A health update

     ok I am doing fair my legs  are fading Steps are killers and I  am back to the power buggy's at the box stores. Pain hasn't been terrible I can manage pretty good most days. I have to be careful with the morphine  I found I can only tolerate a 1/4 dose any more my hands shake so bad typing is impossible .

   I haven't been commenting on my online friends blogs like I should . I have been ripping through books since I got kindle unlimited. averaging a book and 1/2 a day or 300 pages. 

    Last nite I did get a wild hair . Our back yard was tall and thick so I aired up the tires and gassed  up the tractor. Our lawn mowers deck bit the dust my son is searching on Facebook for one. Some folks want a fortune for non-running  bolens Yard man . Now I don't mind a fair price but 250 for a hulk isn't happening. Two folks want 60$ and 100$ and them gone we texted both I will take both on a chance its just meeting up.
OKAY back to the wild hair I tried to get on the tractor but legs just couldn't make it till my wife gave my ass a shove. I was in the seat with the motor sounding good I dropped it into low gear #2 set the bush hog to medium and tooled thru the grass  smooth as silk. I didn't push it. My wife watched me said I had the time of my life I admit it was fun. once finished I parked it where getting on should be easier . 

Painted the trim on the house.

        A couple of weeks ago I bought a quart of white paint to touch up my little camper. Well I gave the wood 2 coats and still had plenty left. In front of my house I have a ledge on each side with the old style concrete planters. Like Grandma had at her house.

    Mine had been painted in the past but were looking ruff. So I took them down and emptied the dirt and gave them 2 coats of paint. When I put them back on the ledge I saw how chipped and faded the trim was on the front of the house had become. So I got a gallon of bright white to do the trim.

   I took the water hose and put on one of the old brass nozzles so I could blast off all the flaking paint last weekend. This weekend  I jumped back  to it and painted the trim. When I finished I am pleased. If it last 20+ years like it did before I will be happy(and also long dead). The house was painted in 83 by the former Owner in oil on the cedar   but white latex trimmed. The oil based red still looks good and now the trim is fresh.   It looked like this all over when I started.

  finished 

   Me and the wife got froggy and cleaned up the Porch I filled my truck bed with crap that had accumulated. Still got a ways to go before its as we want but a good start. We still want to paint the steps and floor a grey but that's for later.

I did BBQ for sale this 4th

        I did 30 buts and 10 ribs this 4th of July . I was busy and sold out fast I should have done more but I am retired. 2 days work netted me a 450$ profit. I  plan on doing it again on Labor day .
Funny I pop up on holidays and could do a booming business and my son says its not worth his time.  He is mad because he has no water or power. All I have to say "that sucks good luck" then I change the subject.
   
       I spotted him supply money a dozen times I wont do it again . I wont pay his utilities . Its time for him to grow up. 

Money sources isnt always obviousin in retirement.

    When I had to quit working and filed for disability I knew it wouldn't be the income I was use to. Not to say I had a high income but I had a weekly income and if my expense's went up I had  the option to work a bit more. At this time my ability to earn income even off book is zero. So while I was healing I did some research on benefits we qualified for besides just SSI.

      As me and the wife never have got Married to each other and have separate addresses . I filed for each of us food stamps .At our  income we each got 102$ a month. Then we got the Phone for free that saves us 40$ each a month. The phone was an upgrade compared to what I had to. ATT has a low cost internet for those that have low income. I applied and my internet cost have dropped from 60 to 10$ a month saving us 50$ more. A lot of people wouldn't have applied for these benefits as not worth the trouble inadvgaly but combined  in our case our income increased 334$ a month. 

       My wife is 65 and had to pick an insurance provider for her Medicare . The man we dealt with was good. At her income level she qualified for our state Medicaid to . When it was all said and done the state picked up her Medicare premium's and zeroed out her co pays. This  gave her 134$ Medicare back a month plus did away with 70 or more in co pays. So with a little due diligence we have increased income by almost 550$ a month or 38% over what we had.

I hate painting.

     Sorry for the absence but I have been putting in some hours on my daughters place. I am only good for 4 to 6 hours a day and in this heat I have been getting  up at 5.30 and getting on site at 7. and working through till noon or so. I try to finish a job or 2  each day.
   I can hear you thinking Whoop ady crap that a half day to us. You got to remember I have been retired and piddling for 5 years the last 2 weeks have been a change in my routine big time.

