Sometimes Farm Work makes me Feel Strong. . . Sometimes.

Sometimes working on the farm makes me feel strong but mostly it makes me feel weak. 

I feel strong when. . .

• I carry 50 lb bags of calf milk replacer, calf feed, corn seed, etc
• I open and close stubborn gates.
• That's about it.

I feel weak when. . .

The jacks we use are similar to this one

• I try to turn a jack holding up a feed wagon or other piece of machinery and get NOWHERE.  I'll try pushing.  I'll try pulling.  It does not seem to matter what I do because the crank is not going to budge.  In the end, FarmerBoy or FarmerDad take over and in the amount of time it took me to get exhausted, they have lowered the jack and are ready to go. 
• I help with a water turn (for those few of you who do not know, we use flood irrigation to water fields in this area).  I am not quite sure why FarmerBoy brings me along because help is a very liberal term for what I do.  I can only do one-sixth of what he can.  Every now and then, I will think that I am doing good as I shovel away to open or close an outlet (from the ditch to the field) only to look down the field and see that FarmerBoy has opened all the rest and is on his way back.
• I try to close the driver-side door on the red truck from inside the cab.  The door is off-kilter and it requires a special technique and strength to get it closed.  From time to time I think that I finally have it mastered.  I will start the silent victory in my head, only to hit a bump in the road and have the door pop/fly open.  I spend the rest of the drive with my right hand on the wheel, my left hand holding the door closed, and hope that there is no need for me to shift into a different gear.  FarmerBoy or FarmerDad are usually nice enough to close it for me though.
• I try to open the passenger-side door on the red truck from inside the cab.  The inside handle has come off the door so the only way to exit from this side is to reach outside the window and use the outside handle.  For some reason the only way this works for me is if I turn around to face the back of the cab, lean out the window, use both thumbs to depress the handle, while my right foot is pushing on the door from the inside.  Oh, and what I mean by this works for me is it works for me one out of every three times I try.