Nothing is ever easy (for B-rad...)

If you read my last post about this planting season - you know it's been pretty rough on me B-rad.  He was really REALLY close to finishing last week.  He took a vacation week from work to stay home & plant all day.  With what he got done during the week, he was hoping to be done planting on Sunday.   As for ME, I was going to go to the grocery Sunday morning, get lunch & take it to B-rad in the field & ride around with him for a few hours.  (He likes spending time with me.  Insanity, I know...)

Sunday morning - 10:30 am:

B-rad calls my cell phone.

B-rad: "do you have anyone that can let me in the store to get parts?  I broke a whole row unit."

Me:  "UHM, I don't know - Brian's daughter graduates high school today!"

B-rad:  "Well I'm not going to be able to plant anymore today if I can't get a new row unit & there is NO WAY I will finish today."

I would be fine w/ him not planting for one day - him not so much....

Ok-if you have forgotten, didn't know or are new here - I work at a farm equipment dealership.  We're closed on Sundays, but it's a family run business (one of the family lives across the street from the store - that's Brian that I mentioned above...).  They realize that sometimes they have to open the store after hours or on weekends to get parts for farmers.  It's kinda part of the gig - local business & all that noise.  But I HATE calling them if I can get out of it.  I feel bad.  I mean-they work all week & deserve time off too.  HOWEVER - I also know that I do lots of favors for them on the clock (& off) & sometimes I have to call those favors in.  

So Brian is my "go to" guy on the weekends to get parts.  Like I said - he lives across the street & he's a really really really nice guy.  I help him & his family a LOT w/ their computer stuff at home.  He calls or texts me after hours w/ questions.  And I don't mind doing it at all...I really am a very nice person when I want to be.  (Just don't tell anyone.)

So I knew that Brian's daughter was graduating from high school on Sunday & I didn't know if he would be able to help me or not.  I tried to call one of the parts guys that lives near me first but he didn't answer his cell phone so I made the dreaded call to Brian....

Of course in his 'Brian is a really really really nice guy' way he was more than agreeable to let me in the store to see if we had what B-rad needed.  Luckily graduation was later in the day.

11:00AM

I met Brian at work & we looked up the parts B-rad needed.  We really make the perfect team (Brian & I)- he doesn't know the computer, but can find the parts - I can't find the parts but I know the computer!  

According to our inventory we had 2 row units in the warehouse that B-rad was looking for.  We got the bolts & other miscellaneous items & headed to the warehouse where the row unit should have been.   And we looked....& looked...but couldn't find them.  It's that big piece circled in purple.  They are pretty large so even he & I who don't know much about farming should've been able to find them.  He made phone calls to other people we work with, we looked & looked but could NOT find it.  

Just as I thought all was lost & listened to B-rad sound like someone killed his puppy when I told him we didn't have them - Brian said, "If he wants to come up & take one off the planter in the field next door to get him going he can."  (We have a planter that someone traded in that we haven't sold yet in the field next to the store.)  He even offered to help B-rad but I said "oh no, that's ok - he can get it."  After I saw what was involved I wish I would've taken him up on his offer.  

I'm sure B-rad does too...

12:00 PM  High noon.

Brian & I had looked for that damn row unit for an hour.  While we were searching in vain B-rad was working on taking everything off the broken row unit.  (All those little pieces around it in the picture above had to come off as well as a bunch of other stuff.)  He didn't have a socket he needed to get everything removed so when I left work, I had to go back home to the barn to get the socket, THEN to the field in Georgetown so he could finish taking it apart.

12:30 PM

B-rad loaded up all the pieces he was going to be able to 'repair' in the trunk of my little car.  I had to take him BACK to the barn so he could do some welding.

Me:  "Want to run to Georgetown to get something to eat real quick?"

(I hadn't packed him lunch because I was gonna take it to him, remember?)

B-rad:  "No.  I need to get this fixed."

Sigh.

