang Hai speaking the truth, Edward can’t be happier.

“Hey Edward, long time no see.” Robins greeted, but Edward replied back with only a smile since his main attention is still on Jiang Hai.

“I want to know, when do you plan on further development of the fishery there?” He asked seriously.

“The earliest would be whenever the ranch’s side brings in profits.” Jiang Hai said after a bit of thinking. He really does want to open his fishery, but he still has a funds problem. What could he do?

“That is definitely not a problem.” Edward replied happily.

“May I ask why this is not a problem?” Jiang Hai asked with doubt.

“Two reasons. One, I really need a job, so even if you told me to go catch asian carp I’ll still do it. Two, I have faith in the people you have hired. If both Robins and Philemon are working for you then I can guess, Burke is as well. With these three there, as long as there is no major incident, then in less than 2 years your ranch will be making profits. This coming from my understanding of them as well as the confidence I have in them.” Edward explained. They are all from the same town, whose skills are good and who’s are bad, everyone knows.

Looks like Robins really has some skills. Pretty famous around here as well.

“If it is like this, then I welcome you to join us. It is still quite early right now, so let us get the contracts sorted out. I also prepared a private house for you to move into.” Jiang Hai said.

Hearing what Jiang Hai said, Edward can only agree with him. He still needs to do some packing. Since this cabin is his so there is nothing to return. Because there are houses at the estate, he can rent out this cabin for another source of income. Currently, earning more money is a major concern. They proceeded to the lawyer’s office and signed another set of workers contract. Edward’s wage is also the highest amount from everyone who was hired.

Originally, under normal conditions, mariners earn more than cowboys. In America, mariners earn an average of $48,000 a year, almost reaching the middle cla.s.s. If people like Edward, who can pilot and boat, were to head to south California, then they can make at least $100,000 a year. Sadly, this is Boston, thus Jiang Hai did not offer him that much. The final price they settled on is $1200 a week, if they go out to sea then that is calculated separately. Like this, he can at the very least earn $64,200, which, in many people’s views, is pretty good.

After calling out Edward, Philemon left to pack up. Compared with everyone else, they need to bring their families as well as their belongings so this of course required time. After signing the contract with Edward, Jiang Hai’s group of three dudes went to the local supermarket.

This is also the first time that Jiang Hai is shopping in town, thus he is interested in the prices here. The prices in Boston can be said to be one of the highest in America. They only ranked 9th within all metropolitan regions in terms of income, but their expenditure is almost on par with existences like New York. Leaving people speechless.

Of course, these comparisons are all done against cities within the country, so of course it’s expensive. However, when you compare the prices here with the ones in China, then it really is cheap; especially the meats. Americans don’t like to eat pork, don’t eat lake fish, duck, geese (will only eat their liver), dog, donkey, horse and so on. Their meat consumption is mainly beef, lamb, seawater fish, and chicken. And the prices for these are pretty much dirt cheap.

In the previous chapters we’ve already covered prices and gradings of beef (Chapter 11). A pound is only a few dollars. Exchange this into yuan and it is still cheaper than the ones in China by almost half. Furthermore, you don’t have to worry about water injected meats or viruses in the meat (3). The price of lamb is almost the same. Sometimes, it might be a bit more expensive, but this is also the same in China. Finally, there is the literally dirt cheap chicken and sea fish prices. A bag of chicken bits is only 99 cents, a bag of wings is $1.30, exchange this to yuan then it is cheaper by at least half. This are also the prices near Boston. If you keep moving west, with the exception of California, the prices will only drop.

However, if you think everything is cheaper like this then you’re really in for a shock. This is because the prices of fruits and vegetables are expensive to the point of making people have sleepless nights. From Jiang Hai’s examination, tomatoes are $2 a pound, bell peppers are 99 cents each, 88 cents a pound for squash and this is just regular vegetables. If we’re talking about organic ones then you at least have to multiply the normal price by 3.

Although everything here is mechanised, the prices are really expensive beyond reason. Apart from those city workers, everyone in countryside all farm their own vegetables. If they have excess then they can also sell them. In America, you really don’t have to worry about them not selling. Because as long as you have stock and the quality is ok, people will buy them no matter the price. This is also applies to medium and low grade vegetable such as the lettuce (4).