8:30-3:30... and beyond.

Twelve trucks came through today. On a good day, I see about sixty trucks. It was a slow day in the fields due to a mixture of reasons.
First are the conditions of the fields. They were muddy and wet today. The corn was, also, apparently brown and nearly horizontal in another field. These things make for difficult cutting times.
Moreover, we were finishing up the area we had been in for the past few days. A finished field equals moving.  The humongous equipment has to move to a completely different location in a completely different town. Moves like this take time.
Roll all of these things together and you get a SLOW day that ends early! I, for one, am very grateful for getting off at 3:30. My "to do" list was growing exponentially and this time was going to be put to good use.
I flew outta the farm and into the shower (taking note that my lovely landlord mowed the lawn). I got ready and felt like a girl again with make-up, hair down, shorts, flops, etc.
Then I needed to fold the laundry that has been sitting in the dryer for days now. I washed some dishes that had been sitting in the sink from the one day I decided I would cook spaghetti at 8:00.
Onto pick up the brother-in-law so I could pick up a truck to be able to relinquish my truck to the caring hands of my PopPop. My baby truck will be fixed up nice and purdy, I assure you. We had a nice dinner together.  I love my family!
On the way home it was decided that the sister and brother-in-law would watch How to Train Your Dragon 2 with me at the BT3. Woot! I've been needing a movie!
Dropped BiL off to meet up later. Publix. Unload. Dog love. Blog. And off I go to the movies.
Next time I get off early... I'm napping!

And now it's time for silly songs with Miss Mindy...

...the part of the blog where Miss Mindy sings a silly song.

Loader Fun
(To the tune of Jingle Bells)

Walking through the muck
Is slippery at best
What a yucky pad
I'll end up in a mess

Get the the big loader
Tilt the bucket right
Lower to the ground
To clean the pad up right

Ohhhh!

Loader fun, loader fun,
loader gets it done
Oh what fun it is to ride
in the loader at the end of the day!

*********

I only had time to clean half but hey! I did it. Getting better every time... or so I'm told. ;)

"Guess what day it is..."

Well, it's happened. I lost track of my days. You'd think it'd be easy to know what day it is... I write the date on everything.  But I wrote the 25th all day. It is the 26th. I was keeping track of the 24th because I had a friend flying that day so I wanted to make sure I sent a prayer for em... and I just thought that happened yesterday.
It has been a busy day slowly ticking by.  Aren't busy days supposed to fly by?
Pit 6 is almost filled.  That will be the first pit I filled all on my own. Initially, I was nervous about the whole juggling and switching pit thing but so far no problem.  I don't really have much to report on... I still really like it here. I like that the Mr. In Charge works hard. That's always a sign of a good leader. If a leader will get out and help with the worst job, I can respect that leader. I think the worst job here is putting the tarps and tires on the silage mountain at two in the afternoon. This job is so terrible,  I hear tell, that people have quit over it.
I know what you're thinking now... "Mindy, do you help with the tarps and tires job?" My answer is no, I do not.  1. Because it is a boys only club.  2. The only help I have to offer with these puny muscles is comedic relief. 3. I have to maintain my post with the trucks because they don't stop for tarps and tires time.
But let it be known: I wouldn't quit if I was told that I had to go participate in tarps and tires. I might die trying but I'd never quit.
Anyway, the corn silage has to be covered and left to ferment for no less than 30 days. They like to let it go longer but 30 days is the minimum.  Once it is fermented it smells gross. I had to take dry matter samples of fermented corn silage and haylage yesterday.  Boy howdy! That stuff stank! And lured in a whole mess of flies.
I learned the 30 day thing because I had to give a tour of the whole operation to an old man who owns some of the corn fields. He had never done anything like it before and was full of questions. The only question I had to say "I don't know"  to was how long is in under the tarps. While I wasn't 100% sure on my other answers, I was a good bluffer. Not bad for a newbie.

