Working On A Farm

The Boss asked me to clear out a pit of peas where the water had gotten in and made them rotten. So, shovel in hand, I headed to the pit and dug in. I broke the crust and came up with a shovel full of rotten peas and........maggots. Billions upon billions of maggots.

It wasn't the maggots that dropped me to my knees - I'm an angler and actually like maggots. It was the smell. The stench. The over-powering effluvium of rotting death.

I bowked, I hurled, I threw up everything I had eaten for the last ten years. And I was still crawling along the ground, nose streaming, tears pouring down my face until I could get out of this cloud of Satan.

Eventually I recovered enough to tell the Boss that there wasn't a chance in hell of me completing that task.

"Fuck it" says the Boss. "Check will sort it. You go clean out the seed silos"

Check was what the Boss called the Czechoslovakian farm worker. He was coming up to 70 but could out-work me. Out-eat me, out-drink me and, very probably outlive me. He was, originally, a prisoner of war who been allocated to the farm during WWII. After the war, he stayed on. Interesting bloke.

Check did get in the pit and clear it with a shovel.

That night, in the pub, I asked how the shuddering fuck he done it without losing his lunch.

" I chose not to smell - you chose to smell it. You can shut down most of your senses if you have need enough. That? That was just a little job. Try shutting down your eyes. To live. I did that during the war."

Zen from a Czech.

Cheers
( Legless Mister Stabby - shanks for the memory, Thu 2 Feb 2012, 14:48, 3 replies)

Nice one there Mr L.

( The Mock Turtle ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Thu 2 Feb 2012, 15:15, closed)

Heh,
true too. One learns to switch off the nose and work on through the stench.
Death pits used to be the norm on UK livestock farms, just huge holes filled with rotting carcasses and with a scent that was almost visible.
We had concrete pits on one place, I once persuaded a guy to go down into the hellhole to retrieve the lid the clumsy fucker had dropped in there.
I remember telling him to hurry as the ladder was sinking....
( Infidel , shit and wrong, Thu 2 Feb 2012, 18:01, closed)

Click
For "a scent that was almost visible".
(mmm savoury snacks, Thu 2 Feb 2012, 18:52, closed)