There are days when we are on top of stuff, really killing it and making our mark with confidence.

And then there are days like yesterday.

Yesterday, the snow needed cleared, so after breakfast, out went husband to plug the tractor in. It wasnt terribly cold, so it only took an hour or so to warm up enough to run this time. It started up just fine -and because of new oil, didnt belch black smoke this time -but it just would not run right.

He fought with it for hours. I went out and fought with it, too. It kept getting stuck in 6 inches of heavy snow, which is ridiculous for a farm tractor. It kept trying to stall out. It wasnt steering right, and worst of all, something was burning.

I was ready to throw in the towel. I was having anxiety and planning ahead for how I could trade this tractor in for parts come spring because a tractor that doesnt work is worthless. I told husband to just park it (away from anything else in case it blew up) and come back inside.

I went in, started lunch, looked out again and saw him blowing the drive. Seemed to be working okay, so I kept an eye out for smoke and tracked his progress like a hawk watches a rabbit. Four trips down and back went just fine, but I was mentally running scenarios of ‘how fast can I run down there if something happens?’

Eventually, he came back in. “Decided to risk it, hey?” I asked him.

He gave me a funny look. “Know what was wrong with it?”

“No. Why, did you figure it out?”

“The parking brake was on. Once I figured that out it worked great.”

So….some days we kill it, and some days we try to drive with the brakes on. Good news is, we’re rarely stupid in the same way twice.

And thank God operator error didn’t actually break anything. Having to trade in a perfectly good tractor because we were idiots would just be humiliating.