That plastic barrel is to house the hoist when it isn't in use and protect it from the elements.
Here you see Cliff putting the hoist to use. When he's done using it, he'll slide it back into its little barrel-house. By the way, Cliff never wore shorts until he was past fifty; then we started walking for exercise, and I convinced him he'd be much cooler if he'd wear shorts. For a period of two or three years, he did wear them; then he gained weight, they no longer fit him, and he stopped wearing shorts again. This year, with one-hundred-degree temperatures for so long, he decided to be brave and buy some shorts. He's still uncomfortable wearing them in public; he says he feels silly having people see him like that. I guess that's because he never wore them for so much of his life. Nowadays unless he's doing something outside or in the shop (weed-eating, welding) that dictate his legs be covered, if it's hot, he's wearing shorts.
Yesterday I said to Cliff, "Your sister Charlene will be calling me soon." "Why is that?" "Because I haven't updated my blog lately." And just like clockwork, Charlene called this morning. She's the one who lives in St. Louis. "Have you been traveling? Is everything all right?" she asked me. Well, everything is fine, and no, we haven't been traveling. But every day seems to be "same old, same old", and I don't want to tax my brain trying to come up with something to share with the world. I do, however, need to put a slideshow on this blog of Cliff building a structure on which he will eventually put the half-ton hoist he bought for a bargain price earlier this year; because Charlene's husband's tractor, the Mahindra, plays a large part in the adventure. Now, some of you may have seen this already on Facebook or Tales, and I doubt most of my readers will find it very interesting. But it's for my sister-in-law and her husband. So there.
This thing is still a work in progress; we'll see how it all works out in the end. Oh, Cliff says there's one thing he misses, now that he's retired: Fridays! You know, that feeling you have all day Friday at work, knowing that you're going to have two days off? He misses that.
I realize most of my readers are ladies and don't know a hoist from a joist (just like me). We're heading to Platte City in a few minutes, but I came back to leave a link to an item like Cliff bought. Notice the prices, although Cliff says you can get a used one for $1,000 sometimes. That's why he figured it was worth risking $100 to buy something he would use a lot: for instance, if he works on the blades on his riding mower, he'd lift it with this hoist. He has a hoist already, but it isn't electric. To see the brand of hoist (it's a half-ton) we're going after, click HERE.
