Category: Blog

A day late, but I wanted to get the start of week 3 out there. A slow start, but relaxing.

The Weekend

A busy weekend, mostly volleyball for me. Saturday I had to feed horses early, then the a midday practice. Afterwards I was planning on working on my winch, but ended up being short a part and having an issue with alignment, so I gave up, played some guitar, and then drove to Pueblo for a tournament.

Sunday was in Pueblo all day coaching, then dinner with my wife and home late. Nothing really happening on this day.

Monday Morning

I started with some guitar. I wanted to get back to a routine, and while I did sleep in a bit, I then spent about 90 minutes going through a few lessons and practicing. I’m wandering around, so a mix of some blues lessons, a guitar exercise lesson, and then a few songs. I also started to look through the Top 60 Fingerpicking songs. I won’t get through 60 on this sabbatical, but I started with #1 (Time of Your Life), which I know, but not as a fingerpicking song.

Then I decided to go outside for a bit. It was a nice day and I cut some metal, trying to get the winch mounting holes to align with the holes in the metal bar. I had to extend a few holes, and stopped there. My plan was to remove the wire rope and then attach the existing one, but the one Allen wrench I’m missing is the one I need.

Frustrating, but I have other things to do.

Since I was in the shop, I decided to mock up a guitar stand. I need at least one, and likely two, in my office, so I thought I might take some plywood and make one. I cut a couple pieces and then added a biscuit to join them

The glue has to dry, so I stopped here, but I did make progress on something.

Since nothing was working well upstairs, I decided to work on the basement. I went downstairs and get through one of the rooms, removing some stuff and sweeping out the floor. I took stock of some of the framing, and realized that this might be a bigger project than I thought.

In any case, I found a few interesting things. This is the last set of servers that ran SSC. The firewall on top, two web servers, and the db server on the bottom. They’ve been in my basement since Redgate took over the hosting. I didn’t fire them up, but I piled them in a spot where I can decide what to do with them.

I went through some books, culled out those that are worth donating, along with some CDs, stereo equipment and luggage, and loaded it all in the car. That’s an errand I ran on the way to the gym.

I also found a couple boxes of SSC shirts. I brought them up and put a couple loads into the washer to clean them. They must have been in the basement for six or seven years. They look OK, but they’re a touch musty. I’ll give them away at the user group meetings.

Finally, some health time. Goodwill, yoga, and the grocery for a few items.

The day ended with more guitar in bed, with my wife singing along for a few songs. A nice, relaxing day.

I’m still not quite moving in the direction I want in the basement and garage, but I am making some progress. It’s also relaxing and exhausting to be working every day with my hands and not with a computer.

Back to my routine. Up at 8 and starting guitar. 45 minutes of blues lessons.

Learning a few licks, practicing along. It’s interesting to me as I haven’t listened to a lot of blues over the years, but I definitely like the artists influenced by them. I’m enjoying these lessons, and I need to record myself with the background and then play along a bit and work through different licks.

My plan after this was to go to town, swim, donate some things I’ve packed up, and then come back. That fell apart as my wife had to go to a client, but today she doesn’t have an employee. So I need to feed.

It’s not that hard, but going through all the feeders is the better portion of an hour, especially as I had to load a bale onto the trailer.

As I went around, I realized it was a really nice day. Warm (50F) and not much wind. I also circled the loafing shed a few times as I fed, and realized I needed to get that done. After feeding, I packed up some equipment, loaded the tractor with the generator, and headed out to do the trim and roof.

Trim requires a few strange cuts, and I made those, though after the first one, I realized that I’d forgotten gloves and I need them. Too many metal sparks thrown up.

I did the West side,

then the East.

Finally, the back

Not at all what I wanted to do, but it needed to be done and my wife is happy. I moved the remainder of the material near the arena, where I need to finish off the generator shed. Not today, as it got late and the wind picked up.

I did decide to work on the solar winch a bit. First, I tapped out threads for my clamps. I’m constantly amazed as I fix things that I need to tap out threads. What seemed like a daunting skill isn’t too bad,and I’ve become good at it. This tap kit has to be one of the better tool purchases I’ve made. I’ve really gotten my money’s worth.

With the threads tapped, and finally able to screw in the bolt, I drilled holes in the second one and then mounted both in the building. The manual winch will stay for emergencies, but this is where the winch will mount. I was hoping to get it up there, but the bolts I have are too short with this thick rectangular steel piece. I dropped one in my truck to get the proper length later tonight.

Now it’s time for yoga and then volleyball practice. That will round out my day, and end the week.

Week 2

What do I think of week 2? Time is flying and I feel like I’m not really getting enough done. While I’ve had a decent amount of guitar work, not as much as I’d like, and certainly I’ve been wandering around without too much focus.

I also didn’t do anything in the basement or garage this week, other than sweep out a bit of the shop area. I’ve spent time working on figuring out the winch, making some mistakes and restarts, and also two days on the shed, getting metal up. Those things certainly needed to be done, but they aren’t what I’d planned.

