sulphiticfarm.com

It's been much too long since I have posted a blog. I apologize! Those few of you that are following my  progress probably know me in person and pretty much know what all is goin on in my life. Work is work, third shift life has it's positives and it's negatives. Dating is going great, Baby Doll is a great woman. her mother passed away recently and it has had an effect on all of our lives. That's the thing about family, if it affects one it affects all. Her dad seems to be doin well, and she has handled it pretty well as well.

 As far as the farming aspect of homesteading, My laziness won out. I would walk from the car to the front door and look at my little garden and sigh, "Maybe today I will have the energy to work it...." days, weeks, months passed and I harvested NOTHING! I had some heirloom tomatoes, and some green peppers and I thought I had a watermelon plant but the only thing that produced a fruit was a tomato plant, and I never picked the red fruit, just looked at it as I walked in each morning and thought, "I should pick it." But I was too tired to get to it, and too busy each weekend ot take 5 mins to go out and look, and harvest a single tomato.

 So I sit here, wondering if I am gonna make it. If I had to do this, could I? Well, yes I can..but, would I? It's a lot of work. As I have gotten older and fatter, I seem to be allergic to physical activity. A sluggard I suppose. I ain't proud of it, damn sure ain't happy about it. I think of it as shameful. But, It's the truth! If society collapsed, will I do what needs to be done? No, not from what I see of myself so far. But the slim chance that will happen, and more importantly the reason why I want to do this is to give myself a better life. Well, better by what standard? And it dawns on me why most people don't raise their own food or do anything other than what they have to...It's hard work!  We all work hard enough at any given rat race job as it is, the last thing most of us want to do is to labor on our "time off".... But then, isn't that what kills us collectively? To become lazy, and lose the skills needed to survive, or even flourish by the sweat of our own brow? Maybe I have been in the tech field too long, and have forgotten what real work is. 'Cause when I tried tilling the soil by hand, or clearing brush by hand, all that physical activity wore me out so fast that it didn't seem worth it. I imagine most other people feel the same. On a very small scale, it isn't worth the work or the hassle is it ? I suppose if I needed to do it , things would be different wouldn't it? If I had to raise my own food, and maintain things around the land then I would be motivated differently. But it's so easy to go to wal-mart and get what I need. 

 So yeah, struggling a bit here. I still hope to build an aquaponics system soon, but with the cold weather coming in the next few months I wonder if I should wait..yet if I do, that is months of lost time...but, I've wasted yet another season already. My plan of working in the yard, and getting healthier from actually moving more than I have to didn't work out. I'm not sure exactly what I need, other than some sort of bottled energy..to get me motivated enough to do anything other than the daily grind of work/sleep cycle.

 So yeah, wondering what the hell was I thinking? I'm just too danged lazy to actually get things done these days. I'm not givin up yet. Just tryin to figure out how to come up with the energy, time and money to make myself a better life. What I thought would be an easier life. But no...not an easier life, harder for sure, but maybe, just maybe, a richer, fuller ,more rewarding life?

        

  Well it's already June, and my tomatos need some attention. But right now just too tired and aggravated to do anything about it. It's really hot for a fatty like me. We went from rainy, but nice temps to hot..and rainy occasionally. For most, this aint hot, and I myslef know it isn't really hot. But, well over 20 years under the AC and nearly no physical activity has taken it's toll.

 It's days like this that really challenge me though. I slept last night, a no no for a third shift worker that wants to keep to their schedule on days off. But, I was really tired. But at least I was tired from working around the farm this time. BabyDoll and I worked in the gully this weekend. We got a good bit cleared off but stil sooooo much work to be done. Still can't even tell it from the back porch, well anywhere in the house really, till ya get down into the gully. I do have a path cut down that I can take the mower or the burban down. BabyDoll got in a couple firsts for herself. She rode a riding mower for the first time in her life. Also she worked a bushaxe for the first time in her life too. She did a great job with the bushaxe, worked it like a pro!

 Down in the gully there is a really cool sittin rock. I really took advantage of it today when I was workin down there. I work 5 or 10 minutes and rest for 10 mins. I spend about 5 minutes absolutely panting like a dog. I'm feelin myself gettin stronger each day I wake up sore. If I can keep this up, work down there an hour or 2 everyday I may have it cleared and ready to till it under for the fall and winter. I had hoped I would be able to already have it cleared and tilled. But it shows me how unrealiastic I am when I plan stuff that involves, manual labor of myself or for any of my power tools to work correctly or not break LOL.