1:00 PM

We headed back to work so B-rad could take the row unit off the planter in the field.  I got the bright idea of calling Brian (again) to see if he could let us back in the warehouse to let B-rad look to see if he could find the missing row unit.  That would save B-rad a ton of time to not have to remove another one.  Sadly, B-rad didn't see it either.  

(side note-Usually our parts manager keeps IMPECCABLE records.  Seriously. Brian & I even joked about how Tony was going to be freaked out on Monday because 2 very large (& very pricey {$282.44 to be exact}) parts were no where to be found.  We found out later that someone had sent them to our Elizabethtown, KY store & failed to write it down & do the transfer in the computer.  No one has fessed up to that one yet...)

We headed next door to the field & B-rad got to work.  The planter was raised so most the work was at B-rad's level or over his head.  I offered my assistance to help hold the row unit up when he removed the last bolt, but B-rad knows me so well that he knew I was not capable of that.  He did it all on his own.  

He really is a crazy hard worker.    

2:00 PM (& I still hadn't eaten...)

We left the store & I begged B-rad to let me stop somewhere & get something to eat.

Me:  "Can we PLEASE stop at Sav-a-step to get something to eat?   PLEASE."

And $24.00 later (Gotta love small town 'convenience' stores...) we had lunch & drinks & were headed back to the field. 

2:30PM

B-rad started putting the row unit BACK ON (if you're keeping count, that's 3 times in one day).  He wanted me to stay in the field with him just in case he needed something else because he had no vehicle there.  It was so humid ya'll I was sweating just watching.  

B-rad knows when I am forced to stay he's gonna have to listen to my mouth.  I ramble & walk around the field, ask all kinds of questions & scream when I see bugs.  

Imagine a small child bugging the shit out of you - that's me.  

B-rad: "Are you gonna stay & ride around w/ me when I get done?"

Me: "UHHH no."

B-rad:  "Why not?"

Me:  "Aren't you sick of me already?"
B-rad:  "No.  Are you sick of me?"

Me:  "Yes."

2:45PM

B-rad was getting close to getting the row back together.  Of course, all through the day he was mad & frustrated because he didn't think he was going to get finished that day.  I decided that it was almost 3:00-if he got the row back together & it didn't work for whatever reason- why bother?  I said, "Mac-if this doesn't work - I say we call it a day & go swimming over at Brian & Shauna's...."  Of course, I knew that was not an option, but I was trying to make him laugh.  

Ya'll - I SWEAR to all that is good & holy if that had been ME - I would've laid on the ground in the fetal position & CRIED when I found out we didn't have a row unit & I was gonna have to take another one apart (after I already took the broke one apart) & THEN put it back together.  

I'm a wuss like that.  That's why I leave the farming thing to B-rad...

3:30PM

If you're keeping track - that's FIVE HOURS after B-rad called me because the row unit broke.  He had the new one back on the planter, the tractor was started & the a/c was cranked.  B-rad had guilted asked me to ride w/ him for awhile & we hopped in the tractor & were ready to go.  No lie - we started to turn the tractor around & we saw his brother coming down the road in B-rad's truck.  B-rad said, "He's gonna need you to take him to the sprayer."  I was like, "Say whaaa?"  (Hadn't I suffered enough??)

Brian got out of the truck, walked to the tractor & asked me to take him to the sprayer.  We moved the sprayer to a new field, then I had to take him back to the barn to get the semi.  The barn is about 4.2 minutes from my house -  if you think that I was driving ALL the way back to the field to ride w/ B-rad - you don't know me at all.  

So just like that - poor B-rad lost the opportunity to have his lovely non question asking wife in the tractor with him for a few more hours....

On the bright side - he was able to finish planting corn that night right before it rained.   He does have to go back & re-plant those 40 acres I told ya'll about in the last post that were planted after it got cold.  The corn still hasn't come up...

For now he has moved on to side dressing the corn.  He has to go back over ALL the fields he just planted & puts nitrogen down to help the corn grow.  

Yes, it's always something & NO I don't know how he does it....