Some Assembly Required
What a spectacular fall Friday it was. Crisp and clear as only an autumn day can be. It reminded me that I need to get serious about firewood for the winter. I've lots of it ... down in the woods waiting to be hauled out.
To that end I went into town this morning to have my proper tractor tires (chevrons) mounted on the Husky garden tractor wheels. While there I took Q Beans to the vets to get her vacination booster and rabies shots. She now weighs 3.1 pounds or at least we think she does. She was not at all interested in standing on the scales in a strange place. And, of course, she was even less interested in getting a shot in on each side of her butt. But she did and has slept most of the day.
To haul the firewood from the woods I had bought a trailer to pull behind the garden tractor. Now, we cannot exactly say that the trailer was made in China. Rather, we can say the components of the trailer were made in China while, as the box commonly says, some assembly is required. Actually, a good hour and a half of assembly was required, even with the use of air tools. And, here the finished wagon is filled with the first load of wood.
The only parts shipped preassembled were the wheels and tires filled with Chinese air. Nearly everthing else except the axel was made of sheet metal that had been stamped, punched and bent to shape. I could not help but wonder if the steel from which these parts were made had once been part of a WWII battleship or maybe a 1960 Ford Falcon. I'll never know, of course, but their design was nothing short of brilliant. Functional, easy to assemble and efficient to make and ship in a surprisingly small box, the parts were designed in a totally different way than they would have been in the Western World. It's just that assembly involved something approaching a zillion bolts and nuts, and not one to many or one too few was included with a really good instruction manual.
Interesting, not a single word or symbol appears on any piece of the cart except the tires, and then just their size of the tires the maximum air pressure to be used. Nothing to say where anything was made, or by whom.
Finally, I think it is interesting to note that the Husky garden tractor of Swedish design was assembled in South Carolina while the wagon was designed in China and assembled in North Carolina. Have we become a nation of assemblers?
To that end I went into town this morning to have my proper tractor tires (chevrons) mounted on the Husky garden tractor wheels. While there I took Q Beans to the vets to get her vacination booster and rabies shots. She now weighs 3.1 pounds or at least we think she does. She was not at all interested in standing on the scales in a strange place. And, of course, she was even less interested in getting a shot in on each side of her butt. But she did and has slept most of the day.
To haul the firewood from the woods I had bought a trailer to pull behind the garden tractor. Now, we cannot exactly say that the trailer was made in China. Rather, we can say the components of the trailer were made in China while, as the box commonly says, some assembly is required. Actually, a good hour and a half of assembly was required, even with the use of air tools. And, here the finished wagon is filled with the first load of wood.
The only parts shipped preassembled were the wheels and tires filled with Chinese air. Nearly everthing else except the axel was made of sheet metal that had been stamped, punched and bent to shape. I could not help but wonder if the steel from which these parts were made had once been part of a WWII battleship or maybe a 1960 Ford Falcon. I'll never know, of course, but their design was nothing short of brilliant. Functional, easy to assemble and efficient to make and ship in a surprisingly small box, the parts were designed in a totally different way than they would have been in the Western World. It's just that assembly involved something approaching a zillion bolts and nuts, and not one to many or one too few was included with a really good instruction manual.
Interesting, not a single word or symbol appears on any piece of the cart except the tires, and then just their size of the tires the maximum air pressure to be used. Nothing to say where anything was made, or by whom.
Finally, I think it is interesting to note that the Husky garden tractor of Swedish design was assembled in South Carolina while the wagon was designed in China and assembled in North Carolina. Have we become a nation of assemblers?
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