I know I would get bored if I didn’t have things go wrong all the time, but sometimes I really think it would be nice to be bored. Sunday morning there was all kinds of commotion down at the barn so Rudy went down to see who was causing it. I guess the kids were bored during the night so Storm, Cupid, and Star all decided to go visiting. Star, and Cupid worked the corral panels apart, and went to see what they could find in the barn. They had the lids off of the feed bins, and helped themselves to some early morning goodies. Storm wanted some of that fresh green grass so he went visiting Sadie, and Lizzie. Rudy shushed the girls back into their stalls, but Storm didn’t fancy going back into his. Of course they don’t have halters on so that made it a little more challenging. He called me down to the barn, and we basically cornered Stormy. I convinced him that the better part of valor was to go back into his stall. He now has a lock on his paddock gate like the others. Why do all our horses have such nimble little noses that can undo just about everything?
Since Star, and Cupid made a mess of the panels we went ahead, and put them back the way they were making two stalls instead of just one big one. I wanted to separate the girls anyway I just hadn’t planned on doing it before breakfast. Needless to say the girls didn’t get goodies that morning. I went ahead, and fed everyone since I was all dressed, and everything. Rudy went back to the house, and started putzing on the big truck. I had watering to do so after I fed the rest of the animals (dogs, cats, birds, and chickens) I went back to the barn to turn off the pasture water. What the hay I thought, I’ll fiddle with the waterier in Ser-Haat’s stall that he shares with Ibn. The float needed to be adjusted as it was overflowing again. With all the water issues I don’t need to be wasting any water, besides it’s a drain on the well. I fiddled it ok I fiddled it right off, just what I needed, something else to break.
Up to the house I went telling Rudy I broke the waterier. He groaned (as you can imagine), and said ok he’d go down there, and look. I piddled around, and he still didn’t move so I went down to the pump house, as we had no water. Of course we had no water, I spewed it all over the place after I took most of it to fill the pasture tank. Now you just know my favorite thing is to sit at the pump house turning the power on, and off waiting until the pump can build enough pressure to keep the water running again. Once the pressure stabilized I went back to the house only to discover that Rudy had gone down to the barn, so down I went. He had most of the waterier torn apart except the lid. There’s a little cover you can take off to fiddle with the float, but to get the guts out you really need to take the top part off. Well the iron railing was put in after the waterier, and there wasn’t quite enough room to get the lid out easily. Finally between the both of us pulling at it we got it off. He unscrewed the float mechanism, and said he would probably have to get a bathroom float since the Mercantile was closed.
Rudy went to Ruidoso while I stayed home. Of course I just had to clean the whole thing, and see how it worked. I have this knack for tearing things apart. Luckily, I can generally put everything back the way it belongs as well. There was a part missing so I went to the barn to find it. It was the part that was causing all the problems. This particular float is plastic, and they use a little rubber plug to stop the flow of water. The rubber was ok, just worn which is why water continually trickled through. I could have probably put everything back together, and it might have worked again, but Rudy insisted that it wouldn’t. Ace didn’t have a float that would work so Rudy simply got some new fuses, a faucet (so I could turn the water back on), and came home. I would have to go to the Mercantile on Monday to buy a float from them, and put it all back together myself. He had a dentist’s appointment first thing in the morning, and then he was off again.
Being a very good girl after I fed I went to the Mercantile first thing with all parts in hand. I wasn’t going to buy a new float, and get it home only to find out that it wouldn’t work, yeah right. Well all the stock tank float mechanisms they had wouldn’t work for one reason or another. I asked what else have you got, and we looked at the good old-fashioned brass ones. I connected my ball, and decided that this just might do the job. I got it home only to discover that the ¾” was too big. Then I remembered there was another part I took off which come to find out was a converter from ¾” to ½”. Try as I might I couldn’t find that one little piece. I looked everywhere even in the barn to no avail. Most likely some little furry four legged critters I know thought it would be fun to play with, and it is under something where I can’t find it. Back to the Mercantile I go. Well as it turns out they have a ½” fixture that is $10 cheaper. That I can deal with. I get back home, put everything together, and then try to adjust the float ball. Well the tank is full so I have no idea whether I have it adjusted right or not, but I figure that having the float turn off too soon is better than having it turn off too late. I won’t know till morning whether or not it’s good enough, and hope for the best.
Tuesday comes, and well the tank doesn’t quite fill as much as it should, but as far as I’m concerned it’s good enough. Now I have to go to Ruidoso to get the injectors for my jeep Rudy ordered. Some time ago my heater hoses broke on my way home from town. I replaced all the hoses but the jeep was missing so Rudy ordered two injectors. He was sure that it was the front injectors, so Chuck (Chuck’s Tire Service) replaced them for me. The Jeep was a little better, but still missing. With my parents now in Roswell I will be making lots of trips to Roswell, and I need the Jeep to be working correctly so we went ahead, and got two more injectors hoping that would solve the problem. Whenever I have to go to Ruidoso the day is mostly wasted, and this was no exception. The good news was that nothing bad happened, and my water problems seemed to have been solved again. That in my book is a good day.
Wednesday came, and first shot out of the bag there were problems. I was supposed to go to Roswell to pick up my parents, bring them here, and then take them to Albuquerque the next day so Father could have the procedure he was supposed to have done on his heart when I first brought them down here done. Well guess what, Father did manage to have the blood work done, but he forgot to stop taking one of his medications the night before. Needless to say I spent the morning, and part of the afternoon on the phone. They wanted me to take him to Albuquerque (a three hour drive) test his blood, and if his levels were too high, then bring him home, and take him back another day. Now my mother is on oxygen 24/7, and can barely walk, and I’m supposed to traipse her back, and forth worrying all the time that Father is going to have surgery, and die of a heart attack at any time, I think not. Anyway, I manage to convince them that it would be much better to simply re-schedule his surgery now rather than make multiple trips back, and forth. The only problem is we have to be in Albuquerque at 6:30 am. This means that I have to feed at 3:00 am. I’m going to try to find someone to feed the horses for me. Poor things will get all confused being fed in the middle of the night, and then not getting fed till late that night. This does give me time to get the injectors in the Jeep however, and get some work done at the ranch so I’m not too disappointed.
Yesterday stormed all day so nothing got done, but I did get the injectors in today, unfortunately that didn’t fix the problem. The choices I’m left with are 1) a blown gasket, 2) bad rings, 3) bad valves, or 4) cracked head. I don’t think the Jeep’s getting fixed anytime soon. Rudy said it would just be better to buy a whole new engine, and he’d replace it himself. The only problem with that is yes it would be cheaper since he doesn’t charge himself $60/hour to work on the car, but then again he wouldn’t be working so whatever we save we loose by his not working. Not a good option. I’d rather pay the $600 for a valve job.
All in all it has been a pretty raunchy good/bad week. I did get some mowing done today, but I have to get the weed eater out to finish up at the house. It was beginning to look like a jungle out there. I mowed some patches around the barns, and I got the big weeds in the arena so the place looks at least half way decent. The grasses are skimpy at best. It rains all around us but we only seem to get a few sprinkles. There’s thunder, and lightning a plenty, and I pray no lightning strikes start a fire. Yes we have had some rain, but not near enough. So life goes on, and my boring days never seem to outweigh my exciting days, but that’s what I get for wanting a ranch, and I love every minute of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment