City Girl Pt. 02

Chase got out of his truck after he'd pulled into the driveway to the farm he'd just bought. As he stepped outside, the cool November air hit the parts of his face that weren't protected by his beard. He walked over to the gate blocking the driveway, unlocked the chain wrapped around it, and subsequently opened the gate. He went back to his truck and drove through the woods surrounding the driveway. Soon the trees gave way to the buildings along with the rest of the farm that was now his. The farm as a whole was just barely over 100 acres. The farm had come with a house with an attached garage, barn, two stave silos, and a shed with an attached shop.

As he pulled in front of the garage door, he killed the engine in his truck and put the gearshift in crawler gear. He got out and walked around to the side door on the garage, unlocked it, and proceeded inside. The garage was completely empty, and so he proceeded into the house. It wasn't furnished although it did have some old appliances, namely a refrigerator, stove, washer, and dryer. Chase had figured that those would be all he would need. He also knew that the house had electrical heat, speaking of electricity, the electric service should have been activated the day before, so he checked to see if the lights worked. After finding that they did, he reasoned that the refrigerator should already be cold so he returned to his truck to retrieve the small amount of groceries he had bought for himself. It wasn't much, just some bread, cheese, and lunchmeat, but it would be enough to get him through the week.

After he'd gotten his groceries inside, he headed out to the barn to get a closer look at what it would need. He began by investigating the lower part of the barn. It had a set of headlocks that ran the length of one side of the barn. The other side of the barn had a number of square pens that he planned to use as calving pens, and the remainder was a pair of large pens, also equipped with headlocks. He'd planned to use those two pens for weaning calves. He then took his time to go around and look at all the structural members of the lower story. Being an old timber frame barn, all he was really concerned about was that the main beams weren't rotten or termite infested. After a thorough inspection, he was satisfied with the lower portion of the barn and decided to investigate the hay mow.

The first thing he noticed when he entered the top of the barn was that, unlike the pens downstairs, the upper portion had never been cleaned out. There was still, he estimated, at least two tons of hay and straw left in the mow. Most of which was fortunately still in bales. Knowing that the barn would likely be the last thing he needed to get prepared, he ignored the piles and began inspecting the frame members again. The upper members lacked the white coating that likely had protected the members in the lower story. As such, some of the members had some minor insect damage, but not enough to raise any real concern.

At that point, Chase decided that he should investigate feed room next to the barn while he was out here. He returned to the lower story and made his way towards the feed room. The door to the feed room was closed and barred shut. Next to the door was a breaker panel that he reasoned was for the silo unloaders. The panel only had three breakers, the main and one for each of the two unloaders. He removed the bar from the door and opened it. The feed room contained an old feed cart and a silage fork. He made his way around those to look into the silos. He noticed that both of them still had doors at the bottom that were closed, leading him to assume that they still contained feed. He knocked on the doors from the bottom up, listening for the hollow sound that indicated there was no feed behind it.

"Hey! I found him!" He heard a voice yell from behind him, nearly giving him a heart attack. He turned around to see his uncle standing there.

"They're here already?" Chase thought to himself. He pulled out his phone and checked the time. It was 3:45 in the afternoon. He was expecting his uncle and grandpa to show up with some furniture he'd been offered at around 4:00. Then again, his grandpa was really good at showing up early to everything.

"What are you doing out here?" His uncle asked him.

"Well before you so quietly announced your presence," Chase began in a tone that was half sarcastic and half passive aggressive, "I was looking to see how much silage I'm gonna have to clean out of these two silos before I can use 'em."

"Do the unloaders work?" His uncle asked.

"Here we go..." Chase thought to himself, "I don't know. I haven't tried to use 'em yet." He responded, his jaw already about to tense up.

"Oh, well why don't I just try turning them on right now?" His uncle said as he raised his arm up to the breaker panel. The tone of the question was very much innocuous, but the malicious smirk on his face revealed the true meaning behind the question.

