City Girl Pt. 12

A/N: Happy Thanksgiving for those of you that celebrate it. I also am happy I was able to get this part done this quickly. Maybe I'll have Part 13 up by the new year? (emphasis on "maybe") Regardless, I know this chapter didn't have as much "heat" in it as the last one but rest assured that it is coming.

Anyway, that's about all I have to say, on to the story!

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Chase sat at the test bench as he prepared to calibrate the injection pump for his 4255. He was nearly done the engine rebuild he'd been working on for the past month or so. It had taken him longer than he'd have liked but between his shoulder acting up sporadically, having to send both the block and crank out to be worked on, and other random projects he'd found himself having to deal with, he was gonna have to deal with it. Regardless, he'd gotten some small projects done and was nearly done rebuilding the engine in his 4255. Now however, he was back to work and didn't have as much time to be working on his own equipment. That being the case, he was back to making money, which he supposed outweighed the time issue.

As he prepared to do his first test run, he heard the door to the fuel pump room open behind him. "Hey Meier," his boss called as he entered, "I'm getting ready to head out, just remember the door's gonna be locked when you leave."

"Yes sir." He replied. "I'll see you Monday." This had been his first week back on the job, and his shoulder had held up pretty well for him. His doctor didn't want him working any more than 40 hours a week, nor did he want him doing any lifting over 30 pounds.

"Got any plans this weekend?" Jason asked, still at the door.

"I'm kinda hoping I can take advantage of this warm snap and get some fieldwork done." He replied.

"Getting in the fields before we snowed on again eh?" Came the response.

"Pretty much." Chase replied. "It won't hurt anything to get some moisture and some freeze-thaw action going on."

"Alright well take it easy and I'll see you Monday." Jason said before leaving the room.

"Yes sir." Chase replied as the door closed. He proceeded to set up his first test run and began the reading. After taking all his readings, he decided to correct the barrel for cylinder one, which was a little bit on the light side, and number five which was pretty heavy. He took a second round of readings and found that number five was still high and that number three could have been a touch higher. He ended up doing about four or five runs before he was happy with the calibration of the pump. He proceeded to remove the pump from the test bench and clean up the tools and manual he had out.

After cleaning up after himself, he grabbed his pump, locked his toolbox, and turned the lights off before heading out to his truck. It was about 5:00, so he decided to head for the dealership he was renting a subsoiler from and pick it up for the weekend.

He called the sales rep he'd talked to about renting it to let him know he was on his way, and he headed to pick it up.

A mechanic at the dealership who was still working in the shop helped load the subsoiler on to the bed of his truck. He thanked the mechanic for his help and threw a ratchet strap over the implement to hold it in place for the drive home.

The rest of the drive home was largely uneventful, that was until his phone rang. He looked over to where it was sitting to find that it was Sarah. He turned down the radio and answered the call.

"Hello?" He said as he picked up the call.

"Hey Chase." Sarah responded. "Are you not home yet?"

"Not yet, I'm on my way home from the dealership. Why do you ask?"

"Oh ok. I've been hearing your truck go by before five this week; I was just wanting to make sure nothing happened to you."

Chase smiled, it was kinda nice to have someone checking in on him once in a while. "Yeah I'm fine." He assured her. "I'll be home with the subsoiler in about ten minutes."

"Ok. Do you need help getting it unloaded?"

"Honestly, I probably won't mess with it 'till tomorrow morning. I'm gonna try to get everything ripped this weekend."

"Oh, ok. Are you gonna need help?"

"Not really, but if you want a tractor ride, be my guest."

"Now that's an offer I won't refuse." Sarah's joy was evident in her voice. Chase couldn't help but smile because of it.

"Well, let me know tomorrow when you want to come over." He told her.

"Oh don't worry, I'll be sure to." She replied.

"I'm sure you will." He replied with a grin.

"Well, I'll let you focus on the road. I love you and I'll see you tomorrow."

Chase found himself frozen after hearing that. Something about the phrase "I love you" struck him. Probably because he hadn't ever really heard it before from someone who wasn't family. Whatever, the reason was, he realized that he was just holding the phone like an idiot and not responding.

