T-shirt weather before 10! Hell, t-shirt weather at all on the first week in February is extraordinary, but today it might scrape the bottom of 70 in the shade. And there ain’t much shade.
Had to make two trips with the trailer today, because it had two completely incompatible purposes. 
Fill water jugs, and…
Haul away a week’s worth of horse shit. In some ways I’m not exactly Mr. Hygiene Man, but even I have some limits. So the boys and I spent rather more time than usual in the Jeep during Friday chores. Which they didn’t appear to mind very much.
But unfortunately I fell afoul of poor engineering. The pipes I clamped to the inside of the Jeep trailer to hold long tools didn’t take into account all the bouncing back and forth on rough trails, and I cracked the handle on my brand-new shit fork.
I only need it for hard service through March, and think I can strap it together with a pipe clamp and some Gorilla tape. But still. Bummed. Neighbor D was going to buy it from me, prorated for wear, but now I’ll have to tell him it’s positively broken. Probably I’ll keep it for cleaning up chicken straw, which is pretty light duty.
And here I was getting excited cuz the forecast high here is almost up to freezing. Time for shorts and Hawaiian shirts!
That shadow makes your ass look big.
Your collection of water jugs seems to be rapidly increasing!
BTW: Your single-surface roof seems ideal for water collection. Have you ever thought of a rain barrel?
It could have increased a great deal more than that, but we’re definitely not past the hard freezes and I don’t want to fill more than I can bring indoors at need. I occasionally consider a rain barrel, it wouldn’t be hard to do at all and a rear gutter would be a good idea in any case. Sometime. First I’d like to side the poor thing.
Joel, don’t deep six it. Epoxy and strong string will do the trick. Honestly. Epoxy the inside, and start wrapping the string around the circumference, tight, and each line touching the next. Then epoxy the outside of the string. Stronger than new.
I’m with Token. It will be stronger than new. I also use narrow strips of leather, wet, and when it dries it’s tighter and stronger than new. Keep the wraps, string or leather, very close but not overlapping. Gorilla glue or any good wood glue will also work if you don’t have epoxy. And remember that epoxy needs a bit of moisture in the air to cure, otherwise it’s not got any strength at all.
+3 on the epoxy repair. I have repaired wood rifle stocks that have been ran over by pickups, mostly broken at the wrist and the average person can’t find the repair.
Zelda, a good 1 to 1 epoxy is its own catalyst and needs no water to harden.
I do think the Gorilla glue does need water to cure.
blindshooter, can you post an epoxy brand name that doesn’t need moisture in the air to harden? Where I live the relative humidity is too low for epoxy to be useful – it usually doesn’t harden and will fracture and fail if it hardens at all. I’d appreciate knowing a brand name that would work. Gorilla glue original polyurethane formula is water activated and one surface being glued has to be damp – the other surface is dry – for the glue to harden properly. I haven’t read anything about it being sensitive to relative humidity, and it does work in low humidity environments as long as one of the pieces being glued is damp as described in the instructions. But it has gotchas, and that’s why I’d like to know an epoxy that would work. Gorilla also makes a 2 part epoxy, which I don’t use. Elmer’s carpenter’s wood glue with wet string or leather is an old reliable basic tried and true repair glue. For sure Joel’s handle can be mended and be just as useful as new.
Sorry I’m slow getting back, I have used the epoxies that Brownnell’s sell. Accuraglass and Steel bed mostly. I think almost all 1 to 1 mixes will cure in dry climates. Never read anything about them needing moisture to cure. I have also used Marine-Tex in the past, they have several variety’s to choose from. Most of my experience is with rifle repairs and accuracy improvements.