MacGyver, Part 2

I guess I had two themes going in MacGyver, Part 1 -- being frugal and being inventative.  I like frugal, recycling, making do. I do like those qualities but what I really like is inventiveness, creativity and ingenuity.  Himself and I have had some great "ah ha" moments when having to come up with a solution to a problem.  Just like him dinging the satellite with the pellets to get rid of the snow.  We knew there was no way either one of us was going to climb the ladder to the roof after 8 or 9" of snow but we both knew we wanted that TV reception so he brainstormed and solved the problem. 

Another time, we were pulling a trailer to Missouri.  Somehow, the pin to hold the trailer to the hitch popped out and the first we knew of it, we were going down a hill and the trailer was careening towards us at a higher rate of speed than what the Jeep was doing.  It was going to ram us!  Well, Himself pumped the breaks and held the wheel and slowed that runaway trailer down by letting it bounce against the spare tire mounted on the back.  He slowed it down without sending it flying one direction or the other.  He held it steady and brought that run away to a stand still.  Whew, it is a wonder the trailer didn't flip which would have flipped the Jeep.

So then, how best to get the trailer on to Missouri.  We are short a pin to hold the trailer to the hitch.  Do we take the trailer off and leave it sit by the side of the road?  Would someone come along, load it up and run off with it?

Do we leave the trailer sit by the side of the road with Himself standing guard, while I go to town and buy a pin of some kind to use to hold the hitch so we can limp on to town.

So we sit and ponder.  We brood and mumble.  We look here.  Check there.  Can't find the lost pin and no extra pin anywhere!  We are just about to unhitch and leave Himself and the trailer when we discover that the trailer's ramp hinge pin is just about the right size!  Himself finds a screw driver and knocks that pin out, sticks the pin in the trailer hitch to hold things together and we are off!  We are rocking and a rolling!  We pull the trailer safely on to Missouri without anyone have to go to town and back or anyone having to sit by the side of the road.

That was fun!  to find the solution to the problem by using our noggins.

We watched a documentary tonight about a man trying to reproduce some of the trip of Lewis and Clarke, great White Explorers.  This guy tried floating down the Mississippi River in a "Bull Boat".  He and his cronies built a dugout canoe.  They fished, without much luck, for their supper.  They hunted deer and antelope with old fashioned guns.  His message at the end was "the rewarding part is trying and adjusting.  Using ingenuity to solve a problem.  Being creative." 

There's no instruction book to tell how to build a "bull" boat out of a buffalo hide or what to do if the dugout canoe is "tippy" . . . you just have to sit and ponder and brain storm and find a solution.

I think that was the best thing my father brought out of the Great Depression -- an ability to make do, to find a solution, to create what he needed from junk or spare parts.  To use his noggin and his imagination.  To invent! 
This was one of the things I really enjoyed about III.  Seeing what I could do, what I could do without.  Being creative, imaginative and inventive. 

Himself and I will be doing that again, at Too, as we finish off the inside of the big cabin, hook the two cabins together and refurbish the little one.  We are looking foward to trying our wings!  To a rockin and a rolling!