However, I’m not too upset. My plans were vague and ill-defined, and I realize there is plenty of ranch stuff I’ve let go. I still need to fix a few feeders, and if we have good weather, that will be a priority Monday and Tuesday. The dumpster did get emptied, so I can start going back through the basement, and I will do that Wednesday.

Overall, I’m relaxed. While I haven’t accomplished anything big in two weeks, I’ve gotten a lot of little things done, things that I’ve been letting go for too long with a busy work and travel schedule. This sabbatical is giving me a chance to catch up.

The other good thing is that mentally I’m relaxed. I’m working with my hands, doing physical things, and staying off the computer, other than these blogs. That alone might be a good reason to take the sabbatical time.

An early start, this time for more maintenance.

One of the tractor tires had blown out a few years ago and I replaced it. Now the other one is constantly leaking air and it’s a bit cracked. I’ve been meaning to get this done, but since it’s in use every other day as part of the ranch, it’s hard to time.

I loaded up a bale early yesterday so the maintenance guy could do his thing. Then today, I got up at 730 and went out to remove the tire and take it to the shop. They promised it by 1pm, so we’ll see.

After that, it’s back to the house for breakfast and a few minutes of guitar practice. No lessons, just messing around. It’s really  nice to not be under time pressure for anything. That might be one of the best benefits of the sabbatical in that my mind is more relaxed.

I had booked a morning massage, so I’m off for that, which is nice. I struggle to fit these in during my daily life. So far I’ve gotten two in two weeks. Then it’s a few errands. I buy a battery for my solar powered winch, get a few more bolts from the hardware store, and get some groceries.

At home, I cut more metal and start assembling my winch stuff. I need to test this out in the actual location, but I do press the terminals against the battery and verify the winch works. Unfortunately, I also realize the battery has large auto terminals and the winch has small bolt eyelets.

Grrrr. It’s always something.

I grab my stuff and load it into the car for the 200ft trip to the barn. Before that, I go get my tire. It’s not ready, but I spend a few minutes with the guy that owns the shop while they finish. I’ve known him for years and it’s nice to chat a bit about his new expansion, which is something that I’ve been rooting for. Back home, I need to put on the tire.

It’s cold, so I hurry, using the large sockets I bought to get this one. This is the smallest one, but it fits here. This is also larger than the largest tire iron I have, so this was a good purchase.

I gas up the tractor since it’s at the barn, load up my winch parts, and move it into the arena. I start to assemble the winch on the pole, which involves some elbow grease and a few choice words, but I can’t quite get the bolt to thread back through the pipe clamp. I should have tested this, and should have brought a socket. It looks like it will work, so I leave things for tomorrow since I don’t have a battery connection anyway.

It’s mid afternoon at this point, and I’ve let guitar go for a few days. I start dinner and while it’s simmering, I spend an hour working through a few songs. I play along with Spotify, and my fingers can feel it. I’m definitely not playing enough.

Then it’s off to yoga, the store for battery terminals, and back home to eat. I made Red Curry Lentils with Sweet Potatoes and Spinach. It’s good. Others have eaten, so I finish and then relax with my wife for a bit. It’s been a long day for her, but a relaxing one for me.

Didn’t accomplish a lot, but was more relaxed than most other days.

Too windy to work outside today, but plenty to do inside. An early rise with a few things on my wind. First was catch up blogging, since I was up late. Then racing to the gym for an early workout. Too late for yoga, but I just switched lifting around for yoga tomorrow.

Then a few errands. Dog food and more hardware supplies.

Then back home for breakfast and a little guitar. Since I had a little time, I spent about 20 minutes going over another blues lesson, getting a few licks to practice. I’ll do more tonight.

Next, starting chores. Too windy for shed work, and while I was waiting for the tractor service guy, so I decided to do a few things. First, go get the ladder from the shed, which let me take a shot of how far I got yesterday.

Looking good.

Next, I did a few minor things, like change lights in the 20ft garage ceiling, wire up a second garage opener for the shop side, and clean up a bit. These little chores ate up some time, but they let me catch up on a few things I always let go because time feels precious.

Tractor serviced, which is good, and another thing off the list.

Next, the winch. I had all these parts, which I needed to bolt this to the building. In trying to work out the best way to do this, I walked out and put things up in the air and tried to visualize the best way to do this. With a small idea of what to do, I next laid things out and tried to mark up where to cut.

Then some metal cutting. The Dremel helps here.

Once I got this cut, drilled a few holes in my clamp and then assembled once side. I realized this might not quite work. However, I have other ideas. I’ll just need a few more bolts to make this work. I have a massage tomorrow morning, so I can likely pick up more bolts and see if I can then actually assemble this on the table, which will help me decide if it’s worth dragging things out to the arena.

For now, it’s about time for volleyball practice, so I need to spend about 15 minutes coming up with a plan of things to work on. Then, practice, dinner, and more guitar tonight.

A less productive day overall, but not too bad. At least I have a few things working that I’ve been wanting to get going for awhile.