Pulling the ripcord. Major life change

ShawnG said:

In reply to friedgreencorrado :

Well, I paid $3200 for the tractor with everything, compared to buying a new one with all those attachments, it's a steal.

Holy cow, that's a steal. And it's a Case. The thing might outlive you. Nice!

In reply to ShawnG :

For the tripod idea could you build one of those tow behind a tractor log skidder? That could double as a post/beam/pipe skidder.

Westbound and down, sixteen wheels a rollin'

We're headed back to B.C. in the morning for another load of stuff. 

I hope the drive is boring.

In reply to ShawnG :

I hope so too!

Stopped for fuel and Timmy's in North Battleford. 

Next stop, Lloydminster for a quick visit with my cousin. 

In reply to ShawnG :

Looks like you got some rain? I thought it was high thirties still.

bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to ShawnG :

Looks like you got some rain? I thought it was high thirties still

Why would one preclude the other?  It's the prairies, man.   

We had rain yesterday and early this morning. 

Trip was not boring. The Suburban pitched a CEL heading into Edson. 

We pulled over and checked everything, I didn't bring a scan tool but everything seemed OK, wife unit was a bit nervous so we found the local Canadian Tire and bought a scan tool.

$150 later it turned out to be a o2 sensor voltage code. Reset and back on the road. 

We're in Hinton for the night.

I hear Saskatoon got some flooding today.

Left Hinton at around 5:00 this morning and because I can never have a road trip without incident...

Coming in to Clearwater, we see a horse running loose on the highway and a bunch of people trying to catch it. We pull over and help with the rodeo. Since we also have an empty horse trailer in tow, we loaded the silly beast into our trailer, followed it's owner the 4km back to their ranch, unloaded and got back on the road. Another hour spent.

We rolled into Langley at 7:00 this evening, it's been a long damn day. 

I need to put the Suburban on a lift, it sounds like there's some blown exhaust packings. The Ford is chewing it's alternator belt for some reason.

At least I don't have a job to go to in the morning.

You have probably already noticed you timed the housing market extremely well. 

In reply to bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) :

We didn't, the house isn't on the market yet.

We want to be out before we start showing the house.

It is what it is, we will still do OK.

-edit-

Talking with the wife unit this morning, we're going to consult a realtor when we're nearly out and see what they think we can get for the place. If it's not something we're comfortable with, I'll just keep it and rent it out until things settle down. 

The rental from this place will take care of us ok as well. We won't be debt free but we will still be above water on everything.

Even if we are down a bit when we sell, it will still more than take care of everything.

I don't think the downturn is everything the news is making it out to be. If prices go down, people will just stay put and take their houses off the market for a while. Fewer listings will probably keep prices up.

Been packing the last couple days. 

I'm sure we're making the right move, we're back at our house in Langley and it doesn't quite feel like home now. I'd rather be at our new place. The neighbour is mowing his lawn and the noise is irritating. 

I packed my good clothes, my suit, jackets and pants and it really hit home as I was putting them in boxes. The clothes I was wearing make me remember events I have been at and people I met. A lot of care went into how I presented myself at those events. Belt, watch, shoes, jacket, etc. Feels strange that I might not do that ever again.

Closing that box sort of made leaving my job feel pretty final.

Guess it's on to new adventures at this point.

ShawnG said:                                                                                                        I hear Saskatoon got some flooding today.

Indeed.  Not a bunch in the north end at my shop, but I came home to some pretty sure evidence of big darn puddles at the low point of the block.  One customer said they got 3 1/2 inches in a couple of hours.  Lots of hydrolocked engines  for insurance to deal with.

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

I imagine Saskatoon is like Vegas when we were there. The drainage isn't set up for huge rainfall events but is probably fine for normal weather.

On the coast, everyone knows to keep the storm drain grate in front of your property clear of leaves and trash or else.

Apparently there's a thunderstorm warning for Young, SK along with a chance of tornadoes.

We should be safe, there's no mobile home on our property. Mobile homes are tornado eggs, tornados hatch in trailer parks.

In reply to ShawnG :

Quickdick is great but way too sensible for mainstream

We've been at our house in Langley for a few days to load up 

The Continental is loaded, horse trailer is packed full and some of our horse equipment is in my truck.

Exhaust leak on Sally the Suburban is fixed. Gibson uses ball and socket flanges on their header collectors and a bolt had come loose.

Belt chewing issue in Leo D Truck appears to have been some pulley misalignment. Should be better now.

We hit the road in the morning, we'll be taking the Fraser Canyon this time to avoid the 8% grade coming out of the snowshed on the Coquihalla. Time will be pretty much the same because of all the construction. 

Update:

It's stinking hot here today and we've both been sick the past few days. 

We're going to leave tomorrow instead.

We're on our way.

Stopped for lunch in Barriere.

Trip through the canyon was a much easier pull than up the Coquihalla.

In Hinton for the night.

Snapped a shot of Mt. Robson as I was driving. 

Safe travels. I bet you guys will be very happy to just be settled and not have to travel so much.

Wanted to say that I love this thread. It reminds me of Cleetus McFarlands videos on the Freedom Factory refurbishment. Keep the updates coming. Even if we're not replying, we are all enjoying the progress you're making. 

Well, I spoke too soon about the tornado thing.

We had a relatively uneventful drive today but when we were about an hour from the farm, we received a tornado warning.

One touched down in Manitou, about 20km from us. The last one was over 100 years ago.

Well. It’s a tornado watch. Not a warning.

More fun.

We have a reverse osmosis system as well as micron filters and an iron filter.

Before we left last week, I noticed that one of the booster pumps on the r/o system wasn't working.

I ordered a new pump plus a pressure gauge from Amazon last week and installed it tonight.

The new pump is set for 80psi. Now that there's a pressure gauge on the system, I can see that the remaining old pump that is functioning only puts out 20psi and I can't adjust it any higher.

Looks like I'm ordering another pump.

Pic of the janky r/o system:

But wait, there's more...

Water system was working great when I went to bed last night.

This morning I woke up to a puddle in the basement. The r/o wastewater line appeared to be outpacing what the drain could handle.

Shut it down and begin investigating. Nope not a problem with the r/o, it's a problem with the septic mainline not flowing.

Think, think, think....

Wife and I have both been fighting a nasty head cold and may have flushed more toilet paper than we should have. There must be a blockage.

Thankfully, there's no tank in our septic system, just a long downhill run to a pond. 

Head into town to do some grocery shopping, pick up a drain snake at the hardware store and return home.

Hmm... The clean out and the iron drain have fused together but there is a repair splice in the stack that I can use to get access.

Remove the pipe section and start stuffing the snake down. 15' of drain snake and no luck. Still blocked.

Think....

Pull the r/o drain and washer drain out of their stacks and stuff a wet rag into each drain stack to plug them.

Grab my plunger, place on top of the drain pipe and plunge mightily. 

A few moments later I'm rewarded with a "fwoosh" noise and a rapidly clearing drain.

A quick treatment of caustic soda and several gallons of water later, everything is running again.

Reassemble, grab a radio and hike down to the lagoon.

Radio the wife unit to flush and I can see water moving in my pond.

Wooo!!!

Simple things really can make you happy.

I don't want to brag but how many of you have your own cesspool?