Zen and the Art of Horse Trailer Maintenance
I just spent a couple days replacing the floor boards in our horse trailer. We’ve owned this trailer for about five years now and we bought it from someone who probably had it for ten years before us.
The floor boards are something that you want to keep up with especially after hearing stories of people that opened their trailers up after a haul to find one of their horses feet had gone through a rotten board. If there is a foot left at that point… well you can get the picture.
It would seem like a rather easy job to replace the boards, but it wasn’t. You would think that a manufacturer of an equine transportation system would have fore-thought enough to realize that horses will sometimes urinate in a trailer. This realization would conclude in a further realization that fasteners should be made of stainless steel because urine is corrosive.
A lot of the boards had to be cut out and then chiseled away from their rusty bolts. Fortunately I was able to grind and retap. Another odd thing was that the boards were each 7 ¼ inches wide, which means that each 2 X 8 plank with actual dimensions of 1 ½ by 7½ had to have a quarter inch ripped away on the table saw in order for the board to fit.
It was a job that had to be done. Now I can feel confident that no one is getting hurt by falling through the next time I hear a horse dancing in the trailer when we stop at a traffic light. It was a good feeling to reinstall the floor mats and put the tools away. Now I need to gather up plumbing tools. It seems there is a blocked vent in the addition.
One day I hope I can look around and find absolutely nothing that need fixing.
posted by The Guy Who Writes This at 4:00 AM
8 Comments:
I doubt that day will ever come - certainly not around here. Every day - I find something else that needs fixing.
(BTW, Patti at www.teacherpattiw.blogspot.com loved the comment you left on my post so much (re: trash) that she used it as her post title. With credit to you... It was a great line.)
when you find nothing to do you should definitely write about it. It would be something to write about.
wow. nothing to fix.
this is precisely why my wife is trying to talk me into a condo.
(not to worry... that won't happen :))
That is a horrible job to undertake. But, it does feel good to know your horses are safe.
What the hell is this picture of?
Beth, too funny. I visited, and yes she has some baggage there as well that needs to be taken care of.
Chantel, and when that happens I'll come to SF for a visit.
Weese, well you can move here to the farm and I'll move into the condo with your wife. How's that sound?
Syd, it's what your mechanic every time he looks under your hood. A rusty bolt, though your Benz has hundreds...
horses are ultimate luxury item.
You don't use them for work. Some people do but you don't.
You drive them around probably as much as you ride them around. And the vehicle you drive them is not electric of that I'm sure!
They are stupid. Intuitive and spirited maybe but not very bright.
They are edible but you wont eat them. And i dont blame you.
They require money, time, labor and space. None of those investments will be returned to you through the ownership of your horses. From what I gather you are not a horse breeder and your horses are not a marketable commodity.
The methane gas that horses produce is approximately one half that of cows but still adds to greenhouse warming at the rate of 18 horses for every greenhouse. (Okay I made that part up).
wait until the environmentalists find out about you!
Did no one else notice the phallic nature of that photo? I was thinking they will probably start selling that at Good Vibrations any day.
CP, you bring up many good points, and I'll confess that I am no longer the champion of green causes that I used to be. To tell you the truth I think most "Green" things are fraudulent from the start. This includes all green marketing, Organic Certifiers and the anti-LNG movement. As for climate change, BFD! People survive in the cold and in the hot places on this planet. And if some don't survive it, oh well we all have to go sometime. If you want to save the planet you will need to convince everyone to abandon their cars, trucks and electricity and wood heat... Have fun because I've changed my life style as much as I'm going to change it any further for the Greenies. They aren't doing enough to set a good example from what I see.
Lori, at least it didn't look like a joint to you.
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