Rain Delay and Farming "Incidents"

I posted on Facebook this afternoon that I had mixed emotions about watching the sky in the west get bluer and what I saw coming on the radar.  We're still not done planting corn (160 acres to go) and have not started beans so we need to keep going - and our grass needs mowing for the first time.  But, we've been working some long days so it'll be nice to have a break - just hoping it's only a short one!   We really wanted it to rain on just this one field, but no such luck.   One of the weather programs I looked at said we would have rain at 7:00 and that's exactly when it got here.

I started seeing lightning in the west and the south but just had a little more to go to finish the field I was in so kept going.  I got it done and got the tractor home and in the shed just as it started raining.  It's dangerous to be out there in lightning. 

Some of you especially enjoy reading about my rookie farming "incidents" I know.   I usually do something really stupid on the first or second day of the spring or fall season and this one was no exception.  This is the first season that they've had me move the tractor and field cultivator from field to field much - on the ROAD!  So the first field I was getting ready to pull out of, I had stopped and pushed the button to fold the field cultivator up (to make it narrow enough to drive on the road) but forgot to LIFT the whole thing first before doing that.  Then I proceeded to pull out on to the gravel road but looked behind and saw that the field cultivator was clawing into the gravel road as I was slowly pulling out and turning!  YIKES!  Not good.  Bill spotted the owner of the field fixing the road the next morning.  Luckily this didn't damage the field cultivator.  The good news is I've even been on the highway with it a couple times and all went well, and I'm not as nervous as I used to be.  I'm not Catholic but sometimes feel like I should do the sign of the cross before pulling out on the road!   

Then there's always the intakes . . .  They are orange or yellow plastic tubes with holes that stick up a couple feet in the field - usually at least two in a field.  (or like in one field today - about 15)  They are there to help drain water from the field.  Tim has been going around lots of them for me so I can stay waaaaay away from them but even then I sometimes manage to "have problems".  I've only popped one off so far this season and was able to just put it back on but I've gotten too close uh, a few times, and had to back up (sometimes more than once) to get away from the things!  I'm a perfectionist and always want to get close to them to knock all the weeds down.  It's very bad if you damage the intake - or the field cultivator by hitting them.  Some have metal bases.   Some of you have been reading long enough that you might remember the time I totally ran over one and covered the hole it came out of!  Carl had to use a probe to find the hole, but he did!!  I made him a cherry pie but probably still owe him.  (I'll take a picture of an intake or two or three and add here soon)