Thread by @homemadeguitars

I'm scatterbrained. More than usual. I was working on my work cart this afternoon and just wandered off and left my tools out.
Realized it just a little bit ago.
Gettin' pretty chilly. You'd think it was winter if you didn't know better.
North wind is up.

2. So I changed a few gates up at the barn, set it up for donks in, and closed the top half of the east stall door. Let them warm up some.
There's no electricity in the barn, so I had a little LED work light thingy and could see pretty well. The donks aren't used to artificial

3. light, at least not here, but Sydney's got lights in her barn, and that's where Clara was born. I got the girls from Sydney. So Clara didn't bat an eye, just came right in.
Her mom is perfectly happy to let her go barge into things. Missy is more thoughtful.

4. Yesterday my new daughter and honorary grandson were up, and I needed to empty the manure spreader, so I told him I was going to hook up the girls to work, and he came to see.
He's 7, and about as active as I was at 7, which is considerable. The girls aren't used to this.

5. It's good for them. They can't expect to live and work in a world with no kids. But.
It's like I'm not fully present in my life yet. And I'm somewhat scatterbrained at my best. Gloria always kept me on task. ADHD at 74. Brain damaged. Yee haw.
But anyway.

6. So I harnessed them up and brought them out to hook up to the cart - this process.
Just about the time I get where this little clip ends, El Kid and Bandit the Giant Wirehaired Goofball launch some sort of game, and the girls go EEK and walk out.

7. So right here I did the wrong thing. This was time to give El Kid some treats and have him goody the girls. They understand goodies. But I didn't think of that til the very end of the day.
Nevertheless, we got all hooked up, and I backed them in and we hooked up the spreader,

8. And I neglected to either crank up the tongue jack or pull its pin and rock it up to horizontal. Just blithely drove off with it dragging.
On top of that, the hookup between the tongue and the cart body was pretty raggedy. I'd made it of steel that wasn't strong enough. Bent.

9. That's a piece of 2" hardware store galvanized angle iron, but it's the wimpy kind with all the holes in it. Giant Erector Set metal. Donkeys pull a lot harder than you might think, and they'd twisted the dickens out of that wimpy steel.
Then add a fully loaded, wet, spreader

10. And drive them to the spot where the sudden 4" dropoff comes, stick the tongue jack in the mud, the girls lean into their collars, and two or three things break all at once.
Fortunately, we were able to pull it back up to where it lives, where I can work on it.
Yesterday.

11. So today I turned the cart upside down and took off the tongue and its bent and broken mounting hardware. One of the 2x4s which make the frame of the deck was split by the force of the pull. I had bolted the angle iron to it with a 2" 5/16" lag bolt, and the whole thing tore.

12. I ran 3 bolts with washers crosswise through the split 2x4 to make it look like it wasn't split, and made new cross-members out of serious angle iron instead of this wimpy stuff. Instead of lag bolts the front one will through-bolt the 2" way through the 2x4 frame.

13. The front piece, the main pull point where the force applies to the cart, I took a scrap of angle iron about 8" long and welded it to the base piece, giving me 1/4" mild steel to bolt the tongue to. The back one goes into structural bolts that hold the deck to the frame.

14. I've got some other small parts need fixed too.
And I've got to weld the tongue jack back on the manure spreader.
Oh well. Pobody's nerfect.