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Finally some progress at the Circle F
Some background. See previous. My niece just left here with the receipts for the fencing material I went to Vincennes and paid for yesterday. I'm off to Evansville in a few minutes to see my psychiatrist and my psychologist and should have posts, wire, gates etc. waiting when I get home. We're paying my niece and her husband to haul the stuff for us but not as much as it would cost to rent a truck, which I wouldn't be able to do till tomorrow. I'll feel better with the fencing material finally here so it's just a question of the weather and when Scotty and his friends have time to work on things. We might get there yet. *** The Evansville trip took just over 5 hours, counting allowing for trouble (I didn't have any) on the way and getting a free flu shot before I started back. I didn't take time for a post-by-post inventory (it was already starting to get dark when I got back) but there's a plausible looking pile of posts and wire in the back yard, and both gates I bought yesterday. Now it's just a question of Scotty and his friends having enough time to help me with what needs done. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on October 31, 2007 at 11:50 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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2007.10.30 Politics and National Defense Roundup
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Contributed by Bill Faith on October 30, 2007 at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Things are finally moving at the Circle F
Some background. See previous. The bank finally decided that check from Texas was good and let me start spending it. As soon as I got enough coffee in me to see straight I headed for Lowe's and TSC and bought enough wire, posts, etc to fence the part of the pasture we're going to before winter. I think we have arrangements made for my niece's husband and one of his friends to go over tomorrow and bring everything here that I bought today. I guess if they fall through I'll go to Enterprise Leasing and get a truck for the day Thursday morning (I have medical appointments in Evansville tomorrow.) Then the race will be on to see if we can get everything done before the ground freezes for the winter. I went out and got my exercise for the day throwing hay in the horse pen. It's easier than it was a couple of weeks ago but it still wears me out a lot quicker than it should. While I was out and around I walked ahead down to the end of our back property line and realized that to fence the rest of the pasture next spring we're going to have to rent, borrow or buy a chain saw; there are enough low-hanging limbs, including the tops of a couple of trees the wind broke, that the labor to clean them up with a bow saw would come to more than the price of a chain saw. If my Social Security hearing next week goes well enough I may decide next spring that I need a chain saw to have around here, otherwise my ex will have to pony up for one if she wants the rest of the fence built. *** I guess my niece called my sister at work and it's sounding more and more likely I'm going to end up having to rent a truck Thursday and bring things home from Vincennes myself. Between my sister's work schedule and my medical appointments Thursday would have been the first day we could actually get started on things anyway but having to invest time in going after the material first is no bonus. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on October 30, 2007 at 05:50 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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An early/late start at the Circle F
Some background. See previous. I don't think I mentioned earlier that my sister slipped off a wet curb a few days ago and messed her legs up. She doesn't think anything's broken -- she didn't have X-rays -- but she ended up with enough bruises and strains to slow her down for a while. Anyhoo, this morning I spent about 3 hours helping her watch her two youngest grandkids -- 4 and not quite 3 -- while their mother kept a doctors appointment. They were gone before too much after I usually get up and moving but they still left me feeling like I was running behind all day. I went back to Vincennes after the kids left to make sure I was properly calibrated on some things I need to buy as soon as I have money and a truck. It turns out the wire I've been planning to buy from Lowe's is "welded wire," not "woven wire" like I thought. I don't think I like the welded variety quite as well as the woven variety but considering the price difference I think it's good enough to use. I also found out that contrary to what I was told on the phone yesterday Lowe's does have 60" wire. Two 50' roll's is $75.96 as opposed to $166.94 for 100' of woven wire at TSC. I'm basically making the assumption all the way that Sunshine knows he's among friends here and isn't likely to try to take off. That being the case, all he needs is a reminder when he gets to the edge of his territory, which the welded wire will provide just fine. (His mother was an entirely different matter; I guess she got out of the pasture here at least three times, which is a big part of the reason Dad decided she had to go.) I think I'm going to leave the temporary pen Sunshine's in now up at least till we have a barn of