Chase didn't respond verbally, instead his jaw clenched and he bared his teeth just barely enough to be noticeable. His right arm also tensed up and his hand clenched into a fist. He wouldn't swing on his uncle, but man did the guy know how to reopen old wounds.

"Where's he at?" He heard his grandpa call. He assumed that he was at the very least inside the barn. The tension in his body began to relax knowing that he was, at the very least, about to be given something that would distract him.

"He's over here by the silos." His uncle responded as he took his hand down from the breaker panel and crossed his arms in front of him. Still in a relaxed looking stance and still with the same smirk that Chase knew was just to irritate him.

A couple seconds later, his grandpa came into view. "Ah there you are." He said as he saw Chase, who was relieved to not be alone with his uncle. "You ready to get that furniture moved in?" He asked.

"Sure thing." Chase responded, "Let me go open the garage door." He added as he walked past his uncle and headed for the house.

"You can take your time," His grandpa said, "I think I'll take the chance to look around a bit."

"Ok." Chase replied. He was relieved that he'd have at least a little time to try to get himself together a little bit before he had to help. As he walked towards the house he felt his emotions build inside of him, his jaw clenched again and his walk stiffened. As he neared the house, his chest also began to tighten.

As he entered the house and closed the door behind him he headed down the hall and turned into what would become the master bedroom. Once he knew no one would be able to see him unless they came in the house, he threw his hat on the floor, turned, and slammed his back into the wall. With his jaw still clenched, he looked up at the ceiling, closed his eyes, and began to run his fingers through his hair. "It's been eight fucking years..." He thought to himself, "Why can't he just leave it alone?!" After that thought had crossed through his head, he took as deep a breath as he could, and let it out by means of a long grunt. He followed the grunt with a series of deep breaths, which worked to calm him back down until his emotions were back under control. He then picked up his hat, put it back on, and headed back out to open the garage door.

After the door opened, he took an inventory of what they'd brought with them. There was a bed frame and mattress, a dresser, a couch, and a recliner. "Good." He thought to himself, "This shouldn't take too long." Opting to get a head start, he grabbed some pieces of the bed frame and started carrying them inside to the bedroom. On his second trip his grandpa and uncle showed up and his grandpa asked where he wanted everything. Chase then showed them where he wanted everything and went back outside to his truck to get the rest of what he'd brought with him.

Before long, everything was moved in and Chase was talking to his grandpa before they left.

"You've got a pretty decent looking place here." his grandpa told him.

"That's why I bought it." Chase replied. "That said, I know almost all of the equipment needs some work done."

"What kind of work are we talking about?"

"I'm not entirely sure," Chase admitted, "I haven't really gotten the chance to run anything yet to find out."

"Hmm." His grandpa said thoughtfully, "Sounds like you've got your work cut out for you then doesn't it?"

"Oh I'm sure." Chase answered, "I'm glad I have all winter to get things ready to go."

"Definitely... You're gonna be busy for a while, but I'm sure you'll be able to handle it."

"Thanks." Chase said.

"Well we'd better get going," His grandpa said, "We've got cows to milk."

"Thanks for helping me get moved in." Chase said as the old man got back into his truck.

"Don't mention it." His grandpa answered. "Make sure you keep in touch, we might still need you every now and again."

"Sure thing." Chase responded. With that his grandpa started his truck and drove off. As the truck dissappeared from view, he realized that he never had actually figured out how much silage was left in the silos, so he headed back out to the feed room. As he walked down the hallway he felt his emotions start to build again. "Calm down." He told himself, "You're here alone, no one can bring it up to piss you off." He proceeded to knock on the doors again from the bottom up. The first silo sounded hollow on the third door so he unlocked the door and pushed it into the silo. The door hinges creaked, probably courtesy of not being greased in 10 years. With the door open he could see inside the silo and examine the unloader. Or rather he could have if it weren't virtually concealed by cobwebs. Despite not being able to get a good look at the unloader, he could tell that the silage was definitely not worth keeping, as it had dried enough over the years to have settled a full door below the unloader.

