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(See previous) I'm trying to talk myself out of it but having damned little luck. For nearly four months I've believed things were firmly settled, that I'd be getting an SSDI pension and a big lump sum back settlement. Now I find out there's a slim but finite chance I might not be. I know the chances of my file being pulled for a random review are small, and that even if it is the judge's opinion isn't likely to be reversed, but I'm still right back where I was four months ago emotionally. I need the weather to hurry up and break so I can at least get out and work off some nervous energy fencing the rest of the field, and I need to be able to sit in the back yard and think without shivering. I guess nothing's changed as far as the fence goes. I'll be headed to Vincennes later today to buy a chain saw and scout out the welded wire situation. About all we can do before the second check from my ex gets here is clear some brush and set a few fence posts but even just getting the corner posts set to mark off what we eventually intend to fence will make me feel a lot better, like we've at least done something. I need to take my pills and try to get some sleep. Maybe things will seem brighter tomorrow. *** I woke up feeling a little better than when I went to bed but I still can't convince myself to be all happy and cheery; maybe when I actually have that big check in my hot little hands. Maybe even when I get the first couple of monthly checks so I can afford a trip to Ft Worth. I still don't know why it took as long as it did after my hearing before the written opinion was issued, and it still pisses my off; I should have at least the first monthly check in hand by now. I gambled on my ex actually sending the money she said she would and went ahead and bought a chain saw today. Tomorrow I need to go buy a can to mix gas and oil in and some chain lubricant, then fire the thing up and try it out. I probably won't do a lot with it myself but once I'm sure it works right I hope to get Taylor out here Sunday afternoon to trim that back fence row. Depending on how long that takes we might also plant some fence posts. Weather.com says that after Sunday the next fit day for doing things outside will be Wednesday, and even then it's supposed to be a little on the chilly side. Of course anything on weather.com is subject to change until it actually happens. Maybe if the forecast is just right for the next couple of days so I can spend some time out and around I can tell myself Spring's here and it will do good things for my mood. I'm not going to attack that back fence row by myself but I should be able to get out tomorrow and trim a couple of trees and maybe cut the ones growing beside and through the fence beside the yard; they're only there because they came up too close to the fence to get with a lawn mower and they're in my way. I wish I could think of some way to pull the end of the whole project in some, but I can't. If I'm going to have to rent a truck to get posts and wire home from Vincennes, which it looks like I am, I only want to do it once, which means I can't do it till the second check from my ex gets here in three or four weeks. I asked at TSC today and they said if I come in and buy more wire than they have in stock they can have it for me in two weeks or so. They didn't have everything I'm going to want in stock when I was there today so I guess as soon as the first check from my ex gets here I need to go over and order my wire so it comes in about the same time as the second check gets here. Then when the second check comes I can go over and buy posts on a "will call" basis and bring everything home as soon as the wire gets here. After that it's just a matter of the weather being decent often enough to get the job done before too long. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on February 29, 2008 at 12:48 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on February 29, 2008 at 12:18 AM in Politics and National Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Anxious to get started horsin' around again; Did I ever mention I'm not good at waiting? I'd feel a little better about it if I knew the check my ex promised to send was actually on the way but I think I'm going to go ahead and buy a chains saw out of my pension check tomorrow and pay myself back when her check gets here. If I do that I'll also go ahead and have Taylor cut a bunch of brush along that back fence row the first day the weather's decent and he has time. I'm anxious to be able to say "We've started on the new fence," even knowing it's going to be three or four weeks before the job's done. I think I changed my mind a little bit ago about which chain saw to buy. I did some "windows shopping" a couple of days ago and decided on this one but I think I'm going with this one instead. The last time I was at Rural King I left pissed off over poor customer service and promised myself I wouldn't be going back; the people at Lowe's are friendly, on the other hand. Also, even if the one at Rural King has all of the same features as the one at Lowe's, which I can't tell from their web site, I think the smaller lighter one is more appropriate for around here. We don't have anything all that big to cut, I'm not as big and beefy as I used to be, and a lot of what I'm buying it to cut is up in the air. Taylor could probably handle the bigger one but why make the job harder than it has to be, and why buy something I can't use myself for little jobs? I'm also going to make the new pasture a little bigger than I'd first thought, but not in a way that will add much to the cost of fencing