Saturday, October 11, 2014

Pickin' Cotton

            I don’t take my blood pressure during cotton harvest. I might break the cuff. It can be a little nerve wracking.

-There is the anticipation of bringing a season’s worth of work. How did we do? Will we pay the bills?

-There is the worry about the weather. The first few seasons I was up here it rained all Fall. Picking in the rain is a mess. That introduction to cotton picking makes me jump this time of year even when the weather man says everything is OK.

-Will the equipment hold together? G. Gordon Liddy was a former Marine. He described a helicopter as “ten thousand nuts and bolts trying to go in different directions at the same time.” That is a good description of  a cotton picker too. All it takes is one broken bolt and everything comes to a crashing halt.

With all that, we are off to a good start. Warm dry weather is perfect for cotton harvest. The first day was a little slow as we got the wrinkles out. There have been a couple of little heart attacks. But, we will finish the first field on Monday. But, when we finished planting in April Ruben said, “We’re done planting. Now you can relax.” I told him I can’t relax until the last bale is picked and ginned. There are just too many things that go wrong.

Just a reminder- my new book, “this Week on the Farm is now at the Clovis Book Barn.



I hope you all have a great week. I’m going to take a nap tomorrow afternoon and back in the field on Monday.

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