Holding Down The Fort

During harvest while all the men are out on assignment chopping, I get to try to keep things going back on the farm.  It is generally irrigation issues that I attend to.  It was one thing to turn on handlines and pumps, but another when the access road is so swampy and boggy that you nearly get stuck.  I smelt like a swamp monster.  Add to the facts that there was a blowout near the end of the line and couldn't get the pipe to move more than 1/2" at a time.  That meant a lot of walking back and forth, but I got it done.  There is a sense of satisfaction in completing my assignments.  And a slight sense of irritation and anger too.

I was covered with the swampy muck.  A shower barely touched the stench.

Rest assured, when it was time to turn the lines back off I walked in.

Another phone call left me cutting hay, which I was pretty excited about.  I mean, who doesn't like to mow with a 20' cutting deck.  The real kicker were all the pre-requisites.  First I had to figure out how to dispense fuel and fill the thing up.

The next road block was getting the pivot to move.  The tires just spun in the mud-filled trenches.  I had to get a ride home to the RZR to pick up Dalanie to come and grab a chain.  We had a plan all figured out, complete with hand signals.  Once hooking the chain on to the swather I waved for her to start the pivot and override the system.  Problem was, I couldn't get the swather started (it was being super particular about the exact placement of the throttle and park brake relationship.)  So I jumped down and waved at her to stop.  Since she was at the pivot point, several towers away, she assumed that was her signal to stop the pivot- her task then completed.  She hopped in the RZR and drove home.

 That left me in quite a pickle because I had arms nowhere long enough to override the system and try pulling the tower through the gunk with the swather.  I was fuming but patiently waited for her to return home so that I could call her on the house phone.  This time I requested a shovel when she came.  We rehearsed the plan several time, making sure she came back and checked with me before leaving.  We were able to get the tower out, so she went on home.  Once back at the pivot point I looked down the line and instead of it being straight, the end tower was way farther ahead of the rest. So I backed things up, trying to remedy the situation.  In the process, the end tower got stuck and would not move.

It wasn't until later that Alan came and we were able to free 4 towers from the horrible mud.  To beat all, once we had the pivot out of the way, I finally got to start swathing.  I was really deflated when Blaine showed up and said that the knives needed replaced before I continued, and the cutting was stripping more than cutting.  Oh what a day!