"Are you there?" Sarah asked, snapping him out of the trance he was in.

"Yeah, sorry." He replied. "I love you too Sarah and I'll see you tomorrow."

"Ok, bye Chase."

As he ended the call and set his phone down, he couldn't help but think about how that conversation had ended. It was an odd feeling hearing "I love you" for the first time. Somehow, it felt weirder than what had happened the month before on their date night.

The rest of his trip home was uneventful. When he arrived, he parked his truck near his equipment shed and removed the ratchet strap from the subsoiler.

"Y'know," he thought to himself, "I really should just unload this thing now so I can just hook up and go tomorrow." He decided to do so and headed around the building and went inside to open the doors behind where his 2755 and 4650 were sitting.

His 2755 struggled to start, probably because it had sat for a while. He knew it was a matter of time before the engine would give up on him. The good news for him was that he wouldn't need it much longer, at least until he was going to fill silo. For the time being, getting a functioning grain drill and planter was of more importance.

Of course, before that he had to get his fields ripped. After getting the tractor started, he backed it outside and revved the engine up a bit while he went to the shop for a chain.

He found a half-inch log chain wrapped up on the floor. He grabbed the loops and heaved the chain up over his shoulder. As he did he felt, and heard, an audible "pop" in his injured shoulder. It was followed by a rush of warm in the same shoulder.

"There went some scar tissue..." He thought out loud as he carried the chain out to where the tractor was and threw it into the loader bucket.

"If only I had a set of pallet forks..." he thought to himself as he climbed into the tractor. That was going to have to wait, he had bigger fish to fry before that. He positioned the loader above the subsoiler and then got out and climbed onto his truck bed. He didn't quite have enough chain to hoist it from three points so he elected to lift it from opposite corners of the frame, hoping the center of gravity would be close enough to the middle of where he was lifting to keep the implement from slewing when he lifted it.

After rigging the implement up to his satisfaction, he imbed off his truck and back in his 2755 and slowly raised the loader. The slack pulled out of the chains and the subsoiler raised up into the air. He slowly backed up just far enough that he could set it down and did so as smoothly as possible.

He breathed a sigh of relief and got out to unhook the chain and put it away.

"Actually," he thought to himself, "I'm gonna need this again once I get done ripping." He decided to just leave the chain in the bucket and park the 2755 outside. It wasn't supposed to rain and he had to get the 4650 out tomorrow anyway.

With the subsoiler unloaded and the tractor shut down, he plugged the 4650 in, closed the shed doors, and pulled his truck into the garage. It was now almost dark and he decided it would be wise to pack himself a lunch for tomorrow so he wouldn't have to stop working.

He went inside and took a shower. As he started to put on the shirt and shorts he slept in, he noticed that his shoulder was a tiny bit swollen, but it wasn't hurting him at all. He also took that opportunity to look closer at the scar spreading across his back from his surgery.

It still appeared to be just as big as it had been when they took out the stitches. He shouldn't have been surprised, those cuts probably went into the muscle. Part of him dreaded the day Sarah actually got a decent look at them. To him they felt like a stern reminder of his incompetence that day. Hell, if it hadn't been for Sarah's insistence that he went to the hospital, he might not have lived to tell the tale.

He focused himself and put on his shirt before heading to the kitchen to prepare his supper and a lunch for the next day. He went with something simple, not that he ever went overboard on cooking for himself. He grabbed two jars of canned green beans from the cellar as well as some potatoes from the fridge. He also grabbed one of the packages of ground beef he'd thawed out earlier that week. He also grabbed a can of gravy from the cupboard. He put the beef in a skillet and chopped it up, then he turned the heat on to start browning the meat.

With the meat started, he turned his attention to the potatoes. He poked them with a knife all over and put them in the microwave and started it. He returned to the beef and stirred it a bit before setting some butter out to soften.

He made sure to make more than he would eat tonight so he could put some in his lunch for the next day. With the meat browned, he turned the heat down and added the gravy. Not long after that, the potatoes were done and he took them out of the microwave to stand before putting the beans in a bowl and warming them up. Halfway through, he added some butter along with some salt and pepper.

