Maybe it'll work THIS time...

When will I ever learn? I keep doing the same thing expecting a different result. I'm going to state a bit of wisdom that you can all feel free to quote back to me until I learn my lesson. Here it is:

If you think you might need tire chains, then you do need tire chains.

Wow, when I say it like that it makes so much sense. Of course, if someone had said that to me yesterday, I would probably have dismissed it as hogwash.

Yesterday Christie had to take Cordova (Cory) to town to meet a transport truck. Cory is going to live with some very nice people in Colorado Springs. He was a champ, he even waded through a snow drift to squeeze into the trailer because I backed it into a corner. Trust me, for a half-Arab yearling, that is downright amazing.

I'm sure some of you are wondering why the trailer was parked awkwardly. I'll tell you outright it was because I was too tired to care. But I get ahead of myself. Let's backtrack 4 hours to the time when Christie sweetly asked, "Honey, could you help me hook up the trailer?" I left my desk, knowing I would be right back to work with none the wiser.

We hooked up the trailer as snow fell softly, giving the world a fuzzy aspect. We decided, smartly I thought, to pull the trailer up to the top of the driveway before adding the weight of a horse. I took a run at it, and almost made it too. The truck made it past the steep part, but the trailer didn't and I started to spin. OK, no problem, I'll just back up and a take another run at it, with a little more speed I won't get stuck. Evidently I left my mental capacity in my other briefs, because I managed to back the trailer straight down the driveway, and into our yard. The driveway turned, I didn't, the rest is history.

About this time, I realized it would have been good to have tire chains. So, we decided to put them on. This was a terrible time to try to locate the chains we hadn't used since last winter. Well, we couldn't find them in our garage, but we did find the chains for the Dodge (our ranch truck). These were a little too big for the Chevy, but we decided that with enough bungee cords anything will fit. With some digging, we got the chains around the tires, latched and tightened them. I got back in the truck and pulled the trailer about 6". While I didn't manage to get the trailer back up onto the driveway, I did dig a pair of impressive holes with the back tires.

The chains were slipping and starting to come off the tires, one link snapped under the stress. Since it was clear the Dodge's chains weren't going to work for the Chevy, we decided to use the Dodge. We unhooked the trailer from the Chevy, drove it out of the holes it dug, and took off the chains. Then we repaired the broken link and installed the chains on the Dodge. This was all around much easier, since the chains were meant to fit these tires and it didn't hurt that the Dodge was parked on a nice flat, level section of our plowed driveway.

With chains properly attached, I backed up the Dodge to the trailer and hitched it up. Chains aren't a cure all for bad traction, but they help a lot. After several times moving the trailer a few feet, I managed to get turned back onto the driveway. By then, the trailer and I were pointing downhill instead of up, but that could be remedied. I went down by the barn and turned around. Then, with a mighty roar, the Dodge, the trailer, and I went tearing up the driveway ... literally. Snow was flying everywhere, from the sky and from the tires. When I got to the steep part I didn't hesitate and we made it up onto the road. (I parked the truck and trailer in our turnout, and that is when I backed the trailer into a snow drift.)

Wow, I thought, that was much easier with chains.

If you think you might need tire chains, then you do need tire chains.