The Phone in the Rat

Cloudy all morning, few spits from the sky-- but the rain never came. Cleared up in the afternoon-- some sun even peeked through. Temperature climbed a little from 64F up to the low 70Fs.


This morning started over the sinks. Bah and Old Rudolpho's crew were back at it-- they had on a picking frenzy. 40 some buckets of summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers and pickling cukes needed washing. NYU and the boss got packed up for market, Stretch/Newport/Big Boy and I scrubbed. Just as we got down to the last few buckets-- the foreman rolled up in the tractor with more cucumbers and cukes. Fortunately, it was my time to escape.

The store was low on everything, so Viking sent me to work. Picked 1/2 a crate of Dinosaur/Red Boar Kale and Swiss Chard, then picked 2 buckets worth of Green/Yellow string beans. I brought everything back to the store, the boss/NYU had left-- the boys were ready to go. We grabbed buckets and picked a couple more buckets worth of beans before lunch.


After lunch the assembly line began. Now that the rain has stopped the tomato fields are overflowing. Bah and Old Rudolpho's crew set out to pick-- and the haul was huge. Newport, Big Boy and I got to shining/sorting out the tomatoes in the barn as fast as we could. Emptying the buckets, so the foreman could bring them back to the crew for more tomatoes. It was endless. We sorted many ways today: 1sts for wholesale, 2nds for wholesale, 1sts for ripening/keeping, 2nds for keeping and trash. The foreman made 8-9 tractor trips (with about 300lbs per trip, so 2,400- 3,500lbs total).

Fall is coming on fast-- both Stretch and Big Boy started football practice this week (Stretch left at noon, Big Boy left mid-afternoon). As we sorted tomatoes, minute before leaving, sick-tragedy fell on Big Boy. He slipped and dropped his cellphone (he calls and messages his friends ceaselessly), he dropped it into the liquid-rotted body of a dead rat. When Big Boy picked up his phone it was covered in what looked like wet cat food. He was upset.

Newport scrapped up the rat remains with a shovel and pour down rubbing alcohol and water-- then back to sorting. We kept at it the rest of the day-- and I bet there will be much more sorting tomorrow.

Not much more to it-- a long, slow day.

Take it easy.