While I wouldn’t describe myself as a “city slicker” I am not a full on “farm girl” either. I was lucky enough to spend a few summers spending a considerable amount of time on a farm where I took riding lessons and mucked out more then a few stalls, and have always swayed more to being a “tom boy” but the real farm work like harvesting a field is not something I have ever done!

Enter task one in my annual 52NEW project!

I had the pleasure of meeting Nancy Strath from Bow Bench Retreat, she has a wonderful facility that is part of her families farm.. she volun-told her husband Jay that I was going to learn to drive a combine!

I had no idea how BIG a combine is! Look out Canola here I come!

First step was getting the seat adjusted, it had to be lowered considerable!

I’m glad I could drive using a hand control and not pedals!

Off we went….

One of the things that caught me by surprise was how meditative it was. Over the last month or so I have been working on silencing the “chattering monkey” in my head and have been trying to mediate. Let’s just say it’s a “work in progress.” While sitting in the cab of the combine in the sunshine and focused on the task of picking up the canola for row after row after row I could see how it could do one of two things.

#1. Drive you stark raving mad with frustration as you had nothing to do but think about something that was driving you crazy.

or

#2. Give you the ability to shut off your conscious mind and just let your sub conscious hash it out while you focused on the task at hand.

I also thought it would be a great time to crank up the tunes and sing along at top volume, like in the shower, but without anyone pounding on the bathroom door.

Here is what it looked like from inside the cab!

What a great day! I can now drive a car both standard and automatic, a motorcycle, an excavator and a COMBINE!

A quick note, I will be back at the Bow Bench Retreat to do a workshop on social media!

Click HERE for more information.