Doggers

 ...Work slowed down dramatically last week. I went from 18 hour days, 7 days a week, to doing 2 days a week.
 I'm burned out. I can keep going, if needed. But because I don't need to, I'm just vegging out in front of the big screen TV, catching on a LONG list of DVR saved things, and messing around on my tumblr page. 
 And running my long neglected dogs every day until they look like they will drop dead.

 Life is good. And my dogs love me!

Hey all. I've been working 16 hours every day, (some 18 hour days, some 14 hour long days, but on average, 16 hours every day.)  For the past 6 weeks. Then I had two 20 hour days, followed by a 22 and then a 21.5 hour long day, and then right back to the 16 hour long days.
 So, I have NOT had any free time to check email, or anything else. Tomorrow, I think the farmer will pick the last of the hemp crop. I know the fields are mostly picked, but then I'm sent an address, to a new field I never knew about, and end up working to 3 AM, backing up in completely dark fields. (I have a farm worker drive slow down a twisty field road, and I just back up following the tail lights.)
 Lately, when I get to a field, I tell the guys loading me to wake me up when it's loaded, instead of helping them. I'll get a 20 minute nap in, a few times a day and it keeps me going. One place I deliver to, takes an hour to unload me.  Once I pull the air brakes, I'm off to bed in the bunk. But I don't go there every day.
 Anyway... Hemp!  It's our first year growing it, and it's been an adventure.
 And my poor truck is getting all beat up. It's a Highway truck. It was never meant to be driven in muddy, or up very hilly, rocky terrain...6 times a day.
 But, the truck has paid for it's self many times over in the past 2 months. Next year, I'll buy an old truck made for this kind of abuse, just for the harvest.
 We had a day of steady rain, and the farmer wanted me to go up a muddy hill to get loaded. I borrowed a farm pick up, and drove to the location. I told farmer, "It's possible, but only one time. After I go up, NO more trailers!" So, I barely made it to the top, and I backed my trailer into the hemp field to get turned around, ran over a couple thousand dollars of hemp, but my GIVE A DAMN is way past used up by now, and they loaded me up. Going down, I was sliding the entire way. I called and repeated "It's TOO MUDDY!  Don't send the other trailer up here!" And sure enough, that crazy farmer sent the rental truck and trailer up right after I left, and the poor driver ain't half as good as me.  It took 5 hours to get him unstuck.  They finally called me to come back after I was unloaded and said "I need 2 tractors, One push, one pull!" I was able to get the truck to the top, with a farm tractor pulling, and another pushing me from behind. lol That was the 3rd time in a month that the farmer ignored me when I said.. "IT's TOO MUDDY! DON'T send the other trailer!" Each time, it was at least 4 hours of the other driver's truck blocking the road, causing a HUGE delay. Now, she listens to me every time. And ahhh, I just shrug when she ignores me.  The other driver is one of those guys who can do it, all by himself. He never asks for my help or my advice. And even when I arrive to help him get unstuck, I have to practically yank him out of the driver's seat because he won't get out.
 Last time, he was ignoring me as I said "Let me get it unstuck for you." So, he tried 4 more times, ignoring my advice and just getting the truck stuck worse, and I said, "Ok, enough!" I opened the door and said, "Get out or move over. I'm done standing in the rain watching you."
 And 5 minutes later it was free of the mud. The farmer and the Spanish guys are like.. WOW! To me, it's just simple physics.
Anyway, NOW the other driver (and the farmer) call me for trucking advice.

Finally. Essshh.

Esssh. I didn't mention it, but I've been out of work the last few weeks. Had to have emergency surgery on my eye.
 Having a detached retina repaired ain't as much fun as I thought it'd be.
 3 weeks ago, the day after the surgery, when the nurse held up a hand in front of my face and asked how many fingers, I had no clue at all. I was just happy to see a flesh colored blob waving in front of my face.
 2 weeks ago, eye surgeon said I was seeing 20/400. (Yano that ridiculously gigantic, sideways letter "E" you sometimes see on an eye chart?  Well, if that's ALL you can see, THAT's 20/400!)
 And...Last week, the stitches behind my eyeball were dissolving. So, for 5 days, NON STOP, I was crying blood. Every 10 seconds for 5 days, I had to wipe blood away. It was crazy. I had paper towels and tissues covered in blood all over my computer desk here. I had a few friends stop by to check up on me. One said, "HOLY SHIT DUDE! That's a HUGE SCAR down your cheek!" I said, "What? I don't have a scar!"
 I wiped at my cheek... It was all dried blood. I had no clue it was there. Friend was saying, "Wipe down more, down more, It's all the way down past your lips..." lol  Every morning I'd wake up to my eye glued shut from dried blood.
 Uggghh!
 Yesterday, I saw the eye doctor again. I'm seeing 20/70 in that eye now. Not great, but good enough to fix with a pair of glasses.
I'm allowed to drive again! YAY! 
 My vision will keep improving for up to an entire year. But, meanwhile, I have a website for cheap glasses, Zenni.com. my buddy gave me. Ya gotta love them at times like this!

Hey. Anyone out there wanna job? 

We lost two drivers at the farm.
I need a CDL B driver. And a non CDL driver.
Pay for CDL to start is 21 bucks an hour. Non CDL, 18 an hour.

I can get you free housing, and maybe food included too.

This week, I did over 80 hours. But that's just me. If ya like to work, we will make your day.

NO over time pay. No Benefits.  (IT'S for a farm!)
But, if you can drive in places like NY City, I'll make life easy for ya.

Lemme know.

Last fall, the farmer hired a 21 year old to run the old excavator. There was no mention about it to me. I just saw him on the machine one day. I was actually thrilled.
 So, I took the winter off.
 My last day, I stopped, introduced myself, and told the 'kid' about all the quirky stuff on that old excavator...and, I didn't hear a peep from the farmer all winter. 
 Snow was still on the ground when I got a call to come back to 'work'. 
 Over the winter, the farmer acquired about 850 acres of Apple trees. They had to be taken down and all of stumps removed. 
 When I arrived, the last of the trees were being cut down.  Then everyone pulled up stumps, and we loaded them in the old dump truck. I hauled them to a big pile of stumps.
 And then I burned the roots and branches, and I hauled away the 'applewood' firewood to a different farm, to dry out.

 And then I loaded boulders into an old dump truck, and hauled them away. Then the guys picked up smaller rocks from the fields, and I hauled those away.
And it's been insane every day since. 7 days a week, if weather permits. Today I worked in the rain, in a new rented excavator. 

Oh yeah, the 'kid', killed the old excavator. And a whole lot of other stuff. He cost the farmer tens of thousands in damages, before he finally got fired. 
 Ahh, that's what happens when you put someone in a machine that can do a WHOLE lot of damage in the blink of an eye. And you don't train him, or watch him.
 Anywho. I'm never bored at work.
 And the farmer...finally realizes that I'm worth every dollar I ask for.
 (I've been told many times that I am the highest paid worker on the farm. lol)
 And everyone that knows exactly what I do at the farm, say I am getting underpaid. But, I'm good.