 I just came back in, coolin off before I fix supper for me n Granny. The only reasom I am up here now is cause of course I managed to screw up the ridin mower ..again. I ran over a cable that was in the brush. I had cleared out some of the bigger stuff, and wanted to run the mower over it to kinda finish it out some. The cable wrapped around one of the blades good n tight. I tried the bolt cutter I had borrowed from Dad to cut locks off the shed...Whole other sob story there...But of course the bolt cutters won't cut the cable, it's stranded wire and just small enough to where all I do is press the wire but not enough to significantly weaken it. I don't have any linemans pliers right now, not really sure what I'll do to get it off. Reckon I wil work on that this week as I can.

 The cable makes me think about things we do without really thinkin about it. At some point someone threw the cable down inthe woods, thinkin it's never be found again I suppose. I doubt they thought that years later, most likely someone would be down there with a ridin mower and run over it, like I did. It's caused a great deal fo extra work that will need to be done. All because someone didn't think. I myslef am guilty of this as well. I am better about it now as I have gotten older. It could've very well been me that threw the cable down there. However, I doubt it was me. I haven't worked on this land in prolly 15 years, and I can't immagine I would've thrown the cable down in the gully. I prolly would have tried to save it for something else. I've tried for years to repourpose or rebuild things before throwing them away. I haven't really gotten to recycling yet. But someday I plan on it. I know, no better time than the present. But really most people don't have the time to recycle, and seperate thier trash. Plus the thought of trying to explain recycling to granny..Forget it!

 Next weekend BabyDoll and I, along with the Brain and a Date, possibly Joe n Sheri, are goin to the symphony. This time for a beatles cover. I really enjoyed the last two trips, teh stone and motown covers were excellent. But, this will prolly be the last for awhile. While not really that expensive. Just can't afford to keep goin, both in money and time. Also Wanted to clue in locals on a great lil restaurant I go to. It was the little cafe, but, The Little Cafe moved and has gotten a bit more corporatized, quality has dropped, don't know many of the waitresses, and just generally don't feel comforatble in the new place. But! Carolina Cafe has opened in the spot where TLC was. And If I were a food critic I would give the place 5 stars. But since I am not I'll give it a 10 on a scale of 1-10. The Hotdawgs, of which I consider myself an expert on....Are excellent. The chili is great, dogs are all beef, adn the slaw is that great sweet homemade kind that I love! In fact we brought a cup of it home to put on homemade hotdawgs we had this weekend..yeah..I do love hotdawgs! I tried one of their cheeseburgers saturday...I got a double...I couldn't finish it. It was sooo good though! I got it With chili onions n slaw...It was damned good. In fact went back and had another single this mornin. Which is really cool, lunch OR breakfast from opening till close. Now, they are a grill, so they close at 2pm and are closed on sundays. If ya get a chance to go by try it....So few of these places left. They need our support. Besides, if you like good ol burger n fries you'l love this place. 

        

I must say it has been a busy couple weeks since the last post. This weekend past I celebrated my 44th birthday. Yep...gettin old. I must say that baby doll did a great job of pullin my family together to celebrate my birthday. I really didn't expect so many people to come celebrate with us saturday night. Her parents came as well, it was very nice and our server did a great job considering there were 11 of us. My aunt nancy baked me a cake that i have labeled as a culinary orgasm....It's an apple cake that is so moist and tastes so good....Man I think I'll go have a piece for breakfast here soon. It was a really long week, most days i was lucky to get much more than 3 hours sleep each day. Saturday was lookin really rough too, Since my Great uncle billy was gettin married on saturday and asked if i would bring granny to the weddin. But she refused to go...(sigh) dementia robs her yet again. So I was able to grab a nap before my get together saturday night. My birthday was friday, I hated havin to work on my birthday but baby doll met me before work at applebees next to the office and we had a great meal. We love the quesedilla burger there. She got me a webcam so we can see each other when we chat. I finally had to send the other webcam back to geeks.com to keep from being charged again for the ip kamera I have for grannycam,they shipped a cheap webcam the first time. I wanted to keep it and pay for it but they couldn't do that..I had to send the webcam back. Glad I did and very glad baby doll got me the logitech webcam. Much clearer than the other one. It requires much less light to get a good clear pic than the other one.

