Reflections on the upcoming anniversary of working off the farm

I was looking back to 2015 in the blog history. I suspect my job sucked from day one. It was day two that I came up with the tuition, insurance, retirement mantra and that is how I have made it through.
Today I started a new job.
I am a temporary dump truck driver.
I have a commercial driver's license for something like 30 years. I've never really used it, but I've kept it up to date since the CDL was invented by the idiot gubment.
I can drive triples and tanker trucks. I've never done that before.
Today I declined the opportunity to drive a set of doubles. (another story...)
The steam line at my college is failing and so they hired a company to repair it. But first, they put off the repair for several years so their was continual steam venting from the earth. It was sort of neat in the winter....
But I digress.,
There is a company that has subcontracted the excavation work for the steam line. They seem to be having a great time. They climb their dirt piles with their electric UTV. The employees run from the excavator to the Bob Cat. The young kid does wheelies with the Bob Cat which causes the tight asses at my college to blow multiple fuzes.
Their supervisor has been friendly with me. I got to telling him stories of my truck driving failures whilst hauling silage. Like the time I had to shift the five and four in downtown rush hour traffic while hauling corn and I screwed up the ship and had to stop in the middle of traffic and start over. Or almost hitting a small car with a giant pumpkin in front of the train station in Salem. Or the time I was loading a truck with the really old but big Case excavator that my uncle used to own, and I dumped a giant load of mud in the bed of a small farm truck, which caused the truck driver and his passenger to hit their heads on the roof of the truck, and then it turned out to be the owner of the farm I was digging the ditch for.
Then he offered me a job driving dump truck.
I said, "But I'm just a farmer," and he said, "But, you have a CDL."
It turns out he was not joking and he is paying me twice what I make at my college job.
I promptly took a week off work.
Today was my first day.
I went to work at 7 am. We had a nice little chat. Young guy loaded me up. The supervisor showed me wear to dump. Everyone seemed happy. The supervisor came by a couple times and chatted with me while I was being loaded.
I screwed up shifting the 13 speed several times. The supervisor said he didn't know how to drive a dump truck and that he was just happy I was helping. I noted that I needed to make some calls as I also needed to haul hay today. The supervisor said that was fine and he assumed I was not going to do that while driving through the down town of our fair city.
At 11 am the supervisor and the kid said they were going home as they live out of state.
The kid showed me the controls on the excavator and how to switch from the normal controls to the weird controls that I am used to using. The said I should leave the keys under that floor mat and I could work as long as I liked.
AND THEY LEFT...
I am so slow with the excavator. I tried the controls in the normal setting but kept hitting the truck bed. The next load I switched the valve to the Vintage Case setting. But then I was all kinds of mixed up. The bucket rotates and tilts which is really cool and fun.
I got better.
Then my neighbor said he would haul a load of straw for me so I went home to help him. He wanted me to drive the truck but I begged off claiming incompetence and I drove the RoadRunner.
We hauled my two tie wheat straw into the barn. Now I only have five truck loads of fescue straw in the field. It has suffered two inches of rain already, I suppose the anticipated additional inch will not ruin it further.
I'm pretty much screwed in the farming department. I expect the main farm to be ok if we actually get our hemp harvested, but my personal farm is screwed.
I did not realize how essential my daughter was to the operation. She would go out to work at 9 a.m. and would ask for a job. This would set things in motion. She would invariably get sent back to the house until 10 am but at ten there would be a raking or baling job for her.
This meant that my retired helper would be able to bale which meant that I would be able to stack till midnight when I got home.
Without Lulu, the helper would rake for two days and then bale for three days and I would come home and work on the baler until 9:30 pm and be so irritated I'd feel like I stacked until midnight but in reality NOTHING GOT DONE ALL SUMMER. And so when I took a day off and actually got something baled it was so late in the year that it was shite and there was no real incentive for the people who were guilted into buying the aforementioned shite to actually picking it up and then we got 2" of rain.
And then of course as a side note, I didn't bale my feedstore 2-tie hight quality straw as I was still working for the main farm and so it all got rained on and I lost my customer.
I think there is a basic failing in my business plan.
Four more years and my daughter will have her degree in Cognitive Neuroscience or Nursing and I can quit this idiot job where I am not trusted with keys to Toro lawnmowers, or the green house, and my supervisor thinks I am wasting time on my cell phone and the list goes on and on.
It was really great to be appreciated and respected for just one day. I would have driven truck for free, just for the appreciation and trust shown by my new supervisor. If they offer me a permanent job, I suspect my daughter my have to look for more scholarships....

