Hay season, my unlikely sprayer, the state of Oregon thinks I am always on vacation

When I decided to build a sprayer to fit in the back of my salvaged John Deere Gator I never thought it would be as handy as it has proved to be.

My imaginary plan after my daughter's graduation was to complete my Agricultural Turf Certification, buy a few key pieces of equipment and do work for local parks and school districts and conservation districts. It was probably a good plan but after breaking my leg and then launching into the farming season I suspect this will never happen.

Building the Gator Sprayer was as far as I got.

I use it a lot. It is perfect for spraying fence rows and field borders. I have used it to apply hay preservative as the auto rate control is really useful. 

Friday I used it to apply Glyphosate to our five acres of Bourbon grain corn. The wheels fit down the rows! 

I need to build new booms as the one I bought do not hold up to rough fields and I need to put a bigger battery in it. If I don't have 14 volts on the meter, the electric valves start closing on me and mess up my spray rate. Of course I had to use five boom sections which at 1.5 amps per valve does add up to a voltage drain.

Spraying the booze corn! (and wishing for rain)

Hay season is not as fun as it once was. I hoped to pick up some custom stacking but the jobs so far have not been great. Hillsides and swamps. With breakdowns included.

A hydraulic line under the cab leaked all day without me seeing it and I lost brakes and steering at the top of a steep hill. It was not that bad a ride. But, after that I went home.

I did have a great view!

Now I must write my weekly letter to "Frances," explaining that if I were still employed by the University, I would not be on vacation.

Oregon Frances Unemployment-my fiasco continues

Have you ever spent 5 hours on hold? 

Last Monday it rained and so I decided I should work on my Unemployment benefit payment which is an utter joke.

There is a toll-free number which if you ever succeed in accessing, will solve all your problems.

I started dialing at ten minutes to the 9 a.m. opening time. I would get a busy signal and then immediately get cut off. I hit redial after every disconnect. 

I repeated the process for a hour until I finally got through to an automated phone tree. I put in my info and the automated voice told me to expect a two minute wait.

I was on hold for four and a half hours.

This was not terrible. I put the phone on speaker and I did the dishes, four loads of laundry, fed the chickens, pulled the PTO on a White 2-105, attempted to pick up my tools, and then I saw my wife was home for lunch.

She suggested I drive in to town and show the folks at WorkSource Oregon that I was permanently on hold. I think it might have been that the only hold music was starting to drive her insane. Especially after I started whistling the tune some what off-key.

So I drove in to town.

The WorkSource people were not unsympathetic but went through the whole process of explaining that they were unable to do anything about it and solving benefits issues was not their job. I might as well tell DMV my problems as I would get the same result.

I explained that I knew that this but DMV cannot access my Frances Account and make notes or interpret cryptic messages from faceless benefits administrators.

So they logged me in and made notes and told me to just stay on the line. 

I went downtown to the Liquor Store Harbor Freight and looked at the screwups in mowing the practice field at my former job. I was in the drive through line at Burger King when the line was answered.

I gave my information and explained that I had proved my identity many times and asked for help.

The lady asked if she could put me on hold for 15 minutes while she researched my problems. I said, "no problem!" She seemed surprised but didn't press the issue. I was overjoyed at only 15 minutes on hold. 15minutes is nothing after 4.5 hours...

I went through drive through and got my Whopper.

She came back on the line and said my issue was just a box not checked and asked if she could fix it. I said "please!"

When I got home I saw that my claim status for the week had changed from denied to under review. 

A week later it says "paid."

I still have not seen any money or a payment card in the mail.

This weeks claim has been flagged as due to the fact I worked at an educational establishment they suspect I am on summer break and they can't pay me on summer break...

It is a wonder anything gets done at the State of Oregon...