it. ($4.12 to be exact.) I'd thought till I did a little more walking around yesterday afternoon that I'd run the north fence straight east from the existing wooden fence up the east edge of the yard. That would make it about 16' from our north property line, way more room than I need to have to build a wooden fence right on the line then tear down the temporary fence. For the price of one T-post I can add over 1400 sq feet to the area of Pasture 2 by moving the temporary north fence about 8' north of where I'd planned. I'll still build a wooden fence about 8' north of that line when I get my back settlement, along with fencing around the fire hydrant so Sunshine doesn't trip on it, having that tree-top that's over the fence removed, and moving the east end of Pasture 2 farther east. Did I mention I'm not real good at waiting? *** Thank you Randy for the information in the email you sent me. Fellow vet Randy, who's circumstances are very similar to mine right now, tells me that once I have a copy of the judge's decision in hand I can go to my local Social Security office and get a $999.00 emergency loan against my back settlement. I will definitely check into whether that's true in this area. I'm not sure yet but I think I've decided not to have the apartment out back built after all. Realistically, it may not always be appropriate for me to live in this area. In the short term, I finally realized this morning that living in a separate apartment, even only a few steps from the main house, wouldn't be a completely positive thing. The I discussed the situation with my sister this morning and I think what I'm going to do instead is have a storage shed built on part of the space I'd planned for the apartment so we can clear a lot of the clutter out of the main house. If I do that it will have proper walls and a roof and floor suitable for habitation, just no heat or air conditioning. She says if I do that she'll clear out a bunch of the out of season clothing and general "we might want it sometime" clutter out of the room I'm in now so I have room for a small mini-kitchen for times I need something to eat and my brother in law is in the middle of fixing a big meal in the main kitchen. I'll still have to share my room with a washer and dryer but with my hearing problems that's no big deal; I can turn off my hearing aids and not even know they're there. I still have 3 or 4 months to think about the matter before I do anything so that gives me plenty of time to think things over more. *** I finally got my copy of the judge's written decision. It's several pages and I'm not going to scan them all but here's the good part. The bad part nobody'd told me about is that there's a review council that has 60 days to decide the judge screwed up. My lawyer says that out of over 300 cases he's handled he's only seen them review two, and even if they do review my case they'll probably just rubberstamp the judge's opinion, but that's still 60 more days till I can be absolutely certain I'm getting the money I've thought there was no longer any question about since 7 Nov 07. So much for relaxing and sleeping better nights from now on. The other piece of good news from my lawyer is that he's never seen one of those $999.00 emergency loan applications approved and doesn't know what it takes to constitute an emergency in the eyes of the people who process them. It also just soaked in that with that bit in there about the review council my hope of taking the written opinion to my bank and borrowing against it also just went away. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on February 28, 2008 at 01:09 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on February 28, 2008 at 12:21 AM in Politics and National Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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I still don't have my copy but my lawyer called this morning to tell me he'd received his copy of the judge's written opinion stating that I'm entitled to an SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance) pension retroactive to 1 July 03. He says his recent experience has been that it'll be another couple of months before I get my first monthly check, then another couple of months after that before I get my back-settlement. I'm fairly confident that once I have my copy of the judges order and something in writing saying how much my monthly amount will be (which I don't have yet) I can go to my bank and borrow against the back settlement. I haven't gotten an automatic annual statement like most people get since I applied for benefits (I've requested a statement by mail but don't have it yet) but if nothing else, once I get my first monthly check I should be able to take a copy of the opinion and the statement that comes with the check to the bank and get a loan then. I'm going to sleep better tonight than I have in years. First I was waiting for a judge to hear my case, then the excitement of winning turned to paranoia as the weeks drug on and I still didn't have anything in writing -- "What if someone found some excuse to reject my claim even after the judge said I won?" Life still isn't going to be totally copasetic -- we're still struggling month to month -- until I actually get everything I have coming but at least now I know there really is light at the end of the tunnel. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on February 27, 2008 at 03:46 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on February 27, 2008 at 02:14 PM in Politics and National Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Good news on the horse front (Thrice updated)
