Things Break But The Farm Work Still Moves On

Like any other business things break. When they break on the farm most of the time it is up to us to fix them. Things have been extremely busy, and when things break it just adds to the excitement and pace. This past week we had a leak the main well line that we use to water our animals and our vegetables. For a while we just couldn't figure out what was going on with our well. We finally broke down and decided to call the well man. While talking to him on the phone we found the leak. The water line that is down about six feet had rubbed on the well liner and caused a leak that constantly ran the well and kept the well low enough that any major water use dropped the well water below the well pickup that caused the well to run out of water. While this was on going hay needed to be baled and chicken pens needed to be built. As the hay was being baled I had barely made a bale when the drive chain on the tractor that connects the engine to the transmission broke. So as a classic multitasking challenge I rented a backhoe and dug the water line up while waiting for the hay to dry. Then when the hay was dry enough and started to bale the chain broke on the tractor and that had to be fixed so we had to get some parts that could fix the chain. The chain repair was a study in persistence and frustration. Getting a simple pin into a chain seems so simple, until the chain is in the middle of the tractor, under the cab and requiring exact alignment and placement, covered in grease, with almost no space. I ended up using a bench grinder to make things fit. It is kind of like using a sledge hammer to make thing fit. Sometimes it's requirement but you only use it as a last resort. In the end the tractor was fixed and I was able to scrub all of the grease off of me, the water line was patched, the hay was baled, and we're still building pens.