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Saturday, November 20, 2010

Winter days where it rains and i do nothing only it is not winter yet...

I'm not sure where the day went wrong. It started good. I kind of overslept but why lovely wife made me a sausage and egg muffin thing and brought me a steaming hot cup of coffee.
But suddenly it was time to go to work. My daughter was trying to find her lunch and her glasses and her sweater and catch her ride to school and I was turning off lights in the house.
Perhaps it was when I discovered the little green puddle underneath the White 2-135. I had just repaired the lower radiator hose. A surprisingly difficult task in my opinion, which took me most of yesterday to accomplish.
It took me a good 45 minutes to manage to reseal the leaking hose and then it started pouring.
I was just getting ready to repair the fertilizer fill hose on the drill, but I decided to put a set of shelves together instead. It was a little annoying to discover I put two of the shelfs in upside down, but I often do things like that.
Of course then it was coffee time and I was debating about walking over to the store when neighbors started showing up. One of them came out to the shop and started chatting. I started picking up tools and sorting bolts. I did need to get that all done.
He was just getting ready to leave when a seed company representative showed up. Out of seven seed tests six of them had the name of the seed listed incorrectly and had to be changed. He said he had quite a few problems like that from this particular seed cleaning company. The tests were not all that good and just looking at them made me tense all over again.
By now it was lunch time and the neighbor doesn't like to buy lunch so he left. I was going to fix myself a sandwich but a friend showed up and asked me to got to the cafe with him.
I had the country scramble for $7.50. It settled into my stomach in a leaden blob of thick gravy and greasy potatoes and eggs. It stayed there all afternoon.
By this time the rain had settled into a steady downpour.
We decided to check the pump in the river. We have to leave it in late to fill the duck ponds. There I discovered that there was no safety rope holding the foot valve to the bank. Just a chain holding it to the pump. The current was pulling the elbow off the pump.
I went back to find a tractor, but by then it was coffee time again. I was just enjoying my Pepsi when dad announced that AppleWorks was too small and he couldn't type.
Somehow he had managed to set the word processing startup to a page four inches wide with 36 point typeface.
That took me a good hour to straighten out.
I finally got down to the pump. The elderly duck hunter had left a tank trailer in front of the pump which I had to move with my pickup. I figured I had only one shot up the hill and so I floored it. I didn't make it. Of course it is pouring down rain this whole time.
I went to find a tractor.
The 2-155 has power shift problems. The 2-135 is hooked to the drill. The 1964 M670 had a dead battery. The Super had a sprayer on it. The Vista has a flat tire the Jet Star wouldn't start, the M-5 wouldn't start and by then it was almost dark. I took a chain and a couple come-alongs back down and chained the foot valve to a tree.
Then I went back up to finish up the 2-135 so I can use it tomorrow to pull the pump out. I had ordered a radio antenna so I could install a radio in the tractor when I had a free moment. It was the wrong radio antenna.
I found an old one with a broken wire and resoldered the wire. Then I discovered the new speakers only came with a foot of wire.
I just gave up and went home.
What did I do today?
Nothing...

5 comments:

  1. No, Budd, you didn't "do nothing." You worked quite hard at exercises in futility. In fact, you earned yet another cap that says, "I'm a farmer; I just don't know why!"

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  2. There are those who get things done. I don't fit into that category.

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  3. Budde, I had to check both funny and interesting tags on this post. Not that I am laughing at your misfortune, I've had days where things go wrong too, maybe just not that many all at once.
    No doubt about it being winter here. -20F and knee deep snow. Any plans for using a tractor involve a few hours of pre-heating with the block heater. Just trying to work up the ambition to install the snowblower now.

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  4. Yesterday was windy, cold, and misty. All it lacked to look right was 4 or 5 inches of slush on the ground, because that's what it felt like.
    I thought of giving you a call & suggesting that you stay away from anything with wheels or that involve putting on a pair of boots, but I didn't, and you didn't, and ............
    By the way, I went through the exact same thing with my Dad.

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  5. I am remembering why I don't want to be a farmer.

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