Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[farmerjan]

Got up and went to the county building to get the BS with the delinquent tax on the personal property (car) straightened out. They send the info out to somewhere else to get the bills done... before the actual due date... so that is why my payment did not show up... which actually went through their system on 8/20..... due date was 8/23.....not very efficient way to do things in my opinion.... and all I heard there were people that complained about the ridiculously high taxes in this county. I mean every single person there had tales of much lower taxes in surrounding counties, screwed up bills, you name it... Totally unreal. One lady said she did some research and we are the 2nd highest taxed county in Va behind Fairfax Co,... which is in the Washington DC area....


Well, since car is out of commission, and they have just ordered the engine for my Forrester which will take 6 weeks to get here and then get put in so I am looking at Christmas I HOPE.... and I paid half down on the engine job for the forrester.... I will switch the tags to the forrester off the outback.... and put it back in the county it was in, and pay a reasonable amount of taxes.... might sell the outback anyway if I get my mom's Explorer.... just heard from brother and he is getting together a value on p.u., explorer, trailers and other equipment and asked if any of us were interested in anything, so he can get a list for the lawyer...don't know about the reading of a will either... as somethings may have been specifically left to someone anyway....

Got the paperwork with the "his cattle, my cattle" all figured out and he went to the bank with the check and gave me a check for mine so I put it in my bank... so good there. Will get a few bills paid off now instead of waiting for my next paycheck so that is nice... Going to get auto payments all set up by the 20th or so.... for when I am gone for the couple of weeks.

Made a bunch of phone calls and got a bunch of herds set up for testing... 2 this week, and 4 the week of 17-23..... got 4 more to get put in probably the week of 10th.... one is owner sampler so just drop off and pick up and computer work....

Gotta go take the samples down for UPS so I will get going for now.

 

[farmerjan]

For some reason that didn't post and as I came on here to update a bit, found it so just posted it.

It's about 8 p.m. MIRACLES FINALLY HAPPENED. DS actually promised yesterday to get the stove hooked up and look at my mower... and he actually did both. He had a friend who now works with him, but used to do propane work, come and do it so that it was done right with no "problems"... he said he felt better even though he could have probably done it. I gave his friend a nice chicken, he said his wife cooks... and he was impressed with the chicken... and dropped a $20 in his truck since he refused to take it from me.... OKAY I appreciate that thought... but tell me that a month ago so I could get it done....it would have been worth the money....but MOOT POINT now... It is done... and I got to cook on a burner this evening.... HOORAY. Made a skillet meal of a "Bertolli" shrimp scampi frozen meal....it was pretty good considering... I am going to take some of the multiple bread crusts out of the freezer, and first thing out of the oven is going to be a bowl of bread of pudding. And I am going to get a steak out of the freezer and make a nice steak under the broiler... got 2 1/2 weeks to do some cooking and will try to do a chicken for myself to eat off of when I am working evenings.

And he found that a cotter pin came off a "pin", that goes in a bracket; and that side of the mower deck just dropped... so SIMPLE FIX with a washer and a new cotter pin to match the other side..... he said I can go ahead and mow again.....
So the mower got fixed immediately, and finally got the stove. Now I can get the cabinet moved back, and get the new drawer in that Deb finished all except for the handle.... but the one thing that is important is that now I can move the things out of the middle of the floor, and get started in the cabinets again.

My sister has a neat cabinet solution for her bottom cabinets in the corner; that she got in the new cabinets she ordered from Home Depot, when she redid her kitchen several years ago; so I am going there and see if I can get the components to copy it. Hers were made that way. The door opens and the bottom slides out to you, and then folds to the side and then the back "corner" has a bottom and top drawer that slide to the side, so you can get to things in the back corner. It is much better than the lazy susan that some people have in their corner cabinets. You don't lose all the space in the corners that the lazy susan loses from being round... really like it so I hope I can find something like that. I will take pictures the next time I am up there if I can't find what I am looking for.

So, tomorrow I will spend time doing some errands. I like to leave early for work and do things in one trip out... but my knees can't take it... too long a day. I have a 200 cow herd scheduled for Wed aft. and a 240 cow herd on Friday... have to be at both at 1 p.m. to set up to be milking by 2..... waiting on a return call from another farm for early next week, and then will schedule another one I talked to, for the day they don't choose. He said he was flexible, just let him know what worked for me. Have one of the two, 2x herds (100 cows) scheduled for Wed eve/Thurs morning... then have the 225 cow 2x herd, close to here, for Sun eve/Mon morning. This is the herd that drives me nuts and always changes things. I didn't give him a choice... I said this is what I have and the only response I got was, OK..... I will be so glad to get the surgery after the crazy schedule I have that last week before I am going in for the surgery, because I won't be able to walk.....

