Well, Darn It!

Yesterday was an eventful day for us. Terry started the day by making us some mixed berries and half a bagel each for breakfast and then baked some delicious blueberry muffins. Just about the time they were ready to come out of the oven a very nice young lady named Jackie and her mother Lisa arrived from the Atlanta area to pick up the Glimakra loom that Terry was selling. We had a nice visit with the two ladies, including sampling Terry’s muffins fresh out of the oven, and they were very impressed with some examples of Terry’s weaving work.

Then we got the loom loaded into their Subaru SUV. It was already disassembled from the trip from Florida, and we weren’t too sure everything was going to fit, but with everything inside except for the two side pieces of the frame, which they tied down on the rack on the roof, they were good to go. We wish Jackie well with her loom, and I’m sure she will create some beautiful things with it.

I have been wanting to tackle some of the weeds on the back and side of the property that were getting way out of hand, so once Jackie and Lisa left, I used the new bush hog mower on the back of my Kubota tractor to see what I could get done with them. I’m really impressed with the mower, it does a great job. This is the road that goes to the back of the property to the barn, freshly mowed.

Of course, then I had to mess up, wouldn’t you know it? The road on the north side of the property line was completely overgrown to the point where some of the weeds were higher than the front end of the tractor. I decided to tackle that next. Everything was going along fine for a while, but then I dropped the two right-side tires into an overgrown ditch, and the tractor tilted so far that it was hard to stay in the seat because of the angle. Meanwhile, the left front wheel was off the ground. I was sure glad I was wearing the seat belt and had the roll bar up!

I tried putting the tractor in 4-wheel-drive to see if that would help me, but both wheels on the right side were in mud and I couldn’t get any traction. Well darn it! I walked up to the front of our place and got the Kawasaki Mule and Terry to help me. Parking it up higher on solid ground, I ran the Mule’s winch cable down to the tractor and hooked it to the left side of the frame. I knew it wasn’t strong enough to pull the tractor out, but I was hoping that it would at least stabilize it so it wouldn’t go over any further.

From watching YouTube videos and reading online tractor forums, I knew that I should be able to use the front bucket to lift the tractor up a little bit and get it moving with kind of a crab walk. But the ground was so soft that the bucket just dug in and we didn’t get anywhere.

The next step was to bring a pallet down from the barn and try to put the bucket down on it to do the same thing, while also using the Traction Boards I bought off Amazon a while back under the tires on the left side. Still no luck, and I knew it was time to get some help.

The great thing about living in the country is that your neighbors are always there to help you, and two of them from down the road, Brent and Calvin, came down to see what they could do. Now, I had never met these two gentlemen before. I actually called somebody else for advice and he contacted them for me. They looked the situation over, and Calvin went home and got his big John Deere tractor, which makes my little Kubota look like a toy, and in no time at all, he had me out on solid ground. I tried to pay them for their trouble, but they wouldn’t hear of it. They said that’s what neighbors are for. Thanks, guys, I really appreciate it.

While they were helping me, Terry was on the Husqvarna riding lawnmower mowing the front and side yards and around the fruit trees and other areas.

Once I had a chance to get a long drink of water, I decided to try my luck with the overgrown pasture. I have put off mowing it because of all the clover out there, which was full of bees for several weeks. But in the last week it has all died off, so I figured the bees have everything they are going to get from me for a while.

The bush hog made short work of that, and while I only saw a few bees, five or six snakes went slithering away while I mowed. I do not like snakes. Not even a little bit. Not big snakes, or little snakes, or even sticks that look like snakes. I was glad I was up on the tractor instead of down on the ground with them.

I thought I would get the pasture done before dark, but I ran out of time with just a little bit on one side to finish up yet. I will knock that out tomorrow, because it’s going to start getting much hotter in the next few days.

All in all, it was a good day even if it was frustrating and a bit hairy for a while there. With a lot accomplished, we called it an evening and had a light dinner of sandwiches, and I treated myself to another one of Terry’s blueberry muffins for dessert.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Crazy Days In Big Lake, the third book in my Big Lake mystery series. Everybody seems to have gone crazy in the little mountain community. Neighbors are threatening violence, eco-protestors are on the march, flower children are camping in the nearby forest, two of Sheriff Jim Weber’s deputies have gotten into a fistfight in the ButterCup Café, the grocery store manager has locked himself in his office and won’t come out, bears are chasing dogs into houses, and somebody has stolen the town’s mascot. As if that isn’t enough to deal with, a mild-mannered retired couple have shot an intruder during a home invasion. By the time this wild tale is finished, more blood will be shed and the good people of Big Lake will be left wondering just how well they really know their neighbors.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

 Thought For The Day – Whoever has the most fun wins.