Nick

Life happens

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Wow, it's been a long two years since my last post. Two years of all kinds of curve-balls and hurdles that life gives no warnings about. Honestly speaking, up until about a month ago, I was on the verge of completely giving up on our hopes of building our own home. For those that were interested, we did finally finish peeling all of our logs before the fall of 2017 and managed to get them all treated with the LHBA formula of preservative. Then spent a good deal of the fall re-building the log cribs to get them higher off the ground. Then in November of 2017, got a call from the hospital over in MI to find out that Dad drove himself into the ER due to "shortness of breath". Long story short - 4 months later, after a half dozen surgeries, 90+ lbs lost, and countless hours in therapy, we finally could take him home. That would be our home since he no longer could support himself or take care of himself and we refused to let the nursing home system have him. My sisters and I waded through the process of liquidating all of his assets and figuring out a long term plan. Not a short endeavor by any means. 2018 was not a great year. On top of Dad's health plummeting and his unexpected arrival as a permanent house guest, the powers that be also decided to pick a three week period where BOTH of our vehicles decided to completely give up the ghost and our AC system to completely take a crap (not an option with Dad in the house). Those expenses coupled with the extremely unexpected costs of home and health care for Dad pretty much wiped out our savings and used up all of our $$ plans for continuing on the log home. Needless to say, the land, logs and tele were neglected and ignored during that time.

Fast forward to the present. After several trips up to the land and much hemming and hawing, I'm thinking we can't just give up. First to assess the state of the logs: My two boys spent a day turning every log 180 degrees since they'd sat there for a year while I sat there scared to death to see what they looked like underneath. Overall, I don't think it's too bad. They were high enough off the ground that there was plenty of air flow, and I haven't found any major rotting or anything. They did definitely dry out on top more and there's more bow to most of them, but they were really straight red pine to begin with. There is some mildew underneath but doesn't look too bad. Also, the cambium strips that left our logs looking zebra striped when we finished peeling are now all peeling off themselves. I think I can do another log treatment and still be ok.

Ok, so logs are salvageable I think. On to the telehandler..... a 1976 LULL Highlander 2 that I spent a LOT of time and effort getting up and running back in 2017. She was not happy after sitting for over a year in northeast Wisconsin. Starter was completely shot and needed complete replacement to begin with. Got that done and still wouldn't go. Spent countless hours troubleshooting through what I knew (and that's barely anything about mechanics). Drained and replaced 15 gallons of old diesel, same with all of the hydro fluid. Changed out fuel filter. Changed out several electrical connections looked rusted or old to me. Called in a favor with a buddy that know more than me (but still not much). We could get it to go for a few second with a squirt of starter fluid, but that was it. Determined it wasn't getting fuel past the fuel injector pump. Time to call my mechanic who swears under his breath every time he sees my caller ID. He agrees to meet me out on the site. I show him everything we did so far (and honestly was pretty proud of getting an approving nod from him) and where we thought the problem was. He literally spent 30 seconds looking at it, pulls out a power probe and says it's not getting power. Then follows the wire back through the machine into the dash and behind the started key. Reaches up into the dash and pulls down the DISCONNECTED wire. Then it dawned on me. When I first tried to start the machine up, I was assaulted by an angry mob of wasps that has built a nest up under the dash. Since my son doesn't pay rent at home, he was the obvious choice to remove the nest. Which he apparently did with a long stick and a lot of vigor (I had conveniently found another task far away that needed to be done). So with a smile and a crimp, my mechanic turned the key and up she started. Now all I had to do was pump up the front tire and we should be good. Nope. Bead was no good and tire won't take air. While trying to prop front of machine up to get better diagnosis on tire, I notice the bar that the forks ride on is bent to hell and one fork is pinned all the way over and can't move. No idea how that happened and nobody's talkin either. With a lot of pounding and nsfw language I managed to free the bar from the cage and brought it into a shop to get straightened. It's ready to be put back in, but I still have to figure out how to re-bead the tire. My buddy says he can do it with lighter fluid and a match. I said I'd let him try but I'll be standing in a different county. Can't afford the mechanic any more so gotta come up with something. Once I get her fixed and back up and running, I can lift the two fallen logs that fell off crib and move a few more stumps, but until then she's stuck but I know I can get her going somehow.

Decided to adjust plans to try and offset the lack of funds and hopefully get back up and moving forward again. Decided to go without a full basement so that hopefully reduces pouring cost but now not sure how utilities (plumbing & electric) need to be handled. Realized that I forgot a lot of where we were at and what was next since didn't even really think about it for last year. Last I checked on the forum, Photobucket had removed all the pics and I couldn't post anymore. Not sure what people are doing now. Time to get back into the swing of things I think.

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Comments

  1. mudflap's Avatar
    >My buddy says he can do it with lighter fluid and a match.

    Gonna take a bunch of lighter fluid on a tire that size, IMO.

    I'm rooting for you! "Git-R-Dun", buddy!

    I also like "I'm not quitting, I'm reloading"

    try imgur, postimages, wordpress, blogger. I can't even get to my photos on photobucket. good luck.
  2. donjuedo's Avatar
    Sorry about 2018, Nick, and I'm glad you didn't give up. I hope you have a great 2019 -- it sounds like you're getting back on track. (I also hope your Dad gets to see you finish)