No Peace in the Valley, 60 days of fertilizer failures, out of nine lives I'm spent seven... Actually only four days but it seemed like a lot more... Another obscure song reference to drop my readership

Farming seems to be a series of cascading failures.  Somehow you over come them but only with sheer determination and sketchy practices. 

Fix it or walk two miles has always been a motivator, or in this case, fix it or dig 5,000lbs of 46 out of a bin with a five gallon bucket...

I think it is something kids are not learning nowadays. 

I have been attempting to spread fertilizer. I think I did about 170 acres since last Friday. It has been a struggle.

Our local fertilizer plant provides Wilmar double-spinner ground drive spreaders for their customers. Last year they decided to start charging per day as people tend to take the spreaders and never bring them back. This money, I was told, was to provide maintenance on the spreaders. 

I hooked the White 2-155 FWA to the spreader this year for the benefit of GPS FWA and horsepower. I did not get stuck. Sadly the spreader may have left ruts in one or two hay fields. I should have waited two weeks. But last year we did that and it never rained again. This is Oregon

 

I have not noticed an improvement in spreader performance from two years ago... Not to be a crank...

I took the quiet Louisville, (1974 Ford LN8000 with a inline 671 Detroit and a 13 speed) to get the power bin. This will hold 10,000lbs of 46-0-0. We are too poor to be able to afford 38-0-0-7 like in the old days. By the time I get the box on the truck and loaded with fertilizer it will be close to 4 p.m. and I thought I had the spreader reserved for the morning.

I as I was leaving I saw the office lady and asked to reserve the bin. She said I needed to get it now as people just hooked up to them and took off with out telling anyone. Said they were going to put GPS trackers on them so they could at least find them again.

So I cruised home at high speed, actually got it up to 45 mph on Hwy 99W before I had to start slowing down for my road. 

When I was pulling out onto 99W I was a bit cautious. It is always embarrassing to miss the split right in front of the office so I didn't want to speed shift. Plus, this truck is slow with even a measly 10,000lbs. So, I did check both directions carefully. I even checked Northbound lanes so I could swing wide.

Just before the first corner I had time to check my mirrors and I saw a Dodge Dualie 4wd big arsed pickup coming up behind me fast. I continued with my shifting. Meaning, I kept my foot to the floorboards per usual shifting Detroit Diesel shifting instructions. The pickup kept comming...

I was just thinking about hitting fifth (gear 11?) and solidly into the corner when I glanced out the window and saw the pickup truck neck and neck with me and a Tesla coming head on. I decided to just split shift this one and opted for gear 4.5 (10?) rather than risk and embarrassing no-clutch shift gear grinding in the midst of a serious race.

The Tesla headed for the ditch and the pickup truck zoomed on by. When he got in front of me he raised a clenched fist out the back window. My windshield was dirty so I don't know if it was raised in triumph or anger or if he was telling me I was number one!

My stop was just ahead so it was time to start downshifting anyway so I really didn't spend a lot of time guessing. I turned into my road home and pulled over to let anyone else behind me go around as I really feel bad about inspiring suicidal drivers.

I went back with the pickup to pick up the spreader. 

I should have known better than to take spreader number six. But, I saw the liberal amounts of grease applied and I visualized success. 

As I was leaving with the spreader behind my pickup the super helpful hispanic guy (who I can finally understand after a decade) suggested I fill up to save a trip. 

I thought about my favorite quote from Ronald Reagan, "Trust but verify..." I opted to bring the spreader home empty.

This was a sensible plan. What would have been an even better plan would have been to pull the drive trip in the parking lot to see if the drive engaged, and to pull out the PTO shaft to make sure it wasn't stuck, and to make a sharp turn on the pavement to see if the drive axle would shift two inches to the right and knock off the drive chain. 

But I didn't do that...

Suffering was to follow...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHMp_HV6a4s

"The Shape I'm In," has been stuck in my head for a week. Perhaps I can pass the pain on to someone else...