Summer Silage : 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.