The occasional update

My daughter is in college...
I should be very happy.
She is going to a private Christian college, living on campus, and she will have almost no debt, (if she is smart...)
I am rather apprehensive about it all.
When I attended this college in 1987, I was very disappointed with my education. I could not afford all four years so I got an Associate degree from a local community college (for free) and then transferred in as a Junior. I got a better education at the community college...
Aside from the mediocre scholarship, I just really didn't bond with anyone. I don't hang out with friends from college.
The only person who I just go see for no particular reason is MuddyValley. I pretend it is because I want honey but really it is because his wife is really nice, also I like his dog. I think I've visited him three times in the past five years, other than baling his hay fields.
But, I digress...
I helped "Lulu" move in Friday. We went to all the meetings and speeches. She thought it was funny that I insisted on attending with her as she knows I skipped all that stuff when I went to college.
I asked her if she wanted to end up weird and old like her father... I got a somewhat bitter laugh.
The problem is that she takes after me in so many unfortunate ways.
She got a scholarship from the college I work for that pays her tuition to this University. There is a program called TheTuitionExchange which facilitates this between something like 400 small colleges and Universities.
When you go to work for the college they make it sound like the Tuition Exchange is easy to get. It is not. Lulu applied for tuition at Azusa Pacific University in the shite-hole of LA, George Fox University near where we live, and I signed her up for Pepperdine which has its own surf club.
GFU really wanted her. My wife and I both attended, our pastor attended, one of the dorms is named after my wife's family, and I called frequently and made the tuition exchange lady laugh.
Plus, my daughter wrote one heck of an essay talking about mission work and the call of God for her to be a nurse.
She has decided on pre-med at this point but I don't want to talk about it.
I also have strong opinions about the clever idea of small colleges to have Nursing programs to bring in students. The key (which is where my college is failing) is to then get them into another program when they drop out of nursing. Retention is key.
GFU has studied such things in the years since I was there and it was facing failure. I recognize the tactics as my college has been doing some serious self examination.
Starting with the first hint of attending GFU the student has constant email contact with "advisors." They are given a GFU email address. They have a personal contact, they get invitations and overnight stays.
GFU identified their target market and they work it hard.
I was amazed at the number of pickup trucks with bulk fuel tanks in the back and Oregon and Washington plates are in the parking lots. Working class people are sending their kids to GFU instead of my college. (I did not notice a lot of Idaho plates which I take to mean there are fewer Quakers.)
On move in day there is a team of students who descend on their cars and move everything in in mass, there is a chapel for parents. There is talk of Jesus and faith and prayer. I did notice they left themselves wiggle room. Your Student's faith my not be exactly like you expect. You want them to think on their own but you expect them to end up like you. They must make their faith their own.
Meaning, if your daughter comes home with a butch haircut, nose ring, and a girlfriend, and lectures you on Liberation Theology at Christmas Break, don't yell at us...
Says Cynical Me...
We shall see how this all works out. I suspect working two jobs and not spending time doing my own indoctrination with my daughter has had an impact which I don't like.
In other news...
Farming is frustrating. This is a new thing to read on Lazy Farmer I know but I swear, farmers are such arseholes nowadays.
My high school buddy who is determined to be the hemp expert of Yamhill County rented ground away from another friend of mine for at least double what he was paying. This screws us all as it means another major jump in rent prices. Plus, it was such a dick move. I would have rented him 20 acres in a HEART BEAT for that kind of money. Or he could have subleased the ground from the other guy as he just needs it as a rotation. Then they could have kept the increase in rent on the down-low and it wouldn't have screwed the rest of us.
As for me, I'm so far behind in baling I doubt I will ever catch up.
The guy who buys my straw put me off a week at a time and I didn't pay close enough attention because of my frustrating job and other issues and suddenly it is the end of August and I have three semi-loads of wheat straw which the mice have moved into and ruined the strings and three semi-loads of three-tie annual ryegrass from last year which I couldn't get to because of the wheat straw. Plus, the guy I was paying to load the annual ryegrass stole my customer so I'm not sure what to do with it and the incoming loads of straw from this year.
I baled four truckloads of fescue straw and the fellow buying that straw rejected it because of rain damage. I should never have agreed to bale that straw in the first place as I had a friend who wanted to bale it. I knew I didn't have time to get to it in a timely manner.
And the two-tie baler is busted. The original plunger bearings lasted for five years. The name brand bearings we replaced them with failed in one and a half years. Cheap China Shite has infiltrated every aspect of our infrastructure. Even if the bearing says it is made in USA it most likely has some sort of Chinese crap in it. CCS should be a brand name...

