This weeks preps check-in

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I've been running my tankless water heater for almost a year on a 5 gallon propane tank. I checked it yesterday and it's still about 1/3 full. Thats a lot more efficient than a tank style heater. It provides all the hot water that we need on a small amount of propane and it takes up very little space. They are fairly expensive, but I think the return on investment would be pretty quick.
The plans for our new house had a mechanical room for the water heater and the furnace. Since we put the mechanicals under the house we now have a pantry in that space.
 
At about 10.30 last night during a rain/snow storm one of our cows decided to have her calf. It's a little black white face hefier. It all went well until the calf slid down hill and got wedged under some brush and couldn't get up. Once I got her out and back on her wobbly legs she was fine.
 
Arcticdude said:
At about 10.30 last night during a rain/snow storm one of our cows decided to have her calf. It's a little black white face hefier. It all went well until the calf slid down hill and got wedged under some brush and couldn't get up. Once I got her out and back on her wobbly legs she was fine.
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Glad she's okay!
 
Arcticdude said:
At about 10.30 last night during a rain/snow storm one of our cows decided to have her calf. It's a little black white face hefier. It all went well until the calf slid down hill and got wedged under some brush and couldn't get up. Once I got her out and back on her wobbly legs she was fine.
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Last year I saw one of the calfs in mud almost up to her belly. Figured she was stuck so I waded on out which of course I was sinking down getting stuck with each step. As I got close, that little turd took off. I just shake my head and made my way back to the gate using a stick to help me keep my balance. Glad you were able to get the calf back to momma.
 
Been busy the past couple of days, got the grader out and been pushing the snow off to the side. We taken care of about 10 mile stretch of the road the county doesn’t clear, now we can use cars to head in town. Can’t make any plans this week since I’m on call for jury duty all this week, I got to call in at 5:15pm every afternoon to see if I’m going in the following day :-/
 
Maverick said:
Been busy the past couple of days, got the grader out and been pushing the snow off to the side. We taken care of about 10 mile stretch of the road the county doesn’t clear, now we can use cars to head in town. Can’t make any plans this week since I’m on call for jury duty all this week, I got to call in at 5:15pm every afternoon to see if I’m going in the following day :-/
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I lucked out and the morning I went in to do it the guy plead and we were released. Glad you got your drive opened, but sucks that the county dosent do their part. I restocked firewood inside this morning and was thinking I probably won’t even burn all of what’s inside now. Spring is pretty much here for us now. Hard to imagine others are still dealing with large amounts of snow still. The greenhouse and garden are both fully sprouted here. They are all still only cold weather crops so am not worried about any frost we may still get. Of course all the fruit trees have blossomed too, but we will likely have a couple frosty mornings still so we will see if they get hit or produce well this year or not. Here’s to hoping you have an early warm up in your neck of the woods!
 
Brent S said:
I lucked out and the morning I went in to do it the guy plead and we were released. Glad you got your drive opened, but sucks that the county dosent do their part. I restocked firewood inside this morning and was thinking I probably won’t even burn all of what’s inside now. Spring is pretty much here for us now. Hard to imagine others are still dealing with large amounts of snow still. The greenhouse and garden are both fully sprouted here. They are all still only cold weather crops so am not worried about any frost we may still get. Of course all the fruit trees have blossomed too, but we will likely have a couple frosty mornings still so we will see if they get hit or produce well this year or not. Here’s to hoping you have an early warm up in your neck of the woods!
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It's very saturated here, the snow has been melting to fast along with rain unfortunately.
 
I spent the day installing a wiring harness and brake controller on a work van today. I don’t claim to be a mechanic, and honestly don’t want to be, but am glad I got it done and glad I figured it out. My point here is it’s good to learn diy skills for prepping. One day we may all have to do a lot more for ourselves. That being said, I wouldn’t have minded paying someone else to do this.....
 
Arcticdude said:
I bought some more cattle today. 2 steers and a couple bred heifers. All are purebred Red Angus. Next week I'm going to look at a Brown Swiss milk cow.
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Now you just knew somebody was going to ask, does the Brown Swiss mild cow give chocolate milk?
 
Finally got the electric people their hunk of dough so they would get us some juice out to our place. We are in line so not sure how long it will take them. Things will progress pretty fast once that is done though, and we shall be moving out to our bug in place. Then the prepping will really begin. :)
 
Got around to replacing the leaky hose on the backhoe today. Still need to change the oil on the tractor too, but it’s a step in the right direction. The grass is growing thick allready and I can’t say I’m thrilled of another season of mowing! With allergies to grass mowing just sucks. I also worked on assembling the new water filter for the well. I hope to be able to finish installing it tomorrow. Will be nice not to have the iron, sulfur and manganese in the water anymore. All the plumbing fixtures are stained red from the iron now. Can’t wait to solve that issue. It’s spring now and seems like there’s too many things to do around here. Seems as I get older I’m ok with letting some things slide more than I used to, but I’m still plugging along.
 
