The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Greetings to everyone in western Illinois. I'm a hope'n everyone survived the big rain of last week without water in the basement, crops washed out, or catfish in the back yard.
Cornelius Farkwad decided to help his family out during this wet spring by running an extra field cultivator for them.
As he entered the field, his oldest son cautioned him to be careful in the north east corner of the field as there can be a wet spot back there.
In fact this spring, it could be, "very wet" with "no bottom".
Well, ole Cornelius was indignant that his son felt the need to warn him of something he knew about before even the young whipper snapper was knee high to a Rhode Island Red rooster.
Besides, he was driving a right fancy, and powerful, four wheel drive monster that could handle anything!
In addition with the forty-four (44) foot field cultivator he was pull'n, he could skirt around the edge of the wet hole and maybe creep into it a bit to dry it out.
However, Cornelius, fortunately, did not reply to his son's advice and to keep harmony in place, pretended to appreciate the unwelcome advice. After all, he taught the young man, who is in his 40's, all he knows.
Yes, you guessed it! Cornelius went straight back to that wet hole on the first trip and got stuck tighter than a bulls backside in fly season.
It seems the edge of the field cultivator sucked him right in.
Of course, driving that four wheeled drive tractor, it was too much to ask for him to pull out right away.
That's what he had to do in the old days with the model A John Deere tractor and ten foot disc.
No, Cornelius would just plow his way thru with the dual tires providing all the flotation and traction he needed.
After the duals filled up with mud, serving as a smooth roller with no traction, both implements settled down to their frameworks into the mucky soupy mess. What an embarrassment that was for ole Cornelius.
He called his wife, hope'n she, on the other four wheel drive tractor with cultivator, would come and bail (or more importantly drag) him out before his son found out.
In fact, he used the cell phone, rather than the FM radio, to keep the event a secret.
The big problem was that his son had the tow rope and how could Cornelius get it away from him without letting the cat out of the bag.
Cornelius would have preferred to ask his son for the rope, "just in case his wife gets stuck".
You know how women and the mud goes! But nooooo-his wife beat him to the punch on the radio and asked for the rope to pull, "Dad" out"!
You know how "know it all dads are and the mud".
Dad Cornelius got pulled out by mom, Mrs. Farkwad-smile'n all the while. Lucky for him, "They didn't let him stew in his own juice". Only one thing was said when it was all over.
His son proclaimed he wished he had remembered he had the camera in the truck.
He would liked to of showed, on the internet, how his dad was the biggest frog in this puddle"!
On Tuesday, with rain in the forecast, the Farkwards decided they was gonna finish plant'n corn, "Let the chips fall where they may".
They rounded up three neighbors and relatives, whose land was too wet to go, and invited them for an old fashioned, "Frolic."
Kinda like the days when neighbors shared help on threshing runs or haying.
On Tuesday, May 12, the Farkwads had four (4) sixteen row planters, five (5) forty four foot (44) field cultivators pulled by five (5) four wheel drive tractors (with one four (4) wheel drive to spare if'n needed) and a lot of seed going into the ground.
Two of the units were GPS with self steering. They would plant sixteen (16) rows and skip sixteen (16) rows with a perfect match for the following planters without GPS.
That same day they had three hundred twenty acres (320) with no Anhydrous ammonia on.
In the morning they applied 28% nitrogen with chemicals and worked it into the soil in the afternoon.
Rain late that night was just perfect for that combination and it was the last field work until this date.
With 4 inches of rain over the weekend they must have made the right choice.
For now at least it seems they finished planting at 11:00 p.m. just as the rain came in so strong as to prevent any further field work.
It was a quite a sight to behold and nary a one of those fellers (both men and women folk) had on knee britches or a Mickey Mouse beany cap!
This was just another slant on utilizing some old ways of neighboring to get a job done in a modern fashion.
Keep on smile'n
Catch ya later
Barnyard Bruke