Farming: A spill and driving during rush hour.

One of the things I worried about when I was filling grain trucks this fall is that I would spill.  No one would ever let me forget about it if I made a mess and who really wants to clean up a mess in the field.  I have never had to help in the past when there had been spills, but I have had to hear about it and it didn’t sound fun.

I was filling Brad’s truck this fall, toward the end of harvest and as I moved from filling the front hopper to the back hopper I noticed that the hopper door was open and I quickly shut off the PTO.  There was a nice pile of corn under the truck.  Brad was in the tractor talking to me at the time.   I quickly pointed out that it wasn’t my fault and he should have made sure his hopper doors were shut.  He said I was supposed to double check.  Which may be true, but I didn’t.  He grabbed a shovel and started throwing corn up and over the side of the trailer.  He made it look easy and I decided I better start helping.  I told him I would agree to help if he agreed it wasn’t my fault we were shoveling corn.  He mostly agreed and said it was 95% his fault, which to me rounds up to 100%!

I grabbed a shovel too and started shoveling corn up and over the side of the trailer it kept raining back down on me.  Brad thought it was hilarious!  He said “don’t you know how to shovel corn?”  I told him clearly not!  It turns out there is a proper technique to shoveling corn and you stand parallel with the trailer and basically lift the shovel straight up and over your shoulder and the corn nicely falls into the trailer.  It works so much better than what I was trying!  It is pretty easy too once you get the hang of it.  Brad and I had fun shoveling corn together, as much as that is possible.  It was quite the workout!  I am glad I didn’t wait longer to shut off the PTO.

A big mess!

We were trying to hurry so nobody else noticed what happened, but they finished the field while we were shoveling and they all (Bob, Craig, Efren and Randy) saw our mess.  Bob and Craig walked up with smirks on their faces and I quickly told them it wasn’t my fault!  I thought they would give us a hard time, but they didn’t.  Craig just started helping us scoop up the last little bit while Bob got the combine ready to move to the next field.

Driving to the next field was quite the test on my road driving skills.  I had a general idea of where the field was and how to get there, but I wasn't 100% sure where the field entrance was.  It was 5pm when we were driving and we had to drive on some busy 2 lane roads to get there.  I was following the combine, but Bob drives faster than I do and with all the traffic I ended up far behind him.  At one point as I was sitting at a very busy 4 way stop, where no one thought they should actually let the large tractor turn left, I lost sight of Bob.  Right about then a nice older man let me finally turn left and off I went to find the field.  I have never been so happy to get to a field!  When you see a tractor on the road please remember they are trying to feed you and don't get so upset that they are slowing down your travels.  We don't love driving on the road with you, but we have a job to do!