Weeds have Funny Names

I always wonder how some weeds and plants got their names. Dalmation Toadflax, Hoary Cress, Saint Johnswort, Hogpotato, Oakleaf Goosefoot, and the list goes on. 

Those damn Johnson's and their Grass

Hogpotato, why?

Hoary Cress. Is it "hoary?"

Dalmation Toadflax. It doesn't look like a dalmation or flax. Do toads really like it?

Oakleaf Goosefoot. I could maybe see the oak leaf, but the goose foot?

I Forgot about the Stress of this Job

If you think about it, my spray truck has hundreds of gallons of liquid death on the back. Virtually any piece of vegetation it touches will cease to live anymore. Months of growing from seed to, at this time of year, the flowering stage can be wiped out in a matter of seconds. There is no room for a mistake.

We are targeting primarily noxious weeds along with some other troublesome weeds not yet considered noxious in all states. The biggest targets are thistle (primarily Musk Thistle), marestail, bindweed, and Johnsongrass. Except for the Johnsongrass all the weeds listed are broadleafs, the same category as corn and soybeans. Unfortunately the only way to get rid of the Johnsongrass is to add glyphosate to the chemical mixture which means all grass will be seriously burned or killed. 

The part of Kansas we are in is rife with corn and soybeans (remember, I mentioned them above for a reason), all grown close to the railroad right-of-way. Now factor in a little bit of wind and you can see the potential for disaster. And when is it not windy in Kansas? This is where the job gets stressful.

The weed agent for Butler County takes his job very seriously. He sees it as his personal mission in life to rid the county of every noxious weed sprouting in it. One of the worst places tends to be railroad right-of-ways, so you can guess who he is always on, us! If we don't do a good job of killing every strand of Johnsongrass and Musk Thistle in his county, who is he going to go after with fines? So the pressure is on to get as much as possible in the ROW, at the same time this increases the chance for drift into nearby cash crop fields. So what do you do? Try and kill the weeds regardless and have claims for 100 miles up and down the railroad or reduce drift and face the wrath of the Weed Agent? 

And what about just making a mistake, like turning on the wrong spray nozzle at the wrong time, or moving the boom in the wrong direction. A whole section of a soybean field can be eradicated by a wrong move. And what about those people's gardens in the small towns along the way? It seems like if a tomato plant even gets a whiff of chemical it's dead.

In addition the railroad is full of signs, signals, switch stands, crossing posts, and hundreds of other obstacles. It takes constant vigilance and concentration to get around all of these things and get the acres sprayed. This is where there's huge room for mistakes. Lifting up over a sign at the same time a gust of wind comes up can be bad. But you still have to get around all of the objects and spray the weeds.

For all of the federal regulations, state regulations, railroad rules, and angry farmers there are a lot of days this job just doesn't pay enough for the stress (and I'm not even a crew leader, they have it even worse!). This isn't even going into all the federal regulations regarding pesticides, especially restricted use pesticides. If you make a mistake in measuring chemical into a mixture and someone found out, say goodbye to your applicator's license and two months worth of pay. And don't even think about not triple-rinsing used chemical containers, there goes another month of pay. 

Don't you wish you were a commercial applicator?

Wichita Sprayman

Wyoming weather was rainy and in the 40s; Kansas weather is in the 90s and humid. What a difference a drive makes! Our new spray location has put us in Augusta, KS, just east of Wichita. Our job this time is about 30 miles each on the BNSF Douglass and Arkansas City subs and 100 miles of the TransCon between Ellinor and Wellington. 

For those of you not familiar with the TransCon it's the nickname for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe's transcontinental mainline and one of the most important lines in the country. In normal economic times it would be trains nonstop, but in our current recession there's hardly anything moving out there. It's sad really, but the silver lining is we can get track and time much more easily and get our spraying done. I'd rather see more trains running though.

The weather though, what could I really expect? Southern Kansas in mid-June, what else would you expect but high heat and humidity. It's quite a shock for us. Last week I was wearing a coat, this week any clothes are too many! It's a good thing the AC in our motel is working good.

Spraying in Wyoming

The whole time we have been in Newcastle, WY, the weather has been crappy. Cold, cloudy, light rain, but little wind so we have actually been able to get a lot done. Normally we can spray 12 to 15 miles with our hi-rail truck and then get filled by our water and chemical truck. The hi-rail then continues while the water truck goes and refills with 750 gallons of water. The problem is out here the land is so sparse there are no water locations every 15 miles or so. Try up to 40 miles for water! Tom, the crew leader, came up with a good solution though. Use one of our pickups to meet the hi-rail with 300 gallons of chemical pre-mixed. The extra 300 gallons give just enough time for the water truck to refill and make it to the next location.

The Black Hills sub, originally built by the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad, was never built with the intentions of being a heavy mainline. A washboard profile and numerous curves are not good territory to run long, heavy coal trains over. However, with the discovery of vast amounts of coal in the nearby Powder River Basin the line was forced to become a heavy main. CTC signalling, ribbon rail, concrete ties, and a second main (over most of the line) have transformed this line into something else. But the light nature of the old Q is still evident in the grades and curves. If not for the distributed power on nearly every train I couldn't imagine running the huge coal trains over this line! It's pretty amazing.

