The Slow Motion Retirement Plan

[dhagood]

thanks to the good works of barbara at the mencenberg quarry south of castle rock, 15.6 tons of class 5 road base was delivered wednesday afternoon. the driver of the bobtail dump truck did a really nice job of spreading the load from the tail gate. after packing the stone with my pickup for about 30 minutes, it was reasonably compacted and ready for use. the bad news is that it cost right at $25/ton delivered :shocked: the fee for hauling the load was 63% of the total price; it's about 50 miles one way and the fee is set by ton-mile for the round trip. maybe i need to get into the dump truck business...

the family reunion went well, and we'll probably do it again next year.

early sunday morning, just a-moseyin' along:

here is one way to develop a road. let enough people drive through a section of land, and the roadway is pretty obvious.

i don't know how well the picture shows the 18 inch or so drop off from the edge of the road to where my driveway starts, but there is a lot of compacted stone in this location.

it's only 30 or so feet long, but it's a start.

 

[dhagood]

pretty much nothing has happened on our property since the first part of july. we just haven't had the money, and we're trying really hard to not take out any loans to do this, as "cash on the barrel head" is our mantra. one thing we really needed to do to free up some cash was to sell a house we owned in missoula, montana. we finally closed last thursday, and i went out looking seriously for a tractor.

there are not many tractor dealers south east of the denver metro area. there is a new kubota dealership just west of kiowa that i liked, but we don't have the scratch for a new tractor and the dealer had no used tractors at all. there was a really nice kubota l2800 xtra power available in a farm auction for saturday, but we didn't have the funds available yet (got the check friday, in the bank saturday morning, funds released this coming wednesday). i had to drive up into weld county (colorado) to find any used selection at all. after rattling around up there for a couple of days, i found a john deere 1070 and a pair of massey ferguson 1533s that seemed like they would fit the bill. after talking it over with my wife, we went with the green:

this tractor spoke to me somehow. both of the massey fergusons were in decent shape but seemed worn both cosmetically and in operation. the john deere gleamed and was very tight and has a canopy as well. we got a reasonable price on the tractor and a bush hog sbx72 box blade. we still need to get a loader for it. anybody know where i can get a john deere 440 loader?

so after i got home from buying the tractor i went looking for my wife to share the good news. it turns out she was at the vet with the dog and the dog needed to be put down.

stupid mutt :weepy:

 

[MoKelly]

Oh man. I am sorry about your dog. Looks a lot like our dog (Lucky) who is a terrier mix. Good luck with the tractor.

MoKelly

 

[i579rbd]

sorry to read about your dog. don't worry about the delay in activity. You eat the elephant a bite at a time. you will get there. as a green guy myself I think you made a great purchase. best of luck, I will enjoy following your thread.

 

[TripleR]

So sorry to hear about the loss of your dog.

 

[newbury]

Sad to read about the beautiful dog.

 

[GLyford]

Nice looking machine you ended up with.

Having lost two dogs in a handful of years to the complications of getting old, I feel for your loss. We chose to "get back on the horse" and now have a Lab and an Aussie to keep everything covered in dog hair. It took us a while to find the Lab after the first dog passed, both to get our heads in a "good" space and to find the right dog. We had the Aussie two days after losing the 2nd, both because we were better prepared for what was to happen and then the right dog just up and jumped into our lap and made himself at home.

Every person, every situation, and every dog is different, and you just have to do what you feel is best each time. Good luck for however that happens to fall for you.

 

[vtsnowedin]

I'm pretty sure "Stupid mutt" had as good a life as any dog could ask for and would only hope that the next pup lives up to the standard of human companionship that he set.

 

[dhagood]

my wife and i would like to thank everybody for their kind comments about the loss of our dog. my wife had a tough week, but is starting to get back on an even keel. in fact, she's starting to look at pictures from the various animal shelters around the denver metropolitan area. i expect i'll come home from work one day soon and my wife will introduce me to the new member of the family. my wife has an affinity towards mature rescue dogs. one of the dogs she perused online was left in the house when the family moved out of state and the realtor had to take him to the pound. some people...

vtsnowedin, the dog we just lost had a pretty good life with us, but even after being with us for four years he would still flinch a little when someone would pet him. he evidently had a pretty tough time at some point in his life, but he was a good dog for us and we won't forget him.

on the property side, i'm going to go look at a 77 f600 dump truck on saturday. does anybody have anything special that i should check/look for on this model of truck?

 

[grsthegreat]

I just added a second rental house to my portfolio. I get possession of it in 2 weeks. I like having rental income because it doesn't count against future soc sec income/penalties like a paying job would. This house is newer 2003 structure and i hope it rents out fast. its super clean and were happy to get it. Id still like to get at least one more n the not too distance future ... before prices go thru roof again. Im still several years away from retiring....i tried it a few years ago and got bored cause all my friends were still working. I desided to go back working 2-3 days a week, but that has blossomed back into a 5-6 day work week. Im a slave to work i guess. I hope to get back to a 2-3 day per week schedule again next spring