When everything was done, he ate his fill for the night and wrapped the rest in some foil so he would be able to warm it up on the tractor the next day. After putting all his dishes in the sink, he brushed his teeth and went to bed for the night.

The next morning when he woke up, he checked the forecast for the weekend to make sure nothing had changed. It was supposed to start getting colder the next day, and the snow was supposed to come the night after the next, but that wasn't likely to be enough to cause him any issues. It was now or never for him.

He got dressed for the day, packed his leftovers from the night before along with some apples and a granola bar. He also packed a Gatorade and a bottle of water.

With his lunchbox in hand, he headed out to the shed, opened the doors and climbed in his 4650. To his delight, the block heater worked well enough for the rebuilt engine to fire up first time. He revved the engine up to about 1200rpm to speed the warmup. He knew it was bad to let a rebuilt engine idle for a long time. He climbed back out and unplugged the block heater.

After climbing back in the tractor, he backed the machine outside to the subsoiler. He carefully lined the hooks on the quick-hitch up with the corresponding pins on the subsoiler. Once in position, he raised the 3-point hitch on the tractor and the subsoiler clicked into place. He flipped on the hazard lights and headed to the 90 tilled acres he owned.

Upon pulling into the field, he turned off the hazard lights and climbed out of the tractor. He left the engine revved up to warm up a bit more as he checked the ground condition. He used a screwdriver from the toolbox to dig around and make sure the ground was dry enough.

Finding that the ground was fit for at least the first ten inches. He double checked that the machine looked to be set at about eleven inches to a foot, just deep enough to get through the hard pan. By that time, it was just barely light enough for him to see all the way to the horizon.

Satisfied with the ground conditions, the setting of the subsoiler, and the increasing lighting, he put the screwdriver away and climbed back in the tractor to check the engine temperature. Finding it within operating range, he lined the machine up with one of the field's edges, put the tractor in A-4, revved the engine up to 2200rpm, set the subsoiler down, and started pulling ahead. He watched the subsoiler as it sank into the ground. He heard the engine bog down and felt the weight shift to the rear right before the depth wheels on the subsoiler hit the ground. He turned his focus to the front and lined the hood ornament up with a tile pipe sticking into the tile ditch between his ground and the neighbors.

As he crawled his way across the 3/8 of a mile stretch, he made sure to keep one eye on the gauges to monitor the engines condition. The worst time to have an overheat or lose oil pressure was during the break in.

When he got to the other end, he knew he wasn't going to be able to get all the way to the edge so he lifted the subsoiler far enough back to leave himself room to turn, and still close enough to be within two passes of the edge. He turned and positioned himself for his next side of the field. This time he didn't have an easy mark to line up with. However, in the improving daylight, he could make out the trees on the horizon and picked one out to use as his marker.

The second pass seemed to not work the tractor quite as hard. He figured it was probably because the side he started on was the side where the ends of the rows were so it was more compacted. That edge was also right along the road so it probably was where everything pulled in and out of the field.

After finishing the second and third edges of the field, he decided to try the next pass in B-2, which was the next fastest gear. The engine bogged down harder, to about 1750rpm. He knew he was giving the engine its workout now.

By the time he got back to where he started, it was past sunrise and he could examine his first pass. "Damn!" He thought out loud as he marveled at the nearly straight set of shank marks. "Who needs autosteer?" He bragged to himself.

For the rest of the morning he continued working at the outside rounds of his field. The first passes were the most crucial because they're the ones that every other pass is based on. He made four rounds before he headed to the side opposite the road and started ripping north to south.

After completing his first few rounds, he got his lunch out of his lunchbox and found a couple secure places next to the engine block to warm it back up. He set the potato and gravy on top of the oil filter resting against the engine block. He then laid the beans between the injection pump and the engine block. While he was out, he decided to take a moment to get out and give the tractor a look over to make sure everything still looked good. The only thing he found was a slight hydraulic leak from the manifold for the SCV valves. It wasn't particularly severe, plus by the looks of things it was either a bad O-ring or a fitting that needed thread sealant. Either way, it was a cheap and easy fix. After climbing back in the cab, he gave the gauges a quick check. The engine had cooled off while he was out snooping around, but it was still plenty warm. He decided to go back to A-4 for a few passes to give the engine a bit of a break.

