Tales From the Riverbank

oops #1 - Sunday, I took the bobcat down the road to my grandpa's partner's farm so we can pick rocks. We will be planting pumpkins in that field, need to plow and there's some big frickin rocks. Dad told me to take it the back way, down across the back of the neighbor's field and across a small creek to get to the field. It is possible to just go down the road, but the bobcat has a top speed of around 1.5mph. I took my chainsaw and safety gear and cleared a tree out from in front of the creek which was easy. The creek is lined with rocks in that spot and it used to be a 4 wheeler riding path until the tree blocked it. It's been raining so much here lately, but the creek wasn't high, only three feet across and shallow. 

I got the bobcat stuck in the bank out of the creek which was quite steep. Sigh. Thankfully, the tractor was already at the farm hooked up to the dump trailer, so I unhooked it, called my employee and had him bring a chain down and he pulled me out. I left some eight inch deep ruts, so that wasn't ideal. 

oops #2 - yesterday, I spent some time mowing the tops of the weeds that are in the strawberry field. This is a thing we do when we've lost control of the weed situation and it isn't going to be done by hand before we open. Plus that section is not super healthy due to last year's lack of weed control. We've been hand weeding the good sections but it takes a very long time because the weeds are large and often curly dock, which we use a shovel to slice through the root and then remove the top of the plant. Huge pain. I was mowing along in the tractor we call the little stinker. It's  a cute little narrow tractor that has fantastic visibility because it's a tiny little thing with a short and narrow cab. Not very tall. I had dropped the deer fence so I could turn around, my tires went into the dip at the edge of the field and I didn't pick up the mower high enough and caught the deer fence in the mower. Spent an hour getting it out of the mower. 

During the rock picking Sunday, my steel toed boots gave up the ghost. They were probably 10 years old and I didn't use them much for my previous job, so they sat and the rubber soles started to disintegrate. One of the soles disconnected from the boot so it was only hanging on by the toe. So I got new boots this morning. Composite toe, so not steel toed, but still safety rated. Steel toe boots are useful but they are quite cold in the winter to work in. I'm using the chainsaw this afternoon, so I wanted new boots ASAP. I'm putting water proofing on them right now. Red wing brand which came recommended by my dad for good waterproofing and durability, so I'm hoping they last.

I also got a new-to-me phone. Unihertz help desk gave up on me. I did receive two groups texts from a random group chat at one point, so they figured it was Verizon's end and said I was beyond help. So I picked up a somewhat rugged verizon phone on ebay for $40, popped the sim card in and that is now my call and text phone with my tank mini doing everything else. I can set aside the motorola power g that has suffered so much at my hands. Disappointing end to that, but pretty clearly verizon is the problem. Really frustrating. My dad has been thinking about switching to US mobile and thought maybe switching carriers might help, but I dunno. I'm not on their plan, so I don't have to and it is cheaper, but I want to say those services that piggyback off of verizon or other big carriers can be a bit more unreliable. 

My potatoes have finally sprouted! Took them long enough. I haven't had a chance to plant more things because of work and non-spot rain, so I'm hoping to seed some things in the next week or so.