“Hay-wire
outfit” is a dated western term for a ranch that has a lax maintenance
policy. It comes from the use of the
wire - once used in tying up haybales – to hold things together
I haven’t
seen wire-tie bales in 50 years, but at one time there were operations that had
piles of it. Baling-wire was used to repair
fences, reinforce shovel handles, and hold the steel tire onto a wooden wagon
wheel. In modern times you are more
likely to see duct tape or nylon zip-ties to make repairs. But I have a couple of new entries to the category
of fix-it materials: rubber bands and paper clips.
It was a
couple of years back when our balewagon quit right in the middle of the county
road. We cowboy-mechanics determined
that a spring had broken in the carburetor.
It was only a half mile back down the road to the mailbox, where we
snagged the rubber band holding the every-other-day packet of mail.
We
substituted the rubber band for the spring, and were then able to drive the
huge machine out of the road and back to the shop where permanent repairs could
be made.
This
week I made a repair on the printer in my wife’s office with a paper clip.
Computers
are a fact of life in this new millennium – and printers are essential
equipment – even on the ranch. Office
machines are not really my forte, but it didn’t take me long to understand the
problem: a tiny piece of plastic – which held the paper roller in place – had broken
off.
Carefully
bending a paper clip to the exact angles, I threaded it thorough a small
opening and into a narrow slot. Using a
pair of needle-nosed pliers, I bent the other end around an anchor-point on the
backside. The paper clip accomplished
the same task as the broken piece of plastic.
Thirty-six
hours later, my repair is holding. Tell
me again what that repair part will cost, how long it will take to be
delivered, and what that office machine technician gets per hour (plus travel
time)?!?
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