Strategery At Its Best

Please tell me what this ridiculous picture looks like to you... Clueless? Yeah, that's ok.

This would be the genius work of my brother Matthew. Matthew, Cupcake, Lonnie (another pilot from Bullocks) and I all went out to lunch at Traylor's today and this beautiful masterpiece was created.

What you're looking at here is a rice field northwest of Lodges Corner with power lines and a well. The bundled silverware is the outline of the field, the handle of the fork and knife are the power lines, and where the fork and the knife meet... That's the well. Duh.

Now maps and knowing exactly where a field is are very important in our business. We want to be very certain we put the exact requested concoction on the exact field we were told AND make sure the mixture doesn't disturb anything else around it...

My dear brother uses all kinds of props, devices, colored pens, and stories to describe certain fields... However, he comes by it honestly. My papa would always use elaborate stories when trying to describe a field. My favorite was when he was describing a field to Pookie once. "Oh ya know where Miss So & So used to live? It's that field right north of the barn west of her house. " Pookie: " I don't know Miss So & So but I think I know where that house is your talking about. I sure don't remember seeing anything that looks like a barn though" Papa: "Oh, well hell, that old barn burned down years ago!" Hahaha

Rather than telling stories, my father would draw a map on anything and everything. The first object he saw while talking about a field would become marked. (ha, "mark"ed) Magazines, books, pieces of mail, spare cardboard, the back of order cards, chip bags, newspapers, and yes, even the desk did not escape the illustrations of my father. He was very adamant about doing the very best job possible and this included knowing EXACTLY where and what he was going to fly.

Fortunately now, thanks to modern technology, satellites, GPS, and all kinds of other handy gadgets, we can easily pull up maps on the computer and print them out with the touch of a button. Or, trusty field scouts can bring us handy folders with maps of all the farmers farms and fields. Both of these methods are 100% fool-proof and are probably preferred in most instances; however, it's still sometimes fun to go old school by breaking out the silverware and creating a field a from scratch... The patrons in Traylor's certainly thought it was entertaining!

*Side Note* Yes, Mother, I know "strategery" is not a real word. It's from an old Saturday Night Live skit making fun of George W. Bush in 2000. For real, google it.