a real farmgirl

a few things happened today that have finally pushed me over into the realm of bona fide farmgirl.

1. i got up at 5:00am.
2. i had a breakfast of {chicken} sausage and eggs.
3. i walked up the "hill" to the cherry orchard in about 20 minutes {about a 600ft altitude gain}
4. i watched the sun rise from the top of the farm while i tried to catch my breath and convince my heart to stop fighting its way out of my ribcage.
5. then i was told i had to go back to the veggie patch for the morning since some of the cherry pickers hadn't shown up {3rd time in a row}, which meant....
6. i got to ride the tractor back down the hill. this involved a short lesson on where the clutch, breaks, gas pedal and "forward" lever are and a scary descent down said "hill" with tractor tires skidding on gravel as i dug my foot into the breaks. a little scary. i tried to take a detour through the apple orchard but only found a steeper hill that scared the bejeeeezus out of me, so i called the manager of the veggie fields {who at this time was just on the other side of a fallow field from me and could see me sitting astride the tractor at the crest of this hill}. unfortunately she hasn't had any experience with the tractor yet {didn't even know how to start it since i had stalled it when i stopped}, so i put on my big girl underpants, threw the big rig into reverse and backed out of the orchard with a bold plan to continue on down the first hill. at some point during the extended reverse out of the apple orchard, the obvious solution to the traction problem dawned on me.
a. keep the tractor in first gear.
b. if it still decides to run away from me, just steer it onto the field next to
the road where there is considerably more friction.


needless to say, i eventually made it.

you'll notice that i'm already using my phone and driving the thing.