#168. or, Adversity

  You know that thing?

  That thing.....

  .........where you're swathing canola in the middle of the night because you're trying to catch the dew to keep the pods from breaking open and spilling their seed all over the ground along with everything you worked all summer to achieve? When your swather makes this sickening bang and suddenly the header is hanging to the left and you limp it off the field, best you can, without tearing apart all of the swaths that you've cut earlier in the day? When you're finally off the stubble and onto the wet grass, crawling around underneath looking for the problem by the light of a cell phone because you didn't really think you needed a proper flash light? When you find the problem, and your heart sinks a little because you know, in the dark, laying there in the wet grass, by the light of your cell phone, THIS is gonna be a bitch to fix?

  So, you go to town the next morning for parts, and along the way, you see that one guy has been combining, which means even though it's only one guy, EVERY DAMN BODY is combining and you're the very last to start. Again! Without thinking about it, you chat it up with the parts guy a little longer than usual, because even though you know you need to get that swather repaired and back to work, you're delaying just a bit, because inside, there's a tiny piece of you that doesn't really want to tackle the job. But it needs to be fixed so you get to the field with your tools and the parts, and wander over to start the repairs with the body language of a quarterback who just threw an interception that cost his team the game in the final.

  And in 10 minutes it's done. Even before you realize, as you're crawling out from underneath the swather with a hand full of greasy tools, you have to stop and look back to make sure you did it right, because the whole job only took 10 minutes.

  That thing!

  Ya, that happened to me, earlier this week. First time ever! This year, anyways.

  I've been swathing canola like a madman, as it's been unseasonably wonderful weather for this time of year. Unfortunately, the heat has had our canola turning faster that I can get it cut, and now my last 80 acres are dead ripe and I can't swath it without losing all of the seed. So I'm a little stressed.

  I do have another option. I can cut it standing, directly into the combine. I do that with grain, but have never done it with canola. It's extremely delicate, much moreso than the other grains, so I'd prefer it to be in a swath, but all is not lost. Last night, I went to talk to my neighbour who was hauling grain in a field near ours, as his son combined. He straight cuts canola sometimes, and put my mind at ease about doing it. Somewhat. He also assured me that I am in fact NOT the very last farmer to begin combining this year, and he's also got some canola that still needs to be swathed. And most likely will be straight combining some as well.

  So that made me feel a little better.

  .........even though, it still bugs me that I wasn't able to get it done.