Change of plans

This past Saturday I had plans - big plans - to visit a friend recovering from surgery, go to the mall to return some things & finally to Best Buy to buy an external hard drive.

Planting doesn't care about my plans.

B-rad called me around 11:00am & needed me to go to Palmyra to pick up some parts.  I had about a quarter of a tank of gas & I try to never let my tank get under that because when it comes to B-rad - I NEVER know where I'm gonna end up.  I decided to stop & get gas before I picked up those parts.  I always reset my trip because I'm a dork I like to check my mileage against the pump.  My car tells me what I'm getting but it always reads a little high.  

He was planting in Georgetown so I was making my way via the backroads to the highway near New Salisbury.  He called me, "Where are you?"  "UHM, Hancock Chapel" (if you live around here you will understand...) He said, "OK good - I need you to go back to Palmyra to your work & get me something."

Sigh.

I got to my work around 11:30 & the place was packed which is the norm on a Saturday especially on a holiday weekend.  I checked the computer for the part B-rad needed & we didn't have any.... but our Seymour store did.  I called B-rad & told him I would go to Seymour if he wanted me to.  He did say I didn't have to, but he didn't want to start the next field he was going to without it.  Since it was a 3 day weekend I felt like I should go get what he needed.  I'm a giver.  (The broken piece was a depth cover thingie & it wasn't properly putting the seed deep enough in the ground on one row.  That's a problem.)  

Now-you may remember I have other parts in my car AND I was suppose to be visiting a friend.  I called her to say I wouldn't be able to stop by because planting doesn't care I was going to visit her.  I explained the whole sordid tale but I did tell her if she felt up to it & wanted to get out of the house she was more than welcome to ride up with me.  I made my way to Georgetown around 12:15 & dropped off B-rad's parts.  The friend also lives in Georgetown & it turned out she did wanna get out of the house so I picked her up & we headed north to our Seymour store.

I whined asked B-rad if I would have time to stop in Clarksville to do my 2 errands before I brought him his part & he said I could.  (Planting cared about my errands!)  I dropped my friend back off at her house & around 3:45 I was back in the field waiting for B-rad.

 As I waited surrounded by grass, dirt & trees I wondered how long it would take me to get sick from it all.  

B-rad quickly started changing out the depth cover thingie.

 See where the silver metal thing shaped like an "L" is?  Look to the left of it on the black thing & you will see the teeth looking things are missing.  Up where the first broken tooth is is where that silver thing needed to be to get the correct depth for the seed. 

You know you love my technical farming terms.

 This was the new depth thingie w/ all its teeth in tact.  This piece costs around $21.00.

 B-rad got the new one on & in no time he planting off into the sunset.  I got home around 4:30 & 169.9 miles later.  (Like I said, when it comes to B-rad I never know where I'm gonna end up... ) But if you're keeping score, I drove 2 hours round trip to get a part for $21.  

But hey - my car gets like 30 mpg & B-rad was happy....that's priceless.