Good Deeds, Bad Results

 From June 19th-24th my family and I took over the responsibilities of the farm so my parents could go spend some time with a relative in declining health.  For the first few days things went smooth.  The cattle were happy and stayed where they were supposed to, and the irrigating couldn't have gone better.  Then on Wednesday, things changed.

One of the wheel lines decided to give me trouble.  In attempting to move it to the next set Wednesday morning it got bogged down in the grain I was moving it through.  With as much experience as I have with wheel lines I can usually feel when something is not right when the line is trying to move (i.e. mechanical awareness).  This time, however, before I realized what was happening one of the pipes gave out and twisted itself up.

I left the line where it was and came back to it when I got home from work.  It took 3 1/2 hours that evening to carry a replacement pipe out to the middle of the line, get it put in place of the broken pipe, and move the entire line up out of the grain to adjoining alfalfa field. It took an additional couple of hours the next evening to get the line straightened back out and bolt a wheel on to the new pipe.

My wheel line repairing partner.  The pipe he's sitting on is the one we replaced.

R got to do the honors of turning the line back on after we put the wheel on the new pipe and got the line straightened out.

An incident of a similar nature occurred when my sister and brother in law had someone volunteer their 2 ton grain truck to help with the excavation on an addition to their house.  The truck was loaded unevenly by a mini-excavator and when the bed was raised to dump out the dirt the hoist buckled and the truck tipped over.

Notice the back axle is almost perpendicular to the front.

Now with grain ripening in the fields, this truck has to either get repaired or replaced before any grain can be harvested.


Helping out a friend, family member, or any other person is always a good thing.  Unfortunately, well intentioned efforts don't always yield expected or desired results.  I am not saying a person should not go out on a limb to help someone.  If you are ever in a position to help someone (without putting yourself or someone else in danger or ruining yourself, financially), do it.  If something bad happens to you or the equipment you are using to help someone, so be it.  If you experience flat tires, twisted wheel line pipes, or bent truck frames in trying to help someone, that's okay.  That means you are putting yourself out there and doing something to try and help someone. Businesses are built and countries are formed by people who take chances. Broken equipment can be fixed.  Choosing to take up an opportunity to help a person without regard to the amount of time, effort, or equipment required is an opportunity to be a major blessing in someone else's life.