New Year's Eve day brought with it unseasonably mild temperatures. The previous day the thermometer rose into the forties and on Dec. 31 we saw 51. The heavy snow pack that had been with us through the month of December melted away. Some of the water inevitably ended up in our basement as old field stone foundations tend to leak. The rest of the snow melt soaked into the upper layers of the ground making it soft and mushy.
Dan wanted to take advantage of the nice weather and move things around in the outbuildings. The first task at hand was to reopen a sealed door on the machine shed. Remember the tale of trying to turn snowmobiles around? Getting this door open would mean we could pull into one end of the shop and out the other. When we moved out here, the landlord had all the doors to the outbuildings screwed or nailed shut for security purposes. With the property vacant for so long, he was concerned about vandals and teenagers looking to party. He had given us permission to open all of the doors, so we had done so as we needed to.
Dan set about prying nails out and unscrewing screws that held the door in place. While he twisted, pushed, pulled at hardware, and even dug some soil away from the bottom edge of the door, I walked out to the barn to open doors and turn on lights there to prepare for the items we were moving out there.
I returned to the shop to see the once sealed door wide open, and laying on the ground outside. Dan stood framed in the doorway laughing. We learned the hard way that the door hadn't been sealed shut for security purposes but that the wood along the top of it had rotted away from the brackets that held it to the track.
Leaving that mess behind, we moved the snowmobiles to their desired locations and started transferring Dan's tools from the garage to the main barn. We used the lift gate on his truck to move the heavy items. The first thing Dan wanted to move was his large rolling toolbox. Fitted with 8 drawers fully loaded with tools, this steel box weighed several hundred pounds. With little effort we got it onto the lift gate, and raised the gate just enough to clear the ground we would be covering. I walked behind the truck as we drove across the yard to make sure that the toolbox was secure. At some point, I realized I'd be in a world of hurt if the toolbox were to tip over onto me.
As Dan began his turn to back into the barn, I moved aside to let him maneuver more easily without being concerned about me behind the truck. He swung the truck around and positioned it right in front of the barn's large sliding door. I watched, in slow motion, as the lift gate of the truck hit the lip of concrete at the edge of the barn floor. The truck slammed to a halt and the toolbox flipped forward, opening drawers midair, falling to the ground, and closing the drawers once more as the entire box landed on its face just inside the barn.
A stream of cuss words streamed from the cab of the truck as Dan realized what had happened. We scratched our heads for a moment trying to figure out how to right the toolbox. Because the toolbox was on its face, we would have to contend with lifting it and trying to close the drawers at the same time. As we began to turn it over, the drawers swung open creating a counterweight that attempted to thwart our efforts and pull the box back to the floor again. Somehow, we got it upright again only to find it was balanced precariously on the same lip of concrete that had gotten us into this mess in the first place. Thankfully, we were able to muscle it over and roll it to its new home in the barn without further incident.
Standing at the barn door, I watched Dan get into the truck to head for the next load. As he revved the engine, he didn't immediately pull forward. I thought he was waiting for me so I took a step closer. At that moment, Dan spun the tires in the mud outside the door spraying mud into the barn and covering me head to toe. I retreated to the safety of the barn to allow him time to get away from the mud.
As I approached the truck again on the other side of the yard, I could hear Dan laughing from inside the truck. "Ya like that babe? Thought you could use a mud bath." Wonder what he'd do if I said I needed a pedicure.
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