Normally on Monday

Posted on April 21, 2025 by Kelsey

I would normally take Monday off, but money is required, so I worked today. It was not a bad haul for the time I worked. I am happy with it. Towards the end of the day I heard a noise coming from the right front brake. I decided with a little investigative work that it was because the brake was overheating. So, I figured that I should have greased a part yesterday that I did not, and when I got home, I got down to it and greased it after removing the wheel and partially disassembling the caliper. The test run produced no noise. I will check it out further tomorrow when I can really open her up and try to get her hot. (That sounded bad!) But the brake pad making contact with the rotor creates heat, and if I fixed it, it won’t do that anymore.

Apart from that, nothing significant happened at work today. It seems to be paying a little better, and while it could always do with being more, it is easier to make a decent amount now than it was a couple of weeks ago. I cracked $200 yesterday. That does not include the loss to the fuel tank, the car maintenance, which is genuinely costing lately, and other things like meals and etc.

I will not be going back in tonight. I have laundry to catch up on, and I helped Missus with a couple of things she had listed that she could not get without a helping hand. The best part of all was having gone to do a day at work then come home and feel well enough to do these other things, from the car to the help to the laundry. A year ago, no chance! None! Not at all. Gotta eat life up while I can.

Posted in Delivery Jobs, Journal Entry, Regular Update | Leave a comment

Wins and Losses

Posted on April 20, 2025 by Kelsey

It is just four in the morning. I checked the DoorDash app, and there is work to be done down in the city right now. I would imagine the volume is low. But it is there. I kind of wish I could go down now, but disappearing off this time of day might not go down well, and it might not leave me the energy for later then I know the volume should be higher. I got shorted last night because I was getting a lot of noise off the brakes telling me it was time to change the pads, and I did not want to have to replace the rotors, too. So I called it and get some pads then came home and changed them. Had about 1/8th of an inch on the right-side front, and a little more on the left. My youngest helped me with the change, and she learned along the way. The test proved we had done the job well. So I will be able to go to work later today and try to top the week up with enough to get through it.

I learned recently that last weekend one of my classmates from high school passed away. In the same breath, I learned that he and his wife were no longer together, though they had been high school sweethearts, more or less. So, it was a double stun. I was surprised on both accounts. It was a guy I had nothing to do with, which in that school is a very positive thing. I got hell from so many people there, and for anyone to not be doing anything at all practically makes them my best friend! I do remember him laughing at a joke I made in a class we finally had together towards the last year. I did not know I had it in me to make him laugh. I was kind of proud of that. Anyway, now he is gone, and I feel a bit surprised as he was one of those guys who worked out a lot, and along with that I associate health. Now their daughter has lost her father, and mother has had her own scare that put her close to death in the recent years. Oh, mother is a lady I have always respected. Damn decent human being right there. We worked together at the grocery store in those days. She was a very beautiful lady, though for whatever reason, I never fancied her in the way. I always just saw her as a friend, and really appreciated her, even if it was also for not being one of the people who liked to kick.

Right, all that sadness out of the way, I am going to have to try to get back to sleep here. It is coming up to 4:30 in the morning, and I need to make up for lost time earning my pennies today. That brake job cost me about $50 to $75 in earnings last night on top of the parts I had to buy, which turned out in the end to be around $90 for pads and the bolts I may have broke and stretched out with the impact wrench. Har har! Don’t I feel dumb! I thought I could use it to get through the inevitable rust, and in the end, I had better luck doing that with the breaker bar. And putting it back together is where the trouble occurred. Best do that all by hand in the future. I also had the typical trouble with the stupid socket being interfered with by a nearby flange of metal that got in the way while working a bolt. Ain’t that just about right?

It is normal, anyway.

Posted in A Death, Delivery Jobs, Family Time, Journal Entry, Memories, Regular Update, Special Update | Leave a comment

Working For A Living

Posted on April 8, 2025 by Kelsey

What a tiresome old night it is to wake up at 3AM and find myself still awake half an hour before the alarm is set to go! Who wants this? So I try to distract with YouTube and videos about chainsaw sharpening theories, and political commentary. You would thing this would have put me right back to sleep! An hour from now I will be getting ready to drive the girls to the bus stop and send them off to school. I will then be heading down to work in the city for most of the day. How I would rather lay in bed with the computer open and writing a little story about the Will o’ the Wisp dancing across a marsh, and catching the eyes of two curious children who follow it a moment, then watch as a light sets aglow beneath the water and rises up to reveal a ghostly figure that invites them to the peat bog with a dulcet voice of their long dead mother… Well, you know. I would rather lay about and daydream all day. That’s what I mean. Or at least go to the marshes and observe and take notes for just such a thing.