 The weekend before Baby Doll and i planted a very small garden that we hand tilled. Good lord the ground is hard here! It wore us both out a couple times. We went to lowes and found some heirloom tomato plants as well as some other plants n seeds. I still need to plant the other plants...I'll get pix up soon. But the weekend taught me a couple valuable lessons. First off...Things are ungodly expensive! It seems nearly impossible with inflation these days. While we were tiolling the ground by hand..I decided I wasn't as hardcore eco freindly farmer boy as I thought, and decided hey let's go look at those 2 cycle baby tillers. I bought one at sears a few years ago for 89 dollars, surely they are not much more. Well..Ok after I got to thinkn about it , it was closer to 10 years. So we looked around, Lowes had an electric one for 189, and a gas 2 cylce for 218 or so...then we checked, wal mart - none at all- tractor supply- none Northern tool OMG 300, and sears 218 or so. So in 10 years this item has gone up well over 100 %, close to 200 %. So just to make things really easy math wise...10 years, 100% rise in price....that's an average of 10% a year.....hmm most people get at best a 5% raise a year, if at all, anything above that is considered a merit raise....So we are losing ground every year...So if you're not poor now, you will be in a few years. I was lamenting about how do most people make it

        

 April has gone and May is already here.. I'll be 44 in a few days now.  Getting things done around here is a real challenge. Sometimes I wonder if it's easier just starting with land and building from scratch. I do at least have shelter, plumbing and electricity. But not all of it is in tip top shape. So I've wondered a few times if starting from scratch would be easier. At least I'd know how it was built and I'd know where everyting is and how old it is when it quits working. I make a modest income, just about the national poverty line , but it's not bad in this area of the US. I still fight the funding battle. I could never have afforded the bathroom renovations, had it not been for family paying for it and doing the work for free.

 I went to cut the grass the other day and found all three safety switches on the old riding mower are broken, after a few attempts at cheating them successfully I found the Carb needs to be rebuilt. Still not a single plant has been planted, I'm thinking about just going to Lowes today and getting some tomato plants, not really the kind I want, but finding the time to get to the nursery to get heirloom seeds is much harder than I thought it would be. plus I still have not been able to get down to the gully to clear out a decent garden spot, so I will find a new spot up here for my 'mater plants. I'm gonna try and figure out what else I can plant that is OK planting this month and next- money and time seem to be ruling that , as usual.

 I got the burban runnin again, but the lincoln is showing signs of really needing a tune up badly- I still wanna swap out the steering wheel in the burban so I can fit into it better. The old stock steering whell rubs the top of my thighs, and my big ol belly too...So maybe I can get the steering wheel swapped out today or tomorrow so I can park the lincoln long enough to get the plugs n wires changed.


Other than all that, things are the same here, too much to do and not enough time or money. But it does beat the old life of layin around all day and playin video games all night and my days off.


Markus

        

Howdy all!

 It's the last week in march. So far no planting has happened. The guy at the nursery says that april 15 is the date for being safe for no frost. Personally been sick the past couple days. Some kinda bug goin around. At first I thought it was allergies, but now I doubt it's allergies. Granny isn't feelin well today either. My sweety came down to visit, but I wasn't very good company. So she headed back home. I really appreciate that she took the 30 minute drive just to see me for a short time. Plus she did bring some OTC meds. I slept most of the day, is why I am posting this at 3 am.

 The bathtub cracked awhile back, But I was using it anyway, knowing full well I would have to replace it. Aunt Nancy asked Lil wayne, her son my first cousin, to look into it and see what he can do for us. He's replacing the tub today. He came by wednesday and did the demolition. Here are some pix.

Here's Lil Wayne....Yeah only a few people get to call him Lil Wayne !


