Be Careful

Yesterday thanks to helping hands from CD Holter and his son Cade we were able to get the cover on our trailer. Prior to them arriving I did some preliminary work on the trailer like putting on wheel covers and gutter covers. While I was doing that work I felt Jennifer's presence with me and kept hearing her voice in my head (especially when I was on the ladder putting on the gutter covers). She kept telling me to be careful and to make sure the ladder was steady (ever the safety professional).

She always got a little concerned when we did projects around the ranch. The summer we got married we did a lot of painting around the ranch getting ready for the big event and she was less than impressed with some of the techniques and tools we were utilizing to paint. She also always got a kick out of teasing my sister Cindy about the "tahichian lua" green she had picked out for the trim on the buildings. She continued that teasing for 34 years.

She about had a coronary when my dad had me painting the peak of the barn. The barns is a pretty tall building. So to reach the peak we had our old farmall "H" tractor with a hydro loader that had a scaffolding type attachment raised as high as it would go and on that we had a 10 ft step ladder and on top of that was me. Anyway, she spent the whole time scowling and muttering under her breath (kind of) that at least I was still on my parents insurance and that she was not going to be happy if I ended up at the wedding in a body cast.

When we got married Jennifer initially did not really take part in ranch projects, she viewed from the side lines mostly, but over the years she became more involved and started really getting her hands dirty. She helped with wood cutting and she was in the crew that threw wood into the wood shed once it had been cut and split. The last year we cut wood she actually was the catcher of the wood as we cut it into small chunks on the buzz saw on the litttle "A" tractor.

While we were still courting she and her sister Janice came out to help us pick hay bales. This is again where she was pretty devious. She brought Janice and made her drive the truck, because she figured I would not holler at Janice. She knew I would holler at her if she was doing something wrong.

On this day we were picking hay bales in the median of the interstate. The equipment set up was we had our old Studebaker milk truck hooked to a hay wagon and then hooked to the side of the wagon was a Ferris wheel bale picker. You would drive down the median and line up the hay bales into the chute of the Ferris wheel which would then lift the bale up onto the wagon and then the bales would be stacked on the wagon. Janice was the driver and I was on the wagon stacking.

Well speed is a key to the operation. The person driving can go too fast and just about kill the person that is trying to stack. Because the bales will start coming quicker than they can keep up with. Of course the truck had a standard transmission so keeping it moving smoothly can also be a issue. So of course when we started out there was a lot of chugging, bouncing and stalling because Janice is trying to find that sweet spot on the speed and was not used to driving a big old truck. Now keep in mind the person on the wagon while this chugging, bouncing and stalling is going on is really getting bounced around. So I am doing my best to be patient and not holler at Janice as I getting the living shit kicked out of me trying to stay upright and stack bales at the same time. Well then Janice starts to get the hang of it, but then she is going too fast and bales are flying onto the wagon and I am working my ass off to try and keep up while trying to kindly say slow down. Meanwhile Jennifer is walking and helping line up the bales so they go into the Ferris wheel chute with a Cheshire Cat grin on her face. Well we got the bales picked and I did not holler (too much) and we all were still talking at the end of the day.

We did have some good laughs about that day over the years.

Today I will be flying back to Mesquite. I can't thank enough all of the people who helped with the activities of the past couple of weeks. I will definitely be shedding some tears today (hell I am already shedding them ) as it is going to be a tough bittersweet day.