There are certain tools farmers need to have on their person or at least nearby, a fact that seems to stay with many who’ve strayed from full-time farm life but still remain loyal to the soil and all its animals.
Fitting mostly into the second part of that notion, the need for a jackknife in my left pocket is continuous. There’s always a need for it, whether it be around the farmyard or doing something as simple as opening the mail. Others take things much further, them often carrying a jackknife in a pocket and a pliers in a belt-holster or even more tools constantly pocketed, latched or otherwise tethered to their bodies.
Even when they aren’t carried, certain tools are important to keep nearby. They might include a claw-hammer, a measuring tape, a fencing pliers, multi-purpose tools, a spade shovel, a posthole digger, a grease gun, an oil can, a splitting maul, a chainsaw…the list is long. Those who understand know it’s frustrating when one of those important tools disappears.
That was the case about three years ago and my favorite claw-hammer — a nice, fiberglass-handled 20-ounce nail-crusher — was nowhere to be found. It was about the time my fencing pliar and favorite posthole digger disappeared from our farm.
The agony of such loss never seems to disappear. Whenever I needed a hammer since then, I’d dig around tool boxes until I happen upon a much-less-impressive hammer that’s always been around. And, instead of appreciating that hammer, I most often stood for a moment and lamented my good hammer’s loss and considered possibilities concerning its whereabouts.
Sometimes, good luck and fate come together and lost tools such as my hammer suddenly show up. I admit — though many self-respecting of the farm ilk might not admit so — those lost tools most often show up right where I left them, such as in a pile of stuff in the corner of a machine shed.
Such good luck and fate came together for me the other day where my favorite claw-hammer was involved.
I’d cut a dying pine tree in the farmyard the other day, and was in the process of clearing the tree when my toe hit something black slightly protruding from the soil. My mind immediately thought it to be a protruding root, but a glance down told me otherwise.
The thing that caught my toe appeared to be black and possibly rubber.
I knelt and used my fingers to dig around the protrusion. As it was unearthed, it looked like some sort of a handle. And then, it started to look like a hammer’s handle. And then….
My heart leaped with excitement when I realized I’d found that long-lost favorite claw-hammer.
Scenarios aplenty played in my mind about how it might have gotten there, and how it became buried. The best answer I’ve had is that it fell from my tractor and then was run over during a time of the year when the soil was soft.
Though the matter of how the hammer got there was of little importance, though, as I held it in my hands with the same joy a child might hold his favorite Christmas present.
This has been a good season so far here on the Eimon Ridge in Wisconsin’s northern Driftless Area. The crops were planted on time, the crops have grown nicely, and the weather has been moderate and temperate. And now, the season has become special because I’ve found my favorite 20-ounce claw-hammer.
Some people are lucky and discover gold; some people are luckier and find their long-lost hammer, and it’s in good shape.
It doesn’t take too much to keep many of us happy out here in the rural countryside. Knowing the whereabouts of my fencing pliers and posthole digger would make life happier, though.
— Scott Schultz
Leave a Reply