In the midst of shipping and weaning calves, the hand dug well at the corral – the only source of water for the weaned calves – quit working. Grrrr.. One of the amazing things about this incident was the shorthand verbal communication between a father and son that I witnessed. It’s a language I can’t understand so it’s a good thing my role was limited to running errands and the pipe vise.
“What if we cut -“
“That won’t work because it -”
“No, it’s too long now -”
“You can’t change the stroke -”
“It won’t if you shorten it here -”
“Leave room for -“
“I know.”
They don’t finish a sentence, at least not based on grammar as I learned it, so I don’t know which pipe they want to cut or what needs to be longer.
One cuts a pipe, the other tightens bolts, one welds, the other finds the thingy that hangs behind that other thingy in the old, old, garage where he put it 23 years ago and hasn’t thought of it since. They nod, they spit, they cuss, they rummage in the junk pile for more parts, they think some more, but not for long.
I run for a tape measure but they never use it. Whatever happened to measure twice, cut once?
Out of the chaos of boards, planks, a variety of pipe, rope, wrenches, pipe vise, thread cutter, bolts, screws, saws, drills, two creative minds, and the pressure of thirsty calves, they get it right; the well is pumping and the calves are drinking.
I’m envious – I love this sort of “fixing” and I admire their abilities. I realize they’ve been fixing things on the fly for years, but I doubt that I could get it right if I had all those years in which to do it.
Unfortunately I have to admit that I didn’t learn much. I still need to have a picture drawn and sentences completed. I can’t describe what they did or how they figured out how to do it. They don’t even know they are amazing, but I sure do.
But most impressive of all, they did it without a single cross word!
Sandy Snider Stahl 