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A gust of wind loosened Courtney’s messy bun, and she re-tucked the loose locks. “I’m so excited for you.”
Beth flipped open her laptop. “The last of the waivers should be in my inbox.” She opened the program.
“Yep.” Waiver. Waiver.
She looked through the list of new emails. “Oh, here’s someone who wants to schedule it for next year’s family camp. We hadn’t even planned for future years.”
“Wow.”
A new email from the Equine Youth Rescue Foundation caught Beth’s attention. The subject line didn’t start with a congratulations. “Oh no.” She clicked on the message and skimmed it. “No!” Her heart sank and she let out a groan.
“What’s wrong?”
“We didn’t get one of the grants I totally expected we would get.” She reread the email. “Says they loved our proposal, that the competition was stiff, and that the funds have been awarded to other camp programs.” Her shoulders sagged. “It says to reapply next year.”
“Oh.” Courtney frowned. “I mean, it’s bad news, but it’s also good news. You’re not going to get every grant you apply for, but they liked what they saw.”
“Yeah, I know.” She tried to shake it off. To focus on the positives. “Well, you know what? We won’t need that money, because we’re running a trail ride next weekend.”
“That’s right.” Courtney gave her a fist bump.
“Knock, knock,” Grayson called. He rounded the corner of the cabin and swept up the steps. He wore jeans and a T-shirt, and his lips were drawn in a frown. “Sorry to drop in,” he said. “I have some bad news and some really bad news.”
“Really? That’s all you’ve got?” Beth gave Courtney a look. “I was just gushing with good news, then I got my own bad news. Then I decided to focus on the positive.”
“Way to kill the mood,” Courtney said.
“You have bad news too?” He removed his hat and slid into the chair next to Beth.
“Unfortunately.”
“You go first,” he said.
“We didn’t get the Equine Youth Rescue grant.”
“Oh.” He rubbed his hands on his thighs. “That makes my news really bad news and really, really bad news. Which do you want first?”
Beth let out a squeak and covered her face. “I guess it doesn’t matter.”
“Okay, the hay prices are up this year, so hay’s going to cost an extra hundred per ton.” He placed a note page on the table with all his numbers on it. “With the number of horses we have, that’s over eleven thousand dollars extra for the year.”
She stared at the bottom figure with the dollar sign and a long line of digits following it. Ouch. “Is that the really bad news or the really, really bad news?”
“And the tractor is broken and it’ll be around three grand to repair.”
Beth blinked back a tear. Opened her mouth. Closed it. Swallowed. “We don’t have that kind of money.”
“I’m sorry, Beth,” Courtney said. “You could raise camp prices.”
“We can’t do that midseason—besides, we try to keep the camp affordable.”
Grayson leaned forward, head in his hands. “If we can irrigate the pasture and put up cross-fencing, we might be able to manage pasture grazing better—that’ll save on hay costs. Not by much, but at least a few thousand.”
Beth reviewed his calculations. “There has to be a mistake here. Four tons per horse times…nearly thirty horses. One hundred…” Nuts.
“Will the fencing cost as much as the hay?”
Grayson shrugged. “Maybe—but then you’ll have it in place for next year.”