Brent S said:
Got around to replacing the leaky hose on the backhoe today. Still need to change the oil on the tractor too, but it’s a step in the right direction. The grass is growing thick allready and I can’t say I’m thrilled of another season of mowing! With allergies to grass mowing just sucks. I also worked on assembling the new water filter for the well. I hope to be able to finish installing it tomorrow. Will be nice not to have the iron, sulfur and manganese in the water anymore. All the plumbing fixtures are stained red from the iron now. Can’t wait to solve that issue. It’s spring now and seems like there’s too many things to do around here. Seems as I get older I’m ok with letting some things slide more than I used to, but I’m still plugging along.
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It is not that we let things slide more. As we get older, we just prioritize better.
 
Yeah, I finally got around to installing the water filter that I bought about three months ago on the well. No more metallic and sulfur smells and no more iron in the water. It was about a 5hr project, but am so glad it’s done. It has a programmable head that automatically back flushes every three days, so I don’t have to do anything for about three years. The water smells so much better now I can’t believe I procrastinated on this.
 
I feel !like life is just plain ole work right now. . . I am lucky if I get to "play" in the garden once a week. I need to get back out there. . . Yesterday I was able to plant a few more rows for a total of 20 planted right now. I really need to weed but I start back to work tomorrow. Today was a day spent with Granny. She was not having a good morning at all and ran out of clean clothes to wear rather quickly. Sheets stripped to get washed too. Finally was able to get her issues under control to get to second granddaughters first birthday party. I felt bad since I was bringing the party trays for a late lunch. Made them after 3 am feeding. At least I got to see all three of my sweet babies along with a few others. My hunny actually fed his big cows after getting home even though his weight restrictions are not lifted until Tues which was nice since it was raining and we were running about 3 1/2 hours late for their eve ing feeding. They were not very happy. . . I took care of the girls out front goats, l Charlie pigs and chickens. I will start back do I g them for the 3 am feeding g tomorrow. Hoping my BIL finally shows up tomorrow. . . I have a big day at work and will need to probably do a 12 hour shift to get everything done. It would really be nice if he was here to feed granny dinner so I can get to work by 3 pm and I just feed a little early. Sure the critters wouldn't mind. Even better if he would be here at lunch so I can try to get a nap worked into my day.
 
Danil54grl said:
I feel !like life is just plain ole work right now. . . I am lucky if I get to "play" in the garden once a week. I need to get back out there. . . Yesterday I was able to plant a few more rows for a total of 20 planted right now. I really need to weed but I start back to work tomorrow. Today was a day spent with Granny. She was not having a good morning at all and ran out of clean clothes to wear rather quickly. Sheets stripped to get washed too. Finally was able to get her issues under control to get to second granddaughters first birthday party. I felt bad since I was bringing the party trays for a late lunch. Made them after 3 am feeding. At least I got to see all three of my sweet babies along with a few others. My hunny actually fed his big cows after getting home even though his weight restrictions are not lifted until Tues which was nice since it was raining and we were running about 3 1/2 hours late for their eve ing feeding. They were not very happy. . . I took care of the girls out front goats, l Charlie pigs and chickens. I will start back do I g them for the 3 am feeding g tomorrow. Hoping my BIL finally shows up tomorrow. . . I have a big day at work and will need to probably do a 12 hour shift to get everything done. It would really be nice if he was here to feed granny dinner so I can get to work by 3 pm and I just feed a little early. Sure the critters wouldn't mind. Even better if he would be here at lunch so I can try to get a nap worked into my day.
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Yeah, you are burning the candle at both ends. Glad your hubby is feeling better and able to ease back into helping again.
 
Danil54grl said:
I feel !like life is just plain ole work right now. . . I am lucky if I get to "play" in the garden once a week. I need to get back out there. . . Yesterday I was able to plant a few more rows for a total of 20 planted right now. I really need to weed but I start back to work tomorrow. Today was a day spent with Granny. She was not having a good morning at all and ran out of clean clothes to wear rather quickly. Sheets stripped to get washed too. Finally was able to get her issues under control to get to second granddaughters first birthday party. I felt bad since I was bringing the party trays for a late lunch. Made them after 3 am feeding. At least I got to see all three of my sweet babies along with a few others. My hunny actually fed his big cows after getting home even though his weight restrictions are not lifted until Tues which was nice since it was raining and we were running about 3 1/2 hours late for their eve ing feeding. They were not very happy. . . I took care of the girls out front goats, l Charlie pigs and chickens. I will start back do I g them for the 3 am feeding g tomorrow. Hoping my BIL finally shows up tomorrow. . . I have a big day at work and will need to probably do a 12 hour shift to get everything done. It would really be nice if he was here to feed granny dinner so I can get to work by 3 pm and I just feed a little early. Sure the critters wouldn't mind. Even better if he would be here at lunch so I can try to get a nap worked into my day.
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I am wore out just by reading all that. I have times like that in my life where there isn’t hardly time to breathe, and when I catch a break, I just want to sleep.

