the honeymoon is over

July 2012          it is that time of year again, time to take the bull's off the cows. the weddings were in april and march. short and sweet. we do have strong moral values here at Whitehurst Cattle Co. but these guys were rip roaring and ready to go and meet their new "brides". i would love to say they were in a romantic mood but the word "frisky" comes to mind. they were arranged marriages but at least each bull did get to choose his bride. some bulls are pickier than others but isn't that true in all of life. color, size, horns or no horns, the choices are limitless. the ceremony is not even over yet and the bull is ready to start "honeymooning." nothing like saying i do and let's start a family in the same sentence. just a way of life here. how long the bulls stay here at WCC depends on how well he "honeymoons." when we pick them up 3 to 4 months later it is kind of easy to see who is good at their job. the ones that slowly get from point A to point B must be great at it because they are tired and ready for some rest and relaxation. the ones that are harder to round up and still frisky, i am thinking they are not so good at it and they may find themselves a one way ticket out of here. what is really funny is when we took them back to the bull field today two bulls started hollering at each other. bulls have a tendency to fight over the stupidest things (is that a male thing?) and they do it often. i figured these two bulls were fixing to fight. but then i thought the conversation probably went like this "hey dude, where are the chicks?" and the other replied "i don't know man but this is not the job i applied for!" they will have to wait a few months to start their jobs again but until then "the honeymoon is over!"

wedgies, potty breaks, & diet coke

• July 2012         WARNING there may be offensive material in this post. but in all truth it is a fact of nature! Farming is not as glamorous as you may think it is. i prefer to wear shorts when i drive a tractor. especially in an open cab tractor. i do like to get sun but i am at an age when i am still hot but it comes in flashes. so being "cool" is very important to me. but i have been wearing pants because i am not always alone in the field and proper dress is required. so i am not a small girl by any means but also do not consider myself a big gal and i tend to bounce around a lot on a tractor of any kind. my feet do touch the floor but barely so i tend to bounce even more. (God bless the person... probably a woman... who invented the sports bra) any way with every bounce my jeans (dungarees as my grandaddy would say) tend to ride and no not down but up, up, and up. with every bounce i take i am headed to an epic wedgie. and i must say while my tractors are very roomy, so much so that i can practice my fine dance moves, there is not standing room... therefore no way to readjust. so i am left with this luxury until my potty break which brings me to my next story. i learned to potty in the wild at an early age. i am not bragging, it was just a necessity of life as i grew up. and it has served me well in my adulthood being a farmer because there are not always proper facilities close. and me trying to follow the strict regimen of hard work i am surrounded by i cannot take time every time i have to go to stop the tractor get in my truck and find a bathroom. most of the time this is easy because i am alone ... but there are those times i find myself in a field surrounded by more fields with other people in them. so i have adapted and learned to be quick with my catlike agility and to be oh so observant. it is all about precision. watch all the other tractors and wait until they are at the furthest end of the field from me. then i spring into action, watching all around me and especially in the direction of the one road leading into my field for that one person who thinks they need to be in my space at that particular time. most of the time i am lucky but for those times i am not it is stand up, pull up and zip up all in one move and act like i was checking a tire. :) works every time. for those of you who are all antibacterial, i do keep paper and gel on my tractor. i am practical but not gross. and without being too gross i keep it simple some things require a truck trip. enough of that TOO much info i know. as for necessities on my tractor these are my top five...5. paper and antibacterial hand wash they just go together 4. my i-pod cause sometimes you just gotta have a good beat 3. some kind of food something small i can eat with one hand while holding my drink (cause if i spill my drink i will cry!!!) steering, and lifting and lowering the apparatus that is on the back of my tractor with the other. 2. my phone i only had to leave it in my truck once to know what a huge mistake that was .. oops! and number 1. a cooler with ice cold diet coke.... nectar from the heavens it has been known to cure any ailment, quench hunger as well as thirst , and genuinely makes me a happy person. (just ask anyone who knows me- my honey keeps them in his cooler for me just in case). I LOVE FARMERS! especially mine!

cab critters

July 2012        i did not have to farm today and got to go shopping with my daughter. but..... i can still tell you about my cab critters. when i fluff hay i drive an open cab tractor and i am bombarded with grasshoppers. every shape, size and color. they really don't bug me unless they hit me in the face and it is more of a scare than anything else. i have learned to tolerate them and my sunglasses keep me from getting any eye injuries. in the closed cab tractors i have had many uninvited guests. i had a mouse one time who kept to himself and i only saw him a few times and he was very quick to hide and stay hidden from me. no big deal he was kind of cute, i named him mickey. now if i get a spider, different story. i do not know enough about spiders to tell who is poisonous or who bites and who isn't or doesn't. so unfortunately all spiders are met with extreme violence and sent back to their maker at first sight. i did have a fly in the cab with me the other day. i did try to whack him a few times and even though he was close to death he was still quicker than me. i even tried to mr. miogi (karate kid) him but to no avail. if he would have left me alone we could have become pals. i actually like having someone to sing to while i farm. but for some strange reason he kept head butting me. yes, dive bombing me right between the eyes and he was all up in my face and flies are just yucky. and he was much bigger than usual so i took all i could and stopped the tractor, opened the door and shooed him out. shoo fly don't bother me. i was reminded of my sweet mama with her "fly flap" back in the day. she hated a fly and could not stand one in the kitchen while she cooked. she was really good with that thing and had all the flies shaking in their boots. i am sure the fly flew straight out went about two feet and them fell to his death. he then became dead fly carcass fertilizer to the freshly plowed and sorghum planted field. ashes to ashes and dust to dust or whatever. just glad he was gone!!!