Now I'm going to keep track of some of the sayings I hear around here... some of them I've never heard before and some of them tickle me pretty good... let's see what I can remember. 
"Couldn't find his way outta a brown paper bag."
"That frosted his banana."
"Whining like a buncha girls." This is funny to me because I am a girl... and all I can think is "Mindy! You'd better not ever whine. Ever."
"I don't really want to kick tires with him all day."
"Gonna have a come to Jesus talk."
"Jesus in a bottle." This one in particular had me just a laughing because there was a whole salesman schpeal on Jesus in a bottle... feet dead in the ground and with Jesus in a bottle no problem bring em right back. My remark on the whole act was well you bought the "Jesus in the bottle," right? If you don't think it is funny,  you just had to be here to appreciate it.
"Remember,  I wake up every morning and I know it all." That is the response given when I ask how do you know... for instance I was told that there was a haze a couple of days ago because there were sands of the Sahara blowing in the air. Now you should know I watch the news in the morning because farm people need to know the weather. The news said nothing of the Sahara.  When I asked how they knew that was my answer. Anyone else know of the Sahara haze?

That's all I can think of now but if I hear or remember anymore I'll be sure to make a note.

Inventory

Being without the truck for part of the day was different. It is my transport to the bathroom and a bit of a security blanket. I say security blanket because I have so many things in it! I'm a packer by nature. And I pack well so that means I utilize every space! I have to be ready for whatever may pop up in my 12 hours at the farm.
Here's what I got:
BED OF THE TRUCK
Rubber boots
Folding chair
Cooler full of food, drinks, and snacks (Uncrustables have been my saving grace)

BACKPACK
Two books- The Traveler's Gifts and Tuesdays with Morrie- I started the first but it was a little slow so it is on the bench
A journal
Many many different mechanical pencils and pens
Sharpies
Pocket knife
Scissors
Box cutter
Feminine stuph
My farm handbook
My lesson plans
Ipad... no wifi only good for games and reading books... I'm currently reading Mazerunner
An assortment of pills- headache, tummy ache, heartache... just kidding about that last one to keep you on your toes
Phone charger

IN THE TRUCK
My eno- it's a hammock
Bug spray
Bug buster
Pepto
Towel
Two change of clothes
Extra sunglasses
Hat
Toilet paper
Sunscreen
Hand sanitizer
Water bottle
Bags
Purse- full of other weird stuff like granola bars and quarters and 3D glasses
Tums

And of course I have the farm laptop and magic green binder that I bring to and from work each day.

My boot broke already... I'm told it happens.

These are magazines that Mr. President of the farm gave me to read... then he gave me another today! I'm doing my best. Gotta be that star employee at the end ofnthe summer.

In other news: We had our first accident on site today. A truck's trailer collided with a feed truck dumping haylage. Popped a hole in his trailer. They get a little crazy sometimes and don't slow down when they should. There is an old discarded sign hiding behind some grossness- "__ days without an accident"- I feel like I should post it and start the count over at zero. I'd laugh but I'm not sure everyone else would. 