He'd made a few more rounds before his phone rang. He looked to find that it was Sarah.

"Hello?" He said as he picked up the phone.

"Hey Chase." Sarah replied. "Do you need me to bring you lunch?"

"No, I made extra for supper last night and I brought the leftovers with me today for lunch."

"Ok. Is it alright with you if I come join you?"

"Sure is. But you should probably eat lunch first."

"I was getting ready to make lunch when I thought to call you. I'll eat and then I'll just walk down there."

"Sounds like a plan, I'll see you when you get here and you can leave whenever."

"I was kinda planning on staying till you finished, then you could drop me off when you went by my house."

"Well..."

"What?"

"I'm not gonna get this done today so unless you're planning on staying the night, you'll end up going home."

"You say that like I would ever turn down a chance to share a bed with you."

Chase laughed. "Well after what happened last time, I wasn't too sure about that." He teased.

"Oh trust me, there was nothing bad about last time."

"It sure didn't seem that way."

"Yeah... Sorry, my anatomy got the best of me and I was caught off guard."

"Wait, are you saying you... umm..."

"'Got off?' Yes... It was unexpected and kind of embarrassing. But according to my mom, it happens sometimes and its nothing bad."

"Well, this conversation got very serious all of a sudden didn't it?"

"Yeah it did... Sorry about that."

"It's ok. I'd honestly been curious about what had happened but didn't want to embarrass you again."

"Well, now you know. I'll see you when I get done eating."

"Sure thing, and feel free to stay the night if you want."

"Alrighty, I'll let you focus on what you're doing. I'll see you in about an hour."

"Alright, see you then."

Sarah hung up and Chase was again alone in the cab. Subsoiling truly was a monotonous job, but it was something he knew needed done for the sake of his ground. It would surely help the compaction issues along with the flooding he'd noticed in the fall.

"Speaking of flooding..." He thought to himself as he realized he was nearing that very wet spot he'd seen the year before. He hoped that he'd be able to make it through without getting stuck. "I should be able to get through that," he thought, "there's a plow pan there, I probably won't even sink a foot. It'll just be hard as hell to pull through."

It wasn't long after that that he noticed someone walking into the field from the road. He assumed it was Sarah and continued his work.

By the time he'd made it to that end of the field, she was almost to him. He parked the tractor for a moment and got out to retrieve his lunch.

"What are you doing?" Sarah asked as she walked around to the right side of the tractor.

"Getting my lunch." Chase answered as he grabbed the packets that his lunch was in.

"Why would you put your lunch on the engine?" She asked.

"I've gotta warm it up somehow." He replied.

Sarah gave him a stunned look. "And that's still safe to eat?" She asked.

"So long as nothing's leaked onto it." He said. "It's just heat."

"I suppose..." Sarah clearly still had her reservations but it wasn't like she was the one eating it. Chase led her around to the steps and the two of them climbed up into the cab.

Chase started eating as he started on his next pass. He was glad to find that the food had been out there long enough to be warm all the way through.

"Ok that smells pretty good." Sarah commented.

"Good enough to make you wanna eat it after it's sat on an engine?" He teased.

"Almost." She replied with a chuckle.

"Well too bad." He joked. "I'm hungry."

Sarah laughed.

By the time he'd reached the end of his next pass, he'd finished his lunch. He also was on his first pass that would take him through the wet spot.

"Alright." He thought out loud. "Let's see if you've got what it takes old girl." He lowered the subsoiler and started the pass. As he neared the wet spot, he heard the engine start to bog down more than usual. He reacted by slapping from A-4 to A-3. The "slap-shift" or "partial power-shift" was probably one of his favorite transmissions to run. Maybe it was the bit of skill it took to nail the shift from the low to high gears within a range, or maybe it was the ability to have two gears to shift without clutching that made it useful in situations like this. Whatever the reason, he'd developed a bit of a love affair with the design and had practiced it to perfection. He knew just how much to move the throttle to shift gears, he could even shift from 1 to 2 or 3 to 4 without the associated jerk by moving the throttle and slapping the shift lever at the same time.