We're getting to the end. I bet this will be the last week of work-- 3 sunny days, then heavy rain is due on Thursday. I have a feeling the boss will tell us Wednesday-- that's it for the year.
Last Friday was a fine day. Newport, the foreman and I rode around clearing toppled trees-- just 3 houses, but they took all day. Newport and I split logs into firewood for one of the "loyal customer" families. Spent the rest of day sitting atop brush piled onto the wagon-- we ferried endless loads of wood back to the farm for the Spring bonfires. The highlight of the day was watching the foreman drag a 40ft pine tree through town with the tractor.
It was a busy weekend-- drove straight from work to bring my brother home from college for the weekend. Got back and had just enough time to make dinner and then pick Darlin up from the bus station. Saturday was an action day-- Darlin and I headed out west state to check out a friend's bookstore (she and her mother run the place, called the Book Mill). Went out for dinner with my parents and then met up with the gang (Gizzie/his girlfriend/Pipes/Gizzie's parents) for drinks and singing.
On with today.
Sunny all day through. Chilly morning gave way to warmer breezes in the afternoon-- temperature climbed to 54F. Turned the clocks back this weekend, so sunset comes early-- it was dark by the time we left the fields at closing.
It was a dog work day. We had one job today-- pull the plastic wrap. Finally finished the cantaloupe rows and started on the big tomato fields-- Newport and I made great progress. We'd used a millimeter thick plastic on some of the tomato rows and they pulled up fast and easy. Unfortunately it didn't last long-- most of the field used a cheaper/thinner wrap that disintegrates in your hands. We inched along, foot by foot, until lunch time.
After lunch the boss called me over. We headed up the hilltop to give the brother a hand getting his feed-corn-combine calibrated and running. (I never got a chance to do a run-through of this machine's mechanics) It jammed over and again. The boss and I climbed all over-- cutting free wads of tangled stalks. The brother finally got the machine running right and cut through several rows, while I hung from the corn wagon watching it fill up. The boss said they harvested a little over 4000lbs of feed last year-- enough to give the herd 30lbs a day through the entire winter (3-6lbs per head). He explained cattle nutrition-- corn is a carbohydrate, fattening up the animals for meat. Coupled with a good diet of hay (protein), the cattle do pretty well over the winter.
Back down the hill and back to the plastic mines. Newport, the foreman and I hauled well past sundown-- as I said before, it was dark leaving the fields. We made good progress though-- 12 out of the 20 big tomato rows have been cleared. 8 rows left, then the 25 short (formerly)-trellised rows and finally the long veggie rows up in the forest field. Might manage to finished everything by Wednesday if we keep today's pace.
Hot showers, cold beer. The end is here.
Take it easy.
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