The winner is...

The winner in yesterday's contest is "Anonymous" Aka Patricia!

 

Congratulations!

 

It was a Duck Decoy.

See it got run through the machine(on accident) and its head, and tail are missing.

Can you identify this item?

So a few days ago my machine ran over a rather odd(but not completely out of place) item in one of our fields. Think you can identify what it is?

A Dog's Life

Today's subject:

A happy pooch.

This last one is my personal favorite:

Another day shift

Today we did a spot cut, and sunk a truck in the mud. By the end of the day I was completely surprised that we had trucks driving out to us, as the field was QUITE muddy!

For the random picture today I bring you:

A small angry cat!

Random pictures again!

Along with the random picture I may have neglected to mention the fact that the same night I had my little incident, I also won tickets to a Vince Mira concert.

 

   

These are some shots I snapped last summer when I was house sitting for my aunt and uncle. This is a wind chime they have out front.

Random picture week...

Since I am in the process of switching to day shifts this week(and probably part of next week) will be random picture week. I will dig into my files upon files of pictures, and find some random shots to post here!

 

On the other side of the fence.

Today I had the intriguing experience of being on the other side of the fair fence. See for 4 years I was a showman out there, and always on the 'inside'. I would get up and be in the barn at 5 am and not leave again until 10pm. I rarely ventured out(except to show and use the restroom), so I did not see much of the fairgrounds.

I must say it was rather enlightening to be one of the 'public' out there. Though I never did make it to the barns, I did get to see all the displays and such which was rather nice.

Oh- and new schedule this week 6:15am till ????

The bad news that came down the pipe

Yesterday I received some horrid news.

They(Sci Fi, and MGM) have decided that they are canceling Stargate Atlantis.

Now I realize that to most people this isn't 'horrible news' but to a fan it is. This show is in the prime of its life, and is being shut down just when its really getting its own feet under it.

They also announced this morning that they will be releasing a new Stargate series in 2009- Stargate Universe. At the moment I don't know much about it, so I can't really comment.

On a brighter note- I bought and paid for my plane ticket to Burbank in November. So I am officially going to the Creation Burbank SG Convention!

So I need a good story to go with this

See that giant scar up there? Yeah, the REAL story of how it happened is pretty embarassing(I'll share it at the end of the entry). So I need a good story as to why I have it.

Backround info:

* It is about 4-5 inches long, and a year old

* It's on my upper right arm

Current explanations include:

* So I tried to pay for gas with it but apparently they are only taking LEFT arms these days.

* I got in a fight- but if you think THATS bad- you should see the other guy!

* Oh, that? Its nothing, kid just tried to steal my machine, and I wrestled him for it- a little too close to the header(harvesting part)

 

So what is the REAL story, you ask?

Last summer, when I was working nights I came home after an extra long shift(about 15 hours), and crashed out in bed. My cat was sleeping next to me in the bed, and at some point during the day had a bad dream, during which she was fleeing some horribly horrible creature(or at least I hope it was horrible). During her escape attempt she decided to take a flying leap off the bed, launching herself from my arm onto whatever. I woke up and found this lovely gash, along with 3 smaller gashes from her toes.

Now for something, slippery, slimy and all together ooky

A while ago I promised a friend that if/when I got a chance I would snap a picture of some of our larger slugs around here.

Now I live in the northwest and we are known for our rain, but right now it is our 'dry spell' *shhh!* don't let that out! So it is rather hard to find slugs.

That is until the other day, when I came home and found this little beauty lounging by my front door. Now I apologize for the cruddiness of the pictures but they were both snapped with my cell phone after a loooong night at work, then breakfast.

I estimate that he when fully stretched out was probably 6-7 inches in length.

Ah, for injuries gone by....

This story shall be in the past, so close your eyes and imagine its 2003 again.

The date is August 19th, and its 75 blistering degrees outside, but inside, a squat white barn, you'll find two people decorating for a fair.

On the ground stands a man of considerable height, armed with his tool of choice- a staple gun. On the fence and wall you find a girl, her hair pulled back into a haphazard ponytail, her body carrying the fatigue of two straight weeks on the fair circut.

