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What are you doing today, II

Yawn. 6am. First trip to the city done to drive my second oldest son to work. Thankfully he gets his license back this week so I won't have to drive him anymore. I head back out to drive my youngest son (only 15) to work at 830. I'll be driving him until next year sometime when he is able to get his license to drive on his own. Unsure how it works in the states but we have graduated licenses up here. A g1 license allows you to drive with another licensed operator in the vehicle. After 10 months (I believe) you do a driving test which allows you to drive on your own (if you pass) but still with restrictions. One is any fine or charge even if it's a minor conviction, results in an automatic 30 day license suspension. If my son had his full license he wouldn't have lost it. He just has to lick his lumps and swallow his pride as I drive him back and forth until he gets back his license this week.

I have to go back and get him at noon then my youngest son at 5. My wife is out of town so all the driving falls on me this week.
 
NorthernRedneck said:
Yawn. 6am. First trip to the city done to drive my second oldest son to work. Thankfully he gets his license back this week so I won't have to drive him anymore. I head back out to drive my youngest son (only 15) to work at 830. I'll be driving him until next year sometime when he is able to get his license to drive on his own. Unsure how it works in the states but we have graduated licenses up here. A g1 license allows you to drive with another licensed operator in the vehicle. After 10 months (I believe) you do a driving test which allows you to drive on your own (if you pass) but still with restrictions. One is any fine or charge even if it's a minor conviction, results in an automatic 30 day license suspension. If my son had his full license he wouldn't have lost it. He just has to lick his lumps and swallow his pride as I drive him back and forth until he gets back his license this week.

I have to go back and get him at noon then my youngest son at 5. My wife is out of town so all the driving falls on me this week.
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Ok. So I got ambitious this morning after dropping off the youngest son and returning home. I decided to haul out the pressure washer and wash both cars and my truck. Since it was clean (which isn't often throughout the winter) I gave the old grand am it's semi annual sanding block and white tremclad rust paint treatment. She's good from far but far from good. Out of 6 vehicles she has the lowest kms. The mechanical is good so drive it till it dies at this point.

After that I turned my attention to the truck and drove it onto the lawn on a bit of an incline. This allowed me to get underneath and open up a full can of asphalt undercoating on the frame and any other metal. After that I headed back to the city with the truck working it hard through the gears and glad to report that the engine miss is gone after 2 coils yesterday. Picked up the second oldest and came home. Since it's a nice day I steam cleaned the seats in the truck. Now it's lunchtime. I'm hungry and sore. Thinking about a nap later? Then back out to get the youngest son at 5. 🥱
 
NorthernRedneck said:
Ok. So I got ambitious this morning after dropping off the youngest son and returning home. I decided to haul out the pressure washer and wash both cars and my truck. Since it was clean (which isn't often throughout the winter) I gave the old grand am it's semi annual sanding block and white tremclad rust paint treatment. She's good from far but far from good. Out of 6 vehicles she has the lowest kms. The mechanical is good so drive it till it dies at this point.

After that I turned my attention to the truck and drove it onto the lawn on a bit of an incline. This allowed me to get underneath and open up a full can of asphalt undercoating on the frame and any other metal. After that I headed back to the city with the truck working it hard through the gears and glad to report that the engine miss is gone after 2 coils yesterday. Picked up the second oldest and came home. Since it's a nice day I steam cleaned the seats in the truck. Now it's lunchtime. I'm hungry and sore. Thinking about a nap later? Then back out to get the youngest son at 5. 🥱
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Chapter 3? Lmao 🤣

I finally sat down today. Well, I tried earlier but 5 minutes after I sat down, mom showed up to check on her boat and motorhome. Ok....back outside. Helped them unwrap the plastic shrink wrap on the boat then got a text from a buddy asking when I was going to pick up the fifth wheel from his place I'm turning into a flat deck trailer. Hmmmm...I have an hour and good excuse to escape being put to work by mom. I headed over and pinned up to it and hauled it home. Before I knew it, within 15 minutes I had half of the interior gutted and loaded on my flat deck. Only about 30 screws in total holding the dinette and fold out futon in place. Within 20 minutes I had the microwave and stove removed. Unreal. Then went to get my son from work when my daughter screams from the shower...DAD! THE WATERS OUT. Crap. Ok. Downstairs to reset the well pump. No go. After 10 minutes trying I couldn't reprime it so had to run to get my son. Left her standing in the shower full of soap for 20 minutes while I was gone. Came back and reprimed the well. Threw a pizza in the oven and grabbed a beer. I'm done!
 
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Up early, dogs have already been fed. Beard trimmed. Getting ready for church (but drinking my coffee now).

Very cool now (low 40's(F))
Warming up to a projected 78(F) later.

