I was invited to a wedding today. I was a bit surprised to be invited. I like the kid, (actually he is not a kid anymore) I enjoy teasing him. He worked for a farmer who I stacked bales for. We ran stacker together for a summer or two. He is always really enthusiastic, always ready to tackle a new project. And he has a good sense of humor.
It reminds me of a story of our days stacking for the neighbor.
We were working in a big field with five balers and two stackers.
You dump the stacks in a row. Eight blocks make a truck load. You dump one stack beside the other with as small a space as possible between them.
The squeeze then picks them up and sets them on the truck.
The top bales need to be tied together so the stacks don't spread apart when the squeeze grabs the bottom layer. Usually, one person in the baling crew is assigned to tie stacks. In this case the stack tier was somewhat of a goofy kid who was slightly annoying. He was making a show of jumping for one stack to another, so I started setting the stacks just a little further apart each dump in an attempt to see how far he actually could jump without falling on the ground.
So... I got the last stack just a little two far away.
My friend saw the gap and thought I miss-counted the number of stacks for a truck load. He headed for the gap at full speed but he forgot one thing.
I did not raise the bale pickup.
The stack tier saw him coming and started running. I saw him coming hung out my door and frantically waved my arms.
He hit the stack so hard it actually exploded.
I looked around and saw everyone was looking at him. I got back in the stacker and started stacking...
At the Wedding I ran into a couple people I went to high school with. We talked for a long time. I scored a pie! (Thank you father of the groom) It is a good pie. I'm having some now.
Several people asked about the Daily Strumpet. One suggested that in this modern age perhaps paper is outdated and perhaps I should try a blog.
I mentioned that one could do a search for "The Daily Strumpet," on the internet. I noted that one issue is on scribd.com. I looked it up. It was the Christmas issue for 2009. CLick Here to enjoy it.
If you do an internet search for The Daily Strumpet Newpaper you will see that I am number two. Someone has taken the name dailystrumpet.com.
I think if you were really interested in finding out if The Daily Strumpet, Americans irregular newsletter for regular people, is still published or has found another incarnation you could find it.
I rarely tell people who ask about TheDailyStrumpet that I have a blog under the name Budd E. Shepherd. I'm not sure why I'm hesitant or why I chose to do it under an assumed name. (If you email me I'll be happy to tell you my real name, I just use Budd E. Shepherd for things online to keep everything consistent.)
I feel sort of weird telling people I blog. It seems rather pretentious to say to people, "I'm a clever fellow, I'm a farmer with a bog!" Also, I tend to go off on strange subjects and use large words and I do this because I'm interested in the subject and like the sound of large words and not because I want my friends and neighbor's to think I'm a really smart and clever fellow. I'm quite content to rant at random people on the internet as I will probably never see them in person so who really cares? I have no reputation to uphold...
Several of my followers are former Daily Strumpet subscribers who went to a fair amount of effort to find me online. Or when I told them the address of the blog, they actually looked it up.
(In the early days I did tell people about the blog, then I discovered that they didn't actually follow it if they knew me and that is another reason I quit telling people. I'm not going to beg people to read the blog...)
Sometimes I wonder if I should do another Daily Strumpet on paper in news format and make up stories about people I know.
Did anyone read the issue on scribd? It wasn't one of the best.
Showing posts with label cheese balls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cheese balls. Show all posts
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Monday, November 23, 2009
Why Winters at the Farm drive me insane
Saturday I worked in the shop. We share a shop with my uncle. This has always given rise to tensions as it always seems as though I do something wrong and then I don't react very well to the criticism. We had another one of those little incidents today.
I was sort of proud of myself. I only made a brief sarcastic comment and then remembered that it is not polite to swear at the older folks and it was not that important an issue anyway. My problem is that I am easy going to a point. When the point is reached then I can't seem to go back to reset mode. Then every time the person says something to piss me off I'm right back to the serious anger management mode. I work on it, now that I've figured out I have a problem.
So the issue was floor dry.
I was changing the oil in my pickup and I got distracted and wandered off. Somehow the drain pan tipped over and four quarts of oil went all over the shop floor. I hunted all over and could not find any floor dry or sawdust. So I went out to the barn and got some of the floor dry that I use to clean out my drill or to mix with seed or slugbait to let me plant at a lower seed rate than the drill is metered for.
I really didn't want to give up the floor dry and I knew my Uncle would not like the floor dry but oil was spreading across the floor.
My uncle likes to use sawdust to clean up oil spills. He has been getting it from the basement of the old farmhouse where Bro and Dad live now, for the past 50 years. I really don't care all that much but I don't like to go into the basement of someone else's home and get sawdust. Plus, sawdust is messy and it is usually wet. It also does not absorb near as well as floor dry.
The uncle is kind of obsessed with sawdust. He likes to burn it in the stove when it has absorbed all the oil and he has this think about the little white flakes of floor dry getting all over in the shop. He also "doesn't like the way it crunches" under his shoes.
I kind of think this is stupid. You can burn the oil out of the floor dry if you want. You have to sweep the shop floor anyway, it works way better, and really-WHO GIVES A RATS BOTTOM what you use. It is kind of like people who are proud of being dirty and stupid.
I also realize that the whole arguement is pointless and I feel silly for getting annoyed.
And...I know the real reason I was getting a lecture. It is called "transference."
The real reasons I was in trouble:
1. His Case crawler broke a crank
2. His pot head grandson just called and said he was not working today
3. His one remaining employee is on a mission trip to Mexico
4. His son now works for the railroad and doesn't want to work on the bulldozer
5. I've been talking about buying a truck
6. I've been getting checks in the mail and I told everyone the story about the $5000 check.
So, now the floor dry bugs him.
I think I handled it well. I'm going to go sweep the shop floor while everyone is at lunch. The last time I got a lecture about something like this it didn't go so well. Perhaps I have matured.
Have a happy Day!
Edit: It is now an hour later and I went out and swept the shop floor. My uncle wanted me to make sure I got every little bit of floor dry. Then my dad called and said I need to come in the office before I leave. 20 years of weirdness kind of wears me down. Oh, now the phone is ringing again. Dad again. I should not have thrown my phone across the room. Now what good has that done. It did stop ringing but it is my phone. I don't feel better.
I can hear a pickup outside the window. We have been selling hay to a lady that rescues horse. We give them a good deal. I don't really care about her problems. She just loves horses. I don't care. I don't want to climb up on that stack and throw down a bale of hay for her. I want to be miles and miles away.
I seem to have broken the ringer on the phone. However it does keep beeping. Sounds like I have about five messages.
I really hate winter on the farm.
I want to go plant.
I was sort of proud of myself. I only made a brief sarcastic comment and then remembered that it is not polite to swear at the older folks and it was not that important an issue anyway. My problem is that I am easy going to a point. When the point is reached then I can't seem to go back to reset mode. Then every time the person says something to piss me off I'm right back to the serious anger management mode. I work on it, now that I've figured out I have a problem.
So the issue was floor dry.
I was changing the oil in my pickup and I got distracted and wandered off. Somehow the drain pan tipped over and four quarts of oil went all over the shop floor. I hunted all over and could not find any floor dry or sawdust. So I went out to the barn and got some of the floor dry that I use to clean out my drill or to mix with seed or slugbait to let me plant at a lower seed rate than the drill is metered for.
I really didn't want to give up the floor dry and I knew my Uncle would not like the floor dry but oil was spreading across the floor.
My uncle likes to use sawdust to clean up oil spills. He has been getting it from the basement of the old farmhouse where Bro and Dad live now, for the past 50 years. I really don't care all that much but I don't like to go into the basement of someone else's home and get sawdust. Plus, sawdust is messy and it is usually wet. It also does not absorb near as well as floor dry.
The uncle is kind of obsessed with sawdust. He likes to burn it in the stove when it has absorbed all the oil and he has this think about the little white flakes of floor dry getting all over in the shop. He also "doesn't like the way it crunches" under his shoes.
I kind of think this is stupid. You can burn the oil out of the floor dry if you want. You have to sweep the shop floor anyway, it works way better, and really-WHO GIVES A RATS BOTTOM what you use. It is kind of like people who are proud of being dirty and stupid.
I also realize that the whole arguement is pointless and I feel silly for getting annoyed.
And...I know the real reason I was getting a lecture. It is called "transference."
The real reasons I was in trouble:
1. His Case crawler broke a crank
2. His pot head grandson just called and said he was not working today
3. His one remaining employee is on a mission trip to Mexico
4. His son now works for the railroad and doesn't want to work on the bulldozer
5. I've been talking about buying a truck
6. I've been getting checks in the mail and I told everyone the story about the $5000 check.
So, now the floor dry bugs him.
I think I handled it well. I'm going to go sweep the shop floor while everyone is at lunch. The last time I got a lecture about something like this it didn't go so well. Perhaps I have matured.
Have a happy Day!
Edit: It is now an hour later and I went out and swept the shop floor. My uncle wanted me to make sure I got every little bit of floor dry. Then my dad called and said I need to come in the office before I leave. 20 years of weirdness kind of wears me down. Oh, now the phone is ringing again. Dad again. I should not have thrown my phone across the room. Now what good has that done. It did stop ringing but it is my phone. I don't feel better.
I can hear a pickup outside the window. We have been selling hay to a lady that rescues horse. We give them a good deal. I don't really care about her problems. She just loves horses. I don't care. I don't want to climb up on that stack and throw down a bale of hay for her. I want to be miles and miles away.
I seem to have broken the ringer on the phone. However it does keep beeping. Sounds like I have about five messages.
I really hate winter on the farm.
I want to go plant.
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