The man hands her the staple gun and she tacks another piece of random decoration to the wall, and hands it back to him. He takes it and moves onto the next enclosure on the other side of the opposite fence, as she starts to shift her weight from the fence she is balanced on to that one. As she sets her right foot onto the fence post, she feels it give way slightly, and suddenly she is slipping, falling through space, until suddenly she contacts the cold metal bar, fully astride it- hard.

The girl hoists herself off the fence and continues working through the quickly intensifying pain, until she can no longer bear it. She excuses herself to examine the damage and finds a large and growing bruise. Quickly she informs the man who decides that maybe they should head home, get her seen by a Doctor. As they speed toward home, the girl's pain growing more intense by the passing moments they stop, and pick up a block of ice. The girl tries to comfortably settle the ice on the injury, as the man speaks hurriedly into the phone, informing another of what had occurred. As the miles fly past the girls pain intensifies to the point she is screaming in a mix of sheer pain and terror.

The man decides home is too far and turns for the nearest emergency room. They reach the relative 'safety' of the place, and he wheels her inside to the admittance counter and explains what happens, as the nurse dismisses them saying it will be a while, the girl suddenly feels the urge to relieve herself, she informs the man who wheels her to the bathroom door, as the girl stands up he catches sight of the pool of blood below her, and suddenly she is whisked into the back.

The next while is a blur of nurses bringing her ice packs and questioning them about what had happened when finally a doctor arrives. By this time the girls mother had arrived, and was sitting anxiously with them in the small room. The doctor examines the wound, and informs them all that while he KNEW them, he would still have to transfer the girl to the *other* hospital for Women and Children as they were just not equipped to handle this kind of thing.  The kind doctor sat down next to the girl who was floating high in a drug cloud and informed her that they would be Transiting her to the other hospital. With great hope and enthusiasm the girl looked up at him, and excitedly asked, "So I get to ride on the BUS?!" This question set the room afire with giggles, and guffaws as he calmly explained that no, they were going to give her another dose of pain killer, and load her into an ambulance.

Another period of time passed, and the girl was transported to the *other* hospital, where upon arriving under the medics diligent care, she was wheeled by the nurses station in the empty ER. As she passed the girl looked over, and calmly waved at all the assembled personnel, and exclaimed, "HEY EVERYBODY, How you doing?!" As this was quite the grand entrance, and them having all heard about what had happened, they gathered in and out of the girls room until she left for surgery.

She was in surgery for 4 and a half grueling hours, during which according to the doctor she almost had to be transfused. She woke up the next morning in the pediatric unit as the only walking(somewhat) and talking patient, there were 3 days of semi-blissful rest and recuperation before the girl was discharged and sent home to fully heal.

**The proceeding story is completely and totally true.

The Girl is played by me

The Man is my father

The Other woman my mother

And the ER doctor? Was an old high school classmate of theirs.

Peas in the light of day

This is what a FULL bin looks like in the light of day.

 

Tune in tomorrow for the story of my worst accident ever.

Getting back on the proverbial horse

After last night's(Friday) little 'incident' I DID go to work tonight(Saturday) and did fine. Though I was momentarily freaked out to find that our field had a random telephone pole in the middle of it to taunt me.

We worked a 'short shift' though our crew could have kept running though we didn't finish our field in time to move. So therefore we got shut down and sent home.

I blame the machine that ate a stake as it left us with 2 machines in an approximately 45 acre field. Of course having gotten on the proverbial horse again, I did most of the work. Go me!

The post in which I nearly die

This morning I was involved in a rather unfortunate accident at work. I survived it, and so did my machine, but my pride, and nerves are a wee bit shot at the moment.

See on Thursday we switched back to 12 hour shifts. So last night(Friday) I was working my second 12 hour shift on about 6 hours of sleep. Now normally I am fine with not taking breaks as it really disrupts my 'rhythm' at work. I got in my machine at 7pm last night and other than a couple of 'organic' breaks while waiting for pea trucks early on in the shift I didn't stop working except our early road move. We moved into a crap field that had been underwater earlier this year thus screwing it way up and making it hard to harvest. Add in the fact that we had 3 machines in a space that wasn't big enough, and you have lots of fun. So I was told when I requested a break that I could 'go do whatever the hell you want' so I went and knocked out the front portion of the field before assisting with the almost finished back. I was then lined up as lead viner for a road move at the end of shift(about 5:15 am shift change is at 6:30).