(See previous) My sister says Taylor came by the C-store where she works last night . He's available and broke; he'd be here today if I had something for him to do and money to pay him. If it comes to that he and I can do the job, but I'm lazy enough to hope he can find a partner. My nephew says he'll be seeing Kyle today and will ask him about being the other half of my crew. The ground's soggy and we're expecting snow tonight but I don't think it's going to be all that long till we could start making progress on a fence; fence posts go in the ground easier when it's not dry and hard and I can't see any reason we need a long dry spell to trim the brush along the back property line. If Taylor's as anxious to make money as my sister got the impression he is the only thing holding us back is the time it will take my ex to get a check here. I didn't stay out long enough to sort T-posts by length but there are at least $80.00 worth of unused or reusable posts out there. That's that much money I can subtract off my cost estimate when I get around to sorting them. I know I played it pretty safe last fall on making sure we only had to haul one load but I'm still disappointed in myself realizing I spent over $100.00 (counting wooden posts) on posts we didn't end up needing. *** My ex called. She's sending enough money to get the job started as soon as she can get to the bank to get a cashier's check (we lost several days last fall waiting for my bank to decide her check was good) and the rest in a couple of weeks. I'll need some time to think about how to make the best use of the first check. Step 1 is obviously to buy a chainsaw and Step 2 is to have Taylor clear a bunch of brush along the back fence but I'll have to think a little longer on what comes next. Partly it depends on whether Kyle's available, which I don't know yet. I have enough wooden posts for either the back fence or the front one; I'll have to decide where to use them. ... Later: I think I'll use the three posts I have now to mark the corners of the area I intend to fence. I need to call TSC sometime soon and ask how much fence wire they have in stock. Depending on how much they keep around at a time it may make sense to buy some of it now, on an "I'll be back for it later" basis so they'll have time to restock by the time the second check gets here. Just realized I get my pension check Friday and Mom gets hers Monday. If I know by then there's a check on the way I can spend some of my pension short term and repay myself when the first check from my ex gets here. Enough to buy a chain saw and have Taylor cut some brush, anyway. We have an inch and a half of snow on the ground, it isn't even supposed to get above freezing tomorrow, and her I am chomping at the bit wanting to get out and do things. Did I mention I'm not the patient type? *** I'm just in from giving Sunshine his midnight snack. It's beautiful out with snow on the fields (we're up to about 2 and a half inches) and I spent a few minutes walking around thinking things over. I realized while I was outside that I still had one too many wooden fence posts on my list. If I put the back fence in it's final location on the first pass that makes it an extension of the back fence we put in last fall, which means the to fences can share a $13.74 post. I think after the new fence is built it makes sense to tear out about 16' of the fence between Pasture 1 and Pasture 2 (defs in my earlier post). The fence between the two pastures is 116' feet long, with a 4' gate 16' from the northwest west end. I'd thought till I was outside a little bit ago that when the new fence was done I'd just take the gate down till I was ready to do things in their final form. I think in view of Sunshine's vision problems it makes more sense to take down the 16' of fence between the gate and the northwest end of the fence. When I redo things after I get my SSDI back settlement I'll replace the 4'gate with a 12' gate 8' from the end of the fence, mounted so it cans swing back flat against the fence (which the 4' gate can't.) ... Or, I might put a 16' gate where Sunshine's used to the gap in the fence being and leave the 4' gate where it is for times we want to move between fields without him being able to. OK, so I think I have it figured out. Now all I need's money and decent weather. At the risk of putting too much stock in weather.com's extended forecast, I think we can at least start trimming brush this weekend. *** I discussed the situation with my sister and we decided it makes more sense to just remove the fence between the two pastures completely when my back settlement gets here. In the short term I'll just tear out the 16' I mentioned above, then have the rest torn out later. It just occurred to me it might make sense to just leave the other part where it is. Sunshine's smart enough to find his way back and forth between fields through a 16' or 20' opening and the time might come down the road when we want to separate the fields for some reason. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on February 26, 2008 at 05:26 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on February 26, 2008 at 12:28 AM in Politics and National Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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I guess we're expecting another fence (2 Updates)
We have agreement in principle that my ex will front the money for the fencing project I've mentioned in my last two or three local-interest posts. We're still at least a few weeks from the weather being decent enough to be able to do anything, which gives me some time to do a better job of planning the job. Don't scale the drawing but here's kinda-sorta what I have in mind.
