Final Tour

There isn’t much to say for this day. I was up very early and got a McBreakfast on my way back to the site where I ended yesterday. I was hosting the final customer tour of the fall for my group. We would start in the south and look at the later maturing corn and soybean trials and then about midday we’d trek to my old research farm and review the mid-maturity corn and soybean sets. They saw the mid-maturity in Quebec also and the early material in the West so this was rounding out the views they’d get for the fall. The morning went fine. One notable moment was when I got the nerve to ask the girl who runs the southern farm if she still played D&D. For you see, I’d interviewed her when she initially got hired years ago. It was a truck stop, which was a neutral and convenient point for her. I was the help on the interview, the hiring manager insisted on ordering breakfast. She showed up a half hour early to prepare and we called her over, doing the interview whilst eating. It felt unprofessional but she loved it. I recalled her mentioning D&D as a passion and hobby of hers. As it turned out, it still is. We nerded out a bit before everyone got there. Turns out she is in three games, two are with international players and she writes one shots routinely. Crazy. She’s on hiatus for the fall because she’s having to do harvest alone this year. Her assistant destroyed his knee outside of work and can’t come back. I’ve been there, it sucks to work alone in these research programs.

As it turned out, it happened to be a beautiful day for my final tour. Perfect weather. I had a lot of fruitful conversations with customers, probing to better understand their needs and wants in terms of products. I was mostly a chaperone at my old site, moving the drink cooler around and catching folks as they went between plots. I was happy though, I’d stopped on the way through town to get myself some Wendy’s and it was making my tummy feel as perfect as the sky. Some context for the above picture. They had already harvested part of the block for silage. You can watch this video I posted back a few years that gives a general overview of what is involved in that. They will spread that residue with the tractor bucket and then bury it with some tillage this fall. Apparently they spent a massive sum on a new high speed disc, something I would never had approved, as it’s unneccessary.

The day ended pretty late. The last person left around half five and I rolled out at six after chatting with my former assistant, the Gerbs. There is a serious lack of urgency around this place since I left. They have a we’ll get it done when we get it attitude which isn’t aggressive enough. I see other slips too, the shop is very messy and there lacks a general tidiness in several areas. It rips my heart out to see but it’s their show now. They’ll have to manage it how they see fit. The photo doesn’t capture the majesty of the sky on this day but I will say that it stopped me cold and forced my hand to take a picture.

Dinner was outsourced. I didn’t want to skip it two nights in a row. I ordered in from Pizza Pizza. Less of a mistake this time. I got a chicken sandwich, a salad, and chicken bites. It was pleasantly filling. The feed stopped before things crossed over into the realm of painful. You can see that I was watching YouTube from the photo. I also did some MSF and worked on Musings. It was an evening mostly spent lounging in my bed.