hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

Sorry the records were a bust - but a tax deduction is a good thing! It's better than nothing for sure.

I hate mechanical problems - so I feel your pain with the bobcat. My tractor is a little sick right now. The bucket mechanism will go up - but the bucket itself will droop down after a couple minutes. Makes carrying a load a risky issue. If I keep pressure on it - it'll hold long enough to move something - but it's a royal PIA.

Sounds like you had a pretty good weekend!

Yah, tractor problems are a downer.
I am not to use out larger tractor until DH gets it fixed. He was digging a hole when the tractor wheel fell off. The lug nuts tend to loosen over time with that tractor (which I think is weird and should be checked out) and DH hadn't been keeping up on making sure they were tight. The tractor had lost 4 lug nuts completely, one of the lug posts is now chewed up so bad that it needs to be replaced. luckily he had the backhoe on the tractor so he could lift up the back end enough to put the tire back on. He found 2 lug nuts, so he has the tire on enough to drive it back to the barn. He called and the local tractor dealer (authorized repair shop) doesn't have any in stock ?!? and it will be a month for them to come in if he orders them for us. Plus we will have to pay the shipping on them, say what? I would think that lug nuts and posts would be something a dealer/repair place would keep in stock.

wyoDreamer said:

I would think that lug nuts and posts would be something a dealer/repair place would keep in stock.

Click to expand...

One would think!

Oh man, @wyoDreamer THAT SUCKS! And is really dangerous to boot! I'm glad he wasn't hurt and that's all the problem is. I hope they aren't too expensive, but it seems that everything with tractors gets expensive real quick.
FEM similar issues here, except it won't go up! It sounds like you've got some kind of hydraulic issue, a sagging bucket is no good, though. And honestly, without the bucket being able to LIFT *and* DUMP the tractor is darn near useless!

We had scattered showers last night, probably not enough to budge the rain gauge float, but things were a little wet this morning. I'm glad it didn't rain hard, I'd REALLY like to get this work done before it goes and does that again. We do really, really need the rain though. I'm worried about winter with this dry of a fall, that's our pattern apparently, it's the opposite of whatever fall was for our winter (except last year when it was just bloody wet the entire time regardless...). I just want to get this work done quickly so we can move onward with other things. I guess we'll see how it goes.

I've been feeling a bit up and down lately, which is frustrating, and makes it difficult to focus on getting anything done. I guess we'll work through this just like we do everything else, but it gets old after a while.

The BF did have some good news that his boss paid him double for working on Saturday, which means he pretty much made triple time that day. I'm glad because that was a fiasco and didn't let us get the work done that we needed to get done. I'm very much looking forward to his pay check, which should at least show as pending tomorrow in the bank. I don't know if Saturday will be on it or the next one, I can't keep up with how his days are synced, but in the very least his raise should be in effect. I hope it's noticeable, because we could REALLY use it right now! Then I just have to wait another week for mine to show up!

It is a bummer the records are mostly a bust. My coworker did say her hubby wanted to see pictures of the smaller ones, though I don't really know what for. I also told her I'd be open to a trade. We'll see what happens. I won't see her again until Oct 1st, so I need to figure out what to do in the mean time, because they're sitting all over the pool table right now.

Tomorrow the only thing I have to do is take care of Cowboy and Coyote twice, and TW's horses in the afternoon. I'm VERY much looking forward to sleeping in. I think I'm going to try to get some cleaning done, and decorate for fall. I'm ready for it. We should be able to open the windows by tomorrow again, probably tonight. I think it's supposed to drop down into the mid50's. Yay for a lower power bill!! We can use every little bit right now. I should probably also try to get the clothes organized that I just brought back from my neighbor, and get those off the guest bed tomorrow, too. I was debating on going to ride, too, but I think I'm going to skip it this week and just spend the time in the house. I haven't had a quiet day to myself in a while, so this is welcome.

We are getting closer to getting the OMS switched over to something more productive in the office which is a good thing. And I expect when we do this upgrade there will be an opportunity for extra hours, so that's a plus. Not that I want to work extra right now, but it would be helpful. I'm very hopeful that I can pull most of the money together to buy a new washer and maybe the dryer, too, if it's a big raise. It'll take me a month or two, but I can probably do it. I'm going to need new tires on my truck, too, which stinks, and it's doing some sort of clunking thing sometimes, which is never a good thing... It's overdue for the oil change at 95,000 miles. I've put about 50k miles on it in less than 2 years of owning it. I really hope that I can get my financial situation in a much better position so that I can pay it off early so I can get something better, because I can't keep driving a vehicle into the ground like this. Gah. So many things to work towards!