Whoops

I missed a blog. My baby truck had me all worried with broken brake lines last night. Working seven days a week and being a single adult makes running to a shop to have your truck fixed (which is your mode of transportation to work) hard to wrap your head around.
Luckily for me, I am immeasurably blessed. People saved the day. A friend picked me up from the car shop and brought me to work. Friends brought my truck to me when it was fixed, along with cute kids, and delicious treats! Family who will help me have my truck fixed for real. A friend give me strawberry soda and offer to get my rubber boots. These things may seem simple and ordinary to you but to me they mean the world.
The truck has been fixed and will hold until it can be given to hands that have the permanent solution. Overall, my worries have ebbed a little.
All this makes me think about how much we, as people, have to rely on others. To be completely honest, I don't like it. I don't know if it is because I'm prideful or what? I love helping and serving others. However, if I have to be helped or served, it makes my uncomfortable. I know, though, I could not have accomplished everything I needed to do without the help of the people who were there to lend a helping hand.
I'm trying to be better about help. Grow a little. Or a lot. (Short joke goes here.) God's let me share the road called life with some incredible people. People can I learn from. People that I look up to. People that I laugh with.  People that (crazy thought) may learn from me. People that make life crazy road called life, full of twists and turns and ups and downs, a bit better by being on it with me. Paul's words to the Philippians definitely were words that came to mind a lot today-   "Every time I think of you,  I give thanks."
Many years ago, I used to say that I just wanted to be a hermit in the woods with my dog. I still like my time alone as an introvert but I can't imagine a My Side of the Mountain life anymore. So thank you. For the help. Kind words. Selfless acts. Support. Listening ears. And for letting weird me be a part of your road.
I promise the next post will be about farm life.

13 hours

In honor of my first 13 hour day, I'm writing a limerick. 

There once was a chick named Mindy,
Who thought blogging might be trendy
She worked a 13 hour day
And she still had to feed the pup, reset the cooler, eat, get gas, take a shower, and sleep
So she decided not to be long windy.

Ok. So it is not a perfect limerick but it is limerick-ish.
G'night. 

Ridiculous

Today is Sunday. The Lord's day. Working seven days a week means I work on Sundays. Yes, this means I won't be attending church but that doesn't mean I will be loving or worshipping Him any less. Being a Christian is more than just a Sunday thing anyway... it is about living for Him all the time. And while I fall short (insert short jokes here) much of the time, I do love Christ! Deeply. 

This morning I set up my Eno and started a new Bible study on Elisha and how he lived a ridiculous life for God. I think it is fitting for me right now. Some might think I'm ridiculous to be working this job when I didn't really need the job... some think might think me ridiculous for the different million other choices I've made...but hey! If I've learned anything it is that God chooses the ridiculous.  The Bible is full of those ridiculous stories. Elisha's story is one I'll be dwelling on for a bit.

My Eno worked out really well. Although,  some of the guys liked to mess with me about it... I think they were just jealous they lacked my creativity and didn't think of it themselves.

And hey! Last night's post was FULL of errors... that just goes to show how tired I was... so thanks for still reading after that hott mess.

Picture post

Well, today marks the first day that I can say I am beat! I even considered not writing today. About sixty trucks came through today with a total of 1,337 lbs of silage. Add to that the fact that it was HOT! Whew. I'm tired recalling it.
Friend(s) of the day award goes to my favorite trio who brought me a scrumptious s' mores blizzard. You know who you are and I'm thankful for you!

I need to catch up with my photos before I compose any other tales or else I fear I will get buried alive by all the pictures.  Figuratively speaking, of course. I may, literally,  get buried one day by corn silage but not yet.

Onto the photos...

This is The Weigh Shack... I live here half of the day. My blue chair is constantly chasing The Shack's shadow. 

This is the scale and printer... I put the tickets here are it prints the weight of the truck when I push the button. 

This is inside... my side of the office. Mr.Bossman and his associates use a desk behind me. (Mine is waayyyy cleaner.)

We started a new pit yesterday. This is pit 6. Silage gets dumped in the pit. This is where I come to get dry mattrr samples. 

This is pit 5. The silage has been packed and covered for safe keeping. 

Truck 855 made this for me on Wednesday.  I stick the ticket in the end so they can reach it. Genius!! Everyone loves it. Today, one of the guys who feeds cows locked his keys in his truck and used my stick to get into it. Very versatile.  

God is the best painter. 

Proper pickup truck owners put their muddy rainboots between the bed and cab for safe keeping. The rain also cleans them for free this way. 

Speaking of rain... check that out. It gets kinda intense sometimes.  

I DROVE THIS!! Up and down the mountain! It packs the silage. 

