So sorry, halfapint. I lost 8 close people in one 14 month period some years ago. Including my grandfather. Which was the hardest one. He and my grandmother lived in Darrington. And my son had a special relationship to him too. Its always hardest to see how the children react to loss.

Please let me know if there us anything I can do. I lived my entire life in western washington. Up till about 30. My entire family still lives there. I still have alot of contacts and information in your neck of the woods. Let me know if you ever need anything. 

I'm really sorry for your loss. 

Quote from: Moab on April 04, 2023, 07:26:45 PMSo sorry, halfapint. I lost 8 close people in one 14 month period some years ago. Including my grandfather. Which was the hardest one. He and my grandmother lived in Darrington. And my son had a special relationship to him too. Its always hardest to see how the children react to loss.

Please let me know if there us anything I can do. I lived my entire life in western washington. Up till about 30. My entire family still lives there. I still have alot of contacts and information in your neck of the woods. Let me know if you ever need anything.

I'm really sorry for your loss.

Really appreciate it, everything going well so far. Mom has dated a few nights here and we are 100' away if she needs anything.

Personally while sad, I'm happy for grandma she's wanted to move for years but grandpa wouldn't.

Quote from: Halfapint on April 06, 2023, 05:49:56 PM

Quote from: Moab on April 04, 2023, 07:26:45 PMSo sorry, halfapint. I lost 8 close people in one 14 month period some years ago. Including my grandfather. Which was the hardest one. He and my grandmother lived in Darrington. And my son had a special relationship to him too. Its always hardest to see how the children react to loss.

Please let me know if there us anything I can do. I lived my entire life in western washington. Up till about 30. My entire family still lives there. I still have alot of contacts and information in your neck of the woods. Let me know if you ever need anything.

I'm really sorry for your loss.

Really appreciate it, everything going well so far. Mom has dated a few nights here and we are 100' away if she needs anything.

Personally while sad, I'm happy for grandma she's wanted to move for years but grandpa wouldn't.

This might sound a bit cliche, but I've always found remembering the good times with a loved one who has passed on kind eases the pain of their loss a bit.

I never got to meet one set of my grandparents (my mom's parents. They both died in 1979 exactly one month apart.) and the other set moved to Canada when I was an infant so I have very vague memories of them. The last time I saw that set of grandparents was in 1995 when I was 10 years old and they both died not too long after that last visit.

 I have found that  you realize decisions you make  will remind you of the persons you hold dear  who have passed as if they were still there advising you. And one day you will see your parents and grandparents in your children. In their features, personality or a  physical mannerism. 

Wow, how time flies! Over a year since grandpa died and 5 months since grandma died. We now have a 2 year old, and the property is now officially in my name with deed in hand.

We've been renovating the house and the property almost full time. I cleared the parking area and added almost 15 feet of new area in front of the garage. Instead of pulling out and having to make a hard right turn you can back out almost 75'

I've striped the cabinets down to bare wood and we plan to paint them. It's time consuming because the long side of the cabinets have double doors front and back. So you can reach through on the table side and grab dishes to set the table. I think there were 36 or 42 doors that have to be done and almost 22' of cabinets and counter tops.

The wife started in on the kids room to get it mudded, premiered, and textured. Now to pick paint to do his room in. We are starting the master bed and upstairs bath room next. We are renovating the bathroom and taking out the linin closet and coat closet to make the bathroom larger because right now the bath and toilet are so tight in there you have the step in, and angle yourself so you can close the door. We'll over double the sq/ft of the bathroom and add a door so you don't have to basically enter the master bedroom to get Tito the bathroom.


We bought a mini ex and a Kei truck to speed up moving dirt. The kei truck is a dump truck with diff and axle lock. The mini ex is one if those cheap Chinese excavators that cost like 3k and has a gas engine. It's not big, but it digs faster than my tractor backhoe. And together I can get a lot done.

I'll try to update more often if people want. I've just been busy the last year between the kid, job, estate stuff, deaths, and remodel.


Pic 1: truck when we brought it home 5 years ago.

Pic 2: me standing in the same spot a few weeks ago. If you look on the ground you can see the rough line where gravel ends and dirt begins. It's bare now but soon I'll have things like blueberries, currants, dwarf fruit trees along the edge.

My sincere condolences. I lost my grandparents too. And was given the chance to buy their house. But didn't. Was not in advantageous land.

Giod job on the improvements! Welcome back!

Are you still living in the trailer?

Quote from: flybynight on April 13, 2024, 03:12:11 PMAre you still living in the trailer?

We are, much to the wife's dismay! But we figure while not completely convenient, it's better than trying to remodel AND live in the house.

Goals are get the two bedrooms done. Get the kid used to having his own room in the house. And do our day to day living between both the trailer and house while we remodel.

Quote from: Moab on April 13, 2024, 03:01:29 PMMy sincere condolences. I lost my grandparents too. And was given the chance to buy their house. But didn't. Was not in advantageous land.

