'Tis the season for B-rad to be busy w/ farming. Normally this time of year he should be done planting & moving on to side-dressing but nope, not this year.
Everyone knows we've had some crazy weather this spring & a LOT of rain which has put farmers WAY behind.
B-rad started planting corn at our house on April 23rd...then we got a lot of rain & he couldn't get back in the field for 2 weeks. TWO. (& YES I am accurate on these dates- I keep it in my calendar along w/ how much rain we get. DUH.) You can really tell now that the corn is coming up just how much time there was between the end rows (which were planted first) & the long rows.
SO-it's crunch time now & he's been taking 1/2 days off from his 'day' job, pulling all nighters (LITERALLY) & taking vacation days for this week to try & get it in the ground. Some of our fields are really too wet be planting but we're at Def Com 5, people. It's GOT to get in the ground.
A couple of weeks ago, B-rad got up around 5AM to go to his 'day' job on a Thursday - he worked all day there then came home & got in the tractor...
And he told me he wasn't coming home that night (they were calling for more rain the next day & he had taken the day off from the 'day' job) & he didn't....
He didn't quit until about 1 PM the NEXT day & according to my calculations that's 33 hours of being awake. He did take a few 30 minute 'power' naps throughout the night but still. I HATE when they pull all-nighters. Farming is very dangerous anyway & w/ lack of sleep it only makes that danger factor go up. I called him that morning when I got up to go to work to check on him (that's also the morning I fell in the shower so I had to ask him to check the shower out when he came home.) & then again around noon. At noon he wasn't making much sense w/ his words. He 'says' it's because he had just woken up from one of his power naps but I don't totally buy that...
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I've been wanting to go to Niagra Falls FOREVER but other things have come up that have delayed that. (Someone had to have a new bathroom, we went on a trip to Jamaica, we go to the houseboat in the summer when B-rad doesn't have archery shoots) - you know how it is. Alicia had asked us to stop by on our way home from dinner the night of my birthday to visit before they moved out of their house. Her & I were talking about what we had planned for summer & she mentioned she had been wanting to take her kids to Niagra Falls but that they were going to be repairing it in the next couple of years & it would be shut down. (Now-I don't know how you 'shut down' a natural phenomenon, but I don't want to take any chances!) I told B-rad, "OK- we have to go this summer." Of course he is fine w/ that - but he doesn't really get bogged down w/ the details so when I start asking him, 'when do you wanna go?' , 'where do you wanna stay?', 'what else can we do while we're there?' his eyes start to glaze over.
I've heard that Niagra Falls is kinda like the Grand Canyon - once you see it - you've seen it & that's really all there is to it. A guy I work with went a couple of years ago & told me a couple of fun things to do but that it would only occupy about half our day. Rose suggested that while we were up that way we go to Hershey, Pennsylvania & anything to do w/ chocolate I'm all about.
I started doing research about how long it would take to get to these places (we're driving) & what else there might be to do on our way home, etc.
I wrote out a ghetto itinerary but I was going to have to talk to B-rad about when he could take off work to go. (He's burning up all his vacation days w/ farming so he will have to take them un-paid) I had to see how his schedule fit w/ my schedule & figure out how to work around other vacations at my job.
With B-rad either A) not coming home at all or B) coming home at 10:30-11:00 pm when I'm going to or already in bed didn't really leave me many options for finalizing my plan...
Before I leave work in the evenings I call to check on him to see if he needs anything, etc. Last week he said, 'yea - I need a Code Red' & I knew he would be unable to escape me in the tractor! I rode around w/ him for a bit & went over all the excruciating details to make sure he was ok w/ my ghetto itinerary. Next we figured out dates (which means I told him the 2 dates I was thinking & he could pick one - he had no opinions on the dates so I made an executive decision & decided...).
& Voila - we're going to Niagra Falls, Hershey World & the Flight 93 memorial this summer.
***
Brady's girlfriend, Sarah, graduated high school over Memorial Day weekend& Alicia's niece, Kaitlyn, also graduated. I got to kill 2 birds with one stone & see them both get their diplomas.
Congrats, Kaitlyn! (& mom, Robin! Hi Robin!)
B-rad had a HELL of a Memorial Day weekend & when he has the kind of HELL that involves stuff breaking - that trickles down to ME getting to be in hell as well because I have to beg people I work with to open up the store after hours to get him parts. The running (for me) started Friday night at 7 pm when I had to get a tire for the planter (you should've SEEN me & the salesman who let me in the store try & put it in my trunk!). Saturday morning I had to come back in to work to get some parts, then Saturday night I was at a graduation party for my bosses daughter (B-rad was in the field-not at the party) & he was having trouble w/ a hydraulic hose so he was talking on my phone to the service manager where I work (most the people I work with were at the party.) about PSI pressures & other non-sense (while I was trying to beg one of the owners who lives across the street from work to let us in the store first thing Sunday morning to get the hose made!)
Fun times.
Fun times.
Us McAfee's took pics w/ Sarah & her family after graduation. Look closely - can you tell who is missing? B-rad couldn't go because he was planting... Sigh...
(Alicia had texted me to see if Brady was at graduation because she hadn't seen him. I said, "did you mean Brady or Brad?" {You know - auto correct...} & she said, 'Brady! I know where Brad is!')
After graduation the Mertz family invited me to eat dinner w/ them in town. I called B-rad to check to see if he needed anything (because if he did I would've skipped dinner) & he was having trouble w/ the planter & NOT in the mood to talk at that moment. I went to eat dinner & I knew Alicia & Daniel had closed on their new house & had been working on painting over the weekend. I texted her to see if they would be there that evening & when she said yes I invited myself over to see their new house after I was done. While I was visiting w/ her B-rad called to say I needed to head home because we were going to go north to 'meet a guy' to get a part for the planter. (That part he was having trouble w/ when I called him after graduation.) This was around 7:45PM. SO-I headed home & at 8:45 PM Sunday night B-rad & I headed north to meet a guy in Brownstown.
The fun never stops, people...
***
When I got home from work one evening I noticed that the door in the garage was unlocked. (YES I'm psycho & check such things.) I sent this text to B-rad.
***
Laying in bed around 10:30 I get a call from B-rad:
B-rad, 'Hey - what are you doing?'
Me: "UHM laying in bed watching tv."
B-rad, 'Uh, uhm, er - can you come get me at the end of Brunner Hill road? My truck ran out of fuel.'
NOW-his fuel gauge has been broken forever but it's a bitch to fix & who has time to fix that when there's all kinds of other crap to fix? He re-sets the trip when he gets fuel & he goes about 250 miles before he gets fuel. Well, it's farming season & everybody & their brother (literally) drives his truck & I'm sure w/ everything going on he didn't even think to check the odometer. I picked him up, took him to the farm to get fuel (we have road & off-road fuel tanks there) & he put 5 gallon of diesel in his truck to get home.
AND just to prove to you the time - I took a picture of my radio. 10:45 PM, people.
Didn't I tell you the fun NEVER stops?
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