He is a county sherriff deputy. But he has is own side business as a plumber. According to him there aint much work out there right now. The news has everyone much too scared to spend any money. He seems to think it will pick up later though. He told me some stuff about the business that blew my mind. He says alot of times people will inflate their prices to what is the "going rate" because if they don't the customer will think that person doesn't know what they are doing....that blows my mind! But it makes sense too, too often we are told if it's too good to be true then it probably is....Lil Wayne is only asking that we pay for the materials. Now that's good people! That's good family! Most of my family is that way. All great people!


This is where the commode was.


 

Now the commode is on the front porch! Oh I bet the snoots on the hill love this! But I doubt they can see it.
Here's another pic of  lil Wayne about to tear out the tub.



Thought I had a pic of it alll cleared out but I guess not. He is replacing the floor, cause it had rotted out. So I got a new floor and the new tub is siting in place right now. Lil and big wayne worked on it all day today but couldn't finish cause of the rains we are gettin today. I'll post more as I can.

        

 Sometimes I hesitate to call this place a homestead, or a farm. 'Cause right now it is really neither. I do plan on making this place a homestead, at least I plan on making this place as self sustaining as i can possibly make it. I think that in itself makes this place a homestead. It's not just an old trailer to me. To me it's home. There was a time this place was part of a farm. A farm my grandmother and her siblings worked...and worked hard. She's told me o the days and weeks they spent digging up rocks up there on the hill, just outside our front door. Backbreaking work she told me, and her parents were hard driving people. They worked the devil out of their kids..Nowadays, if a parent treated their kids the way granny and her siblings have told stories about, the parents would be in jail. Times have definitely changed. In some ways for the better, but in so many ways for the not so better. The Road we live on is called Legion road. As best I can understand from teh stories, the land on the hill was given to the American legion by my great granddad. On the handshake and promise that they would use it to build a new post. Unfortunately, they didn't keep their side of the bargain and decided they could do better selling the land. It was a wrong done to the family that will go on for longer than any of us will ever be on this planet. Because the family will never get the land back, profits have been made, over and over, and we got none of it. It's a shame that a good organization has its bad apples too. Well, what's done is done...Now facadees live on that land...all cozy on the land my granny and great aunts and uncles bled on, sweated on, and toiled on for a good part of their childhood...all forgotten.

 Anyway, I will be trying to make my mark on this last little toehold of the family farm. By doing what I can to work it and get it to produce. I'm still working on an overall plan, but below are a few pix and plans I have so far.




The above pic is the front door of the house. The ramp was added years ago for my grandpa after losing part of his foot to diabetes. I plan on working this over soonish...One of the first things I really need to do is to put down my plan on paper and see how it all is gonna work out.





The above pic is looking out my door. There's the Ol burban I'm workin on, hopefully we'll get some sun soon and I can finish the valve cover gaskets and a tune up. As you can see I have a couple buildings there I am using for storage. The building beside th burban is "the doll house" as my aunt calls it....It's got some old jars, I wonder if I can use them for canning still? Do they wear out? I don't think so. Prolly just need new lids. Also it has a lean to built on that houses the old riding mower. Uncle Wayne said he go tit running, hopefully it still does so I can cut the grass. The silver shed is pretty much empty, it has some junk in it, and a kerosene heater in it I wanna clean up and get ready for next winter in case of power outages etc...Also since Granny likes it relly hot these days, maybe spending a few bucks on kerosene would be beneficial, rather than running the natural gas furnace to heat the whole house to 90 degrees....Yeah ! really 90 it what she always turns it up to! If you look close you can see the small deck I have at my door, it has flower boxes built into it, but need to be rebuilt. I'm thinking maybe herbs in them this year. I have Lots of hardwoods on the land, ver few pines...The land past the sheds and burban will be my aunt's someday, so I'm not really planning on using that land at all if I can help it.





 This is a shot from looking back at the house from the sheds. You can see my door, and the broken screen door I need to fix, and the tell tale sign that this was originally a trailer with an addition. When money permits, I really want to cover this end, and rework the window so it doesn't show it was a trailer.
I'd like to extend my little deck over to the end of the house to be flush with the front wall. That will also cover the tongue of the trailer too, since it was never removed. Also I've been thinking I need to add some sort of better underpinning. The vinyl isn't holding up to the weed eater very well. I've thought about adobe, but doubt that will work well i this climate. Although maybe some sort of home made bricks, or maybe papercrete will work. As long as it's sturdy and cheap. I saw a video on You tube about papercrete...I'll have to find the links again and post them when I do find it...very interesting. Although I do wonder...where will I get that much newspaper?