Something else that is cool is the water in Edgemont, SD. Actually, it's not cool, it's hot. As evidence to the fact that the nearby Black Hills were once a volcano magma near the surface heats up the groundwater so it comes out hot! One of the BNSF carmen said he hasn't turned his hot water heater on in 10 years. It's crazy filling up the tank and watching steam roll out.

Tomorrow we are off for new territory in El Dorado, Kansas, on the BNSF Emporia, La Junta, and Arkansas City subs. Should be an interesting change of scenery.

It Fell Off!!

The wheel fell off! It fell off!! It fell the fuck off!!! Well, the words of Ron White almost described what happened to one of our trucks today. 

Our convoy consists of a '98 Dodge pickup and a newer Ford dually outfitted with spray tanks. Either can pull a trailer full of chemical and 400 gallons of water. In addition we have a '98 Ford hi-rail truck with a 750 gallon tank and homebuilt spray equipment. Today we were headed from Newcastle, WY, to Edgemont, SD, to spray the BNSF yard there. Myself and Tom were in the hi-rail and Wes was driving the Ford pulling the trailer.

Not far out of Newcastle Wes thought something was wrong with the truck because it was shaking at higher speeds. Since it had been driven through a lot of mud the previous couple of days we figured it was mud between the duals that was causing them to be unbalanced. A look between verified there was mud and was likely the cause of the problem.

I don't think we got more than five miles down the road when Wes said it was shaking so bad he had to pull over and check everything. It's a good thing he did because he discovered the duals on the drivers side were sitting at odd angles. A closer inspection revealed the lugnuts were missing! An even closer look also showed that the studs had been sheared off! The wheels were just barely on the axle.

It could have been a complete disaster if Wes hadn't pulled over when he did. Both wheels probably would have flew off and who knows what the heavy trailer would have done? It could have been very very bad. Luckily it was all able to be fixed within five hours.

What apparently happened was the lugnuts were not completely torqued on the last time the tire was changes. Between rough roads and mud the lugnuts had worked loose until a big bump causes all the studs to just shear off. It's amazing no one was hurt and the damage was a little as it was. Someone was looking out for us today!

Stardust Motel

In our weed spray travels we don't always get to stay in five star hotels. Sometimes there isn't even a five star hotel in town. Newcastle, WY, is one of those towns. The "best" hotel (er, uh, motel) in town was full so we were left with the scraps. We got the Stardust.

The Stardust is one of those old time motels that is set up where each room has it's own door directly outside. An old neon sign still attempts to dr

aw road weary travelers in; underneath the neon is the hotel amenities such as cable TV, air conditioning, and phones. 

Inside the small room is a green vinyl chair, some uncomfortable beds, and some other decor last updated sometime in the 1970s. The bathroom is not much bigger than a closet, the temperature of the water in the shower fluctuates hot to cold to hot 

without even touching the faucet controls. 

But at least the rooms are clean, management friendly, and there is eve

n Wi-Fi. Oh yes, there indeed is cable TV.

Rangeland

On Saturday afternoon our spray crew convoy departed the fertile cropland west of Alliance, Nebraska, for the vast rangeland of Wyoming. Another series of afternoon thunderstorms had cropped up putting incredible hues of blue in the sky above the fluorescent green carpet in front of us. Somewhere near Crawford a huge valley of grassland lay before us, shadows of clouds dancing across the floor with sheets of blue creating a perfect background; pronghorns grazed in the ditch, oblivious to the traffic flowing by. Eventually we caught up with the blue sheets, enveloping us in a rain squall so thick it became impossible to even see the road. Within 10 miles it would again be clear and sunny.

On our way to our new temporary home in Newcastle, WY, one road we took cut across the far southwest corner of South Dakota. Now this was a state highway, but it must be one of the last in the street that's still gravel. I thought they had all long since been paved. This road also took us through one of the strangest towns I've ever been through, Rumford, SD. The only thing that made this town strange is the fact that there is nothing in it. Now when most people say there is nothing in a town, there usually is a building or weed covered street, however Rumford had nothing. There were no buildings, or even re

mains of them, no streets, nothing. Just the highway, the railroad line, and a "Rumford" sign. It's as if the town existed without ever really having existed.

Our new territory has put us on BNS

F's Black Hills Subdivision. Unfortunately this line does not actually traverse the geological wonder of a destroyed volcano but instead lives in the shadow of it, just grazing the west side. The scenery is 

still wonderful, cutting through the wonderfully sparse grasslands where the pronghorns far outnumber people. Roads are nearly nonexistant and if not for the oil and coal all settlements would probably be the same way.

As a final thought, things are a little different west of the Missouri. Cattle become the cash crop and baseball caps are replaced by cowboy hats. Trees are far and few between and towns seem to be laid out more haphazardly, fitting in streets and buildings wherever they fit into the landscape. And most importantly, the skies do seem bigger!

Below is a photo of one of the man

y BNSF coal trains heading timetable east with more Powder River Gold. In the background are the Elk Mountains. The Elk Mountains is also the subject of another photo. Across the street from our hotel is the Howdy Drive-In.