Some days are diamonds

Some days are stone. Remember that John Denver song? Well seems that one ought to be my theme song as it sure does ring true more often than not.
Sunday the Zetor tractor decided to take a short vacation. So nothing to do but get the old JohnDeere A fired up and going with it's old loader.
First thing the A had a flat on the front, no problem air it up . Opened the fuel tank valve drained opened the pitcok on the bottom of the carberuator and got clean gas running thru , hit the starter and presto good ol John E Popper is off and running .
Off to the shop we go to get the loaders oil tank filled. Well ok so some of the seals have dried and are leaking they'll get livened up shortly. Hmmm not enough oil to fill the tank, quick call to a neighbor and they've got a bucket full . Get back and the front tire is flat again, no biggy the air hose will reach.
Ok have the tire aired up, all the loader cylinders are moving. Lets go put the bale fork on so the cows can get a bale of hay today. Almost to the fork and poof, broken hose off the pump. Good thing we got the neighbors extra oil. Have a hose that'll fit , off to the forks again. Amost there, pow splat, broke the other hose. Grrrrr. Well after some srounging found a hose that'll work top the oil tank , get the forks on. That cylinder is working the forks just fine.
Get to the hay stack spear a bale and what the .....? That @##$%^! front fork won't lift the bale, must be an air lock . Back to the shop bleed the lines, tire is flat again fork still not working.
Look at the watch it's 6:30, bucket calf thinks he's terribly abused. Getting dark and chilling off , not in a good mood time to go eat some supper and ponder the situation.
Alright during the night I've got the plan. Use the chain hoist to manual control the fork.
Sure hope Brown Co calls this morning and says the Zetor parts are in.........
That's the view from the control tower this morning.
Sincerely yours
Ranch 13
Chief Ranch Sanitation Engineer
Dead Cow Unit, Gone Broke Cattle Co.
Hells Gap, Wy.

Well here we sit on the morning of April 27,2009, watching the snow here on out known as global warming coming down at a rate probably about an inch an hour. Temp is about 32 above zero
We do have hopes tho that maybe the 12 year drought that has plaqued this part of the country is about over. During March and early April we were blessed with a blizzard everyweek for 3 weeks. Then we got 2 inches of rain last week and 3/4 of an inch this past weekend. Almost as much moisture in March and April as we had for all of 2008, things are maybe starting to look to the bright side!