Safety First

Farming has always been a dangerous occupation. I Googled this to try and get examples as to why and I started to feel a little sick to my stomach. I'm just going to close that browser and talk about some more personal examples...

In the 10 years I've lived on the farm I've seen Vachel make a lot of changes focused towards safety. Probably the biggest move he made was making safety a core value and makes sure people actually follow the safety rules, it's not just words on paper. They deal with cattle over 1,200 pounds, heavy machinery, working in all kinds of weather and late into the night. Things happen. So here are some of the things they do:

John wearing his back brace last summer

• Everyone on the farm attends annual safety town halls where they go through a concentrated understanding of the farm and evaluate or upgrade safety equipment. Last year they discussed the fertilizer anhydrous amonia tanks, and how you can die if that is inhaled. This year it's grain bins.
• The farm provides everyone OSHA rated steel toed boots, safety glasses, ear protection, back support, etc. 
• All employees and custom hires must have emergency forms on file next to the first aid kit.
• Emergency numbers are posted and visible. Want to know how important this is? One night about 7 years ago I came home from work to find Vachel waiting for me. We had to talk. He had accidentally ingested a microscopic amount of cattle antibiotic that often kills humans, and there's no cure. As soon as he realized it he immediately called the emergency number and they called him at set times throughout the night to see how he was doing. Not that calling him would have been any help if he had ingested enough to matter...and we don't use that antibiotic anymore either.
• In hot weather everyone takes water breaks, and Gatorade and Popsicles are always available to prevent heat exhaustion.
• Equipment is powered down and keys removed with all safety locks in place when servicing.
• Fire extinguishers everywhere, and in all tractors. Last year a baler caught fire, this year the skid steer caught fire. Extinguishers were needed.
• Hire only licensed electricians (remember, this is an industry where a lot of people know enough to get by on any number of manual-labor type things). This actually saved some cattle from being electrocuted when a wire shortened a blew a secondary fuse.
• Amber lights on top of any equipment with reflective slow moving signs when hauling or moving equipment down busy highways.

Okay, when I asked for Vachel of some of the things they use for safety the list he sent me was a lot longer. There were probably 30 points bulleted out. But seriously, I have a point to this bigger than what he does on the farm. I mean, I want everyone to be safe and I could share some stories that include me trying to clean out horrific wounds and almost passing out, or the amount of time I've spent sitting in hospital rooms (and strangely my  mom as well, even though her only relation to the farm is me), but let's get to my main point.

I have three very important people that CAN NOT be harmed by people on the farm not paying attention. My two daughters and my nephew. Anyone responsible for harming one of these three would most likely not survive the confrontation. More than a farm site, this is my home. I have tractors and semi's full of cattle that use my driveway, the same driveway my daughter and nephew ride their bikes and the battery-powered gator. That's in addition to people just driving on it. We have a swingset in my backyard that they play on and their "forest," which is our tree grove between the house and the commodity shed. They need to be safe while outside. It's not like they're ever outside without an adult, but being there isn't always enough.

Vachel came up with a genius idea. GENIUS. We went to Menards and bought some tall traffic cones, which we keep in the back of the gator. So when we go outside to play the first thing we do is "drive" the cones to either end of the driveway. This blocks people from using the driveway and alerts everyone to the fact the kids are outside playing.

At some point the kids are going to get hurt while playing outside. They'll fall on the gravel and skin their hands/knees. They'll fall while climbing a tree. Normal things that happen to kids. I can't control those types of accidents. But in order to allow them the type of freedom they need to just be kids, we had to find some way to control the environment around them to make it as safe as possible. And hopefully this can be solved for with something as simple as traffic cones.

Older kids moving the cones

Driving the gator to the swing set