Saturday, November 23, 2013

Post Harvest Syndrome

You have to know Lucas to truly appreciate this but it's still good:

"We finished up double crop beans on Friday, started cleaning up equipment on sat. Doing odds and ends spreading lime and some fertilizer, scratching some ground hog holes shut. Tonight my hip starts to hurt then I get home a get a little nausea and the shivers right during supper at 6 O clock.  I know I know its a miracle supper sitting down at the TABLE not in the combine. I get the worst case of the shivers and think ohhh crap its coming sometime comes quicker sometimes longer.

MY body has sensed the finish of HARVEST and says its time for a rest. I shook for over two hours till it passed with big Blanket dirty jeans and sweat shirt to stay warm to no avail it finally broke and the heat started to come now my whole body aches . This always happens . Oh and did I say my wife is 7 months pregnant with our 3rd boy and she woke up dizzier the my 2 year old on a SIT and SPIN this morning..

Thank You GOD for MIMI's wed. night church she took the kids for some quiet time. She isn't in the best shape either fighting off LUPUS and what ever else they can blame her radical health conditions. You just don't have anything to complain about when you have your health. Sorry for the misspelled words its time to get to bet and get some shut eye.."

That's a pretty good description of Lucas's "post harvest syndrome."  Does planting or harvesting hit you like that?  It seems I experienced something like that all my life!  Abe described it pretty well:

"It happens to me after planting and after harvest. My mind never stops during those times and my body is drained and then all of the sudden it's done and I crash big time. I've learned to take off the day after planting the last field and the day after harvest is over, just to get my mind back on track. I've also learned that as I get older I can't abuse myself like I used to without a lengthy recovery. I take a day off, usually not leaving the house, and then I can do whatever I have to do after that with a clear head. It still takes my body at least a week to get to feeling good again though."

Farming has changed since I was a kid but it's always been challenging yet stressful.  I've watched agriculture move from long hours of hard physical labor to shorter hours of more stressful paperwork, planning and mechanical labor.

Would drones, copters or robots make it any easier?  No doubt it would just make it more stressful and perhaps less satisfying!

Ed


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