We FINALLY got the work done!!!
Saturday morning we got up, and the BF went down to work to pick up a dump trailer (again), and I went to HR's to take care of the cats and ponies (again), and we met at TW's. I drove him back over to GH's to get the bobcat and drive it 3 driveways over, and followed him with my hazards on. I locked the horses in a smaller paddock and he got to work on the piles that we had made before, and then started to scrape out the shed itself (again). It took 3 trips to dump the trailer to get it all out, but we made good time, finishing in about 2 1/2 hours. I added on the time we spent originally cleaning it out and then sent her a bill. I probably should have made the bill higher, but oh well. I'm going to make some recommendations to her to maintain it, because it really does need to be maintained, but we'll see what she's willing to do.
We left there and headed back to his work to drop off the trailer again, and then grabbed lunch on the way back to GH's. We got back and started moving the stone dust and ended up using ALL of it in the barn yard. That makes a total of 43 tons of stone dust that is now down in their barnyard and around the hay feeders. We used the bobcat to level out most of it, and then finished raking it by hand. We set 4 cinder blocks in the stone dust for the hay feeder to sit on, which we will move the next time we go clear out the manure. We were EXHAUSTED by the time we finished, but really happy to have all of it done. SH came down and LOVED it. He was THRILLED with how it looked, and really happy that it was finished as well. I sent them the bill for that yesterday, and they'll leave the check when they head out of town, which I'll pick up on tomorrow morning. I'm SO grateful for this huge infusion of cash because now I can get some things accomplished! I'm able to buy new boots, which I DESPERATELY needed. My current Ariats are literally falling apart at the seams (and they STINK! ). I'm going to get the manure spreader from my friend, and then I might have enough money left over to afford getting the lime and fertilizer/seed that I need to get the grass fortified. That's really the best next step anyway, and it's the perfect season, too! I'm so happy to be able to take steps forward with all of this. I can't wait to keep moving!!
Sunday I had to take care of all 5 stalls in the barn, and they were a MESS. The horses peed a lot. And there was pretty much no sawdust left. And then on top of that the well switch went out, so I couldn't get water, either. It was a pain in the butt, and it felt like it took me FOREVER to get the stalls done. Then I had to go back by HR's and muck the 2 pony's stalls. I'm glad they weren't that bad at least but it took me forever. I stopped by a lady's house on the way home to pick up a crock pot with a locking lid for only $8. That made my day, too. That will come in really handy when I work the expo in the winter and have to take a crock pot with me! And only for $8!
I didn't do a whole lot in the afternoon, I was exhausted. I soaked in the tub (didn't make the water quite hot enough) and then we took a nap after lunch. Now I'm going to have to spend the week catching up on groceries and laundry, but oh well. I'm just glad the work is done!

Oh wow - ya'll accomplished a LOT! It's a nice feeling to get a job done and even better to get paid for it! Congrats on that!

Thanks ladies! It feels GREAT to have that checked off and DONE.
I just picked up the check this morning from GH's when I went over to take care of the boys this morning. I got that in the bank, and have been looking over my budget. I think that I'll have about $500 to work with. I can either pay off some debt, or I can invest that in the lime and grass seed that I need to get the grass started coming in better. I think I'd rather invest it even though paying down debt would be a really really good thing. I need to make some calls to the Mill, and check around to see if I can get the lime any cheaper than $16.99/bag (I need 20), and maybe I can end up putting some towards the debt anyway. We'll see how that goes. I'm a little bummed that HR isn't going to be going away for the next several weekends, because it would have been so amazing to have all of that extra funding, too. Who knows, maybe I can make it up somewhere else. I'll have to see how things flow and what I might be able to do.

In other annoying news, last night we noticed that we could hear water trickling in what we thought was the old well hole. It smelled faintly of septic, too. Of course, it wouldn't make sense for that to be the old well hole because it was downhill from the septic, but nobody told us otherwise, and it had an old iron pump stuck in the hole when we moved in, so we just sort of assumed. I did some digging into the stuff from the move, and found the report from the septic inspection, which they didn't do a pump out. Apparently the tank was less than 10% full, and that's not the old well hole, that's the secondary overflow thingy. That makes a lot more sense. But that also means that more than likely we need to get the septic pumped out. I did some digging online and found that septic pump outs don't cost THAT much money, so now I have to make some phone calls today and see if I can get some quotes on that. Not really thrilled about the added expense at the same time that the BF is trying to buy a truck and we also need a washer and dryer... Fun times!!

@wyoDreamer Can you order the lug nuts and posts from Amazon?

Ugh on septic issues... Hope you can make that extra money work for you!