Adventures of farming w/ B-rad

Ok-planting is behind this year.  Like way behind. B-rad has used all his vacation days to take off to plant but its still not been enough for him to stay ahead.  According to crop insurance, corn has to be planted by Jun 5th & beans by Jun 15th. For everyday you're late, they drop your coverage by a percentage.  Not only do we need the seed in the ground as soon as possible for the crop insurance coverage, but to get the best yield as well.  B-rad was off the week of Memorial day planting corn non-stop.  Like when I say non-stop I mean he was doing farm related tasks most of the 24 hours in a day.  He would come home between 11:00pm & 12:00am (one night he was out until 4:30 am) & when he got home he ate supper, fell asleep & then I got him up around 7:15am before I left for work.  His goal was to get corn done by the June 5th deadline but as the end of the Memorial Day week approached he still had several hundred acres to go.  Brady had been working on planting beans {but he was going back to Illinois to school}, but our bean planter is small (17') {in perspective the corn planter is 40' wide!} so it takes FOREVER to get anything done.  A couple of weeks ago the boys came to my work to talk to one of the owners about letting us rent a used planter we had in inventory.  Of course they agreed & B-rad came home & said, 'And-just like that - I'm done w/ corn.'  They decided to stop planting corn {since that was the day of the deadline} & do the remaining corn ground in beans instead & use the planter we were going to rent.  It is 40' wide like the corn planter (again-as opposed to the 17' wide Brady had been planting) so it will cover over double the acres in the same time.  

The used planter from work needed quite a bit of TLC so they spent that weekend working to get it ready & then B-rad was off planting beans.  This past Friday I had to run some parts to B-rad after work where he was planting in Georgetown.  I got us dinner & decided to ride around w/ him for the evening.  

He likes when people ride around w/ him.  I can't imagine how lonely/boring it is in that tractor hour after hour, day after day.  He likes having the company & someone to talk to.  I quickly wear out my welcome by constantly saying:

 "OH MY GOD."  

"OUCH!"  

"DO YOU SEE THAT HOLE?"  

"ARE THERE SNAKES OUT HERE?"  

"ARE YOU SURE THIS DOOR IS LATCHED & I'M NOT GOING TO PLUMMET TO MY DEATH?"

"When you get done planting I need you to do 'X, Y, Z' at the house."

When I got to the field, he had just started it & he was checking his seed depth & population.  

It's strange rolling up to a guy on the ground digging in the dirt...

THIS is my seat, people.  It's small - it's uncomfortable, but it's better than nothing. (See how it's right NEXT to the door?  I check the door latch 150,000 times while I'm in that seat...)  When I would ride w/ him in our younger days I didn't even have a seat.  I put my butt wherever there was an empty spot.  However - my butt was a lot smaller & a lot younger back then so it wasn't as big of a deal...

I went to the field straight from work & I always bring my MacBook to work w/ me.  It was HELLA hot last Friday & I wasn't about to leave it in a hot car.  I stuffed it into my purse & toted it into the tractor cab w/ me.  Priorities...

While B-rad replaced the part I brought him, I got settled in the cab.  I had to situate where to put our food & drinks & in doing that I accidentally hit the throttle but I didn't know it.  Suddenly the door popped open & I was all like, "Oh hey, Mac!" but he quickly said, 'you're worse than a kid!  Pull the throttle back - you hit it & the engine is revving!'

Ooopsie...

So we FINALLY got going & finished in that first small field.  We had to move down the road a bit to another field.  I was in my car & he was in the tractor.  (Duh.)  Since they waited until the last minute to make a decision about corn or beans in this field it hadn't been sprayed yet.  (If you spray for corn- you have to plant corn; if you spray for beans you have to plant beans & since we didn't know what the hell we were gonna do Brian hadn't sprayed for anything yet.)  The weeds were taller than my dang car.

I did not sign on for this...

After we moved, Brady needed hydraulic oil in his tractor at another field. Obviously B-rad was busy so I volunteered to go get him to take him to the farm.  B-rad dropped me off at my car & he had to pee.  I decided I also had to pee (besides w/ these guys constantly saying, 'ok now go here', 'ok now do this' I had NO idea when I'd actually get to a real spot to pee!) so after 9 million questions about "Where should I pee?" "Are there snakes here?"  "Will I get a tick on me?" I squatted behind the trailer while B-rad held my purse because I wasn't ABOUT to put it on the ground, the trailer OR in the bed of that truck.  

Do you know how dirty they get stuff?
(NO, I'm not peeing in this pic...I had already pee'd & it struck me funny seeing B-rad holding my purse in the middle of a field of weeds.)

Off I went to pick up Brady...

Saturday morning I had to go to work to get more parts for the planter.  I had already packed B-rad's lunch before he left at 7:30AM (because I had big dreams of staying home all day & doing NOTHING.) so when I had to drop off the parts I decided to take lunch w/ me & ride around w/ B-rad for a while.  

I'm a giver like that.  

When I got to the field he was WAY in the back & told me to wait & he would be up to get me in 10 minutes.   I used that valuable time to eat my lunchable on the trunk of my car rather than trying to do it from the buddy seat in the tractor.

He's been in Georgetown planting & most the fields are RIGHT on the highway.  I would say 95% of our fields are on backroads so having cars right in front of us prompts several "OH MY GODS" from me.

