I got lucky today!

[Old Greenhorn]

I have been thinking of starting this thread as a companion to the "Did something dumb today" thread over in the milling forum. Sometimes we all just get lucky. I always say I'd rather be lucky than good, but I'll take either one". I often have things happen that accidently turn out well. I'm certain others do too. SO to begin with a simple one:
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SO two snows back I was plowing and at the end of the session I noticed that one shoe was missing off my plow. This has happened before and retracing my pattern allowed me to find it and fix it. This time, not so much.  I searched for a while but no luck. The next storm I plowed without it but kept looking. It's been like 3 weeks now and melting is going on, but no luck. So 2 days ago I was unloading the truck and down at my feet I saw the rubber bumper washer and two of the 5/8" spacer washers! Now I know it has to be somewhere in that area and I search with no more luck. Finding the black washers and bumper was a pretty long shot in a pile of black dirt and bark. The next day I looked again, just before I ordered a new one. Low and behold, there it sat staring out at me from a snow bank! It still had the other spacer washers on it. What are the chances? I've had this plow for about 8 years now and that shoe is getting pretty worn down, but it's still good. I keep a box of replacement spring pins in the shop for this, now I just have to put it back on. I really should order a spare so I never need it. But I think I will test my luck instead and see how many more times I can get lucky.

[Resonator]

Yup Tom, for that very reason I walk all my logging trails and around my yard as soon as the snow melts, and look to find any "treasures" that may have been lost over winter. 
Can find stuff in summer too after cutting the grass. I remember walking Jeff's trails by his cabin in the UP, and saying "Jeff, look down there on the ground!" and finding a lost piece of his tractor 3 point bush hog setup.

[Rhodemont]

I was taking down some more of the dead white ash yesterday.  Packed it in around 3pm to go do chores.  Finished up and thought to take a beer and walk what I had cut.  Son of a gun found a chain for the winch.  It would have likely never shown up again. 

[Old Greenhorn]

See? I knew it wasn't just me. I'll bet most of us get lucky more than we do something dumb.

[gspren]

Back when I had a job and one of the guys said he got lucky that morning it had an entirely different meaning    .

[doc henderson]

I think being good will actually make you luckier.  So, I want to be both! 

[Old Greenhorn]

Back when I had a job and one of the guys said he got lucky that morning it had an entirely different meaning  .

Yeah um, well, I guess that interpretation will never change.  However, I really didn't have that in mind when I began the thread. Perhaps that deserves it's own thread?

[doc henderson]

Well Tom, our regards to you wife anyway!  

[rusticretreater]

I got lucky when I did something dumb today that it didn't use up all my luck.

[Old Greenhorn]

Trying to work both sides of the street, eh?

[Brad_bb]

I lost my good Benchmade pocket knife twice while plowing out the farm using the compact utility tractor.  Because fo the angle of your legs sitting on the tractor, I think it tends to push it out from being cliped onto my front pocket.  Both times when the snow melted, I found it.  It cost me $176 when I bought it and they are now at leat $220 for new ones.

[Old Greenhorn]

I wouldn't have the guts to keep a nice knife like that on my belt everyday. I look for folding belt clip knives at flea markets all the time and if I find them in the $5-$8 range I buy them because I know they have a short life with me. For a couple of years I would lose one in the woods every month or two, so the next morning I would grab a new one and use that. I had one that only lasted a day. Sometimes I would actually find them a day or two later. But I have been about 2 years now without losing the current one. I only buy the ones with smooth blades, I don't like that serrated junk and you can't sharpen that section anyway.
 I'm sure glad you didn't lose your knife, that would hurt.

[Nebraska]

Today wasn't very lucky, wasn't awful just not lucky. 
Funny I've never gotten a Leatherman tree to grow here I have at least a couple seeds planted around here. 
For that matter the little Gerber 2 inch lock blade pocket knives seeds don't grow worth a dang either. 
I am lucky though to be put where I serve and that I have a great wife and family.   

