The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The good, the bad and the ugly. That was my day yesterday. Luckily I did start out with the good. I had taken a load of water out to the horses with the truck. They were given their pellets. I unloaded the water. Then made a spur of the moment decision to walk their pasture lot quick and see what trees I had on the ground down in the woods. Logs of the right size can be made into easy jumps, or edge a drive, block an area, so thought it would be good to make an assessment.

I went under the gate wire, walked past the munching horses and descended into the little woods. Some of the logs had been cut and just left where they had dropped a very long time ago. Most of those will be burned in place. Some will be cut for erosion control. Some will be chained to the truck and get pulled out to be used. While I was grading the downed trees I turned to look at a couple of standing trees that I wanted to cull and saw Pip coming towards me.

I was a little surprised by her approach. Due to heat, rain, extreme sun burn, poison ivy, you name it, it has been awhile since we played, and she had grown aloof. At feeding time, I would put my hand over the fence and look away and wait for her touch. It didn't always come and I feared that I had lost everything we had accomplished. I tried to not watch her approach and just continue what I was doing. Cut this one, burn that pile, cull this one. And then there was a great blonde head, resting quietly against the back of my arm. Head down, ears relaxed. I turned slightly and gave her jaw scratches. Her eyes drooped and she let out a contented sigh. Together we worked our way through the little copse of woods. When ever we stopped she became my pocket pony. When we walked, she stayed about a foot behind my arm. Each moment of our time was sublime. It was perfect.

I could have spent the day there but it motivated me to get going! I have holes to dig. A decent fence to get up. A play yard for me and the girls! I drove the truck up behind the house where I have been working on the post holes. I then decided that I would proceed with a new method. Instead of digging on a hole until it was done, I would start a bunch of holes and get them filled with water and soften up the clay. I'd work smarter , not harder. So, I hopped into the truck, turned the key and ...... click, click, click. Okay, that's not good. Turned the key again..... click, click, click. Every time I turned the key, the same clicking. This was the bad part. Not only have the years, the miles and genetics been unkind to me, but now my mood was pretty ugly too.

All this and it wasn't even 11:00! I really hate getting bad news before noon. I then spent the afternoon trying to settle my own mood and figure out how to tell Mac in a fashion that wouldn't upset him. I managed to keep it calm. It helped that I could throw in a comment from a friend, "Larry, thinks it might just be the battery cables"

Well, around seven he went out to check it out. As he got into the truck, I again went through all of the symptoms. He got in and turned the key. It sounded like it wanted to turn over, then went into the clicking. He turned the key back. Waited a second then tried to start it again. It turned right over. As a matter of fact, it started right up six more times. I didn't know if I should be relieved, or totally honkin' pissed off! The truck had made me look like a ...... woman!

Good thing I have my horse, because my truck is totally a traitor!

Louie