some sort ready, and maybe even till spring. It needs to stay where it is at least till we have a bigger area completely fenced and after I hung those tarps over the side it's a good place for Sunshine to get out of the wind. Since we can't tear it down till after the other fence is up we won't have any use for the material we'd recover by tearing it down till we're ready to fence the rest of the pasture so why pay for the labor until we need the material? Scotty and I teamed up -- he did most of the work -- to cut some low limbs so Sunshine won't bump his head on them when we let him out into a larger area. We still have a few more to do tomorrow. I also cut the twine off that second hay bale and started tearing it apart, and realized in the process that it's setting right across one of the shorter fence segments we need to build. I guess we can wait and build that segment last and if part of the bale is still there maybe it will be to the point by then that we can roll it out of the way or I can go ahead and throw what's left of it in the pen. I'm still scratching my head trying to come up with a barn design that provides a roof without spending as much money as the best design I've come up with so far. I have another idea I want to price out that might work; back to the spreadsheet. *** I did the spreadsheet workup for a barn with a wooden roof and canvas walls arranged so there's always something to be downwind of no matter which way the wind blows. It comes out to about $470.00 as opposed to about $695.00 if I use all wood or about $165.00 for canvas walls with no roof. It'll be my ex's call and we're back to waiting for her to return calls from my sister. It would be nice to be able to buy everything for the fence and barn on one trip to Vincennes but it doesn't look like that's in the cards. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on October 29, 2007 at 09:40 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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A beautiful day at the Circle F
Some background. See previous.
Bright, clear, a few wispy clouds but nothing serious (Cirrus yes, serious no). It was still a little nippy when Todd, Mister, Ebony and I went out to make sure Sunshine had plenty of hay left but it's supposed to warm up another several degrees and I'm sure it would feel warmer to someone moving around and generating some body heat. The bank still hasn't released the rest of the fence money but there are things I can get out and do as soon as I finish waking up. I need to move the posts from the old fence somewhere out of the way and try to figure out how to get rid of what's left of the old gate between the garden and the barnlot. We aren't going to give Sunshine access to the garden but I need to replace the gate so there's a way to get a truck in and out of the pasture. The fence between the barnlot and pasture is gone except for a couple of posts I need help getting out; I can't think of any reason we'd need to confine Sunshine to that small an area and replacing it would cost money I don't see any reason to spend. We're going to fence off roughly the south 1/3 of the pasture for now and leave that fence in place when we fence the rest of it next spring. The barnlot's too shady to grow much grass but we're going to leave it open to the pasture so Sunshine has somewhere shady to go on bright summer days. Tearing out the fence between the part of the pasture we fence now and the rest of the pasture after we fence it would cost about as much in labor as the recovered wire and posts would be worth so we'll leave it in place for times it makes sense to restrict Sunshine to a smaller area than the whole pasture; with the new Wal-Mart going in and who knows what going on in the field south of us that could turn out to be really handy. *** That old gate came off so easy I was almost disappointed; I thought I had something to do lined up for at least an hour or two. I trimmed a few more branches I was tired of ducking under but I'm still going to need some help with the thicker ones. I got lazy after the branch cutting and spent an hour or so watching Sunshine chow down on fresh grass. We also found out there's a trick to getting him back in the pen with no argument; Cordell came out with a coffee can about half full of cracked corn and apparently Sunshine recognized the can or the smell; forget the grass and follow that can! *** It finally soaked in a little bit ago that the bank won't be doing a computer run tonight so at best I won't be able to buy fencing material till Tuesday, a full week after my sister took my ex's check to the bank. We wouldn't have been able to get much done before today anyway due to the muddy conditions and Scotty had to work today so I wouldn't have had any help even if the material had been here. On the other hand he's off tomorrow and Tuesday and we could have gotten some things done if not for the hold on the check; at best we'll have posts and wire here sometime Tuesday afternoon. I've been sitting here, and pacing around outside, for about two hours arguing with myself about fence heights. Lowe's has 48" x 50' rolls of good fence wire for $24.57 and 48" x 100' rolls for $57.97 (which doesn't make sense to me but I'll buy a couple of rolls anyway to eliminate a couple of wooden posts and the labor to plant them). Sadly, they don't have 60" wire and TSC wants $166.94 