I haven't been a total bum during this time, as I'm still working for the university. I'm also assisting with the marketing and advertising for my fiance's family's yoghurt they will soon produce for the masses. Don't worry, there will be a ton more information to come... Side note: You'll love it's smooth, creamy taste AND how healthy it is! Dutch yoghurt is better than anything you've ever tasted!
Back to the topic of why bureaucracy is BS...Asking for advice from numerous people, I've been told "that's just how the government works. But its good money, take it!" Thanks to my brother for seeing it through practical eyes, "That's totally unstable and there's no telling if they'll actually come through." This is how I felt, and if I wasn't so strapped for cash (student loans and credit cards, oh how I hate you...) I would have totally walked away from this two months ago. I have my doubts that this contract will be completed, but I'm tryin' to be optimistic. If it does work, I'll be able to start doing Quality Assurance Assessment on dairies, and receive a payment that will be beneficial to my debt. Wish me luck!
During all this stress and frustration, more has been adding to it: it's called being a farmer's fiance. I love Jeroen, and I especially love his abilities to mange people and fix things. Because of his role on the dairy, he has a lot of responsibility, especially during harvesting and planting seasons. Six months out of the year he has non-stop workdays assuring crops are planted, harvested, baled, moved, and covered with plastic. Although this may not sound too difficult, there's always one factor that chooses how his week goes... the weather. If it's about to rain, its urgent to get the crop off the field and covered before they're ruined. If its incredibly windy, which it typically is, planting and covering with plastic has to be done in the late night/ early morning hours. When the sun is bursting with heat and bakes a crop that was full of moisture (in a matter of a couple of hours), it needs to be cut and baled quickly.
I have so much respect for farmers, dairymen and cattlemen who grow their own feed. People who do this job have no concept of 9-5, because to them, the day's never done. Just 'cause the clock strikes 5, that does not mean its quittin' time. They have no idea what the day will bring and when they will get to go home. Some days it will slow down, and they get to leave early. But if it weren't for those days, it would make the 19 hour days unbearable. It takes a very special kind of person to do these jobs. A person who is hard-working, who can manage emergencies, and is comfortable with not having a routine.
And it isn't just farming that's difficult... the entire world of production agriculture is no day in the park. Its not a place for tie-wearing, luxury car-driving, need 9 hours of beauty rest- sleeping, vacation-taking, money hungry individuals. This work is hard, dirty, unforgiving, and all-consuming, yet rewarding. Again, these are a special kind of people who can do these jobs. They tend to love animals and the land, and have a sense of pride in what they do. That's what pulls them out of bed in the morning, and allows them not to fear the day ahead.
Luckily, I learned the statement "cows gotta eat" at a pretty young age, and since then have had a special place in my heart for ranchers, farmers, dairymen and cattlemen. My brother worked at a feed yard in high school, went to college for animal science, and is now a manager for a very large cattle-feeding operation. As just a teenager, he was at work first thing in the morning, got home late, and worked weekends and holidays.
Being a child of military parents, I was used to schedules for the most part. You would think I would have a better understanding of bureaucracy and government contracts, and be more understanding of 'the system'. But even as a child I believed it was ridiculous that my mom was always filling out paperwork for the most simplest of tasks. ("Drove to get gas on base which was X mileage, then I filled up the car which cost X amount, then I drove back to the office which was an ending mileage of X. The entire trip took X amount of minutes, but I stopped at the stop sign which added X amount of minutes... you get the idea.) Mom had a pretty good grip of her calendar with government holidays, leave, and TDY (temporary duty yonder). But there were the occasional unfortunate disasters where the Air National Guard was called out to assist, and we weren't sure when she would be back.
So when Tres was gone constantly, even on Christmas Eve, I couldn't really understand...Welcome to the world of production agriculture. Cows don't care if its Martin Luther King Jr day, they still need to eat and be milked. Crops don't stop growing for Thanksgiving break. The world continues to turn, while the aforementioned white-collar folks get to take a three-day weekend cause they worked 41 hours last week. I'm glad Tres taught me all about this, because had I never known, I would have been devastated learning to deal with Jeroen's "schedule".
I've become more understanding the more I'm around the dairy and farm. If there's an emergency at the dairy, I'm not about to say, "Well, good luck." Last year a horrible storm blew through, and pulled all the calf hutches off the ground and tossed them for miles around. Immediately, everyone went into crisis clean-up mode, and the workers had gathered up all the calves and made sure they were safe. Standing in one foot of mud, I tried to help them move the calf hutches back (mind you, the dimensions of these are 86.5" L x 48" W x 53.5" H and weigh 100 lbs). The guys were appreciative to see me trying to help, but knew I wouldn't be much assistance when they saw me dangling from one trying to pull it right side up. I opted to pick up feed and water buckets and re-align the fencing instead. A month prior to that, Jeroen was short a guy during planting and said they needed a guy on a tractor. Hastily, I volunteered. It wasn't that I didn't want to help, but I feared breaking a $100,000 piece of equipment (for those of you who don't know me, I break things...). With how advanced and progressive agriculture has become, I was fortunate to have GPS on this tractor. Using satellites, it aligned the tractor automatically with the previous row. And because I drive a standard, I didn't have too many issues with controlling multiple levers and gear shifts at once.
To assist Jeroen, I've also helped insulate a storage building he built (he calls it our anniversary building because the first time I called him, he was in the process of building it) and I also assisted with putting plastic on piles. This consists of rolling out 250 ft of plastic to cover about 85 1-ton bales. This is not a simple process and takes multiple people holding down the plastic all around the edges, while someone on a loader drops dirt all around it to hold it down. On windy days, this is the most miserable job, as you're being covered from head to toe in sand and will still be dirty after multiple showers.
Like I said, these are not glamorous jobs, but the individuals who do it are wonderful people. Being on the dairy, assisting with these jobs has given me a better understanding and appreciation for the job itself and the people who do it. They have hearts of gold and bodies of steel. Its also made me more understanding of Jeroen's schedule (or lack thereof), so when he gets home at midnight, I have a plate of warm food and running shower for him.
Although my contract will be a mess for the next couple of months, its comforting to know that I won't get bored. Between the yoghurt going into production and the dairy always welcoming assistance, there will be plenty to do.
And ps. next time to see someone involved in production agriculture, give them props for what they do. And when you enjoy a nice cold glass of milk, or a delicious tender medium-rare steak, realize how much work went into getting it from the field to your table.
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