It has been awhile since I posted a story. Here is one of my favorites. It's all about silage! LOL
Rubber boots:
Weather is a tricky and fickle thing in the dairying business. Actually it's the same when it comes to any part of the agriculture field. It's hard to farm a good crop of corn when the sun doesn't come out until August. And it's really hard to use your flush system when the rains never seem to cease. But somehow we always manage.
I never mind the weather. I have just grown so accustomed to it, that no matter what it is; it doesn't bother me as much as it does other people. I'm not saying I wouldn't mind it to be a balmy 60 degrees and sunny every day, I'm just saying that if it isn't; I'm OK with that. In fact, I am a person who will stand in a downpour and lift my face up into the rain. It just feesl good to do that.
But no matter the sun, the wind, or the rain; there was always one job that I had wished for better weather on. And that was during Silage Season. (As it is called on our farm.)
Silage is a type of feed that we can store and keep for our cows to eat all throughout the year. And there are two main types of it. Corn and grass silage. And when it is harvested (and that is when Silage Season starts) that is the time our farm becomes extremely busy. We have tractors and dump trucks coming in all day for about a week. And tons of goodies are bought and made for our Harvestors. Gatorades and sandwiches and cookies oh my!
I always remember making a stack of sandwiches for my dad and Pakae as they would sit in their John Deeres listening to talk radio while they would push the silage up into one gigantic pile. I always vowed to myself that I would never, ever do that job.
You see, and this may come as a surprise, I have an almost crippling fear of heights. Really. Crippling. During my walking class in college we walked up flights of stairs in a car park and I clung to the railing as we marched up and up like a retard. My breaths weren't heavy because I was tired, it was because I was freaking out inside. Don't ask where this came from. Because I have no idea. I am a girl that will jump in line for any roller coaster. But when it comes to ferris wheels, I'm like BA from The A-Team. It's sad, I know.
And so, to be driving up a ginormous hill, in a huge green tractor, with no supports to stop you from tumbling over the side was not something I would be doing anytime soon. And as my luck would have it, I never did.
It was always cute to watch my Beppe and Pakae during lunch breaks. My Beppe would bring a little lunch pail and she and Pakae would sit in the bed of his truck and have lunch together. And then when that was done, sometimes she would go pick fruit.
So the harvesting would go on for a few days, the dump trucks would seem endless, and just when you think you're about to go crazy from those trunks banging over the dip in our driveway. It would be done! And the blessed silence will return once more....until our neighbor's across the street decide to start using their bird cannon again to keep the starlings from eating their grapes.
Once all of the silage was in one huge pile, it was now time to cover it; and that is when a very important fermentation process will begin, and that will keep the silage from going bad. And this was one of all my all-time least favorite jobs in the dairy, ever.
And the reasons for that are as follows:
Why I dislike covering Silage
1) Having to move big, awkward, heavy things by hand.
A giant roll of plastic sheeting it dragged up by a tractor, and then we roll it the length of the pile. Then, it is cut to fit the area needed, and the rest is stored for later use. Here is where the weather is very important, but never worked out.
2) Wind is bad. Dead stillness is good. Does that ever happen? No.
Stretching the tarp is done a whole lot easier when there is no wind. If it is as still as the dead outside, getting the tarp to fit the pile is pretty easy. But somehow we always managed to pick a windy day that would decide to pick up the tarp had heave-hoe it all about. So, tires must be placed all over the tarp as quickly as possible.
3) Tossing nasty, water filled tires does horrible, horrible things to your beautiful nails.
Even though this is another testament to how dairies are constantly recycling and reusing; touching nasty, used and dead tires is disgusting! Anything could be in those things, from dead mice and frogs, to spiders. Not to mention the fact that months and months of rain water has collected in them and they are now spilling all down your front! I was always happy to volunteer to be the tractor driver who lifted the tires up on top of the pile so that I didn't have to touch them too much. But that didn't happen all the time. Most of the time I was moving them to weigh down the tarp.
I have this strange love for my finger nails. I love them. When they grow long and even, I feel like I have achieved something. I don’t know why.
P.S: The next day, expect to have very sore shoulders.
But as tiring, and dirtifying, (Yes I know I just made up a word, but it works.) as the job is; it is so gratifying to see the work you just accomplished, and to know, that your cows will have food all throughout the winter.
After the job was done, my dad and I would stand there admiring our accomplishment, and then go get a Gatorade.
