No Joke, this is normal for me.

I am not a mechanic, gear head, grease monkey. My husband however is so, we have an assortment of old trucks being giving life again and road ready. However, sometimes I feel like his idea of road ready is not my term of road ready. My daily driver is a 2008 dodge ram 3500 dually (Cadillac of trucks) and his daily driver is a 1991 dodge ram 250o with more rust than paint. ON the occasion of having to haul equipment we switch vehicles and I get the honor of driving the ’91 monster. It never bothers me, I kinda enjoy it. Not today though!


After getting dressed for work, get my daughter packed for a day at Grandmas we head out the door and load up in the truck. But wait, where is my truck, oh yes hubby used it to haul the tractor to get fixed last night. It looks like I am driving the Farm truck a 1991 Dodge Ram 2500 rusted out and the door handle is barely attached.

but that is ok because I love this truck. It is an example of my farming heritage, rugged, dependable and a reminder of how far we have come in pickup truck technologies. I load baby and her bags into the passenger seat still feeling good about my day and happily slide across the seat to the drivers side. Put the key in the ignition and the truck rumbles to a start with the power of the Cummins engine. Press the pedal and away we go…….

Wait no, still sitting here..tires spinning….mud flying… ok well this is a small problem, just step out, lock in the hubs, put in 4-wheel drive and away we go… step out into huge mud pile from mud from day two of the Ohio Rains! Lock in the hubs, now I am muddy, still in a decent mood try to open the door gingerly as I don’t want the door handle to fall off. These things happen, go with the flow right?

Engage 4-Wheel drive lever inside and smoothly pull out of the mudhole, onto the gravel drive and head over to Grandma’s. Now we are on the road to Grandma’s only a few minutes behind schedule but I can make the time up on the commute.

Get to grandmas and the 4-wheel drive mechanism wont disengage. Are you kidding me? I cant drive to work in the city in 4-wheel drive! The feeling of happiness is slowly drifting away…After dropping off daughter, I get backing into truck (I cant even pull the door handle now because yes it is dangling) and mess with the 4-wheel drive mechanism for 15 minutes. Ok now, away I go. Heading to work 20 minutes late but I can still make it. Crusing down the state routes because the dodge cant drive 70 MPH on the interstate, no radio, and left my coffee cup sitting in my driveway still feeling like the day can be salvaged. In the back of my head I have this image of Garfield the cat, telling me that he “hates Mondays”, but its Thursday he doesn’t have any feeling about Thursdays Right?

A few miles from work, my cell rings I am sure it is my husband telling me how great his evening went taking the tractor to get fixed. Nope, my husband is calling to tell me the new truck that he had last night is actually in the shop now because when he was hauling the tractor last night he had it towed to the shop for brake problems and it actually broke a seal and now has burnt bearing, with a major repair needed.

Happy feeling GONE… Dark clouds forming…….

Why did I ever think this was going to be a normal day? In farming, no day is ever normal or predictable. Keep in mind all of this happened before 8am. Who ever said farming is boring never lived at my farm.

quick thought

Somedays the stress of being a responsible adult can become overwhelming and the dynamics of working on a family farm can be enough to drive me crazy.  On those days, I have to stop and remember what is at stake if we give up, not that we ever would. The cattle is the reason I met my Husband the reason our relationship works. Its amazing how much farming is really because part of your identitity and gets in to your blood.
I grew up on a rural Ohio Farm in the middle of nowhere, actually it was Hillbilly country and it was very nice. I knew what it meand to katch crawdads, never wore shoes and my mom made almost everything we needed.  I spent most of my time in the barn playing with the animals or since our goats were "free range" (this isnt a term we used but has become quite popular now) I roamed all over ther farm with them while they grazed.  Animals were my best friends, hay was my currency and animal talk was the dominat languafe. There arent that many farms left and my homeplace is no longer but I remember how great it was to learn the independance of wandering all around the farm, I was never bored and I learned a lot. Today I am glad to give my child the oppurtunity to live the life I knew growing up and no matter what it costs to maintain the farm and cattle, we will do it, not just for ourselves but so our kids can know the true meaning of what it means to be responsible and grow into your own person.