When you live on a ranch Date Night could be just about anything.
Saturday night Hubby and I went out and did something I have never done before.
It was a beautiful evening with the nearly full moon adrift in a sky full of clouds.
There was mood lighting, witty conversation and I wore my favorite Carhart coveralls…
OK, we went out to the back yard and changed the ball joint on the old Ford pickup.
Who says romance is dead?
Here’s what the poor girl looked like.
Notice the mood lighting.
This time of year you almost always run out of daylight.
The ball joint was completely trashed – there was nothing holding it together but a wish and a prayer. You can see the shiny new one at the top of the picture.
I love this truck. She hauled my babies around for years and then she took my kids to school when they were old enough to drive. In fact they started driving this pickup down to the school bus stop (a mile from the house) when Dalton was around 9 or 10 years old. There are a few dings and dents and those wild children of mine even got in trouble a couple of times in her.
I know your shocked that my sweet babies would ever do anything to get in trouble – but it’s true.
Overall, she’s been a great truck. I rolled over 190,000 miles on my way to work last week. I stopped on the side of the road, danced a little jig and whooped at the top of my lungs.
The only ones who saw me were a couple of deer and a bald eagle flying overhead and none of them even noticed. Makes you wonder if there aren”t more crazy ranch wives out there that do this type of thing – doesn’t it? Still, it’s a good thing I live out here – if I did that type of thing downtown of some big city they would probably lock me up.
Here’s the jack we chose to use – not your typical handyman jack.
What’s that they say? Go big or go home.
Why mess with those little ‘screw up’ jacks when you can hook a chain on the bucket of your handy-dandy backhoe and have an instant jack that can lift the whole front of your pickup off the ground?
And here’s Hubby putting on the nut that holds everything together.
And here’s one of the compartments on the tool truck – a masterpiece of organization (and yes, the rest of the trucks compartments looks just like this one). Never fear – Hubby knows exactly where everything is!
(Imagine my eye balls rolling wildly into the back of my head)
A few lug nuts and she’s done.
Thank goodness – I was starting to worry about the old girl.
Now if someone would just vacuum the dog hair and 3 gallons of spilled oats out of the back seat, take the spare parts, fencing materials, baling twine and tools out of the bed, sweep out 10 years worth of dust, mud spatters, old food wrappers and dirt from the cab and use harsh chemicals to remove the black, greasy buildup on the door handles, steering wheel, seats and ceiling liner – I would drive her to work.
And someday, if your driving through Wyoming and happen to see a crazy ranch wife dancing a jig on the edge of the road beside her red Ford F-150 pickup – just smile and wave as you pass.
You can bet I’ve just turned over 200,000 miles.
RanchDaze 