Today I am going to meet my daughter at the Newberg Dairy Queen and drop off a textbook. GFU says you shouldn't see your student for a couple months to get them acclimated but she hasn't lived at home for four months anyway so I don't think it matters.
I was going to take her to Church but she is supposed to go to Chapel by herself.
Ten bucks says she slept in and missed it.

Golfcart fuel truck

Four gallons at a time goes pretty slow.

My daughter is a good driver

I thought the river was going to flood the field where I left my tractor. I ran it so low on fuel it wouldn't start when I went after it when it was pouring down rain. My daughter helped me. She drove the golf cart which was what the farmer uses to get to the field.
I think I'm going to have to find a new pickup truck.
And by new I don't really mean "new," I mean something 20 years old that I didn't own before...

I've spent the day icing my back. I would try the hot tub but I get bored.
I was looking for photos of my daughter as she has turned 18.
Today she went to her senior prom.
I can't believe how fast time has gone by.

Here are some random photos:

 An enthusiastic farm girl

 Both these tractors are really old

My daughter raking hay

I plant oats and then it rains and it might flood and my tractor won't start

I've had the opportunity to get off the mower and do a little planting.
I went from the top of the Amity hills to sea level in a week. I forget how beautiful Oregon is when it rains all winter.

Top of the world and red dirt

Last week I planted oats on 60 acres of riverbottom. It is nice soil. I suspect it is Chehalis type soil. Well drained silty clay loam. Lots of organic matter.
I planted after work on Wednesday. I finished up in the rain at midnight.

River bottom silty clay loam in the rain

The trusty old 2-155 was running on fumes. A tank of fuel is really only good for one move and 65 acres. I ran in fifth over and idled down a little to conserve fuel. My pickup truck is not doing so well and I have to get someone to bring me fuel.
I pulled something in my back at work Wednesday. I mowed the baseball field with the reel mower on Tuesday but we have had warm weather and the slow release fertilizer kicked in big time. My supervisor is susceptible to slick talking salesman and he fell for the slow release polymer coated fertilizer with humid acid.

Mowing the baseball field between showers

Fertilizer companies put the hard sell on slow release fertilizer in our area a couple years ago. It sounds like a good idea. But it is really expensive. We were using an organic type fertilizer which was basically chicken poop. It worked because it broke down slowly. The polymer fertilizers have a coating which (The way I understand it) expands when the temperature is above 52 degrees to let the Nitrogen out.
It doesn't seem to have been the best choice for fall fertilizer as the fields were stressed all winter and then exploded when the temperatures hit 60 degrees for a couple days.
I mowed the baseball field in the rain and I got clumps of grass. My supervisor suddenly realized there was a baseball game the next evening and wanted me to go out with a leaf blower and break up the clumps. I opted for the Walker mower as it sucks up the clumps and I wanted to remove the POA seeds.
Then it rained again and the Walker is so poorly designed that it plugs up in a light shower and you have to lift the mower deck and unclog it. After lifting it all morning my back started to get sore.
I of course ignored this and planted half the night.
The next morning I couldn't get out of bed.
My wife and daughter made me stay home from work.
I've been pretty much worthless since then. I was going to move the tractor home after work on Friday but my back hurt and I went to bed.
This morning we got a weather alert for flooding in our area. I tried to call the farmer but he was on vacation. I called his neighbor and he said I should probably move my drill as it did flood.