These next 5 photos were taken on the peak of mount silage #5. The show you how pretty it is at the farm in all directions.  

I got a shot of Jack the lizard today. His wife Loraine is much more shy. 

I also learned today how to get under the truck scale! So we'll see where that takes us... 

A fly on the wall

[The booming metropolis of Commoditybarn is a city that is always a buzz of activity. Everyone lives life to the fullest. When you only get a life that lasts about a month you have to cram it all in.

I was born here in the warm, moist scrapings pile.  It is one of the most comforting places to spend your days as a maggot. Not much to worry about. Wriggling from one juicy spot to another.  No one messed with our scraping pile. They just occasionally moved it from here to there. Funny how you don't know what you got til it's gone. However, my 2,500+ siblings drove me crazy. And that number doesn't even include all my cousins that were in the pile too. As soon as I could disappear into my pupa case, I did.

When I emerged with my beautiful wings, I was free of the crazies and onto heights. Ready to explore Commoditybarn and all its splendor. No worries just the wind in my hair. It took all of 10 seconds for reality to catch up with me. Splat! One of my sisters, who happened to be flying next to me, ended up murdered. I would soon find out these beasts were called Squishers.

Squishers come in all shapes and sizes, and are utterly terrifying. In the morning the small Squishers come barreling in. You know that saying " The early bird gets the worm? " It is wrong (and why do the birds always get the sayings?). It should be : "The early fly doesn't get run over by the Squisher." The fast, little Squishers zip in and crush us while we are sleeping in our grass. If you sleep in, you sleep forever.

When the panic recedes from scary Squisher wake-up call, I am off to breakfast. (You should know, I do not panic. I am extremely fast. My family on the other hand does panic. A lot. Panic is hard to get around in so I wait until they calm.) All meals are served in family buffet style. By family, I mean you're literally sharing everything with your family all around on the same crumb. And by buffet, I mean literally eveything is laid out everywhere.  There's a vast assortment of deliciousness. There's powdery food, clumpy food, smelly food, mushy food. It all is irrelevant when it comes to taste because it has to be liquidified to be eaten through my straw mouth.  I do like standing on different things while I eat which is why I mention the variety.

The buffet

During mealtime, I have to keep about 3,000 of my eyes open for the Mammoth Squishers. They are slower than the baby ones but they can wipe out hundreds of my kind in one swoop. The monsters are constanly swarming around our food. Can you imagine how annoying it is to be sipping on a nice warm snack just to have a Squisher barge in and make you flee for your life?  Rude.

Once I'm full, I like to go exploring, lounge in the sun, and play with the Dawdlers. Dawdlers are insanely slow. The baby Squishers bring them into Commoditybarn and they occasionally spend time with the Mammoth Squishers. I don't know what their purpose is. I don't even know if they have a purpose.  Regardless,  I've played some fun games of tag with them. I've never been tagged.  The old flies tell me I shouldn't be flying near the Dawdlers. "Dawdlers are dangerous." The old coots must need their eyes checked.

Today, I've flown into one of the Dawdlers' cages. It is pretty exhilarating.  There's this thing that blows a constant growling wind. I think I'll use it to train my wings. Gotta bulk up. Ladies love well-toned, strong wings. There are also force fields in this cage. I keep trying to fly out in the sky but the force field keeps smacking me in the face. The only way in and out seems to be the moveable wall. There are two big lizards here. One said his name was Jack and that the other one was his wife Loraine. I stay a safe distance from them because I know we flies are a lizard's lunch. There are a couple other flies that braved the same journey. These adventurers keep to themselves. Just the way I like it.

The Dawdler here doesn't do much. Just looks at things and uses its weird looking feet to pound on something. Up close they are so peculiar looking. I don't know why the oldies say to beware. I've made many attempts to play tag with this Dawdler to no avail. I think I'll search for food before I hit the gym.

