Ever had this happen to you.. Your hubby is out puttering around doing this or that, and you have finished for the day, the house is tidy, the critters all done and you are so looking forward to relaxing and your man appear an says.. Hon we have a issue?

Now on the farm, that statement can be almost anything, but more often then not, its critter related, like my little Stomp 2 was having lambing issues and hubby was doing the baby check and woke me up out of sleep and within five min down at the barn, with my hand up a ewe, moving that foot into place and helping pull him, resulting in a healthy ewe and lamb.

So last night I was relaxed, in PJ’s and while reading was looking forward to a early night to bed, when those words came out of my hubby’s mouth with that sound, that concerned something is wrong voice, and he informed me that one block of the railroad ties had given way on the raised modular and that the 12 by 12 wooden beam had given way, and while the floor and building is fine and inside shows no issues, clearly this is a BIG issue and needs to be fixed as soon as possable.

Crawling around under it, looks at the wood, figuring what had happened, and then forming a plan on how to deal with it, reaching for books, reaching for the phone, (thanks Dad for all your help in answering my questions) a run to home depo, Canadian Tire and Walmart to get the different supplies required( not sure how this applies to my no spend month but I was not about to wait on this one, I am sure folks will understand)

By the time we are home, its pitch black, we jacked it up enough to take the pressue off and went to bed with the alarm clock set to start again as soon as daylight showed its face, hauling railroad ties, jack ups and downs, leveling ground, hauling and putting down gravel, cement blocks, new ties, and we have a good solid temp fix for that corner.

Now the real issues showed up, the other matching one is going and will need the same treatment, and then really looking at the whole kit and kaboodle, and it would appear that we should run to beams crosswise and build up to more box’s and pressure holding places.

A couple hours of more work, and then back to the books, figuring out materials needed, time needed and to tell the truth we are sored, tired and my body at least has a number of new bruises and my hubby hit one my fingernails with the hammer-ouch, I was holding and had given him enough room for the normal use of a hammer but he was having trouble with the spacing and so turned the hammer to the side, clever yes, but suddenly my just enough safe distance went away and whap, the hammer came down on both nails, thankfully its only got a small colored spot, I have lost both finger nails and toenails over the years, and this is not bad in the grand view but its still sore.

Sometimes I think that its awesome that I am in a marriage where I work side by side with my DH, but I also wish that we lived close enough to my family that I could have asked for help, Could have asked them to come over, bring this tool or that piece of equipement, so that I could borrow instead of buy, could have had more experanced eyes look at the project, could have had my mom or aunt or sister-in-law make or  show up  with a hot supper to be waiting for us when we came in wet, dirty, and tired. Could have had my little nieces have been the ones that got to go pick the fresh rasberries that was dessert tonight with homemade pudding.

I am grateful that I can pick up the phone and get advice but hands on help at times would be such a blessing to my day..

Do you live close enough to family that you can call them for help? or are you a team with your mate that gets it done, or I guess there another choice, do you call for hired help?