Lazy Days...

These last few days have seemed to be pretty lazy here around the homestead.  When I was on my day's off we were able to get a few things done but not a whole lot.


I went back to work yesterday morning for the shift change meeting and that is all I have done work wise.  It seems we are stuck in the cycle at work with being in between rig jobs right now.  It happens every once in a while.  The thing about it is that it can be a good thing and a bad thing.  The good thing is that I can get caught up on some rest, but the bad thing is that I'm not getting near the hours either.  Gotta love those two edged sword situations lol.

One of the other problems is that I really don't want to get started on a project here at the house only to get called into work part way through it.  When I sit for a long period of time though I think how I could have used that time a little more productively.  I guess I need to figure out some short projects that can be done quickly I guess.

The boys seem to have a huge amount of energy here recently.  If I could only figure out how to harness that I'd be in business lol.  They have been driving us nuts bouncing around here.

The garden has been doing great.  We have been fortunate with a good amount of rain and cooler weather than normal.  Today for example it has been cloudy all day and has tried to rain a few times so its pretty humid out there.

Well that's all I have going on right now.  Who knows maybe the week will pick up and it will be gone before we know it.

The Vintage Rival Shred-O-Mat

A little while back Jennifer's mom had found this little gem to the left at a garage sale for 3 dollars and bought it for her to have.

Well today she decided she wanted to use it so she could can some pickles.  The problem was that we couldn't get the blades to lock in.

So I took it apart and not finding anything that looked like it was out of place, put it back together and still couldn't get it to work.

I then went to my laptop and started a search for this old dinosaur.  The problem was that I could pull up all sorts of different models and types of shredders but nothing on this one.





After looking around I finally found a few pictures of one and was able to look at the gearing mechanism inside where you lock in the blades.

I saw that the one we had didn't match the way it looked in the picture.  It took me more than a few minutes after tearing it back down to realize that one piece was 'out of time'.  What I mean by that was there was more than one way this piece could go in, but only one right way.

It took me a few minutes of messing around with it to figure out how it should go in and finally put it back together.  Now we have a working shredder that Jennifer will be able to use instead of it just taking up space in the cabinet lol.

Idiot Drivers and Confusing Bosses

Boy I had a hell of a day at work today.   Come to think about it I'm still at work so the day isn't done yet lol.

At any rate I had to get up early this morning so we could take the pump truck to one of our larger yards to get some welding done.

So there I am driving along, minding my own business when I approach a spot where the road splits. I had a jacked up black Chevy right on my butt since our trucks won't run that fast. I guess the idiot was in a hurry so before I knew it he passes me on the shoulder then cuts me off getting back over. I go and twitch the steering wheel over to miss him and I'm headed right for a sign at that Y intersection.

Now keep in mind our pump trucks are very top heavy weighing over 83K so you don't want to make sudden moves. Instead of swerving back into my lane which could have caused me to damage a 2 million dollar piece of equipment I try to miss the sign but it takes out my passenger mirror and damages the exhaust stack.

I call it in and get a police report done and I expect the worst from my district manager about the damage.

We get to the yard and get everything fixed. When I go talk to him he hears my story and really doesn't say much. But when he talks to me about a few safety violations I had on the job I get my butt chewed for not wearing my ear protection all the time.

He was more irritated about that than the damage to the truck. I swear I will never understand him.....lol

Now we are sitting on a rig site waiting to pump our job so I guess I get to sleep later.  I do know one thing I'm worn out today whew.

All I have to say about the idiot driver is that I hope karma catches up with them. 

Cleaning up the yard....

I think this guy would have been very helpful for Jennifer when she started to mow this morning.

I went and got our trusty weed eater and started to knock down the forest I allowed to grow up here recently.

After two tank fill ups and two string refills, I got the majority of it knocked down.  It took me about as long to weed eat everything as it took Jennifer to get the yard and driveway mowed.

There was a lot more to do than what I thought and I know I missed a few spots.  But if I stay up on it I should be able to get through it a little faster next time.

Our yard has been growing like crazy down here in Eastern Texas.  So far this year the weather has been pretty cool compared to the average.  I'm pretty sure that has been affecting the garden as far as the state it is currently in.  Jennifer estimates that it is 'behind' about 2 weeks from where it traditionally has been.

Don't get me wrong, the moisture has been great for it so we haven't had to water near as much but I'm sure there will be a trade-off there somewhere.

Just as a contrast on how different areas are I know when I left Oklahoma a few weeks ago the family farm up there was dry enough that the grass never really got green.  The mower might need to be used once up there to knock down some of the more persistent weeds but that's it.  They are still in some pretty bad drought conditions up there in the NW part of the state.  That is why I am very grateful for the rain we have been getting down here.

When Jennifer looked at the garden earlier it looked like we had some more green beans that needed to be picked so I'm sure that's what we will be doing around sun down when it cools off.  It should be interesting to see how many we get this round.

A New Blog!!!

Hey there everyone!  As I had mentioned earlier my dear wife had expressed an interest in blogging after watching me do it for a little while.

Well she has finally done it!  You can find her at Busy B Acres.  She has finally put up her first post and I'm very proud of her.  I think as she starts to do it more it will get easier to do.

I hope everyone will give her a warm welcome and let her see how fun this community can be.  She has quite a bit of knowledge over things so it should be interesting to see what she blogs about.

New Addition to the Family....

We have a new addition to the family here today.  We went and picked up a purebred Great Pyrenees puppy.  Her name is Sugar and she is 8 weeks old.

She is a huge puppy so I can only imagine how big she will get.  I know the breed will get anywhere from 80 to 160 pounds or so fully grown.

She will be a working dog here on the homestead.  From what we have read up on they are very good protectors.

We have started work on training her so this should be a fun experience for everyone I must say lol.

On another note the garden has been doing very well.  We have already picked 9 pints of green beans that have been canned.  

Also, I think the DW has decided to start up a blog on the garden and other activities that she likes to do.  When she starts it I will post the link on here and be sure to share it with others as she has a good deal of knowledge.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!