Flowers and fencing, Scooter's favorites

Annnd Scoots had to be in the photo too

Flowers aren’t that interesting as Scooter would tell you. I enjoy flowers but the poor farm pup is bored silly when he’s stuck on the yard with me doing menial jobs, like planting flowers. Clearly, it’s not as fun or exciting as going on gator rides and crop scouting.

As you can see below, Scoots had the time of his life when we went for a drive last night. All the scents on the wind to smell, a neighbor’s chocolate-colored dog to bark at and bugs to snap at. It was a good time for the farm pup, even if he had to ride in the back (because I took his spot).

Happy happy farm pup!

While I’m out in the garden randomly organizing flower groupings, hubs is out spraying. The one thing I’m very happy to not do. And the one thing the farm pup is not allowed to ride with. Ah well, Scoots stays busy chasing all the birds I try to entice to our yard with bird feeders and suet. Perhaps the birds like it because it adds a little excitement to their usual ‘chirp, swoop and dive’ day.

And the crop duster is spraying the canola field right now as I type. When I went for a quick photo, I missed the plane of course. He did buzz the house several times as he passed over. It always amazes me how low they can fly. And Scoots woke up enough to realize that something was going on, silly dog. Just kidding, I managed to snag a photo or two right before I posted this.

My view from the house as I wrote this post; spraying the canola

Once I was done with the flowers, there was some fencing to be done as well. Not fencing for the flowers, although that would be an excellent idea. It would keep my clumsy farm pup from trampling my newly planted flowers.

Not impressed with flower duty

If you remember the horse shed I’d mentioned a while back… these would go in conjunction with that. With the lovely ‘trade wars’ going and general price of steel we opted for treated wooden fence posts. Sturdy, economical, if a little unwieldly and time-consuming when sinking them into the ground. And it would be the hottest days when we did have time to do fencing. Hubs and a cousin sunk the giant railroad ties for the corner posts. 

Thank goodness for a post-hole auger and only have to auger by hand a few times! Hubs and I settled on a routine. He ran the auger and I had the lovely, not-dirty-or-sweaty-job-at-all of putting the post in, tamping the dirt back in and around and then, for good measure, tapping the post in with several good thumps of the sledge hammer. Those thumps really ring through the trees and echo off the bins. I’m sure we kept the neighbors entertained. Never was I so thrilled to be done. You can be sure I plunked myself down in front of the fan next to Scooter. (He had been banned to the house since he wouldn’t sit in the shade and relax; no, he had to attempt to sniff out the fox who moved in.) Next week I’ll post a photo and should have the wire strung by then. :)

Ahh, flowers and fencing. They obviously go together, hand in hand some would say. What’s next? Perhaps some apple trees. And maybe by fall, horses.

 

Supervisors. Working hard by the water cooler that's for sure.

May your week be sunny with a chance of rain, iced coffee in hand and living the good life.

Skip spring, turn right for summer

A perfect evening for drilling soybeans

Somehow the entire month of May eluded me, well, from the blogging side of life. Overlooking the constant, almost scheduled-like rains planting did occur with a few forays into a coffeehouse here and there. And Scooter had a great time with Boomer.

While hubs toiled away in the dry soil (that later turned to worrisome dry powder-like, soil-resembling stuff that was supposed to grow plants) I darted between rain showers with Dad finishing the last of the planter prep. A late April blizzard will do things like that; freeze field and planter prep right where they stand. This snowballs into a whole variety of things like late seed delivery, any field tillage is now ‘late’, and the list goes on.

A look at the weather forecast showed mud-like weather – cold, damp and potentially windy. I packed accordingly with a couple of t-shirts thrown in last minute over the long-sleeved t-shirts and hoodie. Yeah, that lasted all of five days. 

Then I was sweltering in the standard farmer work gear: jeans, t-shirt, ballcap and boots. Half of my duffle bag (Yes, it’s hot pink. Why? Because it’s color. It’s not denim blue or ball cap black.) I think the thermometer got confused when it went from the chipper cool damp to blazin’ hot and humid summer, its-time-to-bbq weather.

What no one remembers is when it’s that hot out farmers are still working. Working because they love the job aka life and working to feed the world. Yes, tractors nowadays have ac but when the temps are outrageously hot the ac doesn’t work at full blast. Low or medium fan speed ensures it will last the day with you but a sauna-like atmosphere does develop. Non-insulated water bottles very quickly turn warm. I may have experienced this phenomenon myself and warm water does not feel hydrating (or tempting to drink).

While I did have the questionable pleasure of warm drinking water it did occur because I was out drilling soy beans. I left my seat customized to Dad’s height because it was easier (maybe a tad lazy?!) and it’s planting time, there’s no time to mess around with lowering or raising the seat. Just drive. And plant.

Anyways, it took me all of two rounds that maybe I had been a tad short-sighted in not adjusting the seat. I’m average height-ish and my Dad is a whole lot taller (6’6”). So when I’m making the lovely keyhole turns with my little train I have one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the levers to raise the drill. 

Haven't quite mastered the whole 'selfie with air drill' thing

Clearly, I had forgotten that it can be a bit rough as I cross the headlands, going against the grain, so to speak. On a good run my toes will attempt to stick like glue to the floor but any other time I’m literally on an air-ride seat.

It’s a disconcerting feeling. Honestly, I could’ve fixed that problem but I wouldn’t have had the patience to raise it back for Dad when he commandeered the rig from me. It’s an interesting view from that high up; plus, I can see over the hood to where I’m going (and maybe drill a straight line, a worthy endeavor as a little meandering tends to occur as I enjoy the scenery).

With cold water, ac on low and sunscreen (fair skin needs love) it was planting season on the rolling prairies. My trusty farm pup entertained the senior farm dog in the cool breeze of the ac inside the house. Life was great, if a bit too hot.

May your week be full of summer breezes, BBQ’s and iced coffees.

A classy farm pup who likes his flowers