Note to self, never mess with a farm girl .

[fastfredracing]

I bought a big old hand hewn barn beam last night. Im making a mantle for my rustic themed guitar room, man cave .
I show up to this beautiful farm and am met by a lady, that I am guessing is in her late 50's. We pull up to the pile of beams, and I pick one out, pay her the money,and start to load it . am guessing this beam was #300 ish,lbs. I picked up one end, and began dragging it over to my truck about 10 ft away . I was going to heave my end up onto the tailgate and shove it in. She says to me , " you are going to hurt yourself, , let me give you a hand ", then proceeds to get right in the center of the beam, squats, and lifts the whole freaking thing. I felt the weight leave my arms.
She lifted it right into my truck with a small grunt , thanked me , and went on her way .
I am 100% sure , this lady could take me

[kach22i]

People that do heavy physical work all the time are amazing.

My neighbor has a part time helper for his rentals named Jim.

Jim and my neighbor helped put a large window A/C unit in last year.

This year I did it by myself, it was very awkward to say the least.

I'm still amazed that Jim lifted this A/C unit higher than his shoulders and just slid it in.

I used levers, straps and ladders and half an afternoon.

[Gretch]

I always wondered what those are worth. the big ones say 8" x 8" can be $25 a running foot!

Woo!

[Mike Billings]

Similar thing happened when I was carrying a 200 pound speaker up the stairs at the women's athletic college.

[unclebilly]

This is a threat that my 5’2” 120lb wife makes all the time... the difference is that she May not be able to lift 300 lbs but she threatens to run over my cars with a tractor that she knows how to drive...

[GH85Carrera]

My brother in law got a job at a facility as a heavy equipment mechanic the week after he graduated from high school. It is the only job he has ever had, and the company has changed ownership many times but he just gets a new logo on his paychecks. For nearly 48 years he has worked on bulldozers, and front end loaders and scrapers and dump trucks. The tools alone are heavy and the parts are all juge. His hand strength is incredible.

We were tasked with replacing his mother's garden faucet. To remove the old sillcock meant working in a restricted space with a brick wall a few inches to one side preventing using a long pipe cheater bar. It was in a little recessed nook with just enough room to get a your hand in there to put a hose on it. Some brick layer made it a real challenge on us. I put the pipe wrench on it and just grunted, and it did not move. He tried and said this is on tight, and then proceed to turn the pipe wrench. I was in awe. I was going to try to figure out some 90 degree extension for the pipe wrench and he just twisted it loose.

Do NOT ever get in a handshake contest with him.

[Rodsrsr]

I doubt it weighed anything close to 300 lbs. Wood beams only weigh around 10 lbs per foot on average, plus lifting it up the way its described would be equivalent to a snatch or cling. I don't know any women in their late 50's who can dead lift 300 lbs let alone cling. Most young men cant cling 300 lbs unless they are serious weightlifters.

[Sooner or later]

Who do you think stacked that pile of beams.

[daepp]

Notwithstanding the above... WHERE'S THE BUILD THREAD??

[fastfredracing]

Are you referring to the build of my room/mantle, or the sweet Signal Orange T , that I pulled the motor out of of this am ? Its been a while since I have done one, but like riding a bike.
We have what seems like a very light rod knock . Got the heads, and pc off one side today and nothing sticks out yet. We are going to pull the other side tomorrow am, and probably split the case next weekend .
Ill post up some pics .

[oldE]

The wife grew up on a farm, (as I did). In her 60s now, she still feeds her horses, mucks stalls and lugs feed bags. When we put in hay (square bales) she drives the tractor pulling the baler and wagon. I build the load. When we get back to the barn, she unloads the wagon onto the elevator while I stow in the mow. We only put in about 700, just enough for our horses.
Years ago, when her father and his buddies were putting in hay, her dad asked her to bring over one of the trucks. One of the other guys looked at this slight teenager and asked, "Can you drive that?"
Her response was , "It's got wheels, hasn't it?"
Don't ever tell her she can't do something.
This summer our 6 year old grand daughter insisted on helping her Nona. She has a very good role model.
Best
Les

[s_morrison57]

Originally Posted by daepp

Notwithstanding the above... WHERE'S THE BUILD THREAD??

Yah, and the pic's!



Guitar pic's too

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Not so much a farm girl story, but more "I am a girly man" story.

I once had a spare 944 engine that resided at the end of my driveway.
Me use winch and hoist to safely move it there (because me smart and use mechanical advantage and stuff).
One day I sold it. A guy came and picked it up. We call him MONGO.

MONGO PICK UP ENGINE, CARRY IT UP THE DRIVEWAY TO MONGO'S PICKUP, LIFT IT OVER THE TAILGATE, AND LAY IT IN THE BACK.

manifold, intake and all.

MONGO DRIVE OFF....

EFFN' A.......

Don't make mongo angry!!!!!

[speeder]

Human strength is amazing. I'm fairly strong for my size and have done physical work a good part of my life. Still, I'm a city boy.

Back in 1999, I was working on a couple of films as art Dept., which is basically a furniture mover and cordless drill operator. We needed to film a barn scene with lots of haystacks, sort of a Hollywood art director's idea of how the inside of a barn should look. We were shooting in a farm town in MN. They contracted w some local guys for a large load of hay bales to be delivered to the barn we were using for the shot.

They showed up in the morning w a PU truck pulling a huge flat trailer, low to the ground but really big dimensions. It was loaded 10' high at least w hay bales. The plan was to have them back the trailer into the barn, which was quite large, and then we would unload the hay on the far end where the director wanted it. Of course, the trailer got hung up on the threshold of the barn entrance because it was so loaded down w hay. What would have been a fairly easy day became a relay line of guys tossing the bales from one guy to the next and people on the far end stacking it. Did I mention that it was a 100 degree day w 98% humidity? Must have been 120 easily inside the barn.

The farmer who delivered it was in his 40s and his helper was his 17 y.o. nephew. When I say that these guys were the picture of health, I'm not exaggerating. Strong as freaking oxes. I was in the first position, catching bales as they tossed them to me from the trailer. The first couple bales didn't feel too heavy, by number 8 or 10, they seemed to be gaining weight and it was getting hard to toss them to the next guy down the line. By 15 or 20, I thought I was going to pass out from heat stroke. There were about 100 of them. The farm guys did not seem to barely be breaking a sweat. I made some remark about them not having to join a gym and the older guy said, "no gym."

Like others have said, it's a lifestyle thing.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Mrs Ahab has the strength to weight ratio of a leaf cutting ant

[rubenova]

My ex-brother in law went with me to look at a small block chev for sale. It was in a Jeep with the front clip off. I was talking to the seller and heard a grunt. There was my buddy, one foot on each front tire, one hand on the windshield, lifting a fully dressed SBC by the carb... with one arm!

[fastfredracing]

You don't think a 12 foot long 10x`10 oak barn beam weighs 300 pounds? It sure does not feel like a hundred pounder .


We got my buddies 2.2 down to the case today . I did a top end on it in 2004. Car runs perfect, but we hear a definite rock knock . #5 seems to have a lot more wobble than the others .Someone rebuilt the whole thing in 87. They used blue rtv to seal the case halves.
We will open it up next weekend

[Captain Ahab Jr]

If it's oak that is easily a 300lb beam

[gregpark]

According to the wood weight calculator ot weighs between 308 and 466 lb.s depending on moisture content.
That one looks dry

[Rodsrsr]

Being 12 feet long is what makes it easy to lift. It would be harder to lift a 300 lb engine block.