"Pasture 1" is the area we fenced last fall; I knew it wasn't big enough to be all we'd need but it's all I thought we could get done before the weather got bad and I was right. Along with the weather getting worse, the two young men who did most of the work left for Indianapolis to help remodel a motel three days after the job was done. "Pasture 2" is what I'm borrowing money from my ex (the horse's legal owner, even if our grandson does think he's his) to do as soon as the weather permits. There's already a wooden fence between the house and the pasture so on that side all we need to do is attach wire to the pasture side of it. On the north, east and southeast sides we're starting from scratch and building a fence that will only be there for a few months. Either before winter or as soon as conditions permit next spring, depending on when I get my SSDI back-settlement, I'll have things done over "right." On the north edge of the pasture I want the temporary fence just far enough south of the property line to allow me to build a wooden fence, backed by wire on the pasture side, right on the property line. On the southeast side we need to clear a bunch of brush before we can move the fence closer to the property line. On the east end, for now I'll fence to just west of the fire hydrant and broken tree I mentioned in my last post on the matter. When I can afford to I'll have the broken tree removed and the fire hydrant enclosed so Sunshine can't trip over it, then move the east line farther east. One variable in determining how much I have to spend in the short term is getting permission from the gent who owns the field just north of our pasture to drive a pickup across his field to bring in materials. If I'd been thinking farther ahead last fall I would have put in a 12' wide gate between Pasture 1 and Pasture 2, like the one between the garden and barnlot. Since I wasn't the gate is only 4' wide, just wide enough to lead a horse through but not wide enough to drive a truck through. I'd figured all along that I'd tear down part of that fence and put in a wider gate when I could afford to but now the choice may be between doing that now or asking a couple of husky young men to carry material through the 4' gate to where we need it around the edges of Pasture 2. Paying by the hour to have it carried would probably be less expensive than buying a 12' gate (The one I'd buy lists for $67.99) but if Mr. Ewing will let us drive across his field it will make the job a lot easier; it's about 200' from the 4' gate to the far corner of Pasture 2. *** Some thoughts after feeding the horse and walking around outside for a few minutes to clear my head: Between miscalculating and buying extras just to be safe I ended up with material left over last fall. I have 3 5" dia wooden posts in the back yard out of 6 I need for Pasture 2, and at least a dozen T-posts of varying lengths. I can also save enough by tearing down what's left of the temporary pen to justify the labor involved. Just the recoverable wire is worth $84.99 and the T-posts another $12 or $15. I think if we can't get the neighbor's permission to haul fence posts and wire across his field the thing to do is to temporarily remove a section of the wooden fence between the yard and the pasture. The labor to do that and rebuild it later would be less than the labor to carry everything from Pasture 1 to pasture 2. I'm still a little shocked over the amount of walking I was able to do Saturday and the fact I didn't wake up hurting all over the next day. I'm by no means ready to go back to work -- the "not so good" days are way too frequent -- but I think most days I could be half of a two-man fencing crew if the other half was a healthy young buck like Taylor, the half of my crew from last fall who isn't in jail. It would probably make sense to pay him a little more per hour than last fall if we did that, but I could compensate by working for free (since it's coming out of my pocket in the long run anyway) and still save money. I can't dig post holes or drive T-posts but I can tamp dirt around posts and hold T-posts straight up while someone else drives them. I need to have my sister have her husband do some asking around about borrowing a chain saw from his dad or one of his brothers for a weekend or so, and if he can't I need to call around and see if anyone in town rents them. If not I need to add the price of an inexpensive electric one into my estimate. Building that southeast fence in it's final location the first time will save more in the long run than the price of an electric chain saw and some extension cords. I still want to buy a good gas one eventually but that can wait till I get my SSDI but a light-weight electric job could still be handy now and then. The more I think about it, the more I think I want to do the fence job myself with hired help, even if I have to be half the crew. I still think Caleb, the guy who screwed up that temporary pen last fall, can probably do a decent job on thing like barns and breakfast nooks and apartments but I don't trust him on fences. My impatience is kicking in again. I'm anxious for the weather to clear up enough so we can get started. If I plan on Taylor and myself, or Taylor and someone else young and healthy, doing the fencing that means that as soon as I get my SSDI settlement we can go ahead and get started on the wooden fence along the front of the pasture without delaying any of the other projects I want done. I'll get Caleb started on a barn and if he gets it done without pissing me off again I'll start him on the breakfast nook, and if he gets that