It rained last night some, got a couple showers/rains... total .4 inch in the gauge this morning. Then got a couple little 2 minute showers today with sun out, inbetween.... supposed to be like this the next several days, but maybe more rain towards the end of the week. We can use it and if it comes in spurts like this, should not have any problems with flooding or anything.

Neighbor to son's house came by and brought me some potatoes they dug. He will have more green beans in a day or 2, so I am going to get some and get them in the freezer.... at least now I can do a better job of blanching and freezing. They will get snapped as I don't know where the "frencher" is... but that's okay. They should not be too big so not big seeds in them...

DS also brought the truck with the sewing center still in the bed, and we got it in the house in the LR for now, in the corner. Got all the boxes with the sewing stuff, thread, etc., in the house too. Have to get the drawers back in it and then I can empty the boxes where I stuck stuff to bring back here.

Would like to see if I can start doing my goal of 2-3 boxes a week unpacked, but doubt I will get much done before I go for the replacements. Got to get things moved around in here so that I am not tripping over anything when I get home, although I doubt I will have to deal with a walker or anything because I ought to be walking with maybe a cane or at worst 2, even a crutch... but not a big wide walker. They told me at the drs office that I should only have to use that until I get some better balance and that many people are off it in a week or 2... especially ones that are fairly active ahead of time.... I was off the walker and on the crutches in less than 10 days for the ankle and that was with no weight bearing, so if I can "walk" then I hope to be off a walker fairly quickly. See what happens.

And I folded the clothes... but they aren't put away yet...

Ready to quit for the night.

 

[Baymule]

A stove to cook on!! WHOOP!!!! Real food now. That is a major improvement. And glad the lawnmower fix was so easy and fast too.

You are going to do so much better after your knees get done. The pain of surgery won't last long and you will be unstoppable. We rebuilt BJ from his knee to his eyeballs and life was vastly improved for him.

 

[Finnie]

So happy you finally got your stove hooked up and working!

And glad to hear you didn’t get hurt folding the laundry.

 

[farmerjan]

Tuesday morning. Late start, last night was just very "fitful" and woke up several times. Took some tylenol finally and then managed to sleep several hours and got up late.

Partly cloudy, some sun trying to peek out. More showers this afternoon and then getting into a little more rain for the rest of the week they say. Too wet to even think about mowing at this point so I am going to get my butt in gear and head out to do some of the errands that I need to do. Go to Home Depot and see if I can find the type of cabinets that my sister has, and see if there are separate components to retrofit the existing cabinets here. Maybe the sun will come out enough to dry things off a bit and I can mow later.

Hope to get into the kitchen later too and get some things into the upper cabinets and start putting away things that are in boxes in there. And get the drawers back into the sewing center table that came from my mom's and at least get the rest of the stuff neatly stacked on top that won't fit inside, since I boxed up alot that was just piled on top of the table. Trying to get a little more organized so that when I come back from the replacements I have places to sit and more easily get around in the couple of rooms.

Need to get the sample bottles into trays for tomorrow's herd for testing, and then get the meters and the hoses in the back of the truck so I don't have to do tomorrow if it is raining. Bad enough I will have to take them out of the truck and carry them into the barn and all if it is raining.

Hoping to hear from the one dairy farmer today so I can then get them and the other on scheduled and be set for getting everyone tested before the 25th. Since everyone will be pretty much testing this month it will be a big paycheck the next couple of times. That will be nice in the account. I sure won't be spending much in the rehab...
Thinking I will be coming home somewhere around the weekend of the 13th if I stay for the whole 18-20 days they allow... that's 3 full weeks from surgery date.

Gotta get out the door and get something accomplished.

 

[Ridgetop]

My sister has a neat cabinet solution for her bottom cabinets in the corner; that she got in the new cabinets she ordered from Home Depot, when she redid her kitchen several years ago; so I am going there and see if I can get the components to copy it. Hers were made that way. The door opens and the bottom slides out to you, and then folds to the side and then the back "corner" has a bottom and top drawer that slide to the side, so you can get to things in the back corner.

