Off to Italy! This is going to be the best adventure of my life and I will be inspired for at least the next decade!

 I leave for New York City tomorrow morning.

Apparently, if you visit people in New York they don't pick you up a the airport because of traffic. So I am taking the AirTrain to Jamaica Station, then transferring to the E line towards Manhattan then the G line to Brooklyn. 

Me, being a regular city traveler, am absolutely not intimidated by wandering around NYC by subway. It will be fun! I was going to ask if it was the Last Exit To Brooklyn but wasn't feeling that chipper... 

My luck I will take Last Exit to Babylon and will be stuck in parallel timeline, which could be better or worse than my current one... This is what I am actually hoping for... 

For the past four months my friend has been telling me to relax, taking a month off won't make any difference, the work will still be there. You just need a reset. I have heard that from several people who are trying to be supportive.

Yes, the work will still be there. 

And Of course, when I plan something, things go sideways.

I had planned to have the last cutting of Alfalfa finished today. But, we got rain... We just found out our shed loan went through and the builder is coming mid September...It rained and I didn't finish planting Timothy, or get the annual ryegrass ground ready, other than 2x with disk.

So what I have left for my nephew has to do by himself when I am gone. 

20 acres of Alfalfa and 20 acres of Teff/Alfalfa hay, 200 acres of annual ryegrass ground to finish (one pass with vibrashank and probably 3 trips with harrow and roller-(fighting constant plug ups from residue.) Managing cleanup to build shed extension, building side racks for his truck to haul silage, plant 10 acres of timothy, deliver hay, haul silage...

When I get back, I can plant the annual, but I also need to make about ten ton of pellets, and do 150 acres of custom planting in November, plus another 100 acres of our own. And I promised my wife I would put new skirting around the house at least a year ago.

Then there are the dead tractors... 2-135 has no hydraulics again, plus a head gasket failing, three speed slipping in direct, oil leak from steering, 2-105 has no transmission lube pressure and I think it fried the PTO during startup because I forgot to put grease on the thrust bearing which became a serious problem with no transmission oil pressure. 1355 needs brakes, Stacker needs brakes, Both 2-155s are leaking oil around the head gaskets, as all three have about the same hours on remanufactured Hercules engines.

That is just a list off things to do right off the top of my head... 

Maybe I just need to start smoking Chronic...

I bet I will comeback from Italy completely happy and refreshed. I will be super enthusiastic and full of great stories and be really encouraged and inspired by the Yale graduates I will get to hang out with. This will be a new and better version of me. No longer will it be the Lazy Farmer, I will be the Inspired Farmer! This blog will rival Zig Zigler in inspirational material! I will be THE motivational blogger!

 

This is a representative image of my past summer and past life. After this trip things like this won't happen because I will have had an emotional reset and all will be right due to sheer positive energy!

I tried a dress rehearsal. I did 1000 feet up and 1000 feet down in 3 miles in the rain. It was sort of like groundskeeping only with no leaf blower and weird synthetic fabrics. I haven't tried the hiking poles yet. Feet still hurt. Mostly the foot I ran through the stacker cross conveyor chain 30 years ago.

Not sure about the man purse. Sort of uncomfortable.

I worry that the attractive ladies who post videos of hiking the Dolomites will lust after me due to my amazing middle aged physique. I wonder if there will be lots of Italian ladies splitting firewood while wearing improper safety equipment. I will take picture if I see them.  Also, attractive Italian ladies making hay on steep hillsides! I am pretty sure that will be my view on this trip. Also, cows. Cows are nice.

Wife says I can't wear my favorite hat...