There isn’t much that I can’t fix, and being a farmer, I’m always trying to save money by fixing stuff myself. Saving money on the front end means more money on the back end and hopefully more in my pocket in the end!
I’ve always been pretty handy with a cutting torch and a welder, tools and such… an agricultural MacGyver you might say. I’ve done so much with so little for so long that I can do anything with nothing.
There’s nothing quite as exhilarating as being under a piece of equipment trying to weld… in cold windy weather. I was wrapped up in coveralls and coats, looking like the Michelin man trying not to freeze to death.
I finally squeezed into and under my broken contraption, stuffed in like a pimento is into an olive. Seems like it took me 20 minutes to get all the welding leads, chipping hammer, stuff, and myself all into place.
As I lay their trying to catch my breath, half wore out already, I discovered I forgot my welding helmet! So now I’m forced to retreat and I spend the next 10 minutes trying to extract myself from the previously mentioned precarious location to retrieve my welding hood. Now I once again am ready to insert myself with surgical precision into, and under, the broken contraption to weld and beef up some cracked steel… only now I seem to have forgotten my welding rod! So after thinking… but not saying some choice words that use to invoke the wrath of my mother, and the unwanted taste of lava soap, I once again retreat for some 1/8 inch 6011 welding rod.
By now I’m starting to sweat. I get on my knees and this time I take a more careful inventory of my necessities and decide to throw in a few more items just in case, like C clamps, hammers, extra chunks of steel and such… so I wouldn’t have to crawl out again because this in and out thing is getting old.
Now as I am about to reinsert myself to start the repair… I feel the slightest need to expel that second cup of coffee and decide it would be wise to do so before entering the abyss once again.
All things in order, checked and double checked, I once again insert myself into that tight spot and begin attempting my one armed, contorted position, welding technique.
The wind is blowing and my arc is sputtering, my rod is sticking and my temper is boiling… things are just not going so good. My arm is getting tired and I’m starting to shake, and quiver and my weld, which started out looking pretty good… but as my arm gets further fatigued… my weld is looking proportionally unattractive, but nobody will see it under here anyway so onward I go!
I fabricate what we call a gorilla weld – ugly, but strong.
I am about finished when all of a sudden a spark finds it’s way into my ear! It must be a good sized piece of slag because it continues to burn and the little ones usually burn out pretty fast but not this one! I try to turn my head to shake it out with no luck.
It’s sizzling in my ear like a steak on a grill, the sound down in my ear is extremely loud and there is a smell that is not at all like fried chicken, but rather more like burnt feathers!
I’m violently shaking my head, and as I do so in that confined space my head is banging back and forth on several unknown objects resulting in multiple knots that I later discovered on my skull!
Finally convinced that my weld will outlast my lifetime. I call it good enough and remove myself and all my stuff. Battered and bruised I emerge victorious.
Now off to fight another battle as I am stubborn and I am determined, and have had Philippians 4:13 in my head to help maintain my sanity, which says “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
Those tears coming from my eyes that day were from the cold wind blowing in them by the way.
Seems kinda funny now looking back, but not so much at the time. Isn’t it kinda funny the things you remember? All from just a spark.
