Prepping

My friend recently got in an accident - a guy towing a trailer with a farm implement on it backed into her car.

While she was telling me the story I said, "What kind of farm implement was it?"

She said, "Hmmm. I don't know."

I said, "Did it have circles or things that looked like rakes? Because then I'd guess a plow or a rake."

She said, "No."

I said, "Then that ends my guessing."

I'm not really equipment-minded. So today Kris told me that Mike leveled out spots in the field with a disc. Tomorrow we're having another company come and "work it down."

I asked Kris what they would work it down with. He answered, "A soil finisher."

I nodded. No picture came to mind. I realize that there are many, many tools for 'working down a field' but to me they all sort of run together. Because until you're personally doing it, buying one, fixing one, or renting one, they all look like 'farm implements.' Even when they're coming through your windshield.

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Josh went around and checked all the fences today in preparation for letting the cattle out on pasture! (This is earlier than usual. Last year at this time we had a snow day at school.)

Kris said there were just the regular fixes - places deer or trees had knocked against the wires needed tightening. Nothing major.

The cows were really excited, Kris said. They saw Josh on the quad out in the field and THEY WANTED TO BE THERE TOO. Looks like Wednesday is the day!

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My sister Tracy visited recently. We were talking about the weather and she said, "I remember when I first went to college and it started to rain. I thought ... I don't care. I don't have to worry about the corn, or the hay being down ... it doesn't matter!"

(This is obviously in the day before texting, when mom and dad would have been keeping her up to date on the farm events regardless!)

Though I've been loving the recent warm weather, I knew the fruit farmers were concerned. In this Detroit News article, Freeze threatens state's $300M fruit crop after weeks of warm weather , they explain that since everything is four or five weeks early this year, these cold nights might really damage the crops.

Not only do I know a lot of fruit farmers, but I looooove fruit. Whenever there's a rough year, we notice. I may not notice what tools are in the field, but I always notice the fruits of their labor.