Neighbors

A lot of things happened over the weekend and I'll try and get into some of that later.

Hay.
My one source of hay for the winter miscalculated her inventory of round bales and at first I left it to Rich to do the 'hay' search. He has always been the negotiator and hay purchaser.
Over many years though, I've watched, listened and learned.

I called a gent we bought from last year. I figured he'd be out of hay too or it would be beyond my price range. I left a message and when Darrel called back we had a nice chat. I explained what was going on and that Rich had a major setback in his health.
In the end, I settled on some large square bales.
Darrel called me this morning.

He worked out a plan, he'd deliver and if it was okay, ...he'd use our skid steer to stack the hay in the shed.
[Rich has always taken the hay off from Darrell's trailer and stacked it.]
He'd even would deliver our neighbor's hay and stack it in our shed since they didn't have a good spot to put out of the weather.
I did remind Darrel that I always paid cash, but it was Sunday and the bank was closed.
He laughed and said, "I know you guys, you are good people."
In country speak that means", "I trust you.

Darrel came down with his huge truck and trailer and I had the skidsteer warmed up for him.

Darrel came in a talked with Rich for a little bit and then went out to move hay.
I finally walked out, Darrell came back with the skidsteer. He couldn't get the bucket to detach. The bucket wouldn't come off.
We tried once solution after another. Rich even dragged himself out to try it. He had to be helped out of the skid steer and I got him back inside...

No go.
Hmmm.
Darrell thought perhaps the fuse or relay for the Hydralulic Attachment thingy wasn't working properly. [thingy is MY term]. We searched the skidsteer up and down looking for the fuse box...thingy. Both of us stood out in the wind and tried using our smart phones to look it up too...to no avail.

We finally settled on Darrell knocking the hay off the trailer with the bucket and my neighbor could place it in the shed with his little tractor.

With that sorted out, Darrell parked the skidsteer back in the shed and I said goodbye and I'd drop off the money after Christmas.
I went in the house and dug around.

Rich always has manuals on our machinery. I found the manual for the New Holland L220...

A bit of candy, an apple and some sticky note paper and I was suddenly...studying a machinery manual.

And there I found it. The relay and fuse box thingy that would perhaps give me a clue as to ... well, something, right?

I had told Darrell that I could have someone come out and service it after the Holidays.
He had wrinkled his nose at that.

My cell phone rang while I was doing chores.
It was Darrell.

I answered with a bit of pride in my voice, "I found the fuse box, I found the manual!"
He asked if the fuse box was located by the left side near where the driver's calf would be.
"Yes!"
Then there was a pause and he said, "My goodness you are just like me. Got a problem and you just have to see if you can solve it..." he paused. "I got home myself and had to look it up."

We talked a bit and then Darrel said, "I'm probably going to take a drive tomorrow and stop by to check it out."
My turn to pause, "Darrel, it is Christmas Eve. It is a holiday."
"Huh. Well I'd like to see what I can do. I'm sure it is just a relay or fuse. It's probably very simple and I can learn something. Besides," he said, "you are a good neighbor and neighbors help neighbors, there just isn't enough of that going around these days. Besides, I don't want you to have to pay for a service call if it is an easy fix."

I told Rich about the phone call when I got in. I got a smile with a thumbs up.

I spent the rest of the afternoon actually reading the manual.

Yuck. I have never liked machinery, but I learned something today also.

Last point though. I wonder if neighbors are also those who live 10 miles away.

Well, back to the manual...

Look at that, I will be able to find the air filter!
Score one for me!
That is after I find the fuse thingy.