Go Slow

There are certain times of the year when I am delegated jobs that come under the “miscellaneous” category of what I do on our farm.   Some of those jobs include mowing, watering trees, cleaning water tanks and fixing fence.  Today I was given a job of going to West Point to get rye seed.  

We plant rye to control soil erosion after removing a corn crop as corn silage.  I thought this trip would be great because I could do a few other errands in West Point.  My hubby told me I would have to use our older pickup and pull a trailer because of the weight.  I would need to make the trip because the guys were still busy with corn silage.  

Steve will keep packing as more loads of corn silage are dumped
until the height of this pile reaches around 46 feet.

 As I prepared to leave for West Point my husband commented over the radio “You will probably have to go slow on the way back because I am not sure how good the breaks are.”   Steve was referring to the trailer brakes, not the pickup breaks.

I said “OK, is that going to be a problem?”  The reply was “It shouldn’t be.”

Now before I go any further I would like to share with you why I get concerned when someone tells me to do something with a hint of a warning.  I did not grow up on a farm and had not driven anything larger than a pickup before we got married.  After we were married I was given many jobs pulling equipment to allow others to stay on their task at hand.  

I don't have a picture of the wagon but it was similar
to this one only it had tires on the wheels.

 The first time I ever pulled anything it was a pickup and a four-wheeled wagon.  We had only been married about six months.  I was going to pull a trailer full of oats from my in-law’s farm to our farm, about eleven miles.  To add to the adventure my youngest sister, Sandy, was spending a few days with us and came along. 

As we were driving back to our farm with a full wagon of oats my sister looked out the back window and told me that the wagon was not right behind us anymore.  As I looked out the rear view mirror I noticed that the hitch pin must have popped out and the wagon tongue was now on the road.  My instinctive response was to slow the pickup down and try to let the wagon catch up to us.   

As I was working with the wagon my sister noticed people going by and pointing and laughing.  Did I mention we were driving along a state highway?   The wagon did slow down as it hit our bumper then it turned off of the road, went down into a ditch and broke through a barbed wire fence.  The good news is that no one was hurt and the wagon did not flip over!

We didn’t have cell phones back in '82 so I had to drive home and tell Steve what happened.  He was upset but it was more at the fact that someone forgot to put a clip in the little hole at the bottom of the hitch pin then that I had nearly caused an accident.

As I left West Point with my full load of seed I noticed some warning lights turn on in the pickup.  Should I be concerned?  

I will have to check the oil when I get home!

Fortunately my journey home was pretty uneventful as I followed orders and drove slow.  Forty miles an hour isn’t fast enough for cattle trucks and I was passed by four of them.  Two of them passed through intersections, one nearly rear-ended me and one passed in a no passing zone up a hill.  I guess I put my Guardian Angel to work today!   Now it’s time to get back to some of those other miscellaneous jobs!

All is well that ends well!