Riding with Pake

Saturday, I took supper out to the guys.  Kerry Don requested Keeter's sausage wraps, and of course he gets what he wants!  I also, made some Pioneer Woman potatoes, coleslaw and oreo brownies.  They said it was pretty good!  Yes I spoil them, but they do deserve it!  This is Pake, Chad, Butch, & KD.

Then, I decided to hop on the tractor and find out what it looks like from the perspective of a tractor boll buggy driver. Pake is a pretty good driver, and quite the expert (yes he's just 14).  It's also funny to me that on these new fancy tractors... the drivers seat is air ride, but the buddy seat is not.  Now that's just not fair is it! 

When the cotton stripper has his bin up in the air, that means that he's full. 

So the boll buggy driver pulls up right beside the cotton stripper.  Hi Butch!  This is the tricky part because you have to get right up against the cotton basket with the buggy with out touching.  Inches, I'm talking inches.

Then, the cotton stripper driver dumps all the cotton he has stripped onto the boll buggy.  And this is the part where you better make sure the wind isn't blowing in the wrong direction and you're positioned just right or all that cotton will end up on the ground.  Aren't y'all glad you're reading this post and getting a cotton stripping education?  I knew you were!

Hi Jose, and this is the module builder where the boll buggy driver dumps the cotton.  And the module builder packs and packs the cotton and makes a module.  That's the big white trailer house looking things you see in the fields. 

Then, we headed back into the cotton field and met up with this cotton stripper, AKA Chad and he had some cute passengers... his kids Mack and Catfish. 

This process goes on over and over.  They have to keep up with which cotton stripper is full and how many dumps each module builder has had.  It's complicated.  I had no clue what was going on, but I just kept taking pictures.

Then, when the module builder gets enough dumps to make a module and he's got it packed.  He has to pull the tractor forward so he can start a new module.  Hi Chincho and KD! 

When all the cotton is stripped and all the modules are built, then they have to clean up.  This is a boll buggy vacuum.  There's a lot of cotton on the ground and they suck it right up!  This is Butch, Pake, Drew and Aaron.  Drew and Aaron are our twin nephews and they're going to help us this year.  Isn't that cool!

This is McKenley.  She's the daughter of Chad and I don't even have to tell you how cute she is.  We buried her in cotton, and I got this really cute picture.  However, I don't know if her Momma was very pleased with us.

Last but not least, I just had to throw in this picture.  For some reason, I think it looks cool when all the pick-ups, strippers, combines and module builders are all neatly lined up.  It's a crew and it's going to be a great year!