"Well that's not the worst it could have been." He thought to himself as he walked over to the other silo. This time he could see the unloader's gooseneck sticking out of the fourth door up. Assuming the the gooseneck was 2 doors above the feed, he opened the second door and looked inside. Again, the unloader was covered in cobwebs but this time there was only about half a door of silage left. Now that he knew both unloaders weren't sitting in rotten silage, he opted to see if the motors on them still worked. He walked over to the breaker panel and flipped on the first breaker. The unloader squealed, but it did run. He shut that one of and turned on the other one, it gave the same result. "That's good." He thought to himself, "I can probably use those to get all that old junk out of there." Then he remembered that he should probably make sure the winches still worked. He checked them and, despite desperately needing greased, they both worked.

At this point he was satisfied with the condition of the barn, so he then headed over to the equipment shed to start to assess what kind of mechanical work he was going to have to complete. Upon walking in he turned on the light. The closest thing to the door was the utility tractor, a John Deere 2755 with a cab and a loader. Chase climbed into the cab of the small tractor and the first thing he looked at was the hour meter. It showed a little over 7000 hours. He knew that there was no chance of the batteries being remotely good if the machine hadn't been touched in a decade, so it would be futile to attempt to start it. Instead, he thoroughly inspected the outside of the machine. It did have some minor leaks from the hydraulic remotes, which was normal but he was likely going to fix them anyway. The tires and paint were in surprisingly good shape, which he reasoned was likely due to having been stored in a shed. As he looked around, he noticed that all the equipment looked similar, with good rubber and paint, just covered in dust.

Chase decided that he wanted to get the 2755 in a state where it could at least be run, even though the hour count, and the fact that it had been left sitting for 10 years, likely meant that the engine, at least, needed to be rebuilt. Despite this he went to the shop and grabbed three five gallon fuel cans and went to his truck. As he got in, he checked the time and found that he barely had enough time to make a run to the local dealer before they closed. With that he ran to the dealer and got a full set of filters for the tractor, along with enough oil to change the old oil that was in the tractor. He also assumed that he would need a set of batteries, so he bought a set before leaving. On the way home he stopped by a gas station and filled the three cans with diesel fuel and headed home.

As soon as he got home, he set to work. First he looked in the fuel tank to see how much fuel was left. There wasn't much, but he knew that what was left was likely full of algae and would need to be drained before trying to start the engine. He went to the shop and grabbed two five gallon buckets for draining the oil and fuel into. He then began draining the oil and fuel out of the system. Once the oil had been drained, he replaced the drain plug and added some diesel fuel to the crankcase to attempt to remove any sludge that had formed. In the meantime he went around and began working on changing all the filters. Which was easy because they had all sat long enough that they didn't spill any fluid when removed. By the time he was done with changing all the filters, the fuel tank ha finished draining. He then refilled the fuel tank and added some biocide that he'd kept in his truck. Back home, they frequently ran into algae issues with their combine in the past so he kept some in his truck at all times. He then drained the crankcase again and filled it with oil. The last thing he did was put the new batteries in and hook up a battery charger to them to ensure that they were properly charged in the morning. By this point it was late, so he Chase opted to head inside and turn in for the night.

The next day he woke up at the same time he always did, typical for someone raised on a dairy farm. Since he didn't have any morning chores to do though, he opted to just relax inside for a bit to stay out of the cold. That idea was short lived however, as boredom quickly overtook him and led him to put on his overalls and jacket and head outside. The morning sky was a dark gray, leading him to wonder if it was supposed to snow or not. It was definitely cold enough for any significant amount of snow to turn the roads into a slush pile. He checked the weather forecast on his phone and, sure enough, there was a chance of snow later that morning.

He shrugged the impending weather off and headed out to the equipment shed to see if he could get the tractor he'd serviced the day before to start. Upon arriving at the shed, he opened the door behind the tractor and removed the charger from the batteries. He realized that he hadn't checked the cooling system, so he pulled the cap. Seeing that the cooling system was full, he replaced the cap, climbed in the cab, and sat down. He turned the key to the "run" position and was relieved when the dash lights turned on and the gauges started to work.

"Alright old girl," he thought out loud, "Let's see what you've got." With that he pushed the clutch pedal down and began cranking the engine. To his surprise, the cranking speed wasn't horrible, but the engine wasn't keen on starting so after a couple seconds he pressed the "ether assist" button on the dash and continued cranking. The ether did its job and the engine angrily clacked and rattled as it gradually started to fire, white smoke belched out of the exhaust stack as the last of the decade old fuel was forced out of the system. The old engine continued to barely fire until fresh diesel fuel finally made its way through the system, at which point it took off and rolled out a thick black cloud of smoke as the engine revved to nearly its rated speed. Eventually the governor started to work and engine began to lope, at which point Chase let go of the breath he was holding out of fear that the engine might have ran away.

"Well that was a nice adrenaline rush first thing in the morning..." He thought to himself as he closed the cab door. He lifted the loader off the ground, put the tractor in reverse and backed up far enough that it was outside the shed. He then got out and walked around the machine. The engine was still loping, although it had smoothed out compared to at first. With each surge he noticed that a cloud of bluish smoke would leave the exhaust stack, confirming his suspicion that the engine was worn and needed to be rebuilt. He walked around to the blowby tube to see how the blowby looked, as if he needed more confirmation about the condition of the piston rings. Sure enough the tube was puffing white smoke with the distinct smell of burning oil.

"Well at least I got her running," Chase thought to himself as he made his way around the machine. "She's definitely tired and needs some work, but she's alive." He decided that it would be a good idea to run the tractor enough to get the engine warm and he also realized that he'd never actually been out through the pasture on the property. He decided it wouldn't be a bad idea for him to check all the fencing around the pasture. Anticipating that he would find a tree he decided to check the shop for any log chain while he left the tractor running to warm up.

After searching for a few minutes, he'd found a piece of chain as well as an old hand saw. He wasn't sure if the saw was sharp, but it was certainly worth a shot. With his chain and saw in hand, he returned to the tractor and set them inside the loader bucket. As he climbed into the cab he noticed that the engine had stopped loping and appeared to be running smoothly, although it was still smoking. Happy with how things were going, he put the tractor in gear and headed towards the pasture entrance.

About an hour later as he was making his rounds, Chase noticed snowflakes starting to fall. Nothing he was concerned about, but snowflakes nonetheless. As he made his way to one of the farthest corners of the pasture, he spotted a tree that had fallen and taken out a portion of the fence. He pulled the tractor up close to the fallen tree and climbed out. As he did so, he realized that the wind had picked up somewhat but he continued to work on the task in front of him. He quickly set to work on cutting the fallen tree into pieces small enough that he could lift and move them with the loader on the tractor. The task was by no means easy given that the only means he had available to cut the tree was an old handsaw that needed sharpening, but the constant movement and physical work served to keep him warm if nothing else.

Soon enough, Chase had successfully cleared the tree away from the fence. As he climbed back into the tractor to continue checking the rest of the fence, he realized that he had completely missed the fact that enough snow had fallen while he was working to cover the ground. He also noticed that the snow was now coming down faster than it was initially; not blizzard levels, but enough to make sure you notice it. He continued his trek around the pasture and was on the last stretch of fence headed back towards the barn when his phone began ringing.

"Hello?" He said as he picked up the call.

"Hey Chase, this is Randy. How are ya doin' over there?" Came the reply.

"Got one of the tractors to run today and used it to clear a tree out of the pasture. How about yourself?" Chase replied.

"Just trying to stay warm." Randy answered, "Hey did you just say you got a tractor running?"

"Yes I did." Chase answered, "Why?"

"Well I've got a favor to ask..."

"Ok, hit me." Chase said.

"Stacy was running one of her friends home today and the snow got the best of her and now she's stuck in a road ditch. Based on what she told me, they should be about a mile from your place and I figure you'll be able to get there before I can or a tow-truck. So would you mind taking your tractor out there and helping them out?"