Never thought retirement would be like this

Maggiemae, spending so much time out there, and getting behind on routine things in town, is starting to get to me. I guess I'm just doing something to keep busy out there, and to see if I can do it just for fun, and for insurance, in case the fencers decide to start another job and don't come back for a week or two. Last time I started trying to do something myself, they showed up the next day. Maybe it will work again. Ha!

Haven't heard from the neighbor. I thought she was closing on her new condo the 17th of May. I don't have time to think seriously enough about it. I'm just afraid one day I'll end up with my house like this, if that renter guy buys it. :rolleyes:

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Found a Spinning Jenny today---the last one they had at Tractor Supply. It really does work great. Got all the wire untangled. Shopping and assembly didn't leave much time but got another ~350 feet strung. That leaves about 700 to go, plus running a wire underground at one gate and making some connections. Might as well continue until I run out of wire. If the fencers don't show up by then, I'll buy some more and keep going, 'cause I got to be there anyway. It's getting easier with practice.

The top wire is the most important. Some animal has been digging under the new fence already, but too small for a dog. This is really tight fence. The bottom electric wire will take care of that. May decide to string a 3rd one inside, to keep the goats from using the fence as a scratching device. They can stretch it and make it sag doing that.
 
The way you are going,Nancy, Mr Fencer will be offering you a job! Is this the Jenny that you bought?
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Meanderer said:
The way you are going,Nancy, Mr Fencer will be offering you a job! Is this the Jenny that you bought?
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Ah yes, that is she, Meanderer! As my father would say, "A real thing of beauty." :playful: You should see her spin. :) Another toy to play with.

Although 350' may sound like a lot, it really isn't. It's just a matter of where you choose to stop. The fencers would do the whole thing in one long run of 1200 feet. With two people it would take very little more time than 350. The time consuming part is mostly attaching the endpoints. Long runs like that can be trouble in the long run :)rolleyes: Ha!), with age and wear, but cheaper and faster to install.
 
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That goat picture is perfect, Pappy. See that electric wire strung on the inside of the fence a couple feet up? That is to keep the goat from scratching her side against the fence and running it down. That will be my 3rd wire, if they start doing that.
 
Showers again in the morning yesterday, so I didn't get much done, maybe only another 100 feet. Had to first set another metal post next to an existing one, because they drove one of theirs down too deep to put a wire on top. Dug a shallow trench for a cable to run under a gate, but couldn't find where I put the cable. :rolleyes: Showers this morning also. I've got about 500 feet of wire left. Maybe I can get most of it up this afternoon if nothing goes wrong. I'll be about 200 feet short.

Three hummingbirds have showed up so far this spring. I believe one of them has returned from last year. He isn't afraid of me at all. And I think I heard a mockingbird yesterday.:) First one I can ever remember out there. Earlier this week I heard a very strange sounding bobwhite (quail) in the middle of the day. Wonder now if it was the mockingbird. There are a lot of quail out there but they don't usually start talking until just before dark.
 
Years ago I was putting up fence posts a friend came by offered to help, then asked if he could borrow my post driver. Loaned it to him (he was younger than I), when he was driving his own posts he had a mild heart attack, survived to this day.

My wife the gardening savant planted a cape fuchia, every year all summer & fall long the plant produces flowers that the hummingbirds love. We had hung a feeder years ago but the wasps would be drawn to it & drive off the birds. Not with the plant though, the only ones they fight with are each other.
 
Son_of_Perdition said:
Years ago I was putting up fence posts a friend came by offered to help, then asked if he could borrow my post driver. Loaned it to him (he was younger than I), when he was driving his own posts he had a mild heart attack, survived to this day.
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Oh my, an early wake up call for your friend. If you're not in good upper body shape (like I'm not), using that driver thing can really wear you out in short order. That, and manual post hole diggers. I should go out and dig a hole with them every day just for exercise. Sure beats going to a gym. Ha!

Son_of_Perdition said:
My wife the gardening savant planted a cape fuchia, every year all summer & fall long the plant produces flowers that the hummingbirds love. We had hung a feeder years ago but the wasps would be drawn to it & drive off the birds. Not with the plant though, the only ones they fight with are each other.
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The yellow jackets get after my feeder at certain times of the year. Ants can get inside. It seems like they must swell up and can't get out. I know the ones in there couldn't possibly have gotten through those little holes. :confused:
 
About 450 more feet of fence done today. It was nice because it was all in the shade. There are 34 rings left on the 20" diameter spool.

Should be...... 34 x 20/12 x 3.1416 = ~178 feet

Looks like I need at least 200 more feet. Got rid of that nasty pile of tangled wire in the garage, and substituted it with a neat little spinning jenny, which comes apart if I want to bother. But now I need more wire. :p

Also spray painted Kermit the frog. Now I need a tablespoon of black paint to paint back his eyes and toenails (do frogs have toenails?). Checked every half used paint can at both houses. No black. Would red work?
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Kermit, from an earlier post, taken several years ago, he is in much worse shape now. Has a broken left front foot.:(

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After

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The white powder on the ground is ant killer. Was standing on top of a fire ant hill while spray painting and didn't notice. Got bit, many times. :rolleyes:
 
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Gosh, what a difference a coat of paint can do! Go to the craft department at Walmart and get a very small bottle of black paint or I bet The Dollar Tree has some craft paint.
 
