Thursday, 28 August 2008
 

Still redesigning The Circle F

I know I should probably slow down and quit trying to get things done right away that could wait till I have more money but I can't seem to make myself do it. I think maybe I remember too clearly about the fence my brother and I got about 90% finished about 25 years ago and then never finished because Dad got too sick to get out and around to tell us how he wanted some things done. I'd like to think he'd be pleased with the way I've followed up on the project after all these years.

Anyway, I realized yesterday afternoon that sometime while I'm still able I want to overhaul the south part of the fence between the pasture and the side yard. Not the wooden part; I'm happy with how that looks after the repairs I had made to it. I'm just not happy with the way the wire on the back side of the fence turned out. I was in a hurry last fall and didn't know how much of an effort to get out of the pasture to expect from Sunshine and I wish my crystal ball had been working better. I had 48" wire added to the back of a wooden fence that isn't quite that tall, and didn't even have the guys take time to stretch it tight. After a few months of the horse leaning over it for hugs, etc, it looks like shit. As soon as I feel like I can afford it I want to have Kyle and Brian take the wire off the back of the fence and replace it with 36" wire, just far enough from the ground for the top of the wire to line up with the top of the fence. That will leave enough room under the wire to make it easy to trim weeds and grass that grow right under the fence; actually I suspect that with the bottom of the wire a few inches from the ground Sunshine will handle that job for me.

In other news, the VA surprised me by getting the hearing aid that died last month repaired and back to me in time for the weekend. It was in our mailbox less than two weeks after I dropped it off in Marion. That will make it a lot easier to understand my Grandson this weekend. For a 6 year old he has some pretty complicated things to say sometimes and I want to be able to hear them.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 28, 2008 at 12:13 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 27 August 2008
 

Can't wait for the weekend

My daughter called and chatted with my sister a while yesterday morning; I guess a lot of it was girl talk relating to my daughter's pregnancy so I've decided not to feel insulted because she didn't ask to speak to me. They're still planning to leave Ft Worth after work Friday and get in here sometime Saturday. I can't wait. I've only been back from down there about three weeks but I miss them all already.

I guess they had Ian's birthday party over the weekend and the swingset I bought while I was down there (my b'day present to Ian) was ready in time for the party. Sounds like it was a hit.

I wish we could have weather like we had today over the weekend but the weather gurus think it's going to warm back up. I think the high today was 83 and it was beautiful out. They're calling for upper 80s Saturday and Sunday, which I guess will still seem nice compared to Ft Worth. Aside from the swingset and the horse being outside I just enjoy sitting in the back yard and I hope that's where we'll spend a major part of the weekend.

I argued with myself about buying a weedeater and having Kyle do some cleaning up around here before the weekend but decided against it. The budget's going to be tight enough till Friday that I wouldn't feel comfortable spending the money and I want to spend Friday just taking it easy so I'm well rested for the weekend. We should be fine after the first of the month -- I don't have any more trips planned or fences I want built -- but I can't spend anything from now till Friday that doesn't really have to be spent. After Friday (when I'll get my pension check since the 1st is a holiday) I still need to throttle back some and start saving for Christmas in case I still don't have the rest of my money by then. If I don't have my money in time to buy another car by then I need to have money available to rent a car to drive to Texas again, and I'll need money for gas and motel rooms, a nice present for Ian and something for my granddaughter even though she won't be old enough to be impressed yet. I gave Ian a computer for his first Christmas but I think it's still around so I need to come up with a different idea for his little sister.

Twice now I've seen one of the kittens out back climb the ladder and slide down the sliding board on the swingset just like she had it planned. Both times she's tried to go up the slide first then walked around to the ladder after she gave up. Maybe she'll show off for everyone this weekend.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 27, 2008 at 12:18 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 21 August 2008
 

Hi, Ian.

I love you.

Happy birthday!

See you next week.

-- Grandpa

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 21, 2008 at 01:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, 18 August 2008
 

The Circle F, viewed from the highway

I stopped and took some pictures from the road on the way home from taking Scotty to work yesterday, then forgot to post them. Here's what our place now looks like from just across the highway:

And from up along the lane, near the highway:

The guys spent about three hours yesterday replacing broken boards in the old part of the  fence and filling n better around posts that Brad and Chad were sloppy about tamping dirt in around properly. They're both good workers and I really think Kyle would be capable at this point of taking on a fencing job with Brian helping and making it come out looking good.