for a 100' roll of that. Till I realized how much more expensive it would be I'd been planning to use 60" wire all along our back property line but I may have to rethink that. We have one roll of 60" wire, where 48" would have done just fine, around the temporary pen Sunshine's in now. I might as well use that since it's already paid for. I guess I have until spring to decide about the rest of that property line; the one roll will pretty much take care of the portion where the fools working behind us tore out a bunch of brush and saplings they didn't need to and from there on to the east corner of the place I may go with a shorter fence, assuming the rest of the pasture ends up getting fenced at all. I guess in the end it will depend on what my ex is willing to pay for, or whether she even decides she wants the rest of the pasture fenced. Obviously we're hoping having the horse here is a long-term thing; he seems happy here, he's already achieved "pet" status, and seeing him moved somewhere else would make it a sad day at the Circle F. If having him here is a long term thing it makes a lot more sense to fence the rest of the pasture than to have him eating hay year-round. Regardless of whether Sunshine ends up with access to the rest of the pasture, if I get enough from Social Security I'd really like to build a wood rail fence along the front of the place. If I do that and we end up fencing the rest of the pasture all we'll need to do is add wire on the back side of it to have that side properly fenced. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on October 28, 2007 at 12:34 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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2007.10.28 Politics and National Defense Roundup
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Contributed by Bill Faith on October 28, 2007 at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Still not much shakin' at the Circle F
Some background. See previous. The bank still isn't ready to let us spend the rest of that check from my ex. My sister's son-in-law has tomorrow off, which would make it a ideal day for going after wire, fence posts, etc if we just had the money to do it. We've offered to buy him enough lumber for a small rabbit hutch in return for hauling fence material for us; a very good deal compared to spending $60.00 to rent a truck. My niece says she thinks he'd probably be willing to make the trip on a day he doesn't have off but she isn't sure. He's off tomorrow, Wednesday and Friday. I have medical appointments in Evansville Wednesday which makes Friday the first day we'll be able to go if he isn't willing to go on a day when he has to go to work later. Weather.com's calling for clear skies from tomorrow through next Saturday so I'd really hate to lose the week over not having material here yet. I woke up stiff and sore all over, apparently from doing too much yesterday and probably won't get much of anything done outside today beyond making sure Sunshine has plenty of hay where he can get to it. Maybe I'll shake it off later and get that other tarp up and some old wire picked up, maybe I won't. The tarp I don't have up goes on the east side of the pen and the forecast isn't calling for the wind to be from that direction within the next couple of days so I'm not viewing the job as really urgent. *** Color this old dog worn out some more. I got restless after my niece and her kids left and my sister left for work and headed outside with the intention of trimming some more low-hanging limbs but found out my body just isn't what it used to be. I did manage to get the rest (I need to have someone with younger eyes double-check me) of the old wire picked up from where I tore down the fence between the old barnlot and pasture. Took a break and then threw a bunch more hay into the pen. That first round bale they brought when they brought Sunshine finally got small enough I could pick it up with a pitch fork and throw it in the pen, which I did. I could probably go two or three days without going back out to feed and except for raking up some loose hay scattered around outside the pen I may do just that. After tonight my sister's off till Tuesday, the weather's supposed to be nice tomorrow, and I'm guessing Sunshine will probably spend an hour or two tomorrow on a lead rope grazing in the pasture. We've been giving him a few alfalfa cubes and a little bit of cracked corn every day but I don't know if that's really necessary. I think having Sunshine here's been good for me. I still get out of breath without much excuse, and probably always will, but the strength in my arms and legs is coming back a little; I can do things now that I wouldn't have even tried a month ago. The sun finally came out about 5:30. Of course it was already down behind that little woods just west of our place by then -- sunset was 5:57 -- but the buildings up the hill on the edge of town got some sunlight. If weather.com is right we won't see any more clouds and rain till a week from tomorrow. *** Once again it's beautiful out like I wish it had been during the day. I just spent about an hour sitting in a lawn chair talking to Sunshine and mainly just thinking. I couldn't see any sign of the moon or stars when I went out but the moon came out about 9:30. I think we're in for several days of good fence-building weather if we can just get the material