done without pissing me off I'll start him on my place. *** I don't know why I even bother checking weather.com any more. When I crashed last night they were predicting a high of 49 for today. By the time I got up they were saying 42, which turned out to be about right. I'd wanted to go out and inventory the fence material we had left over last fall but it's still covered by a sheet of snow and ice. Just from what I could tell without being able to move things there must be a good $40.00 worth of T-posts out there but I can't tell how many of which length I have. It sounds like there's some hope for being able to put together the fencing crew I want for this spring, anyway. Last fall Taylor and Eric, two of my nephew's friends, did most of the work and Kyle, another of their friends, helped out a little here and there but not much because he was working and going to school. Eric's currently in jail for Assault and Battery on Kyle, who spent a few days in the hospital because of it, but my nephew says Taylor and Kyle are still on friendly terms and he thinks they're both available; he's going to find out for me. If worst comes to worst I might have to pay Taylor more per hour than I did last fall and do part of the work myself. I'll have to talk to my ex about the up-front financing but I think it makes sense to go ahead a buy a gas chain saw before we start the fence project. Rural King sells a decent looking one for $99.93, $40.00 more than the electric one I was considering last night (which someone would probably cut the cord to a few times trimming brush; I really don't trust electric chain saws.). Being able to build that back fence once and be done with it will save me nearly that on labor later, and for that to happen I need to have a bunch of brush cleared along the edge of the field. Here's a revised version of that picture I posted earlier. It's still not to scale but it's a better representation than the other one. I've moved the fence between Pasture 1 and Pasture 2 to more accurately reflect where the actual fence is, and I've moved the back fence to its final location:
The fences on the north and east sides of Pasture 2 will still need to be moved when I have more money but as you can see above just doing what we do this spring will significantly increase the amount of grass Sunshine has access to. After seeing how long it didn't take for the grass in Pasture 1 to get real short last fall my sister thinks we may need to convert part of the "garden" back to pasture like it was way back. I don't think we'll need to but I guess we'll find out this summer. btw, that really was a garden at one time; sweet corn, peas, tomatoes, the whole bit. Then it got converted to extra pasture, then to a cookout/picnic/just sit and relax area. It's shady earlier in the day than the rest of the yard (thanks to the little woods just west of our place) and there's a nice breeze there any time there's one anywhere in the area. I'll convert it back to pasture if I have to but I hate to give up what it's been for the last several years. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on February 25, 2008 at 12:52 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on February 25, 2008 at 12:50 AM in Politics and National Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Some times the dominoes take longer to fall than others (Updated)
It seems like when I'm in design/plan mode it typically takes overnight, or at least the length of an after-supper nap, for the implications of one decision to soak in so I can start thinking about the next one. I have every intention of eventually building a nice looking wooden fence across the front of the pasture (running off to your left from the existing wooden fence in this picture), but if we put up something quick and dirty this spring, before I get my Social Security back settlement, it just occurred to me the wooden fence no longer needs to be a super high priority. If I can have it built without delaying getting a barn built, or the breakfast nook added to the kitchen, or my apartment out back built, I'll build it as soon as I can afford to. If I end up having the same people build the wooden fence as I have do the other projects I can't think of any reason it needs to be the first thing I have done (if we put up a wire fence before I get my money.) It all boils down to who I have do what. As I mentioned earlier, one of the young men who helped build the fence we built last fall is in jail, probably headed to prison, which may mean the only way to get the fence built is to have it done by the same people I have do the other jobs. Sunshine will have access to a lot more of the pasture than he does now before I start on any of the other jobs but if we do have something "quick and dirty" built before I get my money doing the fence around the pasture "right" will be at the bottom of my list, after the other three jobs. Depending on how much longer it takes to get my money that might even push the wooden fence, etc, out till the spring of '09. *** Something else I think I just decided after mulling over yesterday's events: I think I'm going to give up (for grazing purposes, not for anyone else to do something with) more of the east corner of the pasture than I'd been thinking all along. As you can see here, or more clearly here, we have a tree top on the ground near the east end of the pasture, still attached to a tree just across the property line. More or less straight north of it we also have an old fire hydrant about 10 feet south of our property line; it used to sit beside a long-gone road. I've been trying