Best Birthday Gift Ever

NOT!!! LOL

Every year, you know, there are dates that are automatically coming back, anniversaries and birthdays being some of these. Obviously. I'm not a big fan of big birthday bashes, nor is my better half so we didn't plan anything special, just a dinner at a restaurant and that was pretty much it! 

What my boss had in store for me though, was quite another story!

Totally oblivious it was my birthday (which kinda makes me think it would probably have been a lot worse!), i got sent with my pal and co-worker Anthony down a shite pit we're installing right now, the day after it had rained pretty much all night. And no it wasn't shit i was stepping onto but clay.

Go down in the pit, he said, it's dry he added. 

DRY MY ASS!

It took me for freaking ever to get the clay off of my boots and i had to drive home barefoot in order not to plaster that crap all over the carpets of my car. 

That pleasant interaction with one of nature's stickiest shit was only the hors-d'oeuvre.  In the afternoon, the boss said that he needed the two of us on another kind of oh-so-enjoyable task: standing at the back of the crop-spreader because he had just ordered several tons of chicken shit mix to spread onto the newly planted rapeseed. And since the mix was with chicken shit and sawdust, we had to make sure that it wouldn't get blocked inside hence, not spread where it should be.

It was 27ºC outside, we were under the burning sun, with hats, gaz mask for the dust and our sticks to break up the occasional block of chicken shit and long story short, we were COVERED in chicken shit dust. The only place that mess didn't get into was my panties.

But we did it. And as we've grown accustomed to, we had fun doing it. Anthony shot a video but no picture is here to show the apocalyptic look i had! Doesn't matter. I still think it's the most unusual yet awesome way of celebrating my birthday.

I freaking love my job!

I Have A New Friend!

We're not technically "friends" per say, but in the fields i've been spending time in, i've noticed this big bird of prey, probably a different one each time since i'm not on the same spot every time. Don't get me wrong, i'm not a big fan of birds, but strangely, i don't mind birds of prey. My problem is that i can't seem to find its name. 

It's a big grey hawk that looks like a mix between a Northern Goshawk (but doesn't have as much white as this one) and the Crane Hawk (but that one is from America so can't be).

Northern Goshawk

Crane Hawk

I've seen it hunt and get mice, walking on the fresh plowed land and chasing another one off of his dinning "room"! These birds are majectic. It's a utter pleasure to watch them be. I wish i could get closer. I even wish i could touch them.

I love the countryside. 

I Nap Everyday

So i've started a new job. I love it. But damn right it's tiring. 

The other day, 3pm, in the middle of a field, behind the wheel of a tractor and i was seriously dozing. I thought, crap, this isn't good. I mean, it's less dangerous than on a road or if i was driving a trailer truck but still, it's not good anyway.

When i mentioned it to my man, he told me, well, take a quick nap when you come back home on your lunch break. And i thought, pfff, what's the point, for a me, a nap is at least 1 hour and a half long so i won't have time for that. Morevoer, it makes me grumpy ! And he said, no, you need to take a power nap. 20-30 min max. 

I was hyper skeptical. How can i possibly fall asleep, rest and wake up and be on the go in 30 minutes? 

Well i did it. Went to my bedroom, took off my working clothes, set the alarm for 1:30pm and fell asleep in the blink of an eye and slept like a log. For 20 minutes. It changed my afternoon. My life. And my perception of naps.

A power nap is repairing. I start my afternoon shift all pumped up and reloaded for what awaits me. I always try to leave work on time (at noon) so i have time to eat without rushing and take a nap. 

I never thought i'd ever nap without feeling groggy and/or bitchy. I'd never thought i'd nap at all!! But it's something i enjoy every day. It's something i believe i actually NEED every day.

Who knew i'd become the napping type!

I Have OCD

I just realized that i do have OCD. Not in a big kinda way but i do have at least one little thing i cannot deal with without being overly uncomfortable. 

OCD is a disease. And i know for a fact that i'm not sick. But i have this obsession that i can't control. I'm fully aware of it and not sorry about it nor suffer from it.

My obsession is that my tea cup (or coffee cup) has to be full to the brim. Always. If the liquid doesn't come up to the top, i re-heat some more water to make sure it does. 

On Tuesday morning, my tea was almost 1cm lower than the edge of my giant mug and i thought, sod it, i'm not heating more water. And at the same time, i thought, well, this is not a good start to a day.

Little did i know that on that very same day, i had 3 breakings on the tractor and couldn't finish what i had started the day before. 

So from now on, even if it sounds stupid, picky or demanding, i don't care, i'll ask for more water to make sure my cup is full the way it should ...

Life In The Slow Lane

As of today, i have started a new job and oh, what a 180º turn around it's been! I am now officially a farmer. I don't work with animals, i work with the land. So obviously, I've had to learn how to drive a tractor. And god knows it's nowhere close to driving a car. Or a truck since i now can. But let's put those details aside for now. 

On my first day, my boss, who happens to also be my father-in-law, brought me to a big ass field (17 something hectares to be exact), showed me how to drive the tractor, drew a couple of lines with it to show me and then told me, OK, off you go, call me if you have a problem. 

And there i was, alone, in the middle of the field, thinking of all the buttons and shit i had to do before even thinking on moving the tractor and more than a hundred and seventy thousand square meters of land to furrow. 

I followed big boss's advice, got myself in 4th of the slow gear, blocked the speed to 5km/h and off i was. FIVE FREAKING KILOMETER AN HOUR. Do you even realize how stupidly SLOW that is? 

Well so i thought. Up until i actually got going ... and then trust me, in a field, behind a wheel of a tractor, 5km/h shakes the crap out of you and it truly feels like you're going 100km/h. And honestly, it helps you put things into perspective. 

I have seen, while in that field, animals i hadn't seen in years: all kind of birds, hares, rabbits, mice, all kind of insects and butterflies and this quietness i was so longing for. Obviously, the tractor's engine is loud but in the air conditioned cabin with the radio on, i'm like in a cocoon, all by my lonesome self.

And i'm going slow. Very slow.

And it feels good.

Here, time seems to have stopped. And after all the frenzy of the city and life in general, it's a huge bowl of fresh air.

I'm loving every second of it.