Despair

On a rare occasion I have hope that the hired hand is coming around and will be a really good man to have around. The other day he independently remembered that there was a stretch of fence needed fixing before we turned cattle into a pasture and went and fixed it. That really made me feel good. Boy, doesn't it say something when something so minor gives me hope?<br />n<br />nThe Ray of hope I was seeing was dashed yesterday though when the same old stuff seemed to happen again. We were moving a few cattle out of a pasture, boy it felt good to be riding a horse again, I had spent too many hours on a tractor, and from a distance I had spotted a few cows on a hillside near our destination so knew we had to get them. When we got down by the gate I asked the hired Hand if he had ridden up on the hill and got the cows up there. He said he had. I quizzed him further informing him there was a hole or two there and wondering if he had rode it out good or just glanced around. He said he rode it out real good and there were no cattle left up there. I decided to take his word for it and we kicked the cows out and went about our business.<br />n<br />nAbout an hour later we came back by the spot in the pickup and coming off the hill were two pairs. I kicked them out the gate with the pickup and decided I had better go look to see if there were any more cows up there. I got to the top of the hill and there were more cattle standing around, in the same spots I had seen them, under some trees. The hired hand said they weren't there when he rode the area but they were in the same spot I had seen therm earlier so I know better. I kicked them out with the pick up and went on our way.<br />n<br />nWe then went to the new monster tank which we had filled with water the day before to make sure everything was all right. It looked pretty good from a distance but on closer inspection I found some water seeping out from quite a few spots and was dismayed. I thought the damn think with concrete in the bottom was supposed to seal better than that. I got to studying the situation and finally came to the conclusion that quite a few of the seams were leaking around the bolts for some reason. I was sure we had tightened all the bolts good so I couldn't figure out why we were leaking water around some of the bolts. <br />n<br />nI decided to try to tighten some of the bolts to see what would happen. I was a little concerned I would tighten them too much and break the bolts so i wanted to be careful. I reached into the tank on the first one I wanted to tighten and very carefully went to tighten it a little. Shit!! It was plumb loose. I tightened it up good and tight and checked some others and found them equally as loose.<br />n<br />nTo make a long story short, all the bolts on the tank that the hired hand had tightened were loose and quite a few were leaking. I thought any idiot could tighten a bolt tight enough but I guess I learned different. I got most of the seeps stopped but one. The bolts on that one are partially in the cement so i couldn't tighten them. It's not enough water seeping to be a problem this year and nest year when the tank is empty I will have to tar up those bolts to stop the leak for good.<br />n<br />nSo I really despair that this gut will ever make a hand. Maybe I should start looking again and fire this guy if I find somebody more suitable. I'm tired of the whole thing.<br />n<br />n<strong>We cannot despair of humanity, since we ourselves are human beings. Albert Einstein</strong>