Chapter 60
*Clunk*... “Damn it, come on,” grumbled Allen as he let go of the starter button after having tried unsuccessfully to get the 806 to start.
It was the next morning and Allen was starting to get very frustrated. After getting the mower and 806 back to the machine shed the night before, he’d found that the battery was dead, so he’d brought over his battery charger and left it to charge while he worked to fix the mower.
After getting the mower sorted out several hours later, he’d found that the battery still wasn’t charged enough to turn the starter over. So, after deciding to leave the charger on for the rest of the night, he went to bed, figuring that the next morning, the battery should be good to go. However, that was not the case, as when he came out that morning, he found that the amperage meter on the charger hadn’t moved even a little, indicating that the battery still needed more juice.
At the time, Allen had figured that maybe he hadn’t connected the leads to the battery posts correctly or that there was some corrosion on them, so he’d pulled the cables off and cleaned both them and the posts before reconnecting the charger to the battery and leaving it to charge for a few more hours.
Coming back around lunchtime, however, he was frustrated to find that the amp meter still hadn’t moved from earlier that morning. Wondering if maybe something was wrong with the charger, Allen unhooked it from the battery, wheeled it over to the 706, and hooked it up to test. However, when he turned it on, the amp meter was only drawing a few amps, indicating the battery’s charge level was adequate.
So seeing as there was nothing wrong with the charger, Allen wheeled it back over to the 806 and hooked it back up to the battery before climbing up on the tractor and trying to get it to turn over just to see if anything would happen. However, his attempts were unsuccessful, though he did note some progress, as the various instrument cluster lights lit up when he turned the key to the ‘on’ position.
Leaning back in the seat, Allen rubbed his face in frustration and pondered his next move.
“Alright, the 806’s battery isn’t charging, but the charger seems to be working, let's see if the battery will hold a charge if I disconnect it from the tractor. It could be a loose wire somewhere that’s grounding out, and keeping the battery from charging.”
With his plan in place, he jumped down, disconnected the battery from the tractor, and left to let it charge. Later that afternoon, he came back and noted that the charger’s amp meter was lower than the last time he’d seen it, and smiling, he nodded to himself. “Alright, now it looks like we’re getting somewhere,” he muttered as he started checking the various wiring harnesses on the tractor to see if he could spot any potential shorts.
A few hours later, the sun had gone down, and Allen was still working. At some point, he’d broken out his dad’s old ohmmeter, hoping it would help him track down the wiring fault draining his battery. Unfortunately, he hadn’t found anything. Putting his tools down, he checked the battery and saw it was nearly fully charged.
“Okay, looking good, let’s see if you’ll hold a charge,” muttered Allen as he lugged the heavy battery over to the 706.
Unhook the 706 from its battery, he swapped the two batteries around, and after getting the 806’s battery hooked up, he climbed up and turned the key to the ‘on’ position. Seeing the oil and amp tellights light up, he pushed the button for the glowplugs, and seeing the gauge move, he waited for a minute or so before hitting the starter button.
A feeling of relief washed over him when the 706 rumbled to life. Black smoke belched from the exhaust before it quickly turned clear as the engine began to warm up. Leaning back in the seat, a pleased smile on his face, he let it run for a few minutes to let the tractor’s alternator charge it a little more.
A little extra juice won’t hurt, thought Allen as he jumped down and busied himself by cleaning up some of the mess he’d left after he had finished with the mower the night before.
A few minutes later, he was satisfied that there wasn’t anything wrong with the battery and after shutting the tractor off, he disconnected it and put the original one back in its place. After making sure it was secure, he carried the 806’s battery back to its tractor and hooked it up.
“Alright, let's see if you’ll fire up now,” he muttered as he finished reconnecting the tractor to the battery. Quickly climbing back up, he turned the key and watched as the amp and oil tellights came on. “Okay, lights came on, so far so good,” he said as he pushed in the clutch and hit the starter button.
*Clunk* Went the starter motor as it again failed to turn over. Slumping forward, Allen gently banged his head against the steering wheel in frustration.
“Why. Are. You. Not. Working?” he groaned frustratedly as he repeatedly banged his head against the steering wheel in exasperation.
Turning the key off, he climbed down, hooked the battery charger back up, and nearly threw it across the room in anger when he saw the amp meter jump back up, indicating the battery was out of juice again.
