Ain't as easy as it looks,,,

Today I planted corn.  Dad and I drove over to French's Hybrids and I bought 10 lbs of Incredible sweet corn.

Incredible SE (85 days) A truly gourmet sweet corn for home gardens, fresh market, roadside stands and shipping. Homozygous sugar enhancer gene renders superb eating. Ears are 9-1/2 inches long with 18 rows of yellow kernels with good husk protection and flag leaves

They also let me borrow planting plates to use on our 4-row planter.  Great!  Next step was to learn how to use the planter.  We got back to the farm, took the tarp off the planter, and went to school.  One of the ground-drive chains was broken and Jim had purchased a replacement so after some struggle we put on the new chain.  Next we thoroughly checked each seed hopper.  It was at this point I realized that two of the four hoppers were missing the metal wheel which rotates the planting plate.  No wheel, no functioning planter.  Our four row planter was now a two row planter.  Not to be deterred, the planter was hitched up, two hoppers filled with seed, and I made one pass down the field.  I climbed down the from tractor at the back tree line and walked up the field to checkout my handiwork.  The seeds were nicely laid out spaced six inches apart in two strait rows and glinting in the afternoon sun from atop the soil.  I had failed to adjust the seeder's planting depth.  After some adjustments I made two more passes and continually looked over my shoulder to make sure the seed was underground where it belonged.
That wasn't the worst part.  I then spent the better part of two hours hoeing the two 500' botched rows.
I have a healthy respect for the countless generations of farmers who have come before me.  And while there is value in possessing the knowledge and skills of manual labor farming, mechanization was such a wonderful invention it seems almost disrespectful to turn our backs on it.  If I learned one lesson today it was to work smarter, not harder.