so waht ya doin today?

[L Ross]

Another round of best wishes to all our ailing members and their families!

Did a little wood cutting and hay moving yesterday. Oldest son bought mounted winter tires and rims for his Saab. $115.00 for 4 rims and good used tires, he's a better cheapskate than I am! He's getting into fixing his car, also a used deal he got this fall. Previous owner ran over a bike in wall to wall rush hour traffic (I wonder where the bike rider was?!!) and it did some undercarriage damage Matt wants to fix. We're finding out you can't drive a modern car up on a set of ramps built in the early 80's. He picked up a set of composite ramps that are supposed to work. I'm not thrilled with the idea of fiberglass (my term) ramps. Have to try them. This also brought out the fact that having only 1 floor jack is a real pain. Looks like Harbor Freight will be getting more money after the sheep sell.

Took the daughter to a nearby towns Christmas parade last night. She's 16 and just HAS to get out of the house, you know the drill. Saw some folks I hadn't seen in a couple years and the kid froze because at 16 you are so smart you don't listen when Dad says to dress warm. Ah well, at least she got entertained and she loves the McDonalds hot chocolate.

This is an entirely farm related observation, so read at your own risk if that stuff bores you. Tractor tires are just horribly expensive these days. Not as bad as they were, but the days of $150 14.9-28's left with Barry Manilow and the Chevy Chevette. Guys like me who deal with mud,snow and ice for 6 months or more out of the year need traction. 4WD tractors are way out of my league, so we resort to tire chains. 15 years ago you could put a set of brand new double ring chains on a tractor for half the cost of one new tire. I need a set of 16.9-30 chains since someone lost one of the set I did have "somewhere over that way". We looked all summer but Gord can't say just where it dropped off. A set of new chains now costs as much as about 1 3/4 of a set of new tires. I even tried asking the company if I could buy just 1/2 a pair of chains. Yeah, but you only save $100 on the cost of 2 by the time you get done shipping them. Sheesh! Things like this just make me shake my head and wonder how anyone is going to be able to afford to feed this country on down the line.

Now Bret, I don't farm, but I worked with tractors since I was a kid. When I was finally able to buy a piece of land I knew I needed a tractor. I've gone through several since the early 90s. The best darned thing I ever did was bite the bullet and bought a rental return Kubota 37 hp with a loader on it with full warranty and 175 hours on it. The renter had been a garden center and had turf tires on it and the bucket wasn't even scratched. I had the dealer put Ag tires on it and fill rears with fluid as part of the deal. It took me a year and a half to pay it off and here I am today and I'll bet I could get most of what I paid for it back then. I was "annoyed" with the Kubota engineers, (never as annoyed as I get with John Deere engineers), because the deck on the Kubota did not leave enough clearance for chains. Well turns out that was an unfounded worry. I managed to get stuck one time by being overly optimistic, but used the bucket to winkle my self back wards out of the bog. I used to burn 5 gallons of gas per hour of PTO rpm run time with my 550 Oliver, the Kubota sips about a gallon and a half of diesel at top rpm. I have power steering, hydrostatic, (which means it is a lot safer when you have a spouse or help backing towards you when hooking up an implement), 4 wheel drive at the kick of a lever, all the niceties and few of the annoying "safety" feature of even newer tractors. I think it is a 2000 model year. Best of all I can skin a deer with this rascal in about 15 seconds once the cuts are made and the deer is hide tied to the truck bumper.

 

[L Ross]

Gee whizz, everybody doing hospital time, hope everything works out. I haven't gone that far, yet. New Dr put me on Gabapentin a couple weeks ago for Neuropathy in my feet. Had a reaction to it Thanksgiving night. Right arm(where I've got shoulder problems) went partially numb and tingly clear to my fingers. Lots of pain with it. Then my right thigh and the right side of my face joined in. Could hardly walk, wobbled from side to side pretty bad. Wife thought I was having a stroke and wanted to take me to the emergency room. Talked her out of it. Lasted near 24 hrs in waves, sometimes better, sometimes worse. Of course the Drs office was closed till Monday. It mostly cleared up Friday night, but had a couple short lived spells Saturday. I still have a few dizzy spells if I get to working hard, like dragging my deer Wednesday. Wear out really quick. Finally got ahold of the Drs assistant with the story and after talking to the Dr he called me back with "just quit taking it and we'll see you at your next appointment in February" Real concerned, not. From google searches, the drug was developed for seizures and one of the precautions is to back off slowly if you quit it or it could cause a seizure. I'm thinking I had a mild seizure while taking it.

Ole-270, my wife lived with foot neuropathy so bad it woke her up at night due to chemo damage. After several years of her suffering, one night I massaged her feet with an aspirin based muscle cream and she slept though the night and declared with delight that her feet didn't hurt. So I kept this up, a 5 minute ritual before bed each night. Then we figured out it wasn't even the aspirin creme, it is the massage. Now I just use hand lotion and it works just as well. I work from the arch of her foot up toward and including her toes with a firm grip working the muscles and toes thoroughly with my thumbs. No pain, even if circumstances cause a missed night. However any more than two nights the pain starts to return. She has learned if she is away from home to do it herself at least enough to forestall the neuropathy. Hope this helps.

 

[Winelover]

Bret, I use composite ramps, the brand is Race Ramps. Supports my 72 Chevelle (3000+ pounds) and also use them on the UTV, when putting on the disc plow. Never tried them on either of the full size Chevy vans. Plenty of ground clearance, for me, to slide under to do oil changes.

 

[Intheshop]

Latest deer head "wreath".

 

[Winelover]

Looks like one of those Apocalypse deer.