I don’t experience tiredness the way I once did. I will no doubt get through the day. It use to really kill my head, but now it just seems to lower my energy levels some and make me more mellow. Ah, I mean, really, I’d take the day off if I thought I could afford it. I typically give myself Monday’s off. I figure I need one a week. But like yesterday, I took the day off, worked a bunch out in the Service Yard cleaning up and getting ready to finish the woodshed and process firewood for the year, but then I went down and worked for the evening. I am fed up. I love driving, don’t get me wrong. But I am pushing too hard and burning out. I want some real ‘me time.’ Maybe it is just transitioning from before to being a worker bee again. But it is getting to me, and it is getting to me that I have to go so much just to try to keep up, and not even to get ahead; ahead so I can take a day for me, proper.

It was a little progress in the yard yesterday. A big thing was proving that the chainsaw sharpener was worth the investment. I was able ot cut up some logs with an old chain that had gone dull on me, and I sharpened it good enough on a first try to get it operational again. It did a fine job getting through plenty of wood. I even tapped it into the dirt once on accident, and it still had enough edge to cut just fine. The sharp chains will make it easy to get the logs to rounds, and I can store the extras after I have got the wood pile up for the coming winter, and I have got the rack built and loaded for sales. I cut all the rounds yesterday to 16 inches. I say that. I never measured any. I just did it by eye, but I would put money on it. It was good to get some of that done, though.

Well, time is coming. I need to get the day going.

Posted in Delivery Jobs, Firewood, Journal Entry | Leave a comment

So Today Was…

Posted on April 6, 2025 by Kelsey

Fun! Today was fun because I worked with my youngest daughter at my side while delivering food around. We did a bit and made some money, in fact, $50 exactly, to be exact. But while we were slow I decided to take her up Center Street to the mountain end of it, where the houses get bigger and bigger as you go up. When I got to the top, I turned around and went back a couple of houses to where I saw what looked like a garage sale laid out. Well, well, my goodness. There was nobody attending it, and a big sign in front that read…

…And with lawnmowers there, who was I to argue? Incidentally, by the time I took the above picture, I had already loaded the one I chose. It was nicer than what it still there. I got it home and tried it out and it would not start for love nor money. So, I thought about the three things needed for combustion and decided to cut to the chase and put some starter fluid in the carb. That got it going a bit, so I know air and spark are fine. It is having troubles with fuel. I may have to rebuild the carb, though I will try some cleaner first. Probably a clogged jet or flooded floats or something else I can hardly remember from my teenage days. But at least we know it will run. Not a bad price for it! And it is a John Deere. It is no cheap bottom end model, either. So, I will try to get it sorted and see if we can’t keep up on some mowing this summer with something that has a bit of power to it. 6.75 HP to be precise. Let’s give it a go!

Anyway, we came home, and I got to work on starting to clean up the Service Yard ready for things like wood cutting and finishing the woodshed construction. Some of that was just splitting up some log rounds that were sitting out there, and some of it was moving wooden fence posts out of the way. I got at it and found that by the time the light was getting short, I was still not tired, so I came in and did some dishes. I felt accomplished by the time I was done with that, and that’s when I came to write. Man, it is good to feel good! I want you to really appreciate that, and to go to the person you know who dies not do so much because they say they feel awful all the time and be kind to them, and appreciate that when they say they feel horrible and like they can’t do everything they want, it truly is a debilitating thing, and their best life will never measure up to your worst days. I mean, I have some things like sore arms from driving, and pain in my legs from standing and things like that. But none of it comes close to what I felt this time last year, and for many years before that. I was way worse! And I did not know it, the cause of it, and what I could do about it. And all it turned out to be a change in diet, and for me it was simple. But remember, not everyone is so lucky. So, give them the care they need, and please just allow them to be them. I was waiting for my wife to tell me off for doing dishes with the comment that not once when I felt horrible and could not do things did, she ever give me grief over it. So let me do the damn dishes. But she kept safe and clear. Ha! Oh well!

