Once a year is enough

With Father's Day weekend coming up, my plans were to go to the farm and get a lot of much needed work out of the way. The way things turned out, Father's Day really turned into a special day.

The first item of business was to deal with a tree that had fallen across the road that allows me to cross Paint Creek. Armed with my trusty Stihl saw, which is less than six months old, I arrived at the fallen tree only to find that the saw wouldn't start. After nearly dislocating my shoulder trying to get it started, I finally decided it wasn't going to run.

Since I was there, I thought it was a good time to do some mowing with the bush hog. After about four rounds, I ducked underneath a tree. As the tractor and I and the bush hog went under the tree, a limb hit my favorite farm hat. It flipped off the back of my head and, of course, falls directly in the path of the bush hog, which made short work of it as we went over it.

I should have realized that things were not going well, but I persisted. Half a dozen rounds later, I hear a big clunk and looked up to see that the bush hog had come unhinged from the tractor. This is usually a case of the pin getting bounced out, but, in this instance, it was the fact that the draw bar on my ancient Allis-Chalmers was now in two pieces.

By now most of the things I own have either been cut up, broken, or won't start. Sunday found me under the tractor getting the other part of the draw bar loose. Philip Pavey will get the opportunity to put the bar back together, and meanwhile the grass continues to grow. The chain saw is in Nevada, waiting for someone to work on it and the tree is still lying across the road. I need to find another hat to wear to the farm. It is a good thing Father's Day only comes once a year.