This morning after we had finished breakfast I helped mum do some housework. and get lunch ready for dad and Eric when they came in. Dad had been out spreading some fertiliser on some land we have away from the farm and I think Eric had been keeping him supplied.
After lunch dad was going to help uncle Ken repair one of his tractors and asked if I would like to go with him so I was well up for that one. First though we had to call in at a tractor dealers for a part that was to be fitted when we got to uncles.
To get to the where the part needed to be fitted, they first of all had to remove the rear wheel from the tractor and then put big blocks of wood under the rear axle so as to make it safe to work under, the jack was also adding additional support. They were under the tractor figuring out what they needed to do when dad got a phone call and wandered off, so I figured there was now room for me to take a look what all the excitement was about. So I was just bending down to get on my knees when uncle Ken asked if I could get him a thirteen mil spanner from the tool box. I wasn't sure at this point whether I could or not but I decided to wing it and opened the tool box. I obviously know what a spanner looks like and lucky for me they were all had a number stamped in them. So on closer inspection I found one that had the number 13 stamped on it so assumed rightly or wrongly that there was a good chance that this was the required 13 mil spanner. I'm not sure when, but somewhere between the tool box and the tractor I decided that I was a tractor mechanic. My over confidence probably came about following my suspected success at locating a 13 mil spanner.
Uncle held his hand out for the spanner as I crawled under the tractor, but I ignored his grab for my treasure and instead said, "Show me where, I want to see if I got the right one."
I'm pleased to say that I did get the right one and once the spanner was on the bolt I didn't stop there either, and even though it was hard to get started I got both the nuts off the broken clamp and then uncle Ken got the new clamp and we fitted that. He held the cable in place while I put the nuts back on and tightened them up so the cable was now clamped properly to the tractor.
Basically what had happened was that the tractor couldn't be put in to forward or reverse because the cable that connected the lever in the cab to the one on the gearbox was moving back and forth because the clamp that should have been holding the cable tight had somehow broken so that meant the lever on the gearbox wasn't able to be moved.
New cable clamp fitted.
At one point dad came back and saw me under the tractor and thought maybe I was getting in the way but uncle Ken told him, "She's alright, I feel like I'm the one in the way!" he said with a laugh.
After that uncle Ken and my dad put the wheel back on, it was to heavy for me. Then uncle Ken let me move one of his tractors out of the way so he could test the repair. He had to show me how to work the tractor though because it's different to ours, It's basically the same but obviously things are in different places. It was while doing this that I remembered to get dad to take a picture of me in my new work wear as I promise to show a friend. Although it wasn't looking very new after rolling around on the barn floor.
So, today was a good day.
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