Something smells good. A fruity, sticky smell. It feels like puddle of orange heaven under my feet. Yum! So sweet! Wait! The Dawdler is swatting a me with its paws. First, the Squishers, now you.  Geez, eating ain't easy.

Another one has come into the cage. Good. While they are distracting each other, I will fly down for one more sip. Ahhh. It is nothing like the buffet food. I think thi... FLY AW]

Splat!
I may have gotten used to the flies buzzing on me, but I really wish these flies would leave my orange soda alone! Welcome to the fly capital of the world!
Or something like that...

Thanks for reading.

Dry Matter Matters

Alright folks. Today's lesson will be on Dry Matter. Just remember that I am no expert. In fact, the experts wouldn't even let me sit at the same lunch table. (Actually, they would because they are nice fellas like that.) Anyway, if you are wanting an accurate "how to" or scientific stuff, you're better off with Google finding you some guy with PhD or other important letters after their name.

Let's get to it then...
Corn silage is basically shredded up corn crop that is fermented. The corn crop has moisture in it. Now like I said before too little and too much water in the silage is not a good thing. Dry matter samples are run to find out how much of the corn vs. water is coming in from the fields.
Here's what I do:

The trucks come in... I weigh them in and out. When a truck comes in from a new field or when has been about 5 trucks since I last got a sample I have to do a dry matter test.

I go to the pit where the silage mountains are built to collect my samples.

There I am... waiting to collect a sample. Thank you for the picture Curtis!  

This is what the silage sample looks like in its bag. These are actually gloves that we rig to be our bags. 

This is the scale and bucket used in the testing. It is finicky. The bucket has to be at 0% without anything in it.

Fill her up. See the flecks of yellow corn and green pieces? This is how you know it is a good batch. 

Fill it until it is at the 100%. 

On the cooker it goes. This gadget evaporates the water thus drying out the silage.

As you can see it cooks for thirty minutes. 

When it's done, it looks like this... crunchier. Like potpourri.

Back on the scale it goes and you read the red numbers. Earlier today our dry matter numbers were 38/37. In the evening it jumped to 42. Dry stuff. The higher the red number the drier it is... a 25 is a dripping wet silage and that is no good. Yesterday, we got shut down early because it was a 27. The rain does that to the stuff. 

When I get a new field I, also, get to make one of these babies. A silage bomb as Curtis calls them. They get sent off to a lab for some real science-y tests. 

I record all of this data into my spreadsheet and it helps save the world. Haha. Not quite but I'm sure my employer appreciates my diligence. That is the question I answer constantly throughout the day- "What's the dry matter?" So I'm always ready! 

And hey! Fun info. that hopefully you gathered from your read... the trucks with lower dry matter numbers weigh more than the trucks with high dry matter numbers. Because water weighs more than the corn silage! Or something like that...

My new friend, Curtis

Well, I get to go home early today. It's been raining a lot in the fields where the corn is getting cut and that's bad news bears for the end product. I'm learning that this whole thing is a great balancing act. You don't want the silage too wet and then it can't be too dry either. That's why I'm constantly running to silage mountain to get samples to test. If you're confused I will post more on that topic another day.

Today is about my new friend, Curtis. You see, I am flying solo today. Yup, they took my teacher and put him to work on the tractor atop of silage mountain. I am all alone at my job. Curtis is a great teacher and he indulges my crazy "document EVERYTHING philosophy." He loves to talk about his kids. There's 2 girls and 1 baby boy in his clan and during the year he stays at home to care for the 2 youngest. Curtis has a deep love for fireworks.  While he doesn't respond to emails he does use his email to get coupons for awesome firework deals. His wife has been tasked with finding me coupons. Although,  Curtis did tell me that I need to find someone to go get my fireworks with my coupons since I will have no time to go to Palm Beach. Any takers?

Curtis is hard of hearing so you have to yell everything twice (or more) to be heard. If at the end of the summer you feel like I am yelling at you,  I am. Please remind me that you can hear.