“What the hell?!” he growled angrily as he began to pace back and forth. “There is no way that battery drained that quickly! It was nearly fully charged!”
Wiping his face in frustrated anger, he took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down.
“Alright, relax Allen, you’ve got options, let’s go back over everything again and see if I missed something.”
Turning back to the tractor he set to work checking and re-checking every wire and connector he could find. He even went so far as to begin taking off the hood and other external body panels to see better and test the wires and connectors around the engine.
However, after several hours, he’d found nothing obvious, and glancing up at the clock on the wall he saw it was after midnight. Shaking his head, he took one last look at the battery charger and sighed when he saw the needle hadn’t moved at all.
“Alright, I give up for the night, I’ll futz with you again tomorrow,” he grumped at the misbehaving tractor as he turned everything off for the night, save for the battery charger, shut the shed doors, and went to bed.
The next morning, Allen rechecked the 806, its hood and side panels scattered around it still, and seeing as nothing had changed, decided to instead go and check the hay field that he hadn’t finished mowing over a week ago. Pulling his old mountain bike out of the garage, he checked the air pressure in the tires before hopping on and heading out.
Upon reaching the field, he hopped off the bike and left it by the roadside, though calling the two wagon wheel tracks a ‘road’ was generous at best, to Allen it was more an overgrown trail than a road, but that it was the ponies called it, so a road it was.
Walking out into the field, Allen checked the hay and clucked his tongue in disappointment.
“Total loss, must have gotten some rain on it while I was in the hospital,” he muttered when he checked the underside of the hay and saw nasty white mold starting to grow underneath. Dropping the hay in his hand on the ground, Allen contemplated what to do next.
“Can’t let it lay here, there is too much and it’ll kill the grass underneath, and I doubt it’ll rot away completely in time for next year's first cutting. But on the other hand, I don’t want to waste the fuel coming out here to bale it up just to throw it away either. Ugh, this sucks,” he moaned as he kicked a small rock and lamented the loss of half of this hay field.
I can already see the grass is growing and the longer I leave it, the more of a pain it’ll be to deal with. Hmm, I’ll ask Penny if she knows of someone who might want this hay for mulch, it won’t be much, but it’ll be better than nothing.
Turning around, he returned to his bike and hopped back on before setting course for Ponyville.
Crossing over the western bridge, Allen coasted through the market square as he made his way to Penny’s office/residence. Coming to a stop in front of her place, he hopped off his bike and leaned it against the wall before heading inside.
“Oh, hello Allen!” greeted Penny from behind her desk when she noticed Allen enter.
“Hey Penny, how’s it going?” asked Allen as he shut the door behind him.
“Oh getting better, slowly,” she replied, setting several pieces of paper off to one side, and motioning for Allen to sit down.
Accepting the offered invitation, Allen sat down in the plush armchair in front of her desk with a content sigh of relief.
Penny smirked. “You like it?”
“Yeah,” replied Allen lazily as he felt himself sink further into the comfy chair, “it feels real nice, like those cloud beds at the hospital.
Penny giggled. “Well, that’s not a big surprise, seeing as it’s made by the same company up in Cloudsdale.”
“So there’s clouds in here?”
Penny nodded with a smile. “Sure are.”
“No foolin’,” replied Allen, a hint of amazement in his voice as he idly poked the soft, but supportive, chair with a finger.
“Nothing but the best for our clients,” preened Penny.
Allen cocked an eyebrow, and replied with an amused smile, “And maybe a few for yourself as well?”
Penny giggled. “Naturally, but I paid for those personally, instead of with the company’s money.”
“Fair enough,” replied Allen.
“So, what brings you into town today?” asked Penny.
“I went and checked the field I cut before the incident, and the hay has got mold in it, and is basically only good for mulch at this point. Do you know of anyone around here who might be interested in buying it?” said Allen.
“Hmm, that’s a shame, I hope you didn’t have too much hay down.”
Allen shook his head. “Only about five acres, but it still sucks.”
Penny nodded. “Agreed, hmm let me see,” she said as she pulled out a small book from one of her desk drawers and began leafing through it.
“What’s that?” asked Allen curiously.
Glancing up from the book, Penny replied, “Oh this? It’s my business contacts ledger. I keep various contacts in here, such as clients, potential clients, contractors, suppliers, etc. It helps keep things organized.”