Yesterday 5/31/2017
Keeping the economy going by eating out & entertaining ourselves has no particular day. Yesterday was one of those mainly because my wife didn't feel like cooking. That and it was the last day that two free buffets & $75.00 in comp play were availble to use. The thing is $75.00 in comp play doesn't last long. $500.00 to spend is normal for a day out.

But yesterday was not normal. Before $20.00 of free play was used at 90 cents a bet a bonus feature popped up. Picking the back of cards to reveal a symbol could pay off from $5.00 to the jackpot that had risen to $1010.00. Winning the $1010.00 was nice. It didn't end there. About $100.00 into that win another Jack pot of $1145.00 happened.

Not being foolish we went home with our winnings & $500.00. Happy of course we still had a comp for a restaurant at another casino for two meals. We don't usually eat a big meal late but figured why not. Great prime rib and a carafe of wine every once in awhile won't ruin our health.

After losing a couple of hundred came no guts, no glory. Video poker reversible royals @ $10.00 a hand spooked my wife. That comes to 10 chances to win something, anything worthwhile for $100.00. I said it's like the lottery it takes only one hand to win, no guts, no glory. Reading numbers not her best ability, she thought getting a reversible paid $17,364.00 Imagine her surprise when she hit for $173,640.00. We will set aside 25% of that for taxes $2000.00 a month to spend in the local economy for the rest of this year and give each of our kids $15,000.00 in $5000.00 increments to do whatever they want to do.

Retirement has it's ups & downs. Yesterday was an up day.
 
Knight said:
Yesterday 5/31/2017
Keeping the economy going by eating out & entertaining ourselves has no particular day. Yesterday was one of those mainly because my wife didn't feel like cooking. That and it was the last day that two free buffets & $75.00 in comp play were availble to use. The thing is $75.00 in comp play doesn't last long. $500.00 to spend is normal for a day out.

But yesterday was not normal. Before $20.00 of free play was used at 90 cents a bet a bonus feature popped up. Picking the back of cards to reveal a symbol could pay off from $5.00 to the jackpot that had risen to $1010.00. Winning the $1010.00 was nice. It didn't end there. About $100.00 into that win another Jack pot of $1145.00 happened.

Not being foolish we went home with our winnings & $500.00. Happy of course we still had a comp for a restaurant at another casino for two meals. We don't usually eat a big meal late but figured why not. Great prime rib and a carafe of wine every once in awhile won't ruin our health.

After losing a couple of hundred came no guts, no glory. Video poker reversible royals @ $10.00 a hand spooked my wife. That comes to 10 chances to win something, anything worthwhile for $100.00. I said it's like the lottery it takes only one hand to win, no guts, no glory. Reading numbers not her best ability, she thought getting a reversible paid $17,364.00 Imagine her surprise when she hit for $173,640.00. We will set aside 25% of that for taxes $2000.00 a month to spend in the local economy for the rest of this year and give each of our kids $15,000.00 in $5000.00 increments to do whatever they want to do.

Retirement has it's ups & downs. Yesterday was an up day.
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Wow, good for you!
 
Shalimar the good is because we can help our sons without an expectation of a payback. Our goal is to help them when we are gone, but a little now to ease the way forward for them makes us feel good.
 
That's great news Knight. Such a nice thing to do for your children. You are great parents. Thanks for stopping by.
 
Finished attaching the wire over all the metal posts yesterday. Today I need to hook those sections together, across the wood corner sections and braces. The fencers always wrap the hot wire continuously around the outside corners of those sections, and the insulators get ruined because of the extreme tension of the wire pulling in winter. Plus the hot wire does not always extend above the wood the way they do it, and it makes a perfect place for dogs to go over. Most customers have cattle and do not even think about predators. I've had to modify all their corners on the old perimeter fence.

One may ask why I don't just tell the fencers what I want? Because each corner is a little different due to the lack of uniformity of the wood posts. They seem to have trouble thinking outside the box, even if you are willing to pay extra for their extra time. I'll probably stay out there 'til dark tonight, if I can get the power up and running by doing so. Otherwise, should finish Saturday.

A few days after getting the AC/heat in town repaired, it just stopped working. I've put off calling them until now because of this fence/goat business. The repairman just left. All he did was open the door to the furnace and it came on. :rolleyes: I could have at least done that if I'd been thinking straight. I guess we'll find out soon if that's all it took.

Found some very old black paint for his eyes, so Kermit is now as good as he's going to get. See his broken left toes? :( A man who worked on our pump did that. Kermit is very heavy and awkward to remove.

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Got all the sections of the fence connected together, hooked the wire to the charger...8300 volts...first try! :)

Need to make one small change tomorrow---so you can switch 100% of the power from the charger to, either the perimeter fence, or this small pasture, or both---in case one or the other goes out. Two cut off switches are already in place from the old fence (top/bottom wires). Afraid I'd make a mistake today, not thinking too clearly by the end of the day. :confused:

The goats are NOT locked inside the barn tonight. You'd think they would be happy, but have become accustomed to it. You almost have to drag them out now. :rolleyes:

Just one silly picture from today. A friend of mine, who grew up on dirt roads, told me you always have to "ride the ridges." It had rained hard the night before the fencers came one day, so I HAD to straddle ruts their tractor left in one spot. They are deeper than they appear in this picture. :playful:

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