Here's the video on how to make papercrete

        

What an Awesome Night We had!

  Last night I took my sweety to the Charlotte symphony. It was the first time as an adult I have seen the symhony, and it was an awesome night! I have been looking forward to this for the last month, and I was not disappointed. I have to admit, being downtown...err excuse me Uptown (as the snooty artsy people insist it be called) was a bit scary to me. I actually felt clausterphobic a few times. Once when we got into the heart of uptown and I realized I had to look straight up to see the sky. Because all the tall buildings were blocking out the sun, well it was rainy too so it was doubly darkish. Then when we were in the parking garage and I realized we were completely surrounded by concrete...I got to thinking about the people that were trapped on the freeways in the big quake so many years ago out in Cali. <Shudder>. I dunno why I thought of it...just my warped mind I guess.

 We wanted to find a decent place to eat. The first place we looked at was a bar n grill sort of place, but it was packed with College kids doin a pub crawl for st patty's day or something. So we looked around, and saw this place called the CAPITAL GRILLE  They asked if we had reservations, shoulda known right then to turn around, but we were hungry and excited and generally weren't thinking clearly. We were seated, and a very nice man was our waiter, I have his card, Richard Knight. Very nice man. He probably thought the hillbillys had just arrived. Even though we were wearing our sunday go to meetin clouthes as they say on the Beverly Hillbillys. The wine list was much bigger than the menu itself, another clue we were inan expensive restaurant. We listened to him tell us about the specials and what was recomended and all that.  But when I got to looking at the prices, something like 45 dollars for a steak, pretty much everything was 40 and up..I about passed out. I really wanted to try one of those steaks, but neither of us had that kind of money to spend , even for such a special night. So we settled for an appetizer of crab and lobster cake that was heavanly! It came with homemade tartar sauce that was excellent as well., also some corn that I didn't bother eating, and a lemon in a mesh, thingy. Richard was very kind to us. Even though we are not the typical patron, he did treat us with respect and I really appreciated that.  I tipped him as best I could, well over the 20 %, but still it wasn't alot for the amount of service we got. Thanks Richard!

 From there we walked accross the street to the Belk Theatre and waited for time to go get our seats. I spoke to one of the usher ladies, I reckon that's what they are called. She was very nice and informative. i told her it was my first symphony..Her eyes lit up and she told me I was in for a treat. And I really was! I had gotten what I thought to be moderately priced seats. I wish I had gotten box seats, and if I ever go again I will pay the extra for better seats. With me being a big ol boy, the seats were very tight, and uncomforatble , especially for what turned out to be a 3 hour event. Plus I'm sure it wasn't too enjoyable for the people sitting beside me, as I was taking up more than my fair share of legroom space. Even with me stretching at the intermission my right knee was killing me when we left. The show was AWESOME! It was a tribute to the Rolling Stones. The symphony played backup to a tribute band that was pretty good. Other than wanting better seating to fit my extra wide body, I could not have asked for a better experience. People were up and dancing in the aisles...I think everyone there had a great time. The orchestra director really looked like the director in bugs bunny with his long white mop of hair, but when he was playing the piano once the tribute band got out on stage it looked like he was jammin and having a great time too! I didn't expect to see a stuffy upper crust kinda guy like that cut loose, but he did and it was awesome!

 Later we went to Chili's in Gastonia, where my sweety works on saturday lunch, for something substantial to eat. It was nice she knew all the waistaff, and we were treated quite well by Jerome, I believe his name was....if you find yourself there, request him. My sweety says many people wait an hour to be seated in his section, and I see why. The food was excellent. The service was excellent! We both had a burger each, I couldn't finish mine, and we had the southwest spring rolls I think they are called. Sweety loves them. By then I was worn slap out. I was so sleepy by the time we got back to her house that a goodnight kiss was all I could muster before getting in the car for the 30 min drive home....I called her to let her know I made it home and fell into the bed asleep before my head hit the pillow. It was a wonderful 1 month anniversary night for us. That's right! We have been talkin and dating for a month, we met through eHarmony on Valentines day...No longer can I make fun of the eharmony commercials!