Hoping to get out to the garden after mass, and clear out 2 more garden beds. I did 1 of the big and 1 of the smaller raised beds. Both were cleared and then tilled. I'd like to do 2 or 3 more. There are approximately 8 more raised beds? It has been a decade, or more, since we planted all the beds. If I get just a total of 4 or 5 beds clear that will be more than enough.

My right shoulder rotator cuff is hurting me. Old injury that is reinsured. Doctor says surgery is the ONLY SOLUTION. I'm just hoping to nurse it down to lower levels of daily pain. Wearing a brace, and trying not to do stupid stuff.
 
Busy morning of driving again twice to the city already and once to the next village over for the monthly Pancake breakfast I volunteer at with my scouts. Nothing on the agenda aside from picking up my youngest son at work at 5. So the missus and I are out on the deck enjoying the sunshine. We're in a fire ban so can't have campfires right now.
 
Yawn. Slept OK but woke up sore and tired. First trip to the city is done. My mom's new "special friend" is coming out this morning to get his winter tires swapped out. He called around and everyone was booked up solid for weeks. I told him to bring it out this morning and we'll tackle it. Then my plan is to park my sore butt in my chair and get some r&r before going back to the city this afternoon.
 
Got a chuck roast in the smoker this morning, going to turn that into "poor man's burnt ends" for dinner.

Initial plans were to get out to the garden and try to clear another bed or two because we have a cool morning. Might still do that. But didn't sleep well and my right shoulder is pretty sore (rotator cuff injury) so seems imprudent to run a tiller given the shoulder. II may slap on the brace and do it anyway? It's still early, I have a couple hours before the temps tick up, only 55(F) currently.

May, or may not, run to the garden center and buy some small veggie plants. No rush on that.

Maybe some mowing if I fell like it? I've been trying to keep up with the back field. It's pretty smooth and a good place for Kobe to run around.

Fencing this evening, but nothing else on the calendar.
 
A cool morning so far. This afternoon I am tackling the lower back yard where a table has set for almost a year with my power cutt off saw sits. Time to put that operation under some sort of roof and set the area up for painting structural members for installation as a new roof over the back deck.
So the saw table goes up on the back deck.

I will be painting and installing 2X6 rafters, which I hope will support a composite roof of foam board and prefinished paneling, all covered by 3/4" pressure treated plywood. When completed the view from the deck will be finished paneling with exposed dark blue rafters, headers and support posts.

This is not a quickie project. Hampered by old age and a restricted budget, it most likely will take most of the summer.
When finished, the deck gets indoor/outdoor carpet I have already on hand. Hopefully, I have enough lifespan to wall this into a 3-season room off the kitchen. Doors and window have been stored on site for years.

Plans are big, budget is small. This will take some time.

I will try and have Crumpy post some pictures as it progresses.
 
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Only about 1pm and I got more done than I hoped!

Found out that I need to READ THE ####ing MANUAL sometimes. So that is news to me :bolt:

Mower deck belt on the big LandPride deck slipped off. This was the 2nd time that happened. It's a new belt. Turns out that I installed it wrong, but in such a way that it would still operate all 3 mower blades. The belt was twisted so I pulled out the "spare" belt and found the correct path to run the belts around the pulleys.

WOW, IT WORKS GREAT. Who would have guessed properly installing parts might make things work better? :smileywac

With possible light rain over the next 3 days, wanted to mow what I could today. Got the whole valley done. Finished the back field. Did the open areas of the front lawn. More than I expected to do.

Also got 3 more raised garden beds weeded and tilled. That is probably enough.

Drizzling rain started so I packed up the garden tools, tiller and drove up to the shop to put it all away.

Opened the smoker and the meat looked done so I made a 'burnt ends' sandwich with onion and swiss cheese on a brioche bun. YUM.

Of course the drizzle stopped as fast as it started, it is sunny outside now.

The garden area is in a neglected spot of the property. It used to be a swimming pool but we tore that out 15+ years ago and put in a new pool up near the house. Filled this in and used to actually use is. It is a series of raised beds and it had flowers all around it. But probably 8 or 9 years we were traveling a lot and the whole thing grew over. We reclaimed it a few years ago. But then let it go again. Starting to reclaim it, yet again. The paths between the beds are stone. Weeds in those paths need to be hit with ROUNDUP but we garden the beds organically, so no herbicides or pesticides in the veggies. Probably going to have to haul in a bit of compost to top them off before we cover with weed barrier.

Believe it or not, at one point it actually was a beautiful space with flowers and veggies.

IMG_5604.jpeg
 
NorthernRedneck said:
Yawn. Slept OK but woke up sore and tired. First trip to the city is done. My mom's new "special friend" is coming out this morning to get his winter tires swapped out. He called around and everyone was booked up solid for weeks. I told him to bring it out this morning and we'll tackle it. Then my plan is to park my sore butt in my chair and get some r&r before going back to the city this afternoon.
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So much for the r&r this afternoon. I got the tires done in 20 minutes and sent him on his way. Then did actually get to rest a bit this morning before heading out to do some shopping for snacks for this weekends camping trip and pick up my son from work. One more day! I noticed the buick pulling to one side and the steering wasn't quite as it was before. Sure enough. Down to 18lbs from 33. Got a leak. Ok. Down to the shop and throw a winter tire back on then bring the leaking tire to get repaired. It's the valve stem thankfully.