here before it turns mean again. I don't know what Scotty's schedule is for the next few days but if he's off tomorrow maybe I can talk him into helping me plant the gatepost for the gate between the garden and barnlot. *** Scotty was home just long enough for me to find out a little bit about his schedule. He works tomorrow afternoon then he's off for two days. I told him I had at least a couple of hours work he can do for me Monday afternoon if he can wait for that check to clear before I pay him, then we'll be out of things we can do till we have fence posts and wire. I'll probably put that other tarp up on the east side of the pen tomorrow afternoon and pretty much goof off for the rest of the day; I'm out of things I can do without help. If the check finally posts Monday maybe Danny and I can go to Vincennes before too late Tuesday and Scotty and I can get some things done later in the day. My sister isn't at all fond of the idea of just building a windbreak instead of a barn with a roof. We've agreed to present the options to my ex and leave the decision to her. In the mean time I'm still scratching my head for more alternative designs. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on October 27, 2007 at 03:07 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Another slow day at the Circle F
Some background. See previous. Rainy and windy out again. I handle cold OK but gloomy's hard on my motivation level. At least it's supposed to b nicer tomorrow. The bank still has a hold on most of the money from my ex but at least the Direct Deposit request my brother-in-law finally got around to turning in finally went into effect and he got paid on time for once; he's been paid late more often than on time since they quit passing out checks at work and started mailing them. My sister gave me enough from his check to go to Vincennes and buy some tarps (see yesterday's post) and some cracked corn. I think I'm probably going to wait till tomorrow to do anything with the tarps; moving that 50 lb. bag of cracked corn from the shelf to a shopping cart, then to my car, then into the garage, pretty much did in my back for the day. *** Sunshine definitely thinks that cracked corn I bought is good stuff. I waited and let Cordell give him his first taste of it since he's used to getting a treat of some sort about as soon as Cordell gets home from school. *** It soaked in on the way to Vincennes that if the "barn" isn't going to have a roof a simple "plus sign" configuration would work just as well as the floor plan I'd been planning to use and save money on posts and labor. I also realized when I looked at the $2.50 tarps I bought that they'll work fine for attaching to a fence to block the wind blowing across Sunshine's temporary pen but they aren't heavy enough to use for "barn walls." TSC does sell tarps I think would be fine for that application but they're $23.69 apiece, almost exactly offsetting the money the new floor plan saves. That still leaves the price of the "barn" I think we should create right at $150.00. *** I looked at tomorrow's forecast and decided the tarps around the pen needed to go up today after all. I got three of them up before I wore out and should be able to get the other one up tomorrow; they've taken the rain out of the forecast for the next few days so as soon as the bank posts the rest of that check we should be able to get in gear on the fence itself. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on October 26, 2007 at 03:39 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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2007.10.26 Politics and National Defense Roundup
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Contributed by Bill Faith on October 26, 2007 at 12:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Another slow day at the Circle F
Some background. See previous. It's not the temperature so much as that damp wind. Really not a good day to get out and do much. The bank still has a hold on the rest of the money from my ex so I still can't go shopping. The guy whose barn Sunshine spent several weeks in before moving here came by this afternoon with another 1,000 lb. bale of hay. I guess he baled hay on my ex's land on a share crop basis and still owes her enough it should last the winter; we just need to call him when we need more, or after the fence is done maybe we can get him to put several bales out in the field for us at once; there isn't really room for more than he bought us for now without putting it farther from the pen than I want to carry it. I picked his brain about several horse related matters while he was here and ended up a little more confident that what I'm planning on the fence and barn front makes sense. He also said there's no such thing as throwing too much hay in the pen and ideally there should never be a time when there isn't some in there waiting to be eaten. Now that I know we have enough here and know where to get more I need to start throwing more in than I have been. Another idea he had that I wish I'd thought of was to hang some tarps ($2.50 each for 6'x8' at TSC) on the sides of the pen to give Sunshine something to get downwind of. I need to do that about tomorrow and I feel bad about not thinking of it myself. I can reuse the tarps later on top of the barn to keep the roof from soaking up moisture till we have time to put some waterproof