What if your wheelbarrow develops a flat tyre, possibly as a result of trundling through endless thorny branches from a long hedge trimming odyssey? That’s going to play havoc with the big gardening effort, but it’ll take a couple days before the tyre can be fixed at Paul Gowland ATV in Allendale. It doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes to remove the wheel with the flat, but wait a moment, mightn’t that other tyre on the wheel you’ve rescued from a previous barrow, possibly fit?
Ooops, same size, but it’s flat too. Wait a moment, why’s the valve stuck inside? Careful probing with a variety of blunt tools retrieves the valve stem, and after a quick application of the trusty air pump the salvaged tyre seems to be holding air. Hmmm. But will it fit on the new barrow?
Err, no. The axle is too big. But wait a moment, mightn’t there be a long bolt type thing on the premises, somewhere? After a reconnoitre through my miscellaneous supplies, I’m prepared to admit defeat, when suddenly I remember our friend who’s renovating the big horsebox into a bespoke campervan. Maybe he has something that might do as an axle. He thinks he might just have a cast-off section of threaded rod from a previous trailer job, and after digging through four boxes, he retrieves it. And it fits through the salvaged wheel! And he’s got nuts and washers too. Delight.
But when I come to fit the rod into the barrow frame, the bolt is just a millimetre too thick to go through the openings. Drat! But wait a moment, mightn’t I be able to apply a bit of drilling finesse to enlarge the holes? Tried and true reaming effort allows access, with a bit of persuasion, for the bolt. First nut on, second one and — oh no! Haven’t I just bashed the thread a little too much to accept the nut! But if I’m more careful with the longer rod our friend offered as a safety, I might just, I might just, ah ha!
After all that perseverance, the repair feels almost like an anti-climax. The fun, the joy, was in muddling through.
Roads to Joy 
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