Blowing in the Wind

This blog has not seen much action of late however after todays experience I thought what is the use of a personal blog if one cannot have a good whine about the weather, old tractors, snowblowing and income shortages.

Out here in the wilds of the Klondike we do not have any 'new' stuff be it Ma's wheels, my tractor or Mikes snowblower but when the tractor gets to be almost as old as the owner then one must expect both to get a little persnickety in their combined dotage. Made in my home country of Jolly old England in the fiftys, whilst I was still wearing shorts to school, the Fergison tractor is a surprisingly reliable old girl but like the old man does not like these -20 wind chill mornings and when asked to gather herself together on such mornings to beat a path out to the road through 18” of snow gets a little cranky.

Today being the first time this year she was asked to do such a chore she was particularly reluctant, I got her heart started but the blood flow to the hydraulics was notably lacking, left to warm up she had a hissy fit and bust her fan belt. Now the old man has been giving her TLC for a number of years, and we have the skills to patch up the old girl when she quits, but why o why does she always do these things when its so friggin cold and windy? So out with the wrenches and off with the gloves, kneeling in the snow praying that it will only take 3 or 4 more trips inside to rediscover my fingertips we go to work to patch her up. Much cussing, wading thru 2 feet of snow to the tool shed, and asking for the wherewithal to have a least one piece of equipment that is younger than my son we bring her back to life. After a while to warm up that blood flow we get the old girl moving, sort off!. Meanwhile Junior blows a path back to the shop with the little antique...... only to find that his belt also needs replacing, (hey he was at least near the shop, lucky beggar!) and that one is only in her mid 20s not her late 50s!

Now Fergi is a game old bugger but 18” of packed snow is a bit much to ask of her so with blower and bucket raised we knock the top foot of white off all the way out to the road and back, now comes the hard part Fergi. Blowing the packed bottom foot of snow takes all she can do and half way out she starts coughing n gaging and almost gives up. Upon checking her out I see she now has a bladder problem and is pissing green fluid into the snow, upon further inspection I see she has heart failure and the old pump has just give out due to old age but the game old bird makes it back to her spot in the snow bank by the house.

Now her cousin died some years ago and we keep her in the mausoleum out back of the shed and it looks like we are going to have to do a heart transplant after first examining the replacement heart for defects or seizures. I just wish I could afford to bring in an outside surgeon but doubt whether any such technician would consent to work in a snow bank in the middle of winter anyway. Ah well I think she is going to get a bit of a rest till warmer days arrive, just wish I could get a rest as well but it looks like its shoveling time for this old antique!!

Now I know that folks out on the prairies will say “cold, that aint cold” and the folks down in London will say “snow, you aint seen snow yet” but Fergi and I, we have had enough of winter thank you very much. Is it spring yet?