Winter Work, Part 1

What did you do today? In the winter on the farm, days are filled differently than during the warm weather. The ground is frozen, wheat planted and up, all the field work finished until spring. Winter is when repairs and maintenance are done. Maybe. Hopefully, anyway. The sprayer and the tank trailer have been winterized and put away. The combines have been cleaned, and the headers removed. Everything that can be parked under a roof is; the shop is maze; a traffic jam of farm equipment that you have to sidestep through. My combine has been to the mechanic in town already; the cost being in the low five figures. And there is still a list of things that we have to fix on it ourselves. The cow chores involve breaking ice, and running water every day; and feeding a bale every other day. The cows would like to be fed everyday, but management hasn't agreed to this as of yet. 

Joel is busy remodeling his home. Gary decided to replace the floor in the stock trailer. The old trailer floor, which was the original floor from 1973, was completely rotten. It's a big job that involves grinders, a welder, clamps, pry bars, saws, multiple drills, and a quiver full of epithets and curse words. Farm repairs always require three things: Tools, know-how, and curse words. It is not unusual for us to mutter, when asked what we need to fix something, "Just bring me a bigger hammer and bucket full of wrenches, I already know all the damn words."

I had every intention of helping Gary when I was done with my wood stove installation, but he got it finished before I could make it over to help him. Maybe I will be able to help him rewire the lights and brakes. That would assuage my guilt a little bit.  And I would probably learn a thing or two, since Gary knows how to fix everything. And he knows all the words.

 

Comments

[TBoothby]

How is the wood stove, need to see a post on the install and feeding the fire.