Leave a CommentShare: |
Subscribe
At least somebody is driving the tractor.
I was hoping to post about something exciting today, but I’m temporarily held up on a teeny tiny technicality, so I’ll post as soon as I can. (I’m NOT moving. I feel like I need to say that all the time now, sorry.)
Meanwhile, back at the studio project, Dave and Matt are working away.
“Hi, I’m Dave. (And I’m Matt!) We want to keep working on the studio!”
They got the water line trench dug and were ready to push the dirt back in. Dave said, “I see you have a tractor over there.” He wanted to know if he could use it. I said, sure, someone might as well use it.
He said, “You don’t use it?”
I told him I didn’t know how to drive it. He asked me if it came with the farm. I said, “No, it’s mine. I make monthly payments for it and everything. It’s not even paid for.”
Dave’s face took a quizzical turn. “You’re paying for a tractor and you don’t know how to drive it?”
I mentally browsed all my excuses and went for the meat. “My brother died on a tractor.”
We don’t need to go into the fact that my brother was 16 years older than me and died three years before I was born, which might somehow blow up my unreasonable fear of tractors due to unborn status in relation to the actual traumatic event. When you have an unreasonable fear of tractors, there’s not actually a good excuse. I could explain the whole thing about the creepy life-sized painting of my brother hanging in our house during my childhood painted from a photograph taken near the time he died, but that would just make me sound more wacko.
Meanwhile, I accompanied Dave to the tractor, told him to put the doohickey in there and then start it and handed him said doohickey to show him the special trick start.
Dave: “You mean a screwdriver?”
Me: “If that’s what you want to call it.”
For some reason, you have to stick the doohickey, or screwdriver, in there, wherever, then you start it. I’m not sure how this works and didn’t do a very good job of explaining, but after I pointed wildly and vaguely repeatedly, Dave figured it out.
And I watched him toodle on over around the side of the house thinking, I have no idea how much fuel is in there and I hope he doesn’t run out and have to leave it sitting in the front yard.
Some days I feel like less of a farmer than other days.
However, I did twist my cousin’s arm and wrangle him into the store this week and get him to help me pick out a drill. A drill of my own! My first tool!
I’m gonna take it out of the box any day now.
Posted by Suzanne McMinn on February 1, 2012
9(unknown*no*no*0)&guid=ON&x_utmac=MO-17589472-1){kind=small}
2:32
am
3:24
am
And my 2 cents on power tools (since I do occasionally hold one and push or squeeze or whatever it is you do to make them go when assisting with projects that were my idea in the first place): you still have to be strong and use force. Most recently I drove some screws with a power thing into HARD wood & it requires leaning with all my weight behind it to make them go in. And it goes really quickly and you have to stop at the right moment. I get a disgusted reaction when I mess up the indentation in the top of the screw from not bearing down hard enough.
4:34
am
I’m confident that as wormlady says you can turn around your fear into a healthy respect of the tractor – just look around you, see what else you’ve already conquered!
6:07
am
Thanks! I feel better.
Now have someone show you how handy self-starting wood screws and their driver bit are. They also go by the name of “dry wall screws” but they are much more handy than just dry wall. For most instances where you will be screwing things into wood they are much easier to use than is the other classic way of first drilling a pilot hole then employing the screw.
When the finished product has to look more “professional” then go ahead and drill a pilot hole, but use a special small bit known normally as a “screwmate” which combines a pilot hole with a countersink. I have worked wood for many years as a hobby (and in college as a laborer) and the self-starting wood screw has been the biggest improvement in wood working productivity that I can remember.
I hope the drill you got is variable speed — that makes it really useful.
Let us know how you make out with it.
6:57
am
I am with you about running the tractor. I can hop into any car or truck and have no fear. We have a little Farmall and I have yet learned to start it. I think I drove it once. Its a mystery only my husban knows how to start and I hate having to listen to the details of what to do. lol.
I have a drill!! Love it. Its not covered in grime or greese. I have a dremel too also. Its good for small projects. I have a few small hand tools as well. Even though my husban has a basment full but it saves me the trouble of going in search of what I need.
8:50
am
8:56
am
9:01
am
9:26
am
9:35
am
9:42
am
You will love the freedom of knowing that you are not the “little woman”!
9:52
am
11:29
am
Recently I’ve gotten the itch to build some stuff for the house, like maybe a bench or a bedside table. I’m trying to talk DH into getting me a power saw. I think I want a jigsaw, so I can cut out fancy shapes.
I’m already dreaming about the cool Christmas gifts I can make, if I only had a jigsaw.
11:35
am
11:44
am
4:30
pm
They are still in place on my backpatio.
Have a blessed day.
8:54
am
Also a Dremel with many attachments which I use a great deal. Last year I made key rings using antler tips for the decoration on the rings. Used a dust mask as ONCE I developed a bacterial lung infection from inhaling antler dust. Nevermore.
Dh and I raised our kids as survivors. The boy can cook, sew, and clean house. The girl can change oil, change a tire, and use all of the power tools.
When I run across something I haven’t done before, I find someone to show me how. This spring I am going to remove a sm. dead cedar tree from my yard.
3:27
pm