City girl, a while ago I got myself married into farming. After a few years of adjustment to the new lifestyle, rolling became my specialty.
I probably don’t fully fit into the city girl skin anymore, but I haven’t become a real farmer yet either. So when I first was offered to do some rolling at the farm, I had no idea what they were talking about.
Just in case you are not much into farming, a quick note: every year rocks come from the depth of the Earth to the surface. During seeding, air drills pull them out. Bigger boulders usually need to be picked up, while everything smaller than a football gets punched back into the dirt with the help of a massive roller pulled by a tractor.
A beautiful front wheel assist John Deere I was introduced to was so smart that even then still-a-city-girl could operate it (it was pretty much doing everything by itself). My brother-in-law, born and raised at the farm, was the one to train me. My session lasted about 15 minutes.
“That’s how you start it, that’s how you put it in gear, set the speed and that’s how you set GPS. If you see a big rock, pick it up, if the bucket is full, dump it.”
And off I went. I remember working my first field as if it was yesterday. I was rolling four quarters of pretty flat land, all lined up, with a few slews and a couple of hills on the edge. I was one-on-one with that field, and at that point, rolling rocks felt more like a light adventure, which I ended up really liking. With each time I went up and down the field, my confidence was growing.
It took me a few days, but I got it done. By that time, I felt proud and already pretty professional. I was a real farmer doing my part during seeding. Unfortunately, I forgot that the city was still a part of me.
The four quarters were done. Brother-in-law moved me to the next field and said, “Watch out, there is a fence around it and a phone post in the middle. Don’t come close to any, we’ll roll there for you after.” Every single member of the family felt obligated to stop by or call me to say, “Hey watch out, there is a phone post in that field.”
But I felt that I was a pro by then, I already had rolled four quarters, they trusted me with that and I didn’t fail. I felt I knew what I was doing and off I went. Side note, I like getting work done properly. So when I started rolling the outer circles, of course, I wanted to get right to the fence. Did you know that when you hit a fence post with the roller it comes out just like little slivers? So I’m rolling, and puff, one post is gone. I phoned my husband. He said not to worry about it, they'll fix it, and just asked me is to stay away from the phone post. I keep rolling and puff, another fence post flies away. OK, not a big deal, they’ll fix this as well. I’m making a turn, and there is a corner post. I’m going really slow and careful, and I still touched it. At least I didn’t pull it out, but it made me think that I probably should stay a bit further away from obstacles.
I kept rolling. My lines came close to the phone post, and I know, I shouldn’t come too close. So I roll really slow, but again, here I am, a full-time professional roller. I’m getting closer and closer to it and ... It was like in movies, when I already see the inevitable but can’t change anything anymore.
I hear a scratching noise and see the smashed box laying on the ground behind the post that, fortunately, was still standing. Boy, was I embarrassed. I think my confidence was shaken there a bit, allowing some room for learning, and I quickly got back to work and I did most of the rolling that year.
When I got back into the tractor to roll again last week, these memories once again made me smile. "What a green newby I was back then," I thought driving down towards the slew to dump rocks. "Now I know better."
I stopped, lifted and tilted the bucket. Rocks went down like a cascade. I put the tractor in reverse and… nothing happened. I tried going forward. Nothing. I tried turning. Nothing. It lasted for just a few seconds, but it was enough for me to get deeply stuck and also to realize that I still had a few things to learn.
P.S. Brother-in-law pulled me out soon after and I finished the field without any more accidents that day.
