God bless whomever invented the skidsteer...

I hurt so damned bad yesterday after work.
I didn't use the skidsteer. (Some people call 'em a skidloader, but whatever... same thing.)

Did today though.
Yay MR. Boss.
Yep.
MR. Boss.

I wasn't sure how the hell I was gonna do it, I only knew I had to try and I did manage to talk him into letting me use the thing.

Eric gave me the idea, kinda...
He said I should just ask Mr. Boss if I could show him what I can do with one of those things and I took it from there.
Plus, this morning, before I went to work, I said, "Yo, God. Can you pleeeease give me the right words to convince Mr. Boss about this BEFORE my arms fall off?"

Seems like he did.

I started off by telling him I had this idea...
Have had it for a while, but I was waiting for the morning Mrs. Boss didn't have him mad enough to bite a railroad spike in half and that he wasn't balls to the wall trying to catch up or keep up with shit, but that I was kinda running outta hope about that day ever arriving.
Meanwhile, "We're killing me and we're not using alla your equipment, including ME, to it's best advantage."

I then told him it involved the skidloader.
I then hurriedly added that it wasn't about ME being allowed to drive the thing, and if he wanted to be the one to run it, fine, but I really, honestly believed that I could save HOURS of labor, his and mine, if we did the stalls that way.

I told him it was from when all three of us (me, him and Mrs. Boss) had bedded the stalls a coupla weeks ago that I got the idea that cleaning the stalls using it would be a VAST improvement for all concerned.

Then, I told him, "Look... let's try this... You drive it in here (the first barn I do, the "small" barn"). Just take it back to that furthest stall and I'll clean it right into the bucket of the skidloader.
Then the next one. Then, bring it back to here and I'll get those two (pointing to the two across the aisle from each other), then that one, then that one and I'll betcha it'll take considerably less than an hour."

He looked intrigued.

I then added that I was finding myself stuck between trying to make it easy on my arms and taking all got-damned day to get done.
"I try to make the loads lighter, but that just means more trips up and back and takes even longer, so I go back into full buckets and beat my arms to shit..."
"We can have you run the thing in here, then, when you see how much time it saves doing the actual cleaning, you can take me and the machine outside, or into the indoor arena or, hell, drop us off in the middle of the Pa. Turnpike, I don't care, and just tell me what ya wanna see me do... I can do ballet, reining or drive it like an old lady, whatever ya want AND if put so much as ONE SCRATCH on it or anything else, I will give you my car. Hell... I'll go get the title right now..."

I musta conveyed my confidence very well, because I could tell he wasn't automatically vetoing the idea.

BUT... instead of doing that then, he did the dragging of the wheeled bucket fulla shit and the hefting over the side of the spreader for that barn.

I didn't give a shit, as long as it wasn't ME killing myself doing that.
Took about 35-40 minutes to do the whole barn instead of the usual hour or so. Having help is a gooood thing...
*grin*

Then, we went down to the other barn and fed up, which he usually does by himself.
This included the brood mares who're kept in the indoor at night and while everybody was eating, we started gathering up the shit in the indoor from the mares.
Then, he gets the skidloader and followed me to a coupla piles of shit with it so I could fork it into the bucket.
(Usually, he cleans the indoor by himself with the skidloader, too...)
We got to a rather large pile that was gonna take a few minutes, so he gets outta the skidloader, left it running, and turned the brood mares out first.

I got the large pile picked up and then started just pickin' up little scattered turds, waiting for him to come back so I could go to the next pile.

He didn't come back, but he DID start turning out the other barn of horses.

That was when it hit me that's he'd left both big doors of the indoor wiiiide open after he got the mares outta there.

"Hmmm", I says to myself.... "I do b'lieve he's gonna let me do this."

So, I hopped in and went to the next pile.
And, the next one.

By the time I had alla shit picked up in there, he came back, dumped that load into the spreader and then he TOOK IT STRAIGHT INTO THE BIG BARN FOR ME!!!!

"Yessss... thank you GOD!!!!"

He parked it near the end stall and then said, "When you get done these two, just move it up as far as ya need and don't forget to take the brake off..." and went about his other farm business.

Man, that was fuckin' GREAT!!!

All false modesty aside, I went through that barn like shit through a goose.
Cleaned all 11 stalls in one hour and fifteen minutes.
Hell of an improvement over two and a half, three hours.

I did so damned good with that thing that the babies were back in their clean stalls by 10am, instead of the usual "noon-ish".

