The Dangers of Routine

Sounds about right....

Sorry I haven't been writing much lately.  Honestly, things have settled into a very predictable pattern, and therefore nothing has been striking me as sufficently "blog-worthy" enough to merit posting.  MWF = Work on the farm in the morning (or not) and then work at the school in the afternoon and pick up buckets in the evening. TR = work on the farm (or not) Sat = Market in Waimea from 5am to ±2pm, with beach afterwards (or not).  Sun = Work on the farm (or not).  With the time left in the evenings after dinner, I've been reading a lot.  Not quite to the point that I read with every free minute of the day (and spend each moment in the shower trying to figure out how I can read in the shower as well), although I've been there before, but with a kind of feeling that there's nothing I'd prefer to be doing in the evenings than settle in with a book (and possibly a beer) until I fall asleep.  I've been on quite the kick lately with the non-fiction books, which is kind of atypical for me.  I like to get swept up in a story and usually the stranger and less predictable it is, the more I like it.  But having read Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything and Mary Roach's Spook, I've  learned that I can find enjoyment in non-fiction as well.  This of course make plenty of sense, and I'm a bit ashamed that I hadn't realized it earlier, since what I write here on the Cameronomicon is also essentially non-fiction, and I enjoy reading it almost as much as I enjoy writing it.  So then I read Stephen King's On Writing which I believe is pretty good if you're a Stephen King fan or an aspiring writer, and amazingly good if you happen to be both.   In fact, at this point of this post, I can hear Mr. King asking me, "But what does any of this have to do with the story?" to which my only response would be "Nothing.  Nothing at all."  So I suppose I should start getting to the point.

As I was saying before, things have gotten quite routine around here lately, and there hasn't been much of all to write about.  Yesterday I learned that settling into a routine can on occasion create certain very blog-worthy adventures, and that most of those are based on anecdotes of serious bodily injury.

Let me begin by stating that I am fine.  I am a-okay.  And so is everyone else on the farm.  So stop worrying now, all of you out there who are prone to worrying, and know that life is good (although a bit more cautious).  You see, I was reminded on three separate occasions yesterday that routine leads to the assumption that nothing strange or out of the ordinary is going to happen, and that you can afford to not pay too much attention to anything, because you've been through it all before and nothing has ever happened yet.  I'm guessing this is the kind of thinking that makes OSHA a presence on any major/commercial work site.

I suppose we'll do these in chronological order, which also happens to be the same order as descending severity (even though I like the second one best, for a myriad of reasons).

Yesterday morning, Kalewa and I were setting wooden fence posts that we're using to make a trellis for the peas and beans and such that will go in the garden.  It's a nice long trellis, and we needed six fence posts for it - three for each side.  Ok, it's actually two trellises, but that's completely beside the point.  We were setting fence posts.  As these are somewhat temporary, there's no need to dig holes, pour concrete, and set the posts.  We just pound them into the ground about two feet or three feet deep, leaving the top 5-6 feet exposed.  And to do that, we use the bucket of the tractor.  I know what you're thinking (especially you, Dad), but it's actually quite safe.  I hold the post in place, and Kalewa sets the bucket down on the top of the post to steady it, then I back away and he lowers the bucket and it slowly pushes the post into the ground.  No big whoop.  After 12-18" or so, there's too much resistance on the post for just the weight of the tractor to sink it any further.  So the bucket is lifted, I check to make sure the post is vertical (or at least close), make a few adjustments if necessary, and then I back away and Kalewa gives it a good whack with the bucket, dropping it with force from a height of about 6 inches.  It works great.  Yesterday, though, as I'm sure you all have guessed by now, I went to adjust the post at about the same time as Kalewa tried to give the post another smack with the tractor bucket.  Luckily for all involved, the top of the post was still well above my head when the bucket made contact, I'd already started ducking before the bucket hit the post, and I was most likely just outside of the reach of the bucket anyway (although it probably would have caught my shoulder, which still would have been no fun).  At any rate, everyone was ok (namely me, the only person at risk) and we all got a good dose of "Holy crap that was way too close we're totally being more careful from now on."  Having learned our safety lesson of the day (or so I thought), we proceed to finish our work more prudently.

Around noon, we'd finished with the trellises and had moved on to some other menial tasks that needed to get done, including burying the contents of some of our green waste buckets.  Every once in a while, we get a bucket with meat in it, and that just won't do in the compost pile.  So we bury the contents under a tree that looks like it could use a little help.  Reasonable enough.  Kalewa was digging the pit, and I decided to go get the aforementioned meat buckets.  They were over at the far end of a new raised garden bed that K&K have been working on for the last week.  I picked up the buckets, turned around, and stepped (as I was so soon to find out) directly on the upturned tines of the potato rake.  Sure, it could have been super-clichéd and flipped the handle up into my face and given me a black eye or a broken nose, but instead it took the road less traveled and went all the way through my shoe.

*dramatic reenactment for your viewing pleasure

My thought on this is that our near and dear potato rake of Cameronomicon fame was feeling a bit neglected of late, and wanted to assure itself another mention on the blog.  Well, potato rake, you've succeeded.  Job well done.  I also believe that the potato rake was clearly just trying to scare me into mentioning it, rather than actually injure me, because by some stroke of extreme luck (or perhaps unknown supernatural potato rake skill) the tine passed through the sole of my shoe, directly in-between my big toe and the next one over, and out the top of my shoe (exactly as pictured above).  Needless to say, immediately following this incident, we had another farm safety talk about the importance of putting the potato rake times actually in something (preferably the ground, if a shed isn't readily available) when one is done working with it.  Also equally needless to say is that I spent the rest of the day very consciously aware of where I put me feet.  Or so I thought.

The last incident of the day was later in the afternoon.  I was using a manure fork to scoop - you guessed it - manure out of the back of the truck.  My feet planted, and knowing that they were not going to step on anything pointy, I stopped worrying about them.  I just focused on the task of scooping horse poo.  As it turns out, the manure fork is good pals with the potato rake, and was quite disgruntled at having no mention at all in the blog, while the potato rake gets stories and photos and the like.  Therefore, in a moment filled with what I can only assume is some sort of inanimate perturbance, the fork caught one of the channels in the bed of the truck which guided it directly into my big toe (the same one that had so recently dodged the wrath of the potato rake).  Fortunately I was in such a position and early enough in the scoop that while the impact certainly stung and caught me by surprise, there was not enough force to puncture the skin.  Believe me, the last thing I want while standing in a literally steaming pile of poo is an open wound on my feet.  So thank goodness for that.

I see by the clock I've gotta get back into my routine (hopefully with more awareness today than yesterday) and get over to the school.

Have a great day, and keep an eye on those pointy instruments!!