The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
5-22-2017
Sometimes I really don’t know how we can get everything done. Of course on a farm you never truly get everything done but at least you can check a few things off your list. While we were in the rush of planting season this year I didn’t think about all the things we needed to get done. I just kept moving forward to the next project and the next field. I think I was puzzled by the entire flurry because this was the first year I was back in the thick of planting and it felt GREAT!
Before we had children old enough to drive tractors, I was the one prepping the fields ahead of Mark and the planter. Luckily I got the bigger tractor with the cab while Mark ran his 4 row planter with a small tractor. Sometimes he would have to wear insulated coveralls, stocking hats and gloves just to stay warm. You really wondered if we should have been out in the fields but the calendar said it was planting season. As the kids got older, I was pushed out of the tractor and into the barn for chores and milking. Let’s face it, tractor driving is one of the top jobs. If I didn’t give the kids some fun jobs why would they ever want to come back when they were older? So I’ve been out of the planting loop for almost a decade. Now that everyone is gone, boy did it feel good to be back in the saddle again!
With me being back in the tractor again, it meant there were some big adjustments to make. We needed to be able to shift our daily priorities on a moment’s notice. The truck had to always have enough fuel in the tank to make an emergency parts run . There had to be enough treats in the freezer to keep us energized and awake as we bounced across the fields. There also had to be enough eggs on hand for breakfast and a late supper of scrambled eggs before bed.
Every morning Mark would ask me “what do you have on for today?” Every day I would answer “nothing set in stone.” I knew it didn’t pay to have anything scheduled to do during planting season. I was “on-call” for whatever needed to be done on moment’s notice. It didn’t matter that I had laundry to do or a yard to mow or a garden to plant. These priorities could slip down the list a few pegs for a day or two. It felt like my daily priorities were constantly being reshuffled for another hand of “500”.
Our main priority was getting the crops planted but Mark did make an exception. He put my garden ahead of his fields for a half hour. Since the equipment was parked next to my garden and field ready, he figured he would start off the season with the smallest field on the farm. Carefully he backed the disk and drag down through the garden until he reached the strawberry patch. With my signal, he dropped the equipment, fired up the engine and worked up the soil in the garden. After a few more passes, the garden was ready to go, only I wasn’t ready to continue. It would be a couple of weeks before I could pick up where Mark left off. This gave the weeds a chance to sprout and grow. Before I could plant, I needed to knock back the weeds and smooth out the disk ruts. A neighbor gave Mark a tip on how he packed his garden. He took a heavy wooden pallet, tied bale strings together to make a hitch and connected it to a clevis on the back of a four-wheeler. This was the quickest and easiest way I’ve ever prepped the garden. I just drove around the garden dragging the pallet behind me. The pallet leveled off the soil and cleared out the weeds. Mother’s Day week I was able to finish planting potatoes, peas and some early beans.
The weather had been feeling so nice and warm. Then the it shifted and we’ve been cold, windy, wet and damp for the past week.
At the start of this planting season, we were concerned with how the alfalfa fields survived the winter. We didn’t plow any fields down and the recent rains have helped to fields to fill out. It looks like we could be taking first crop within the next two weeks depending upon how the weather patterns set up. While we wait for the fields to dry out, we’re working our way down our priority list of things to get done before the next rush.