Never Say Never

A gentle word of advice from a long in the tooth student of human nature.
Never say never, you are just setting yourself up for crow eating.

A few years ago, after several years of drought and near drought conditions Robert and I both vowed that we would never complain about getting too much rain again in our lives.

After 5 1/2 inches of rain in the month of June alone we are sitting down to a fine meal of crow and complaining about the bloody rain.. There is water sitting in every field, the dug outs have spilled thier banks, the creek is running high, I have mushrooms growing all over my lawn and things in the garden are turning yellow from too much moisture and a lack of sun. Just last night while towelling off after a soothing soak, I swore I felt the beginnings of web between my toes for Christ's sake.

Robert is in a foul mood, being behind in your work by a month or two would do that to anyone.

I have to mow the grass every three days so that it doesn't get too long and clog up the mower discharge. MY main concern is that is smarten up for July so that we can get some haying done..especially now that we have put our selves into the poor house buying a new tractor and discbine.

That's right,  you read it here first folks. Cathy and Robert actually bought a BRAND SPANKING NEW piece of farm equipment instead of farm sale cast offs.  and not just one new piece but TWO...pieces of new equipment.
It was a very traumatic experience for us both...having never done it before...Robert had to throw a hissy fit with the bank to get the terms we wanted...and to spare the boring details...we are now in hock with the bank for the next ten years...Life as we previously knew it has ceased to exist...we are paupers now...having to scrape every dime to make next years payments...But to quote Robert..." it was either we do something drastic, like buy a new tractor or we get out of farming"...... All our tractors are at least 30 years old or older and on their last legs...Robert is not mechanical enough to fix them on his own he says...but I think he has done an awesome job keeping them going this long...

Anyway its done and all that's left is the paying....we get the disbine next week along with a loaned tractor since our new one won't come until the end of July....

The whole ordeal turned into quite a pissing match between the two sales men...John Deere and Case IH dealers.   It is amazing the mark up they have on that equipment and the gobs of money they can knock off when they want to.  The cost of our tractor went from $ 140,000.oo  to in the end$ 112,000.oo and I bet they still made buckets of money on the tractor.

So in a month they will deliver our new tractor and a guy to spend the day with us and show us all the computer stuff...and how to run it.  It was funny but after we signed the deal and headed into the city for groceries...rather be ecstatically happy we were both nearly barfing out the windows...
that works out to a shit load of money.

112,000.oo  for the tractor
  16,000.oo  for the loader for the tractor
  29,000.oo for the discbine
__________
157,000.oo   quite the sticker shock for two old farmers who have never bought new stuff.  It was a very steep learning curve. Very steep.

Gone on Holidays, NOT

Hahahaha It's been so long since I wrote a posting, Blogger wanted my password...

things have been a bit crazy here, my hose shed is nearly complete, as is my fake window project, in between mowing the lawn every three days. Robert is miffed because it has been raining all week and he is going to miss the cut off deadline for having all the crop seeded in able to insure it...oh well...if it grows good we wouldn't have got any pay out anyway...

The Rev. Can audit thing is in mid swing...they came on monday to take ALL my paper work and will, I hope, return in late this week.  Then it's all over but the crying and begging...it could take a month to find out just how much of that we will have to do. so we wait...and wait... (insert elevator music here)

In the mean time...while I am trying to answer her multitude of questions without my books to consult, need I remind you, Robert decides to drop a bombshell in my lap....no he doesn't want a divorce, but I could hardly blame him if he did with the mood I have been in lately, but he does want to buy a tractor...TOMORROW..... now we are talking about not a 5,000 dollar lawn mower but a full blown farm tractor with all the bells and whistles...to the tune of $100,000. or more....that's right....so I have been a little stressed...and short of patience...I have even developed that annoying twitch below my left eye, I haven't been plagued with that since my son lived with us and was stealing money and tools from us to support a drug habit...hahahah

Tomorrow is the big day...and I am trying very hard not to spazz out on him and go phsyco....where's the liguid benedryl, that stuff acts like a sedative on me...just stand me in the corner of the dealership and tuck a paper towel under my chin to catch the drool....

I will keep you posted how it goes...but if you receive an email with my name attached as a charity donation don't delete it....I may have to sell my body to science....of course if I drop dead of a stress related stroke, Roberts tractor would be paid for in full with our credit line insurance...hahahahaha he could farm in style completely debt free....with a younger healthier wife to help to boot....
Lucky him....

Zing... Didn't see this Coming

I named the kitten....he is sure to get run over by a car or abducted by an owl...now for sure..that's what always happens I name them, get invested and then Poof...gonzo... Trouble...that's what I named him...T R O U B L E

Here comes trouble... yah like that... he's still here though...so so much for that theory... damn....

Had a so so birthday, stayed home a worked for the most part and then around 6pm headed into the village to friends place for a light supper...it was good.
Tuesday was suppose to be the day we celebrated but R and I were both so tired that by the time we made it to the Doctors in the afternoon and did a costco shop we were beat..I stopped at home depot to grab some 2x4 and we went home...no special dinner out, no movie, no art museum...like I remember being promised....hmph....boy are we stuck in a rut....It's oddly, no big deal this year...I am getting to hate birthdays anyway...

The doctor was probably the problem...we were both so surprised when we walked out of there that I think we were in a bit of a daze the rest of the day. Mulling over what was said...

I am to go back on all my meds...until further notice...I am going for another MRI, a total body one this time..and I will have to ask for a sedative...cause there is no way I will be able to lay in that tube and not move for over an hour with out embarassing myself by begging to be let out...claustrophobia big time here baby...since a kid..foster care time out....hahahaha

Any way... not happy about going back on the meds but if it lessens the pain, well then, okay...I'll do it.  It is not good when upon waking you sit on t he side of the bed and take a deep breath, and brace yourself for the day...when all I want to do is stay in bed with the covers over my head.

I am building fake windows...I will distress them and sand some of the white paint away to make them look weathered...mullions and black plywood back...they don't look too bad so far...I am hanging them on the garage wall to break up the huge expanse of yellow siding...they should look not to bad...I mitred the corners and everything...

After that project is through I am building a small shed over my water hydrant to provide a place to hang my garden hoses other than laying them on the ground and have to move them everytime I mow....

So I am keeping busy... tomatoes going in the garden this weekend. and then the greenhouse will be empty...yahooo... shrubs are all doing great.

We lost a cow on pasture yesteray...she was, I noticed as I followed her up the road last week, moving very slowly, like she was ill...I told Robert and he chose to do nothing...she would either get better or die...well she died... Son of a Bitch... there goes another $1,000.  that is the second cow this spring that has died... we can go years without one dying and then bam...2 in one spring...
I think Robert is burned out....but he says his reasons for not retiring are financial...granted we aren't in the best of situations but it could be worse...

well my toasted sandwich is now cold...and cold drink is warm...so I am ending this for today.   Thanks for all the birthday wishes....and heads  up  Fern whose BD is tomorrow, and Kim the day after... all the best  you two.