Bleeding the fuel lines in the rain

So, my daughter and I loaded up five gallon buckets of diesel and went after the tractor. We had to used the farmer's golf cart to get to the drill for various reasons not connected to me not having a fuel truck. After making friends with his dog through liberal offerings of doggie treats we headed to the field.
Of course the tractor had lost its prime.
I think I have lost my prime especially after a week of back pain but I suppose that discussion would take us a whole different direction.
We came back home and got more five more buckets of diesel. I brought a portable air tank back and pressurized the fuel tank while my daughter tried to start the tractor. This was a success.
I really doubt it would have gone under water but you never know.

Tomorrow I'm back to work. My daughter is getting free tuition so I have to stay at the job for another four years but sometimes it is difficult.

The above picture is a good example of why I dislike my job.
The bollards on the sidewalk are close enough together that you can knock the axles from under your trailer if you forget and get too close. People in the facilities department go around them if they are towing something wide.
This kills the grass and promotes mud.
No one admits to doing it although there are only four people with trailers and two that actually use that path on a regular basis.
So... Instead of coming up with a solution so you don't have to drive a long ways out of the way or go around the bollard they added another bollard and built up new curb.
Of course the geniuses just did it to the side that people were driving around. They didn't do the other side so I guess it is not that much of an inconvenience. This was enough of an expense that it had to be approved on up the chain of command.
I suggest to my supervisor that he just ask people not to drive around the bollards. Apparently that didn't work.
I suggested areas that were more of a hazard and he told me we "don't always get what we want."
I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
It is truly amazing how money is wasted and we are going broke...

Global warming or Global climate change which can be used to make money for the clever folk

Today we had sleet and tomorrow it may be 50 degrees.
It is because we use lots of fossil fuels and we can fix it by a redistribution of wealth.
Also, I started working on air-conditioning systems and I've had a couple catastrophic failures....

I take a college course, tear down a barn, get snow

I spent my Sunday afternoon applying ice melting liquid at work. It was not what I had in mind.
My list today was, Attending Church (canceled due to snow), Doing my homework, (can't concentrate), Making pig feed (spread ice melt instead), Going to visit MuddyValley and getting a lecture about Donald Trump. (spread ice melt. May give him a call this evening...)
It was a bit of a frustrating afternoon. We have missed every single weather event this year with our ice melting but no one seems to notice. I drive my Kawasaki Mule about and make trails and then it rains and washes away.

I got a call in yesterday to cut up a downed tree. I really didn't see much point in cutting it up on the weekend. It missed the girl's car and security put lots of caution tape around it. Thing is... It already fell down. It ain't gonna stand it's self back up, take better aim, and topple again...
I took my daughter in with me so she could study using the free internet at the campus Starbucks. I went in to help her get the wifi set up. The nice lady gave us free drinks as she knew I was on a weekend call-in.
My supervisor showed up to help cut up the tree. It was nice to have help but I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to drive my daughter around spreading ice melt. I will find out Monday.
Soon it started snowing. Security showed up because security is bored.
My supervisor left to go send emails.
I cut up the tree and cleaned up the mess in the snow. The security guy got tired of standing around and watching and grabbed a rake and helped me.
It really starts snowing. My supervisor went home.
Me, being thoroughly institutionalized at this point, retrieved my daughter, and signed out of work. Then I called my supervisor to see if I would get a call back to apply the ice melt during the snow event.
Nope... It was so slick I could cut cookies in the parking lot with my Mule. And I did so. Security seemed to find this amusing. I guess I'm a real employee now...
When I got home I helped my nephews finish replacing a post in the barn. They did most of the work. I did my best to confuse them. It was cold.
Today started with freezing temperatures. My friend the boiler guy at work texted me pictures of frozen wheel tracks.
I got my call-in at noon. It was above freezing and temperatures are climbing. We will have rain tonight. Starbucks was closed until 4 p.m.
The daughter seemed to be content riding with her dad for four hours. We listened to odd playlists on Spotify. We got coffee when Starbucks opened. We had to pay. It was a student that helped us.
We drove home in a mini snow storm. The wind is blowing like crazy. I think it is going to turn warm overnight.
Last weekend we tore down the old barn. It was supposed to go down 20 years ago but we never got around to it.
We hooked two tractors, one to pull in the direction it needed to fall and the other to keep it from hitting the hay shed. I cut the wood off the side to help it fall.

