As I sat at my computer station, I had this theme running in my head to show the importance of past knowledge (and memories), to glean some helpful information (and methods) to get through the many obstacles in today’s living.
But before I even put the keyboard tabs into action, I was blessed with an additional scenario application, that fits PERFECTLY into my story! I had my cellphone with me to assist in some soon to be recognized way, and it was just warming up, when an article came across the “quick-pic” stories that the AOL people want you to see. The header read, “Goats are helping save people, and bringing supplies to Western NC.” Now. I am sure that most all of you have heard of the devastation from flood waters caused by Hurricane Helene. There are so many roads that were completely washed out, that it was nearly impossible to get lifesaving supplies to those that live up in the mountains.
It took some old timers, and a bunch of horse (and goat) owners to save the day. It would have been a good addition to this story to use a captured picture of a “train” of pack goats, and (I am guessing) mules and donkeys being led up the washed out passes, where roads used to be just a few months ago. They all had these bright red packs affixed to them, and were roped together to form an animal train. The reason I am not showing this picture is “legalities” (I did not have the time needed to go through the process of getting permission to use someone else’s work). The pictures that I DID supply, came from me and my property (so we’re good there)!
Now, I have mentioned in a past story that we have experienced our own set of problems that came from the tropical storms this past hurricane season. For reasons (unbeknownst to me) our drainage creek that runs along the western edge of the property is filling with a fine sand. It started out as a slow accumulation, but due to the extraordinary circumstances (and tropical storm conditions) we have lost at least 1 1/2 feet of bottom drain area to help in moving all that water from points just above our property.
As a young man growing up in Ft. Lauderdale, I used to go on “mini adventures” through the woods, to the rock (and silica sand) dredging site, located just to the north of the wood line. They had all kinds of wondrous pieces of equipment out there and the one that I drew recent inspiration from (to help us through this local conundrum) was the diesel powered dragline. This machine had the body of a crane, but used a large steel bucket attached by massive steel cables that would be “swung” out over the waters to pull in large portions of aggregate materials.
Getting back to the present, when I first attempted to lessen the load of silty sand from this creek, I got down into the thing and was wildly swinging shovel loads of the stuff over the banks that were 6 feet higher than where the sand was. It didn’t take long for me to figure out that I could (and DID) get into physical trouble by attempting such a feat. Enter my two most used sayings, actually three: 1) Leverage is your friend, 2) Necessity is the mother of invention, and 3) if necessity is the mother of invention, than LAZINESS must be the father!
Just as those clever folks up in the mountainous regions of Appalachia drew from a craft that had been all but forgotten, I drew from memories of machinery that moved materials from hard-to-get areas!
I already had a small cable hoist welded into the back of my truck, I just needed to find a way to hook something to it to bring up the sand. Now down the street about 4 miles was a farmer that sold odds and ends things in his roadside store, and as I would pass by the place going to work (many years ago) I noticed some nylon (plastic) barrels in his fenced area. It just took one 30 gallon barrel and a few homemade fasteners and we had a “mini dragline!”
I had the rig set up; now I needed to get a little help making it work (as I couldn’t be down in the creek bed and up at the winch controls at the same time). Thanks to the help of a young man named Johnny Hurd, I was able to move over 1,000 lbs. of sand in just 2 hours! He would walk the empty bucket to the points I needed worked on, then slightly pushed on the back of the bucket to get it started. I barely put a dent in the creek bed, but hey, it’s a good start! (And as I may have mentioned before, those floodwaters rose up high enough to go 1 foot higher than the road that the truck was on! So, my ending thoughts for you this day come from one last saying, and that is, “The best toolbox that you can own is the one that God has placed between your ears!” I hope that everyone (or at least someone) reading this story gains something from it that they can use to better get them through these trying times!
May God bless (and keep) you all until we can do this again!
Steve Goodwin is a recently retired Christian conservative veteran (of the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division), who still feels that “duty to country” did not end when the military uniform got hung up. He and his wife Cecelia live on the edge of a beautifully wooded tract of land just south of the bypass, and are involved in not only church activities, but also attend school board meetings and local community action events as well.
