No office jobs to speak of in ag

With every job, there is a location where you are bound to spend some notable portion of your time.

Some jobs are quite thoroughly bound to a spot that we call an office. So core is the location that we even go so far as to call them “office” jobs, defining the vocation by the location.

Well, there are very few jobs on the front lines of agriculture that you can even think about calling by the office.

I mean, yeah, you might spend an hour or two in the office of someone else while they load your trailer full of chemical or fix a set of flat tires while you wait. You spend a little time in your loan officer’s office or your accountant’s place. But even during tax season, there is no place that doesn’t move that you can say is your place of work that is smaller than a small state.

But to say there are no spaces that you spend most of your time would be an untruth. But unlike an office, where you go to a place to stay there for a time, these ag-offices are the place you are while you are going:

The pickup, the tractor cab, or, when you are being more of a rancher, maybe the back of a horse.

The saddle is perhaps the most austere of the mobile offices that you will find. It serves as its own decoration and cannot hold or collect a great deal of tools and trash.

The tractor is odd in that it is the cubicle of the lot with minimal space and less permanent occupation inclined. You have a cab that you can fill with tools, dirt, trash, books, tapes, odd weeds that you thought were interesting and, of course, odd rocks. You might have a ukulele or other small instrument to play with, and the snack stash, ice chest, glove collection, and hat rack.

Sometimes you get assigned a cab for months to yourself, and sometimes you have to share with the day shift and your brother and probably someone else.

But if anything is yours, full of your stuff, mostly stays the same, and is where you spend the majority of your time, it is your pickup.

That mobile HQ full of tools, parts, and cold beverages of your choice is the home away from home that follows you from one end of your space to the other and then to town for parts and back again.

Audra’s office is a bit rough, having been run into by some other offices a few times. Contact her at: [email protected]