2024, animals, Farming Update, Mysteries

Time For a Change

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

I have 4 analog wall clocks at the college that I reference often. All four are showing a different time. The one just off stage, that I knocked off the wall while changing a work light and it dropped 12 feet and bounce off the ladder, quit working. Go figure. I replaced the battery and reset the time and it went around to 12:10 and stopped there. That was about a month ago.

Another clock, back in the shop by the sign in sheet for the students, is running slow and it’s way off.

In my office is a clock with the Tasmanian Devil from Bugs Bunny on the face. It’s too much trouble to climb on the desk to change the time, so it’s accurate, but an hour off some of the year.

And down in the dressing room is another clock that’s off. If you plan your day and route accordingly, you can make all these work in your favor.

I got a lot of work done in the farm shop the last week. Threat of colder weather and snow prompted me. I got the carburetor installed on the 630 tractor and had it running last week. Cross that off the list! Yay! Here’s a short video just so you can hear the sound. It needs some adjustment yet, but at least it runs!

Or it did. The next time I went to start it, the starter shorted out and wouldn’t stop running and I had to disconnect the ground cable to make it stop. Sigh. Hang my head. Add that to the list. I used another tractor and pulled the 630 out of the way so I could get on with the rest of the projects. Pulling a tractor by yourself isn’t the smartest idea I’ve ever had; thank goodness the ground was level. The tractor not running kinda messes up my parking plans for the machinery. I think if I crawl under and disconnect the wire from the starter, I can put the ground wire back on, pull start the tractor to get it started, and then drive it to get it tucked away. We will worry about getting it out next spring. Always something.

While working on the shed, and talking out loud to myself, at one point I said, “Well, that’s not right.” And I thought to myself, ‘there’s a lot that’s not right in the world’. Later on, finagling three sheets of 14-foot pole barn steel, I said out loud, “This is not going at all like how I thought it was gonna go.” That’s about when I figured out I could do 2 sheets, but not three. Fourteen feet being taller than my center of balance, and all, created some issues. Anyway, I got the NE corner done and started moving stuff in.

It was just really nice to be home, and have the time, and do these projects. It just felt so good to “be of use”.

WHY CAN’T THINGS BE EASY?

44 thoughts on “Time For a Change”

  4. Yes! Why can’t everything just work like it’s supposed to??
    I used a gift card to buy gas yesterday. Doesn’t work at the pump so I take it inside and tell the guy I want 7 gallons… he gives me 7 dollars worth, which I don’t figure out till I get home and realize the gas gauge hasn’t moved. Although it should have move a little, right? So I’ll go back today and put more in… I hope that triggers the gas gauge.

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    1. I doubt if the system is set up to calculate gallons, since the price per gallon is variable and that would have required math on the part of the clerk. Better to approximate the cost of how much gas you want—say $20—and ask for that.

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    2. i saw the dalia lama when he was here years ago and he said it’s so easy … everyone gets distracted and side tracked but if done correctly every effort should be directed toward achieving happiness

      just make decisions based on happiness and your on track according to him

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  8. I thought I was the only one who struggled with simple tasks. I can’t even begin to tackle plumbing or electrical projects. I try to use a drill to put up a curtain rod and the drill bit stays in the wall and I can’t get it out. I pull one loose thread and an entire project falls apart at my feet.

    It helps me to stop and compare how things are now with the way it was when I started. Progress has certainly been made, although it might not look to me like what I expected.

    Rant: We have so much in this country. At this point, everything should be incredibly easy but there’s so much disagreement and anger. Why can’t people be tolerant of others? Why is everyone so angry? Why is perception so radically different from one person to another? It should be easy to work together in this country that was founded on democracy and representation. Many of our cups are really full. Some just don’t see how full they really are. Rant over.

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    3. Well, I for one, am still angry about anything #45. And my anger is all well-reasoned and fits the facts. Hmph. The threat to democracy because he wants to stay out of jail is just unacceptable.

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  9. Clocks. I have one in my living room that runs on a battery. A nice Seth Thomas clock. The battery case has a crack in it, so the battery doesn’t quite stay in place reliably. So I put a battery in and put the clock up on the wall and it’s working and keeping good time. But a couple of days later, after it’s gone through some undetermined number of ticks, each tick causing a teeny vibration, the battery moves enough to stop making contact. Then it’s 8:25 for a few weeks until I take the clock down and try to fix it by putting a thick rubber band around the battery case or some such thing, to see if I can immobilize it.

    I like the clock, though, so I keep it. Got it at a garage sale. The previous owner likely lost patience with it.

    My laptop keyboard is getting a little sticky, so the spacebar doesn’t always put a space in unless I’m careful to really hit it. The a’s and d’s get dropped sometimes too.

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  11. Husband went through all the seed catalogues and decided what seeds we will grow at home and at the church garden, and from where we will purchase them. It was a shifting list as he perused the catalogues, especially when deciding what carrots to grow.

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  13. We made the difficult decision not to grow Hatch chilis this year, as we have too many jars of enchilada sauce in the freezer as it is. It was not a hard decision to not grow potatoes, since growing potatoes in ND is like bringing coals to Newcastle.

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  14. Three of my favorite meditations are about gratitude, three are about “ignoring the jumble” as one says or keeping your mind at peace despite the world and three are about self compassion. The last group are hard for me to do in fact. But all help me right now.

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  19. I have another clock at the college, inherited with the theater, it’s got a funky 1970’s pattern on the face. I can’t remember the name of it, guess I’ll Post it next week. I thought maybe it was “vintage”, meaning valuable, but nope. It needs to be plugged in, so I don’t use it.

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  20. life can be easy
    every now and then we get it right
    dangling your feet in the water in a hot summer day. listening to the water ripple by as the breeze carries bird songs across the azure sky

    then a text message comes telling you the areas of life that require attention are all backed up and you pull your feet out of the water and you don’t hear the birds anymore and you feel your shoulders tighten

    shut the phone off and simplify

    i used to like the exercises where you would write stuff down that you could worry about at an appointed time . when that time rolled around and you review the list you discover not many items are still worthy candidates

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