One of the hardest things I have found after Pete died was handling heavy things on my own.  I found it incredibly frustrating that I can’t lift, move or manhandle lots of things because I’m just not strong enough.  This is a big disadvantage on a farm when you are by yourself.  I either have to work out some ingenious method of moving or lifting something heavy or wait till I have a muscular male to give me a hand.  You can imagine how frustrating THAT is!

Recently, I was at a friend, Helen’s place, who is also a country widow and we were looking for a suitable post to replace one that was obliterated by a large semi that took out the front gate post while entering the property to deliver round bales of feed. A local “mate” called Matt who is a champion  at helping both we widows out was there as well and when we found a suitable post, he said “Ok lets put it on the ute and take it to the front gate now so we have it ready to put in the ground tomorrow”.  I was thinking, does he think that Helen and I are going to be able to help him lift that lump of wood onto his ute?  Then he swung this little crane around over the post and looped it up with a chain and presto started pumping an hydraulic lifter with the post attached, onto the ute!!  I thought, ” I gotta get me one of these”!!!!!

So with a little googling, I found the one I wanted and then went into our local engineering business and spoke to them about it and they ordered one in for me. When it arrived the “boys out the back”  installed it for me with great care and added a few extra precautions.  They put in an extra heavy plate underneath the ute tray for strength so that it didn’t warp over time and added an extra bolt to the undercarriage to give it more strength and made sure the bolts for the base were NEVER going to come loose and exchanged the bolts in the arm for longer ones with nuts that will never come undone.  I think they were concerned that they were doing it for a woman!!  They went through all the instructions on how to use it and said to come back any time if I had any problems.  I think they were a bit intrigued that I was wanting to have one installed.  They were kind of a mix of wanting to make sure that everything was  “A OK”  and a little bit grinning and chuffed that a woman was buying one.

My new toy!

Well, the next stop was the local feed supply where I stocked up on four bales of lucerne hay and a rather large bag of sheep nuts  for the goats and horses.  I can’t lift the sheep nuts and normally have to wait for someone strong to put them into a bin for me.  I drove home and drove into the shed where I would normally store everything.  After hooking the bales up and pumping up the hydraulics, I swung the arm out and realised that it wouldn’t lower enough for me to get the bales into position.  I jumped up onto the tray and loosened the bolts that the boys had so kindly replaced and extended the arm to its full length.  Then with an extra length of the tie down, I looped this under the bales and hooked them onto the crane hook.  Voila! I swung the crane out and over the spot where I wanted it to go and dropped it down onto the ground.  I released the tie down and then did a little jig!!  I repeated the whole thing for the other and it was done.

Hook it on and swing it around.

All stacked up!

So pleased with myself.  As I was paying for the whole thing at the shop, the girl behind the desk said to me that it would be so handy to have without a man around and a bonus is that it wouldn’t  talk back!! It may not have talked back but I felt Pete was looking down and saying “Good one, Puss”!! I think he would have approved.