Conor was enjoying the walk down to the barn. He always did after all. It was the peaceful quiet. The lovely still air and the slit nip of cold morning. He could never get enough of it. He knew Alistair wasn’t big on the farm life and tried to respect that to the best of his ability. He tried to be a big brother to Alistair and show him that he’d always have a place here no mater where he went. Conor wasn’t concerned when Alistair didn’t answer him. He was used to it. Alistair preferred silence to speaking so he let the matter lie, figured he’d just be a silent companion as they made their way.<br/><br/>Once they reached the barn Conor smiled and looked over the equipment in the room. “We can milk them later on, maybe even tomorrow morning. We can gather the milk from the storage tanks in the back equipment room. It will take less time. If you talk half the bottles and I take the other half we can have this done in no time,” Conor said as he got everything ready. Taking the box back to the cool room where they kept the large machines that stored the milk and processed it for pick up. Conor had done this so often he didn’t even need to think about it. He set everything up for Alistair to be able to fill half the bottle and left the box with him taking six of the dozen bottles in his arms he went to the next set of large containers and settled himself down to work. They might be a small farm, but with the cattle they had they managed quite a nice haul of milk for the stores. Conor had helped set this equipment up to help generate more money for the farm a few years back and knew it inside out. He could fix it if it broke down and always handled the trucks that came to pick up the milk once a week, usually on a Tuesday. He typically did most of the milking, but he liked to get help every now and then since it made the process faster.<br/><br/>Conor paused in his work as he heard his son’s voice and looked up to see Thomas in the doorway. He smiled at his son and would have laughed it hadn’t been something he knew would make Thomas feel he wasn’t taking him seriously. He bit his lip slightly to keep from laughing at the cuteness of his son. it wasn’t that he found it funny. It was that it was so cute and adorable that it brought laughter to his heart. “I’ll have a look at it as soon as I’m in. Reassure grandma that it’ll be taken care of.” He said seriously before he watched his son walk away. He gave a gentle chuckle and returned to his work. He was certain that Thomas hadn’t caught his words, but would have no doubt at least heard enough to know his message had been delivered and acknowledged.<br/><br/>Since the machines were mostly automatic it was fairly simple to fill the bottles up once they were set up. The old fashioned bottle were a remnant of the old way they used to milk the cows, but Conor liked them a lot. It was so much nicer to have reusable bottles to that garbage you had to throw out and it cut down on the garbage the household produced. Conor was one of these types of man who liked things simple and reusable. He hated to waist. By the time he’d settled down to filling the bottles he was already whistling a tune and enjoying himself. In no time he had his six bottles filled and was heading back to Alistair to see how he was making out. Certain the lad would have finished before him he set down his bottles and waited for Alistair before heading back to the house together.<br/><br/><br/>Once he re-entered the kitchen he went straight to Rose and gave her a light hug. “What seems to be the matter with the sink?” he asked her so he could know how to look into it. Being the handy man of the house he always ended up fixing the little things that seemed to break. It always made him feel more of a part of the family and he loved it. He loved being able to fix things and knowing exactly what was wrong. It was a gift and it made up for his inability to read or write.