Hard Stop After a Rough Start

This week started off a little rocky, started to improve, and then took a deep nose dive. The plan was to get some of the underbrush cleared out so we could better pick where we wanted to put the building and start getting the ground ready for starting the slab work. I knew the tractor had a flat tire that needed a new valve stem. After purchasing the new valve stem, I headed to the land to take care of the tire so I could get to work. I removed the tire from the tractor loaded it into the truck and hitched the generator to the truck as well to take it to where I had my air compressor set up. I got the generator fired up and the air compressor was running great. Once it was full, I hooked the line to the tire and attempted to reseat the bead on the tire. This is where things start to go sideways. I was having trouble getting the bead seated and the compressor did not restart when it hit the lower pressure limit and instead, the breaker on the generator tripped.

Time for some panicked troubleshooting. I tried the breaker a few times to see if the motor was attempting to spin at all and of course, it wasn’t budging. My first though is that all the years of neglecting the maintenance on the compressor just caught up to me by having the pump seize up. After taking the belt cover off and rotating the wheels by hand, a seized pump was not the issue, thankfully. Now to start looking at the electronics. I pulled the cover off the first compositor, and it looked good, so on to the second one. As soon as I loosened the cover I knew I had found the culprit. Oil was leaking out and as I lifted the cover off, parts fell out. Found the problem but that doesn’t help me finish the tire.

I called my dad to see if he could pick up the tire in the morning and bring it to his house to use his compressor while I was at work. The next day he picked it up and after some fighting and definitely some choice words, he was able to get the tire inflated. Thanks, Dad. After work, I swung by, picked the tire up, and brought it back to the land where I got it reinstalled on the tractor. Everything is going in the right direction finally. Now it was time to hook up the brush cutter and to get to clearing some brush.

We happened to get some parts in for the tractor while I was down and wanted to get them installed but when we went to the land to get some work done, the combination of my leg and the meds I’m on for it made me give up very quickly. So it seems these will be jobs that will have to wait until next week. Hopefully, we can get back on track as we are now starting to get quotes for the slab pour and need to get moving on the clearing and site preps.

If life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade. And try to find somebody who's life gives them vodka, and have a party.

Ron White

Be sure to watch our first video and like and subscribe for future content. The video is a bit of a mishmash while we are still working out the logistics of what to film and how we want to tell our story. Hope you enjoy.

Now is the time to go back a little before I tell you why it all goes down hill from here. The day before at work while walking around, there was a bug bite on my calf that was getting annoyed from my boot rubbing on it. So when I was getting ready for work the next morning I put a bandage on it to keep it from getting aggravated again. Now this bug bite was very small, about the size of a sesame seed. I didn’t put a lot of thought into it. By the time I got to the land that afternoon, I was seeing a lot of redness from around the edges of the bandage and it was starting to hurt and making my calf sore. I soldiered on. As I was brush cutting it became difficult for me to use my foot to operate the pedals of the tractor so I shut it down for the night. I did a quick clean-up and drove to the house.

By the time I got to the house, the bug bite was the size of a silver dollar and you could see it was filled with some nasty stuff. Walking up the stairs was nearly unbearable and I collapsed on the kitchen floor to help relieve the pressure on my calf. The decision was made for me to go to the ER and get it looked at. Well, it wasn’t a bug bite, it was a Brown Recluse bite and the doc made the decision to cut it open and drain it out. I was unable to get around for the next three days without pain and ended up missing work for the remainder of the week. Today has been better but my ankle is still swollen and the wound is very tender.