There’s nothing wrong with a full day’s work. Some days, it’s actually kind of nice to be so busy there isn’t a spare moment to think about what you should be doing.
Tuesday turned into one of those days.
It all started right out of the gate with something that’s genuinely never happened to me before. It was so cold the pickup wouldn’t start.
I figured, well, it does have a block heater I had never used.
Turns out the plug was missing.
So…......... I wired a plug onto the block heater, plugged that in and jumped on the tractor to plow, which also wouldn’t start because I hadn’t plugged it in either, so I did and hooked up the jumper cables, then walked to the barn through the drifts thinking I could at least get started there, found nothing would run to make feed, chopped ice in water bowls, fluffed yesterday’s feed, told the sheep breakfast was coming along nicely even if it didn’t look like it, thought about firing up the generator to block-heat the feed tractor but remembered I was out of gas, walked back to the house, realized I needed to run into town anyway to drop off cutting instructions at butcher and grab fuel, came home, jumped on the now-warm plow tractor, blew a hose halfway down the lane, limped it back to the shop, noticed half my jumper cables — which I’d forgotten were still clipped on the tractor — laying in the driveway (that one hurt), went back to town for parts, fixed the wrong thing, went back again for the right thing, walked back to the barn with gas and a battery charger, got the skid steer and feed tractor running, made feed, fed two groups, realized the last bunks were still buried under snow, and eventually — with a well-timed visit from Ezdon after work — got the tractor fixed.
By the time I headed back to the barn in the plow tractor for the final round, it was fully dark. The bunks were finally plowed out and breakfast was served.
The only problem was… the sheep were all tucked in for the night.
So I put on my headlamp, walked into the shelter, and called them out. They all followed me — lined up at the bunk, eating like it was any other morning. I snapped a picture because it made me smile more than anything.
Morning chores, finally wrapped up at 9:30 pm.
Other than losing a set of jumper cables, nothing really went wrong. I try to remember on the farm, broken things aren’t something to get upset about — they’re just another thing that needs doing. The day just happened. You take care of what’s in front of you, then move on to the next one, and eventually you get there.
Around here, failure isn’t really an option.
You just keep going until the sheep are fed — no matter what the clock says.
Farmer Rod
