Good and Spiders

The farm is giving me a raise! *gasp*

I was a little shocked after that dream I had the other night, but I did manage to say thanks. Cool!

And here's a spider story from today:

Early this morning, I was asked to pick the full-sized tomatoes in the high tunnel. And while I've grown a little more comfortable with the enormous spiders (i.e. I know where they normally hang out now and can avoid 90% of them), the full-sized tomatoes are THE hangout spot for the most and the biggest of them.

Anyway, I arm myself with a long pole and head down spider alley. My instructions are to knock down the webs and pick tomatoes...simple, right? Well, I knock down the first web and the spider clings to the pole. I whack the pole on the ground to knock it off and the spider comes skittering towards me.

I step on it.

Crunch.

That feels good. Now I know that it won't just build another web tonight for someone else to break down in a couple days. More efficient, right?

I knock down the next web, whack the spider off the pole, and step on it *crunch*

And then another time *crunch*

And just as I'm poised to take down a fourth web, my junior boss comes up and says, "You aren't killing those spiders, are you? Those are beneficials."

"Uh. Um. Well, I...uh...I'm trying not to, but I am, yes. I won't anymore."

I felt only vaguely ashamed. Not very repentant. I continued through two more webs, sparing the owner's lives, and realized that a handful of unsellable tomatoes weren't worth all this effort (I had already picked most of the good tomatoes through the row, so this was only to catch the few I had missed). No one complained. Especially not the spiders.