Warm Feburary Day on the farm!
27 degrees - headed for the mid 60s today, maybe the bugs will emerge to our waiting ducks! Sunny and warm, what a feeling, everything will be coming back to life in a few weeks, winter is thawing away, like that thin skin of ice on the Duck Pond... fading away in the sunlight.
Yesterday afternoon, wife and one of the older daughters, with boyfriend, decided it would be a good time to start pruning Fruit Trees. Naturally, the electric pole pruner broke when we needed it the most, Arrrghhh! Even charged the batteries before putting it up last fall. These little plastic tabs that hold the battery to the base, broke off, rendering it useless. Charged up the batteries anyways, 90% to 100%, while struggling to find some way to connect the two.
Tape lasted 3 cuts, lashing with paracord... too stretchy, couldn't keep the electrical contacts connected. The last thing planned, drill a couple of holes, and screw it together - actually worked better than expected. While the Farmer Wife was leaning on the top to keep it all connected, I drilled through both halves, and carefully threaded 2 screws between them. A couple of good lateral shakes - still tight, looks like a winner! Everyone's winning this week, including us on the Farm. Earlier it was the Gas Dryer, which fired off initially, then quit - frustration! Read & studied... apparently the two coils on the gas valve 'get weak' with age, losing the ability to keep it open. OK... don't think that's it, but... it actually WAS the problem. Clothes are drying again, for Amazon parts $7.50 - not bad for a +40 year old pair of dryers. One working, it'll be on to the 2nd dryer when the weather gets cool outside.
With the pruning almost done, daughter & boyfriend pulled out the paper targets & 22LR pistols, afternoon fun shoot. Kinda like these portable paper target stands, anywhere with a decent backstop can become a mini-shooting range. Who knows how much 22LR they burned through 3-400 rounds? The Farmer played the 'Range Safety Officer' role. Makes sense, the day before she was at the monthly AWA https://armedwomen.org/ meeting, which is 15 minutes of classroom and a couple of hours of shooting under the watchful eyes of NRA certified Women Instructors. With a replacement gun barrel from Ruger (great company!), her 22LR pistol was back in action - no more tumbling bullets, nice tight groups. I'd picked up a laser bore sighter for 22LR, and took a little time last week, dialing in as close as I could, it paid off in accuracy. While they were shooting, I was messing around with a pole pruner.
The next 'fix it' project - something isn't quite right with the chain saw. Being the type that 'troubleshoots in their sleep' ... I realized the pull cord probably jumped off the big pulley, that'll get looked at today, after breakfast and the phone call to Dad. That's what is truely nice about retirement, as long as the bills get paid, your health holds up, a Farm isn't such a bad proposition - there's always something to tinker with. The kids cleaned off the porch, so they can sit outside and watch traffic, 400' away... one truck or car about 2-3hr intervals... Meh, this sure ain't like city living. Amazon is delivering more dryer parts today, a 'sensor kit' - it's 40 years old, for $20, those parts probably needing replacement. A task that'll take a few hours, pulling the dryer out, taking the back off, vacuuming lint, fitting the parts in place, reassembling and testing... then I can 'forget about it' for another 20 years.
Gas Dryers are very easy to work on. In fact, at my age, 68, the only difficult thing is the vertical descent and re-assent ... getting down to the floor and back up. Nice to have the wife there, to fetch tools. Translating them into her language is ... good for a laugh, "Nut driver. It looks like a screwdriver, but the end has a socket on it." Out come the sexual references... Heh, and memories of that washing machine motion, ending in that exhilarating spin cycle...! Alas, those days of our youth, climbing onto one of those things - this is Redneck entertainment, city people miss out again - well, the chance of falling off and breaking a hip, prevents us. Still, the thought that counts, heh. Love life is good, she smiles as I struggle on the floor, reaching under the clothes dryer. Don't know how I'd make it without her.
Come to think of it, the best part of fixing stuff, the joy & satisfaction seeing it work again, and she plants a great big sloppy kiss all over my face, "Thank you, sweetheart" - I think I felt my heart skip a beat or two! As the Bible says, 'the two shall become one' - she completes me as a man. Listening to Dad talk about how much he misses Mom (she's in 24hr nursing care), "Got no one to talk to, all those memories, she can't even remember what she had for breakfast! She's gone!" - the mind of a 3yr old child in the aged body of a 88 year old adult... more interested in the bird feeder than her husband. Unable to work a puzzle, play cards or dominos, a former conversationalist who wouldn't keep quiet during a movie - muted by dementia. "Dad, tell me about where you and mom useto go, I'd like to hear about that trip out east, or west..." Maybe God will help us bring a little joy back into his life, I pray... after stealing away his favorite daughter, I guess, I owe him something.