to figure out ever since we agreed to let Sunshine move here what to do about both of them. There's not room to run a fence under the treetop, which I'd figured meant we needed to have it removed, and the fire hydrant would be a perfect thing for a blind horse to break a leg on. We also have, as you can see in that second picture, a new Wal-Mart Super Center going in right next to us. I'd been figuring ever since we found out about the Wal-Mart that we should let part of the east corner of our field go back to nature and even help it along by planting some trees. I think I've decided, pending approval from Mom and my sister, to define "part of the east corner of our field" as anything east of a line just west of the treetop and fire hydrant. Based on how much pasture Dad used to consider enough for two horses I think that would still leave plenty for one. It also means we can leave the treetop there till it comes down on its own sometime and eliminates any questions about public or water company access to the fire hydrant. I'll still run the wooden fence across the front of the place all the way down to the end of the property for aesthetic reasons, as in it will look good from the road. Comments? *** Well, so much for that idea. Not only are that broken tree and the fire hydrant farther west than I was remembering, my sister was already tired of looking at the tree well before any talk of fencing the field for a horse started. If my ex has money for a temporary fence till my money gets here I'll fence just this side of the tree and the hydrant short term then move the line east later. My plan all along, until last night, was to fence off about a three foot square area around the fire hydrant and I guess that's what still makes sense. In the 50 years since we moved here I can't recall anyone paying any attention to the hydrant so it's probably a pretty safe bet no one's going to object to us fencing it off now. We got somewhere around three inches of snow (my guestimate based on looking out the window when I first got up; it was already starting to melt before I got out and around). The temperature on our porch has been hanging around 40 degrees all day so a lot of it's gone now. If weather.com (which didn't say anything about snow on the way) is right it's supposed to be around 50 tomorrow. They're still saying 31 for Wednesday but there seems to be a trend developing of it getting warmer at our place than their prediction. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on February 24, 2008 at 01:08 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on February 24, 2008 at 12:55 AM in Politics and National Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Ice City No More? (Multiple updates)
It's probably too early to be saying that but at least I was able use a garden hose to fill Sunshine's water tub this morning. Weather.com's forecast still says that won't be possible Wednesday but no better than their long range forecasting has been recently I'm not sure if that really means it won't. I may or may not get energetic enough after bit to go walk around in the part of the pasture we don't have fenced yet. I need to refresh my memory about conditions along our back property line and maybe pace off some distances; I won't ask anyone to get out and hold the end of a tape for me till conditions are better. I'm going to keep after my sister about it till she calls my ex about fronting some fence money for the rest of the pasture. I also need to spend some time mulling over how much I'm willing to be out in the long run for temporary fences. I'm thinking right now that if my ex will finance it short term I want to run T-post and welded wire fence a few feet inside the property line around the part of the pasture that isn't fenced yet, then have it torn down when I can afford to have a wooden fence built along the front of the property and clear enough brush so we can build a new fence closer to the back property line than the temporary fence. *** I'm not sure where weather.com gets their current-conditions info for this zip code but when they say it's 32 and our thermometer on the porch says it's 42 I can't help but start having some doubts about their forecast as well. When I zoom in on their radar map it's centered about 4 blocks east of the intersection of IL 1 and US 250, about a mile and a half from our place, but I think they must get their readings from the airport, out on the prairie about 5 miles east of town. Thing is that Lawrenceville and the area west of it aren't anywhere near as flat as that prairie is and it's not at all unusual for our weather not to match the airport's. I surprised myself by getting out and walking around as much as I did without getting completely exhausted, particularly since I was wearing my winter clodhoppers. I'm also glad, once more, that our junior high gym teacher made us learn how to roll with a fall all those years ago. (There's a story behind why I'm glad but I ain't tellin' it here; nothin's broken and nothin's dirty that won't wash.) Anyway, I now have some rough (paced off) distances to use to get some idea how much it's going to cost to fence in a bunch of what isn't now. If we borrow money from my ex to do it I'll work well within the property line on the north and southeast sides (The place is triangular.) so there's plenty of room to work between the temporary fence and the property line to do a better job later. I guess my sister got a hold of my ex just long enough this afternoon for them to agree to work out a time when they're neither one at work to chat a while; sometime tomorrow or