Sunday, November 5, 2006

Friday's Mis-adventure

Friday started out as a beautiful, sunny day.... Our little calf had been sold and the new owner was picking her up. We were so happy to see her go to a sweet agrarian family. They arrived and we explained how to get down to the corral where we had her penned up.

Now, I will say that we took this same route 3 weeks ago when we put a steer in a trailer to take to the butcher. We had no problems at all. I am still not sure what happened. Neither of us took the time to check the ground (mistake!)....and this nice young man headed his truck and trailer across the field. Well, he hit mud....I mean deep, deep, mud.....his truck was stuck but the trailer was still on solid ground. Jeremy ran to get my truck to pull him out. The muddy spot seemed to be localized. But we could hear water running - in fact we could see it in spots.

I went to get a shovel and when I got back the situation had become a little worse....this gentleman had locked his keys in his truck....it belonged to a friend and he didn't know if there was a hide-a-key. So...the mud got put on the back burner while they worked on getting the truck unlocked. I called our neighbor, Lloyd, to see if he had a tool that would work - he has a beautiful shop on his farm and is our closest neighbor. Unfortunately he didn't.

When I got back to the truck, they were trying to use a crowbar, slid through the back pop-up window, to throw the lock. After 10 or 15 minutes they were successful! Now back to the mud problem. The biggest worry was that the trailer wouldn't make it through the mud even if we freed the truck...and if we unlatched the trailer would the tongue get lost down in the mud? This gentleman asked if my neighbor had a front end loader that might be able to lift the tongue and push the trailer backward...I went back inside to call. Lloyd told me he had a grader blade on the back of his tractor and would be right over. I don't know what he was doing but I am sure that on a Friday afternoon he was busy...yet he dropped all and came to help. He has been a wonderful neighbor over the years.

Jeremy helped this gentleman get some boards under the tongue, they put cinder blocks in front of the tires and Jeremy and Josiah helped to stuff hay in the ruts for traction. The trailer was unhitched from the truck and Lloyd made quick work of pulling the truck free from the mud. He took a look at the wet area and said the water that he saw running was clear and was of a volumne that made him think of a 3/4 inch pipe. But to us it smelled like a septic tank..... yuck! And this young man was having to work in this muck! I can't begin to tell you how horrible I felt! As far as we know our septic lines don't go that direction....but Lloyd said there was an old septic system in another part of the yard. This neighbor should know, he was raised on this farm and knows every inch of it. We never knew about this....was the house hooked up to both?

Now for the trailer...Lloyd hooked up his tractor and pulled it catty-wampus so it could avoid the mud. The truck was backed up to the trailer, hitched back up and then pulled down to the corral to load the heifer. I held my breath at that point wondering if that also would be a problem..... but she loaded without too much trouble.

All in all, what should have taken 20 minutes ended up being an almost 2 hour ordeal...I know I apologized at the time, but if you are reading this....again...I am SO sorry....next time anyone needs to drive through a field we will double check the ground!

God really impressed upon me the differences in hitting obstacles with Him at your side as opposed to doing it alone. Although that afternoon was discouraging, dirty, and difficult....how refreshing it was to walk through it with Jesus. No one wanted to quit...no one lost their temper....foul words were never uttered and I could just about guarantee they didn't even cross anybody's mind. Boys were willing to put their hands to whatever needed to be done, small children played happily.....it was amazing to experience.

Peace in the midst of the storm....and you will only find that when you rely completely on Him.

2 comments:

  1. Wow, it sure is good to hear a testimony like that. Frustrations happen. There's no way around it. How good to see examples of people who know their Companion is, indeed, beside them, and who are both consoled, and restrained, by His presence!

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  2. It was a wonderful experience - and such a good witness for the children involved!

    ReplyDelete

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