If you can't get them at Home Depo, try Ikea on line. I got some corner cabinets from Habitat some years ago that had that set up in them. I think they were from Ikea. Most everything from Ikea is sold separately to go into their cabinets so they might have those set ups for you to install. The bad part will be that you have to crawl into the cabinet to install them. Not so hard if you are installing the cabinets without tops but since you already have counter tops, a bit harder. Not impossible though. Just be sure you have enough lighting - flashlight, headlamp, spotlight, and all your tools, drill, bits and driver bits, tape measure, PENCIL (I always forget that item) etc. in reach on the floor with you. Yo don't want to have to crawl back out of the cabinet and get up for them. Oh yes! Have a folded towel to use as a pillow for whichever part of you is laying on the cabinet. OUCH!

 

[Baymule]

That sounds complicated. There were big tall holes in the cabinet in this mobile home, no shelves, no drawers, just a floor to ceiling tower with 3 doors, well it did have 3 shelves but the holes were2 1/2 feet tall. I went to Lowes and got metal wire pull out racks for my pots and pans. The directions said to assemble them, then insert in the cabinet. Only problem with that was the cabinet was frames out for the door to hang on which left a 2" strip around the holes. So I did pretty much as @Ridgetop described with all the tools and crawled halfway in to do the installation. That gave me 2 pull out drawers for each gaping hole, a vastly improved situation.

 

[farmerjan]

Thanks for the ideas @Ridgetop , and @Baymule . I was not feeling great yesterday evening and still feel like I got run over by a truck. Knees are really ........ oh well.... have to just get through the next couple weeks.

I did go to Home Depot yesterday and did alot of looking . The company is KraftMaid... and they have several solutions for way in the back of corner cupboards... Found the one that my sister has. The guy there is not usually in that dept... but said to call the person that does most of the kitchen design and stuff. He said she was absolutely the best at helping people and that everyone that comes there has really benefited from her expertise. He said that she is just one of those that has a touch.... He had no idea if the components could be used in existing cabinets... but she would be able to talk to their reps and find out.
I was a little blown away by his endorsement of his fellow worker. But he seemed very sincere... and I have nothing to lose by getting with her. It seems her day off is normally Tuesday. I did not have time this morning with having to get things done and leave before noon to go to work. So, maybe tomorrow....I am going to also go online and check out the Ikea site and see what they have.
Yeah, it sounds a little complicated @Baymule and I am not very good at describing it... it is called a blind corner with wood swing out.... and uses the corner more efficiently than a lazy susan type... There are 2 corners here... the one under the double sink that I hate and at the opposite end of the cabinet against the other wall where they come around that corner to where I now have the fridge and they used to have the electric stove. Looking at all these possibilities of making cabinet space more useable... makes me really want to "redo" this kitchen. But to be able to get into and under the corners would be nice....

I also was just browsing up and down some other aisles and came across a "sale " on freezers... and they had a 20 cu ft Fridgidaire... on sale for $809..... 90 bucks off. I paid about 900 or a little more, for the new one I got at Lowes earlier this year that I put in the house... 20 cu ft also... Well, HD doesn't have any more and will not be getting any... and this one has a big scratch in the front where it was opened against a bolt that is sticking out of the shelving unit next to it...... and so they might sell the floor model... with a discount. Of course, there is a chance it will be gone, but I am going to go back tomorrow and if it is still available, I think I am going to get it. The scratch is not going to matter to me... I can get some touch up paint to just protect from any rusting... but it will cost me between 7 and 750 from the way that salesperson talked. The 14 cu ft one is 695 on sale..... Sale is over 10/19 I think, but it seems it is a style they will be replacing... I would get the extended warranty.... but that is a pretty good price and new is better than a used one. I would be replacing a 15 cu ft one here.....that I will give to DS to use for beef . This will also give me some room for some venison when the neighbor starts hunting this year.... he cuts them up himself, and I will gladly pay him to do it for me. I have no idea how "able" I will be but hope to be able to do stuff; however I will be gone for several weeks....and have been told that being on my feet alot is not advised right off anyway..... I can trade him some beef or chicken if he wants some, too.

So, anyway... after doing that, I did a few more errands, went to Walmart and was again very cognizant of the many empty places on shelves. I did get another pkg of toilet paper, and some paper towels which I don't use that many of but figured I would get some to have. Some other odds and ends I had on the list... and I did find some "fruit fresh" so got it to be able to use next year. I use much more cloth dish cloths, rags etc. than paper towels but got a pkg to have... And I noticed that prices seemed even higher........

Today, I had another slow start due to the knees, again waking me up last night. Got the meters and all the hoses in the truck, the sample bottles in the racks in the truck and then got going about 11:30. The interstate was backed up to a crawl so I took the local roads.... and the traffic was heavy on there too. Seems like there are accidents and backups nearly every day on I-81....

