It was a busy day at the shop today, but not as far as fixing engines went...

With Trixstir down and out for a few days as she recovers from her surgery, I've got to take care of all of the farm chores, and the shop, and the bowling alley; It makes for even longer days, and more tired nights.  I knew that I had a trailer going out today, but I ( Read more... )

     I spent the morning still trying to thaw out those blasted pipes, with no success.  We had to go to Swift Current to get supplies for the bowling alley and cat-food, so I tried setting up some heaters in the well-pit with the hopes that they'd raise the temperature enough to thaw things out.  That didn't work out...  We got home around 8pm to ( Read more... )

     The problem with old machinery is that it's OLD...  Parts wear out, sometimes they're very difficult (if not impossible) to replace, so a lot of improvising goes on.  Even if you can get the part, sometimes the old ones are so rusted into place (or at least the nuts & bolts holding them) that removal is nearly impossible.  It seems that almost ( Read more... )

     It was a beautiful day today, the sort of day that makes you glad to be alive; It was a perfect Autumn day: clear blue skies, warm temperatures, a gentle breeze blowing...  And bugs...  yeah...  Maybe not quite so perfect thanks to all the bugs, but otherwise a very nice day!

Finally got some important stuff done: I pressure-washed the ( Read more... )

     My cold seems to have mostly run its course; I'm still a little congested and stuffy, but overall the worst symptoms are gone.  The weather this weekend was very helpful: It was mostly sunny and reasonably warm, with a decent breeze blowing to help dry things out.  I got a good amount of outdoor work done, the most important being the cutting ( Read more... )

     Today was supposed to be my "Labour Day" day off, since I had to work the previous Saturday thus pushing my 3-day weekend head one day.  I spent the morning working on paper-work so that I could bill Sears for fixing that garden-tractor, and also tracking down the parts that I had ordered three weeks ago for a customer's Kawasaki engine.  The ( Read more... )

     As anyone who works on a farm can tell you, there's really no such thing as a Holiday, or a Day Off.  There will always be things that have to be done, and animals and weather take no notice of Man's ideas about Time Off.

This was my weekend to the work the Saturday, which means that instead of getting Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off, I' ( Read more... )

     As I said in yesterday's post, I was awake at 3am thanks to that blasted tree rubbing against the house.  I was able to arrange to get the day off from work, since I would have been utterly useless and probably making tons of mistakes due to the lack of sleep.  That's one of the nice things about working for a family-owned business: You're not ( Read more... )

     It's 4:00 AM as I'm writing this.  I've been awake since 3:30 AM.  I should be in bed, sound asleep.

The Munchkin and trixstir  are both sleeping, so for once it's not a fussy baby that's the problem.

The problem is the blasted tree-branches outside; They're rubbing against the house right above the bedroom, and the noise they're making is ( Read more... )

     Where to start?

I got two more customers taken care of the last couple of days: The engine for the cement company actually went out on the 27th of July, but I didn't get the paperwork finished for the billing until yesterday; The second one was a lawn-mower that I still have to figure out how I'm going to bill it.  The customer said that ( Read more... )