Kinda strange. I went online to pay my new American Express card down to zero. It wouldn't let me. I made the first payment but after that? Not able to do anything. I would rather not have a balance that I know I am going to have to pay down to zero hanging around. I had thought you could just pay it up whenever - I would prefer to pay it down as you use it, but I guess not.
Trailer roof time today. It will require 2 things: a cigar and a couple of beers. Liquid motivation is better than none at all. I have absolutely no desire to get up there and do all that is required to be done to pull off that other roof vent and install a new one. Sounds easy, right? Yeah, in a pig's eye. Those old screws have been in there for 25 years. They have been covered over with coatings of elastomeric roof coating multiple times.
One thing I learned long ago: if you need to re-coat a roof vent like that with more sealant? Best to remove the old sealant, first. And I mean remove it down to the metal type of clean, the same you would do if you were replacing a head gasket on your car's engine. It has to be perfectly clean to make sure that no water can get through there.
THAT is what the pain is all about, thank you very much. Getting all that old crud off of there and trying to remove the old screws.
Much too early right now to do any of that, my front yard plants need watering and since my drip system is screwed up out there, I intend on getting the garden hose and hand watering everything. BTW, my little pond out there is doing quite well and the little fishies in it are seemingly happy. Or not, who knows. They are all small fish in there, the longest being maybe 4 or 5 inches, most of them being more in the 2 inch range. Good start pond for small fish.
On my horse trough pond - which is right outside the east side door of my house (which no-one uses so that's what I put it there) - those fish know me very well. When I come out, they are at or near the surface, waiting for food. When anyone ELSE comes out, they go into hiding. I didn't know fish had that kind of recognition going on.
The other pond is a toss-up. It's in the ground and the fish know who I am, but the bigger fish go hiding. There are so many plants in the pond, it probably obscures the view quite a bit of who is there at the pond's edge. I am still totally into this ponding business, but my idea of building a much larger pond has been put on hold indefinitely. Bigger "fish to fry", no pun intended.
No, I have definitely turned it into a goal now: a guest house. I must get the idea into the operating/functional stage and off of the "sitting there on the shelf in my mind, waiting for something to happen" stage. Whether I stay in this house or not, I am going to move on with that plan. Oh, well there is not going to be any real movement for a while. I will not start that project until I have at least most of the money to be able to finish it.
I'm giving it a year to save up enough to do it right the first time. The concrete pad will be the most expensive thing about the whole affair. Even if I do it myself, it will still be at least $1,000 to $1,500 if you want a good, solid foundation that isn't going to crack.
Kitchen and bath fixtures do not have to be new. I have scored some very nice fixtures in the past that were used but in excellent condition for a fraction of the cost of buying new.
This goal has come forth mostly because I have looked at my retirement savings and where it might be in 20 years and it has come up lacking. I refuse to just sit here, grow old and be broke and poor in my old age, if I indeed, do make it that far.
Of course, another idea would simply be to save up enough money for a good down payment on another house.
Who knows. Savings account is up and functional and getting close to the first one thousand dollar mark. Some of that will disappear, however, when I have that trailer moved up north. I forgot to call Penske, I was going to ask how much to rent a small semi tractor for a day and just pull the thing up there myself. I was quote $300 by the guy who does this as a second job, but I have a feeling he is going to raise that up as he has already raised his rates for pulling locally. But, he is still far cheaper than anyone else I have been able to find.
Now, for one of the final tree plantings that I want for my property. The Queensland Bottle Tree. I finally found some available to be shipped online! You have to buy like 15 of them, I think. I don't want 15 of them, maybe 3 or 4 planted at strategic locations around the house. It's a 20 year deal there. In 20 years, you have a 30 or 40 foot tall tree that has this HUGE trunk with a bottle-shaped appearance. They are awesome looking trees. If I were still at this property in 20 years, those Sissoo trees will be enormous.
I'll be 68 years old in 20 years, so no big hurry to get there : )
Off to do some watering.
G'day.
ben
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