Slowly coming together...
Bits and pieces of our lives here on the farm are slowly coming together. Now that the house in Calgary has been sold, we know exactly where we stand financially (eek!) and we can plot our directions from there. I have my account now with the distributor for Tecumseh engines and other parts, so I can add that to my line for Iron Pony. Trixstir is still waiting to hear back about the job with the hospital, but the way they were talking it sounds like she's got the job if she wants it, so here's hoping.
We bought a "new" minivan today, one that we've had an eye on for several months now. It's a 2006 GMC Uplander LT2 Extended, with all kinds of extra bells and whistles; On*Star, DVD player, quad bucket seats, power everything, rear AC/Heat, dual sliding doors, and a plethora of other options that I don't remember off the top of my head. Trixstir's Mom has an Uplander, and we got to drive hers a couple years ago, which is when Trixstir fell in love with it and wanted one of her own when we could afford one. It's a great vehicle to drive; it handles beautifully and is very comfortable for both driver and passengers. The little car (the Munchkinmobile) that we've been borrowing from Trixstir's sister can finally be refurned, and I won't have to scrunch down to fit into the van like I did with the car. We got a good price on it, and there's still some of the original factory warranty on it! Now I just have to keep my old vehicles running long enough to pay my Mom back what we owe her, and I can look at a new(er) vehicle for myself. We can justify the van because we need it as a "Family Vehicle" whereas my Explorer and especially my truck are more of "Work Vehicles."
I took the kidling to his 4-H Welding course tonight, and his project is finally starting to come together. Now that we have the main parts for it, we were able to get measurements and start building the frame. What he's building is a simple wagon/cart to haul a 125-gallon Poly-Plastic water-tank around, along with a small gas-engine driven pump. We need this on the farm for watering trees and such; Carrying a 5-gallon water-bucket around to each tree was getting tedious! The frame is made of 2" x 3/16" thick angle-iron, just a shade more than 4' wide (48-¾" as I recall) and 7' long, with reinforcements every 18" underneath. Right now, there are just little tab-welds holding it together to get a rough idea how it will look, and if we got the measurements right. The instructor wants to kidling to do a little more practicing next class on some scraps before doing the final welding on the frame. We also need to get some U-Bolts, and leaf-spring hangers to mount the axle onto the frame.
I also got another customer for Iron Pony, as the instructor had a really nice John Deere lawnmower that his kids had managed to bugger. Apparently they hit a tree-stump or something with it, and it appears as if they may have actually bent the crankshaft! In any case, he wants it fixed. I'll have to get a closer look at it to see if the shaft is indeed bent, and then to determine if it would be cheaper to replace the shaft or just replace the whole engine. I also dropped off a pile of my business cards at the local Sears outlet (at their request) so business should soon be picking up. I need to see Alphie soon about the Vac-Truck business as well, so if all goes well I'll be able to pay Mom back pretty quickly, and get back on track to being filthy rich, instead of just filthy. ;)