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Today was a tractor day. Casey kindly loaned me the tractor from the Buncombe Community School again, and so I took the opportunity to till the unplanted part of the field where the grass had begun to take hold again.
Louise came by when she saw me out on the tractor, she said she'd never seen a girl drive a tractor before. "That's my kind of youngun," she said.
After driving the first pass with the tiller I spread lime with the help of my mom and my friend Sarah. We filled the tractor's loader bucket with lime, I then drove the tractor back and forth across the field while my mom and Sarah raked the lime out of the bucket.
Just as Sarah and I were finishing the final pass, Duley drove up on his Massey Ferguson tractor, dwarfing me on the little BCS tractor. My neighbor Jack walked up - he had seen me struggle with the tractor over the past two days so when he ran into Duley at the bar last night he had asked him to come by and help me. Thank you?
Certainly I was struggling, and others could do it faster, but I was honestly enjoying the struggle. I had learned how to get rocks out of the tiller tines, how to take tiller tines apart, and how to reprime the fuel lines after running out of gas (there's a lot you can learn on YouTube).
But there in the field, with Jack so well-meaning/persistent and Duley already there on his tractor I agreed that Duley should do the final pass with the tiller to incorporate the lime. I was honestly glad to get off the tractor as I'd been there most of the day, but at the same time felt a little defeated.
So I went in the house with Sarah to get a drink of water. I came back out to find Duley and Jack hunched under the tiller (a position I found myself in often over the last two days) pulling at a garden hose that Duley had just run over. A Miller Light was balanced on the tiller. And then suddenly it was as if someone had called a Good Ol' Boy Convention in my field - out of nowhere appears a man with a large white beard named Dean, a neighbor from up the road. Then a small man called 'Freckles' comes over, beer in hand, complaining how his " missus" had thrown him out of the house.
All proceeded to push, pull, and poke at the garden hose. Jack went back to his house to get a giant set of bolt cutters. Eventually the tiller was freed, the hose now in many pieces. The spray nozzle was thankfully spared. Duley finished up the tilling and now I'm out 60 bucks for tractor work I didn't really need.
So how many good ol' boys does it take? Well, I'd say at least four. The real question is, who's going to bring the beer?
What's new this spring?
5 years ago
7 comments:
That's cute. You and the old boys have got to learn to respectfully coexist.
right now I'd say they've got to learn to respect me. but they won't know to do that unless I make them, which is easier said than done!
Probably would have been less work if you did it yourself! Defeat, my elbow........
You should give them good ole boys a link to your blog.
And Louise said you are "smart and darling." that's so right!
That's hilarious!
Carolyn, I thought you handled things tactfully and well. You are allowed to vent a little on your blog, losing money is painful, and putting up with the 'male as dominant, let me do that little Missy" is always annoying (and equally present in a field with beer or a Wall Street board room, just in different forms!) but what I heard you saying, is while expressing reasonable annoyance, you didn't show it to them much, didn't burn any bridges or emphasize the differences, you basically just let it go. And now I bet they're on your side, as much as they can be with whatever pre-existing limitations and prejudices there might be. Christine Kane wrote on her blog, "You have to teach people how to treat you." Yes, easier said than done! And it happens incrementally usually, small experiences over long periods of time. And if you have a heart and insight, you usually end up putting up with some things you might rather not. But then you get to write about the experience, which can be fun, and your style is one we are often lacking in this modern world of anonymous internet kvetching and our polarized politics. I hear both nonconfrontational friendliness, and reasonable frustration, at the same time. To make your point and preserve the integrity of your own views, while staying openminded and gracious at the same time, is trickier than ever these days, whether in a field or a penthouse office. Making a little fun of something, without burning the bridge, takes a deft hand. I think you have two!
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