I miss my son

[dairy mom]

have a little problem going on here.  Feeder wagon we use to take TMR to the heifers on another farm about 5 miles away broke down on the road Tuesday evening.  Rear wheels came off.  Wednesday they spent the afternoon pitching the feed off emptying it.  Cops were here yesterday saying the road commission had tagged it and we have 48 hours to get it off the side of the road.  Didn't do it yesterday because of the yucky weather and slippery roads.  Hubby's great plan is to pull it with the truck, lift the rear end (that has no wheels) with the skid steer, try to keep the truck slow enough that the skid steer could keep up and take it up to that farm where it can be repaired.  Scary scary, I really don't want to try that.

So today I get hold of my son that used to work here, to tell him about the little town they use to live by flooding and having some people evacuated.  In the conversation, of course what's going on around here comes up and I tell him about the stupid wagon.  He says get hold of the junk man who has a tilting flat bed truck with a wench to try and get the stupid wagon.  I had been trying and trying to figure out who had such a truck but didn't know .  Never thought of the junk man because I was never involved when he hauled other stuff away.

Hubby balks at the idea at first but finally gave in and called the junkman and now he'll be coming in a little while.  Hopefully it'll work and be much safer than trying to pull it with a truck and follow with a skid steer.

[Ruby Lou]

Sometimes it takes someone on the outside looking in to find the solution.  Sometimes, I will suggest  a solution that sounds so much easier to me and my DH can't seem to comprehend it.  I truly beleive man and woman brains function differantly!!!  My son doesn't spend alot of time at home anymore either.  when he is here, he sits on his computer.  wish he and his dad would get out in the shop again and work on the tractors.  I know DS works on tractors part of the day at school and then engines and transmissions at work.  Life is pretty slow at our house right now with the wet weather.

[Kay/NC]

Thank goodness you had a chance to talk with your very smart son, before you folks tried that other recipe for disaster. Once a weight is suspended, it can take on a mind of its own.

It is true that an outsider can sometimes think outside your box, but it helps if they know the resources the farm has, the community has, and so forth. Then, their suggestions tend to be more on target.

[Kay/NC]

The different ways we think have probably been our biggest source of strife in our many years of married life. I don't know why it is so hard to see the other's idea some days.

I do pretty well, unless Mike starts telling me how I want something done, before I can even finish explaining what it is I want to do. When I get to the end of my sentence, okay...not before then.

Occasionally, I will ask him if it is really more important to do something his way than it is to make me happy. i have to remember the same point, when it's his turn to ask for help.

He showed up with the hired man about 1:30 today, ready to start moving furniture, loading some stuff to take to Va, etc. Winn had not been gone ten minutes, on his way out to late lunch with his parents. I was starving, running near empty on a half-banana breakfast.

He was pushing me too hard and fast...I told him I had to finish my bowl of rice, then got them moving. Hekept pushing me a bit too fast. I got ready to meltdown at one point, and thought " make them clean the pool deck", so they got all the leaves swept and bagged, while I got the rest of the porch pressure washed.

Buying myself that 15-20 minutes gave my brain a chance to absorb some nutrients, and re-set. We got into a good rhythm, and they were cleaning cushions while I scrubbed and hosed down porch furniture. I had them carrying out discards and bringing in the stuff we'd stashed on the trailer the other day, so it was really efficient They were really great about the work, and it was a good few hours after all.

We got everything but one item from the whole long list we made last week done. I just put the last flowerpot in the pickup truck for our trip tomorrow. Still need to vac and shampoo rugs upstairs, but I can do that without further assistance.

I get help again on Monday, to finish moving the pedestals under the washer and dryer...just no time to get that far today. Now, the pool deck is almost ready to be sealed, too.

It usually takes months to get done hat the guys have done in the past five days. I would love to think this is the way we can work together from now on.

[Roy_Smith]

Spoiler

You are fortunate you did not try to move the load with the skid loader. I saw a thirty year old farmer killed by trying to move a load with the front end loader on a tracter. The weight shifted slightly and the tractor rolled on top of the operator. Ugly!....Soyroy

[Kay/NC]

Roy, that is what I meant. Once a weight leaves the ground, the center of gravity rules its motion. Having a heavy implement acting essentially like a plumb bob is a recipe for disaster.