Really. He's a great dude. He puts my chair back in my truck at the end of the day, lets me run up to the other barn for a potty break, allows me to call him for help (I've only had to do that once), and plays guessing games with me... what's the dry matter on this one? When is the storm gonna hit? Things like that.

He also teaches me how to use the big equipment!  And yesterday he said I was officially a front end loader operator, not just a driver!  I cleaned half of the concrete pad yesterday evening. Curtis was proud! He told me so.

Even though I am now a "party of one" at my little weigh station, it is nice to know Curtis is just around the corner should I need someone. We're all a team and to this female that is a nice thought.

Curtis says my next lesson will be the tractors on silage mountain. I'm a little nervous about this, however. In my tractor safety video, the experts said tractors are top heavy and will flip over if you go on a hill incorrectly.  They say go on hill at an angle to avoid flipping. They don't do angles here. Just up and down. Yes, I know they've been doing it like that since I've gotten here (and probably always) but I'd be the one to push the pedal down too much and flip it over. Soooo, we'll see how it goes.

Did you know that corn can rust. Not like rust on a piece of metal but it is like a fungus disease. It starts at the bottom of the plant and works its way up. And as you may have guessed,  turns the leaves a rusty color. Or that's what I'm told...

 This is Curtis.  I told him this would be his contact photo in my phone.

 This is the front end loader that I conquered. It is huge and I only took a pic of the front. I was too excited to remember to take a pic of the back.

 The concrete pad before... taken on top of the loader.

 A picture of after... taken on the ground... the lighting and angle make it seem not any cleaner but I assure you it is because...

 This is the pile of scrapings!!!

 Beautiful, huh? That is the biggest tractor I've seen yet... and the guy who drives it says I can try!

See it does look cleaner....

This is my "I'm being an operator face." So many things one has to remember...

Before I had to be a thinker I have to smile for my documenting! Curtis is nice to take pics for me. 

Tuesday, June 17th

**Disclaimer: I am not a real farmer. I don't know much about why things are done here at the commodity barn. I weigh the trucks full of silage, record it in the computer, and take dry matter samples. I know how to do these things.  I've been trained. However,  mostly everything else is a beautiful mystery. I take every opportunity to learn new things and have new life experiences. And hopefully at the end of the summer I'll be star employee! So just remember as you read my glorious adventure... I am but a newbie to this thing called farm life.**


Best job ever!!! I get to wear boots, be outside, drive my truck, bring a cooler, sit in my chair, climb silage mountains, and drive an occasional piece of heavy equipment. Now you should know that I'm the only "female" (that's what my kind are called on the farm). I think that is the reason they let me on the huge tractor things... to see what I'll do like when you hold something just outside of some baby's reach. Is the baby going to cry, walk to get it, make some ridiculous face, say "gimme dat", you get the idea. That's what I think it is like for the male population here on the farm... what will I do. Haha. Mostly I'll just be overly excited to do things like drive a front end loader or stick my arm all the way in the mountain to get a dry matter sample.

Sidenote "female" story: Because I'm a female, Curtis, my trainer and new friend, had to show me where the closest bathroom is. He said, "It's cuz you females need things like that toilet paper." Of course he also said sometimes people come from down the road to steal the toilet paper and that's why there's a padlock on the door. I thought that was maybe a bit much but nope, yesterday evening the lock was unlocked and no toilet paper to be found. So, this morning I added toilet paper in my truck. I packed literally everything I thought I might need over a 12 hour period in it, except toilet paper. I'll blog an inventory of my truck one day when it's real slow.

Things are slow sometimes and sometimes we have lots are trucks coming in and out. This will hopefully be a good way to pass the time.

A fact I learned today: In silage, corn kernels cannot be whole. They have to be cracked or crushed. Cows can't digest whole kernels all that well and will almost immediately eliminate them. Or something like that...