(One of) B-rad's happy places...

On Saturday, B-rad & I went on a road trip - a very rainy road trip! We had to travel to Boonville, IN to get some parts for the combine. 'Where in the heck is Boonville?!', you may exclaim? Well, it's one & half hours from our house-that's where the heck it is! It is west of Tell City & Ferdinand (which is near Holiday World...). It was also made famous when David Camm's 3rd(?) trial was held at their courthouse (Warrick County...)

Anywho...I digress... We (B-rad) hooked up the trailer to the truck & headed west. Actually, it wasn't that simple. It was pouring rain when we got into the truck, plus B-rad needed diesel. We had to stop at 3 gas stations before finally finding one where the credit card machine worked. (The lines must've been water-logged?) But this also caused B-rad to act like a psycho. It was hilarious hearing him yell at the gas stations, other motorists & just the world in general. That is SOOOO not him. Me - Yes! Him - not so much...

Ok-I digressed again. The reason for our trip: THIS is what B-rad's brother, Brian, did to the combine... Look closely at where the front window SHOULD be. See the sharp, jaggedy, triangular pieces hanging from the top? He got in the combine, started it up, it was in 'forward' gear & it took off & ran into the boom of the sprayer. Uh, yeah - it shattered the windshield & broke the skirting thingie underneaath that says 'Massey Ferguson'. Luckily, he wasn't hurt. Accidents happen. S*** happens that we didn't mean to have happen. That's why they're called accidents. You say you're sorry - you screwed up & move on. But then he had nerve. Real nerve. To blame a poor, innocent child for putting the combine in gear. Can you imagine this sweet little boy doing such an awful thing?!

He said that 'one of the kids must've gotten into the combine & was playing around & put it in forward'. To that I say: #1-I'm SOOOO glad it wasn't one of my non-kids (or B-rad...)!

#2- your kids were at the barn around all that big equipment & you weren't watching them?

& #3-shouldn't you check these things before you start the machine?

Can you believe he didn't ask me what I thought? Hmph.

Ok-so we headed out on our rainy, road-trip to the Massey Ferguson dealer. And I had forgotten how much B-rad loves coming here. Until we saw this:

and this... And when his head started spinning like Linda Blair in the Exorcist - it hit me. Blog.time. We usually drive across the street to the combine 'graveyard' to look at them. But this time we couldn't because of the trailer & the rain. How sad...B-rad's a multi tasker and since he could spin his head around AND load glass...

He caught sight of this beauty. It's a corn head. It's a lotta farming mumbo-jumbo you guys don't care about...but I'm gonna tell you anyway. The head is yellow because it technically goes on another brand of Agco combine. The dealership got a 'good deal' on them. And it just so happens it would fit our combine too. (You can easily change the yellow to red for a small fee of around $3000. I say let's not be color blind. Lets have a red machine & yellow head. It'll give it character...) Instead of the pointy row thingies being metal like the head now, they're some kind of 'poly'. I don't really know why that's better...but apparently it is because that's what everyone is going to now. It also has several updated features that allows less corn to fall out of the head.

Corn falling out = less moo-lah. The 'good deal' cost of this head is 'around $41,000'. Our head now has been around since 2000. It's 11 years old & has seen better days... (We didn't buy the yellow one or anything. B-rad just got a little misty eyed when he saw it. We took pictures & sent them to Brian too...) B-rad tried to figure out how to get everything tied down & secured.

And since I know (some) of you are nosey like me, & may wanna know what the going rate for glass smashed to smithareens on a combine & a shield thingie are going for, I will share with you.... (Again, soooo glad not the fault of one of my non-kids or B-rad...but in the spirit of full disclosure - B-rad DOES break his fair share of stuff. This time he was just in the clear!)

Then it was time to leave. Tear. So we took the slow, sad drive out of their lot...

But no worries, there was more super cool farming stuff to look out on the drive out...

Is it just me or are you suppose to look FORWARD when you drive?