Things have been a bit hectic here this past week. The tobacco crop is very dependent on the weather. The curing is finished, and has been for just less than a month, but the really dry fall weather hasn't brought it into proper case. Case is the term used for the amount of moisture in the leaf. When the leaves are pliable enough to be handled without breaking, but not so wet as to mold when pressed into a bale, they are said to be "in case". I had a few days of rain coupled with warm weather and I had to strike while the iron was hot. I wasn't able to hire much help and so it's just me and an itinerant farm hand who had been helping some neighbors doing a job that typically require four people. The tobacco leaves are removed from the stalk in placed in a large box to form a bale. The leaves have to be graded according to color and position on the stalk and baled accordingly, so as you might imagine, it is a long tedious job. I get super sore standing in one spot doing this. The stalks are carried out to the manure spreader and spread over my pasture when the spreader is full. They make a great fertilize, but can't be spread back on the field from which they came for fear of disease. On top of that, we are in middle of our annual meat distribution, and so far so good. Today is the last day for that. And, to top things off, yesterday , I bought a new blue heeler puppy and am about to initiate stock dog training.( I'm a glutton for punishment). The cold weather has taken the tobacco out of case and bought me a little free time, but getting up twice to take the puppy out is taking a bite out of my sleep cycle! Half the crop is now stripped and should be ready long before the sale date.