Motorin'

This may sound retarded at worst (cliche at best) but I garner great satisfaction to eat breakffast every morning in our windowed breakfast nook as I look over the livestock peacefully grazing in the fields. I don't really know what it is, but it makes a man feel good to see the livestock out there doing their thing.

ANyway, this morning one of the longhorns wasn't to be seen. This happens from time to time when they are laying down or behind a tree, but I watched for her all day every time I was in the kitchen to grab some water and by afternoon, I was convinced that we had a problem. After work, Ginger and I finally installed a new chain on our awesome 5-horse mini-motor-bike and together, we took off on a tour of the premises to locate the errant bovine. After a brief mishap involving a lack of gasoline in the tank, we finally made it up to the far corner where we immediately saw the missing kine on the other side of the fence. Boo!

There was no time to do anything about it, but it was sure fun to get out on the motorbike after what has been like a 6-month hiatus (due to the broken chain.)

This evening, we had a family over for FHE and swimming and after they left, with the kids tucked away, I headed out with a can of sweet feed (on the minibike) and tried to lure the cow back to our side. It didn't work, but I soon had her in my grips with some "cubes" (which are just bigger cubes of feed) that I spread all over the ground on our side of the fence. She walked right back over onto our side and then ditched the food and headed for her herd. Apparently she was very anxious to get back to see them.

Switching gears, I hit the shop to continue on a project started on Saturday - working on my truck. I installed another shock and pulled the brake rotors (so they can be turned) and it is all ready for the new brake pads. I also discovered what I think are two potential sources of a rattle-sound that comes from the truck. First, it appears the anti-rattle springs from the passenger side of the vehicle are just plain missing. Second, the lower shock mount on the passenger side was totally loose and was probably just banging around down there. It's nice to solve problems. Oh yeah, it also appears the bumpstop is missing on the passenger side. Sheesh.

Finally, I think it is worthy to note that tonight marks the night that I broke my Husky brand ratchet (which I love, by the way) for the 4th time. Home Depot (or is it Lowes?) always replaces them for free, and I have to admit that the source of the breakage is generally easily identified (blatant abuse) but it is still a pain in the keister to have to take them in for a trade in. Perhaps tomorrow I will just break down and buy a $5 breaker bar so that I can stop breaking my ratchet.