"Saved by the Book!"

Since Adrian got stuck trying to get in the driveway last night, I made it my first task of the day to blow snow.  Me and my little tractor had just gotten started when I discovered that suddenly I could no longer lower the snow blower to the ground.  What the.....??  All other hydraulics seemed to work fine, except for the fact that the blower was stuck in it's highest position, and refused to go down.  Was it the cold, was the valve stuck, was it low on oil....??  This had never happened to me before, and so I could only imagine that something must have come loose or broken.

I tried everything I could think of but was stymied!  And the worst part was that I couldn't stick my head in there to have a good look, out of fear that it would suddenly drop and thereby remove the aforementioned head!!  Although my head isn't much use to anyone including me, I couldn't imagine leaving my wife with the twin problems of the driveway snowed in, and a bloody mess to clean up in the shed.  Besides that, if I were dead she would also inherit the problem of Sally's estate, and although I have excellent records, there's some stuff in my head as well.  Now that would piss her off!

By the way, did you know that that's how it works?  If you are the executor of the estate of person "A", and person "A" dies while they are in the process of dealing with the estate of person "B", that you then inherit that job as well!  Yup!  Even if person "B" is someone you don't know, or have ever heard of for that matter!!  Be careful what you sign up for!!

Anyway, back on topic. in order to avoid a potential decapitation I decided that I needed to get the blower off, and yet that was gonna be a task in itself since it was stuck in the air.  I managed to bury it in a deep enough snow bank that once I lifted the front end of the tractor off the ground with the loader, I could get enough slack to pull the pins and disconnect the 3 point hitch.

Now snowblower-free I brought the tractor into the shed and proceeded to stick my head underneath.  To no avail!  Everything visible seemed to be in working order, and there was no way I was gonna start messing with anything complicated.  On a nice day in the summer I might have pulled a few plugs, but not at minus 10!  I was however frustrated that I couldn't solve this strange problem

What to do, bearing in mind that the lane-way was still full of snow, and that Adrian wasn't gonna be able to get out for work?  It was a toss up between calling the dealer to see if they would send someone out (and pay for a service call), or bite the bullet and deliver it to the dealer and expect to be without it for a few days.  I figured our good neighbours would probably help us out with the snow for a few days.

After some humming and hawing I decided to call and see what the dealer would suggest.  After all, with a name like VandenBrink equipment, I knew I wouldn't get taken advantage of.

But.....it still bothered me.  I was missing something?  Not that I really believed that, but maybe I just better check the book quickly to make sure.  I leafed through the relevant section without learning anything, and when I was just about to give it up, I noticed a reference to something called the "lowering speed control knob".

Holy shit!!  I knew right away!!  It's a function that in my limited farming world never gets used, and yet as soon as I read it I knew it was there.  I didn't even have to study the book to find the knob because I knew exactly where it was located.  Just in behind my feet as I sit on the tractor!!  I walked over to the tractor, gave it a half turn, and watched the 3 point hitch settle nicely to its lowered position........idiot!!!

It's clear that I had inadvertently turned the thing to the fully closed position. most likely with my boots while rotating to look behind me.

I couldn't help but imagine 2 different scenarios.  In the first one, the service man shows up at my door, walks over to the tractor, turns that knob, and then falls down laughing.  In the second situation, I drive my tractor to the dealer where it sits for a day until I get a call back from the service guy, who then drops the phone on the floor because he fell down laughing!

And furthermore, I wondered how much those good dutch guys would have charged me for their amusement???  I guess I'm glad I didn't need to find out.

Eventually my potential embarrassment was replaced by relief, but now I still had the problem of getting the snow blower back on.  Remember that it was  stuck in a snow bank three feet off the ground.    But, it wasn't too bad.  Ten minutes later I was back in business, and 45 minutes after that all the driveways were cleaned up.  Phew!

Of course I was very tired by then, and I still had a workout to do.  Fortunately that was a lot less eventful than the tractor scenario, and it was also inside.  I watched a couple of hours of LOTR while I pedalled away.   It went reasonably well.

computrainer 2 hours, 90 minutes at 166

...and for your second smile of the day...

"To my embarrassment I was born in bed with a lady."---Wilson Mizner

Love
Peter