paint on it next spring. I guess I should be out picking up old fence posts and wire from the old fence I tore down but I feel like my body's already had all the out and about it needs for one day. I need to go throw more hay in the pen a little later but other than that I think I'm about horsed out for the day. *** Great. Now that the sun's ready to set the wind dies down so it's not too bad out. I threw enough hay in the pen to not feel like I need to go out around midnight like I have been but I got lazy and didn't pick up any posts and wire while I was out there like I should have. Can an old dog get away with just being tired now and then? *** Where was this weather during the day? I've been sitting outside thinking under scattered clouds and a moon you could just about read by, with almost no wind. The forecast still says it'll be rainy and windy again by morning. ***
What I was sitting outside thinking of was how to save my ex some money on a "barn." I'm repeating the image from my post here to refresh your memory. Each line represents an 8' x 8' wall, with a roof over the whole thing. My best guess at what it would cost to build it is about $700.00, counting labor. It's not my money but it is money my ex can spend on our daughter and grandson if she doesn't spend it on a barn and I've been racking my brain trying to come up with a less expensive approach. What set off the latest round of thinking was Tommy, the guy who brought the hay this afternoon, reminding me that except for the brief period Sunshine spent in his barn right after his eyes went bad Sunshine has never been under a roof in his life. He's had ravines to hide from the wind in but not a roof. I came in and did some calculations and found out that of that $700 estimate for a barn, I can save over $300 by removing the roof and only making the walls 6' high; the only reason I intended to make them higher than that was to make the roof far enough from the ground that Sunshine wasn't in danger of bumping his head against it. Aside from saving money on wood and labor, the shorter walls mean there's no need for anyone to do anything that can't be done standing on the ground; Scotty's about 6'4" and both of his friends that are going to help are even bigger. Tommy also suggested, as I mentioned above, hanging some tarps over the fence to provide someplace out of the wind in the temporary pen Sunshine's in now. After realizing I don't think the barn needs a roof I went on to wonder if the 6' high walls actually need to be wood; I don't think they do. If instead of wood I use 6' x 8' tarps I think I can get the total cost of the barn down to around $150.00. If I go that route and decide the walls need to be wood later we scrap 4 $2.50 tarps and convert to the $400.00 design. It doesn't make any sense to start on any sort of barn till the fence is done, which leaves plenty of time to discuss barn designs with my ex and let her decide which one she wants to go with. For now we're still waiting on the bank here to release their hold on the rest of the check she sent. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on October 25, 2007 at 04:16 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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2007.10.25 Politics and National Defense Roundup
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Contributed by Bill Faith on October 25, 2007 at 02:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on October 24, 2007 at 08:26 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on October 24, 2007 at 01:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Some background. See previous. It might not feel quite so bad out if I hadn't woke up chilled again; I had an extra blanket within reach but didn't wake up to put it over me when I should have. According to Weather.com we're looking at a high of 58F for the day. Add in a very damp 20 to 30 mph wind and that's enough to chase a tired old dog back to the house pretty quick. I threw some hay in the pen and I'll put more in later but that's going to be about the limit of my outdoor activity for the day. I decided to gamble on it not getting hot again between now and spring and took my window fan out of the window. It's not a big deal to take out but putting it in is a hassle. I'd been just putting cardboard in front of it and lowering the blinds to keep it in place but that wasn't really doing the job. The bank still hasn't released the hold on that check from my ex so I can't even go shopping for gates, etc. I'll try to get some blogging done about other things but over all it's starting to feel like a good day for a long afternoon nap. *** I got to feeling guilty about sitting in the house relaxing while Sunshine was stuck in that little pen and went out and tried out that new "Post Popper." I pulled one old T-post out of the ground successfully and broke another one off at ground level -- Someday when I have some help I'll set another one on top of that one and drive it down about 2 or 3 inches. There are two hunks of 3" pipe that were also used as fence posts but I'm going to have to wait till I have help to do anything with them. ***