Well, alrighty then. I will have to work tomorrow. I need to change the oil proper in the car before we go to visit family this week. I want to be on the road with a fresh filter. I add enough oil each week to keep that fresh. Ha! I wish I could fix that on the cheap! Anyway, I see the weather is meant to improve all week till Friday, then top out in the mid 70’s before cooling off again. It is already lovely out. Spring has sprung. Couples are being romantic down in the city, going for walks, laying together on the grass, cuddling up at the bus stop. It is sweet.

I am desperate to make some changes, but for now, I have to do the work I am doing to keep things rolling along so that I can make some changes. But cleaning up in the yard and preparing for log work is also a part of it. I did not finish the Service Yard, but a little progress is just that. Progress.

My daughter was a lovely little helper today, and I really enjoyed the time with her on her last day of Spring Break. I look forward to their summer break, but I hope they do more with it than they did with the last one, or with this Spring Break, for that matter. Kids!

Posted in Delivery Jobs, Family Time, Regular Update | Leave a comment

All About Burning Out A Little

Posted on April 5, 2025 by Kelsey

Today’s DoorDashing got to me after a few hours. I could have stayed and earned more, but sitting in the car, looking out at the same sort of view, maneuvering through traffic, dealing with all the people who are messing about on the road rather than driving, then it’s mostly ignorance in the restaurants where people are just too busy to hardly acknowledge a person; there is just not a lot to entertain a fella. I had a book of wordsearches along and was buzzing through pages in that between runs, like it was nothing. I think my brain is running at a different speed right now.

I saw the protests down in town. It is good to see people raising their voices, no matter the side they take.

I also got called out to a house that I was at yesterday. Funny enough, the GPS called me to a different road and took me through a driveway that led finally to the same one I came in on yesterday, too. It is a big house. Like, I drove through a neighborhood of big houses to get there, then arrived past the guest house, which was the same size, then the big house. It was a big house. I would hate to clean it! I am pretty happy with the house I have, thank you very much.

It really was a lot of just bouncing around today. I could have done with a break in the day, and perhaps I need to do batter at that. I could stop around 2PM and take time off till 4:30PM and maybe do some photography or something. Then I could catch the high points of Dashing and get some time for me for something I enjoy but cannot otherwise do! It’s not Golden Hour, but what’s that to someone who knows how to use a camera in all times and conditions? Ha!

So, I came home early today, just after doing a run to Cafe Sabor. That took me to Smithfield for delivery, and that close, fed up, and over my daily minimum goal, I am happy to go see my family! I would like to see my lovely little woodshop, too! But family first! I need to get some time in there doing some work. I want to make a thing.

I had to add oil to the car today. It leaks it or something. It does not seem to burn it. I think Honda has a problem with the lower seal on these engines. Therre is not much I can do about it unless I want to rebuild it. I don’t really want to rebuild it. But that means I will bear the brunt of the cost through loads of oil. It never leaves marks on the driveway, but it is messy and wet underneath. Then I have to ask how often I really should change the oil? I put in synthetic, which is meant to last 7 to 10K miles. The computer starts screaming at 3K, of course! So, I am over, now. I am over by about 1K. I plan to change it very soon, though. I was thinking on Monday. Add it to the lost of things I want to do when there is time! What a laugh! As soon as my health is on the up and up, I can do more, and now I cannot get it all done!

Right, then. My bed calls me. I plan on a workday tomorrow. I could do with setting a record. I won’t, but I could do with it.

Posted in Delivery Jobs, Journal Entry, Photography, Regular Update, Woodshop | Leave a comment

Chain Grinder

Posted on April 1, 2025 by Kelsey

Okay, so the chain grinder arrived yesterday, and I put it together and figured out its workings and a rough idea of its settings. I say rough because there are several adjustments for a chain, and I am only pretty sure I have got them right, though I always allow for human error, or in other terms, for me to fuck up. Nah! What are the chances of that?

I put on a chain and gave it a go, then hung it up on a peg in the shop labelled “sharp.” Then I got another one. I recognized the dirty pitch on it and remembered that a few years ago I replaced it because it was cutting off to the right pretty badly. Funny to be able to remember a chain among many chains, and what was wrong with it. So I gave it a go, then put it on the saw and ran it out in the service yard. Well! It cut true and fast. I am not totally confident I was getting it right because while it did produce a lot of good shavings, it also made a fair bit of finer dust, and I’d like to get past that and refine my sharpening for more shavings. Either way, it was a straight cut. I also wonder if I took down too much of the metal on the chain and could have got away with grinding off less to accomplish the same.

