Like A Cow Lookin' At a New Gate

When a new gate is installed, cows will stare at it in puzzled fashion.  The old saying, "You're lookin' at me like a cow lookin' at a new gate" means simply that - you're puzzled or confused.  I've heard this saying often in country churches when a preacher says something and doesn't get an "Amen" from the congregation.

That saying pertains somewhat literally to our rumination today.  Our back yard butts up against the pasture where the cows, goats and chickens roam.  We have a large gate that you can drive through on the eastern side and a small gate that you can walk through a little west of that one on the east side of the garden.  If you want to get to the western side of the pasture, you must climb over the fence by way of a pool ladder that is placed precariously over the hog wire fence with a tight barbed wire strand running on top.  The pool ladder is rickety and I have nightmares of it falling and causing one of us to be impaled on the metal T-post!

Time to do something about it.  I purchased two treated 4x4's, an 80 pound bag of concrete and a four foot gate.  I dug two holes with my post hole digger, set the 4x4's in the hole using a level to make them true, and mixed up concrete.  I let that cure for 24 hours and then cut the existing fence, and hung the gate, using zip ties to fasten the hog wire I cut from the fence to the gate.  That keeps the chickens from getting out into the yard.  Here is the finished product:

The live oak tree has a big limb that arches over it, making a nice shady place to enter or exit the pasture.  This entry point makes it convenient to let the cows into the backyard to "mow" the grass.  I've only mowed the yard (with an actual lawn mower) two times this year!  You can see the reel for the electric fence in the photo below.

Once installed, the cows indeed looked at the new gate.  All was good.  Or was it?  After the cows looked at it closely, I did, too - with scrutiny.  Do you notice something about that gate?

This American built gate disappoints me.  It must have been quickly welded together either on a Friday, when the workers were eager to knock off or on a Monday after a hard weekend.  The three top horizontal pipes that make up the gate are not level!  Now that I've seen it, I'll never un-see it.  It still functions as a gate, just aesthetically, it leaves a lot to be desired.  I should have scrutinized it more closely upon purchasing.  It is a good reminder to inspect before buying.  It's also a good reminder to always take pride in your work, whatever it is that you're doing.  I'm not gonna sweat it, though, it works and the cows no longer look at it.  I've been running them through it daily to eat the grass in the yard.

The Proof is on the Roof

Or perhaps it is now OFF the roof...  Here's what greeted me in the backyard when I got home from work two days ago:

Poof!  Blown right off the roof

Those would be exactly 9 architectural shingles of Atlas Pinnacle roofing material. Discouraging?  Yes. Unexpected? No, not really.  This post recounts the sad story of a construction disaster we're having at our house, but in the end, it ties in quite nicely to an agricultural story with a nice moral.  Grab a glass of sweet tea as I tell you about the Shingle Shenanigans.

We didn't have abnormally high winds that dislodged the shingles from the roof.  In fact, the reason I said that it wasn't unexpected that the shingles blew off is that you can almost count on them to fall just as you can count on the sun to come up in the East every morning.  We built our home back in 2001 and every so often for the past 10 years, we'll see roofing shingles in the yard or in the flower beds after minimal winds or rains.

The shingles you see littering the ground actually came from the West side of the house.  In the photo below you can see a large area from whence they came.  Only the tar paper remains protecting the plywood that covers the rafters.  If you look closely to the left of that spot, you can see a large section of shingles that are lighter colored and that would be the location of a large portion of the roof we had repaired last year when those shingles blew off.

The Goof on the roof

But it isn't just that side of the roof.  They are coming down on almost every side. You can see some about to fall to the left of the dormer window.

And some are coming off on the eastern side as evidenced below:

The roof is a 35 year roof.  Well, I didn't get a third of that time out of it.  I've had another roofer come and repair it several times, but finally a couple of months ago I called the insurance company and had two roofers and an insurance adjuster come look at it.  Independently, they all told me the same sad story:  The problems that I'm having with the roof is due to shoddy workmanship, not roofing materials, and thus the claim was denied.

The roofer that put up my roof 13 years ago did not do a quality job.  They used only 3 nails per shingle instead of the 4 to 6 that most roofers recommend.  The nails that they did put in were nailed much too high and not where they should have been nailed.  Finally, it appears that they had the pressure adjustment set way too high on the nail gun and many of the nails were driven completely through the shingle.  This created the perfect storm, if you will, that led up to this sad tale of woe.  My contractor no longer builds homes and the roofer no longer is in business and I'll have to put a new roof on my home about 20 years earlier than I was planning on it.

Although this is a pitiful story, it is not a story to attempt to solicit pity or sympathy. There are some valuable lessons to learn here and I don't want to miss them.  I've carefully placed those lessons from the Good Book below in a font color that appropriately matches the color of my missing shingles: 

Colossians 3:23 tells us, "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the LORD, rather than for men..."

And:

 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.  Ephesians 6: 7-8

This is an important lesson about doing a good job.  My Dad and grandfathers told me, "Son, a job worth doing is a job worth doing right."  They were right, you know. Doing a job halfway, taking shortcuts, reveals something about your character. Doing things 'just to get by' often looks great temporarily, and you might be able to hide it for a little while, but shoddy workmanship won't stand the test of time.  Once the winds begin to blow, things begin to fall, and often the innocent parties are left to deal with the consequences.  

I wish I could tell you that I've never taken shortcuts.  I can't tell you that. I have, but my intention is to give my LORD, my wife, my kids, my family, my friends, and my employer my very best.  Our roof is Exhibit A that reinforces the lesson that my Dad and grandpa's taught me. Do a quality job - one you can be proud of - one that will stand the test of time.  As I think about it, this lesson is also applicable in an agricultural setting and underscores why it is important to shop locally and purchase your food from local farmers.  

Purchasing food locally from farmers who grew it allows you to look them in the eye. You can size them up, assess their character, know them by name.  Their kids know yours.  You might go to church with them or see them at the Post Office or feed store in town.  They'll be here tomorrow and the next day and 14 years from now.  They are proud of their products, their craftsmanship, their artistry.  The last thing they would ever want to do is give you something that is second-rate, because they want you to come back again and again.  They take their vocation seriously and if and when "the winds blow," they'll make it right.