SOLVE FOR BERTHA

the one cloud over Pawlick's barn — worked out longhand by Grandpa Odell, still not worked out

 Take the shade she throws across the north hayfield,
+the eleven minutes she sat over the well and would not move[1],
+whatever she owes the pond for borrowing it,
−the two handfuls she gave back as dew,
×the number of times your grandmother said that one again,
÷the porch, which is where all my figuring gets done,
+one skimmerfall[2], if you happen to catch one,
−the part of her that is only the barn roof thinking loud,
×every summer since the red paint,
+the little hook on her east side, which I have never measured
 and do not intend to[3],
−the sound of the screen door, carried off,
÷how long you'll sit still with an old man
 who won't get to the point,
= Bertha.  Still Bertha. Carry the one.[4]
The little hook on her east side. Nobody has measured it. Good. Odell's working diagram. The chalk got rained on twice, which he said improved it.
⚠ THIS SUM IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION AND HAS BEEN SINCE 1961 ⚠

[1] Timed her with the egg timer off the stove. Your grandmother wanted the egg timer back, which is how I know it was eleven and not twelve.

[2] Skimmerfall: when rain leaves a cloud, gets about waist-high off the ground, thinks better of it, and goes on back up. You hear it more than see it — sounds like somebody shaking out a tablecloth upstairs. Bertha does two or three a season. The county man says there's no such thing. The county man has never sat on this porch.

[3] Fella from the college came out with a ruler on a stick. Wouldn't have told him even if I'd known. Some numbers are hers.

[4] There is always a one. I have never found what it's carried to. If you get further than I did, don't write me — come sit and tell me, and bring the good chair up from the shed, the wicker one has gone soft.

[5] This footnote is for the barn cat, Dennis, who is not part of the equation but wanted to be listed.

You are visitor 000000 to sit a spell.