A/N: Wow, double timing this one compared to the last one. Not that you guys are here for my excuses for taking forever, but between the last part and this one, I closed on a farm, got moved in, and made my first hay cutting for the year. As of the time I'm writing this, I'm waiting on the chance to get second cutting knocked out. Hopefully I can get another chapter knocked out by the end of the year.
Anyway, I appreciate you all and your patience, and back to the story!
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Chase took a deep breath as he climbed into the cab of his 4255. He'd known all winter that having to have surgery done on his shoulder would screw up his plans, but the crunch was rapidly starting to bear down on him now that planting season was here. He'd only just gotten his drill ready to go courtesy of him finding a number of seized gauge wheel arms, and then having to wait a couple days for parts. By the time he'd gotten it ready, he'd had to replace nearly every bearing, the drive chain, every opener, a number of seed boots and firmers, and had to fix some depth adjusters.
He started the engine for the second time since its overhaul. The engine sputtered once before quickly settling into an idle that could only be described as a purr. Especially compared to how a lot of those engines idled. He put the transmission in gear and backed out of the machine shed before turning around and backing into the shop door. As he approached the 750 grain drill he'd just fixed, he lowered the 3-point hitch enough to grab the 2-point hitch for the drill. He slowed down as he reached the last couple feet, raising the 3-point hitch as it nudged against the drill. A nice pair of "clinks" from the quick-hitch told him that he'd gotten the pins lined up and now just had to hook up the hydraulic hoses.
He put the tractor in park and climbed out of the cab. He made his way around to the back of the tractor and hooked up the hydraulic hoses for the drill. One of the smart thing's his dad and grandpa had done back home was use color coded zip ties to denote the pairs of hoses. On top of that, they used one on the hose that went on the left (or top depending on the tractor) and two on the hose that went on the right (or bottom). One of the things he'd done over the winter was to replicate that system on all his own equipment.
With the hoses hooked up, he opened the transport lock valve and climbed back into the cab. Despite knowing it was correct, he cycled the SCV to make sure it was hooked up the way he wanted. Everything worked the way he wanted, so he lifted the drill into its transport position before putting the tractor in gear and pulling out to where his truck was in the driveway. He'd picked up a pallet with some spring wheat seed and the seed he needed for his hay mix the day before and brought it home. Now all he had to do was load the drill and go.
As he got everything positioned, he put the tractor in park and climbed out. He climbed up onto the bed of his truck and cut the shrinkwrap off the pallet. He balled it up and tucked it up at the rack on the flatbed. He then proceeded to pull the few bags of alfalfa and orchard grass off the top of the pallet.
"Need some help?" Came a voice from behind him. It startled him enough that he actually flinched. He turned around to find that Sarah had showed up.
"Good lord woman, what the hell are you doing here?" He remarked.
"I knew you'd be up to something this morning." She replied, starting to climb up onto the bed of the truck.
He reached down and helped her up. "How'd you figure that?" He asked.
She smiled up at him. "I knew something was going on today when I saw you come home yesterday with something on your truck. Every time you bring something home on a Friday, it's because you're doing something with it Saturday. And I know you like to get started early."
He looked back down at her as a smile slowly spread across his face. Was he really that predictable? "Well look at you, going all detective on me."
She playfully punched his arm. "Do you want help or not?" She asked again.
He responded to her punch by grabbing her and pulling her in for a hug. "I suppose I'd hate to make you walk all this way for nothing."
Sarah returned the hug for a couple seconds. "Just tell me what needs done."
"Well," Chase answered as he released her from the hug, "if you're up for heaving seed bags around, you can help load the drill." He grabbed a bag off the top of the pallet and stood it up on the bed of the truck. "There's an arrow on the bag that points to the end you need. Then you can just grab the string on that end and pull. I like to leave about four inches of the tape left, that way I don't have to pick up all the tapes." He demonstrated what he was talking about as he explained it. "Then you can just set it up here on the catwalk on the drill and I'll load the drill."
"Got it." She replied. "How many bags do you need?"
"All of the wheat bags." He answered, gesturing to the bags still on the pallet. "There should be 36."
"Got it." She replied, and immediately started working.
Chase climbed up on the catwalk with the first bag and started loading the drill. After emptying the first bag into the drill, he started a pile for the empty bags. He went back as Sarah set the second bag up on the catwalk for him. The two of them worked away for a while before Sarah ended up breaking the silence.
"How heavy are these things?" She asked, straining to lift the bag up.
"Should be about 50 pounds." He replied, taking the bag and emptying it into the drill.
"I'll tell you what, I'm starting to feel it." She mentioned as she opened the next bag.
He looked at the bags left on the pallet, there were only six left, counting the one she had. "Well, if you can get those last few, that'll be 1,800 lbs you moved."
"Really?" She asked.
"Yep. Should be thirty bushels." He replied, taking the next bag and putting it in the drill.
"Wow." She remarked, getting the next bag ready.
