Regular Maintenance Make Time For It Or It Will Make Time For You...

Anyone that knows me knows I have some of the funniest and strangest vehicle stories. Add in other small engines and I could write an entire book. Don't worry I am not going to recount the stories of all the times I have broken down, barely made it home or have had something break on me in a strange way. Instead I am talking about how if you want your things to work and to look nice they require maintenance. I mean regular maintenance not the occasional peak under the hood and "yeup she looks good". This entails checking the fluids, checking breaks, checking engine components and more (depending on the engine you are working with).

I cannot tell you that I have always been on top of my game with this idea. I had a bad habit of leaving things until the last minute which as you can guess never ended well. Usually it ended in me shutting everything down to do an emergency repair of whatever I was needing at that time. Not that regular maintenance would solve all my problems. Again, I have had some of the strangest things happen with my equipment. I have shared some of these stories in previous blogs if you care to read them. Maybe down the road I will share some more.

My point in writing this blog is to share some ideas that I have learned and started to do which has started to limit some of the avoidable emergency repairs. This goes for anything with an engine, repairs on your house or caring for your animals. I hope these ideas even though probably primitive may help someone down the road avoid that hair pulling frustrating situation that no one is fond of.

I must first say that I have learned the benefit of doing things yourself. I cannot take credit for that solely. I have had a lot of examples of men fixing, repairing and much more their own things. None more so then my father. He is a master at this. So much so that upon owning this ranch a part of me feels wrong if I hire someone to do something. Let me tell you there are times to do it yourself and I think every man should make the attempt to maintain or fix something themselves first. That said there is nothing wrong with hiring or calling someone else to fix something when you cannot do it or you are simply spread to thin.

One of the biggest ones that I can talk about are oil changes . I have saved thousands of dollars on oil changes over my life. I have only hired one person ever to change my oil and it was only because I was physically incapable of doing it myself. One part of doing it yourself is you know it is done right. That is another tantrum I can go on letting people work on your stuff but we will leave that for another time. Only thing I can say is that is why we are working so hard to find good quality people to put on our community page to avoid these problems.

So back to oil changes, a simple thing I have found is writing the date on the left over oil that way you do not forget when you did it. Also, another one is always buy more oil then you need. Something I learned from my father. That way you have enough if you need to add in between changes and there is never that risk of running out in the middle of an oil change. One thing I have had to learn is changing the oil in the winter. I always seem to time it out to the coldest day of the year when I need to change oil. This is just miserable. Everything is frozen and your hands can barely move when your done. Instead, I make sure there is an oil change in November before it gets cold and the next one comes in May. I do all the vehicles and tractors at once. That way nothing gets forgotten. It takes a day but it is done after that.

A simple vehicle trick I have found is in cold weather, I start all vehicles in the morning and once again in the evening. The reason behind this is we live off the beaten path. To not have a vehicle after a cold night is devastating. Simply running the engine until it warms helps eliminate this problem. It also helps limit the amount of times that you have to pull the battery on cold nights. Something I still do if the wind chill is below 0 degrees. It seems trivial or a pain to do this but if it avoids a dead vehicle in the morning I will do it every time.

Another one I will mention is mower blades. That is something I learned the hard way this year. I was mowing someones property and the next time I went to mow our property I noticed that only half the deck was cutting. I mean one side cut to 4 inches and the other like it had not even been touched. Needless to say this is not ideal or time efficient. Frustrating that it had not been over used or even that long since that we had owned the mower. Upon investigation I found that the blade was just gone including the bolt. Just gone, probably lost in someone's field. This started the decision that after a month of use or if I run the mower on a property for an entire day I make sure to check the mower blades. Tighten anything that is needed and make sure everything is clear of debris. Probably something I should have been doing all along but better late then never.

Anyone that owns property knows about the importance of checking fence. I cannot say it enough if you ever hear those old cowboy songs about checking fence and it is never ending it is not made up. Check your fence regularly. Use the time to enjoy your property. Take a walk and enjoy the peace. Watch the animals or just simply enjoy what God has blessed you with. It will pay off. I have saved myself a ton of work and hassle by regularly checking. Getting limbs off, cutting fallen trees off. Keeping the thorns and undergrowth from pulling at the wire. It also allows you to know areas that are weak or not suitable for animals. This way you do not make a mistake and are chasing livestock all over your neighbors property. Thankfully this is not a mistake I have made but I have been a part of this experience with others. So I make it a habit every week at least to walk and check the fence or drive it if I can. It does not take very long and it has come to be an enjoyable time for me on our property.

Maintenance saves you from this sad picture above. Something that happened to us. We had the tractor that was left which did not have the proper care and now it is the infamous lawn ornament.

Some other aspects that I would always recommend is clearing and checking your dryer vent pipes and furnace pipes. Both of these are real experiences for me. These should have been checked when I bought the house but were not. It has led to some painful experiences. Mud Daubers building some very impressive hives in each of the pipes and eliminating any chance of airflow which in turn stopped all function of the equipment. Not being able to dry your clothes stinks but losing heat when it is going into the cold weather is a nightmare. This taught me that it is worth the 30 minutes to check the pipes for clogs on a yearly basis. Clear out any debris so it does not become an all day project or even worse a project that can last days as you fight with it.

The last one I will talk about is chainsaw maintenance. Not everyone in the world needs a chainsaw but if you own property owning a chainsaw is imperative. The knowledge to use it is important but the ability to maintain it is something that is more important then anything else. Chainsaws are a wonderful tool but if things are not cared for on the chainsaw every hour that you spend cutting you will spend 2 hours repairing, sharpening or cleaning out something. Not very productive if you are trying to use it in a time efficient manner. Something I try to do with chainsaws is I always have 3 chains sharpened and ready to go. There is nothing worse then dulling a chain and having to file it down in the field. Your motivation is shot and productivity is not where it needs to be. The next is after a days worth of work, I take it apart and clean everything, wiping out the debris and clearing any areas that are gunked up. This seems like an obvious thing to do but most people do not do this and again have a saw go down in the middle of the field. I have also moved to twice a year it gets a full maintenance check. Everything checked no matter if I know it is operational or not. This way I can hopefully maintain the chainsaw working for as long as possible.

I could go on and on about maintenance and the importance of it. I could write a field manual for vehicle, equipment or house hold care. It would probably be a very exhilarating read with all my sarcasm in that statement. I am sure there are a ton of you out there that have their one preventative maintenance that you do. I think those that do would agree that you save yourself headaches down the road by maintaining things. There are those of you that still rely on the fix it if its broken mentality. Which is great but just think if you could avoid that big fix if you maintained things beforehand. I think that in itself is worth it.

The last bit I will say is that everything is a gift from the Lord. He honors those that work hard. You reap what you sow. We are also called to be good stewards of what we are given. No matter if it is small or large it is what the Lord has given us. That said I think it is wise and pertinent to maintain what you have and if you think of it that way I think maintaining will not be such a chore. We also believe firmly that what the Lord gives we are called to work to make it better. As the parable goes the master gave 10 to one servant and the servant returned with 10 more. The second returned with 5 more. The last returned with the same amount given. In the end the master took the original given to the one that gained nothing and gave it to the ones who have increased.

I think this parable (yes I know I shortened it drastically) is one that many of us can learn from today. It is something that as a society we have lost completely. Think of all the children who waste or lose what their parents gifted them. Let that not be so. It should be seen as an honor to increase what you have been given. To use what you have to its fullest potential and (with proper maintenance) the things you do have. It will begin to show you the value that it can be above and beyond what you expected. It also won't turn into this picture below, a nightmare that could have been avoided by simply making time to take care of the things that you have been given.