 I have posted some of the pix But they didn't turn out too great since we were in the balcony. My sweety took them on her camera. I just got back from having sunday dinner with her and her parents. The meal was delicious, made with love. That always makes it taste so much better. After dinner I had some great conversation with her parents. It's been a great weekend. Thanks Babe!

 If you ever find yourself in Charlotte NC and see that they have an event for the symphony Definitly go see them, and if you find yourself at the capital grille, ask for Richard, He was a great waiter. Likewise, Gastonia NC chilis, ask for Jerome.

        

Well it's Friday!

 One more night of work then a couple days off....Sort of. On my shift it turns out I really only get one full day off. Sunday. You see, I work Friday night through Saturday morning. I have all day and night Sunday off, but then I work Monday night....weird how that works..I reckon I have to look at it like I get two nights off huh?

 I had been thinking of a way to help my aunt and uncle in their situation of having to come over everynight while I am at work to watch over granny. Well I decided a webcam would be a good idea. Then found that wouldn't really fill the bill so i decided to get an IP camera. I went to www.geeks.com and found a nice IP camera that has a built in webserver. I figured i would use that. I chose the low lux IP Kamera 9060A-SL and a cat 5 cabling kit with 1000 feet of cable. I got my shipment today, problem is I got a BTC PC-380S webcam and the cat5 cable kit. So, I called them and they will ship out the right camera... The guy that I spoke with on the phone about the order, Peter I think his name was. Was very nice, but couldn't find the camera they shipped me listed in their inventory. Oh well, I'll buy it from them and keep it. Already have it set up and hope to try it out with my sweety tonight. I hope she will be pleasantly surprised. So for now I am waiting on the right camera. hopefully I will have it soon so I can get it set up. If all goes well I plan on buying more cameras and placing them around the exterior of the house and put them on the website. So you can see sulphitic farm in real time if you want...that is if my technical skills are up to the challenge. Oh, and I have bandwidth and all that on the website. It's looking like I will have to use godaddy's webhosting for now, but I am seeing that I am going to have to crank up the linux box and learn how to host alot of the stuff on it. So the website may be in some disarray off and on till I figure it all out. Hopefully some of the guys at work will be helpful and muddle through my dumb questions enough to help me out. That's the great thing about working around a bunch of really bright kids. They know so much and are usually very willing to help this ol dawg out when asked.

 Speaking of work, one of the guys asked if I would be willing to participate in a CCNA study group they are forming on sunday nights. I will definitely make time for that! I doubt I will be taking the CCNA any time soon, but what I can learn with them will be a great help to everyday work in the NOC (Network Operations Center) Plus who knows, maybe I will learn enough to at least ake the first part of the CCNA I think it's the CCENT exam. That would be awsome!

 The weather is cooler and rainy all day, excellent weather for sleeping and I did sleep quite well. Although Granny barged into the room this morning asking if I was with that girl...?!?!??!?... I dunno. At first I thought she was trying to see if I was fornicating under her roof. But as I did finally wake up after going back to sleep I think I figured out what she was up to. She thought I was with my sweety and not here. So she was coming into my room to check it out...She gets so mad because I don't kep my room clean..But I look at it this way. I'm 43, and I spent my time in the militarty where I had to keep things spic n span....I will not do it now. I don't make my bed, ever! and I clean when I want to...at least my room. I do try very hard to keep her part of the house very clean. Because it's the way she likes it. All a part of caring for her. but it is often frustrating. Having the same conversation over and over, in a matter of minutes even....the most common one goes something like this. She points to or nods at her dog, Bo. "You know your daddy brought this thing to me when he was just a baby, He was a cute lil rascal. I named him rambo 'cause i was watchin Rambo in the TV. But I never let 'em out.. One time He got out and I had to chase em clear up the path to the highway up yonder......" (long pause)" You know he's a cute lil rascal , Your daddy brought em to me when he was just a baby, I named him rambo cause I was wathcin rambo on TV, I never let em out though, one time he got out and I had to chase em clear up the path to the highway up yonder, and I said never again..." (long pause) "You know, your daddy brought him to me when he was just a baby........"  On and on it goes till I can get the subject changed. It can be maddening sometimes. I love her to death, but taking care fo her like this has been a challenge I was not initally preppared for. But no one else was willing to help out. I think I'm probably the best choice anyway. But it can be tough some days.

