A few days ago I wanted to go replace some posts on a pasture fence and noticed I had a flat tire on the post pounder, a tractor-towed implement that literally hammers posts into the ground. Mitchell asked if he could help and since I wasn't in a big hurry I figured it would be fun for him and he could do a few things within his abilities. I took a few pictures as we worked.
In this photo Mitchell is raising the hydraulic jack so that we can pull the wheel off the hub. If you look closely you can see he has already got the wheel bolts off.
After we had the wheel off Mitchell rolled it into the shop. Please excuse the mess. Shop cleaning isn't my speciality, but I hope to take a day this year sometime to clean it up. Anyway, we patched a hole in the tire tube and replaced the tire as well as it had a crack through the sidewall. I keep worn out 15-inch truck tires as they work well to replace implement tires.
In this photo Mitchell is filling the tire with air. This was one of the more difficult jobs for him as it was sometimes hard for him to line up the air chuck with the tire valve stem so that it sealed properly to allow the air to go in. Once I helped him line it up he was good to go!
In this photo Mitchell is filling the tire with air. This was one of the more difficult jobs for him as it was sometimes hard for him to line up the air chuck with the tire valve stem so that it sealed properly to allow the air to go in. Once I helped him line it up he was good to go!
Once we had about 35 PSI of air in the tire Mitchell rolled it back out to the post pounder and we hung it on the wheel hub again. I started threading the bolts for him and then he turned them in with the ratchet as you can see here. I made sure they were tight and we let the jack down. We're done!
Mitchell is doing more and more jobs around the farm now. He's done a bit of lawn mowing with a push mower on small areas and yesterday he picked a few rocks with his brothers. I ran the skidsteer while they threw the rocks into the bucket, or rolled them on if they were too big to carry. On a couple of occasions he's also driven a truck by himself around the farm. He's driven often with me beside him but a couple of times I had to walk behind some cows or needed a truck moved through a gate or across the yard and I trust him enough now to move small distances at low speed by himself.
Good work Mitchell!
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