Wednesday, December 4, 2019

As usual





I got run over with stuff today.

Got the hay feeding truck (hereafter bale truck) back from a second trip to the repair shop.

The first trip was initiated by a helpful brother who thought it should be serviced. He was correct. It should have been. "Have 'em take a good look at the front end, top and bottom. Shit-for-brains ran it over deep trail-road furrows and broke something."

"Yeah, sure, whatever."

As it turns out he told them to do a regular service check and didn't mention the front end because reasons and "they check everything."

So they did the service and found mouse damage and bent tie rods. Replaced those. Cost a cool $2,000. When I drove it home I could tell it wasn't right and the 4WD wouldn't engage. Snuck it in the next morning before the storm. Ball joints trashed, cv joints trashed, one axle hanging in the breeze, transmission pan smashed.

Sigh. This is the kind of misunderstanding that develops when there's a difference between what a person knows and what they think they know, and they are furthermore unable to imagine that they don't in fact have a comprehensive understanding of everything in the universe.

So, $2,200 bucks later it's now fixed properly. Not the repair shop's fault. They kinda have to do what you tell them, not what they think you might mean.

Just one of those things.

But it drives like a new pickup and the 4WD works.



For the rest of the day all kind of unanticipated stuff kept coming up. All pretty boring and routine, and getting those things taken care of made it a productive day. I even got all-but-one (two actually) of my originally planned tasks done.

Therefore tomorrow I'll be able to start the day only waaaaay behind, rather than waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay behind. So on balance I'm in good shape.

Snow continues to melt, cows and chickens continue to thrive, and I'm not about to run out of chores. Therefore it's a win.



Be well and enjoy the blessings of liberty.

11 comments:

  1. So you ended up paying $ 4200 all told? I hope that the truck now has at least five more years of life left. The videos are good, especially the HLATN one.

    Thanks for the post.
    Paul L. Quandt

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    Replies
    1. $4,222.22. But who's counting? It'll be good for much more than five years. Unless idiot drives it again.

      Huey and Co. were pretty smooth back in the day.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting Paul!

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    2. That would be the K3500? I had a K1500 that lasted a quarter million miles!

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    3. WSF -- yes, but he knows it's not him.

      Delete
  2. I have always "enjoyed" it when folks assume that other folks will do stuff without being told. Often the same folks will yell at those other folks when they do more than they're told.

    One of my strengths is that I realize I don't know everything. At times I assume that I know nothing, nothing at all.

    As long as I remain open to learning new stuff, I figure I won't make a complete fool of myself.

    The cows nearest you in the video certainly do look annoyed with you.

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  3. That 141 cow is all, "Bruh, WTF,O?" I like her berry much.

    There are times dealing with people who appear to be quite bright and competent in all respects when I suddenly find myself wondering what herd they belong to.

    Thanks for stopping by and commenting Sarge!

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  4. Would a herd of cows that size need one, or two round bales?

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    Replies
    1. If they were only getting hay and there was no grazing available they'd need 2-3 bales per day. It can be a bit complicated, because it depends on type and quality of hay and how cold it is and whether there's a lot of wind or other stressors. With the grazing they have available you can just supplement that with a bale every few days and perhaps some protein/energy cubes. There are a lot of ways to do it.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting Scott!

      Delete
  5. We had a 1930's vintage gas powered Caterpillar my father loved. The time he took to get it running in the winter was unreal. I would hitch two, load the hay wagon, feed, unhitch and get ready for school before it would develop enough power to move. It did do a fine job plowing snow on our 1/2 mile driveway and making feed paths in the meadow. We normally had a three wire winter, sometimes more.

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    Replies
    1. That's a cool bot of information and history. Thanks for sharing! You had real winters. We seldom get season-long snow cover around here. Although it does happen from time to time!

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting!

      Delete