Repairs, sales, animals

After several long delays, the repairman showed up yesterday morning to complete the repair on our upright freezer. He was able to complete the repairs in about thirty minutes. The bill for that repair was $170. Most of that charge resulted from an $80 charge for labor and a $25 charge to drive to our house from ten miles away. That follows up a $90 service charge to diagnose the needed repairs. I was floored by the expense. Mama and I will not use this particular repairman again, but we had no choice but pay the bill. At any rate, the freezer is fixed, and we will be able to refill it with items dumped into our chest freezer. That will happen today because we will be getting some beef from the Wycoff’s which will need to be put into the chest freezer. Because the 45 minutes spent in repairing the freezer cost us $250, Mama told me I was in the wrong profession. Maybe, but I doubt it.

On our way home from church Sunday morning, Mama and I stopped at an Estate Sale that has been going on for several weekends now. As we looked over the leftovers remaining in the rambling house, we stumbled across a cedar chest of drawers. It was beautiful. All marked prices were 75% off tat day so we got the dresser for $50. Mama bought a few items for crafting, but her purchases did not total ten dollars. We got off cheap. At this particular home Mama and I have looked longingly at a greenhouse on the property near the house. When Mama asked about purchasing the greenhouse, we were told the price was $1000.

Not a bad price but there was a caveat. The structure had to be removed from the property withing two weeks. That would not be a huge task, but perhaps more than I could handle if I had the money to make the purchase. However, an additional limitation was placed on the removal. There was no access into the area other than a walk-through gate, so the use of a tractor to handle larger pieces of the dismantled structure would not be an option. That would require a complete dismantling of the structure so it would be carried by hand through the small gate in the fence. That was a definite no-go. IT was a sad but practical decision to pass on the purchase. Now, Mama and I will continue to drive by the property on every trip to town and know that we had to pass up on our only opportunity to have that greenhouse on our property. Nevertheless, I plan on building a greenhouse in our garden at some point – but I will have to start from scratch.

Mama took Mr. Plumley to Bowie to gather pecans from a tree on the property owned by the couple who got us started in the myotonic goats. Rick, the real force behind the success of that line of goats died about a year ago. Nancy, his wife, is now selling the property. It is understandable that the property is too much for her to manage. She has some health issues that limit her physical activity so the goats, the horses and all other livestock have been sold. The property will be closed on after Thanksgiving and she will vacate the property within 30 days. The one animal population that still inhabit the farm with her is her Banty chicken flock. She really loves her chickens.

Since I had Mama call Nancy to see if we could buy part of that flock because we are down to only a few Bantam hens and we really like the breed as well. That call connected us to Nancy’s current plight. Where she is moving, she will only be able to keep about four hens and she has several dozen. Mama and Nancy worked out a time to get fifteen or twenty of the hens before the farm is left to the buyers. We do not know the price she will charge, if any, but the timing is a win-win.

Mama and I relocated three of the boy goats to the pig building yesterday morning. They are not happy about the new housing, but they will get used to it. In addition to relocating the weanling boys, I will move two young females into the paddock with Julian in the next few days so they can get bred. That will necessitate moving Midas into the shelter I just expanded adjacent to the boy’s paddock. This is the fun part of having goats.

I found an interesting article this morning dealing with the vaccines being coerced upon us and our children. Here is the link if you are interested. https://emeralddb3.substack.com/p/what-is-luciferase