I am still focused on saving money. It’s going fairly well. I did buy a pair of women’s work gloves that I wanted for Christmas. I had bought a pair earlier, but they weren’t the ones I actually wanted and they are a little too big anyways. I hope these work out well.
 
The drywall guys are just about finished with texturing the ceiling in the house. They should be ready to paint the interior by Friday. Once the painting is done the floor guy can start laying the flooring and tile. I went down to pick out the inside doors and trim. More sticker shock. Each door is going to cost $350-$1500 each.
The front deck, steps and handrails was finished today. When the water level goes down, and the rest of the snow melts we can finish the rear deck, paint the exterior and stain the redwood. Of course it needs to warm up some too. High today was 38.
I need to find a continuous gutter guy. At least I have until October to get the gutters up.
It's good to see the that we're getting close to finishing the house. I'm looking forward to the day when I write the last check and can run these guys off.
 
More painting this weekend. Not doing whole house, just the bathroom, living room and kitchen. Will paint the 2 bedrooms and hallway later after we are settled. Hubby ripped out the lower kitchen cabinets that were falling apart and we are replacing them with some nicer cabinets we got for free. Found a deeper stainless steel used kitchen sink a friend had for $10. Will be getting the fridge the hubby had before we met he has in storage to use, and for now using his electric stove/oven he had until we can get the propane tank moved and set up, later finding a propane stove. With summer coming we are putting the propane tank moving and set up til later this year, concentrating on the immediate necessities to get us moved. Hoping the current house is easier to sell with the nice appliances already in it.

We were going to rent equipment again this weekend to work on the driveway and the area the electric company needs to install the electric poles, but getting 24 hours of nonstop rain starting tonight, so waiting a couple more weeks til hubby's next weekend off. Other than that, hitting the local clearance area for some area rugs that are on sale since we have bare flooring.

It's requiring a lot of work, but we got the house for free and we knew it would need work. Will be worth it when there is no monthly payment needed to live in it though.
 
They're just about done painting the interior of the house. When the flood waters go down they'll paint the outside. Then I can finish laying the redwood on the back deck and stain all the decking and the posts.
Got one little patch of snow in the garden left. Maybe in a couple weeks I can start tilling.
We're supposed to start getting temps up to the 50's by the weekend, also thunderstorms are a possibility.
Just started repairs on the fence. I start on the south and west lines and then follow the melting snow up the mountain towards the east and north. Got a lot of broken wires and broken posts from the heavy snows this winter. I'm running low on fence posts so I'll go down next week and pick up another 500 T-posts, a hundred or so wood posts, and a couple units of railroad ties. And a squeeze chute for the new working pens.
The wife just ordered some meat chicks, ducklings and a couple more bee hives. And since I don't have anything else to do she wants me to build a rabbit barn, hutches and a worm bin. Oh yeah, and a shelter for the bee hives and a garden shed.
 
I finished switching my AC unit today. It’s way more efficient than my old unit. I bought it about 6 months ago, but just finally made time to install it. Next on the list is the tankless propane water heater. It is in the bathroom now, but I need a day to extend the gas line and install it. My goal is to have everything switched this year to propane and new energy efficient appliances. It is easier to upgrade things before they break down.
 
Arcticdude said:
They're just about done painting the interior of the house. When the flood waters go down they'll paint the outside. Then I can finish laying the redwood on the back deck and stain all the decking and the posts.
Got one little patch of snow in the garden left. Maybe in a couple weeks I can start tilling.
We're supposed to start getting temps up to the 50's by the weekend, also thunderstorms are a possibility.
Just started repairs on the fence. I start on the south and west lines and then follow the melting snow up the mountain towards the east and north. Got a lot of broken wires and broken posts from the heavy snows this winter. I'm running low on fence posts so I'll go down next week and pick up another 500 T-posts, a hundred or so wood posts, and a couple units of railroad ties. And a squeeze chute for the new working pens.
The wife just ordered some meat chicks, ducklings and a couple more bee hives. And since I don't have anything else to do she wants me to build a rabbit barn, hutches and a worm bin. Oh yeah, and a shelter for the bee hives and a garden shed.
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Sounds like you have your work cut out for you. Good luck with everything and hope the weather doesn't fight you too much!
 
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