The Volvo is a heavy truck. So this accident is turning into a blessing in disguise to allow me to get into a much lighter truck. most of what I’m looking at are 3500-4500 lbs lighter already. so I should be in that 27000-28000 lb area
Today I used the skid steer and dump trailer to haul some fill from the neighbors place to mine. The pile of fill needs to be hauled out for her and I can use a LOT of it around my place. this neighbor is the one where my daughter wants to use the skid steer to clean out the horse barn . I worked about 2 hours and the body said enough. I put a bit more on than this each load. The old well house had sunk in for about a 4x4 hole about 5’ deep. So I dumped a load there… I had another hole on the other end of the property that would swallow the skid steer. So I put two loads in it for now. I also want to bring in another 3-5 loads to double the width of one driveway so it’s easier to get the semi in this winter. Probably tackle this tomorrow.
Today’s misadventures involved expanding the east driveway about double. the trailer would drop off the corner on the left side so it made it a bit sketchy. So this should be a lot nice come winter. I left it high to settle a bit and will recut it and then top with road gravel or asphalt millings eventually. right now, I just wanted it wider. In other news, the insurance company is looking at a total loss on the semi and the bank is agreeing that buying my truck back for salvage makes sense. $6700 salvage value and in June alone I put $3000 worth of drive tires on it.
Even re-split a bucket of oak today. About a face cord in the bucket. the pile is about 7 cord I brought home last February.
Earlier this year, I got a 24V 170 ah battery out of a pallet Jack. One of the struggles I’ve had is getting it recharged. I’ve actually cut one of the cell connectors so now it’s actually a 12v 340 ah battery. I got a good sized battery charger, but it only had a two-hour timer switch on it. today because it’s hitting 90* outside, I opted to swap out the timer switch to one with a “Hold” function on it. I don’t have the solar panels up yet to recharge that beast of a battery. For now my plan is to use a 12V 2000w inverter to power the camper for those times I don’t need to run the generator for air conditioning.
Sat down for lunch with my daughter today… She wanted to know how I was doing since the accident… told her my arms and shoulders were a little sore this morning… then the reality set in… I’ve move and resplit 5 facecord of white and red oak since Wednesday. This morning I did two in anticipation I have to travel Tuesday and Wednesday. she asked me, “how much does a cord of oak weigh?” about 4800-5000# per cord… Her husband is a CrossFit instructor…. his eyes perked up when he realized the workout this would give him. On the battery front, the one side has been charged to a specific gravity of 1.30-1.31 on all the cells so I moved the charger to the other bank. it looks like the entire battery will be fully charged prior to my trip which means I’ll have enough reserve to be gone for up to 5 days for the camper to have power for the refrigerator.
Back to splitting wood today. The reality of tossing 3000 lbs of firewood a day took its toll and I took 3 days rest. No need to kill myself over it. in family news… my 24 yo daughter informed me that I’m invited to their elopement ceremony on 8/20. Soooo . damm.
Is it an elopement if they have a ceremony and people are invited? IDK - maybe the ceremony is held after the elopement. Is that a thing now? I mean I don't blame people for eloping, it is soooo expected that people have a big expensive wedding that impresses all the guests and an elopement takes the pressure off that.
I have no clue last I’d talked to them they were planning for a 2025 or 2026 wedding. so for all I know they already went to the courthouse
Nah, you were invited, maybe they got the estimates for a big wedding and thought they had better things to do with 50 grand ( that’s not real expensive) I know this because I planned our wedding. Wife said you asked I said yes.. You want it you plan it..
When my mothers parents got married, grandad told grandma that she could have a ring or a rug. Grandma told him she wanted a rug for their home. They don’t make them like her anymore … Grandma passed away at 99 years old with 99 descendants & no wedding ring, I never heard her every complain about not having a ring, she was all about family.
Yup my wife is different and a keeper! 1 st wedding was small quick and easy 17 person total… Wedding party for others was at our home.. 7 months later early June water balloons; pool, 150 ft slip n slide, 4 wheelers, hay rides bbq and bon fires.. and a bouncy house lasted most of a weekend Both cost less than 4 thousand together .. kids that where there still talk about it.. what kid wants to get in dress clothes and sit in a hot church for hours and be bored
Since the MVA, I’ve been splitting 1-2 buckets of wood a day for “physical therapy” I was finally able to replace the battery in my iPhone so now I’m back to making videos. I get my parts here.
We enjoyed the video of the wood splitting. Nice to see you are getting outside. Pebbles must be a great help.
