Riding The Hay

Or in other words, the hay ride.  Yesterday had it's own excitement.  I arrived at 7:45 and grabbed my list of schools entering for the day.  Yay!  Only seven, all with classes under 100 kids.  Easy peasy!!

Not so fast Miss Nancy.  You have two new recruits to train today.  Luckily, one arrived early and I had a chance to give her a quick lay of the land and a five minute training session.  There's nothing like throwing them to the wolves!!

We went along like clockwork until one forgot to keep the parents out of the corn and off the fence.  You know who, got the call.  I literally ran all the way to the farthest reaches of the patch to give her more instruction on that particular part of her job.  It's funny how some people instinctively know what to do and some do not.

I ran back to the front where I was greeted by a large group from a Charter School.  They were running wild, climbing fences, knocking over display pumpkins ..... as the teachers watched.  I would not have made a good teacher.  I would be yelling my head off constantly!!!

Next up ... three school buses at the exact same time.  YIKES!!!  Trying to keep everyone on schedule is a huge task, but the girls and I were up to the challenge and got it done.

Noon came in a flash.  The parents listened, the kids got their pumpkins and everyone was happy.  

All of a sudden I get the call.  Nancy ... there's someone in the dinosaurs with a kid in a wagon.  I headed out on the run and couldn't find her.  Luckily I saw wagon tracks.  My Indian side kicked in and I tracked her clear back to the Education Center, where she went through a closed gate and back to the patch.  I caught up with her at the Barnyard Bounce.

It was no big deal.  She had never been there before and just wandered off down the wrong road.  There will be a sign posted today ... DO NOT ENTER and a lock put on that gate.

Here's my hay ride ride ... a nice blue tractor pulling an old cotton wagon.  This doesn't track very well at all, meaning you have to make huge wide turns to keep the back end from wiping out half the corn maze.  

The owner took all the male employees and headed off to harvest pumpkins for four hours, leaving us girls to play.  I had a quick run-in with a really scary guy, covered in dirt and grease.  He took down a crowd control chain like he was getting on the hay ride before anyone else got off.  I asked him to please wait ... and I thought he was going to break my neck.  I guess it takes all kinds, but he was truly scary.  I kept my eye pealed the rest of the night. 

At long last it was time to head home ... but wait!  I better check the goats since I know no one else has been around.  Sure enough, they had not a drop of water, nor do I think they had been fed.  I took care of the babies, discovered we had no more "pay dirt" for gem mining fun (bad news since it takes awhile to make those bags up) and headed back to get paid.

I walked and ran a total of 9.8 miles on this day.  My legs are doing okay, but my feet are crying.  There's no time for therapy, I hit the bed at 8:00 and was a goner.  If nothing else, I'm sure sleeping well!!!