On the Road
In January 2007, I got off the plane in Baghdad Iraq having returned from my 2 week leave excited to get back to work. After getting off the bus on base I started to walk to my unit HQ, bags in hand, to get my weapon and get a back brief from my NCO on what fell through the cracks in my absence. When out of no where, I was roughly grabbed by 3 guys in grey and pinned against a wall. The lead instigator a SSG “Snuffy” (names changed to protect my innocence) poked me in chest and said: “I have been looking for you”. I tried to speak up, to which he said: “At Ease soldier!”. I thought this was funny because I couldn’t touch the ground let alone stand at or on any thing. Based on the angry look in his face, I chose not to point this fact out. He continued: “I should kill you because of the crap you have been putting out for the last 2 weeks, and no matter how many times I called or stopped by the S2, I couldn’t find you or get it fixed”. I asked him if he spoke to any of the other soldiers to which he answered: “Those idiots? CPL Little do you realize that I use your Intel report every morning to brief my engineers before we leave for route clearance? And the last few weeks, me and a box of crayons could have done better!” He continued as he increased the rate at which he poked my chest: “So what the hell have you been doing since you haven’t been doing your job?” I waited a moment to make sure he was finished then said: “On leave.” A look of surprise crossed his face and he said: “What the hell are you talking about?” I then told him that I just got off the plane and showed my luggage and lack of gun as evidence. He pondered this for a moment as his soldiers let my feet touch the ground and then said: “Fine! I will give you 24 hours to fix this before I come looking for you to finish this conversation.” I promised he would have nothing to worry about and I hurried to find out what had been done or more correctly not been done in my absence.
Why do I relate this story? I have been on leave, so the blog didn’t get done in my absence. Unlike the above example things were managed well in my absence. In many ways I like leaving and coming home, the crops are taller, food is getting harvested and most of the weed got pulled. The best example is our corn as shown by these 4 pictures.
This progress has been astounding, it has also been surprising how quickly the mounds have raced ahead of the fields. The mounds are a foot taller and have there tassels out already should be enjoying some green corn by the end of the month.
The other enjoyable part of my 2 weeks of leave included visits to Small Scale Regenerative farms in the arid regions of Wyoming and Idaho. But I think I will save those until new week when I will talk about differences around the US.
Hope you are enjoying the season, remember to stay Hydrated out there. Deven