A 3-D Puzzle

The Farmer recently talked his way into owning two antique seed cleaners. He bought them from another farmer who had bought them from a now-closed feed mill. It was the feed mill that my hobby farmer father (and all the farmers, hobby and real, for miles around) purchased feed and supplies from when I was a girl. When our daughters were very young, they would ride along with The Farmer on his trips to the feed mill. But like most cooperative feed mills that catered to the small farmer, it went the way of the telegraph.

The two antique seed cleaners were not put together when we bought them. In fact, we weren't actually sure that all the parts were there, or which parts went to which cleaner. I wish I'd taken a photo of the piles of parts, so that you could see the scope of the project. But at that time, I was busy having pneumonia.

The larger of the two cleaners is basically together, thanks to hours of puzzling fun by The Farmer's father, my father, and our son, with occasional vignettes by The Farmer, in between his other tasks.

Here's one of the many pros of homeschooling. Having a 3-D puzzle like this out in the barn motivates a 14 year old boy to get his school work done in record time. It just about killed our son to know that one or both of his grandpas were out there, making progress without him.

Man, I wish I could manufacture that sort of motivation. I could sell it to homeschooling moms of teenage boys everywhere, and quit my day job.

Of course one of the other pros of homeschooling is that this sort of thing gives a kid hands-on education that can't be duplicated in a classroom.

There are a few more things that need tweaking on the machine before they fire it up. They're finishing it none too soon. The sunflowers are being harvested, and they need cleaning before they go in a bin, or they spoil.