(This is the spot where B-rad & I saw one girl rear-end another girl so hard {they're re-paving the road here so traffic is awful} it blew her air bag & then 30 minutes later someone nearly rear-ended Brady in the planter.  I was ready to jump out of the cab of the tractor to give that person a piece of my mind.  Honestly, a lot of people do NOT pay attention to what's going on around them.  I can tell you that no matter the hurry you're in - your day will be a LOT worse if you hit a piece of farm equipment & SURELY you won't make it to your next destination on time!)  You would be surprised at the number of people who do not slow down when they see HUGE equipment coming towards them.  It floors me every time.

We had to go across a creek to get to another field & yes, you guessed it - I was 'oh my Godding', 'ouch', 'oh' & 'are you sure we can make it across?' the whole way.  
Poor B-rad...

While B-rad was outside the tractor moving seed around in the boxes, his brother called & sounded like he was about to cry.  I said, "UH-are you ok?"  He said, 'Yes, I'm fine - the sprayer is not.'

He had hit a HUGE hole in the sprayer & needed B-rad & Brady to come pull him out w/ the tractor & assess the damage.

B-rad pulled chains out of the semi & he & Brady got the things together they might need to fix it.  
(Brady is shirtless because he had been working on his planter & was hot.  I accused him of wanting to even out his farmer tan...)

This is the sight we saw...not good, people...  (Don't forget the weeds are extra tall because spraying was behind so he really couldn't see the hole...)

The sprayer was totally full, which meant it was going to be at its heaviest while they tried to pull it out.

I typically wear shorts & flip flops when I ride w/ B-rad, but I was never so glad that on this day (for whatever reason?) I chose to wear jeans & tennis shoes.  Ya'll know I'm allergic to everything & walking around in all those weeds I would've been miserable.
(Yes I was on the look out the WHOLE time for snakes, but I knew we were in a high stress situation so I kept my mouth shut about them...)

I video'ed' them pulling the sprayer out.  Things to note - #1 When you see the video shake at the beginning that's because MY dumb-ass fell in a hole as I was walking & you are really, REALLY lucky I didn't say a cuss word for you to hear.  #2 Watch how the back sprayer tire spins as B-rad pulls it out w/ the tractor.  (Brian is in the sprayer & Brady is in front directing traffic...) #3 When I scan over to the boom coming at me it's because I was deciding when/how fast to haul ass outta there.

UHM, you can tell it was in there pretty good.  Those are weeds in the boom.  
(Ok the 'boom' is what stick out on the sides & it has nozzles that point down & that's where the spray comes out.)

Next step was assessing the damage.   (The little pine tree branch hanging on the top of the boom cracks me up.)

I don't know what this thing is or what it does - but it was broken... & it was bad...

It was decided that Brady would continue to plant beans while B-rad helped Brian fix the sprayer.  It was 1,884 degrees Saturday & I did NOT sign on to stand out in the heat all day fixing a sprayer... I am all about the air conditioned cab ride.  I stood there like a good little soldier for a long time until it was decided someone would need to take the truck to another field to get something else...that's when B-rad said, 'Jaime-you can go w/ him to your car & go home.'

Ya'll - there's NO WAY he wanted me out in the sun & weeds all day w/ him...

And just for the record - he got home around 10pm that night & the sprayer STILL wasn't fixed.  (We got the call he fell in the hole around 1:30pm. PLUS Brady had torn a marker arm off the planter they would have to fix the next morning... YES it's always something...)

This is also when B-rad took a welding rod to the hand.  Uh, YEA that's painful...more on that in another post.  I'm gonna go over my character limit on this one.

Sunday was our anniversary but I still had farm related duties.  I had to beg one of the owners to let me into work to get B-rad a part.  I drove it to Georgetown to drop it off then I headed home.  B-rad planted beans all day (after they fixed the sprayer & marker arm) & I had a graduation party to attend.  

Moving on to Monday!

B-rad texted to ask if I could take him to Georgetown after work.  I'm not gonna lie - I had a really bad day at work so I was more cranky than normal.  We got to the field & it was too wet to plant (they had gotten caught in a rare, quick rain storm Sun night in Georgetown--it rained 2 1/2" in 15 minutes!) but we had extra vehicles there that needed to be brought home.  Brian needed rear end oil in his truck before he pulled the trailer with bags of seed on it from Georgetown to Depauw & guess who got elected to go get oil?  Yes, me.  I told B-rad, "I barely have the patience to deal w/ you today - I SURE don't have the patience to deal w/ him."

Poor B-rad again...

Apparently it's super important to get the correct oil & B-rad looked it up online for me & sent me a screen shot of it.  (Yea, I would never remember those numbers.  Besides I would get to the auto store & all the numbers would start to look the same & I would get confused about if I needed 75w-140, 75w-90 or what about 15w-40?  WHO KNOWS?!) 

I met Brian on the side of the road to give him the rear end oil & then it was decided I would follow him to Depauw w/ the trailer & then bring him back to Georgetown to get his work car.  (B-rad was already heading to Depauw in the tractor after I left to get oil...)

We timed it almost perfect because as I was pulling into that little drive B-rad was coming at me.  I quickly backed up to get out of his way.  Clearly I'M smart enough to know to get the hell outta the way when a big piece of equipment comes at me!

First they had to fill the boxes w/ seed.

I leave the heavy lifting to B-rad...

Pink beans!

All those bags of seeds had to go in the boxes on the planter... what a crappy job...

I started to feel a bit lazy just following B-rad around back & forth so as they threw the bags onto the ground I gathered them up & stacked them in a nice, neat little pile.

Then I was sweaty.... hmph...

Finally, I had to follow Brian back to the farm to drop off the trailer, then go BACK to Georgetown to take him to his car.  I ended up getting home around 8:30pm.  Those hours may be acceptable for B-rad, but not for me...