Let Me Explain

Inga just gave me that wide-eyed stare as I patiently explained, once again, the cause-and-effect results when she won't come in to be milked.  There was a hands-on demonstration as I worked to get those tiny teats to give more than a pitiful pffft-pffft of milk into the bucket.  On a normal day, it takes 350 or so squeezes to empty her udder.  Yesterday we were up over 800 before we could call it good.

That blank look isn't totally her fault, even though it is a bit annoying during a repeat lecture.  A goat's golden eyes have horizontal iris that close to mere slits in bright light.  Some people find this disconcerting.  It is difficult to tell where a goat is specifically looking, giving the appearance of inattention.  Oh well, this wasn't the first time we've had this talk; it won't be the last.

I looked in drawers, opened boxes, climbed up on shelves, peered under counters.  I pawed through innumerable screwdrivers and wrenches.  I found tools for which I have no name and no idea of their use.  Unfinished projects and bits and bobs for future plans littered every available space.  About the time I was ready to throw up my hands in defeat, I opened one last cabinet and, lo and behold and eureka!, there was not one pipe cutter in a box, but eight or ten in various sizes.  (I knew we had one from when I closed the muffler and welding shop I'd owned and operated back in the '80s.)

A pipe cutter is a simple, ingenious device with rollers and a metal-cutting blade that simplifies what could be a difficult job.  A pipe cutter is the implement that began my love affair with tools.  My grandfather on my mother's side apparently invented tools, and I appreciate the mind that looks at a task and says, "I can make this easier," and then creates the tool to do just that.  There is a tool out in the barn that I couldn't do without here.  For lack of the real term, I call it a twizzler.  It is a sort of pliers/clamp affair with a pull handle that allows one to take a length of wire and attach fencing with a twirled end in no time flat and little effort.  Another tool that has gotten a lot of use is the one used to put up or take down barbed wire.  Heck, I think a whisk in the kitchen is a work of art.

I spent so much time looking for the pipe cutter, it was too late to use it.  Maybe today, if Inga cooperates.