50,000 acres done.

[pitw]

I think my sprayers went over their 50,000th acre today for the spring.  For the guys who don't know the size of an acre it is 16.5 feet by a half mile.  Which means we have covered a strip of land 16.5 feet wide once around the world this spring.  I get to see a lot of neat things from the seat of my rig but yesterday I saw something I have to relate to you.  I was doing the first round on a field at 15mph, watching my boom to keep it out of the fence I saw a jack rabbit passing me in the pature on the other side of the fence.  I figured he was racing for fun when a coyote came along behind him.  We raced along to the end of the field with them gaining on me all the way.  When the rabbit came to the cross fence and it's tall grass from last year I wondered what he'd do.  He leapt and I mean leapt, as my butt is 10 ft from the ground in my rig so my head must be 13 feet up and that rabbit was 5-8 feet higher than me when he went over that fence.  He was taking no chance of getting tangled in the growth.  Poor ol' Wiley went through the fence and stopped on the other side and I swear just looked at the buuny scooting away then looked over his shoulder at me and shook his head, turned and walked away. 

[alscalls]

That would be cool to see.....Maybe you will meet that yote again this fall...

[CCP]

I get to see a lot of neat things from the seat of my rig

I have had a bit of seat time myself but not on the scale you do. Things have changed alot through the years. I was spraying 6 rows at 6 miles an hour with a pull behind with only around 600 acres to do. Now those same farmers I knew then spray thousands of acres of peanuts alone.

I could relate to what you saw even though I have not witnessed that. I have witnessed many cool things in nature while sitting in the seat. Hawks catching rats, rabbits,snakes and quail and hanging them on the fence. Coyotes watching from the edges.

Went back by the old home place last week and all the old hedge rows are gone and it is all open fields so the larger equipment can run in there. Seems like yesterday we were expanding gate openings for the new 6 row planters, now they are using 16 row planters there.

A man can think of so many things good and bad while chuggin along in the field.

Thanks for sharing and bringing back a few memories.


I wonder if the new equipment of today only breaks down in the middle of the field away from the shade?

[pitw]

I get to see a lot of neat things from the seat of my rig

I have had a bit of seat time myself but not on the scale you do. Things have changed alot through the years. I was spraying 6 rows at 6 miles an hour with a pull behind with only around 600 acres to do. Now those same farmers I knew then spray thousands of acres of peanuts alone.

I could relate to what you saw even though I have not witnessed that. I have witnessed many cool things in nature while sitting in the seat. Hawks catching rats, rabbits,snakes and quail and hanging them on the fence. Coyotes watching from the edges.

Went back by the old home place last week and all the old hedge rows are gone and it is all open fields so the larger equipment can run in there. Seems like yesterday we were expanding gate openings for the new 6 row planters, now they are using 16 row planters there.

A man can think of so many things good and bad while chuggin along in the field.

Thanks for sharing and bringing back a few memories.


I wonder if the new equipment of today only breaks down in the middle of the field away from the shade?

CCP the other day scooter[one of my old operators] stopped by to chat in the field and while we stood there yapping we watched as a hawk grabbed a gopher.  It flew up in the sky where a second one was circling and dropped the tender morsel. The gopher fell maybe 50 ft where the second one grabbed it out of midair.  Never seen one pass to another before either do you suppose it was on purpose as I think it was?  The first one never dove for it or anything.
   The new equipmen is just like the old equipment I have ran it waits to blow a hose, have a flat tire or anything else it can come up for a reason to stop exactly at the farthest point from the truck in a field
   The old farm yards and many bush's have been cleared for the reasons you stated.  A couple years ago I was doing a new place that one of our large feedlot operators had bought.  This man[Peter] hated trees and would clear them corner to corner even if he couldn't farm where they had been.  I came upon three trees his cat skinner had left by a waterhole and phoned him to say,"Peter don't let the cat skinner get away he missed three trees by the dugout".  His strawboss[Calvin] came to the field 2 hours later saying,"Barry you can't do that Peter is just wild with you".  I guess he had the phone on speaker and Calvin said that Peter was so mad that he was going to throw me off.  Oh well I'm still there and he leaves a few more trees now.
   Friday I pulled up to a gate I thought I'd have to open only to see where they had cut the fence to get the equipment through just up the road, so I hear that statement of yours loud and clear.