   The reason for the big push is I want this place finished by September 1st . Today I had to block in and paint the bedroom walls and ceiling , plus the trim. While I had the ceiling paint open I did the whole place .  So it was 700 sq.ft. of ceiling out of the way. I have 2 rooms left to paint and hang trim . The electrician will give me an estimate this weekend on running the mains. The end is in sight .

Not all customers are good .

     This weekend I  was told a friend's little dinner was closed. Me and the wife used to eat there a couple lunches a week . Old Max was a fair cook that did a decent meat and 3  plus clubs and burgers. Well Max is in his mid 70s and decided to retire . I saw him about 6 weeks ago and he asked me if I would buy it, he gave me a very good price . 12,000$ and he would take it at 1000 a month for a year from me. I know it would pay for its self but he is open from 5am till 2  6 days a week. After expense's it would have been 500 to 750 a week but it would have been 60 hours a week! I told him I appreciated the offer but it wasn't what I planned on for a retirement.

    Now I know I could have changed the menu dropping some and adding others items as Max has done his thing for 15 years unchanged. My biggest problem was the hours, limited seating (40 maybe) and a Bullsitting crowd. The bane of small dinners a group of 6 or so that sit 1 to a booth or 6 out of 10  for lunch and a hour of B.S. after. I have seen to many potential customers leave because of no seating . While I want a full time food sales setup I don't want to start into it with a "gathering hole" .

   Max found a Buyer for the dinner he thought. He worked with him the last week of March to turn the keys over so he could start April 1st. The new owner was a no show and it has been closed for a week. Max gave him the same deal he offered me . I don't know what will happen. 2 friends have asked me to take it this weekend.
 
    Me and the wife talked it over and agree it is not for US. I hate it for Old Max but he has let his regulars ruin his business . I will go full time but it will be a to go with patio tables only. The wife likes what I do now but I want a bit more.

The flu beats some jobs.

   Last week I had the flu ,body ackes coughing fever. Now I am not the sickly type and usually just keep going, not this time . Had to take 2 days off .Maybe I am getting older but I felt it this time and then it turned into the croup . Luckily it was cool and that helped me breath . It is the only thing that works for the croup, cold air and musinex . Even feeling as bad as I did I still did the BBQ and this week finished the floor and exterior walls at my daughters place. Now it is sheetrock time so I took today off . I hate sheetrock and this is going to be 30 sheets  worth of hanging and mudding . but it is also the last big project to getting her place done.
    If I had to choose between the flu  or sheetrock I would take the flu. Both will leave me sore and coughing .

My back yard has a new stream across it.

   I was out in the backyard yesterday and noticed a lot of water standing. It seems my pond's little stream has changed course. We have had a LOT of rain this winter and the outlet stream from my catfish pond has silted up so the water found a easier path. Instead of the old straight back path it now wants to cut across the yard . Water never runs the way you want it to go unless you guide it . It has been 5 years since I dug the channel out so it looks like I get to add it t my TO-DO list . This time I think I will put in a 8 inch pipe and a brick lined culvert wall to  guide it from the pond.

   In the past I just shoveled it till it flowed where I wanted it to go because it was cheap . Now that I am older it is time to make it a long term fix. A pipe should do the job for 20 years at least, the cost will be 100$ or so . I hope it can wait till May or June  I don't want to have to dig a 100 foot muddy ditch in cold weather.

Framing ,Roofing, Electrical, YOU TUBE

     So far I have framed the trailer, roofed it and spent today tracing what is left of the wiring. The end of the trailer that had to be junked was where the breaker box was. The crack heads had cutout and striped about 50% of the wiring and cut loose most of what was left. What was left but chopped was the kitchen we found 3 circuits that made 8 plugs and 1 ceiling light. It also made 4 plugs active in what will be the living room. Even though I made progress I still have 8  dead ceiling wires I can't find where they feed power from or to, I may wind up just killing them . I drew a diagram and it looks like I have to run 4 breaker circuits . 3 for wall plugs and one for all the ceiling lights. The wiring has to be done before I sheath the walls while it is exposed. The only thing I will hire done later(permit required)is the breaker box to the power pole.

    I have never done electrical wiring before but I have You Tube. If  you are willing to attempt it is a great place to start . A lot of stuff that people hire done is because of fear and uncertainty of how to do the work. Just remember if it is broke you cant break it. A lot of trained craftsmen have taken the time to make a LOT of good video's on many subjects. For this project I have watched framing electrical and plumbing .