It's not actually the temperature outside that's so unpleasant right now, it's the wind chill. Weather.com says it's 56 out right now and feels like 56, which is just flat wrong. The wind's blowing a good 25 mph and making it feel a lot cooler than it is. On the other hand, the wind just led me to a solution to something that's been bugging me. I'm going to need a way to drill holes in some posts to hold a couple of gates, I can't afford a cordless drill, and I'm not sure we have enough heavy duty extension cords around here to use a corded power drill. I'd been wondering for days what happened to the "bit brace" I knew Dad used to use in situations like that. I did a pretty thorough search of the garage with no success. Then when I went out to feed right before sundown I walked around to the downwind side of the old barn to get out of the wind for a minute before walking back to the house and found it lying on the ground right next to the barn (My sister moved some things out of the barn when we were talking about selling that part of the property and some of it didn't get carried back in.) Problem solved! The one I found isn't nearly as pretty as the one in the picture and would probably have some value as an antique if we wanted to sell it -- I can remember Daddy using it when he and Uncle Ray wired Grandma Faith's house for electric lights way, way, back -- but it's still perfectly functional. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on October 24, 2007 at 01:08 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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2007.10.23 Politics and National Defense Roundup
Just a passing thought: I've been bitching a lot recently about all the rain we've been getting but I shouldn't really. I'd rather get wet feeding the horse than wonder if the winds are going to shift and we're going to lose the whole place. We get some interesting thunderstorms now and then and even an occasional tornado scare but I wouldn't trade this area for anyplace else in the world. Just some quick hits today:
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Contributed by Bill Faith on October 23, 2007 at 09:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Too wet to horse around ... for how long?
Some background. See previous. Not horse related but I'll put it here anyway: Now that I know a little more about what to expect at my Social Security hearing next month I'm feeling pretty optimistic; I hope it's justified. My lawyer doesn't make a cent unless we win and he's still planning to be there, for whatever that's worth. He says the Administrative Law Judge we'll be seeing is blind, which may or may not work to my advantage. If his other senses are more acute than normal like a lot of blind people, he'll be more likely to notice how out of breath I get trying to carry on a conversation. On the other hand he won't notice that, as my lawyer put it, I look 15 years older than my actual chronological age. If we do win, I'm still not sure how much money I'll actually end up with. Will I start getting the same size Social Security checks as I would if I wasn't getting a VA pension and will my VA pension continue, or will the total monthly amount I get be the same as if the VA wasn't involved? Will I keep getting checks from both places or will my VA checks stop? Will they subtract everything I've gotten from the VA in the last 2 1/2 years from my Social Security back settlement? I guess I'm going to be pretty nerved up wondering till the dust settles. I probably won't come back from the hearing knowing whether I won or lost, and if I win it will be another 2 or 3 months before I know how my VA benefits affect my Social Security. In the best case I could end up with enough money to have a small attached apartment added on to the back of the house, buy myself a newer car so I can run off to Texas every 3 or 4 months, build a pretty wood fence across the front of the pasture, etc. Worst case, even if I win, is that they reduce the settlement and my monthly pension by the amount I've gotten and would keep getting from the VA. The difference is roughly $30K on the back settlement and $900/mo on my monthly income; not exactly small change. I might still be able to have the apartment added on but I wouldn't be able to buy another car; at least I'd have some privacy again, and quit having to wait my turn to use the bathroom or the kitchen. Compared to the way I've lived for the last 3 1/2 years even that would seem heavenly, and maybe I could afford to rent a car to run to and from Texas in occasionally. I think whatever's causing all this rain has the Weather.com people totally confused. At one point they were calling for it to rain most of the week, then when I looked at the forecast yesterday morning they were saying it was going to quit tonight, now they're back to saying there's at least a 40% chance every day through Friday. I'm not sure how much time that's actually going to cost us; I don't know how long it will be till Danny's available to go to Vincennes with me to buy posts and gates and wire. I'll go ahead over by myself later today and buy some things I don't need his help moving but I won't be able to do much with them but sit and look at them. I'd like to go ahead and try my hand at pulling old posts out of the ground but to do that I need something solid to set the post puller on. Maybe I can find a suitable board of some sort; the posts will probably come out of the ground easier while it's wet. There's still a bunch of old wire to be picked up and disposed of from the old fence I took it off of; maybe I can