A Few Days of Labor

Another two weekends have snuck past us.  One of those was, of course, Labor Day weekend.  We have established a tradition of going to the Threshermen's Reunion in Pontiac over Labor Day.  This year the big change was taking our own tractor to the show.  As the show approached, the weather was in question, but in the end it was fine other than being pretty warm on Saturday.  N was a real trooper on Saturday, helping me take the tractor over, and then taking turns looking at things and going for train rides.  Next year's show will feature Caterpillar, so they asked me to park in a special spot, which of course I obliged.  Sunday the whole family went to see the show and to bring the tractor home.  Grandma and Grandpa met us there.  I think the second day was a little much for N, and combining that with his little brother to aggravate him, and the compelling need to show of his daddy's tractor for everybody, brought the day to a little earlier end than I would have liked.  Still, I think we all had a good time, and the cooler weather on Sunday was a welcome change.

 As usual, Labor Day Monday we spent a good part of it laboring, doing the normal weekend chores that didn't get done during the tractor show.  The biggest excitement was harvesting our pumpkin and watermelon crop.  6 pumpkins and 3 watermelons were the total.  We ended up with several pretty good sized pumpkins, and the one watermelon we have eaten so far was delicious. 

 Although the holiday weekend made for a shorter week, it was N's first week of full-length school days.  He seems to be taking it in stride for the most part.  He is a little more tired and prone to melt-downs in the evenings, but definitely not exhausted like we feared he might be.  He got his fifth purple card for exceptional behavior, which made him extra excited because we had told him if he got 5 he could pick out a treat.  He also got a special treat from Grammy, the new "Day of the Diesels" Thomas movie that just came out.  There was no shortage of activity around the neighborhood last week either.  On Friday the excavator and skid steer came back to backfill around the new house, and just when that wrapped up, the farmer came to combine the corn field behind our house.  L was in seventh heaven. 

The weekend was productive despite some illness making it's way through the house.  L has had some lingering upset stomach issues, which has been waking him (and therefore us) up in the night.  Consequently, he has been kind of clingy, and hasn't had much of an appetite.  Stomach issues also hit C hard Saturday night and into Sunday.  Thankfully both seem to be doing better now.  N and I tried to make the most of our weekend.  He went with me Saturday morning to run some errands.  His main motivation was getting to pick out a new train for his purple card reward.  I also talked him into trying on some clothes at Farm and Fleet, so he will have some jeans to play in now that it is cooling off a little bit. 

My main motivation for going to Morton was to pick up a roto-tiller.  Between the boys dirt box, the garden, and miscellaneous yard projects, there have been several times this spring and summer I've wished I had one.  I had looked for one that could attach to Johnny, but I really wouldn't use it enough to justify the cost of the tiller, associated pulley drives and mounting bracketry.  This one showed up on craigslist for only $50, and while it could probably use a little TLC, works just fine as-is.  I need another small engine to maintain like I need another hole in my head, but this will make a few yard chores easier. 

The medical maladies took up quite a bit of time on Sunday, but I did squeeze in a couple small projects.  There were several times this summer where I realized just how hot the seat on the Ten can get sitting in the sun.  I ordered an umbrella hoping it would come in time for the Pontiac show, but it showed up one day too late.  I got it installed and L and I tried it out going for a ride in the newly harvested corn field. 

The final project was one I did with N.  One of the central locations in his new Thomas movie is the "Dieselworks".  He likes to re-enact the Thomas TV shows and movies, so we decided to make our own Dieselworks to use with his train sets.  It was just the right size project for us to do together; it didn't take so long it lost his attention, and we were able to get it done from start to finish while L was down for his nap. 

Stumped

This week was my 6th work trip this year.  Granted two of those were just day-trips by car, but still that is by far the most I have had in a long, long time.  I do enjoy traveling; getting to meet customers, and seeing how every uses their tractors in slightly different ways.  This week’s trip was not one I looked forward to.  It was a customer complaint that dealt squarely with my area of responsibility.  The local rep had expressed the extreme urgency needed on this issue, so on relatively short notice we booked the trip. 

The trip was to a job in South Carolina where they prepare land for reforestation.  The location of the customer was both good and bad.  It was near Myrtle Beach, which provided convenience for travel and accommodations, as well as entertainment, should we have any extra time to enjoy it.  The location also put the trip in jeopardy due to it’s proximity to the path of hurricane Irene.  Fortunately the impact of Irene was limited to only a couple inches of rain, and was long gone by the time we got there. 

I won’t go into too much detail on the customer visit, other than the application was certainly interesting to see.  I’ve seen plenty of plowing, but not any where you had to push the branches out of the way and cut off stumps at the same time.  At the end of the visit, we had improved the situation with the customer, but didn’t quite get all the way to where he wanted to be.  We’ve got some work ahead of us to get the rest of the way there. 

We finished in time to make a brief visit to the beach before we headed to the airport.  You couldn’t even tell a hurricane had passed near there only a few days before.