My New Dryer

New dryer

The other day I was doing my Friday morning chores and I was doing my laundry. My dryer was not getting my clothes dry. It was not even getting my clothes warm. It appears the heating element went out. I thought that my budget would be taking a good $600 hit from my crapped out dryer. Then an idea hit me. Through all of my antique searching I have been finding many items at estate sales. I always see good appliances at these sales. Most of them appear to be brand new. Instead of going to the Lowe’s hardware, I was going to get my new dryer from an estate sale.

I checked my Estate Sale app on my phone. An estate sale was scheduled for the weekend and the sale was right down the street from my farm. I was going on from Friday to Sunday. I know from experience that the Saturday would be 50% off day. Saturday morning I woke up early. The sale opened at 9 am. I put my ramps and dolly in the back of my Silverado and headed to the town a few miles up the road. I was running early so I stopped at Jack in the Box for a quick breakfast. Got myself a bacon egg cheese croissant. Yummy.

I plugged the address into my Google map and headed on my way to the house. I was still a little early. I sat in my truck and listened to my Audible on my Bluetooth app. Fifteen minutes till 9 and I was at that front door to the house. I asked the lady in charge if they still had the dryer. Yes they did. The price was $175. It was half price day. The new price was $87.50. Wow. I’ll take it. Put a hold sticker on it please. She asked when I would be picking it up and I told her I would get it right then.

I made a quick stroll through the house to see if there was anything else I could not live without. I got an old syrup jar and a pair of electric scissors from the Sears and Roebuck. Then I went out and started loading my dryer. I have learned that in the South if a man sees a woman doing manual labor they will take over. I am more than happy to let that happen. Two customers loaded up my dryer into my pickup.

I got to the house, unloaded the dryer by myself and went to plug it in. It had a three prong plug and I had a four prong outlet. I called out the trusty electrician. He charged me $150 for a service call. I had a friend tell me I should have just bought an adapter. The electrician told me that was not a good choice. They overheat.

So….here is my savings. The price of a new dryer $600 – $3 breakfast – $87.50 dryer – $150 electrical repair equals $359.50.But wait, I took the old dryer and an old window unit to the metal recycling and made $13.05 which brings my savings to 372.55. How’s that for making money on my day off from work? Watch the pennies and the dollars will watch themselves.

Peace out.

Dinky

CHRISTMAS VACATION

Good morning to everyone. I have been away from the posting for a while due to working 12 hour shifts. My schedule has changed so I can now find time for my life pleasures. I am also on vacation for three weeks. How that happened, I do not know.

Yesterday I bought myself a Christmas present. I went to the AT&T store and bought myself a new tablet. I also bought the keyboard that goes with it. This is just a great gift for me. It is just my size. LOL. My old tablet had fallen off my bed so many times that the front glass was shattered and I was getting glass shards in my fingers. It was time. The new keyboard attachment is also changing my world. I can now EBay my antiques and post my blog from the comfort of my bedroom. I have computers in my kitchen and in my office but the tablet is what makes it to the my private quarters. LOL again. This is really a game changer for me. Maybe I will stay off the Merge Dragon game and get myself a little real work done.

This Christmas is going to be different for me. Chuck has passed away. We used to have exchange students and a house full of children and grandchildren at Christmas. Last Christmas I had my new fella over and then went to my daughter’s house to open gifts with her family. I did not even put up a Christmas tree. This year I am going to San Antonio to have Christmas with his children and his sister. I know all of them but do not really know how their traditions are. We shall see.

My birthday is two days after Christmas and I have made reservations at my favorite steak house and at my favorite hotel room. I will be looking at all the Christmas lights in downtown Fort Worth. It is beautiful during the holidays. This will be my 60th birthday. Wow. Time flies fast and I still have much to do with life. Let’s get it going.

I hope you guys enjoy seeing my transition from a working person to a retired person. I plan on keeping you informed of the progression.

I hope everyone has a lovely holiday season.

Farm Living is the Life for Me

I have a full time job that I work 7am to 3:30 pm. When I get off work I start my afternoon off by checking the mail and watering the animals. I checked on the cows and noticed they were all gathered around the new water trough. The trough was bone dry. The trough has a leak. The pump has been going non stop for days and apparently burnt up.

I hate to depend on anyone but I called in the troops. My son in law and daughter came over to access the situation. Electricity is good but pump was not turning. Son in law called her babys daddy and the two will fix my pump tomorrow. I did call a well repair man who was rude to me and I called him out on it. Not a good choice when the cows are thirsty.

We ran a hose from my bathroom window that is hooked up to my washer spicket. This is city water feeding my precious cows tonight. They are all pregnant and the temperatures have been 105 plus all month. We have had no rain and my pond is dry.

So tonight I am enjoying the beautiful stars and visiting with the donkeys as the trough fills up with store bought water. I will need to get up early and make sure the trough is full for the day while I am working.

