60+ year old thread.

Good morning, Mark.

Going to chip away at some red crushed stone that was around the pond. Rock is imbedded in the dirt, and it is hard packed. I will use a pneumatic and a pick to break it up. I probably will not last an hour.

I am off to the Anne Arundel County Fair tonight. I have a family member showing two goats at the auction. He is 14 years old, so I hope he does well both with the sale and the judging. This is his first showing. He also raises chickens and ducks as a side business. He is always sold out of eggs. The young man is industrious and great with financial numbers. He knows what his profit margin is and when to expand.

Everyone have a great day!

 

Good Morning Porch Pals & Gal!
So far, so good on the peppermint and pepper!
Adding the evil solar eyes today!

 

Great future for that kid!

Heading into San Francisco for my moms audiology appointment at 4:00PM. I’ll be stuck in traffic on my way home for sure.

Hawaii is looking so much better right now……

 

Good morning fellow Porchatonians!!

Cutting the grass yesterday turned into a long term project - all the rain we've had worked to help it grow back pretty thick. Plus, I spent a lot of time with the string trimmer knocking down weeds and high grass around our stable and other out buildings. Then I had to pick up the clippings. Didn't get to hit the pool until 3:15!!!

The pool will get closed after next week - daytime temps are still nice but nights are getting cooler. Sitting at 41F right now.

 

Good Morning Folks.
Heading South in New Zealand only means...


Snow and possible avalanch in the mountains. Beautiful scenery.
Have a good one folks.

 

Ivan: I had a great time. I am a city boy and know nothing about livestock judging. I did learn quickly and was impressed by all the young ones showing the goats and the judge. My cousin received two 5th place and one 2nd place showing. Both his goats go to auction on Sunday. My cousin, Sam, was nervous and excited and will be competing again next year. Sam has a sound grasp on the financial realities of raising chickens and raising goats. He has concerns with the cost of feed skyrocketing. He would like to expand his chicken egg production, but the cost of feed might have him scaling back. He currently sells all the eggs produces.

Today is a haircut and keep on plugging away at small home fix up tasks.

Couple pics of Sam and his two goats.

 

Morning 60+

 

Morning all! I have fallen off the grid and spent the last 45 minutes catching up on this forum. Just been slammed with work and life in general. I got my external transmission cooler installed and flushed the ATF on the Taco over Labor Day weekend. I’m ready to tow! Been dealing with home owners insurance, after several years of my premiums going up 20% every year they were going to more than double come November if I stayed with Tower Hill. Insurance agent I’ve used for years said there was nothing they could do, Tower Hill is doing that to everyone and they couldn’t find a cheaper option. I asked the neighbors if they were getting gouged too and one of them said to call their guy because they just dumped Tower Hill too. Long story short $150 for a wind mitigation survey and 4-point home inspection and my premiums will down about $1000. Whooohooo! I spent yesterday afternoon out in the heat and humidity fixing the water softener. My wife has been complaining for the last few weeks that it wasn’t working and I said I just rebuilt the valve a couple weeks ago and it’s fine. You might think that after 39 years of marriage I would have learned to listen to her but…So I checked it out yesterday and found 2 things. The weatherproof box for the electrical outlet wasn’t weatherproof worth a damn and the squirrels had taken a liking to the electric cord.

So we’re back in business and now I’m working on using up vacation time. Company abolished the end of year buy-back policy so now it’s use it or lose it and I’ll be doggoned if I’m going to lose it. I’m taking a lot of Fridays and Mondays off between now and year’s end. Heading up to Ocala this weekend and hope to do some house hunting. I want a three car garage so bad I can taste it. I’ve started cleaning out our garage and attic to get ready to move, promised myself that every trash day something in the garage or attic has to go. It’s amazing how much crap I’ve held on to over the years. The wife’s idea is to upgrade our 1 bedroom apartment to a 3 bedroom sell the house here and wait out the interest rates. I just keep thinking about how much stuff we’ll have in storage and that my truck will have to sleep outdoors and I kinda dread the thought.

 

Geez, your photos bring back a lot of memories; I rode through that very tunnel back in March of 1990 on a bicycle.

 

Good Morning Porch Pals & Gal! Well, mowing day already again...at least it's not 100*!

Absolutely no critters on the videos again last night - none since Sunday. Added those 4 evil eyes yesterday - two front and two back. Two are also on little marking stakes so I can move them around. Wish they would blink more randomly, but oh well. Day 5.

