Last week was one of my most challenging yet. All of our
projects are up and going now and that means my mind needs to be in 5, 6, 7, or
8 places all at once, usually starting soon after I wake up and have my morning
coffee.
We have 175,000 pineapples planted and growing in Newton and
by the end of the week we should reach a total of 300,000 pineapples planted
including the land in Matindi. Our chickens are growing fast and eating a lot of
food and this weekend we will open them up to the entire chicken coop. The
okra, corn, and sweet potatoes are growing and well and we will start
harvesting them soon. Irrigation and well drilling starts this week hopefully.
Anyways on to the title of this blog…
In addition to all of the things listed above I had a few
things go bad last week that well, an inconvenience. On our way to Matindi, 20
guys in tow in the trailer behind the car, the front of the car began to
vibrate…and then vibrate more. Well luckily I was turning off the highway at
that point and there was no more problems the whole way into Matindi to the
farm. But soon we were getting back on the highway me and Jesi were on our way across
town after a short stop where she is doing research, and I had half a mind to
do some looking under the car to see if I could spot the problem. It turns out
I could spot the problem, the front driveshaft was about to fall out…Well that
ended plans for the day to go into town and I drove the car home slowly shaking
the whole way back…what was I supposed to do call a tow truck? lol
I made it back safely and pulled out the front driveshaft
and had a mechanic come by and take the old U-Joint into town to find a new
one. He was back within a couple hours and he helped me put it all back
together in less than four hours! All told that little problem cost me 35
dollars! I couldn’t get a U-joint back home for that…So that one wasn’t too
bad.
The next day however tested my mechanical ability. I was
just plowing along on about 5 acres enjoying the scenery on the John Deere
Tractor I am borrowing from an NGO here and all at once it died…Yep just shut
off. What to do? I mean it’s a diesel tractor right? They don’t just turn off
while working. It had half a tank, no leaks, cranked strong, I was at a loss. I
decided to pull the fuel filter and it was full of water, sand and dirt. I found
the problem, or did I? I went to Willamette and got a new fuel filter and
headed back to the farm, I might mention it takes about 25 minutes each way. I
put the new filter on, primed the pump, and nothing. Still wouldn’t start. So
what could I do at this point? Call my Dad, even in Africa some things don’t change
when I get a problem over my head.
I called Dad just like I would have if I was at home on the
farm and we decided that it probably air locked. It’s a 65hp tractor so it’s a good
size engine to get running again. He walked me through all of the steps as I
called him back after trying each one at a time since it is too costly to stay
on the phone the whole time. I ended up going back to town to get more diesel
to top off the tank for more fuel pressure to get it flowing again. By the time
I made it back this time to the tractor it was past dark out in the African bush,
but me and Titus went back because I really didn’t want to leave the tractor
out in the field. We then tried the steps dad gave me once more: prime, pump,
bleed, repeat, and it worked! I ended up
missing dinner plans with some good food and better people, but I got the
tractor back home. What would I do without my Dad? 8,000 miles away and he is
still helping me get through tough times whenever I need help.
