#155. or, Day One Bust

  I'm sitting in my tractor seeding today. I mean, literally,
Sitting. In. My. Tractor. Seeding.

  It's posts like these that tend to add a little validity to me labelling myself as, -inatractor.

 This is actually 3rd day of seeding wheat. Yesterday was the 2nd. But for all intents and purposes, I'm calling today two, and yesterday one, and pretty much writing off my first day altogether, as it was about one of the worst days of seeding that I can recall in quite some time.

  When I finish seeding for the year, I try to put my seeder away after doing any repairs it requires. Same thing with the tractor, although, it gets used for a lot of other jobs, so we tend stay on top of what it requires as things develop. That being said, it still takes me 2 or 3 days to hook everything up, change oil, and go through all the nooks and cranny's, so when I go to the field, I can go with the confidence that I can put in a good days' work.

  That was my plan for Wednesday. To pull into the field and do some serious seeding. I made it about half way around my first pass, before I got stuck. Not stuck bad, just to when any forward movement stops happening. I don't like getting stuck bad. That happened to me last year and requires unhooking everything, and pulling out each of the three pieces separately. Also, I discovered that the degree to which you bury your tractor and seeder in the mud is directly proportional to the number of neighbours that will show up to watch as you try to get out. I had a lot of neighbours watching me last year, and really wanted to avoid that happening again.

  Anyways, I had  no chain because no one likes to anticipate getting stuck, and to bring one would also imply that my tractor driving might not be up to the standards as to avoid getting stuck in the first place. So we had to send for a chain before I could get towed out.

  While I was waiting, I called my tractor salesman to see if he had a set of rear wheel duals I could put on my tractor to give it more traction. He said he had a set for about $12 000, but he could get me a deal for $10 000. Which was about twice as much as I had expected, and about $10 000 more than I really wanted to spend. So for now, I'm being really, really careful.

  When the chain came, it was relatively easy to get pulled out by the other tractor we had there cultivating the field. Then I proceeded to get stuck again. Three more times. Three more times in as many acres. And, because my ego could no longer stand any further crushing blows, I left to find a drier field.

  The second field was much drier and it appeared that I was going to be able to salvage the remainder of the day. Until the fan hub
on the tractor blew up. They didn't have one in town, and it would have been a days wait for them to bring one in, so it was required that I make an after hours call to the John Deere parts warehouse, an hour and a half away in the city.

  Fortunately, I talked my wife into coming along for the drive with me, so that made the trip a bit more fun, she also suggested we pick up some coffee and doughnuts from Tim Horton's, for the drive home.

  It's funny how less than $10 worth of coffee and doughnuts can make getting stuck 4 times and a $1200 fan hub seem not all that bad.

  ................of course, that could have also had something to do with the sex we had later that night, but I hesitate to mention that, because well, doughnuts AND sex in the same evening, is likely more good than anybody deserves.