Sucking It Up

The trouble with being the person on the ranch with the least mechanical expertise is you get stuck with the jobs that don't require any, especially on the days when there are five pieces of equipment that require repairs and you may have had a hand in breaking two of them. For the record, nobody mentioned I shouldn't tilt the bucket down past level while setting big round bales on the stack, so the broken strap on the grapple fork is totally not my fault. And that thing with the hoist on the grain truck would NOT have happened if my husband hadn't been rushing me.

Basically I get the menial labor jobs, like when big globs of algae/moss grow inside the tank on the water truck and will plug up dozens of nozzles if they're allowed to get into the sprayer. My mission (and nobody asked if I chose to accept it)--clean the inside of an eight hundred gallon tank through an opening the size of a dinner plate.

The answer--Shop Vac, naturally. If you've been hanging around here for a while, you'll know either Shop Vac or duct tape is my answer to everything. (See Of Moths and Madness for one example).

And thus....

So this weekend when you gather 'round for your tailgate party, keep in mind some ranch wife may have Shop-Vacced a water tank so you could enjoy those steaks and burgers.