Budgeting Time

I have been listening to audio books during my drive to work. I took a road trip this weekend to visit a friend. I turned on my  audio book to listen as I made the three hour trip. The book was a study about passive income opportunities. One question asked was the value of a person’s time. The author suggested making a time budget for a few days to see how much time is actually wasted. That suggestion hit hard. I love some Netflix and Merge Dragons.

I got home from my journey to a house with no internet. The technician will be out next Monday. Hmmmm. Maybe God wants me to get a little more focused on the necessary in life.

And Then There Were 6

My Nissan

Please be prepared for a very attention deficet story…

One day I went to Whataburger for a chicken apple cranberry salad. They are out of this world good. I was in the drive thru and a very polite man backed his SUV into my Nissan. He apologized and we exchanged insurance information. I took my car in for repair and the rental agency did not have a mid size sedan available. They gave me a truck instead. I have it until August 11th. Time to get some cowgirling done.

The old water trough is a mess. I patched a leak on it but it needed to be replaced. Guess what. I have a truck to go to the local Tractor Supply Co. and pick up a new trough.

Hold my beer and watch this

The Tsc guy says just drive slow. You don’T need straps or a red bandana on the over hang. O K…

We have water

I got it all put together and leveled it out by putting rocks underneath. I realized I need to get a double male water attachment to hook my hose to the float. They are both female.

TSC Pink Hat

Here is my happy face for adulting.

Here is dinner for all us farm animals.

I went to check on CupCake, my bull, and all the girls to make sure the water is good. I still have to get that attachment. I think we will be havinĝ calves pretty soon. All six of the ladies are looking pregnant. Oh Lordy, I hope they don’t all come at once. I might need to have a vet on stand by.

Black cow 1
Milky Way
Julia
Black Cow 2 and 3 and Cup Cake the Bull
Hershey’s Kiss

I know you should not name farm animals but I can’t help myself. They are so sweet. The farm day is over. Good night..

Digital World

Digital picture frame

I told you guys before that I love going to estate sales and tag sales. The other day I found a digital picture frame for five dollars. I was estatic. I have been wanting one for years.

I thought it would be a breeze to download a few pictures from my phone and put them on it. Boy was I wrong. I purchased a thumb drive. I am now transfering pictures from my phone to my laptop to the thumb drive amd then to the picture frame. Whew what a process. I did not realize I take pictures of everything. I will also have to go through and delete photos that are not important. What a project. I should make seperate drives for when I have different family members over. That way each one can feel special. Wish me luck

How Firm is My Foundation

What a mess

Years ago my now deceased husband and I agreed to move into the family farm house. He requested that we update the bathtub to a whirlpool tub. I agreed. After all, we were moving from a brand new home to an outdated old farm house. We had a crew come in and redo the bathroom floors with tile. The result was not perfect but it was nicer than what I had.

Then the trouble began. Our exchange students did laundry non stop. They were teenage girls. One day I went down to the basement and found it almost underwater. I thought a pipe was leaking. We pumped out all the water. We called out the plumber and he said a fitting was not flush. He said it was all better.

I discovered a few weeks later that it was not all good. My kitchen floor started buckling. We called over a friend and he put down a new tile floor in the kitchen. Now I felt relieved.

The next year we got two more exchange students. They were rough and tumble boys. That same year my husband had to have a tumor removed from his pancrease. That same year the floor in the boys room went to shit. A man that is buying a house from me came in and redid the floor. He told me that a pipe under the bathtub was just flowing freely but he fixed it for me.

The next year my husband was going through renal failure. I did not understand it all. He would go to the bath room several times a night. One night the bathroom tiles cracked and he fell through.

Chuck has been gone almost two years now. I just recently had the house leveled. I experienced a cracked pipe in that floorless bathroom but just don’t use the sink.

Today I came home from work and thought I heard something. I checked to make sure the washer was not running. I found a huge leak in that floorless bathroom. The plumber is here now. They charge $75 to come out and $120 per hour plus parts and by the way that whirlpool tub does not work anymore.

I could be bummed about this spell of adulting but instead I am grateful that I am getting some much needed things worked out. Say a prayer with me that this does not exhaust my Oh Shit fund. More about financial planning on another day.

Toodles.

Update: My hero fixed the problem in under 2 hours.

Detached Retina

February before last I detached my retina and had to have emergency surgery. I was asked by the doctors if I had had any blunt trama to the head. None that I can recall I said.

A few months later I had a rip in my other retina. I was told it is very uncommon to have problems in both retinas.  Again I was asked if I had suffered any trama. None.

I have spent at least $10000 on my eyes this year. I have had many laser surgeries. I only need reading glasses now. That being said, guess where I am today. I am in the waiting room at the retina specialist. I have a new spider floater in my eye. Here we go again. This will be OK.