[Brad_bb]

@Old Greenhorn
If you lose them that often, you really should ask yourself "How can I fix this?".  Fix what bugs you.  Do you need to put your knife on a lanyard, carry it in a different spot?  Carry it in a place that it can't come out on it's own?  I've learned from Paul Akers 2 second lean, to "Fix what bugs you".  No matter what it is, something that you do repetitively that costs you seconds or material or whatever should be examined for improvement.  It's a way of thinking.  Those small improvements add up in time or aggrevation saved in the long run.  For example, when I make hardshell American tacos, I used to put the meat first, then tomato, lettuce, then the taco sauce, then Cheese, and finaly sour cream.  But the cheese went all over and was falling out, and the sourcream was hard to get on at the end. I tried chaning the order and what I found was that If I put meat, then the cheese, the cheese would partially melt and stay in place, then the sour cream, lettuce, tomato and top it with taco sauce to hold those in place.  It works much better that way.  The next improvement needs to be a taco holder.  Even with the Square bottom shells, they fall over on the plate carrying it upstairs.  Just those improvements make it so much nicer.  Today I noticed that I have my toaster oven and my hot plate that have to alternate with one outlet.  Ideally I wish I had another outlet on a separate circuit.  But this is not a permanent set up.  The problem is that the cords/plugs look the same and i have difficulty trying to figure which goes to which.  So then I went and got a piece of colored electrical tape for one of the plugs and voila, no more guessing. Once you start seeing the small things are become aware that they bug you and you start fixing them, you'll start seeing them all over your life and you'll be making improvements everywhere.
I love this old fastcap video that demonstrates some of the lean principles.
Kaizen Methodology Fastcap

Regarding my knife, you don't know what your missing with a really good knife when all you use is cheap ones.  I always know where my knife is and can reach for it with my left hand.  It has a really nice projection on it to open it with one hand with just your thumb, and folds away just as easy.  Never need two hands, and it fits my hand so well.  Solve your losing problem and you can have a good knife.  I've had this one for 10 or 11 years now.  I use it every day.  Clipped on and off my pocket thousands of times.  Slides right in place every time.

[thecfarm]

I have a thread when I was lucky.

eye glasses

[thecfarm]

I was trimming some of the limbs back with my Ryobi limb saw and the oil cap fell off. On the edge of the field the grass does not grow good, so not much grass to hide it, but lots of limbs on the ground.
I went a searching and took me a few minutes, but I found it.

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah Ray, your eye glasses thread was one of this things I was thinking about when I began this one.

 Brad, I think I over stated a bit. I really 'lost' only about 1 or 2 knives a year overall. As I said I haven't lost one in over 2 years now. All I did was stop clipping it on the side of my belt, I moved it around to about 45° behind or over my hip. Right where I used to carry my sidearm. Haven't lost one since. I could never clip one onto a front pocket, it would pop off 10 times a day while carrying lumber, bending, and whatnot. I tried it, it's a non-starter for me. Where I have it now, my hand lands on it perfectly no matter what position I happen to be in, under a truck or hanging by one arm in a tree. I think that has to do with the muscle memory from my sidearm days.
 The reason I get cheap knives, besides cost and loss potential, is that these are work knives. I sue them for cutting everything that comes up. I will cut wire with them, whittle sticks, hack stuff off, slice cheese, cleanout crusty fittings, whatever comes along. This is stuff I would not use a good knife on. Even a cheap knife can accept a decent edge, given the time and skill, so I sharpen them when needed, usually once a month, and they hold hold and do the job.
 I did have a nice one I carried for a while, but the clip screws tore out, so now it needs a sheath and I don't use it as much. It also has some serrated teeth, which I don't care for.

[SawyerTed]

My wife and I are involved in a nonprofit group that helps support historic restoration projects at Portsmouth NC.  

Emily is secretary for the group.  They had a board meeting today.   I was invited to sit in as a guest.   

The conference room was full and a long time board member showed up late.  No seats were available.

I got lucky and was first to give up my seat for her!  

Now I'm sitting alone in an empty auditorium in the National Seashore visitor center and HQ.  