Scouts tonight. We're planning an upcoming camp.
 
MD
I fall into that same sort of belt issue many times.
I've now disciplined myself to read the instructions first. It's against my being, but, working on these german cars sometimes defies logic. It's good to learn from other's mistakes.
 
Took the wife to lunch, and we took her vehicle, when I backed out and the put the brakes on at the end of the driveway, I heard dredded brake grind sound, I asked her did you hear that, she said yes and I asked if she had been hearing it, the answer was yes, next question how long have you been hearing it, answer, not sure a while. It cost her $650.00 in parts with me doing the labor.
 
Picked up a truckload of garden soil, humus and manure at the Tractor Supply on my way to the fencing club. Gave a lesson to one of the kids at the club. Talked to a parent and a kid about taking private lessons from one of the other coaches. Arrived home about 9pm. Bourbon now. Unload the truck tomorrow.
 
Today is going to be loooong. 🥱 I didn't sleep well due to a sore lower back and shoulder. Limped my crippled butt out of bed at 5. Beat the alarm by 10 minutes and out to the car half asleep and in pain. Heated seats are great btw. 👍 It's 6:10am and I've got the first of 4 trips in. I half to bring my daughter to an appointment this morning, then back to the airport to pick up the second oldest and back home at 2 only to do a complete 180 after dropping him off and back to the city to pick up my youngest son from school and take him to a walk in clinic for a lingering sore knee. After sitting through that, I will be even more sore tired and most likely cranky because I have a rumbling tummy from sitting through supper.

Thankfully today is the last day of driving my son to work as he gets his license back Thursday and is off tomorrow. However I have an appointment as well as my daughter first thing in the morning. Somewhere in there I've been working on packing the fifth wheel for a fishing trip this weekend where I will finally be able to put up my feet and relax.
 
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On the way to the fencing club yesterday I stopped off and had some young, skinny and weak kid load 15 bags of topsoil, manure, etc into the back of the truck.

This morning I slid 10 bags out of the truck into the front end loader, and 5 bags into the side by side. The 5 in the side by side are manure. The F-E-L got the bigger bags of topsoil. Got the topsoil down to the garden to supplement the beds. The lovely Mrs_Bob drives the SxS so she will take the manure later. All that will get spread on top and tilled into the existing soil in the beds, just to top them off.

Pool guys are showing up today to open the swimming pool. That is always a surprise. Sometimes the water is clear, sometimes it looks like a swamp. You never know.

Probably head to the garden center and buy tomato, pepper, and various other veggie plants.

Fencing at the club starts late afternoon.
 
Is it best time yet? Talk about "get me to the airport on time ". I left the house at 9:30am and dropped off my daughter at an appointment. Attempted a store. Back gave out on me. Returned the cart and back to the buick. It's running on a winter spare still at this point due to the tire issue yesterday. Back to pick up the daughter and back home to drop her off. Head to the shop and pick up the repaired tire. Back home to install it and repair a plastic skirting that was falling off. In the house long enough to whipe my face and refill my water bottle and off to get gas for the car and back to the airport to get my son from work. Bring him home next then back to the city. Ugh. I'm tired.
 
Made it to the greenhouse. It's about 20 min away, huge, big family run operation. Prices are less than 1/2 to 2/3rds less that what Home Depot/Tractor Supply/etc charge. Plants a little smaller. Very fair trade off.

4 flats of assorted veggies today. 1/2 dozen different tomatoes. 1/2 dozen different peppers. Winter squash. Summer squash (yellow and green). Various pickles/cucumbers. Eggplants. I forget what else.
 
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NorthernRedneck said:
Is it best time yet?
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I assume you mean bed time. You do more driving in a day than I do in a month or more.

@Melensdad - are you safe to plant yet? I thought our climates were similar and planting before Memorial day is risking frost. We had frost last weekend. I won't do a lot of plants until that weekend.

Me - what did I do today? Dodged raindrops to get some grass seeding done. Clean the shop during the raining hours.
 
bczoom said:
@Melensdad - are you safe to plant yet? I thought our climates were similar and planting before Memorial day is risking frost. We had frost last weekend. I won't do a lot of plants until that weekend.
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We get some moderation from Lake Michigan, although I am on the extreme edge of that. The plants will likely be on my kitchen patio for days, maybe a week. Just wanted to get them before the selection was thinned out. My guess is they will be in the ground by next week.

Weather forecast here for the next week does not get below lower 50's at night.
 
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