Modern wonders make farm day shorter

Prior to the integration of GPS-controlled, self-steering tractor accessories, reading a book was not the best option when spending all day on the tractor. Honestly, it’s not the best idea, even if the GPS is doing most of the driving.

You really have to learn how to split your attention between the engrossing intrigue, implement awareness, in-field obstacle location, and your sense of how close you are to the turn-row.

That in mind, some sort of audio playing device, that can play music, books, or political discourse (or course), is the recommended form of entertainment.

There was radio, which was limited in content to the local stations or what skips you could pick up on a cloudy night. But at least the equipment usually stayed working for a few years — and a couple extra with the correct placement of random debris as button wedges and respliced speaker wires.

Then there was recorded media on tracks and tapes and compact disks. That was cool, but I’m not sure if it’s the dust or the grit or both — but the expected life of such a player on the farm is unimpressively short. Supplementing with an easily replaceable mobile boom box in the buddy seat wasn’t the best sound quality, but it was better than all that time with your own thoughts, of course.

Then came the real renaissance of portable entertainment … the mp3 player that we now just use as our phone. It could be put in your pocket and make the normally silent jobs that take place out of a seat not quite as bad as they were before. Scooping peanuts on the trailer, flaking off hay, or even cleaning the weeds and wire off the sweeps was mildly improved by a little musical accompaniment that didn’t require you to open your mouth.

Now it’s a choice between streaming TV or whichever song pops into your mind — or having a live political debate with some bloke from across the pond who is also on the web at that moment.

If you remember your charger, your Bluetooth transmitter, and your best noise-canceling microphone — your day on the tractor, or the horse (take your power-banks in your saddle-bags), or digging a hole somewhere — will seem a little shorter as you enjoy the modern wonders in the middle of nowhere.

If not, well … you might have to rough it with that old radio or sing songs the old-fashioned way.

Audra Brown still would rather not be digging a hole. Contact her at: [email protected]