“Huh, neat.”
Penny nodded. “It is, now let's see... hmm, ah here we go. I’ve got a pony who might be interested in that spoiled hay. His name is Pole Bean, and he runs a small vegetable farm just north of Ponyville.”
“Have you spoken with him before?” asked Allen.
Penny shook her head. “No, but I try to keep an ear out for new potential clients, and when I was in the market the other week, I struck up a conversation with one of the local farmers. They told me that Pole Bean likes to mulch around his bean plants as it helps keep the weeds down along with keeping the moisture in the soil. Unfortunately, the pony that he usually got his mulch from moved, and he’s been unable to find another supplier. I planned on visiting him before the attack and asking him if he’d be interested in any spoiled hay we might have.”
Allen nodded. “Yeah, it always pays to have someone like that who will buy your junk hay. How much hay do you think he’d buy?”
Penny shrugged. “I don’t know, I haven’t had a chance to go and speak with him since the attack.”
“Hmm, well you better get on that soon, because I gotta get that hay off the field quickly. It’s already been sitting out there for over a week at this point.”
Nodding, Penny quickly jotted down a reminder for herself and said, “I’ll send Perfect to go and talk with him as soon as she gets back from Canterlot tomorrow. By the way, did you get your tractor working yet?”
Allen shook his head with a scowl. “No, the battery won’t hold a charge so I can’t crank her over. I think there might be some kind of fault in the wiring system because the battery loses charge as soon as I hook it up to the tractor, and it won’t charge properly if I leave it hooked up while it’s charging either. It’s really starting to piss me off, cause I can’t figure out exactly what the problem is.”
“Strange, maybe it’s the battery itself?” suggested Penny.
Allen shook his head. “No, I checked it, the battery will hold a charge, but only if it’s not hooked to the 806. I swapped the 806’s battery out with the battery on the 706 and it fired right up without issue. However, when I put that same battery back on the 806, it wouldn’t turn over,” he shook his head in frustration, “I just can’t figure out what is wrong, and it’s driving me nuts!”
Penny gave Allen a sympathetic look and said, “I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Perhaps if you step away from it for a day or two, you can clear your mind and attack the problem from a different angle.”
Sighing, Allen nodded his head, a tired look on his face. “Yeah, I was thinking that. It just sucks that the 806 is out of commission for the foreseeable future is all.”
“Will that hamper your hay operation?” queried Penny.
Allen shook his head. “Nah, I’ve got the Case 7220 tractor to fall back on. It’s a bit of overkill, as far as horsepower is concerned, but she’ll do everything I need her to do, and then some.”
“Why have you not used this tractor before?”
Allen shrugged. “Didn’t really need to. The 806 has the horsepower I need to do everything and she’s half the weight of the Case, so she’ll compact the soil less, plus the 806 is easier to fix than the Case as it doesn’t have a bunch of sensors, and computer parts in it that can go bad at a moments notice. But, since the 806 isn’t running right now, I’ve got no choice. It’s not as though it’s a bad thing, but it is annoying.”
“Can you fix your tractor?” asked Penny, a hint of worry tinging her voice.
“Don’t know,” replied Allen simply, “depends on what is wrong with it. I’ve gone over it with a fine-toothed comb and can’t see anything obvious, and other than some kind of wire grounding out, I can’t think of any reason for the battery to drain so quickly. However, even that doesn’t make sense to me either.”
“What do you mean?”
Allen shook his head. “I mean, a battery that big shouldn’t lose all of its electrical charge in under a minute, unless you have some kind of massive electrical discharge, but if that were to happen, I’d notice it. In this case, I just hook it up, and by the time I go to turn the key, it’s out of juice.”
“That does sound strange, especially since this only happened after the timberwolf attack. Do you think that they caused any kind of damage to the tractor?”
“Yeah they did, the grill is all messed up and there are some new dents and dings in the sheet metal, but other than that, I haven’t noticed anything serious. So that is why this issue with the battery is irritating me so much,” explained Allen sourly.
“Hmm, well I’m sure you’ll figure it out, in the meantime however, I’ve got some good news for you,” replied Penny.
Cocking an eyebrow, Allen leaned back in his chair and asked, “Oh yeah? What’s that?”
