One of My Embarrassing Moments

When "The Grunt" started making a clacking sound while I was doing p.m. chores last week, I immediately panicked . . . and when it died at the end of the aisleway between the paddocks (about 900 feet from the barn) I cried.  I had to leave it there overnight and drag it with a chain the next morning with the tractor . . .

About four months ago, I had spent $700 to have it fixed . . .  the same clacking sound had preceded a breakdown . . . and the repairman came out with his flatbed trailer and took it to his shop in the next town . . . and both he and his mechanic said it needed a new starter . . . So, a new starter was put in after 5 years of using the machine almost daily . . . and soon afterwards, when I went to use the winch on the front of The Grunt, it had refused to run (first time for that) and I figured the repairman had disconnected a wire by mistake . . . or else, there was a major electrical problem going on.

The Grunt and a load of friends who came to help.

So . . . I was distressed and discouraged, and when I called the repairman, he said that he didn't work on ATVs at this time of year, so I should take it to the Polaris repairman in the city . . . and since I don't have a flatbed . . . and don't trust myself enough to try to drive The Grunt up ramps into the high back of my pick-up . . . well . . . I felt pretty lost . . .

Thankfully, my young neighbor is an electrician for the Railroad, and he had once told me, "If you ever need ANYthing, just ask."  I was about to take him up on the offer.

Neighbor Ryan said he'd come down after work the next day, but we had torrential rains.  I had been improvising . . . doing chores with the tractor . . . putting hay and grain in the loader . . . but the tractor is so much heavier than The Grunt, and the tires were tearing up the soppy ground.  I missed my Grunt.

Imagine my amazement when I returned home from work, yesterday, and saw The Grunt sitting in a different location than where it had been sitting under the big Sycamore!  I jumped from the truck and popped into The Grunt and turned the key . . . Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooom!!!!  Ahhhhhhhh!  It was music to my ears!  Such a comforting, joyous sound!

I hurried into the house and called Ryan . . . and told him he was a genius and that I just couldn't thank him enough and on and on and on . . . and he said to me, "Holly . . . do you know what that clacking sound was?"

Not being a mechanic of any kind, I told him, "no." 

"That's the fuel pump.  It makes that sound when it's out of gas."

I was almost speechless . . . almost unbelieving . . . After all, I've run the bejeepers out of that little machine for 5 years . . . and I remembered putting 5 gallons of gas in it not long before . . . and how could I be so stupid?  and how could the same sound have happened a few months before and then have required a new starter??  but I believed Ryan because he had gone home and gotten a gallon of gas and put it in the tank . . . and The Grunt was "breathing" again.

Honestly . . .

So, I made Ryan and his family a coffeecake (took a photo last night and added it to the March 9 post) . . . and will deliver it tonight . . . humbly . . . very humbly . . .

and he said he'd come back and try to help figure out why the winch doesn't work.  Thank God for good neighbors with a forgiving nature and a good sense of humor.