Lesson Learned

I usually do evening chores around 5 pm or so. It takes me about one hour to complete everything. As of late I am cleaning the pastures in the evening as the ground is a bit thawed and easier to remove debris. The mini shelter is on a slight incline and I park the gator in the shelter while I work. For some reason today I pulled up to the side of their house, turned the engine off and grabbed the hay for the goats. The goats were whining and complaining. I, in turn, was fussing at them. Suddenly I heard shwoosh, shwoosh. I turned around to find the gator careening towards the goat fence. The thoughts that ran through my head as I saw the impending disaster..No, Wait! Stop! Don't! But I couldn't move fast enough to get to the gator before it crashed in the fence. Ahh. I jumped in the driver's seat and pulled it up the shelter again. This time putting the parking brake on. (Light bulb) I guess I was too busy talking to the goats to remember the parking brake.
All in all the damage was minimal. A bit of scratched paint on the gator and a bent board in the fence. The wire for the goats is a bit distorted, but not too bad. I have been pleasantly surprised at how well vinyl fencing holds up. In the past 1 1/2 years I have had only one damaged board compliments of a kick by Lukomotion-the Quarter horse. Last fall we even had a tree fall on the back fencing and it did not break.

I have to say that this was not one of my finer farming moments. Lesson learned: Put the parking brake on!