Opa Reads

Ralph and Judy end their wheat hauling business and begin a cattle trading business. Only Paco will remain with Ralph through the winter, so all the hands leave for Denver.

Just and the crew figure out how to surprise Ralph with a renovated house and bunk room. Mrs Hudson has enough profit from the wheat harvest to move to town and into a house of her own.

The wheat hauling business gets into action as two different properties get managed by Ralph and Judy. The celebration on the first day could be heard a mile away.

Ornery mustangs are brought in from the field, hitched to the wagons, and then each driver gets to practice running down the gulch and up the opposite hill.

Doc is cured of his medicine man ways, the wagons are repaired and made ready for business, and paint is added by Martha and Judy.

Ralph and his team figure out how to build a forge, repair the wagons, drive the hills with light horse teams, and then Judy helped Ralph determine which hauling orders could be accepted.

Ralph and Judy work together to haggle for horses, harness, and wagons to ensure a successful hauling operation.

Ralph does the arithmetic required for a profit analysis of hauling wheat in order to convince the banker to back his venture. The crew enjoys a day in town, but Doc reverts to old habits.

Bones makes a visit to Ralph’s fields in order to assess the quality and value of the crops. Ralph develops his first ideas of hauling crops to the elevator.

The entire crew gets their jobs sorted out, Myron’s family joins the meal, and the muscles adapt to new labor.

Ralph and his crew repair the machinery, learn their new roles, and make an initial practice run. Good good for the crew and good feed for the horses.

Hudson gets killed in his wrath and his wife Clara trusts Ralph to continue the harvest on her behalf.

Ralph makes a successful business pitch to Bones, the local banker. That allows him to get the entire crew to remain willing to stay in the job while Ralph takes over the wheat harvesting operation.

Ralph and the crew learn about the skills of each person, how to work in the field under the oversight of a tyrant boss, and Ralph shares the painful burden carried by the horses under Hudson’s lash.

Ralph learns how Myron Hudson came to be so ornery and thinks of a way to help the crew ensure they get their wages.

Hudson is running a very poor operation with bad equipment, wild animals, and using fear to keep his house and crew together. Ralph ends up the focus of Hudson’s wrath and manages to survive a wild bareback ride.

Ralph gets thrown off the train with a dime in his pocket, then transitions to his next job as a wheat stacker.

Lonnie recovers his self-control and departs Kansas City in a hurry, leaving Ralph chasing $700.

Lonnie does not change his wasteful habits and Ralph enjoys sending a large check home.

The marble like bust business grows and Ralph has to create a stable business plan.

Ralph has to read a legal contract in order to change his usual $25 bust price to $50.

Ralph and Lonnie head to El Paso with the intent of doing a bust for an attorney, but it sets them back two suits, luggage, and a hotel suite.

The business goes into full swing as Mabel brings customers to Ralph, and as Ralph learns to keep Lonnie busy and out of the way.

Lonnie’s enthusiastic embrace of being an artist leaves Ralph with the trouble of setting boundaries for Lonnie to stay busy within while not simultaneously ruining the artwork.

The banker approves Ralph’s clay bust, Mabel gets more orders for Ralph, and a visit to the nearby town provides the makings for plaster of Paris. Lonnie’s enthusiasm for Shiftless continues.