dd 5 24

 Dd 5 24..

There is so much going on that not only Doth my cup runneth over but my desk is heaped with undertones I am recovering from being ill I'm not sure my desk of the recovery from my being ill but I'll have to work on it.. I was shocked to  try and line up r  and W rope which is where I get rope and cord for various projects and what was once 12 cents a foot for that quarter inch rope that I use so often is now $0.30 a foot..   it's unbelievable how much rope is used in these various projects particularly that dish takes about 30 feet of rope---  I'm not sure that even makes $9 worth of dish but at $0.30 a foot my fascination with bowl making. severely limited...   However the monkey fist goes on and on-- 

 

I am reported that not just one tractor is not functioning properly but both of them are having the same symptoms I'm starting and working only briefly before smoke noises bangs and quitting...  the fact that it's both tractors does put a new line on it so to speak.  it could be--- we have nine containers for carrying fuel from the gas station they're yellow red and blue

and they are not interchangeable---  I have to look every time I use one of those cans to be absolutely positive that I'm correct because they are labeled --  the blue clearly says diesel... From this problem of sputtering and stopping for both tractors apparently that's a sign of a fuel problem--  with somebody trying to be helpful could have tried pouring a red can into a tractor actually both tractors..  at any rate they're both down and I'm having to call the professionals. Masterson Construction.. but before I do that I want to be sure we have all the projects lined up for his big equipment before we call so we can maximize the trip..

 

sidewalk superintendents---  those are the people in New York City who stand and look through the little holes in the barriers whenever there's construction going on in Manhattan...  those people may think it's easy to run one of those tractors and smooth out the landscape in a very tidy fashion..   let me be the 1st to tell you that some of these guys who run bulldozers could thread a needle with a bulldozer----  it is a very exacting art..   and it is not a very forgiving 1 in the learning process..  Long long ago I ordered big dump trailer ohh stone dust for that area in front of the ICU building with the intention of just making it flat--  and I spent many days the shoving around a pile of dirt, Before finally giving up and getting one of masters of men come in and in 20 minutes he’d  done what I had messed up for three days..   education is sometimes expensive..

 

I have a very healthy respect for piles. of what some may call "material". be it just plain dirt. or manure.. 

I am reminded of the city man who approached a farmer plowing a field and said he'd give him $10,000 for that field and the farmer replied--  “you come around with a wheelbarrow and I'll give you $10,000 worth of that field .” --  the place where just plain dirt gets incredibly expensive is when someone's septic system fails and they have to replace the leaching field for drainage and they need to replace truckloads of soil which will drain somehow. 

 

Another soil story--  I have a friend who decided to make a riding ring out of a. hill...  When everybody was criticizing for how ridiculous that sounded, the friend made a fortune selling the pile of dirt which was the hill..

 

another soil story---  when we built this house and barn in 1979 the contractor who was working for us said that he would put our house up for nothing  if we let him caused the hold 12 acres to be absolutely flat because he could truck away the soil.

 

I think of those stori..s every time we get a shovel full of dirt off a dust pan in the house..  at one point will that have a value?