I had 2/3 tank of gas so decided to fill up on the way home..... WRONG ANSWER.... gas was still 2.95 and 2.99 but when I came home this evening it had gone up at least $.10 a gallon.... most places had gone up nearly $.15/gallon. It is getting serious out there.... I got gas for 3.07/gal and the shell station on the other side of the interstate was 3.15... they were 2.97, 2 days ago....I often get gas there since I have the rewards card and can save .05 gallon... even with that it was still cheaper to go to the other station. I did not see any other gas for less than 3.09/ gallon on the way home or I would have stopped... I made note of prices when I went to work so I could stop on the way home at the best place....should have stopped on the way to work... oh well....

I am going to go in and wash the cow sh!t out of my hair... the cows were really "crappy" today. I also have a headache... I took tylenol before I went to work, to get ahead of the ache and then took a tramadol about 2:30 so that I could continue to stay ahead of it; but it gives me a general feeling of queasiness and feeling yucky, after a couple of hours.... most of the time it is not worth taking it...but my knees are not hurting so much tonight so it is a trade off....maybe I will sleep better.
Can't take any ibuprofen or anything else now... had to stop all that 30 days before surgery... stopped all my supplements and everything else on the list... only medication prescribed by a doctor for things like heart problems and diabetes, and tylenol and tramadol and a couple other things allowed for pain.... have to stop all that 2 days before... luckily I don't take anything in the way of prescription drugs or have any other problems.

Going to print out the "racking list" for the samples so I can do them in the morning to send out. My farm answered me this morning, so got them on the schedule and I texted the other one that said he was flexible and told him either saturday or monday.... I expect they will take monday as we had discussed...I would prefer saturday, but not life or death for either one.... I will have a tough week next week... oh well.....That is everyone scheduled except one and I will see if they want to test this month.... I can get them in next thursday afternoon if they want to test. Only 70 cows and they don't milk so awfully fast... just set up and taking out the meters is a pain.... but I will live through it.

Will have to get the meters moved and all in the back of the truck for tomorrow... just thought of that.

We had about .1 inch of rain in the rain gauge from some spotty showers yesterday and it looks like they got a slight shower here sometime after I left for work today. I will check the rain gauge in the morning. Temps have been milder... 60's at night and 70's to about 80 the last couple days. Nice to not have a cold rain... easier on the cows too....a couple new calves born.

 

[farmerjan]

The recording gauge says it got down to 48 last night.... but it didn't feel that cold so I wonder if it is recording right. Yet the temp on the other one inside seems to match. I will see as the local station said the low was only 59....

It is cloudy and grey out. Not "supposed to" have more than an occasional shower today, but then more actual rain tonight and tomorrow. I think it rained some last night, I heard it a couple times. Will have to check the rain gauge when I go out.

First thing is to get the samples packed. I have decided to wait til the first of the week to go back to Home Depot. If I get the freezer and then get home and no help to get it unloaded, I will be stuck because I need the truck for work. Not like I have the car to use for work and the truck could stay with the freezer on the back for an extra day or 2...Plus it is supposed to clear off by the weekend and then I wouldn't get soaked like would probably happen today. Just woke up this morning and tried to think it through a little more sensibly timewise/weatherwise.

I have done some looking and there are mixed reviews of that Fridgidaire freezer...of course there are always some mixed comments on most any one I have ever researched... If it is still there then I am supposed to get it. I am not opposed to paying more for another one like I have, if it comes to that. But sure it would be better to save 200-300 instead.

I need to stay here and get some things done in the house. Get the rest of the stuff in the sewing center drawers which will get some boxes unpacked. It is a crappy day and a good one to work inside.
I will do some cooking today too... got the bread out of the freezer for the bread pudding. Going to get a chicken out and will make some stuffing too and put it in to cook later today. Another way to use more of the accumulated bread in the freezer. That will give me some food to work on during all the days of testing too. I have some hamburger and found a couple of the steaks that I put in this house freezer from the last beef, so it needs to be eaten first.

So the kitchen should be my focus later today. It is just cool and has that "damp chill" feeling out there. Good day to have the oven on.
Time to get at it.

 

[Baymule]

When I had to make an emergency freezer purchase, there were 4 to pick from and I was lucky to find them. Maytag and Frigidaire, the salesman said Frigidaire is China made, Maytag is still American. Same price. I spent my money on American jobs. So if it is so much cheaper to make things in China, why are companies price gouging us? GREED.

Rant over. In this case, it has a long scratch that will not effect its working life-at a much lower price. I say go for it.