So you want to live out in the country, huh? Well, this post is for you! The joys of country living have a unique way of coming forth ... every so often, I think forward to what this will be like if I live to be 70 and wonder if I really will want to be doing this then.
Yesterday, in the wake of a snow storm, I shoveled my way out to the barn, past the chicken coop with all those warm cacklers up on their roosting poles (not coming out for this weather). I've learned to store my old snowplow in the barn - it has a way of starting much easier, plus the barn is where I work on it when it needs it, which is often. When we moved in here, I began to realize that living with a long driveway would likely require more than just a good back and a shovel. Shoveling this driveway would take me days! So I bought an old truck with a plow. I had been passing one that sat in someone's driveway and eventually I got up enough interest to stop and make an inquiry. It was an old thing, and although it ran, it had many troubles. Out in the country, this would be called a "yard truck". I never intended to license or register it, so decided to just tow it here with my daily-use truck. That truck lasted a few seasons, then just quit and I had it hauled away. My present truck is an old 1987 F150. It runs. Usually. 'Nough said.
This fall I took the time to replace all of my brake lines as the old, rusted lines continued to break throughout the winters. Nice to have these again! I also rebuilt the hydraulic pump and ram last week - also nice to have! The old one had bad seals and allowed water to get in, and when mixed with hydraulic fluid, caused the ram to freeze up in the colder weather. The past few years, I'd always bring "the blue wrench" that is, my trusty propane torch, to help me get the ram unfrozen and moving. Somewhere along the way, the windshield wipers quit working, so I keep a real long snow brush in the cab with me. Usually it's not a big deal, unless we are getting freezing rain, or if I plow fast enough, the snow does tend to fly everywhere, including the windshield.
The engine is in pretty good shape, but when it gets real cold (such as yesterday's 3-degree morn), then I have some unique problems. It will start well and idle well, but as soon as I put power to the transmission, it stalls and floods. I'm not positive, but think it's a factor of how cold the engine is, and the fact that the mice have decided to move in under the hood through the years and build their homes on top of the engine. There's all kinds of nasty things that these rodents can do to a truck, including their favorite, which is to eat through the old, rubber vacuum lines. Old vehicles such as this one have no computer controls - they rely on valves and gates that are controlled by vacuum lines. When those lines are gone, certain things don't work well, such as the fuel mixture controls, which depend on the vacuum lines to change the mixture as the engine warms up.
I managed to get the plow out of the garage, part way up a hill, and into a load of snow before it suddenly just stalled and flooded. I walked back to the house to warm my hands and let it clear, then headed back to try again. It started right away and I let it warm up some more, tried again, and had another stall. I was feeling a bit desperate, thinking of the plow stuck in the middle of nowhere, not able to get back into the barn, not able to work on it, and the poor old battery getting weaker with each cold crank. One more crank and a start lead to one more push and a stall. While sitting there I heard a noise and one of the little, furry residents came crawling out of the bottom side of the glove compartment - a bit fearfully, I might add! I grabbed the long-handled snow brush and began to whack at it. Whack and a miss, whack again, miss again. The mouse took off running and scurried up into the side panel - I whacked at the side panel. The mouse came running out of the bottom of the side panel, across the floor of the truck and under my seat. Eek, I thought - this isn't what I want! I was whacking away at the cover of the seat, thinking to at least scare him off when I thought of two startling things: I wonder what the neighbors think, and I hope this blasted mouse won't run up my pant leg! Fortunately the neighbors can't really see that part of my yard, and blessedly, the mouse remained in hiding.
One last try and the truck started and ran well enough to do the whole driveway. Happy neighbors (free snowplowing service), happy wife, happy me. All's well that ends well out here in the country.
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