Five o’ clock and just getting the newsletter out the door. Terrible! And, yes, you’ve seen this picture before. But it’s so nice, I’m gonna use it twice.
Busy day today, with vehicles taking over my life. This spring it was tractors, this fall… trucks. The new farm truck is a beast (2003 F350 7.3L Powerstroke Diesel – yeeeeuh), but she’s an old girl and needs some TLC. Done already, mostly with the help of Mr. Mark Beauregard – left side ball joints, shocks, new tow plate, steering stabilizer, tie rod, new trailer wiring, new front wheels, right front wheel bearing, front brakes, locking front hubs. Man, it sure looks nice when you put it all end to end like that. Now just to fix the coolant leak (front oil cooler header, I think… I hope) and that nasty case of the shakes she gets between 45 and 50 mph. Hmmmpf.
And then there’s the van, which failed inspection (in New Hampshire? are you kidding me?) due to just a touch of the ol’ New England special – body rot. Looks like a patch job should have the Green Bomber back on the road soon. And, for the grand finale, the transmission in my pickup decided to give up the ghost. On the highway. With pigs in the trailer. Luckily, I was able to limp home in low gear with the trailer and avoid a tow truck convoy. And so the pigs are happily rooting in their new home, and my pickup has a completely rebuilt transmission.
Ninety-nine problems, and most of them are trucks.
Paul will be up in the barn on Monday for pickup between 3p and 7p. There are – amazingly – still some green things on the list, but it’s December. So there may or may not actually be green things on Monday. Fingers crossed!