I headed out at sunset for a pizza run. A couple of miles from home on the desolate country road, the car started making a funny noise. Sort of a roaring rumbling noise that I tried to pass off as my imagination. Until it got louder, and louder.

I prayed that whatever was wrong would not get worse and I would make it home. Then the thumping started. Phew, just a flat tire!

I realized that I would ruin the rim if I tried to make it home, so I found a likely spot on the dark road and pulled over and put the emergency flashers on. I was happy that I had the flat last spring, since I had to put the donut on myself-my first tire change-so I had some knowledge of the jack and process.

That just left the pressure of fixing the flat in the near dark-the pitch blackness relieved only by leaving the headlights on low and the flashers on. Then the job became a time constraint-how long can a parked car sit with the headlights on and still start?

I popped the back and left the donut propped up against the rear bumper to show passerby the reason for the flashers and set to work. The locking hubcaps gave me a bit of trouble and I had to resort to a lighter to see what I was supposed to be doing. Once I finally freed the hubcap, it was a relatively simple matter to properly position the jack and loosen the lugnuts.

The jack worked a lot easier than when it was in a foot of mud last winter! I did those two steps mostly by feel. Then I jacked the car the rest of the way up, wondering if I should scout the roadside for something to block the tires, and decided I was on pretty level ground and it should be ok.

The the tire wouldn't come off the rim. I was in a bad spot since the steel belt was sticking out and I didn't have a pair of gloves. No way I could get ahold of the tire and yank on it. So I kicked it, and whacked it many times with the tire iron, and tried to use the latter as a lever. I thought I was defeated, and suddenly I was able to rock the flat free.

Then I just had to get the donut on. That turned out to be difficult, as a temporary tire is much shorter than a standard tire, and so was several inches off the ground. I guess I could have lowered the jack a bit, but by checking the location of the lugs and the holes on the tire, I was finally able to get the tire on.

Phew! put the lugs back on, lowered the jack, tightened the lugs, and we were on our way! I was very happy it wasn't pouring rain, or snowing, or twenty below zero. It was a dark, albeit starlit night, free from summer's mosquitoes and not yet below freezing, Actually, it was 62F this afternoon, so for a flat tire in the dark, it could have been much worse!

About twenty vehicles drove by while I was changing the tire. I didn't try and flag anyone down-but a pair of headlights on the job or a flashlight would have been much appreciated! I opted not to call for help. As it worked out, I had the tire changed in about a half hour-much quicker than the arrival of any available aid.

I joked with the Willow as we drove away-"Well, we are ready for the Amazing Race!"

Thursday feels like Friday. I wish!

I changed my first flat tire yesterday morning. Lucky for me I had the opportunity a few weeks ago when I was mired to familiarize myself with the jack and how to get it out of the car.

Unlucky me, I didn't know how to get the spoke hubcaps off the tire to get at the lugs.

I popped the center cover, and tried to prise the cover off, but it was obviously not going to come off. So I called a friend and ask him if he knew how to get them off. LOL.

He offerred to come by since he was on the road in a nearby town, but I said I would look for further instructions with the vehicle.

ONe the jack and spare(donut) cover, it said, "if car has spoke wheels refer to special instructions," with no indication as to where to find those instructions.

I finally looked in the manual in the glovebox, and it directed me to find a special key to unluck the hubs, which was in the glovebox. NOT in the glovebox!

I decided to search the boot, and did find the key, as well as my portable air compressor, which I thought I had thrown away, because I thought it was broken. I decided to try the compessor, and had to jack the tire up because it was so flat.

The compressor DOES still work, but air was pouring out, so I figured I had no choice but to put the donut on.

I took the key and tried to fit it in the hub, and it kept being uncooperative. Finally I had it lined up and engaged and cranked on it with a lot of torque, and when it let go, I sprung my wrist.

This was more than I could bear, and I threw myself on the dirt on my back, clutching my wrist and burst out sobbing with a verbal query to God as to feeling pretty sorry for myself.

A sudden light spatter of raindrops, a few hit me, and a breath of compassion, and suddenly I am filled with the fact that I can do it, and I do, I change the tire and put the donut on, and manage to only be an hour late at the farm.

Farmtalk:

It's been hide hair, and eyeballs at the farm the last two days, and oh, yes, Monarch came up terribly lame, so we did not walk the boys yesterday, and I irrigated his foot with hoof and heel solution.

First thing this am, I tackled one of the wethers, whose hooves were incredibly overgrown, and one had torn and separated from the hoof wall. What a mess, the poor gigantor (he's the biggest goat on the farm)shivered and kept putting all his weight on me, causing me to drop the foot, and him crash to his knee on the barn floor.

I was puffing and panting and cursing myself for taking on the job, green fresh goat manure from his feet....hooves are a gross job, no doubt about it.

Didn't help that I came out of the doctor's appointment lame as hell...Once those muscles that have been contracted are stretched out, they get sore afterward. I would have thought by today I would have been feeling grand, but an erratic sleep and active dream state weren't conducive to healing, apparently.

The good news is that Monarch was much improved on the sore foot today-the hooves looked fine, I think he took a stab in between the clews. I washed him thoroughly again and brushed Hjalmar, who is still releasing cashmere .

My own gang of goats need feet trimmed and the garden needs more work...there is the afternoon list. ;)