Men have duck tape, women have olive oil

I will say that again and let you ponder for a moment.  Men have duck tape, women have olive oil.  What do you think I am getting to?  Men have duck tape to solve all of their problems.  I have heard the saying, "If you have duck tape, you can fix anything."  Well, olive oil is my duck tape.  Kitty and Ray left for India Friday December 2nd for 10 days.  CR left for Friona with my father the following Thursday for 5 days.  That left this girl and her 15 month old alone here at Far, Far Away.  That's right, we held down the farm.  Not the fort, the whole darn farm!  We survived, despite the thought every night I had that someone was going to come out here and get us and no one would ever know.  Ha!  So about my olive oil.  I took CR to meet my dad in San Antonio.  Kirby and I stayed in town for a bit because I love that place.  See earlier posts for my affair with the Hill Country.  Anyhow, I knew I wanted to get back before dark because that is when the boogie man comes out.  We were successful with getting home before it was dark, however, in the house before then was another story.  We decided to lock the gate before we left town that morning.  Low and behold, the lock was a janky lock and I could not get it open for the life of me.  I broke my thumb (not really) trying to pry the sucker open.  This gave me hope that if I were to get the darn thing open and lock it back again that no one would be able to get us!  Finally after putting my whole 125 pounds and "then some" into it, I got it open.  I almost tried to use my teeth, that is how desperate I was.  I called CR and asked if there was another lock that I could use.  Well, the one he suggested with a key was just as bad.  I figured out that the lock was just rusty and not used very often.  Olive oil to the rescue. I rubbed it all over and in the lock part, walked back out there and open and closed the lock about 10 times just for fun.  Kirby and I laughed for awhile.  Pretty sure she had no clue why, but I filled her in on everything we were doing and how silly daddy was to leave us with such a lock.  Ha, I was so proud of myself and I had only been on the farm for 10 minutes alone and had already solved a problem.  So there you go, men have duck tape, women have olive oil.  CR was mighty impressed.  The rest of the time went by ok.  I told CR that living single on a farm with a toddler is for the birds.  I could do it all the time if I absolutely had to (Lord I pray it never happens) as long as I had automatic gates and feeders for everything because feedings dogs and pigs in the rain is the pits.  Literally the pits.  And PS... Kitty and Ray made it home safely from their trip Monday night.  Tuesday evening when CR and I pulled up from Montgomery there were cows out.  That made the whole weekend worth it because you know what, cows never got out on my watch, and if they did, I am sure I would figure out how to use olive oil to help the situation.