Today, in my sleep deprived state (it's calving season), Murphy's Law struck. For those not familiar, Murphy's Law states that if something can go wrong, it will. What happened was a welded joint in our grapple that was previously done on our backhoe broke just before I had finished loading our feed mixer.

So, I ran the backhoe up to the shop, grabbed the grinder to prep the part and welded it back together in such a way that it will never break again short of a collision with an equally large piece of equipment.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't necessarily believe in Murphy's Law, but I do acknowledge that things don't always go the way you planned. Back in 2013, I didn't expect to quit my engineering job and start farming nor did I expect to teach myself how to weld via YouTube videos and practice. But I did leave my job and I did learn how to weld which led me today where I was able to effectively fix this piece of equipment in a manner that will last.

I don't believe in coincidence. The world is too small for that. Too many things in this world are too complex and too beautiful to have come about by coincidence or chance. I believe in God and that He is good and has a good plan for us. Today, I realized that His plans for me added up to something today that, four years ago, might have caused me to panic a little. Though a small piece of the puzzle for my life, it's nice to know that I reached a checkpoint along the way.

The offending grapple cylinder mount is hanging down on the left. The initial weld had no penetration due to a butt weld on 1/2" plate steel.

The repair. I ground a "V" into the weld and got at least a 70% weld. I didn't clean it up because the cows were hungry. 😉

Stuff Happens