do that between showers. Other than that and going after the wire, etc the first day Danny has time there's really not much I can do except wait for the rain to let up. Right now I'm too tired to think about anything but getting some sleep. *** Well, hell! I guess we're still waiting for money. My sister took the check from my ex to the bank but they're only making $100.00 of it available till it clears. Imagine that; a personal check on a Ft Worth bank account and our little southern Illinois bank won't credit the whole thing immediately. Into every life some rain must fall, I guess, or in our case the last few days quite a bit of it. Weather.com's reduced their predicted rain probability for tomorrow to 20% but increased in to 60% for Thursday and Friday. I went ahead and went to Vincennes but wasn't able to buy everything I'd originally intended to today. I got a post *** I thought I'd posted that last update before I crashed but apparently my TypePad session had expired and I was too tired to notice. I hate to start complaining about being cold already after suffering from the heat like I did all summer but I think I let my room get too cold during the night last night and still haven't gotten over feeling deep-down chilled. I'm not sure enough we've seen our last hot day to take my window fan out and close the window yet so I guess I'll just make sure I have an extra blanket where I can get to it when I crash tonight. As soon as that check clears I still want to go back to TSC and buy some more things to save time later. While I'm there I'll probably also buy a couple of gates and have them set them aside with my name on them so I'm sure they'll have them when I come back. Something I didn't even know existed till I spotted them by accident today is rubber safety caps for T-posts; they make the post easier to see and keep the horse from getting cut on the top of the post. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on October 23, 2007 at 12:58 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack |
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A little less horsing around today, probably
Some background. See previous. Color this old dog tired, folks. I went out to throw some hay in the pen for Sunshine and had to sit and pant a spell before I started back to the house. Fortunately it's a beautiful night for just sitting in a lawn chair in the dark and thinking. By tomorrow night it's supposed to be rainy and quite a bit cooler but at least they've taken the rain out of the forecast for Wednesday and the rest of the week. I really am getting seriously concerned about having a bigger area fenced in before winter gets here. A lot of it's going to depend on how anxious Scotty and his friends are to have some extra money when the money my ex mailed gets here. I'm going to try to get all the fence posts in the ground before we start stringing any wire; we can string wire with the ground frozen if we have to. I'm still arguing with myself about starting on the barn before we get the fence up; that's going to involve planting some support posts as well but if the kids are willing to stay after the job actually stringing the wire shouldn't take over a couple of days. I'm going to be getting a late start on anything I do outside today. I have an appointment with my lawyer to talk about my Social Security case soon enough after I'm usually up and around that I won't have time to do any more than throw some hay in the pen till I get home. After I get home I guess I should get out and collect up all the barbed wire I left lying around yesterday and put it someplace where no one will get tangled up in it. My sister agrees with me that there's no reason for anyone to be wandering around between the old barn and our back property line; there's still a fence separating that area from the pasture and the area west of the barn will be outside the new fence we're putting in -- Based on how much of the place we used to have fenced off for two horses I think we can save time and money by not giving Sunshine access to the garden and only giving him part of the old barnlot and pasture area. Giving him every thing we possibly could would mean cutting a lot of brush and trees we'd rather leave in place for privacy and to save time. I'm going to run the new back fence about two feet inside the property line and we're going to let the area between the fence and the property line go back to nature; the more brush and trees the better since we have no control over what happens on the other side of the property line. When we fence the rest of the pasture next spring I won't go all the way to the east corner of the place for the same reason. (See this post if that last sentence doesn't make sense to you.) On the north side we know we're safe for the foreseeable future from having anything but grass between us and the highway so it makes sense to fence right to the line. Like I said yesterday, if I get enough from Social Security after my hearing I'd like to build a nice wood fence along there and back it with horse wire on the pasture side. *** I woke up every bit as stiff and sore from yesterday as I expected to but I managed to get some hay in the pen I'm not going to try to do any non-horse blogging between now and the appointment with my lawyer lest I get wrapped up in it and lost track of the time. It's going to be too wet to do