The adrenaline and thrill of this new work has worn off but there are still lots of things to keep me entertained all day as I tramp cotton over and over again (plus whatever break down there is for the day -more than any other harvest so far and we're only 2 weeks in!)Probably the most entertaining is my own mind. The things that come up, memories and ideas, people I haven't talked to in a while, those I have... I sing to myself, (songs I love and made up songs) I retell stories in Spanish, or think about what to include in my next blog. There's also a lot to look at around me on the farm.
We've actually just switched paddocks so the scenery is different now but the land out here is really incredible. My view is basically the cotton in front of me, the field, trees, brush and sky. It's also fun to keep an eye out for the wildlife. If I keep a look out I may see a mama kanga with a joey in her pouch. I haven't seen many kangas out here yet but there are two living at the house and I sometimes see them from the truck (or "ute.") Lots of birds fly over probably wondering what in the world the big machines are doing down below!? At one point I was parked next to a small pond and there were a couple of gorgeous black swans! Their beaks were incredibly orange and they were both so graceful. They didn't seem to mind the noise of the tractors. (They are tiny in the picture I've attached.) We've also seen some beautiful hawks and on the drive home one night we saw a gorgeous white owl!
Kema, the border collie on site, is the most consistent "wildlife." Actually, she is hilarious to watch! She's Chris's dog and when he drives the picker she follows him up and down the rows barking and jumping at the machine. Jon jokes that each day she wakes up thinking, "today I'll bring that thing down!" She's a riot. I saw her racing down the road one day and realized she was chasing a hare! It was a big one and was nearly flying with Kema on her tail! Rabbits have that quick dart to the side skill though leaving Kema looking behind herself at the rabbit's escape! I also saw Kema hunting out a fox that escaped her on the opposite side of the field right past my builder!
The sky of course is constantly changing which is entertaining all on its own. At one point when I was ahead of things and had already laid my strings inside the builder, I waited for the next load sprawled out on the cotton. I looked up at all the clouds in the pure blue sky watching them shift and change. As one patch of clouds floated across the sky it looked like hair in water. It was interesting to see what I "saw" in the clouds because it all came from my imagination of course. I mostly saw faces and animals and when I challenged myself I saw letters. I wondered if I could ask the clouds a question (like when you flip to a page in a book to find guidance) but right after I asked my question in my head, I answered it as well. Perhaps I'll ask a harder question next time.
Supposedly it's going to rain tomorrow and the clouds turned from fluffy and white to heavy bottomed grey clouds. It was actually really cool because they were spread pretty evenly across the sky and all about the same size. It looked like they were all hanging by the same length of string, like lamps from the ceiling of a big dining hall. Nature is so amazing.
The trees are beautiful to look at. I've always been a fan of trees, their colors, the shapes of the branches, their strength and the way they seem to be constantly reaching up! (I accidentally took out a 30 ft branch moving the builder today. The way Ben described his experience watching it happen is hilarious like a cartoon but really I just feel bad. Apparently Jon was warned but forgot to tell me! We tried to drag the branch out of the way into the brush but it was too heavy! Jon might tow it later. Poor tree. (There aren't any more trees to "jump out at me," everyone is teasing, for the rest of this paddock anyway.)
The treetops close by are amazingly green, especially with the way the sun shines on them in the late afternoon just as it begins to fall in the sky. Their branches twist and turn in beautiful ways reaching up and out and over one another. The trees along the horizon all blend in together like a lush green boarder. This morning the tractor leveling out the land in one of the paddocks was creating a lot of dust and it was hazing over my view of the trees. From so far away it didn't look all that different from the image I have memorized in my heart of the bay area skyline on a slightly foggy day. I could almost see the water glistening and feel the wind blowing on my face.
Actually it was quite a windy day today which can make things very difficult. It blows the cotton all over which is especially frustrating when we're trying to rake! It also blows the cotton out of the builder and blows the tarp like crazy when we try to tie it down! I came up with an awesome idea (as I often do!) to tie the back end of the tarp down before we start pulling so that as the tractor pulls the tarp over all we need is a person on each side to hold the sides down. It's worked really nicely when we've only had two guys to do the pull. I'm getting better every day at driving the tractor, especially parking. I was super proud of my perfect parking job today, especially in comparison to Jon's awful one! Even he admitted it was terrible, it was undeniably bad.
Jon has decided to officially hand the work over to us, as we clearly have it under control. With my tractor driving (this was prior to tree smashing) and Ben's consistently even cotton dumping/tipping (fun fact: their dump/landfill is "the tip") into the builder being at perfection, there's nothing more for Jon to offer! Actually, he is really great to have around. He's a very fun spirited guy with a fantastic sense of humor! Even when we've had a rough start or tricky moment in the day, he'll bring light to it and we all keep moving. I wish everyone had a boss like him! (I've definitely had some great bosses!) He's also an incredibly helpful extra set of hands and quite handy at fixing all the stuff he breaks(!!)Friday I got to play Ben's role for a bit while he sat and tramped cotton on my builder. I was responsible for directing the driver of the ball buggie to line up alongside the builders and dump in the cotton evenly from back to front. (These are big machines we're talkin' about here.) I got a perfect tip on the second go! I love learning new things. It was also my responsibility to rake up all the cotton that spilled out of the builder, bag it in huge burlap sacks and heave it up to the top of the ladder to dump back in. Whew! Ben's job is certainly more physically demanding than module building. I wanted to prove that I could do it though because Jon told me when he was looking for workers he wanted someone who was "really fit" to do Ben's job and I wanted to make sure I fit that description too! I've only had a couple situations were being a girl made this job slightly more difficult. The whole gender equality thing has so many dimensions...
The majority of my days are spent staring at the cotton in my builder. Watching it go from a huge fluffy pile to a smashed loaf-looking pile. (The edges really do puff up making it look like a loaf of bread.) Then it's a fluff pile again when a new load gets tipped in. Each finished module is about 5 1/2 packed loads of cotton and takes about 2 hours to make. With two builders our goal is 8 modules a day...we could do it if we would stop having so many breakdowns! Sometimes when I'm staring at the cotton it looks like a pile of clouds. Other times it seems like I've got a huge pile of Muppets in my builder! I'm not sure where I got that image but I feel bad smooshing it down when it looks like Animal and Fozzy and Big Bird and that shaggy dog! It feels especially muppet/puppety when Ben flips cotton into the builder with a take and the rake pops up against the side! (I've included a picture of this..in the background you can see a line of finished modules with blue tarps on them.)
Great post Hannah...what an adventure! When we lived in Iowa, another agricultural flat landscape, I used to say, "The sky is my Ocean." Be well, GB
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