May 27, 2020 3 min read

It just me, or did summer arrive overnight?

It was hot this past weekend.

Actually, I’ll admit, it has been kind of nice to have the sunshine and the warmth and to be given a reprieve from all the rain of the past 47 months. OK, that’s an exaggeration.

It just feels like it’s been raining that long. A few weeks of this weather with no rain, and I’ll be complaining about how dry it is.

At any rate, we had plans to drive a few hours to pick up an antique tractor my son has been saving up his money to buy. Our itinerary was supposed to include a brief, socially distant visit with some family who live in the area we were to be visiting before we returned home.

Friday evening, we packed the truck with our day-trip gear, which, for the first time ever, included masks for all travelers. We planned to leave shortly after my 6 a.m. alarm rang.

I think it was shortly after 5 a.m. when my son entered our room to tell us it was time to get moving. He was worse than a little kid on Christmas morning, what with not being able to wait for the sun to rise. We rolled out of bed, amused by his excitement. We washed, dressed, brushed our teeth and headed to the truck, which was also already hooked to the trailer we would be using to pull the tractor home.

Sadly, the truck wouldn’t start. After looking everything over for several minutes, it was discovered the interior lights had been left on and there was just no juice.

We attempted to jump start it to no avail. Next, we hooked up the battery charger, which worked eventually, but not for several hours. Not surprising, considering there were two dead batteries under the diesel’s hood.

The look of disappointment on my son’s face was hard to take when he heard the seller would not be available by the new arrival time we proffered. Worse, he would not be available for the remainder of the weekend.

Instead of making a family trip, we used the good weather to get a bunch of chores done. Fence repairs, lawn mowing, field clearing, chicken coop cleaning – that needs done every weekend, regardless of weather – straw hauling, weed eating, firewood splitting and more. We actually got the bottle calves moved out into the pasture with the yearling heifers, too.

What’s more, they actually stayed out there.

We still bottle feed them three times a day, but this way, they can run and frolic like calves should be doing, in an environment that is far better suited to their needs than the pen was.

My neighbor called to check in with me, and upon hearing our litany of completed tasks remarked, “It’s Memorial Day weekend, not Labor Day.”

We were unfortunate to miss out on our family trip, as well as me seeing my son’s joy in his well-earned purchase, but we recovered well, and the trip is rescheduled. The extra challenges he has faced to procure his prize tractor will actually make its purchase a little bit sweeter, I expect.

And maybe he’ll use it to help with some of the chores that will undoubtedly need to be done next weekend, too.