After last week's incident in which we took out power lines we have all been hyper vigilant about our bins being dropped for road moves. When I got in my machine I had yet to drop it, so the foreman had me drop it and we went on our merry way.

All along the way for some reason our viners were scraping crap that they shouldn't have been(read lines, trees, etc) and we mentioned this to our lead and our follow car but they said that there wasn't anything they could do about it.

Part way through our move and almost to our destination we recieved a call redirecting us from our original destination to a new one. We were given a road, we'll call J Loop, to go down. Well J Loop does what the name implies and loops around and connects to the main road in two spots. What we were not informed was that we needed to go past the first entrance to J Loop and turn onto the second one. So we reached J Loop road, and turned right onto it. This was now about 6 or 6:15 in the morning and was rather foggy and still semi-dark. So we are driving down the road and our lead car gets a ways ahead of me, and I am approaching some wires that look rather low so as is customary I slowed way down to pass under them. As I was passing under I heard a TINK! on my mirror, so I slowed even more, when I suddenly heard a TUNG* somewhere behind me. Not liking the sound I slammed my machine to a stop, and grabbed my CB and alerted the follow and lead car that "I think I nicked a wire" to which the machine behind me responded "YES". The guy from the lead car and the follow car all came running and had me idle down my machine, and sit there while they figured out how to de-tangle the wire. Meanwhile I was sitting in my cab not touching anything, bawling my eyes out.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity(was probably about 10 minutes) they determined the wire wasn't live and were able to remove it from my machine and very carefully direct me down the length of the remaining road and into our field.

It wasn't until about a half hour later in the van that I heard the full extent of the damage I had done. Apparently when I hit the wire it popped out of a barn, sending sparks flying through the air, and popping an old short pole(about 7 feet) and bringing it down onto a fence. According to the boys when I make things FUBAR I'm a wee bit of an overachiever.

*TUNG- the sound an empty coffee can makes when rapped on. Not a good sound on a giant metal machine that has just contacted power lines.

More Random Videos

First off, is my machine starting up to go back to work and driving down the land. We were cutting diagonally across the field. The monitor shows that my barrel pressure is about 1,500 psi (which is very LOW) and my speed is 1 and a half miles per hour.

 

Second video is dumping. I didn't film this one, instead had my friend J the Truck driver do it for me. All the peas in the front of the truck bed, are MINE!

More on the Viner Disco

This video was taken the other night when I was full, and waiting for a pea truck to show up. I apologize for the lack of light but it was the best I could do.

Happy Birthday to a friend

So, I just wanted to take a moment and say:

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY!!!! To my best friend Lacey!

I'll go have a drink for you ;)

 

Hope its everything you want, my dear, and then some. Just remember soon as you get that bun out, first rounds on me.

Wine, wine, wine

So today I had the honor of purchasing my very own first wine selection. I bought a bottle of Pink Truck Wine. This wine is made by the Red Truck Winery and was just delicious. It was very smooth and well blended with just the right top notes, and undertones. It is the perfect combination of sweet and dry, with a wonderful bouquet that doesn't overpower the taste.

I had heard many wonderful things about the Red Truck brand, but had yet to try it, and so was quite pleased to find it lived up to all the hype. I know I'll be purchasing another bottle(or 2) on my next shopping trip, as the one in the fridge is nearly gone.

So, now the planning starts

For next year's 30th wedding anniversary bash that is.

Today is my parents 29th wedding anniversary.

According to my mother I am STILL the worst anniversary present she ever got.

Birthday wrap up

Tonight the family took me out to dinner to celebrate my birthday and embarrass me.

They ordered me a margarita, that was big enough to swim in, and then proceeded to give me crap when I didn't drink it all. They(my father) also informed the restaurant that it was my birthday, little did I know he mentioned WHICH one it was. *sighs* So I was sitting there expecting churros, or some other dessert thing to be brought out to go with the sombreros and off key singing. No, that would have been too easy. Instead the restaurant provided me with a straight shot of tequila(that they literally poured down me).

Later that night my dad and I went out grocery shopping, since we weren't working, and I was going to buy my first bottle of wine. Well him being Mr. 'Expert' *pshaw* he recommended a nice Chardonnay. Ennh, it was okay but not my cup of tea.