Mr. Boss even had time to ride three horses that some lady is gonna come see tomorrow to see if she wants to buy them.
(First time he's had time to ride since September...)
I stuck around for that, too.
I love to see a man on a horse who knows what he's doing, plus I wasn't dying from pain or anything (like usual by then), so I figured I'd give 'im a hand getting the horses ready to ride and I did.

I had alla the barn work done and he'd gotten on those three horses all before 12:30.

He thanked me for staying to help him and I thanked him for letting me use the skidloader.

A good time was had by all.

Now, since I'm not exhausted and in pain, I'm gonna finish the house, clean alla my critter cages and kitty potties and... maybe do some gymnastics?
I could, today.
I can actually get both hands over my head, like Rocky on the Art Museum steps, without crying.
Simply friggin' amazing...

I even told Mr. Boss, "I'm not often openly proud of myself, even if I do do good, but, I am now, man... an hour and fifiteen minutes... Wow, ya know? That was even better'n I thought I'd do..." and grinned at him and he was grinning back.

I think I made my point about how much better it would be.
I dearly hope we do the same thing tomorrow... which we should because he's got that lady coming by.

Mrs. Boss said she was gonna talk to him about me using the loader the other day, after she let me do it.
Then, she turned around that night and put a horse into this one stall that isn't being used for a coupla days while it's horse is at another farm, being tried out, effectively screwing me outta having that "one less stall" to deal with.

Why da hell she did that, I dunno.
When the original horse comes back, the horse she stuck in there will hafta go back into her original stall in the small barn and the colt she stuck in her stall in there is gonna hafta go back into his pen, not stall, so... da fuck was that about, except to get me to thinking...

I realized that if Mrs. Boss was the one to broach the subject of me and the skidloader to Mr. Boss, he'd balk at it, no doubt, because it was "her idea" or "her way". He feels like she has no respect for "his way" (which she kinda doesn't... see my McGuyver post from the other day... *raised eyebrow*), so if she was the one saying it'd be a good idea, hell woulda been a Frigidaire dealership before he tried it.

Plus, if she gives such a shit, why'd she "occupy" the empty stall like that, ya know?
Not to eeeven mention the approximately 97 other little things she's said she was gonna do, like talking to a friend of hers about helping me get alla these cats spayed and neutered someday, which she still has yet to get back to me about and selling me their brand of feed at her cost and all...
I don't wanna say "It's endless", but it is a rather looong-assed list so far, so....
I thought I'd maybe better deal with this myself.
My arms couldn't have waited for her to do it and for him to agree with her (about pretty much anything, let alone this).

They're both really cool people, but there are "issues" that're getting between them like a wedge. (It's her parents... Her parents live in their (Mr. & Mrs. Boss's) house and it's a looong story... ugh.)

If something doesn't give soon, you may see me in the background of a news story on TV, forking shit while the medical examiner makes "pronouncements", if ya get my drift...

I don't know who's gonna snap first, but I gaurantee... somebody is gonna be bleeding.
*gawd he'p us all*

I like 'em both and I listen to 'em both (whilst they bitch about each other), but I am NOT gonna get drug into the middle of this.
(Though, I have been thinking about it, of course, and have kinda decided whose side I'd end up on... wanna guess? I mean, c'mon... she HAS her people right there with her, he doesn't, ya know?)
(Besides, I'm not a total skunk... I didn't sell her out about what went on the other day, nor did I tell him she'd already let me use the skidsteer and that that's how I knew how well it'd work... so gim'me a break here. This shit is HARD to handle sometimes... Feels like I'm walking on GRENADE shells, fuck an "egg", ya know?)

All I really want is to not have my arms fall off.

Just gimme the skidloader, let me fork my shit, do whatever else y'all need help with (with the possible exception of "burying bodies"), and let me git home to my own shit.
'Kay?
Thank you veddy much.

Horse people are nuts.
This I know because I is one...

Peace

P.S.
Oh, and Livey... I'm with you.
To hell with diamonds and alla that foo-foo "girlie" shit.
Just give me access to some decent tools and machinery and I'm a happy lil' bee-otch.
I do love me a skidsteer...
*cheeky grin*

(Said in a goober voice...)
"I am going to pet him and hold him and love him and I'm going to name him George..."

Posted by: Stevie at 03:51 PM

Comments

Posted by: Light & Dark at February 24, 2006 09:40 PM (M9GWX)

Posted by: Stevie at February 24, 2006 10:55 PM (DYGQE)

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