Giod job on the improvements! Welcome back!

I'm sorry for your loss, and thank you. I'll try and be on more often. It's still the first tab on my phone and computer

A bit of an update. When doing renovations to the house a buddy of mine was over and noticed the outside siding bushing in spots. After looking there are about a half dozen spots where it bulges out. The problem I believe is that the deck supports are rotting. They are 50 year old cedar "peeler cores" back when they veneer shavers left about 6" diameter core. They were cheap to buy apparently and being cedar were naturally rot resistant. Well 50 years later sitting on flat concrete that gets water on it, they tend to rot regardless.

My theory is they are rotting at the bottom, and as they rot the weight if the deck pushes the rot out or in and they slowly lower themselves because you can see under the deck the cross supports are uneven. The deck spanners are built into the house as far as I can tell. So the rotting and sagging deck is pushing the 2x6's up and bulging the siding. I'm afraid the 2x6's may be compremised because we've had carpenter ants that we spray for every year. Well this year I hired a company and they did a treatment and about 2000 ants called out and died all over the floor. Now I'm wondering if we are remodeling a house that needs a demo. So until we get better weather (this next week) and can take the siding off and check the studs and how the deck is attached we aren't doing any remodeling.

In other news we moved the sister in law into a trailer on our property now, she was in an abusive relationship and couldn't stay where she was staying.

I've been playing around in the herb garden trying to make an off grid drip watering system using a 15 gallon barrel. Have a lithium lawn mower batter hooked to a solar panel, connected to a 12v pump that is currently connected to an on off switch but eventually I plan on putting a float switch in the barrel so when the water drops below a spot it turns off.

Been mining hundreds if yards of dirt down to the bottom of the property to build out down there, I'm running out of dirt in our current area so I may bring in some fill dirt to continue since we aren't remodeling.

I broke the backhoe if the tractor working at the wife's grandparents place. I was using the backhoe to bring up full to level and area for them and I went to use the left/right function and the backhoe just stayed. Looked at the cylinder and the weld completely failed. That was 100% manufacture fault but it's got 650+ hours on it so no warranty.

That's all for now!

That sucks about the warranty. 

What's the brand of the backhoe ?

Might not be too hard to find a replacement cylinder to repair it. Won't be cheap, though.

Quote from: 12_Gauge_Chimp on July 01, 2024, 05:29:20 PMWhat's the brand of the backhoe ?

Might not be too hard to find a replacement cylinder to repair it. Won't be cheap, though.

It's in the repair shop, told the guy that if a farmer comes in he takes priority and I won't complain. So the over phone quote was 6-800, it dropped to 300 cash. So I'm happy.

Quote from: Halfapint on July 01, 2024, 11:49:23 PM

Quote from: 12_Gauge_Chimp on July 01, 2024, 05:29:20 PMWhat's the brand of the backhoe ?

Might not be too hard to find a replacement cylinder to repair it. Won't be cheap, though.

It's in the repair shop, told the guy that if a farmer comes in he takes priority and I won't complain. So the over phone quote was 6-800, it dropped to 300 cash. So I'm happy.

That's a pretty good discount.

I've never had to get any heavy equipment fixed myself, but I do know that it can get pricey really damn quickly.

My oldest nephew owns his own septic business and he's had to have some of his equipment repaired and it's not cheap. He had to get the bucket on his mini-excavator repaired awhile back and it was like a couple grand to get it done.

Quote from: 12_Gauge_Chimp on July 01, 2024, 11:58:02 PMThat's a pretty good discount.

I've never had to get any heavy equipment fixed myself, but I do know that it can get pricey really damn quickly.

My oldest nephew owns his own septic business and he's had to have some of his equipment repaired and it's not cheap. He had to get the bucket on his mini-excavator repaired awhile back and it was like a couple grand to get it done.

Yeah I run a stump grinding company and I had to replace a motor in one of my machines and I upgraded to a best wheels on the market. Engine was 9k, and it was used the cutting wheels were 2200-5k with the teeth being 100$ for the large and 50 for the normal. So yeah when you start getting into machinery it's crazy.

Quote from: Halfapint on July 02, 2024, 02:45:41 PM

Quote from: 12_Gauge_Chimp on July 01, 2024, 11:58:02 PMThat's a pretty good discount.

I've never had to get any heavy equipment fixed myself, but I do know that it can get pricey really damn quickly.

My oldest nephew owns his own septic business and he's had to have some of his equipment repaired and it's not cheap. He had to get the bucket on his mini-excavator repaired awhile back and it was like a couple grand to get it done.

Yeah I run a stump grinding company and I had to replace a motor in one of my machines and I upgraded to a best wheels on the market. Engine was 9k, and it was used the cutting wheels were 2200-5k with the teeth being 100$ for the large and 50 for the normal. So yeah when you start getting into machinery it's crazy.

