"Jim"

Part of the day was spent hauling round bales off Rocky Flats, one of the smaller fields on the Ranch. My nephew Mikey hiding in the driver's seat.

Meet "Jim." Jim's not fancy, he's missing a few windows, has a few dents, and, to tell you the truth, his throttle is an old clothesline you pull with your right hand from behind you when one is sitting in the driver's seat. Seriously, a clothesline that used to hold wet clothes. His floorboards beneath your feet are either missing or pretty thin making for a very hot cab. I know because I've driven Jim many a times, I've even lost stuff through those floorboards and found them days later on the field. The Ranch is a lot of hills and I'm always concerned Jim's cab will flip up and you'll quickly find yourself looking at the ground, (it's happened before). We have gates so narrow one cringes when driving Jim and the gooseneck trailer through them. I remember the first time I drove Jim, Hubby said "once you get Jim through the gates pretend you don't have the trailer on!" Really? Well all except the dump gate, now that gate is a bit tricky. After coming down a rather steep hill you have to drive quite straight, ever so gently nudging through the gate, and then just when you think you are going to drive into the garbage pile, you make a sharp left turn, all the time praying you won't rip the gate posts out behind you (rumor has it this was done once, and not by me!).

So there you have it, Jim's gears are a bit loose, his clutch slips a bit, but he can haul 13 round bales and not even stop to groan, probably because his brakes aren't that great :)