On Saturday Meg came over to the house, and after working on the tractor and anxious to show her how the front loader worked I said; "Meg, do you want to see how this front loader and forks works?" I proceed to drive over to a 25 foot aspen tree laying on the ground. I inch up toward it, drop the forks and push the lever to curl the forks upward. Suddenly, there is a small squirt of oil into the air. I shut the tractor down and go get some duct tape. As I am talking with Meg, I wrap it tight about 1/4" thick over the poinhole on the hose. I fire the tractor up and of course very proud that it starts on the first push. I push the lever and I am watching the duct tape. Suddenly, and I mean suddenly, the whole end of the hose seems to blow and I am watching a quck burst of hydralulic oil hit me square in the face, knocking my hat off, blowing into my nose and into my mouth and dripping from my beard. It was a full face shower of hydaulic oil; all over my face and chest drenching my shirt and oh man, man oh man. What a MESS! I guess I am fortunate that it wasn't hot and I had glasses on too. I figure now I have been baptized in hydraluics, pressure, old hoses and the limitations of duct tape. Nonetheless, after a long shower, my hair didn't have any tangles and it shined like it never has before. Perhaps I'll bottle hydraulic fluid, market it as detangling solution and call it "Tom's Hydraulic-Essence Detangling Solution" and sell it in the Shampoo section of Walmart or nearest NAPA store.
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