 Well that's it for now, work tonight, symphony with my baby doll tomorrow! WOOHOO

        

 Well, actually three days. Working third shift can sometimes really be an advantage. It teaches you how to operate with little or no sleep if needed. Monday morning I got up at 10 am. I worked on the website, and did a few things like I normally do on monday morning. Tried to lay down for sleep but couldn't. I had something on my mind, namely this website, and setting up a few things. So it was pointless to try and sleep. Worked monday night as usual. Tuesday My youngest son, Aaron, 18 needed to get surgery. It's the second try at straightening his jaw. So off to the hospital I went after breakfast. As we were checking in my sweetheart Rosa showed up! I was so surprised she came to support us. It's the reason I am so in love with her. She gets it. Family is one of the most important things we are blessed with on this plane of existance. Rosa really kept me awake throughout the day. My oldest son Lee, gave Aaron a ride to the hospital, he looked tired so I told him he could go and get some rest. he said he would be back later...Just never did show back up. The operation was a success. and Aaron was put in a room late in the evening. By the time Aaron was in his room I had been up in excess of 30 hours. By the time my parents and my sweety left it was about 9 pm or so. I finally fell asleep for a nap around 12am. 38 hours!  Slept 2 hours, and was back up, in and out of sleep till daylight with Aaron. Finally went to get breakfast and came back to find Aaron quite happy, the doc had released him and he was very ready to go home. Back to mom n dad's and later to home. Took another nap for a couple hours and now it's 12 am on Thursday morning. I took the night off because I really need to catch up on some rest.

 Tomorrow (tonight technically) I will be back at work. Nothing done on the homestead, the burban reminds me she's not finished everytime I look at her. 2 bags of trash await transport. Grass is gonna need cutting soon if we get rain which is forcasted. And way too much to do and too little time to get it done this weekend. <sigh> But it beats the hound out of being bored!

        

 Today I decided I was going to replace the valve cover gaskets on the burban. Now, keep in mind it's been many years, and a couple hundred ponds ago that I worked on cars. I had forgotten that. The four nuts promptly reminded me! 

 The reason I am replacing them are that they are leaking oil down onto the exhaust manifold and it causes some stinky smoke. Plus oil is dripping down on the plug wires and just generally needs to be done after sitting in my youngest brother's yard for a couple years. I had it towed here, last week with tax money I was able to get a new battery, file for a lost title and re-register it and get tags and insurance. I want to be able to haul off my own trash, rather than asking for my uncle to do it. One of the things I had frgotten about living outside the city.

 So on to the nuts! On a chevy small block, there are four nuts and a retainer under each nut to be removed to remove the valve cover.  Well, I got all eight lossened, and decided I would work on the driver's side first since that is where the master cylider (for brakes) as well as the AC compressor are located. I knew one of the nuts would be hard to get to and get off.  In order to loosen the nuts I had to find something to stand on, it's a 4x4 and a little tall for me to lean over. So I found 3 cinder blocks, Hauled them over to the burban and I was able to get them all loosened. And I was TIRED! So I sat in the shade for awhile to rest up. As I sat there, panting no less, I go to thinking that this is just bad.....Really bad that I was already tired. It appears that sitting on my hind end for the last 15 years has really taken it's toll! So,being optomistic, I got back up and crawled back up on the blocks and got four nuts removed, got the retainers off and got the vlave cover loosened. But I just couldn't get it out. So I loosened the AC compressor and was hot and tired and REALLY aggravated at myself. Again I had to sit down for a bit.

 Later I crawled back up on the blocks, tugged and twisted the valve cover but to no avail, still can't get it out. Now I know I can get it out without removing the AC comppressor, but at the time I was so worn out I just collected my tools, lowered the hood , came in checked on granny and took a shower....In total disgust at the shape I'm in.

 As I was sitting chatting with granny before my shower I culd smell the french fry grease in my sweat. I know I have got a huge task ahead of me if I am going to be able to convert this place into some sort of sustainable farm. I reckon I'll be taking baby steps for awhile, just trying to learn to work with what I have in the shape I'm in.