Lessons Learned on the Farm

Last week we (the kids & I) helped with harvest on my parent's dairy, the book keeping end that is.  Here's what I learned:

- random farming/trucker terms like what it means to tare (I'm sure I can find some use for this in my daily life)

- corn/silage weighs more not based on height but on the number of ears

- 6am is really early, we struggle to be out of the house before 8am, so leaving by 6am is nearly impossible... bribing my children with Starbucks was super helpful

- if I were a truck driver, I wouldn't want to be a cross country one, I'd rather be a farm one, the routine doesn't seem as boring to me

- I swear some of these truck drivers have the heart of a race car driver & that is their true passion

- I love crunching numbers, this reminded me of my book keeping job I used to have, which I loved

- in a very greedy country there are still thoughtful people... the person ahead of us in the Starbucks drive thru paid for all 3 of our drinks

- in a perfect world cutting 4,600 tons of corn/silage with 3 choppers & 10 trucks would take no more than 1.5 consecutive days.  This of course doesn't factor in rain, break downs, flat tires, truck drivers who don't know how to show up to work on time, mud holes, etc.  Since clearly we don't live in a perferct world this took 5 days and cutting only happened 2 1/2 days randomly throughout those 5 days.

- I have the tendency to spend much more quality time with my children when I'm away... I always seem to find things to do at home... clearly I need to work on this