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Entry Date
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Nick Name
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Location
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Tuesday, October 20, 2015
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swhitty
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Bangor, ME
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Entry 48 of 48 |
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Right after spending 2 hours with the news reporter carving the Jack-O-Lantern, Dale and I went to pick up some free cow manure while we still had the trailer. We were borrowing the trailer from a friend, but he did offer us the trailer for $1000 which was a pretty good deal. We were debating on doing this.
Well, let's just say this was the most expensive "free" manure we've ever gotten, and we definitely decided the trailer was ours by the end of the day:
So Dale and I drove out to his grandfather's cow farm. His friend loaded up the trailer with cow manure, about 6 tractor buckets full. We were really excited because this was the same manure pile that we got manure from this spring, and the pile has just been sitting there composting all summer. This stuff was black gold, and it looked beautiful. We got a little greedy, and Dale asked for 1 more load, to which the guy said, "Sure, since I won't be the one driving around with a broken trailer axle." (Can you guess where this is going?).
A few miles after leaving the farm, the tires started smoking. It turns out we WAY overloaded the trailer, and the axle bent, causing the wheels to turn in and rub against the metal wheel wells. We drove really slow to get to a safe spot to pull over, and while we were doing that, the right trailer tire blew. We got the trailer off to the side of the road as best we could, and we got out to investigate.
Basically, we were screwed. We were stuck in the middle of nowhere, and we couldn't even unhook the trailer from the truck since there was too much weight in the trailer, and Dale's car jack couldn't even support that weight. We totally forgot to bring a shovel with us because the news lady ended up staying longer than expected, and we were rushing to get the manure since Dale had to work in a few hours.
Many people stopped to check to see if we were okay. One was an 80-year-old man. He helped us figure out a plan, and he explained to us that he is a 3-time cancer survivor, and has learned that helping people is the best medicine for him. Another man in his 70s stopped by, and he helped us as well. He drove to his house down the road, and then came back on his ATV with a shovel, other tools, and a hydraulic jack. Dale started shoveling the manure into the bed of his truck, and we talked to the old guy some more. We told him why we were getting the manure, and I happened to have the Bangor Daily News in my car so I could show him the story of our pumpkin. He saw it and said, "Oh, I already saw that in the paper. It's Peanut, right!?"
We talked some more, and the old man summed everything up perfectly. "The best way to learn is to make mistakes." Aint that the truth!
We were able to use the hydraulic jack to lift the trailer off the truck, and we drove 30 minutes home with our first load of manure. Unfortunately, Dale had to leave for work, so I had to take care of the rest with the help of two of our friends.
Over the course of 6 hours, we l
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