Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Farming Flops and Car Bloopers

Here's the thing about farm life.  There's always something that needs to be fixed.  Or more like 20 somethings.  Unfinished projects abound and there's never enough time in the day to get to them all. 

I guess that over the years Paul and I have learned to roll with the punches.  I mean isn't it normal for your lawnmower to be held together with duct tape, and a mouse to build a nest in the door of one of your cars?  Or maybe it was because of that time we spent three months without running water (yes, I do need to blog about that at some point) - that definitely toughened us up.  Or perhaps we learned our survival skills from the process of building a house together.  We all know house building is just a recipe for mayhem.

One way or another, in 14+ years of marriage we don't flip over the little stuff so much anymore.  Because there is just so much little stuff that you'd drive yourself crazy if you worried about it all.
Like last week when I called Paul to tell him we didn't have water (and 5+ years later I'm still a little touchy over the no water situation, having slight PTSD over the 3 months of living without).  Paul calmly talked me through it.  I walked out into the bitter cold and hunted around.  Thanks to Paul, I found the source:
A busted pipe, one that we no longer use.  This used to bring water into the trailer, back in our single-wide days (yet another survival story).  It froze and busted, then ran until our well went dry.  I shut off the water system and my dear neighbor JP brought me enough jugs of water to get through the day until Paul came home with the part to fix it.

Well, I'd already forgotten the water situation the next day, when I went to meet Paul for lunch while my mom watched the boys.  We were driving by the mall, on our way to a restaurant, when we heard a CLUNK, ching ching.  Paul looked at me and said, "That didn't sound good".
I couldn't help myself.  I started laughing.  Paul started laughing too.  Maybe we're too immature to be grownups, I don't know.  Most people don't laugh when something falls off their car, but we've had plenty of experience driving vehicles that have seen better days. While we do the routine maintenance and upkeep, if we have extra money we tend to put it into the house or the land, not our cars.  And I have to confess that this isn't even the first time some random part has fallen off one of our cars.

Paul asked me to circle around through the mall to see what fell off.  So I did and we drove past the area again.  On his side, he saw a big spring, and on mine I saw a big bolt.
Paul decided he needed to go pick these items up.
So I circled around yet again, and pulled over to the side while Paul waited for traffic to die down.
Then he made a mad dash in the cold!
Across the road for the bolt, then back to our side for the spring.
There you have it: 
Paul thinks these go on the muffler, to hold it on.
Has he fixed it yet?
Nah.  But my muffler hasn't fallen off yet either.  If it does, I sure hope Paul's around to go scoop it up in traffic.

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21 comments:

Unknown said...

How fun! If it still works with missing parts, I wouldn't fix it either.

Jane said...

I don't do near enough maintenance on my car either. My mind set is if it's not broke don't fix it.But it looks like yours did break,there again, as long as it's still running... Blessings jane

Texan said...

Oh I so know the building a house together! Its a trial for a couple for sure! LOL We had many... um moments while we were building this house LOL.

Nancy said...

It's all a matter of degrees, I think. What might freak some people out -- farm people just shrug their shoulders. It could always be worse. :)

Laura @ Green Legacy Farm said...

SISTER! We're currently ignoring a slightly leaky pipe in the crawlspace and a potential problem with the car. Minor details after figuring out last summer that the front bearing wall of our house was being held up by the 90-year-old clapboard siding.

uglydog75 said...

I am with you... it is either LAUGH or CRY sometimes, and I like to choose laugh!

When my car starts making bad noises, I just turn the radio up!?!?!?! And who says it isn't normal to have your lawn mower held together with duct tape???

"Normal" is just not normal...

Anonymous said...

Lisa, I am still laughing!..this post was so funny,cause YES!, I can relate,hehe.
I was thinkin'(scary), that this would be a great linky-party:There's always something that needs to be fixed!
We all got 'em!!..and the photo's would be like a guessin' game, trying to figure out what it is that needs fixin',hehehe
~Jo
LazyonLoblolly

TexWisGirl said...

Oy!!! Thank goodness we can laugh! Too funny!

Valerie Boersma said...

I feel exactly the same way about our 111 year old house. I am happy most days for the little things-it's the big things (like the broken pipe last year that was slowly filling the basement with water) I worry about!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for your muffler!

Anonymous said...

Busted pipes! Busted cars! You crack me up! But fixing it--yeah, sometimes that's another store for us.

Misty said...

Sometimes I feel like life is just a great big DIY project!

Sandy said...

Most of the time is isn't anything a little baling wire or binder twine can't fix....LOL

jennohara said...

Too funny! It's good that you're both so laid back. :)

IanH said...

You are doing well if you only have a list of 20 things to do! One at a time, or one a year, the ones that need to get done, get done. The rest can wait.

jp@A Green Ridge said...

The things to do list just keeps getting bigger and bigger so get used to it! The list down here is now on roll #35 (& how many sheets are there in a roll of TP?)LOL!!...:)JP

Chatty Crone said...

Ever hear if it is not broken don't fix it? sandie

Dawn said...

OH I so know what you mean about the Farm Life and fixin'....never ending saga...and often drama!
Glad to know I am not alone:)

My Mad World said...

Glad you guys can laugh about it! So much better to laugh about it then to cry about it!

Saving Creatively said...

DIY and fixin' projects never seem to end! I'm a new follower from MBC. You can follow me at www.savingcreatively.com

Rhea said...

You have a great attitude and sense of humor, I love it! And I do think farm life helps wear you in, unless it wears you out. hehe

Myya said...

Oh my gosh I would freak out, mostly only because I always have my girls in the car. It is totally hilarious though... I was laughing at the whole things falling off the car thing. Love how you ended it with the picture. ha ha ha

Oh & you SERIOUSLY have to post about the no water for 3 months. OOOOHHH my gosh that is just crazy! We did no hot water for 8 days & I just about died. Please tell me this was prior to your boys. Ohhh man that would be soooo hard if it wasn't!