- Don't put your work gloves away until you are on your way home.
- Don't leave your vehicle windows down, even on a gorgeous day, to prevent bees and flies from setting up house there.
Today, the Cable Guy came out and installed cable tv this morning. Everything went smoothly, other than taking too long. Afterward, I joined Mr G down at the ranch to help out towing a truck to Basin for repairs. That was an adventure in itself. He drove a Jeep Cherokee, and I was in the 83 Ford super big pickup. Once we got the emergency brake released and took it out of gear, and turned on the accessories, it was clear the truck had a flat-ish tire and no power steering. So, for about 30 miles, I was steering this big truck with every fiber in my body. After the first panicky moments passed (during which my mind did a disturbing escalation of the risks involved, including rolling both vehicles over down a hill), I calmed down and enjoyed the ride much like a roller coaster.
That is, until the Jeep towing me began to overheat. Of all the days helping out on the ranch, today is the day I decided to bring my black and white cute little insulated bag that looks like a purse. I had it loaded up with ice and cans of soda. Turns out, we needed the ice to begin the cool down process of the radiator 5 miles outside of Basin. That wasn't going to be enough, so Mr G then used the insulated bag to scoop up more water from a nearby drainage canal and began adding that to the radiator. After a few trips down to the canal, we got the engine cooled off enough to get the Ford truck to the auto shop and drop it off, adding proper radiator fluid in the process.
Then, we headed further down the road in the newly refreshed Jeep to Greybull. There, we needed to have a tire repaired for a stacker tractor - one that stacks the hay that has been already baled into the 70+ pound rectangles. I call that machine the "hay bale picker upper". No one has corrected me yet, and it gets the point across. While in Greybull, we had to stop at the A&W shop for an ice cold Root Beer float.
Making our way back to Hyattville, we stopped off at the bridge that we've been working on . The work at this stage involves drilling guide holes into planks that are about 16 feet wide, 10 inches deep, and about 2.5 inches thick. Once the guide holes are complete, Mr G follows with a variety of bolt sizes and washers, and then drives them in using the impact wrench. The weather for this today was perfect - mid 70s, sunny, peaceful - until the mosquitoes discovered us! We completed one of the longer sections of the bridge today - that felt like a good accomplishment. We headed back to the central part of the ranch, and were going to do just one more thing. This turned into about 10 more things. I'm not complaining, but I had taken my gloves off and put them away - and we were not in a position to have enough time for me to retrieve them. You don't want to know what my hands encountered.
We moved some trucks and trailers, I helped guide the pointy end of a forklift tine into four very small fabric holders to lift a ton bag of oats, and we fed the remaining cows and one of the horses. We did a little late day clean-up around the ranch, and wouldn't you know it - the sky turned this most incredible sunset swirly range of colors. Then, each field we passed on the way to the house was filled with deer.
Poor things don't know hunting season starts Monday - but they will soon!
Here is a parting snapshot from when we were leaving the ranch this evening....enjoy!
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