"Vacation" Farmer Style

Most folks vacation in the summer.  Farmers often don't have that luxury.  The reason is that summers are when we work the longest hours, most days, and attempt to make enough money to support ourselves the rest of the year (or as much of it as we can).

So, many farmers try to rest up for the next summer during the winters when we aren't trying to figure out how to outsmart Mother Nature.  Some will sneak away for at least a few days to a warmer climate while others opt to "staycation" and work on projects or hobbies they had to postpone during summer.

On our farm,  we always have animals to feed during the  winter, so we can't exactly pack up and  leave for two weeks vacation, either.  Every once in a while we can sneak away for a day or two, and sometimes it's just for business, but a change of scenery is often welcome even if it's with lousy roads and dreary weather.

This weekend, we decided to look at sprayer that was for sale about 4hrs drive away.  Even though we're hoping to move away from spraying altogether, we will still have to do it for several years and our current method isn't very safe nor efficient for the operator.  

So, we drove five hours (the roads were bad half the way), crawled over the machine and talked to the mechanics, had dinner with family that night, grabbed a cheap hotel room for the evening, met with our farm insurance agent the next morning and sealed the deal on the sprayer. 

We headed back home today on, thankfully, better roads while a neighbor fed the animals for us this morning.  It was only a night away from the farm and a lot of time behind the wheel, but it was a welcome break.   

Calving starts for me in a week.  Vacation is over!