Small Repairs

Today was a day of small projects.

First, Dad and I fixed the little John Deere trailer that I had picked up for free.  The plastic dump bed had broken all of its plastic connectors to the metal base.  But I had an idea to get longer bolts and secure it back with bolts and washers.  I bought about three bucks worth of hardware, and the trailer went right back together.

What we started with.

What we ended with.

Seriously, three bucks.  I priced this 8-cubic-yard cart new at Lowe's, and it's $199.00 before taxes.

Minutes later, the wagon went right to work!  As you may remember, I had a vehicle end up in a fairly nasty accident in my front field yesterday.  Well, we hooked up the cart to my four-wheeler and headed out to clean up the mess left behind.  Oh, yes, the owner of the vehicle was kind enough to leave behind all of their broken pieces.

The actual clean-up took close to an hour!  There was just tons and tons of truck parts scattered all over the yard.  And the truck took out a big chunk of the ditch, too, so Dad and I were trying to find all of the scattered pieces of dirt chunks and grass chunks and place them back in the ditch.

That little wagon is going to get a lot of use.

But that little wagon proved to be oh so handy!  I filled it right up with the broken truck parts.

The various parts left behind.

Then we drained the oil on the "new" lawnmower.  I learned that it has an oil filter, so I couldn't fully drain it.  And I won't be able to (or at least choose not to) use it until I put a new filter on.  I also learned that I have an air leak in the rear right tire.  So I will have to get that plugged.  So we pulled that tire off to take in.

Then we installed the new parts into the hog waterer.  The parts came in on Saturday.  The new metal arm and plunger are in way better shape than the old!  So we made quick work of putting the tank back together and carried it out to the pasture.  We filled up the tank, and I will keep an eye on it the next couple of days to see how it holds.  But as of now, I don't see any leaks.

The rebuilt hog waterer is in the pasture.  Time will tell if it holds water.

And the pigs love it.

Unfortunately today I learned why the previous owner put a shut-off valve on the water spigots out by the barn.  While filling up the water today from the spigot, Dad noticed soggy ground.  That means that I have a water leak three feet under ground.  Ugh.  These water lines are so handy down by the barn and in the middle of the yard.  But with a leak, I turned the water back off.  That's just too bad.  But that can be addressed way down the road.

This afternoon I had to pull away to meet my plumber at a rental property around 2:00.  Thankfully, the project was completed in just one hour.  And to think that on Friday a company was going to charge me $1350.00 for that hour project.  It's sickening.  He didn't give me an immediate bill, but I am hoping to have saved $1000.00 by making an extra phone call.

This afternoon, we carried the massive barn door up to the machine shed to be able to work on it.  It had blown off and splintered in a massive windstorm just before my closing.  But I want to get it back on the barn to stop those nasty north winds from entering.

And then tonight I used Mom and Dad to help clear out the kitchen.  I drug out all of the lath that I had pulled down thus far and burned it.  I also threw old cabinets on the fire but chose to keep a couple of the better ones for the machine shed.

I have burned so much of this house already.  The neighbors have to wonder what is going on!

And I worked on pulling down the rest of the drop-ceiling in the kitchen.  This was difficult.  The previous owner had used HUNDREDS of nails to secure 1 x 4's to the ceiling.  The tiles then rested against these.  But it appears that the purpose was just to cover up the old plaster which was failing.  I am learning more and more about this house.  It really appears that the answer to "fixing" things was to cover them up.

Probably no more is that apparent than in this one particular ceiling tile.  While pulling these tiles down, I noticed this one had some chew marks on it.  Obviously a mouse had found its way above the tiles.  Likely a hole had developed where it chewed through.  The "fix" was to stick a wine cork into the opening and then tape it down below and paint over the tape.

The back of the ceiling tile.  Put a cork in it!

Seriously.

But that just appears to be the name of the game in this house.  "Out of sight, out of mind."  And this plaster ceiling was no different.  It was crumbling and peeling.  So just cover it up.

The actual plaster ceiling that was covered up with the tiles.  It's in poor shape.

I hope to actually FIX all of these little shortcomings!  Sure the previous owner was able to cover it up and live, but a job that is worth doing is worth doing right!

The kitchen demo is going painfully slow, but it's going forward.  I look forward to the day when all I can see is studs!  I REALLY wonder if there is insulation above the ceiling.  If so, that is going to be one messy demo job!

Little by little.