Had to buy a new reciprocating saw to cut out the rotted rafter tails since I burnt up my old one last year.  I ordered the Ryobi One+ recipe saw with battery and charger from HD for $99.  I like the Ryobi gear for what I do around the house.  Ordered it yesterday and it arrived today with free shipping. Came with the 4Ah battery, so I should get some good run time out of it.


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Those are some nice bumpers, too bad they aren’t for an 86 K5 Blazer. Maybe the first one would fit the 04 2500 Ecpress Family van, it would make people think twice before pulling out in front of me.
 

Don, if you need to run to the parts shop the next few days during the rain, I can probably give you a ride. (At least this advice/offer was preemptive).   

Been away for a bit after having to go to Alabama for my brother in law’s funeral. It was a good visit with family considering the circumstances. Trip was good, no problem with the van and the kids were as good as 10 kids can be in a 12 passenger Van for an eight hour trip.

After we got back, a family friend asked if I could put down one of their horses. They had recently gotten it back from an older gentleman who had a stroke, the horse was basically evacuated bacause he wasn’t able to take care of it. About a week after they got her home, she went a little ballistic and in her excitement, kicked her leg through a gate and severely broke it. Her husband was out of town and she didn’t want to let the animal suffer.  It was my first time putting down a horse, put down other animals, but something that big was different. She dropped right where she stood without any issues though and our friend said it was the most gentle she’d seen one put down.

I also found a raccoon in my garage the next day. In the process of dispatching said varmint, I discovered that I can shoot in my garage and no one in the house was any wiser. Makes me want to follow through with my plans for an indoor range, I could get about fifty yards at the long part of the garage. Anyone built a backstop for indoor shooting before?  Any ideas?

Always brings a smile to my face

Don, are there any immediate needs? I may have some things out in the garage from the move that I don’t have a need for right now.  Just down the interstate, so not out of the way.

Not to mention that just saying we can’t DOT up his thread is in itself DOTing up his thread. 

Replaced a broken hydraulic line on the backhoe. I was able to go to the local auto parts fire and get a new fitting put on for only 7.58.  Felt like a win to me.

So if I read the earlier rant correctly, Don wants us to make this into such an audaciously huge project that it isn’t going to end well. Sorry to break it to you, Don. He did that just by starting to dig a hole for a pool. But if it makes you feel any better, I’ll give it a shot:

Instead of just adding a pool, put a hot tub on the side of it. Darn it, already done.
Oh, I know. You should put a flagstone surround and a huge fire pit  and walkway, then redo your porches with said flagstone too.  Dang it, he beat me to it.

Sorry to say it, but I think he’s already chosen to do all the really big add ons already.   I’ll keep looking though.

How come that thing will just pop a cedar stump out, and I’ve gotta dig all around it with my tractor? 

Looks like it’s going to be a real nice layout, I’m not letting my wife look at this thread. 

I think he tentatively planned on dropping a truck camper on it if necessary to get it titled as an RV guess that’s not in the plans any more.

Dig another stump out with the JD 4410. As I was about finished, I apparently thought it would come out easier with a liberal dose of hydraulic fluid from the backhoe. I managed to snap off a hydraulic fitting from one of the hoses to the bucket cylinder.  Strapped the bucket up with a ratchet strap and pushed the stump out with the FEL. Going to have to wait until Monday to get a new hose. Took about an hour to get the old one out of the unit because of a couple bent bolt ends.

And of course the hydraulic fluid was just changed the other day by JD.

Don:  Danny from Limestone has some good things to say about you and your workmanship on your trucks. I know you’ve had to get hoses replaced, where have you gotten them?

Are you sure we don’t work for the same company, Dave?  Truth be told though, my boss is extremely fair. We have managed to winnow our all the nonperformers and now have a real solid team of right people who work well together. I got my promotion last year so my rating was lower this year, but with my promotion increase and a smaller raise percentage this year it was still decent.

Picked up a used John Deere 4410 with loader and backhoe, as well as a 6x4 gator. Tractor has a total of 504 hours on it and the gator has 308. Both are in pretty good shape, need a couple of things just from sitting, but run well. Kids and the wife have been enjoying the gator, wasn’t able to get it stuck in the snow the past week even though I made some effort at it.

What’s the big scary black one in the picture!?!?!  Is that an assault drone?  Is that legal?!??

</sarcasm>

Here’s a link to it:
https://m.costco.com/DJI-Mavic-Pro-Aerial-Camera-Bundle.product.100326427.html?pageSize=24&catalogId=10701&dept=All&langId=-1&keyword=DJI+Mavic+Pro+Aerial+Camera+Bundle&storeId=10301

Wow, if this is you after two days of reviews, I can’t wait for Wednesday’s rant. Sad thing is, as much of a rant as it was, I find myself totally agreeing with you.

We closed on the sale of our old house today. It’s nice to breathe a little more free, only one mortgage payment at a time now. Now I can start getting things done around the new place.

Made a offer on a John Deere 4410 with the 430 loader and 48 backhoe, comes with pallet forks. I’m getting it as a package deal with a 6x4 diesel Gator. Looks to be in good shape from what I’ve seen, going to check it out and pick it up tomorrow or Saturday morning. Should make for a good little workhorse for around the farm, doing a little bit of everything. I’ll post pictures after the deal is done and I have it home. Price seems good, I think I’m getting a good deal.

All sorts of good things to see in the northern tuck. I live about ten minutes from the Ark, haven’t managed to get over there yet, but plan to in the next week or two while I can still get half price tickets. I’ll let you know what we think of it. Everything I’ve heard has been good.

Looking at a John Deere 4410 with front loader, pallet forks, backhoe and bush hog for about 15500. We’ll see how it looks, needs a new seat and a good, but they aren’t really critical. He’s also got a diesel 6x4 Gator for sale for about 5500. They are moving off their farm and getting rid of what they had.

119/hr and I get to use Don's shop, after wrestling his tools away from sled dog!

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You can’t yse Dons shop, he’s gonna need it to swap the diesel into the Jeep. Keep thing son perspective people!   

Home with the kids today and most of tomorrow, then to my dads house for the Christmas with my brothers and sisters and their kids. We’ll see how it goes.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Boy Scout troop from church had their wilderness survival campout in the woods behind the house last night. I stayed out until 2am talking with the leaders and putting together an equipment list. This is a brand new troop, so we are having to start pretty much from scratch with equipment. It’s going to be fun.  The boys all seemed to be doing good when I came back up to the house. It was only down in the upper 20s so not bad at all.  I’ll see how they are when I walk back out in a little bit.

Based on everybody’s comments, I should be getting invited to Don’s Christmas party and probably deserve 46 years of missed Christmas presents. He’s my long lost uncle-cousin-brother-nephew!  I’ve missed you so much!