everything wears out

July 2012       i had a little more break downage today. i plowed yesterday with a leveling harrow (the other was an off setting harrow i am learning the proper names for my parts) for about 5 hours and had no problems. i had to go get my hair done (i still have my priorities straight and my boss completely understands). adam gets on the tractor and after 3 rows he has a bearing out! AHA! so my conspiracy theory has been busted wide open. adam says i sabotaged him. just for the public face book record....of all the people i could and would like to sabotage adam is not now and has never been one of them. i'm just sayin'! he got the bearing replaced and i went and got on the tractor this am. for 3 hours, no problem. then i look back to admire my work and uh oh i see dirt piling up. my first thought a dreaded demon bearing, or maybe my lucky day and just a rock caught in the blades. upon closer inspection i find that the big dang metal thick bracket holding my spinning thing with 6 discs on it to the actual plow has broken.( i said i was learning proper terms not that i knew them all).... like a twig. just like that. shut down again. i had to call adam who has now become my personal "fixer". i have been told that i can tear up an anvil with a hammer so this is no surprise. he did assure me that "this happens and it is a wear out thing" and the have already replaced a couple this week. (is anyone else seeing a pattern here) needless to say it requires welding, another thing you have to know how to do, to farm. so we go get the welding trailer and the bossman has to come help. they proceed to get down in the grass, in the hot sun and do this. sparks are flying everywhere and i am glad smokey the bear is no where to be seen. no worries i still have my yogi bear metal pipe and i could have taken him out if need be. after the weld cools adam and i get it back together (mostly adam). and i am off again. this is better than the off setting harrow because there is a board on the back to smooth what the discs have turned up. so i can tell where to go and where i have already been. i could learn to fix these things but i am a firm believer in the whole old dog no new tricks theory. i have to have some boundaries and i will learn the proper terms for my equipment but that is where i draw the line. i am so fortunate and so glad to have the best "fixers" in the world to come to my rescue. I LOVE FARMERS!!!

conspiracy

July 2012      i was gonna skip posting about today on the farm because i thought it would just be a normal day but what the heck was i thinking. it is never normal on the farm. i plowed again, yes the same field. not so easy the second time because it is hard for me to tell where to go next in an already plowed field. i have never been able to walk or draw a straight line so i am not sure why they thought i could plow a straight line. i managed to finish and got moved to another field. just when i got the whole straight line thing down adam shows me how to go diagonal. please..... are you serious. what ever happened to just go straight and turn around and do it again. anyway i do as i am told and proceeded in the cross pattern. thought i was doing okay and looked back to make sure and guess what????? one of the four tires on my plow just fell off. not flat, not blew up, not wiggled, just fell off. so i had to make the dreaded call to adam. and guess what 

he said??????? the dang bearing went out in my tire. again with the bearing. he affectionately called me the bearing queen but it did not have so much affection in it, i felt more like the bearing nazi. needless to say it was easier to fix than the bearing yesterday. and when he looked at the other tires we had another one go out too. 3 bearings on MY plow in 2 days. exactly who is making these little demons called bearings. i smell a conspiracy. adam and pug assured me that this is a "wearing out" thing and i didn't really break anything. pug added that this could even happen to a perfect person. i said, oh so it happens to you and he answered " well no, doesn't happen to me very much" :) yes i still LOVE farmers, especially mine!!

lost my marbles and my bearings too!

July 2012 ....i got to plow today. actually all day. things were going good until i noticed on of my four turning things had stopped. adam said a bearing went out. i have heard that before, bearing went out in the tractor, baler, fluffer. i have always heard they were a pain in the butt to replace but had never seen it done. i figured go to napa get the part click old one off click new one on done and fixed. no! no! no! that is not how it is. my plow had 4 turning things with 6 blades on each. each blade had about 3or4 other parts with it. we had to take one of the turning things off and replace the bearing. the plow thingy is like a puzzle. like one of those 1000 piece black cat face puzzles that you can only see their eyes. only in the cat puzzle you can force pieces or cut pieces to fit and accidentally lose pieces you dont want to use. not so in the plow. there may have not been 1000 pieces but it seemed like a lot!!! it has to be put back together perfectly. i watched adam and mickey do this today as i tried to "help". it was like watching a very extreme surgery only better because after all it was adam and mickey. they passed each other tools and parts and pieces and before you knew it ... all done. i was amazed. so when you see a man (or woman) with dirty hands dont jump to conclusions. grease will not wash off. it just means they have been working hard. so please dont judge, or roll your eyes or shake your head.(especially if it is one of my people) it is part of the job. I LOVE FARMERS!!!! is it obvious enough!!

love your farmer as you love yourself

July 10th 2012       FYI watermelons are not just planted, picked, and then sold. it is a long hard process that takes many people who know what work really is. i just had the pleasure of helping my people pick up the pipe that carries the water to the melons. yes all i did was drive the tractor that carried the pipe. my job was more mind work. trying to drive straight and not run over anybody, stop and go when needed, and i was on the look out for yogi the bear. if i had seen him i was going to whack his ass with a metal pipe. i watched those men (my boys and husband and our mickey) pick up those heavy, cumbersome, no convenient handled, pipes and throw them on the trailer. it is hot and walking in a plowed field is hard enough. they don't complain or cuss or fuss. they work. they finish the task at hand. it is in their blood. they come from prime stock of hard workers. so people your food does not come from the food fairies who bring it to the store. it comes from angels on earth called farmers. from families of farmers. I am proud to be part of this family of farmers. i complain, cuss, and fuss in my head for them because it is not their nature to do so, at least not in front of me. i get the easy job but still not so easy to watch my people work so hard but i know they love what they do. and i LOVE them for it!!! :)