There's still some touch up work to be done but for right now we're on hold waiting for material. I bought some more boards at Lowe's this afternoon but I don't know when Jared will be available to haul them home for me and Ace is out of deck screws like I still need more of till Thursday or Friday. I  could use a day or two of not doing much outside anyway.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 18, 2008 at 11:19 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 16 August 2008
 

A whole fence at The Circle F

The guys put in another good half-day's work on the fence this afternoon and I'm happy with the results. There's still some fine tuning to be done but the fence is finally whole. There are a couple of spots where staying a constant distance from the ground resulted in some peaks and valleys I want to get rid of eventually and we still need to fix that broken rail on the old fence but once that's done I'll consider the project finished. (Click the images to see them bigger; shrinking them to fit a blog page is introducing some distortion.)

Heather, you might pass on to Ryan that I'm still pretty happy with the cordless drill I bought at the Ace down there and I still think he'd find the 19.2 Volt version of it up to any job he's likely to need one for.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 16, 2008 at 06:20 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Friday, 15 August 2008
 

Gettin' closer at The Circle F

Apparently I composed part of a post in Front Page last night then forgot to copy it to my blog before I wrote over it. At any rate, while my sister was at the orthopedist's yesterday morning I went by Lowe's and paid for enough rails to finish the fence, then sent Kyle and Jared back with the receipt after we got home. They spent a big part of yesterday afternoon tearing down and rebuilding some things Brad and Chad messed up a couple of months ago and didn't get a good start on putting up new rails till this afternoon. Due to my decision to use deck screws instead of nails to attach rails to the fence we can only spend about 4 hours a day doing that, then it's time to recharge the battery packs for our cordless drills, but I think the fence will take longer to start falling apart with screw instead of nails. They'll be back to finish the job tomorrow, then I'll have them redo the east fence when they're done, or sometime soon if there isn't time tomorrow; I measured wrong and had them put the bottom rail the wrong distance from the ground when we did the east fence the first time, so now it needs fixed to match up right with the rest of the fence. At least since the rails are attached with screws it won't be a big deal to take them off and move them up a little.

I'm also going to have to have the guys take some old rails off the west fence and replace them with new ones, then use the old ones to patch a spot farther south along the fence due to little people trying to stand on old boards that weren't strong enough to hold them. Eventually, several years from now I hope, that process of replacing old rails with new ones and using the old ones farther south will have been repeated enough times that there aren't any old rails left.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 15, 2008 at 08:32 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 14 August 2008
 

Circle F update

I'm still around, just busy and haven't devoted a lot of time to this site lately.

I had to leave my dead hearing aid in Marion yesterday. They think they can have it repaired and back to me before my daughter and her family are here Labor Day weekend. Here's hoping.

I drove my sister to her orthopedic appointment in Vincennes this morning. The doc says she doesn't need surgery but it will be 6 or 8 weeks till she's back to normal.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 14, 2008 at 11:50 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, 11 August 2008
 

A good day for building fence

I guess it seemed a little warmer to the young guys doing the work than it did to the old fart sitting in the lawn chair in the shade supervising; they'd had enough after 4 hours. Anyway we got that corner post straightened up, attached the rails to it and got some wire back up. 

I guess if that sale price at Lowe's is still in effect by the next day Jared and I are both free I'm going to go ahead and by enough fence rails to finish the north fence. They may have to just be piled out back till I can afford to have them put on but if I can come up with enough money I feel good about spending soon I'd like to have the whole project done by the time my daughter and her family are here over Labor Day weekend. Jared  has tentative plans for tomorrow and I'm taking a dead hearing aid to Marion Wednesday so we'll just have to see how things work out.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 11, 2008 at 10:51 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 10 August 2008
 

A good day for buying fence rails

I left for Vincennes this afternoon intending to spend $6.97 apiece for 30 "deck planks" to use as fence rails. When I got there I found them on sale for $3.92 apiece. A rather nontrivial savings with my budget as tight as it is. I think I have myself talked out of it but I'm tempted to try to scrape up the money to buy enough rails while they're on sale to finish the rest of the north fence; around $336 now as opposed to about $558 later.

Anyhoo, we got some progress made on the east fence: 

The next time I have a crew here (tomorrow I hope) we need to take enough wire loose to allow us to straighten that corner post, put more rails on, then reattach the wire. The post really was straight up and down at one point but it leaned when we stretched the wire attached to it tight last month and it bugs me every time I look at it.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 10, 2008 at 11:21 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Stove up cowgirl at The Circle F

My sister's convinced something must've spooked him or he got bit by a horsefly or something -- it couldn't have just been meanness -- but for whatever reason Sunshine quite unceremoniously dumped her out of the saddle onto her butt on the ground Friday evening. She was too stubborn to go for X-rays till yesterday afternoon but when she did go she found out she has a fractured pelvis. She's supposed to stay off her feet as much as possible for the rest of the weekend and call an orthopedic surgeon in Vincennes tomorrow to set up an appointment to decide what's next. I'm betting on surgery to put some pins in.

On the good news side, Scotty's and Kyle's friend Jared recently inherited a pickup truck and is going to haul fence rails here from Vincennes for me later today -- I can pay him something for doing it and  still save money compared to Enterprise --  then he and Scotty and Kyle are going to start attaching them to the east fence. Jared has other plans for Monday and I need to go have dead my hearing aid looked at Wednesday, not to mention the possibility of needing to drive my sister to the doctor and run errands she'd normally run, so I don't know when the fence work will actually be finished. I'll be satisfied if it's done by the time Heather and her family are here Labor Day weekend but sooner's better.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 10, 2008 at 01:23 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 07 August 2008
 

Gettin' the urge to build more fence

I still need to wait for the balance on my PayPal account (which I used to pay for gas, motels, food, etc on the way home from Ft Worth) to settle out but I think I've decided I can afford to put rails on the east fence and part of the north fence before my daughter and her family come up for the Labor Day weekend. There's a perfectly functional wire fence down there now but it's hard to see exactly where it is from the house or the highway and I'll like the looks of the place more after we get the wood rails up. As far as that goes, I'll like it even better when we get all the rails up on the north fence too but that really is going to have to wait till I get the rest of my Social Security back pay. To do just the east fence and the first 16 feet west from the northeast corner I'm looking at under $150 for lumber and another $70 or so to rent a truck to get it home. My best guess is that labor costs for Kyle and Brian to do the job should come in under $200. I think I'm ready to go for it.

It didn't cause me any problems, other than the fact I'll have to wait a couple of days to buy fence rails, but when I look at my PayPal history I see two places where PayPal "authorized" $76.00 charges and decrease my available balance by that amount, then also debited my account by the amount of gas I actually bought. That's $152.00 that I know they'll add back into my balance sometime soon, or just about enough to pay for fence rails.

BTW, the most I paid for gas anywhere along the way was $3.69⁹ and I saw places where it was selling for as little as $3.21⁹.  It's higher in Illinois and Indiana than in Missouri, Oklahoma or Texas due to higher state taxes so I filled up just west of the Mississippi to minimize the amount I'd have to pay higher taxes on before I returned the rent car.

Did I mention that if someone wanted to give me a G6 GT I'd take it? I guess Enterprise sells them used after the new wears off and I think I might end up with one after I get the rest of my money.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 7, 2008 at 01:57 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tuesday, 05 August 2008
 

Back in my corner

I'm back from my Texas trip and have everything back in place in my blogging corner.  I may even do a little blogging after I get some rest.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 5, 2008 at 07:27 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 02 August 2008
 

It IS going to be a swingset eventually

It's lookin' doubtful that I'm going to get to see Ian play on it before I head back to Illinois -- I didn't get as much help with it during the week as I'd hoped, but it's close enough to done that I'm confident the job will get finished in a reasonable length of time.

I guess sliding boards can be used for other things than sliding:

Anyway, this will probably be my last blog post till I get back to Illinois. I'm going to spend some time tomorrow evening tonight visiting some friends in Irving and spend the night in the motel over there where I rented by the week for several years, then head north Monday morning.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 2, 2008 at 11:29 PM in Ian | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack