More about farming and a little about Lars

Yesterday was an interesting day. My helper did show up at 8 a.m. and cleaned up the mess the dogs had made in front of the house. They like to rob neighborhood garbage cans. It causes me to get a little angry and I tie Stanley up for the day. Then he howls. This is entertaining at first, as is parking the pickup near his dog house and leaving it running. He just can't make it past the end of the cable so he sits about a foot from the end and just howls his poor doggie heart out.
After a while it starts to annoy everyone else out here and Stanley is set free.
But I digress,
I thought the problem with the silage chopper was just a broken chain. It actually was a broken drive shaft that runs through the bottom of the corn header and drives the intermeshing rotary discs that cut the corn.
It would appear that when the wheel broke off the chopper I hooked a chunk of concrete with header and bent the outside bearing mount. This made the shaft flex and it then broke in one of the bearings. It was something like one and a half hex shaft. But... Since we NEVER throw anything away we actually had some hex shaft we salvaged off a combine header and my brother-the machinist, made a new shaft.
The helper and my brother worked on the silage chopper all day and I went to plant for the neighbor.
My daughter had the day off from school and I asked her if she wanted to go with me. She said no.
I came back in the house and she was standing on her head and watching some inane cartoon. I said, "you are coming with me..." she was ok with that.
She likes to help fill the drill but the farmer said he had some nasty insecticide put on the wheat so I made daughter get back in tractor. (I really need to bring along a respirator.)
Anyway, she helped me by looking up records in my book to set the drill. She found the last time I planted Geotze wheat and the population reading for 130lbs per acre and helped me set the drill. We watched the monitors and set the fertilizer rate. I showed her how to set the A-B line with the GPS and then let her drive while I ate my Amity Deli Burrito. It was kind of nasty cold but I was hungry and it was cheap.
It was kind of like having my own auto steer. She drove really well by looking at the glowing arrows and little arrow tractor on screen. FarmerGPS 5 is a pretty good program. The other advantage was she was pretty good at alerting me at the end of the field. None of this going to sleep and hitting a powerpole with Lulu-autosteer. However, the alarm is set a little far from the end of the row.... "Daddy... Daddy... Daaaaaadddddddyyyyyyyy!"
It is now 7:18 my helper just arrived. He is going to finish putting the corn header back together. He is a good helper. He has a goooooood joooob! How can I talk bad about someone who cleans up the lawn and who comes to work early.
But I digress...
Later in the day it started raining and I send the daughter home. Then the return/by pass line for the motorized flow control valve for the fertilizer pump failed. POS Chinese pipe fittings. It would not hold when the pressure went above 1500lbs. After I tightened it up it started dripping at low pressures as well. The fine mist of $10 per gallon hydraulic oil will keep my drill from rusting.
Back at the farm, my brother and helper and working on the header. New lower gathering chains are New Holland proprietary items. They cost $240 each and it takes four. We opted for another year.
We had to heat the frame of the header and beat it with a sledge hammer to get it back in line. We quit at 8:30 p.m. and decided to see what it looked like in the morning light.
Here is the little about Lars...
He does really well with a sympathetic caller or guest. It is only when he is trying to be clever and insightful and really stick it to the caller with his amazing intellect that he really gets into trouble.
There was a fellow who called in to talk about a new national child abuse hotline. Lars asked him if people who called in to report abuse would be reported to law enforcement. The guy really would not answer the question. Lars kept after him in a polite way and really got the guy to squirm, without being a jerk. If he would do that same thing with the antagonistic folks I would listen to him.
I will stop my rant and go to work but I have one last thought.
I think the law requiring therapists and Doctors and clergy to report abuse is counter productive. I think it prevents people from getting help. Would a child report abuse knowing they would get their parent thrown in jail? Would person who made a mistake and was torn by guilt and wanted to get help, do so knowing they would be reported to LE? What about crazy people who make crap up and tell it to the therapist?
What is the point? The power of the all knowing state or help for messed up folks?
Shouldn't the professional who is treating the victim or the abuser have some discretion?