They went back to working silently until the last bag. "Well," he said as he put the last bag in the drill, "that's it. All thirty bushels. Thanks for your help."
"No problem." She replied, stretching her arms and shoulders a bit.
"You sure?" He remarked. "Looks like it did cause you a bit of trouble."
"I mean," she replied, still stretching, "I'm a little sore, but I'm sure I'll make it."
Chase was silent for a moment as he looked her over. She had her hair up in the hoodie she was wearing. She also had on a pair of jeans and tennis shoes. "Y'know something," he remarked after seeing her shoes, "if you're going to be helping me out, we really need to get you a pair of work boots."
"What makes you say that?" She asked.
"Better support for your ankles, that goes a long way when you're climbing on and off of all this equipment." He answered.
"I guess that makes sense." She replied.
"Yeah, ask me how I know." He remarked with a chuckle.
Sarah only responded with a giggle of her own as Chase turned his attention to the rate chart on the drill. "Let's see," he thought out loud as he looked at the chart, "looking for two bushels per acre of wheat. That's 120lbs, and setting it at 24 is supposed to be 114, so we'll set it at 25 and see what that looks like."
"Sure." Sarah remarked from over his shoulder. It wasn't until then that he realized he'd been thinking out loud. He also hadn't noticed that she'd climbed up on the drill with him.
"Well," he said as he closed the lid on the drill, "now that you've climbed up here, I'm gonna get down and set the drill."
"You're killing me." She lamented as she followed him down. Once on the ground, he walked around to reset the average counter and set that half of the drill to the right setting. As he made his way around to the other side, he remembered the pile of empty seed bags.
"If you wouldn't mind," he said, "you can start carrying those empty bags over to the shed so they don't blow away."
"Sure." Sarah replied and immediately set to it.
"I'll set the other side of the drill and then I'll come help." He told her and quickly went to set the other half of the drill. It only took a few seconds before he was back at the bag pile and grabbed an armful of bags and then headed for the shed.
After dropping his armful of bags onto the pile, he turned to find Sarah close behind him with the last of the empty bags. "Bit easier to carry when they're empty, aren't they?" He quipped.
"Yeah, no kidding." She replied as she dropped the last of the bags on the pile.
He smiled at his own terrible remark. "Alright," he said, "there's a sink in the shop. We should probably wash our hands and then we can go get started."
"Sweet." She replied. He then led her into the shop and rinsed off his hands. It wasn't something he normally did, even though it was a good idea. If he was being honest with himself, he only did it because he wanted to make sure Sarah did. He didn't like the idea of her getting sick from handling seed.
The sound of the sink turning off pulled him back to the moment. "Alright, you ready?" He asked, knowing the answer.
"You'd better believe it." Came the reply.
He couldn't help but smile. "You like your tractor rides, don't you?" He asked.
"Why do you think I came over in the first place?" She replied with a smile.
"I figured." He remarked and headed for the tractor. He climbed in and sat down, with Sarah right behind him. Once she was settled, he put the tractor in gear and headed out for the field.
As he pulled out into the road, he made sure to listen for any signs of something wrong in the engine. The last thing he needed was to have to tear the engine down again. He didn't hear anything while running at speed down the road to the field, which was nice, but the real test would be in the field.
Upon reaching the field, he turned into the field next to the end he wanted to start from. He backed into the corner of the field, lowered the drill, picked his gear and off he went. If he'd done his math right, his field would end up being 990 feet long and 660 feet wide. Which meant that 44 passes would get him pretty close, assuming he was perfectly on with his drill spacing. In reality, he probably wouldn't be dead-on but the field was flat and open and so getting pretty close would be about as easy as it gets without GPS.
As he reached the end of his first pass, he turned around and, as he headed the other way, looked over at the pass he'd just made to check and see if the seeds were getting covered. He barely saw any laying on the ground, so he elected to check his seed depth when he reached the other end of the field.
As he reached the other end and lifted the drill, he put the tractor in park and prepared to get out.
"What are you doing?" Sarah asked.
"I'm gonna go see how deep we're set." He answered as he grabbed the seed depth tool he'd put in the tractor. "Wanna make sure the seed's not too deep since there's plenty of moisture right now."
"I see..." Sarah replied, clearly pretending to understand better than she did. The two of them then got out and Chase headed out behind the drill about 50 feet or so to make sure he was in a spot the drill was running normally. He knelt down and dug with the depth tool into one of the rows to see how far down the seeds were. The first one he found was about an inch, right on the money. The second and third were maybe a touch deeper, and the last was a bit shallower. Overall, he was happy with it.
He covered the seeds back up and headed for the tractor. Sarah was right behind him as he sat down. He put the tractor back in gear and went back to planting. Over the next hour or so, he made his way back and forth across the field. After counting out 22 passes, he decided to get out and see how much seed he'd gone through. Plus, he wanted to check for leaks now that the tractor had been running a while.
He parked at the end of that pass and opened the door. Sarah got out and he followed her.
"What are we doing now?" She asked.
