That rental philosophy works great on smaller stuff. For bigger stuff, rent on Monday, spend the rest of the week learning it, spend two weeks using it and then turn it in. I've never messed with one of those small excavators, but they look like fun. Those little Bobcat loaders are fun too and can easily be self taught in a morning. It is nice not to have to worry about repairs on a rental, but the downtime sux while waiting. My brother and parents have a whole bunch of acreage covered in trees that they want knocked down and piled up to burn, and that would require an experienced dozer operator on at least a D-7 to spend two weeks solid to make it happen. Buying would be nice, because they could use a smaller tractor to accomplish the job over a much longer period, and they could do it at their leisure, versus having to hurry up to get it done. Additionally, my brother and dad could both learn by playing, once I've shown them some basics and techniques.

GTG 2016 sounds like a plan. I have a 32' bumper pull that I may or may not hitch up to bring. If I don't own a 5er by then, I may try to rent one. Everything really depends on what happens with tuition in the next few months.

 

You have a lot more to do then I ever did. Makes some sense there.

At least you have a bumper pull... I have thought about renting one as well. Probably not in AK though. Drive down, rent one somewhere between AK and the GTG... Return it, drive back. Get 18 mpg instead of 10 all the way... Just depends on where the GTG is and what is planned I suppose...

Speaking of tuition at colleges:

Stanford has joined the ranks of colleges that if your household income is less than $X you get free tuition if you are accepted. They have a low limit of $125k and IIRC Havard and Yale are $250k, but not sure on that.

 

Two years of massive hours at work have blown any chance of financial aid for my daughter. We are appealing now though since the extra hours have all but gone away.

If I choose to rent a 5th wheel, it would also be close to wherever the GTG would be to save fuel. My bumper pull has worse aerodynamics than my truck does. The first time I towed it home, I had to cross the Houston Ship Channel over a very steep bridge. I was afraid that the weight would push me down the backside of the bridge and I would have to really manage my breaks. I was shocked to find that I had to apply part throttle to maintain speed on the downhill. (This was in my previous F-150. I have yet to tow with this truck.)

They have about 100 acres or more that need to be worked with a dozer, so it is no small task.

 

It's how OT can mess you over.... And of course it messes you over for years, not just the month it stops.

My uncle went through that when we retired and had to draw his 401K to split in his divorce...

100 Acre Wood -- Is Winnie the Pooh there?

 

Winnie isn't there, but Wylie Coyote and a bunch of his family are there. I've been asked to come up as soon as I get a break from work to try to help reduce the population. The 100 acres is broken into many smaller areas of trees. There is actually closer to 200 acres of trees, but he doesn't want to get rid of them all.

With the OT, part of the appeal process is when did the OT stop. It has to have been more than 6 months since the appeal. Mine stopped in August, so that helps our case. They take two weeks to process the appeal, so we should know something soon. So far, I have had to send off three appeals.

 

Good Morning one pagers.
About to get one the road for Houma, La. Routine training, drop the company computer off. Anyway, y'all have a good day!

 

Good morning guys! You guys were chatty last night. Sorry I missed it.
Tim...do get a pic of that fence rolling. I'd love to see it.
I used to run all sorts of equipment. The company I worked for had cranes, hoes, dozers, excavators, telehandlers, and loaders of all shapes and sizes. We were all pretty decent and then one day the John Deere rep showed up. As most of you know, back in the day before push a button and the controls are switched to JD or Cat, etc, the JD controls were completely different to the Cat style. At the demo, we were all rendered USELESS and downright incompetent. We were about ready to run them off our site when the rep showed me the switch in the cab of the excavator I was in to switch to Cat controls. All of a sudden, I was one with the machine and so was everyone else. It was night and day. We still all preferred the Cat style controls, but we did like the JD machines. We ended up buying two loaders from them. Mini excavators are the absolute coolest toys on the planet. I rent one once a year.

Have a great day guys!

 

I did granite when I did my kitchen. Also did an undermount silgranite sink. Last house I had laminate for 10 years and swapped it to granite a year before I sold it, that was 7 years ago. Granite is nice but not cheap. It's been around for quite a while, quartz is popular too, maybe more so than granite.

 

I replace mine with the inside valve seat. Saves having to remember draining the outside tap at the shutoff inside before winter. You have to remember to disconnect hoses though or they'll still have water in them and freeze.

 

Good Thursday/Saturday IV morning crew from going to be sunny NW AZ!



The sun is going to start peeking his head over the eastern mountains here pretty soon! Might be a good day just to contemplate what to do next!

 

wait just a minute mister...did you move your spare? I don't see it on the lid?

 

Looks like a good idea but I don't think it would have the range to target I need. I'm thinking our cat will go for a long walk on a short pier with a concrete life jacket.

 

Yup........when not out boondocking, it jst sits in the yard! Also, that is a different lid from before. The other one is a standard polaris one, this one is considerably larger to offer more protection from the sun, just made from a sheet of OSB board and painted white!

 

Don at least you know I'm paying attention! I hope you have a great time!

 

Supposed to remove hoses from the anti-siphon inside valve spigots. I did.. Because it costs so much to replace they rental mgt. company goes around a checks to make sure that you do. Mine was cheap to replace at $300. They can be $750 to replace.

Interesting on the JD vs. CAT controls. I know there have been changes to the controls over the years, but I didn't realize JD was so much different than CAT.

Have a good day fellow one pagers!!!