Jerry-rigging (an improvised or makeshift repair) always makes me feel like an old farmer, and I mean that in a good way. Old farmers have gained a lot of practical solutions to the problems they run into.
Yesterday, I was out rototilling my garden and I was almost finished, when suddenly, I could no longer make my rototiller do anything. I couldn’t make it go forward or backward. Obviously, something had broken. After examining it, I discovered that the cable that ran from the hand lever to the gears had snapped. I stood there for a while scratching my head, trying to figure out how to fix it.
I knew I wouldn’t be able to find a new cable in our tiny village, and even if I found someone that would fix the rototiller, I really needed it right away, and anytime I take anything to be repaired, it seems I have to wait for weeks and weeks (that is, if it ever does get repaired). After thinking about a solution for a while, I came up with a plan, using things that I had on hand.
I took a bolt and two nuts. I wrapped the end of the cable around the bolt and tightened a nut so that it held the cable firmly in place. Then I took a wire which I attached to the rototiller’s hand lever and wrapped the other end of the wire around the bolt and then tightened it securely with the other nut. This held the cable and the wire together.
I started the rototiller up, and tried moving the hand lever which controlled the forward and reverse of the rototiller, and happily discovered that it worked. I was able to finish tilling the garden.
Living in an isolated, rural place, makes jerry-rigging a necessity. I often have to figure out some way to get things accomplished in unorthodox ways. Granted, my solutions are not always things of beauty, but I will forego beauty, if they work.
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