Growing up in the city of Boston, I didn't find country radio until I moved to Indiana for college. I remember laughing with friends at the lyrics of songs on our local country radio station.

Since my first job working on a farm I now laugh for different reasons. There is a beautiful blend of tragedy and lightheartedness that keeps a farmer going, even when the bad news keeps coming.

On Tuesday morning Malik went to start chores and he could not find his trusty chore companion Susu (our border collie and chicken dog). It is odd, Malik told me, he's always there waiting for me.

After looking he called me to ask if I had seen him. We looked together and still could not find him. The longer we looked the more desperate I felt and finally I asked him to grab someone to help him with chores while I continued to look for Susu.

Just about when full panic was about to set in, on a whim I checked in the storage area of the farm house, and there he was excitedly waiting for me. His expectant look letting me know he had been waiting for me patiently this whole time.

Susu and Malik headed out to the field to do chores.

Less than an hour later, Malik called me to say our tractor broke. We only have one tractor and we rely on it every day for many things.  The hydraulics had stopped, leaving it useless in the field.

Our dairy farmer neighbor Lee graciously stopped in the field on his way to bale hay to help us take a look...Pressure relief valve or hydraulic pump...or both.

With temps climbing towards 100F I went back to the farm to check on all the coolers and freezers who were working hard to do their job. Uh-oh the big freezer was warming up and not running properly.

3 things in one day? Dang, I remember thinking to myself, that's enough for one day.

Lee stopped by later in the day after baling his hay to help me take apart the pressure relief valve to see if we could spot any trouble. We tinkered with it and made some adjustments with no luck.

I made a note to order new parts in the morning.

Mark, our fantastic, cheerful and expert refrigeration wizard arrived after an evening thunderstorm, which dropped the temperature by about 30 degrees!

When he pulled up we walked out to the freezer to find that it was running! He smiled at me and said he suspected as much: struggling to operate when it was so hot, but starting up again when things cooled down.

Too much refrigerant was the likely culprit. We made some adjustments and I went to bed with a dog and a working freezer.

By the end of the week we had parts for the tractor and Lee once again helped us out, taking time out of his Saturday to install the new parts and our tractor is back up and running. 

As far as I know Lee does not have email, and he smiles when he tells you he has never had a cell phone. So he's not likely to read my note here, nevertheless I am grateful for your expertise and support Lee!

-Nathan