Greetings!

This morning I came into this room determined to do a blog entry now that I have all the time and silence in the world.  Today, especially, there is silence: Cliff is with his brother, helping him with some farm equipment.  There's always something to work on at Phil's place.

Somehow, as well-intentioned as I was, things quickly went awry.  I've been planning two separate entries for a few days, so I knew what I'd blog about.  I began searching for a couple of videos I wanted to include that I'd put on Facebook.  It turns out, Facebook won't let you share videos anyplace else.  I discovered some ideas on how to make it happen, but none worked for me.  I found no possible way to get a Facebook video on YouTube.  Then I tried playing the video on this computer while recording it on video with my iPad.  The result was pretty awful; making a recording of another recorded image is not a good idea.  After looking for fixes and trying different things for over an hour, I realized I was starving and took time out to make some fried Okra. 

This was my entire lunch.  OK, so I had an ice cream sandwich for dessert.  But yes, I wanted fried okra and Cliff wasn't here.  So my entire meal was a two-quart casserole full of okra.  I  didn't quite eat all of it, but I'm still grabbing another piece every time I pass through the kitchen.  I have about five okra plants, and that gives us all the okra we can eat... MORE that we should eat, but I do make smothered okra more than fried because it's actually nutritious and low-fat.  And we like it.

And then I found the video I'd put on Facebook was still on the phone, so I loaded it to YouTube from my phone.  Now here I sit, finally working on a blog entry at noon.  I'll get back in the swing of it, I swear!

For the first entry I've been considering, I have a tractor story.  Really, it's Cliff's story, because when I saw this tractor, I thought, "Big deal, another tractor.  And it's an ugly one at that."   

Cliff was helping Phil a few weeks ago.  Cliff hates working on tractors for other people, even if they want to pay him; but Phil had once again persuaded him to help him work on a acquaintance's tractor, an old English-made Fordson built in the 50's.  Always too eager to help, Phil had taken it to a guy to have the injector pump fixed; The man took one look at it and wanted no part of it.  "That could cost $1,500 to fix," he told Phil.  

Cliff said just looking at the tractor, he had a gut feeling there wasn't that much wrong with it.  The owner asked Phil to haul it to the salvage yard, where they'd told him they'd pay $250 for it.  Cliff offered the fellow $300 and the tractor was ours.

It hadn't been running for awhile, but Cliff brought it to life the first night he worked on it.  At that point, the grandson, who helps him these days on all his projects, became more interested.  It wasn't running smoothly at that time, and it was crazy loud, but it was running. 

The pair of them kept fine-tuning one thing and another for a couple of days, and next thing I knew, I looked out the kitchen window and saw Arick driving it around the yard, rapidly making figure-eights with it.  I have to tell you, I've seen Cliff revive various tractors, including another one that should have been in a junk yard, but I'm always impressed with the way he can bring one back to life.  Long ago I wrote a poem about a born-again tractor, but I've lost it somehow.  Still, I use that term for anything that was healed on the way to the graveyard, so to speak, whether human or inanimate.  I guess that's about all I have to say, because this next short video says it all... the grandson's enthusiasm, Cliff's pride as he watches, and the dog who is such a ham he gets in every picture and video I make.  Cliff said really there's nothing else that needs fixing on the Fordson except the clutch, which isn't terrible costly or hard to do.



The next blog entry I have in mind is about Cliff's expertise as a redneck-style fixer-upper, so stay tuned.  Maybe tomorrow I can get myself in gear and have it done earlier in the day.

Peace!