How long have you had the stump business? Does that do well?

Quote from: Moab on July 02, 2024, 03:34:20 PMHow long have you had the stump business? Does that do well?

Well previously i owned/ran a tree company for about 5 years. We were doing great business, we were looking to bring on more partners and bring more employees. But then insurance went from 5-6k a year to 25-30k something about being dangerous 🙄🙄

The business partner got lazy and it was me and the climber along with a ground guy doing all the work and he was getting 1/4 of the pay to do nothing so I tapped out and the climber stole some equipment and bounced. So since 2021 we've had the grinding business started with a used machine (Carlton 4015) did gigs until it was paid off and then this last year we bought 2 more used machines (Vermeer sc30tx and Carlton 7015).

It pays the bills and we bought everything with cash. The 4015 is what I use most if the time because I've had it the longest and I replaced the Kohler Command 27hp engine with a pretty much brand new but used Wisconsin v465d which is a 65hp engine and just makes the machine an absolute beast 27hp to 65hp. I can run it at idle and it's got 180ft/lb of torque so it spins and doesn't stop. Plus with the Wisconsin on it it's quieter because I don't need to get the RPMs up to 4000. It stays at 1800-2000.

Sorry I guess you didn't need to know the whole story lol.

Quote from: Halfapint on July 02, 2024, 04:51:44 PM

Quote from: Moab on July 02, 2024, 03:34:20 PMHow long have you had the stump business? Does that do well?

Well previously i owned/ran a tree company for about 5 years. We were doing great business, we were looking to bring on more partners and bring more employees. But then insurance went from 5-6k a year to 25-30k something about being dangerous 🙄🙄

The business partner got lazy and it was me and the climber along with a ground guy doing all the work and he was getting 1/4 of the pay to do nothing so I tapped out and the climber stole some equipment and bounced. So since 2021 we've had the grinding business started with a used machine (Carlton 4015) did gigs until it was paid off and then this last year we bought 2 more used machines (Vermeer sc30tx and Carlton 7015).

It pays the bills and we bought everything with cash. The 4015 is what I use most if the time because I've had it the longest and I replaced the Kohler Command 27hp engine with a pretty much brand new but used Wisconsin v465d which is a 65hp engine and just makes the machine an absolute beast 27hp to 65hp. I can run it at idle and it's got 180ft/lb of torque so it spins and doesn't stop. Plus with the Wisconsin on it it's quieter because I don't need to get the RPMs up to 4000. It stays at 1800-2000.

Sorry I guess you didn't need to know the whole story lol.

No. I wanted to here it. We are about to move to another state. And I want to invest in some additional small business'. And that seems like a nice business with a minimum number of machines. Relatively simple. Meaning not complicated like electrical work or something that has to many variables. I know it's not simple. Just less complicated. Which is something I don't want to get involved in. Very interesting. Thank you.

Quote from: Moab on July 02, 2024, 05:56:35 PMNo. I wanted to here it. We are about to move to another state. And I want to invest in some additional small business'. And that seems like a nice business with a minimum number of machines. Relatively simple. Meaning not complicated like electrical work or something that has to many variables. I know it's not simple. Just less complicated. Which is something I don't want to get involved in. Very interesting. Thank you.

Look into where you're moving and look up stump companies. I cut ties with the last job so I kinda lost some of the contacts I had made. Mostly because I wanted to disconnect from tree work. A lot if tree services don't like grinding because it's like 200$ and a single stump. I have a 240$ minimum call out. With senior, vet, and first responder/nurse discounts. I drop it to $200 for them that's my gas, grind, machine maintenance and clean up.

If you're looking to do it, rake, broom, backpack blower, and grinder is really all you need. The last today needed help planting and stuff so I ground about 12 small stumps and planted 18 small bushes for 450+ tax like 497 in total

Quote from: Halfapint on July 02, 2024, 07:30:43 PM

Quote from: Moab on July 02, 2024, 05:56:35 PMNo. I wanted to here it. We are about to move to another state. And I want to invest in some additional small business'. And that seems like a nice business with a minimum number of machines. Relatively simple. Meaning not complicated like electrical work or something that has to many variables. I know it's not simple. Just less complicated. Which is something I don't want to get involved in. Very interesting. Thank you.

Look into where you're moving and look up stump companies. I cut ties with the last job so I kinda lost some of the contacts I had made. Mostly because I wanted to disconnect from tree work. A lot if tree services don't like grinding because it's like 200$ and a single stump. I have a 240$ minimum call out. With senior, vet, and first responder/nurse discounts. I drop it to $200 for them that's my gas, grind, machine maintenance and clean up.

If you're looking to do it, rake, broom, backpack blower, and grinder is really all you need. The last today needed help planting and stuff so I ground about 12 small stumps and planted 18 small bushes for 450+ tax like 497 in total

Very cool.