Do As I Say

I finally got the last of the blankets sorted, separated and bundled into piles last week.  I think I have outdone myself as far as setting the bar low. Very low. After putting this job off for far too long I told myself that I was going to get these dirty blankets sorted and sent off for cleaning and repair before the end of July . That is pretty pathetic but I am so happy to finally have this job done that I don't care. Better late than never is my current motto.  

Jason is as unenthusiastic as I am about the job of dragging around, sorting, and generally repeatedly handling dirty horse blankets. He found plenty of other things to do so he could avoid helping me as much as possible. However I told him I wasn't putting the clean blankets (the spares that didn't get used, blankets that didn't get worn, etc.) up in the loft of the barn myself, that he was going to help me with this one part of the job. 

I should have been suspicious when Jason agreed to help without any fuss.  Unknown to me he had no intentions of hauling blankets up to the loft over multiple trips. Instead he put them all in the loader of the tractor, drove the tractor into the barn and positioned the loader right at the top of the loft. He then went up in the loft, proceeded to climb in the loader of the tractor, and pitched them all in the loft in less than a minute. I will acknowledge that from a time and effort perspective this was incredibly efficient but I also feel compelled to point out that this was not the smartest stupid.

Jason loves to brag about how safety conscious he is. If I should be embarrassed about not dealing with these blankets until July Jason should be downright ashamed about climbing in the loader of the tractor.  Admittedly it worked out just fine but he would have gone ballistic if I had pulled this stunt.  It was a perfect "do as I say but not as I do" teachable moment. 

Let's all take a moment to reflect on this teachable moment and repeat after me:

I will not climb into the loader of my tractor with the hydraulics fully extended

I will not climb into the loader of my tractor with the hydraulics fully extended

I will not climb into the loader of my tractor with the hydraulics fully extended

In reality I have no room to talk. If Jason were standing here reading over my shoulder he would remind me of the time I led seven horses at the same time and had to negotiate three gates with all of them.  It went remarkably well but yeah, that was way up there on the stupid scale. I have no intentions of trying to repeat that experience as I doubt I could ever pull off it again so perfectly.  I guess this whole post can be filed under "stupid things Jason and Melissa have gotten away with."

Jason calls this making hydraulics work for you; he did tilt the loader down so it was flush with the floor of the loft

I think this qualifies as a classic "do as I say and not as I do" moment

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Donneur and Gibson

Lily and Maisie grooming

Toledo and Johnny grooming

B-Rad, Darby, Sam, Murphy and Sebastian grazing in perfect formation

Chance, Leo and Grand

Baby and Tony

Lighty and Sebastian

Gibson and George

Apollo, Hemi and Thomas