4th of July at the farm & on the lake

Until the Friday morning of 4th of July weekend I did not know if we were going to the lake or not.  I think I told ya'll how B-rad was working INSANE hours to get nitrogen done which included him only getting 3-4 hours of sleep a night.  

When he's going 1000 miles an hour I have to try really really hard to stomp down the planner inside me & not ask him questions about what we're doing 4-5 days ahead of time.  He gets really irritated w/ me & then I get the dreaded, 'I don't know - I'll have to see what's going on.'

And I hate when he says that.  HATE HATE HATE.  

(but 9 times out of 10 that's the answer I get when I ask anything.  That's B-rad's way of blowing me off & being completely non-committal.  Which makes the committal, planner me insane.) 

SO-I told him the Friday morning before that if we were going to go I needed to know because I had to go get groceries, etc.  He finally said that we wouldn't go down until he got nitrogen done Saturday afternoon.  I went Friday after work to get my portion of groceries & had big plans Saturday to sleep in, do some laundry, pack, nap, whatever.

When his alarm started going off at 7:00AM he asked, 'What are you doing today?  You don't have any plans do you?'

UHM.  This is always a trick question...

I replied, "Well, I was gonna sleep, do laundry, pack..."

Then he asked, 'Can you go w/ me to the field & ride w/ me while I finish nitrogen then follow me to Brent's field (more on that in a minute...)?  That way I don't have the truck stuck out at the field.'

SIGH.

The corn has been growing quickly because of the rain (YAY, RAIN!) & it was getting almost too tall to side dress.  

But how pretty is this view?

OK-so if I've never told you how side dressing works - here goes.  First-it goes by lots of names, 'side dressing', 'knifing', 'putting down nitrogen'.  The metal circle thingie cuts a trench in the dirt & that  knife thingie on the bottom goes down into the ground.  The blue tube carries the nitrogen down into the ground where the knife/metal circle thingie has just dug.

B-rad has to follow the rows of corn very carefully to make sure the knife & blades go between each row of corn.  He is also being careful to make sure he runs over as little corn as possible.  Some of that can't be avoided (like when he turns around) but he has to try his best to stay between the rows.  

The point of the nitrogen is to provide more food & nutrients directly to the root of the plant.  And when it rained that weekend right after he finished is even better!  The rain water takes the nitrogen down to the root of the plant more quickly.

I've told ya'll a million times I don't know how B-rad does it acre after acre, field after field - I was bored after like 45 minutes. There were some small fields & I was like, "do we have to go back to that one?"  "After this one are we done?"

Not only is he doing his 'job' at the time, he gets texts & phone calls from his brother (mostly) so he has something else to besides not running over corn. 

The big blue tank in the mirror is where the nitrogen is stored.  He can do about 80 acres (I think?) on one fill up.

After a couple of hours we were done & when you reach a milestone like this it must be documented on social media.  (Nevermind that your wife is BORED & starving!)

Next up was me following him in the truck to Brent's field.  Brent is another young, local farmer who is just getting started & he doesn't have much equipment.  Brent's parents & B-rad's parents have been friends forEVER so we agreed to let Brent use our equipment in trade for his labor services.  He helped them get the planter ready this year (as well as many other tasks!) in trade for using our equipment.  

We had to go through the 4 way stop in Palmyra w/ the tractor & applicator.  Now, I realize many of you don't know what that means - but Marcia & Alicia do!  The 4 way stop is the heart of Palmyra & it really can be a busy little place sometimes.

On this particular day there were people collecting money for a charity.  

And the reason I got my phone out to take a picture was because I was appalled to see that even with this huge ass tractor coming at them, the people collecting did not get out of the way or even attempt to move at all.  I fully realize they may not have been able to move too far away as other cars were in the intersection but it was like these peoples feet were nailed to the road.  

Now it makes more sense to me why people don't get out of the tractors way in their cars - if they're too dumb to move their BODIES, they're certainly not going to move in their car.  The girls in this picture did NOT move anywhere as B-rad went around them & there are NO cars in the turning lane next to them.

This is proof for anyone who ever cusses a farmer because 'they're taking up the whole damn road' that when a farmer can get over out of the way THEY DO.  This stretch of highway has really wide shoulders & we drove on them as much as we could so people could get around us.

SO THERE.

OK-so after an HOUR AND A HALF to Brent's field (remember the tractor tops out less than 20 mpg) we had to wait for him to meet us, then B-rad had to show him how to side dress.

So I waited...

Then they had to fill the tank.

So I waited...

THEN one of the tanks on the semi was leaking so they had to fix that.

And I waited....

An hour after we got to Brent's field B-rad was ready to leave.  This was around 2pm if anyone is keeping track.  I eat lunch at noon so I was hungry & cranky.  We stopped to get a bite to eat & then headed home to pack for the lake.  We got on the road around 3:45 & what I normally wouldn't tell you (but I know B-rad would L-O-V-E for you to know) is that 15 minutes away from home I realized that I forgot something & we had to go back home.

SO.

We got to the lake around 6:30 Saturday night.  Poor B-rad took a couple of little naps on the way in the car.  You know he's tired when he lets me drive...

Where the houseboat is docked at the lake is like living in 1812 & we have NO cell phone service. NONE.  I mean - the words 'NO SERVICE' actually appear at the top of our phones.  Sometimes I try first thing in the morning to go out on top of the boat to see what kind of social media I can connect to.  (It's better in the morning for some reason?  We assume because there's not as many people out yet to suck up all the data rays?)  But even though it's 'better' in the mornings, it still mind-numbingly slow & I'm impatient so I usually get pissed after 10 minutes (I mean who EVER heard of waiting 10 WHOLE minutes for Facebook to load?  Blasphemy!), put the phone in airplane mode & throw it on our bed.  And since I'm mad at my phone & don't have it in my pocket you get no pictures from our weekend. 

 However on Sunday evening a storm came through...& since I was hunkered down inside the houseboat & the camera works on my phone even though the data doesn't, I DO have pictures of that.

At first everyone was inside the boat looking out at the dark clouds rolling in.  And they were spooky looking.  I kept looking for clouds that appeared to be rotating.  I asked, "Where do you go when you're in a houseboat on the WATER & a tornado comes?"

I wasn't happy with the answer I got...

'You are where you're supposed to be.'

Not comforting...

While the storm chasers watchers went outside, I stayed safely (& I use the word 'safely' in the loosest way possible.  I mean HOW 'safe' can you be in a paper-thin walled boat sitting on a large body of water?  Really?)

The lake puts on fireworks & we usually move the houseboat over to the dam to watch them.   Since we got down there so late Saturday night & one of the engines has a piece that B-rad has to fix we stayed at the dock & watched what fireworks we could see that came up over the tree line.   Sunday night we all crammed into the boat to watch a movie since it rained the whole evening & Monday was more of the same so we headed home around 1:00.

And that's how the farming McAfee's do 4th of July - part farming, part fun...