[thecfarm]

I filled the tractor with diesel. I put the cap on the fender.
I was leveling out an area and hauling off the dirt. I made 2-3 trips and I kept smelling diesel. I looked behind and no cap on the fuel tank. 
Great, I will never find it again.
I was making trips about 500 feet long. 
I was thinking that will take some walking to find it, if it's not trampled into the ground or maybe I scooped it up and it's in the road I am making.
It's a big cap. I would guess 4 inches across.
I was just about to shut the tractor off and start looking and I looked over to the right of me and there it was on the ground!!!! And I have not even run over it!!!!
Now I put it in one of the boxes that holds the chains on the 3pt winch when I put diesel in.

[GRANITEstateMP]

I got lucky today...kinda.

I borrowed a snowmobile from a buddy. We were gonna use it to try and pack down our trails to get our atvs through them.  I don't really trust the machine enough to do that, and I don't want it breaking down in the woods.  Plan B was to bring it to the 15acre corn field at my wife's Uncle's and let my son ride it around up there.  There was a lot of snow in drifted areas of the field, I made some trails and told the boy to stick to them, getting stuck is no fun.  Well, kids don't listen real well.  After a half hour of riding, it got quiet and I knew he was over the little hill on the far end of the field. It wasn't a fun walk, got him out, lesson learned.  We went again yesterday, he rode, and I got in the skid steer and split wood.  It'd been about 5 mins since I'd seen him, so I shut down and got out. Right as I started into the field he goes by.  I flagged him down.  He got to a corner of the field and was trying to turn.  He had seen me use reverse (I told him not to touch it) so he tried.  Yeah, he yipped the choke lever off .  Then he got off and got it turned.  Anyways, I figure I'd better find a new cable, it ain't my sled.  After a bit of searching I find: DISCONTINUED, super.  A bit more searching, and you can replace just the end he broke off!!!  Parts are on order, under $12.  Cable was gonna be $30 something, so I feel like "I got lucky today".  Machine will go back once I put the new parts in it, no sense tempting fate

[thecfarm]

I still have my old ford trick, 1976 parked. My wife wanted me to fix it up so the teenage grandson could "drive" it around here on The Farm. 
As I told her, If anyone is going to beat on that old truck, it will be the Grand Father.    

[Brad_bb]

The Fuel Cap story reminds me of the "Unlucky" Hydrants here on the farm.  Everyone at some point has started to fill a water tank, went to grab soemething else or do something while waiting or got distracted, and the some time later, sometimes hours, it's dicovered the tank overflowing and the ground flooded.  The answer I saw on facebook recently, get a loop of chain and hang on the hydrant, when someone goes to fill a tank, you put the loop of chain around your neck as a reminder.  Once full and you shut off the hydrant, Put the chain back on the hydrant.

[thecfarm]

A push lawn mower.
It's that time of year. 
The free stuff is being put out at the end of people's driveway.
I picked up a push lawn mower. 
As I loaded it, I thought another project to work on.
Got it home, had gas in it so I primmed it about 10 times and the first pull it started and ran great. 
The base on the left rear wheel is rusted out so that wheel is at a sharp angle, the reason it was out by the road.
But I have a base that I fixed up from the same problem.
Yes, another project lawn mower, but at least it runs!!!
This will be another mini push hog.

[Peter Drouin]

It's funny, some people can't fix things. I found one at the dump. It looked good, so I pulled it, and it ran, but it jumped all over.
Brought it home and changed the blade. Cuts good now.  

[JD Guy]

I have a small 2" blade Deerslayer lock back pocket knife that must've been with me for 30 plus years. Twice in two weeks, once leaving a restaurant and the second time in the barbershop I've had individuals find it and ask if anyone lost a knife. Lo and behold it was mine! Only thing that I can think of is that I keep this little knife in my right front pocket every single day 365 days a year and it's been drug out while fishing out my truck keys. I'm feeling really lucky about this! It's just a super handy knife with 440 stainless steel that sharpens easily and holds an edge. Should Have purchased a lottery ticket or two