   The trailer has no power so everything has been done off my 1500 watt inverter. So far it has worked perfect for cutting and drilling. Today I used it to trace the wiring, I made a plug with naked wires that I wire nuted to each circuit and used a light to check the plugs . It showed me complete circuits and which wires were dead. For remote work an inverter is a must Yea I could have used a generator but why. My 1500 watt inverter cost 95$ (harbor freight on sale with 25% off coupon) It has wires and clamps from an old set of jumper cables for fast hook up and disconnect. It has run my chainsaw, skill saw , chop saw ,drills. It store in the tool box and I have only had to crank my truck twice to finish a day. Any one that wants to build in the woods without drawing attention an inverter is a must.

Poor Sleep is a big issue

    I seem to be in an unfocused funk the past two weeks . You know the feeling I am sure. I want to do this and that but can't get started on things. I need to secure the new house but I can't till the state sends me one last paper to register it with the county. I need to do some more work on the new trailer but its not a must do so I haven't . There are tons of little things around the house that need to done before winter is here.

     I have always been a procrastinator but this is different. It is a listless dragging feel. I know why it is worst this time. I am not sleeping good it is not a deep restful sleep it like a long nap that I drift in and out of. It may seem to be more an annoyance than a problem but when it interferes with getting jobs done its a PROBLEM.

     I have had a sore throat the last 3 weeks and I just wrote it off as allergy's and the Fall weather. Nope I googled it and my poor sleep. What I found was sleep apnea or heavy snoring could be the cause of both problems. I have always snored ( the wife does to) but since I quit work it has got worst. I could go to the doctor but all they will do is give me a sleep aid or order a sleep study. I have friends that use C pap machines but those solutions are not for me.

    For the next week I am going to try pillows and a hot toddy . I may try herbal tea. I hope it works I have to much to do to have poor sleep and snoring preventing me from accomplishing my goals.

cordless tools are great till the batteries die !

      Every one has those cordless tools in the house or truck that are lifesavers . For years I have used Ryobi 18+1 tools drills circular saw , reciprocating saw and work light  oh yea sander .I have 6 batteries that are shot 1 works for less than half what it did when new. A new battery will cost 35$ the tools are old battery technology  I will replace with the new lithium ion ones some day. Right now I have tools that for all purposes are use less .

     As I have been helping my son at his place being without power for plug in tools and my cordless ones being useless it has been a problem .Today it was a high of 30 outside so I was bored ! Went on instructables and found several things on how to make a 18 volt cordless tool work off a 12 volt car battery. Now I know it has a cord but when nothing is available in the middle of the woods even a corded tool is great . I disassembled a dead battery gutted it to the leads and taped in 2 10 foot leads + and - crimped on alligator clamps to the other end . To test it I used a jump pack , popped the gutted wired 18 volt base in my circular saw snapped the clips on the jump pack worked great a little less powerful but very useable .Tested it in all the tools and was well pleased.
    Now this may not seem important but I had a 150$ worth of useless tools that now I can use anywhere I have my truck. It cost me 0$ and took less than 30 minutes to do. Using a jumppack makes it very portable on a job. I have a 800 watt inverter that I use/keep in my truck but that wont run a saw or drill .I would love to have a 2000/4000 watt inverter but hard to justify at this time that kind of money. Cost of 0$ vs 200$  is a no brainer .
 
    If you have cordless tools and no or dead batteries check out the   How to ,or Instructables sites !!!   http://www.instructables.com/answers/Is-it-possible-to-operate-18Volt-power-tools-from-/           or     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCcbnNtyfyU

Been busy with family and work.

     I know I haven't posted in a while but have been working a little more. Have been doing the haunted house this month glad I took it to do have made a little extra.Not much but it has helped,first 2 weekends I made very little but last weekend made 200 and hope this weekend is better.

 

It is a kid friendly venue that has a lot of families and teens coming

 

 

though but a lot of the younger ones tend to stay outside and wait.I know 200 may sound kinda low but at 3.00 or less a item it takes a lot to get there.Doing this has given me a chance to get back into the swing of doing funnel cakes and shaved ices again.

   Have had to deal with family issues all month.My son seems to always have a meltdown of some sort in October so he has been at the house.my daughter had her car stole 2 weeks ago, my mom came down for a week.My stepdaughter is due in a week due on the 30th.And I have to get ready for a bike rally that starts the 30th .So as soon as November gets here im going to drag the wife into the teardrop for 3 days some where for conjugal relations because with a packed house and other folks issues we NEED some us time.Sorry for ranting,thats what blogger is for isn't it venting commenting what you think.OK got it off my chest im good.

I hope everyone has a fun Halloween just remember thanksgiving is a month away.But the good news I have CANCELED CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!