[John Powell]

I'll try to post an image here of our Bridge To Nowhere across the ditch behind the house. I got some nice shots across the bridge of the sugarcane being planted. The driver of one tractor looks real relaxed driving about as slow as the tractor will go. The rest are on Flickr here. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/7134217@N02/sets/72157608113202700/)

[Eric Ewe]

Wait.. where is your road to nowhere?

I guess Sugarcane harvest time in Louisiana was a month or 2 ago. I remember the good ol days. Driving to work and following the trailers on the HW-90. Or smelling the burning smell of sugarcane

[John Powell]

I guess Sugarcane harvest time in Louisiana was a month or 2 ago.Actually grinding season has just begun here in the SW part of the state. It might be earlier to the east, but I don't know.Wait.. where is your road to nowhere?Not even a path to nowhere. :biggrin:

[sfcom]

Sometimes I wish I could get back out in a tractor and work in the field all day. Even though some of it is very hard work, there is a certain peaceful feeling that I have felt before while mowing fields on a tractor in my teen days. I imagine even that gets old though when you do it day after day, year after year.

-sfcom

[fastcart12]

That's a neat picture...Some of us wish we had backyards to have any bridge.

:)

[Boomers Supply]

Ok. I just figured it out. That's not a bridge. That's only about three or four inches wide and is made of wood. Is it a support for a pipe or something?

[AffiliateHound]

$400 Million just doesn't buy what it used to.

[John Powell]

That's not a bridge. That's only about three or four inches wide and is made of wood. Is it a support for a pipe or something?It's a foot bridge about 12" wide, but it's still technically a bridge. They dug a deep drainage ditch across the back and we like to roam around the fields. We would hunt back there before the agriculture became so intensive.That's a neat picture...Some of us wish we had backyards to have any bridge.We found a 6.5 foot snake skin in the garden yesterday. I'm saving it for the kids to see. Maybe they will keep their eyes open when they walk around out there.

[jodyq]

That is the nicest bridge I have ever seen! You should put a toll booth in the middle though.

[Leader]

Sometimes I wish I could get back out in a tractor and work in the field all day. Even though some of it is very hard work, there is a certain peaceful feeling that I have felt before while mowing fields on a tractor in my teen days. I imagine even that gets old though when you do it day after day, year after year.

-sfcomElaborate please :scared:
I can't imagine what would be hard or workful about riding around on a tractor :yellowcon

The peaceful feeling I can imagine, and I like watching stuff grow--but let me know where this "very hard work" stuff is hiding, so I don't get a surprise if I buy farmland some day!

[sfcom]

Elaborate please :scared:
I can't imagine what would be hard or workful about riding around on a tractor :yellowcon

The peaceful feeling I can imagine, and I like watching stuff grow--but let me know where this "very hard work" stuff is hiding, so I don't get a surprise if I buy farmland some day!

Well, if you are lucky enough to get a tractor with power steering then it is not too bad. Otherwise it can be quite the muscle builder. Combine that with hopping on and off the tractor in order to hook up different attachments and hitches and it does get to be a sweaty job during the summer. Of course now there are many nice tractors that are on the market that have an enclosed cab, A/C, and satellite radio, but you will pay some big bucks for them. Most farmers I know use what they have and run it until it dies. For many, that means running a machine that is 40+ years old without the nice amenities.

-sfcom

[Leader]

Well, if you are lucky enough to get a tractor with power steering then it is not too bad. Otherwise it can be quite the muscle builder. Combine that with hopping on and off the tractor in order to hook up different attachments and hitches and it does get to be a sweaty job during the summer. Of course now there are many nice tractors that are on the market that have an enclosed cab, A/C, and satellite radio, but you will pay some big bucks for them. Most farmers I know use what they have and run it until it dies. For many, that means running a machine that is 40+ years old without the nice amenities.

-sfcom
Oh, okay...you had me worried for a while there! I thought you might say "you have to remove 100 tons of hidden boulders every year" or some similar level of awfulness!

The kind of w*rk you're talking about is okay (assuming I wouldn't be changing the attachments every 10 seconds). I watched my old neighbor do that type of thing enough...his land was nowhere near farm-sized, but his imagination was, and it was manifested in his use of a Real Tractor complete with a decent-sized disk harrow unit! :) He had the whole thing plowed in about an hour, if you don't count the extra hour he spent riding around trying to make it look like he actually needed the tractor instead of a walk-behind tiller :D
(He also had a farm-type sprinkler system...the whole setup screamed "I wish I was really a farmer!")

Despite the resulting lols caused by the mismatch between land size and equipment (and the fact that his own personality was akin to that of a porcurpine), I always thought that looked way cool, and he inspired me to have an interest in farming. Someday I will probably do it (although not likely as my main business).

I just wanted to make sure there weren't any really unexpected land mines (ie, surprise workful stuff). It seemed pretty straightforward watching the guy next door, but sometimes surprises pop up when trying to do things on their usual scale...

[Rexanne]

Cool bridge John! Seeing the pictures of sugar cane was interesting. I had no idea what they lloked like before. Nothing like I imagined!

Has to be sooooo cool living in nature like that. I'm a city girl and it all looks very romantic and earthy to my concrete burdened eyes.

[John Powell]

I can't imagine what would be hard or workful about riding around on a tractorThis tractor driver (http://www.flickr.com/photos/7134217@N02/2949283669/in/set-72157608113202700/) is farming the way you hope too. He is actually driving at idle speed with his feet. He is going so slow that he is almost sleeping.

[Leader]

This tractor driver (http://www.flickr.com/photos/7134217@N02/2949283669/in/set-72157608113202700/) is farming the way you hope too. He is actually driving at idle speed with his feet. He is going so slow that he is almost sleeping.LOL!
*makes mental note that paying by the hour isn't always the best way to motivate standardly-employed people*

Actually I've found that taking things to *that* extreme just makes a task boring and tedious...it's the difference between feeling like you got nothing done despite being out all day--and REALLY getting nothing done despite being out there all day! It'd get disheartening...

Now, that stuff I see the people in your other pictures doing, putting the canes on the trucks--that's not my cup of tea at all. I'd definitely plant something that's easier to harvest! Preferably by a machine that I'd get to drive around (= fun).

This is more like it! (http://www.deere.com/en_US/ProductCatalog/FR/series/combines/600d/600d_series.html) <--At harvest time, I'd love to drive something like THAT! :cheerful:

[John Powell]

Now, that stuff I see the people in your other pictures doing, putting the canes on the trucks--that's not my cup of tea at all.The men are actually pulling the cane off the wagons and laying it in the middle of the open rows. Later another tractor comes to cover the cane to complete the planting. It's the only part of growing sugarcane that's labor intensive.

That's why the tractors are going so slow in the pictures. The pace of the men walking behind control the speed.

Cane is pretty neat in the sense that a full stalk planted sprouts at several places along the stalk.

[TerriFalcone]

Reminds me of the bridge in Robin Hood Men In Tights. Defended by Little John? Dost thou remember the fight with ever breaking and shrinking quarterstaffs followed by Little John falling into the tiny rivlet screaming "I'm drowning" only to be "saved" by Robin?