I don't think there will be much good wood to salvage. Should have taken it down five years ago to save the wood.
In other news I have taken advantage of my free college benefits to take a class in accounting. I hate accounting. I can't concentrate. I don't have time.
I went to the college bookstore to buy the book. They gave me a packet of papers and a little box that contained a code. The cost was $235.
You get a code that is good for six months that gets you into the WileyPlus website where you can read the book and do the exercises.
This was my first accounting lesson. When you have a captive market you can charge what you want. I found the access code online for $97.
The packet of papers was prepared by the instructor. Previously he used the school photocopier to make the packets and they were free. He got in trouble. He gave us binders for the packets in class.
I may post more about this later.
Or I may not...
I need to win the lottery...

My Job, My former home, A bag of seed, Last field of the season?

Sometimes I love my job, sometimes I hate my job.
I'm not going to talk about why I sometimes hate my job.
I'm just going to focus on the simple pleasures. The color of the leaves that never stop falling. The fact that it is not cold and raining.
And, that Monday I found two quarters and a blunt in the stands.
I was going to give the blunt to the Workstudy student but thought better of it.
I could have smoked it but since I'm not a smoker it would have brought me little pleasure.
To be truthful I did not examine the so-called "blunt" that closely. Perhaps it was just an unfiltered Lucky. The story is better if it were enhanced with a little "Chronic."
Still, I could have and that brought me happiness.
The fifty cents was nice to find. Can't buy coffee with fifty cents anymore but if I'd find another two dollars to go with it I could get a cup of medium roast, no room for cream, medium sized, from the Starbucks on campus. Hey, life is about opportunities, right?

Last Friday was the final soccer game of the season. In an uncharactoristic burst of "foresight" the soccer coaches looked at the weather forecast and saw rain was predicted.
They looked three weeks ago. The weather has been pretty spotty. Mostly light showers although we did get a couple days of heavy rain.
One of the coaches did groundskeeping as his Workstudy job in college. At his old job they used to tarp the field in case of rain. Last year we overwatered and then it rained three inches so the field was a little damp. This year has been very dry and the field is not we. But they have been tarping the field off and on the for the past three weeks.
Interestingly enough, the tarp acts sort of like a greenhouse. They bought those huge blue plastic tarps like you can get at Harbor Freight. Under the tarp the ground is wetter than outside the tarp. The grass is growing faster under the plastic but also turning yellow. I thought it would just die.
I planted the field a week before they put the tarp on. I think the tarp helped sprout the grass. It is kind of hard to tell. The soccer scoring area is covered and the middle of the field is not.
But when I was planting I realized I didn't have quite enough seed to cover the field so I put the seed on the bare spots in the goal areas and let it run out in the middle of the field. It was less trouble to just pretend to plant than it would have been to explain my miscalculation. Plus, half the time the new seeding doesn't actually work anyway and the field was scheduled to be aerated and sanded in three weeks anyway. Not sure what the rush to plant the field was exactly but I have given up trying to figure things like that out and I just agree with what I'm told to do.
But I digress.
After the tarping the irrigation manager wasn't told by the Supervisor to turn off the water.
When it was 85 degrees and had not rained in three months I suggested they water the field twice a day to keep the new seed damp on the baseball field. This was considered a genius plan and so it was also done on the soccer field.
It was not a bad plan but as the nights got shorter and the dew got heavier and rain was forecast, there was a little room for modifying the aforementioned scheme.
I'm not so good at giving suggestions. I'm not the irrigation manager and my pay reflects that. If it is not a huge deal I tend to just shut up. I have hobbies at home. This attitude was mentioned in a performance review, I said I would try to do better...
I had noted in the morning meeting that the water was still on.
Still, no one turned it off. Sometimes I'm supposed to show initiative and sometimes when I show initiative I'm accused of not properly communicating and so I tend to do what ever brings me the most entertainment. I thought about just leaving it on and seeing what would happen under the plastic but thought that would make more work for myself in the end so I shut it off.
The day after the tarp was on the field the irrigation manager panicked. He forgot to turn the water off. I didn't say that I turned if off. In fact I may have encouraged his worries a bit. I was so entertained by his consternation that I kind of forgot to admit to turning the water off.
He got so worked up he even confessed in the morning meeting. I said nothing. Sometimes that is best.