anything outside after I get home so I'll try to at least get links up to the day's top stories later. *** Kept my appointment with my lawyer and did some window shopping at Ace Hardware on the way home. It's too wet and rainy to get out and make any progress on the fence project yet. There was a letter from Ft Worth in the mail box when I checked on my way in but it was addressed to my sister and she hasn't opened it yet. With a little luck it should be the money we've been waiting on to get started on the fence. *** The envelope from Ft Worth was the check from my ex we've been waiting for. I still won't be able to make very much progress on the fence project until my sister's son-in-law has time to take me to Vincennes in their van but I'll go tomorrow and buy some of the smaller things to save time when he and I go. I don't see any reason not to go ahead and buy the T-post puller I looked at at TSC so I can try it out on the posts between the old barnlot and the pasture, and I might as well go ahead and buy the post driver and some rope and twine I know I'm going to want. I can also stop by Rural King to pick up a couple of $2.00 carpenter's hammers I got a rain check for on my last trip there. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on October 22, 2007 at 01:53 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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2007.10.22 Politics and National Defense Roundup
Today's top quick hits:
I came in from horsing around worn out and missed the Republican debate. As usual, Jim Geraghty has excellent coverage at The Campaign Spot. More quick hits:
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Contributed by Bill Faith on October 22, 2007 at 12:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on October 22, 2007 at 12:08 AM in Iraq | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on October 21, 2007 at 05:46 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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A good day for horsing around ...
... I just wish I had the money that won't be here till next week to make the most of it. Weather.com is forecasting a high of 77, under clear skies. Starting Monday there's a good chance of rain in the forecast every day through Friday. I'll probably head for Vincennes later today to make sure some of the things I've picked out online really look like I expect them to at close range; I particularly want to make sure I know the difference between the two types of woven wire fabric I'm considering so I'm not making design decisions on the fly when we go to actually buy everything. Other than that, I'll probably spend some time outside working at getting some old fence wire out of the way and maybe trimming some limbs. That's about all I can do till the money gets here for material. I wish I could make the fence we're going to put across the middle of the pasture better looking but I know my ex had to scrape to come up with the money to even do what we are doing. Except at the ends (where I'll use 5" diameter wood posts) the fence across the pasture is going to be supported by steel "T" Posts. They're perfectly functional for the job but I'd love to be able to replace them with wooden posts and run a wooden rail across the top of the fence. Unfortunately that would cost an extra 250 bucks or so without adding anything to the functionality of the fence. If my Social Security hearing next month goes well maybe I'll be able to put up the difference between a purely functional fence and the fence I'd like to build across the front of the property next spring; wooden posts with a wire fence attached to the inside of them and wooden rails attached to the outside for purely aesthetic reasons. It'd look a lot prettier from the highway done that way. *** I spent a couple of hours wandering around Vincennes getting calibrated on some things I'll need when the fence money gets here. Notes to self:
I spent some time after I got back from Vincennes trimming some limbs in the part of the field that isn't fenced yet but will be soon. I wish I knew where we could borrow a chain saw for a couple of days but I guess we're going to have to settle for the bow saw we already have. While I was out wandering around the yard I realized there was a 6"x6"x8' post lying in the back yard next to the fence between the yard and the barnlot. No idea how long it's been there or what Dad planned on using it for if he'd lived to -- it was pretty much buried in dead branches that will make good kindling for a wiener-roast fire sometime. Finding it solves a problem for me; I'd been wondering whether the biggest post I knew where to buy was beefy enough to attach a 12' gate to, knowing sooner or later at least one of the kids will decide to climb the gate. I'm pretty sure a 6x6 will. (Correction -- Lowe's has posts like that for $15.98. Finding it still saves me $10.98 for the post I'd intended to use.) |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on October 20, 2007 at 02:08 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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2007.10.20 Politics and National Defense Roundup
Quick hits:
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Contributed by Bill Faith on October 20, 2007 at 01:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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