Some People Have Weird Hobbies

Plowing the paddock is a tedious job, but you need to pay lots of attention because if you get distracted, the furrows end up not being straight — which is why dad made me do the plowing when he couldn’t, and why this particular incident was so funny at the time.

I was in the last paddock. There was a little gap between the fence lines and then my neighbour’s paddocks. The gap in the fence line was just big enough for a vehicle, and it is intended to allow firetrucks through. Even farmers use these tracks carefully and sparingly because of how rough they are.

As I watched, a tiny city car with an out-of-state number plate and shiny, dust-free paint job came up the track, slowly and carefully weaving through the bumps and rocks and trees.

I thought for sure they were lost. Every so often, you get someone who thinks their map has told them to turn on the track; it usually ends with a flat tire at best and an overturned car at worst.

Just as I was beginning to scorn them in my head for not getting the hint and realising how wrong they were for mindlessly following instructions, the car stopped and a nicely-dressed lady stepped out.

Instead of me being asked for directions and getting to be their hero in flannel, the lady gave my tractor a vague wave, opened the boot of her car… and pulled out a shovel.

As I watched, she very carefully picked her way through the already growing crop in my neighbour’s paddock and promptly dug an entire young thistle plant out of the ground. As I watched, she took it back to the track and attacked it viciously with her shovel until there was nothing left.

With the noxious weed dealt with before it could flower, she put her shovel away, gave me another wave, and merrily toddled her car back down the hill the way she’d come.

I’ve no idea who she was, and neither did our neighbours. Best we can figure, she was just traveling for work or holiday, saw a bad weed, and decided to deal with it herself.

She’s welcome to come and visit my paddock next time if she likes.