Retro life without a car

Remember way back, back when you had to ask to be taken somewhere.  Back when you were very young?  I do.  I lived in a small town of less than 500 people.  It was a mixture of loggers and wood products mill workers with a few tradesmen and farmers mixed in.  Some had wife's that ran small local stores, others had farms they came home to after work so they worked the land.  Most were church going, almost all drank, many had large families to support.  Kids did what kids did, play outside from morning wake-up to dusk with breaks for meals and school.  There were only 5 TV channels to watch.  CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, and a local independent station which showed old shows and movies with a kids show with cartoons on for us kiddies.

This week has been something like that for us.  Ruku for TV, no cable as Comcast went all digital and we do not have TVs that have built in converters and we never were able to get converters back when the feds were sending out vouchers as the stores were always out when we would go to get them.  Now once again we are waiting to see if there are any converters on the shelves.  Each time we go in the converters are sold out.  The prices we can find online do seem good until you  add on the $13+ dollar shipping charges.  Alas I am also without a car.  Our pick-up did a smashing wreck last February and we used the check to pay off property taxes which are high here in Oregon.  We have had the Jeep which has done us well as OAM is not to be driving much with his health anyway.  Now to stay at home where the nearest store is 3 miles away, the nearest store of size is 6 miles away.  We stocked up.  Our daughter did come out Friday to take OAM to the back, the local discount dented can and deli store and Walmart for dog food.  I had hoped to go to Wilco and get chicks this week did not happen, To go get some furniture to paint and fix up what I have,  go get some plywood to fix my furniture I have currently.  Then to start looking for areas to paint one thing at a time with so this house is livable again. 

We have gotten things done we would not have if not home.   Dogs trained, showers cleaned, bathrooms cleaned (this is saying alot when you have 4 bathroom and 5 showers)  Yes who ever built this house made one room that was just for wheel chair showers.  The kittens were named.  There have been many a night going to bed earlier getting up earlier.  We like each  other so time together has been good.  Meals have been so so as I am still working on that kitchen.  The dogs helped yesterday while we were out training dogs.  The dogs inside tore into the ww flour, the bread flour, the standard flour, and some of the sugars.  Dan now understands about me needing storage containers not only to keep mice out of but to store supplies in the kitchen. 

It has been hard for me to start my life over here in this house it just called to me but I am having trouble finding a way to make it a home.  It has been 7 years I thought I would have figured it out by now but there has been so much to overcome or do first.  Kids moving in and out, illnesses, injuries, and diseases took their toll, plus a lack or hope we would ever live here long enough to make it a home.  Well looks like this will be the homeplace no matter what at least for a decade or two more.  Time to get my head out of the sand and make this place work.  One thing at a time.  Kitchen counters too low will figure out if you can get new cabinets or raise the one's you have or do you say hell lets move the kitchen into the stick built side and gut the trailer house part as it is only a third of the square footage anyway.  Like I said one step at a time we will face the foes and meet them head on. 

I am off to go see if I can work some magic into the kitchen as I want to move some shelves, in and out and out to in, wash and tag them all if I can.  I want to see life come back into this place so it can be a home.  Those calves we let friends put on our place well they sure make a place feel like a home now to bring that feeling into this house.  Pictures maybe soon. 

Take care now you hear,

Ol' Mossback Tough

What a day! Good, Bad, to foot We go.

We started the day out with a sale to someone who came to the place mid-morning.  It got us up and going so we were are a small cafe on the way into Albany for lunch after doing some banking in Lebanon.  Lunch was nice, but the a/c was not working so I left there hot and sweaty with a bit of a headache.  We had just pasted the entering Albany, OR sign when we got into trouble.  We had four cars in front of us.  Two were pick-ups with trailers of material in there beds.  The one close to me looked like it was someone moving, the pick-up and trailer was following a auto which was following another pick-up that had the parts for an old pick-up early 1920 or 30's pickup parts rusty, many parts, many pieces.  One piece fell off the old pickup on the trailer twisted rolled under the auto and pick up and trailer in front of me hitting something which made that bit of metal bounce higher timing it just right so it hit underneath our jeep.  Then we heard a clunk, a snap, then a do not repeat word from me.  That started the down slide of the day. 

I noticed the jeep was just a bit harder to steer when I tried moving as the 4 autos in front of me pulled off into a gas station or storage unit area who driveways were about 5 feet apart.  I drove up to the next stoplight and Dan noticed the electrical unit was not charger on our gages.  I was on an overpass so there was not way to pull over at that stoplight.  I was trying to follow Old Army Man advice and get to a repair shop that was only a bit ahead.  The jeep started overheating smoke going everywhere, the was more smoke with blue and white coming out from under the hood.  Alas I panicked tuned off the jeep,maybe not the best idea, OAM and another man help push the jeep out of the road and into a safe parking space. 

We called out daughter,..... help!!!   We call our auto repair shop, leave a message, and wait.  Daughter showed up directly, helped us get things out of the jeep, then we start off to our repair shop.  Our repairshop is a few miles out of Albany, we pull in, get the name of the tow shop he likes to use.  When I worked in the auto repair industry I learned if you use the tow company the repair shop likes the tow company often gives a discount.  Well the tow company our repairman liked happened to be my first choice as well I use to work for this fellow 20 some years ago.  The tow guy was on another tow, but we would be next on his list.  4 hours later we were about out of topics to talk about with out repairman when the tow truck with our daughter following in her auto showed up.  Thank the Lord it made it there safe. 

I must say we did get help from above as the tow cost were 1/3 less than they would have been because we waited for him, knew him, and the repairman once he looked at it made a mental list of things that it could be.  The call today confirmed radiator one hole in it, belt to power steering gone but not serpentine belt.  One pulley needing replacing with the leak in the back from the overflow reserve so not a big problem there. 

Daughter drove us home with us stopping to get a few things until we can get back into town.  We have only one auto at this time so we are afoot if we wish to go anywhere.  Made appointment for daughter to pick us up Thursday to take me to work and to run Dan around if need be. 

Made it home, my cell phone had been off all day due to the battery running down faster than I thought it would.  Dang it once I turned the cell on did I find a note saying we want to bring the calves over, called the horseshoe, and several other messages along with on our way with the calves.  As I read this OAM is walking out the front door, I see the pick up and trailer pull up and start backing in, DD helps by opening the gate, the livestock trailer backs in, up to the fence were we had a gate.  In the mean time DD runs up and puts the lgd up into the house, while we see the calves come out of the trailer, OAM moves the first calf-5 wt-into the back field. 

DD had to leave asap to go take her bother food shopping, seems her day was upset as well as ours.  I did get dd to stop and get fresh veggies at the food stand, so we had fresh bi-color corn, cukes, and a few other things that were wiped out from our garden fresh garlic, green onions, and watermelon.  Dinner was pork steak broiled, corn microwaved, zucchini w/ gr pepper, onion, and fresh herbs,  salad.  At least we will not go hungry for a few days.

Better hope the rest of the week goes better than today. 
Take Care,

Ol' Mossback. 

The Eyes have it.....

This was a busy day.  Spent the morning carting around people.  Old Army Man to college, then picked up Big Tall Son to do some job searching.  In this neck of the woods "It is the Economy Dummy" still effecting our lives.  I have three children, myself, and a husband.  None of us are working full time.  Me, it is normal for the line of work I am in, plus I (we) have the farm, OAM life has given him a recovery learning curve from all the stuff that is happening with his body.  Way to long of a list to outline in one blog, let me tell you.  Two sons and one daughter, well lets see what is happening.  One boy went out with me today as he followed up on jobs he has applied for prevously also Mom being mom stopped at new places and pointed out other places for him to research.  Okay if every day he can follow up on 5 job apps, learn of three new places to go back to and leave applications, and get mom off his back about well you could move back into my place.  I did have him come over this week and we cleaned up stuff OAM has not been able to do for one reason or another.  Being we live on a farm a great deal of the work involved cleaning up droppings of this and that.  He did his job with out grumping but when I called to say I was in town with 2 hours to fill he said lets go check job apps, and I want to go see if so and so really has a we are hiring sign out.  Between 10 am and 11:45 we went to business on a Wednesday morning.  At noon took Olderst to a meeting, meet OAM, went to lunch, came home, put OAM into bed, then went back out and had my eyes checked.  I went back to my old eye doctor.  She has kids the same age as my olderst (her youngest) which gave us some time to talk about what was overlapping in our lives now.  Our kids us to be on sport teams together back in our younger years.  Well her husband is still around and kicking, her 30 old son is going back to college to fine tune his degree and area of study a bit more.  Her other son, 28, is just joined the milatary and is right now learning how to be a firemen for his country.  She was talking about something I had been thinking about. 

Both her and myself were dealing with life matters at 27-28 jobs, kids, ed done, house, etc.  Now we are talking and both our kids are having trouble finding a place in life or where to head their lives until there late 20's early 30's heck my 23 yr old daughter whom I have been very worried about put in this light may just be ahead of the curve as she is at least trying to figure out what she wants to study or do with her life.  Without her using drugs or alchoal to change her veiw of life maybe there is still hope, maybe.  My eyes were wide open for the doctor to view them now that I have elder issues that can start showing at my age but maybe she opened my eyes in a whole new way along with the exam. 

Time for dinner soon.  Steak, zuccini, peaches, and some starch to be named later.....

I will be seeing you soon, Take care,

Old Mossback