Got off work last night and decided we’d mow the yard, I should be going over the smaller disc, greasing it and tightening the arbor bolts so if this mud hole we seem to be living in ever dries up I can start working ground, but I can’t forgo one more day of the soon to be Mrs. asking why the very large yard that we have which I wish she would allow me to let grow up or apply Round up too, isn’t being mowed. So we proceeded to get both mowers out and begin mowing ( we have 4 riding mowers that cut grass) Naturally I gassed up, checked the oil and put her on the best one while I began to get another ready. After putting some oil in it, because the oil filter has a pin hole in it and I’m to lazy to change it, I inflate the tires and it almost starts, but the battery goes dead. While the battery is charging I get my new Stihl string trimmer out and gas it up. Once the mower starts I’m off and going. I really like mowing yard because it’s easy, not much thinking required thus I’ve got quite a lot of time to think.
I started by thinking what it would be like if going to get parts for the mower was getting a set of new blades, because I didn’t have the skill to sharpen the old ones, and once I got home finding that I didn’t have the proper tools to change the blades so I would contact a buddy to help. I also thought what if when the mower didn’t start, I would call the Cub Cadet dealer and have them come pick it up and bring it back repaired, because I had no knowledge of a “safety switch” nor did I know anything about DC electrical circuits or that it takes 12v of continuity flowing through the switch to close the circuit and allow the mower to start.
Next I thought that what if after a hot steak and potato dinner I told the Mrs. that I had to go out in the field to work, which really meant that I had about 5 weeds to pull in our 200 sq ft garden because they have been bothering me and I have nothing to do. Rather than, if I’m lucky her bringing me a kind of warm sandwich while I’m working ground and trying to warm it up on the manifold and forgetting about it and burring it black but eating it anyhow because I’ve been bouncing in the seat for hours and I’m starved and if I push it I can be home and in bed before it’s time to get back up for work.
What if working late on my truck meant washing and waxing it along with checking the fluids but not understanding how to check the transmission fluid so assembling a group of buddies in the garage all trying to figure out that you have to drive it, then check the fluid level with the engine running in park rather than replacing a fuel pump into the wee hours of the morning because I didn’t want to ride my bike to work the next day, and finding that I also should have bought some oem fuel lines instead looking for every inch of 3/8 inch steel tubing a bender and every compression fitting I can find to patch up the line a 2 am so I wont’ have to ride me bike to work.
I also thought about welding and fabrication, what if spending all night welding something meant gluing a fine piece of china back together for the Mrs. that I knocked off the china cabinet ( that we don’t have) , by carefully putting all the pieces together and then “permanently welding” them with special china glue, instead it goes more like this, it’s evening something on the combine has broke. Laying on my back with the portable under the combine in a t-shirt because I don’t think to put on a long-sleeved because it’s getting late. Having your truck for light and what seems like nothing more than a candle underneath for light, because the only extension cord is being used for the angle grinder. There is slag everywhere and it’s falling on me burning my but I don’t’ notice because my arm hurts from where I held it too close to the arc.
After all this thinking I though how nice it is to just sit here and mow the yard, how nice it is to just drive around and not have to do much at all. The city people really have the life. I’m sure they mush have a lot less stress than I do and a lot less to do. Then I thought if we lived in the city we’d have all sorts of time to go on vacation and when we were on vacation who cared if we forgot to water the plant in the front window because it’ll be okay and if it’s not we’ll get another one and not lose $50,000 in the process. Oh the total joys of farm life!!
I started by thinking what it would be like if going to get parts for the mower was getting a set of new blades, because I didn’t have the skill to sharpen the old ones, and once I got home finding that I didn’t have the proper tools to change the blades so I would contact a buddy to help. I also thought what if when the mower didn’t start, I would call the Cub Cadet dealer and have them come pick it up and bring it back repaired, because I had no knowledge of a “safety switch” nor did I know anything about DC electrical circuits or that it takes 12v of continuity flowing through the switch to close the circuit and allow the mower to start.
Next I thought that what if after a hot steak and potato dinner I told the Mrs. that I had to go out in the field to work, which really meant that I had about 5 weeds to pull in our 200 sq ft garden because they have been bothering me and I have nothing to do. Rather than, if I’m lucky her bringing me a kind of warm sandwich while I’m working ground and trying to warm it up on the manifold and forgetting about it and burring it black but eating it anyhow because I’ve been bouncing in the seat for hours and I’m starved and if I push it I can be home and in bed before it’s time to get back up for work.
What if working late on my truck meant washing and waxing it along with checking the fluids but not understanding how to check the transmission fluid so assembling a group of buddies in the garage all trying to figure out that you have to drive it, then check the fluid level with the engine running in park rather than replacing a fuel pump into the wee hours of the morning because I didn’t want to ride my bike to work the next day, and finding that I also should have bought some oem fuel lines instead looking for every inch of 3/8 inch steel tubing a bender and every compression fitting I can find to patch up the line a 2 am so I wont’ have to ride me bike to work.
I also thought about welding and fabrication, what if spending all night welding something meant gluing a fine piece of china back together for the Mrs. that I knocked off the china cabinet ( that we don’t have) , by carefully putting all the pieces together and then “permanently welding” them with special china glue, instead it goes more like this, it’s evening something on the combine has broke. Laying on my back with the portable under the combine in a t-shirt because I don’t think to put on a long-sleeved because it’s getting late. Having your truck for light and what seems like nothing more than a candle underneath for light, because the only extension cord is being used for the angle grinder. There is slag everywhere and it’s falling on me burning my but I don’t’ notice because my arm hurts from where I held it too close to the arc.
After all this thinking I though how nice it is to just sit here and mow the yard, how nice it is to just drive around and not have to do much at all. The city people really have the life. I’m sure they mush have a lot less stress than I do and a lot less to do. Then I thought if we lived in the city we’d have all sorts of time to go on vacation and when we were on vacation who cared if we forgot to water the plant in the front window because it’ll be okay and if it’s not we’ll get another one and not lose $50,000 in the process. Oh the total joys of farm life!!