Last weekend I stopped by my old house. It has been trashed by tweekers. I know a person should feel compassion for the "outcasts" of society but... I think you should be able to take all the drugs you want and to ruin your life in whatever way you see fit but I don't get the wanton destruction of the house you are squatting in. Why would you break the windows and pile filth around. Why not take your garbage across the road or put it where it won't draw attention to your little secret drug hideout. You can be homeless and not be a slob. You can be down on your luck and still take out the trash. Why soil the nest?

My supervisor found a new supplier for seed and chemicals. This is the last bag of Triumph turf grass. I think someone at the old company liked Triumph cars or motorbikes.
I have been instructed to do lots of replanting. I've already done the Softball, Baseball, and Soccer fields but I needed to do the practice field and the supervisor wanted me to redo the soccer field.
The school is going to turn the soccer field to fake grass. I think this is offensive and wrong-as a groundskeeper.
Actually, it is probably a bad idea just from a money making perspective. The existing soccer field has some problems. It is on really wet ground but it does have a lot of sand on it and when we don't over water it then you can play pretty late in the year.
However, the ten acre practice field is rough, poorly drained, and is either mud or hard as a rock. But the practice field could bring in summer camps which bring in money and possible recruits. I would put my money on leveling the practice field and getting it booked through the summer.
Rather than plastic grass that costs a fortune to put in and looks like crap after three years.
But, no one asked me.

I think I planted my last field of the season today. The weather has been dry and sunny. I no-tilled wheat into corn ground. I was helping a neighbor who has done several favors for me and it was also a trade for getting wheat straw. It was the best kind of job.
The farmer left me a truck with 4,000lbs of wheat and said there was around 30 acres in the field and told me to make it come out so there was no seed left. I ran the GPS on the field and found the actual size to be 29 acres. I figured 32 acres with headlands and set the drill for 120lbs. I was not accurate enough on my turns in the dark last night and so I had to make two extra passes on the headlands. I was really worried I was going to run out of seed. Especially since I was too lazy to do a measured distance and weigh the seed to find my exact rate. I keep records of everything I plant so I figured I was pretty close on my setting.
I came up with 33.3 acres and the low seed alarm went off on row 12 and 24 right as I finished. I evened out the seed in the box, turned off the acre counter, and had enough to fix a couple skips and then I just ran out the drill on a couple hard spots that didn't cover good.
The ground was so mellow I had to set the drill really shallow to avoid burying the seed. I was amazed. I am also amazed at how little daylight there is.
We stayed for the potluck at Church and so I didn't get going right away. When I finished at 4 p.m. it really didn't look like I had enough daylight to get home. Plus, I had planed on either going for a motorcycle ride or playing monopoly with my daughter.
Instead I loaded hay. I was going to tell the guy to sod off as it is Sunday but he was a nice fellow and I really didn't have the heart. My nephew helped or rather I helped my nephew who didn't look like he wanted to load hay either.

UPDATE: It has been brought to my attention that the cigarette in the photo may not actually contain Chronic. I should also note that it is not actually a "blunt" rather it is a "spliff."
I forgot that a cigarette which has had some tobacco removed and a little "Mary Jane" ( as the Longhairs supposedly called it-back in the day...) is called a spliff and if you do the same with a cigar it is called a blunt. Swisher Sweets seem to be the cigar of choice at my institution of higher learning. I used to find them in one certain parking lot all the time. They were usually not smoked much past the herbal remedy insertion point so they were easy to spot.

Disclaimer, this is really not the place to find a definitive commentary on youth culture or proper terms for describing the consumption of cannabis. I am a total dork and I'm old. Any information found on this site should be taken for entertainment purposes only. Any slang terms you pick up by reading this blog will cause folk to wonder what in the Sam Hill you been smoking. So if your are here for real information I suggest you hang it to Houston and hammer down out of this site cause the longer you stay the higher the chances you will end up nuttier than a pet raccoon.