Farmgirl Farming

You'll probably never guess what I did on Tuesday.
Give up?
I drove one of these:

My friend, Dale, the local dairy farmer and supplier of my donkeys' hay, needed help plowing 20 acres of pasture and he actually called me!
Well, what do YOU do when a friend calls asking your for help? You go and help them, right?:

So I drove a 1980's International tractor:

...pulling one of these:

It's called a "discer" (disc-er) and it is used for chopping up big clumps of dirt and preparing the soil for planting:

After being given about a ten minute overview on how to drive it, I was left to my own devices. So off I went:

Take a ride with me? I promise to be careful:

Now that wasn't so bad, was it?
You felt safe, right? Good. Because you wouldn't believe how complicated this thing was to drive. This pedal is the brake for the RIGHT tire:

This pedal is the brake for the LEFT tire:

This pedal's the clutch:

To my right, on the floor, were three levers. The far left one raises and lowers the discer blades. I never did figure out what the other two levers do:

To my left was the gear box. The far left lever puts the engine in high or low, the right lever then sets the specific gear:

And up on the dash is the throttle:

I fortunately manipulated all pedals and levers correctly and in the right order, and managed to avoid winding up in the creek:

At the end of the afternoon, the field was "disced":

There will be oats planted here:

And that was my Tuesday.

Somehow this post wouldn't feel complete without a few gratuitous, cute animal photos, so here they are. This little cutie is one of about seventeen, small, barnyard cats running around Dale's farm:

One of Dale's very cute calves born this spring:

and who can forget farm doggy, Roxy, here in the sunshine with her chickens: