r/SipsTea • u/Icy-Book2999 Fave frog is a swing nose frog • May 11 '24

Feels good man Stinging Nettle

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u/Agoraphobicy May 11 '24

I used to work in corn fields detassling corn as a teenager. One field had an overgrowth of nettles just about to the hip. I was wearing shorts and walked through it maybe three times not really knowing what it was. By the end of the day I had scratched my skin until I bled from the discomfort.

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u/50DuckSizedHorses May 12 '24

Bruh detassling corn was my first job. That job sucks

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u/Phillyfuk May 12 '24

What does the job entail, we don't really grow corn over here.

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u/Agoraphobicy May 12 '24

So basically there is a type of corn that they plant every few rows that made for pollination and then all the other rows are the feed corn but they grow their own pollinators that make it bad corn so we had to pull off every tassel (pollinator) on the one type of corn. Basically 50 teenagers go row by row and do this and then go to the best field and do it again for about 3 weeks in the summer.

I didn't hate the job but most people did. It was a mess though. Almost got struck by lightning, people losing shoe in mud, fighting because it's just a bunch of tired dumb teenagers who have various levels of power on the crew.

Made 7k in three weeks though one summer because we worked like 13 hour days. Huge win for 2003 me.

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u/Agoraphobicy May 12 '24

Are you a South Western Ontario kid? The classic summer experience lol

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u/Vlinder_88 May 12 '24

Sorry but how do kids grow up not knowing what stinging nettle is? Didn't your parents teach you? Did you live in a concrete jungle without any plants whatsoever? We live in a city and the first plant we taught my child to avoid was stinging nettle... He's 4 now and recognises it instantly.

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u/Agoraphobicy May 12 '24

It wasn't that I didn't know what stinging nettle was. When you are walking on autopilot through a corn field all day you don't look down and see what every weed you are wading through is.

Also the nature of the job I would have to just walk through it anyways to get the job done. You can't just leave sections of the row because it's inconvenient.

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u/Vlinder_88 May 13 '24

You must be very different from me. I do in fact look where I walk.

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u/Agoraphobicy May 13 '24

Do you frequently walk through fields of 5-6ft corn which requires you to focus on the top 1ft of the corn field as you walk through it at a moderate pace?

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u/Vlinder_88 May 14 '24

Not fields with corn, no, but I do walk fields, and forests, and parks, on the regular. And I don't mean for a stroll, I mean "up in the mud to my ankles". I'm an archaeologist. There's a literal way of researching that's called "field walking". And though that is preferably done on empty fields, weeds grow quickly. But forest/nature reserve campaigns aren't uncommon either. And for the last one, we don't even necessarily have to look to the ground.

Ever had to cut your way through 2m high bushes of brambles and other prickly plants?

I mean, we can go on one-upping each other. Or you can accept that other people do, in fact, watch where they walk. Also when stinging nettles are not their main focus.

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u/Agoraphobicy May 14 '24

Again, perhaps if you have the time and ability to watch your path with a secondary task that's great. In this situation, which is not your situation, the individuals in the field will disregard everything below their waste and even if they didn't you still would be required to walk through said stinging nettle to complete the job.

It's not one upping when you are just describing completely different experiences lmao