Another Harrowing Tale

There are a lot of jobs on a farm that are specific to spring. Burning ditches is one of them, cleaning ditches is another, and my favorite of all, harrowing the fields. Harrowing is basically dragging an implement called a harrow, or a drag, over the fields to break up the concentrations of manure left by the cows or horses on the fields from the winter. The droppings tend to be concentrated in areas where the animals are fed, or where they bed down. In the case of cows, the patties help fertilize better if they are broke apart in the spring instead of being left in one lump. Scattering them also keeps them from getting baled up in the hay. 

Harrowing has always been my job and I have had some interesting things happen during my tenure. One year I missed seeing a scatter ditch and my tractor actually went airborne, another year the front wheel fell off of the tractor just as I turned a corner. One year the fuel filter plugged and I had to walk back to the shop and get Rick to come change it. 

The other thing is that Rick is usually doing taxes about the time I am harrowing and he really doesn’t want to be bothered. 

This year was no different. We went out to start the tractor I usually use and alas it wouldn’t start. The tractor I usually use is my John Deere B, so this year I had to use a red tractor (Oh the Horrors). It really is okay, because I do really like running the Super H, a really smooth tractor that we got from our late, great, friend Bob Willson. 

So Rick helped me get all hooked up to the three gang harrow, which is about 14 feet wide and I took off. I started in the field just west of the shop and we have an old shelter with some equipment in that field. It is kind of a pain having to work around it, but it is there and nothing can be done about it at this time. I made a couple of runs going on the east side of the shelter, then skirted around on the west side and tried to cut back east to get as much of that side as I could. 

WELL… that is where I goofed. I cut back too short and caught the front corner of the harrow on one of the heavy poles that hold the shelter up. The pole didn’t move, but I broke the harrow. 

I shouldn’t really say it broke the harrow, what it did was break one end of the cable that attaches to the harrow to pull it from. That end swung out behind and by the time I got everything shut down the harrow was dragging from one end behind the tractor. 

I went and got Rick, and my pickup. We pulled the one end back forward with the pickup, then looked at the broken cable and decided that maybe in the interest of time we should just use the chain to hook it back up and put a new cable on later. 

It worked, and I did most of the job that afternoon, finished it up a few days later and I was really excited to see the snow the end of last week. There is nothing that can make a pasture look better than a nice snow on top of it being freshly harrowed. 

I wonder what I will break next year. I think that is always Rick’s biggest fear. 

Crunchy Teriyaki turkey

1/3 cup Teriyaki marinade

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 pound boneless fresh turkey breast slices (chicken would work too)

2 egg whites

All-purpose flour

1 bag potato chips, finely crushed

Blend marinade and lemon juice, marinate turkey in mixture for 1 hour, spray rack of broiler pan with cooking spray. Lightly beat egg whites with 1 tablespoon of water, coat both sides of turkey slices with flour, then dip into egg white mixture and then in potato chips. Place on rack. Bake at 350º 15 minutes or until no longer pink.