Finished the bakers rack and got it back in place. New coat of paint on the metal is what's holding that together. Rebuilt and repainted the drawer shelf as well. Now, all the junk is back on the bottom.





Not New Zealand, but I'm boring! Still getting in the pool every afternoon for a bit. Can't believe it. Getting closer to that temp that no one will use it. Water is 83* today, and may get a little warmer in the coming days as the temps go back up.

 

Morning all:

Kevin, I went through the exact same thing with Nationwide Ins. awhile back . Went looking and found ins. with more coverage for less and gave Nationwide the boot!

 

I've been doing this for 30 years, every time I do any major work on any vehicle. Makes things so much easier to put back together, and cardboard is cheap!

 

Had some really nice weather this week, but I'm unable to work on any of my projects. Did something to my left shoulder early last week and it's just now starting to feel better. Going to give it another week and hopefully will be back to "Normal" by then. Sometimes, it really sucks getting older and not being able to catch a break form Old People Injuries Syndrome. Everyone have a great weekend.

 

Insurance rules have changed where I live. We were once a "no fault" state so auto insurance was much lower. And amounts of coverage with home insurance was at the discretion of the purchaser, so we could insure for actual value instead of inflated replacement value.

My rates have gone up substantially... and I've been calling around. So far everyone I've called is even higher. I'm about ready to dump the home owners insurance completely.

A couple of things I've learned that seems entirely bogus. If a person pays cash for everything instead of having loans/high credit card debt on their purchases, you get dinged on your credit score and your rates are higher. I also rebuild vehicles to drive. It seems a vehicle is completely legal to rebuild and drive on public roads... but as a rebuilt vehicle rates are higher. I mean... either the vehicle is roadworthy or not. Either it is safe to drive or not.

All of these rules are obviously intended to get people to conform and spend more money, supporting those that sell products rather than incentivizing self-sufficiency.

 

Pay cash to only those you can't use a credit card with. Credit cards build your credit score, and have the bonus % cash back feature. Always pay your cards to zero and you'll never have interest to pay. You can pay current balance instead of statement balance, however, always provide for a balance on your next statement, rather than zero, because your credit score will take a hit from no statement at all. Maintain several credit cards, and dedicate each to specific types of purchases for ease of end of year tax reckoning. Doing this also makes it easy for the credit card company to flag and notify you of suspicious activity. Setting your own monthly payment day rather than to allow them to scatter helter skelter conserves your time and energies in maintaining your finances. On home mortgages, interest is deductible on purchase loans and points, but not on Home Equity loans, so buy down your points and get the best loans going in, forgetting about any Home Equity later on, unless proceeds are for remodeling. This rule applies to primary and one vacation home, with dollar limits. Rental properties have their own Schedule E tax deductions.

 

One other item regarding credit cards to keep in mind is the Foreign Transaction Fee (FTF); some credit cards don't charge one, however, others charge 3% or more for every transaction. A quick perusal of my credit card transactions from my recent UK and Iceland trip shows I saved over $250 in FTFs alone by using my cards which have no fee instead of my cards which do.

 

Thanks Dale. That tunnel is an amazing sight.

I am enjoying the scenery. Almost like the Pyrenese mountains in Europe.

 

Well we are packed and loaded and heading to Maui tomorrow for a week. My wife said to me about a month ago that we haven’t done $hit this year. We usually go on 3 or more nice cruises or other vacations a year. She then told me she just booked a week in Maui and booked us first class round trip air. We fly first class about 50% of the time. I know it’s a rip but sometimes it’s just nice to be pampered and catered to. And the seats are way bigger than regular seating, very comfortable. Been to Maui several times and we really like it there. Going to go snorkeling, deep sea fishing, take a helicopter ride around the the island, the obligatory luau and a few other things. Oh yeh and hang out on the beach.
I think she went a little crazy, for 2023 she’s already booked us on an Alaska cruise, a Mississippi River cruise and a trip to Las Vegas. I’m going to try to confiscate and hide her credit cards. Wish me luck.
I’ll try to post some pics of the beautiful Hawaiian sunsets.
Aloha.

 

Thanks for the information Dale. Fortunately my CC folks wave the fee . The exchange rate is a good one for the dollar. $1.00 is equal to $1.67 New Zealand dollar.

 

Yeah, yeah, yeah...

F**K that...

I pay my bills so I don't have to screw around with that horse manure. I shouldn't be penalized because I choose to do it in the best way for me.