“Well I sent inquiries to both Rune Chisel and Lock Box about upgrading your home’s security and both are interested in giving us quotes. Mr. Lock Box said he could come out this coming Monday in the afternoon,” replied Penny with a smile.
“Okay, and what about Rune Chisel?” asked Allen with a nod.
“He won’t be able to make it to Ponyville until next Friday, but his message indicated that he’s free that whole day, so it’ll be up to you when you want him here.”
“Huh, well the morning would probably be best. That way it’s done and out of the way,” thought Allen out loud to himself, “When did you contact them? I wasn’t expecting to hear back for a few more days.”
“Oh, I simply had Perfect stop by Lock Box’s office before she left for Canterlot yesterday, and she told me his answer before getting on the noon train. As for Rune Chisel, I had her deliver a letter to him when she arrived in Canterlot that afternoon. She sent me a telegram this morning with his response,” replied Penny.
“Cool,” said Allen with a nod as he idly drummed his fingers on the chair's armrest, “Yeah, go ahead and schedule Lock Box for Monday afternoon then, and Rune Chisel for Friday morning. I’ve got a doctor's appointment on Monday, but I should be done with that before I need to meet Lock Box.”
Jotting down Allen’s reply in her notebook, Penny said, “Okay, I’ve got that written down, and I’ll be sure to send our replies today to both Rune Chisel and Lock Box.”
“Alright sounds good... say, why is Perfect up in Canterlot anyways?” asked Allen suddenly.
“She told me that she had some business to attend to up there. She should be back tomorrow morning.”
“Did she say what kind of business she was doing up there?” asked Allen curiously
Penny shook her head. “No, but if I had to guess, I would say it’s business related to His Grace. After all, Perfect does work for him after all, and is only on temporary loan until I can get back on my hooves.”
“Yeah, that makes sense,” replied Allen as he looked up at the clock on the wall behind Penny’s desk and said, “Well, unless there is anything else to discuss, I should probably head back to the farm now.”
“Oh wait, before you go, I wanted to ask you. Last we spoke, you mentioned that first cutting was starting to ‘wind down’, does that mean we are done with hay for the season then? Should I let Creme Brulee, Honey Suckle, and her brothers know we won’t need their help anymore?”
“No, we’ve still got plenty of work to do,” replied Allen as he stood up, “and honestly, we can keep cutting first cutting hay, it just won’t be as good. Everything has gone to seed now, so the grass is really stemmy and the quality will be lower. Besides, I’ve walked a few of the fields that we’ve already cut, and the grass is looking pretty good, so I’d like to shift focus to producing a second cutting as soon as possible,” explained Allen.
“I see, well I’ll leave that decision up to you, just let me know so that I can tell Mr. Rich.”
“Sure, no problem, anything else?”
Penny shook her head. “No, I’m still waiting on the delivery ponies to get back with me, so I believe that about covers everything, see you later Allen.”
“Alright, sounds good, I’ll see you around,” replied Allen as he gave Penny a wave goodbye, and stepped outside into the mid-day sunshine. Shutting the door behind him, he grabbed his bike and headed home.
~oOo~
Coasting to a stop in front of the machine shed. Allen dismounted his bike and wheeled it inside. Propping it up against a wall, he went to check on the 806, and to his surprise, found that the amp meter was lower than when he last checked it.
It’s not enough to start it, but it is an improvement, thought Allen as he idly tapped the gauge, just to double-check and ensure the needle wasn’t stuck. When the needle didn’t suddenly move, he figured the gauge was accurate and scratched his head.
It’s weird that the battery is holding a charge all of a sudden, I wonder if it was the battery after all. Shaking his head, he decided to let the battery charge for the rest of the night.
Closing everything up for the night, he turned out the lights and headed for the house to take a brief break before tackling the evening chores. Shutting the door behind him, he whistled a merry little tune as he walked across the yard to the house.
Unbeknownst to him, however, back in the dark interior of the machine shed, the 806’s headlights began to glow a dull yellow. Several sharp metallic *pings* echoed across the silent workspace as the previously bent grill was suddenly repaired, looking as though it had never been damaged, a fresh coat of International Harvester Red completing the repair.
A few moments later, the tractor’s headlights dimmed before going out completely, and the amp meter needle on the battery charger crept back up as the battery was drained once more.