Fed Up

For two summers I sprayed weeds. Two summers! There were some really crappy days, but it was still a pretty tolerable job. I got to do a lot of traveling and see a lot of things. Usually the weed infestations were not too bad other than in spots.

But this year it's all gone to Hell.

Nearly a decade of a flawed vegetation policy (not my company, but the one we do the work for) have finally ruined the property. Instead of having mostly grass and native plants with a handful of noxious and trouble weeds spread throughout they now have solid weeds. Nary a blade of native grass to be found in most places. Where we were at today was solid marestail, peppergrass, Johnsongrass, ragweed, and thistle the entire right-of-way. That's over 30 feet on both sides of the rail, miles and miles worth. It's ruined. 

What happened was through this flawed policy a lot of grass was killed off and killed wide in order to eliminate all vegetation in certain areas, specifically leading up to crossings and around signs and signals. The reason they wanted to eliminate vegetation at crossings was because of visibility reasons, ie they wanted motorists to see the train coming. The problem is that before these crossings just had native grass growing around them which doesn't get more than a foot or two high. So they had all that grass killed and guess what came back? Yes, five and eight foot tall weeds! And they have completely pushed out all the grass, it will never come back unless it is planted. 

To do noxious control, in Kansas and Missouri in particular, you need a mixture that kills Johnsongrass. Guess what, that mixture also kills native grass. So spraying the entire right of way has killed all the grass and weeds have moved in. It looks like shit.

The problem for us, now, is trying to kill all of these weeds. Drift or runoff from previous years has pushed the weed problem so far out in a lot of places we can't even reach the weeds anymore. We also have to contend with all the trackside junk such as signs and signals and trees so we don't run into these with our boom all while trying to kill all the weeds around them! There is a person on each side of our truck running their own boom, so that all has to be coordinated so as to get everything covered on each side without destroying the spray boom. You would not believe the tension this puts in the cab of that truck and the intense concentration it takes to go around all these objects and cover the ground all while guessing what the guy next to you is doing on his side. And on this sub it is bad.

All day yesterday was spent constantly maneuvering that boom and concentrating on what I was spraying and what to look out for up ahead. I couldn't break my concentration long enough even to grab a drink of water or I probably would have missed something or ran into something. 

Now combine that with the big drift problems we are having even in relatively calm conditions. And there are no calm conditions in Kansas. Even a slight breeze sends a cloud of chemical up in the air and towards the nearest soybean field or garden. So how do you cover all the ground and not get drift everywhere? Good question. Even a second's worth of mistake can cause thousands of dollars worth of damage to a nearby field. Yet if we miss some weeds the County will be fining all the companies involved for not controlling the noxious weeds. It's even worse when a farmer sees you out there. You just better hope he's not carrying a rifle with because tempers can rise pretty quickly. 

Oh and did I mention it's highly illegal to spray in winds over 10mph? No one at the railroad cares, they just want the job done. It doesn't matter the huge fines a person could be held account for personally. We're lucky we don't ever get caught.

And then you have the whiney railroad employees. Don't even think about spraying within 100 feet or more of them, I guess they figure the smell of this stuff is toxic. If they even get a whiff you can bet your ass will be chewed by the roadmaster the next day.

Now combine all that with life on the road. We expect to be away for a minimum of four weeks up to and even beyond six weeks. And, unless you are a crew leader, you have to share a hotel room with someone. And from my experience most of the time it's a person you can't stand. Get blown out for the day and you spend it all just rotting away in your hotel room with someone you don't like. Sure you can use the company trucks a bit, but mostly only for short, small errands, or else you can expect a call from the front office. It's a little more tolerable when you stay in a decent sized town and there is stuff to do within walking distance, but some of these places are really in the middle of nowhere. You have to find your own entertainment. 

And for me, personally, I am becoming really dissatisfied with the pay. It's not a whole lot. If it wasn't for the vast amount of overtime one usually gets (20 hours average maybe) you would be just as well off finding a similar paying job and staying at home every night. To put up with the stress and life on the road and constantly being around people that you don't want to be around all the time is tough.

And another thing that irks me about pay as well is that this is not just any blue collar job. This is a very professional job and a risky job. You HAVE to be licenses, you HAVE to know the regulations, you HAVE to be vigilant. There is no room for mistakes here. Not to mention a train could derail on top of you at any time.

And what really pissed me off today is I found out, even on my third summer here, they started a guy out a few months ago, with no prior application experience, at $.75 less an hour than me. I have a bunch of experience, am really knoweledgeable, and good at what I do an I only get $.75 more an hour than a newbie? And they want to make me a crew leader besides! You know what the average raise for becoming a crew leader is? A buck! For three times the stress and all the other BS as a crew leader I may only be making two bucks more than some dumbass off the street who doesn't give a shit? Who will probably cause all kinds of damage? Who will miss half of what they are to spray?

I'm fed up with all of it. Reading this may sound like I'm whining, I think this is one of those jobs you just have to do to really understand it all. I could just as well be working at Wal-Mart and home every night instead of leaving my nice house and car and all my friends for months at a time. I can't wait to find a different job or the season to end, whichever comes first. This sucks.