The past 10 days have been filled with lots of things: boxes, hay bales, water buckets among them. But one of the most common phrases uttered has been dear Hubby, "How can you not know that?"
This is in response to me saying "I don't know." to questions like these:
Where does the water go to in the barn?
Where is the electric come from in the barns?
How are the barns wired?
When was _______ built?
When was the last time _____ was done?
And when I say those dreaded three words, a look of disbelief passes across his handsome face. He is incredulous that I don't know the wiring harness of a Richie frost-free water fountain. That would have been the first question HE asked when he worked at his father's knee as a small child. It never occurred to me to ask such a question. I held the flashlight and fetched the wrenches and jiggled the handle.
That is how boys and girls can both grow up on farms and know completely different things.
In one bout of frustration, Hubby snapped at me, "How could you have lived and worked here for 18 years and not know how this works?" To which I replied, "How could you have lived in your mother's house for 18 years and not know her recipe for pickles?"
See, that's the moment when you realize that you don't know what you never knew...
What a great comeback - I never think of lines like that till the middle of the night, and though it's tempting to poke him awake and say whatever my great comeback is, it probably would lose it's effect at that hour :).
ReplyDeleteI run into this same issue occasionally as I also live where I grew up. Where does the perimeter drain go to? Why is there this big depression in the middle paddock? What did your Dad do when the grease trap backed up? I don't know to all three...
It is SO comforting to know I'm not the only one!!
Deleteaaahh, those questions are all too common to someone who also just moved to a new farm. Only we never lived here before so we knew neither one of us could answer. There has to be a gadget out there somewhere to tell you where that underground wiring is, what's in the depression beside the barn, where does the septic drain and so on. If you find it - let me know.
ReplyDeleteI will keep an eye out!!
DeleteI just got in this argument that other night as hubby (away at work) tried to explain to me how to fix our washing machine over the phone. I'm pretty sure marriage counselors should be making sure couples don't do this. Me, I had a load of dirty cloth diapers and a sick infant and I needed my washer to work. Lines like "grab the thing that looks like a pump" were followed by things like "What does a pump look like?" His response? "A pump! Use your imagination." me - "Okay, so a pump looks like a dragon flying through a sunset with a unicorn hot on its tail? Cause that what I use my imagination for, not pumps." In the end, I googled it. The washer was fixed, our relationship in tact, although I may have lost all respect for his imagination. I'm pretty sure he feels the same way
ReplyDeleteThe best part of that paragraph was "I may have lost all respect for his imagination". That will make me smile for days to come!
DeleteAnd all the making up and laughing about it when it's behind us! I'm so glad my woman's head doesn't work like mine!
ReplyDeleteHubby
Of course my head doesn't work like yours. You have a waffle brain, one compartment at a time. I am spaghetti brain, all tangled up.
Delete