Monday. I'm going to try to have a rough idea of how much a quick and dirty temporary fence should cost ready by then. *** I guess my eyeball wasn't too far off. I'd guestimated the length of the north edge of the pasture at 300 feet; pacing it off I came up with 285. If I fence off just what I think it makes sense to temporarily (inside the fire hydrant and the toppled tree) I need to run about 177+75+173 = 425' of fence. If I leave the fence around what we have now in place, including the part that separates that area from the new area, Sunshine can spend some time in the smaller area so I can tear down the temporary fence before I build the new one and not end up with a bunch of wire left over. (I will end up with some used T-Posts but maybe we can sell them to get part of the money back.) I'll still be out the labor to build the temporary fence and tear it down, but I think it's worth that to get the horse into a larger pasture sooner. The simple fact is that even in the summer when the grass is growing he eats faster than it grows in the area we have him in now; I can at least quadruple the area he has access to with a quick and dirty fence then do things right later. I need to do some more spreadsheet work and try to come up with a price estimate before my sister talks to my ex. *** My first shot at it says if I could use the same fencing crew I used last fall I could do what I want to for somewhere between $1,000 and $1,500. I may be able to bring my materials cost down by driving to Vincennes to see what's actually available as opposed to what Lowe's and TSC have on their web sites; I know that last fall Lowe's had welded wire their site didn't show. The main issue, other than coming up with the money, is who we can get to do it; one of the guys I used last fall is currently in the county lockup, probably headed for a state prison sometime soon. If the guy he beat up's healthy enough to help by then maybe I can flesh out a crew that way, or maybe I can get the guy who screwed up the temporary pen last fall to take the job on a fixed price basis, or ... . One step at a time, I guess; I don't even have the money lined up right now. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on February 23, 2008 at 02:49 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on February 23, 2008 at 12:05 AM in Politics and National Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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No more than I get out and do anyway I don't know how an ice storm can make me feel any more cooped in than normal, but this one did. You could ice skate on our sidewalk and the fact the ground under the ice isn't perfectly smooth is the only reason it's even possible to walk to the barnlot and back. I took the horse some corn and sweet feed and made sure he had water available three times today and spent the rest of the day in the house. It never got warm enough today to melt the ice out of the garden hose -- It's frozen to the ground in the back yard right now -- and weather.com has revised their forecast high for tomorrow down to 32. At least they're still saying it will warm up enough for the hose to start working again (and the ground to get heap plenty muddy) Sunday and beyond. It just soaked in a little bit ago that as slow as things are going there's no way I'll be in a position to have the rest of the pasture fenced until way past time Sunshine could benefit from it. I'm going to have my sister call my ex tomorrow and ask her if she has any ideas. If I understand correctly our daughter and her husband paid her back some money she'd loaned them when their house finally sold. In the long run I don't intend for my ex to be out any horse money except the annual amount she offered my sister to take care of the horse but if she wants to loan me enough more to throw up a quick and dirty fence around the rest of the pasture that would be great; I'll build a T-post and wire fence a few feet inside the north property line and have it torn down after I can afford to have a wood fence built like I want in the long run. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on February 22, 2008 at 11:06 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on February 22, 2008 at 12:42 AM in Politics and National Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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I won't be at all surprised if I end up offline for a while due to the weather. We're in the very early stages of what the weather gurus are all convinced is going to be a major ice storm.
Ain't that big pink area pretty? I ran the Map In Motion thingy and that's headed right at us. (The map's centered about three miles east of us; I was too lazy to zoom in and center it on our place.) Given past history I'm not going to be the least bit surprised if we end up with no internet service, or possibly even no electric power, sometime before things get back to normal. If weather.com's right it's supposed to get warm enough Saturday to melt some of the ice and snow but it's supposed to freeze again Saturday night, which may just make the road's slick all over again. I'll try to update this post periodically as the situation develops but if I disappear for a while you've been warned. *** Here's that same map as of about 2:10. The icy patch is moving pretty much southwest to northeast, which means it may be pretty interesting by morning. It was already nice and pleasant when my nephew (who was let out of school early because of the forecast) and I went out to feed and water the horse. About the only good news is it isn't supp |