 

[Ole_270]

Ole-270, my wife lived with foot neuropathy so bad it woke her up at night due to chemo damage. After several years of her suffering, one night I massaged her feet with an aspirin based muscle cream and she slept though the night and declared with delight that her feet didn't hurt. So I kept this up, a 5 minute ritual before bed each night. Then we figured out it wasn't even the aspirin creme, it is the massage. Now I just use hand lotion and it works just as well. I work from the arch of her foot up toward and including her toes with a firm grip working the muscles and toes thoroughly with my thumbs. No pain, even if circumstances cause a missed night. However any more than two nights the pain starts to return. She has learned if she is away from home to do it herself at least enough to forestall the neuropathy. Hope this helps.

Thanks. I've been getting up to put on the hand cream when it's bad, kind of thought it was just the moisture cooling the foot since mine is more heat than pain. The foot just gets real hot. Sleep with it outside the blankets more often than not. I'll try a more aggressive massage with it

 

[uncle jimbo]

The weather person said that today was going to be good so the wife got a couple racks of ribs rubbed yesterday and I am going to put them on the smoker today.
So tonight's dinner is going to be smoked pork ribs, mac and cheese*, and coleslaw.

* My wife make the best mac and cheese ever. My opinion. She makes if from scratch. No box crap at our house.

 

[CZ93X62]

When you are young--you want to be old(er). When you are old, you want to be young(er). Things are messed up.

The blistering seems to be resolving itself. Calluses were supposed to form at some point--apparently not yet. I think I'll survive in good order. This really isn't much of an ailment when compared to other members' and their families' situations. We hope and pray that all will resolve in a fine fashion and regain wellness as soon as possible.

 

[Bret4207]

Winelover, I believe those are the exact ramps he got. Thanks for the info!

L Ross, I get what you're saying but I have at least 9 tractors and all the assorted equipment like balers and haybines and if I say I have $12 or 13K in the whole thing that's probably $2 or 3K more than I actually do. Most I ever paid for a tractor is $2500. Different needs than the guy who can get away with just one tractor.

 

[Ian]

"Just quit taking it" say the MD who prescribed something he never bothered to read about any more than the apppication in DSM V. Epidemic problem with MDs. The next time ANY medical practitioner prescribes me something I'm gonna make them print out the prescribing information page and read the whole thing to me out loud right thenand there, so we BOTH know something about it.

 

[Intheshop]

Looks like one of those Apocalypse deer.
[/QUOTE]

Haha. Me and Chris(#3 stray) had fun with it. We decided that 200 years ago that would've been a big buck,in the days of.... if it flys it dies. Further,it was hanging up in the race shed,I dunked it in a 5g bucket of bleach which "cleaned" the skull so well,it falls apart if you look at it wrong. Just sayin,won't none of my good racks going up there.

Took bondo and sorta reinforced it? We were spraying the the back porch wicker the other day(same colour as those doors) and figured what the hey,spray bucky head wreath. Hung it and sent pics to all the boys/wives/Gkids. The oldest says,"the green looks like doodoo,got any gold". So went back and brushed gold on it..... henceforth the "apocalypse". Only cost me $100K (Savannah school of art design) for that bit of advice,haha. But,he was right.

 

[smokeywolf]

L Ross, shortly after I ruptured a lumbar disc, causing the sciatic nerve bundle to be pinched, in addition to the back pain, I had constant and severe pain in my left leg due to the Peroneal nerve in particular being affected. While the pain in my back and leg had me on oxy for quite a spell, massage and acupressure worked better at relieving the pain than the high octane pain meds. For my condition, the pain relief from the massage only lasted a little less than 1 hour, so it could not replace the oxy completely.
Don't even want to think about how it would have been without the massage and acupressure.

 

[L Ross]

Composite ramps, no bueno. I bought a set at O'Rielly's, got the 12,000 lb. models. Put my wife's 2015 Escape on them, no problem. Drove the front wheels of my F-150 up on them for an oil change and they squatted and split at the corners. I will say the O"Rielly's cheerfully refunded my money.

 

[Ian]

High-quality jack stands and a 3.5-ton floor jack are all I use at home, no use for ramps whatsoever for vehicles.

 

[JonB]

From the last 20 or so posts, it sounds like some of us could use a pick me up ?
How about a lesser known Christmas song? maybe that will help?
It's got a real sick beat.

 

[Ian]

MikeD and MCA meet 4Him.

 

[uncle jimbo]

Well JonB, that song give me a whole new perspective on Christmas.

 

[L Ross]

High-quality jack stands and a 3.5-ton floor jack are all I use at home, no use for ramps whatsoever for vehicles.

I'm going to make my next ramps out of planking. There are just times when a ramp or ramps are the solution to a problem. Other times I just need to do a quick oil change and it is much faster that the jack and jack stands.

And you are right, quality jack stands! I caught a couple of defrocked Amish lads that were day labor for my neighbor under their beater Mustang held up by an old bumper jack, in a gravel lot. I drove home, got a floor jack, heavy duty jack stands, and a wheel chock. Drove back, told them to step away from the car. I chocked the rear wheel, jacked up the car, put in the stands and left. A couple hours later they returned my equipment, thanked me, and sheepishly left. EMS may cheat Darwin sometimes, but I'll chip in a little help when I can.

 

[CZ93X62]

I do not trust ramps. The End. Good jack stands and jacks I trust well, if I set them.

 

[RBHarter]

I was thinking about my Dad and his prosthetic adventures .
Also this ;
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?222448-Why-Pearl-Harbor-is-important-to-me
Which I think is probably here too but I'm too lazy to write a story and look up buried threads too .