Out in the fields again

9/25/07 Tuesday
It’s almost three now. We got out to the cotton fields by nine or so, at least we left the house then. It was a sixty mile drive to our survey spots for today. With the plants bigger there is more work but none of these compare to the cotton we sampled yesterday. This farmer's cotton is way impressive. Joe, Cherie’s boss, said he knew it would be. The guy has a reputation for good farming. One of the things I noticed in his field was the use of winter wheat. At least I think that’s what it is. Anyway, it had been planted solid and left to grow. Now it lays dead in the rows and serves as a mulch, retaining moisture and keeping weeds down. It costs more to do this but the payoff is obvious. There are so many little tricks like this I want to learn. A little extra effort goes a long way.

I’m pretty tired now as I often am at this time of day. Just dozed off as I wrote the previous paragraph, one of those two minute snoozes. We were back out to the field I got stuck in last month. This time it was worse as the farmer had disked up the path so the sand was deep and loose. I kept the pedal down and we flew down the path. That way we didn’t get bogged down. Cherie yelled “There it is, stop” when we went past the red ribbon that marked our sample spot. I told her I couldn’t cause I could feel how deep the sand was and knew that if I did we would be stuck. I kept going till we found some more solid ground and I felt safer stopping. It meant we had to walk farther but that’s ok, better than having to walk home. I somehow got the truck turned around when it was time to go. Learned how to drive in the sand when I got stuck before.

We met Joe at home when we were done. He showed Cherie a piece of cotton and explained how to tell when it is ripe to pick. He also gave her his evaluation, which wasn’t bad at all.

I just snoozed off again. Think I’ll post this and take a nap.