I only did the two chains to start with in the end so I could get a feel and now go learn some more about the workings and settings so I can see if I can find a better grind. I mean honestly, I am fairly sure I have the correct disc on the machine, but I am not completely. I suspect it differs based on the size of the chain, and two of my saws use smaller chains. The third wheel that came with is for the rakers, so it has a flat profile rather than the rounded ones of the two sized discs. I am going to want to set chains aside while sharpening several, then doing those rakers all at once, rather than changing the wheels between each as I go.

Alright, so this is all more complicated stuff that I am not sure the reader or the Russian bots will understand. I mean, it turns out it is fairly easy to understand, but that is with the machine sat in front of you. It is not so easy to explain and understand the way I am going about it here. But really this is more for my own benefit as a journal of the moment that changed my productivity with the chainsaws and made it possible for me to get the logs down faster and with less effort. It should mean the beginning of the firewood business. There is a couple of tasks yet to do, but I should hopefully be able to sell firewood from the front of the house soon, and keep stocked up. I need to build my sales stand, and I need to get the winch fixed up and start getting more logs. All to come soon.

Today begins a marathon week working deliveries. I took yesterday off despite the urge to go get ’em when the app was showing me that it was busy in the city. I only looked because I got an alert on my phone. But apart from that, I stayed clear of even thinking of it as much as I could and just focused on resting. I have only given myself one day off a week so far while doing this. It’s not my dream life. It is certainly not my dream job, though I do at some level enjoy it. Surprisingly, I don’t enjoy the people as much as I thought I would. There are a couple worth talking to. But that topic must result in more than a new paragraph.

Right then! It is 6:45AM. I should like a little more shut eye, then it’s up and ready to start the marathon. Sometime in it I will have to put a pause on and change the oil in the car. A quick Google says that by using synthetic oils, I can extend the changes to seven to ten thousand miles. I am at 3,300. I do have synthetic in the engine now, for at least two oil changes. I went with it when we bought the car because a person is not supposed to switch back from synthetic once they start using it, and I have no idea what past owners used, so since it is a one-way gate, it is best to go into it, or to stay into it.

I think I would also like to watch the weather and the ground this week, and get some saw-time in when I can, and start getting the wood pile going. Oh, and there are oil changes to do on all the machines, and also a repair on the winch, and getting ready to start at acquisitions again, while it is cool out! Summer heat is thankless and cruel! I think I need to remember to build up a shade canopy to work under out there in the service yard.

Posted in Delivery Jobs, Firewood, Journal Entry | Leave a comment

Oh the Horrors!

Posted on March 30, 2025 by Kelsey

I have been quiet lately because I have come back to the work-a-day life I was in 20 years ago and more. Once again, I find myself working day after day to make hardly enough money to get by on. I really am not getting by at the moment. But maybe soon, after I figure out some new strategies on earning. I have the chainsaw sharpener coming tomorrow so I can start getting some logs cut down and some wood ready to sell. So that is one thing. DoorDashing is a joke. I will turn just over $550 total this week between working two apps. Then there is the fuel, something like $150. So now we are down to $400. No taxes accounted for yet, either. By the time I sort that out, well, you bet I better be keeping track of my miles! That’s my only hope. I also tend to need to eat sometime during a eight to ten hour working period. I would call it a shift, but that seems inaccurate when I am choosing when to start and stop. And with so much time, I need to account for it being more than I bargained for when I started doing it. I had hoped I would get some time in my shop to make things to sell, too. But that’s not really happening.

Okay, so tomorrow is a day I am taking off. I try to take Mondays. I need a day for me. I need a day to help out with the family, too. Once the chain sharpened arrives, I think I will be working on setting it up, getting a couple of the chains reconditioned, and seeing about how I hang them to keep dull ones apart from the ready to go ones. I don’t yet have a plan on where I will be putting the thing in the shop. I can cut up a few more logs ready for splitting, and who knows, maybe tackle some of that if the sharpener arrives early enough. I could also do with looking at getting the tiller on the tractor and getting it ready for some work. I do have a couple of gardening goals for the year, even if not a full garden.

So, I am keeping kind of quiet on here because I am just to damn busy working to balance it right now. No big deal. I am sure it will sort out before too long. But you know, we do what we have got to. As I have mentioned, I have a plan, and more plans, really. I also am finding the social side of working very disappointing. People have changed over the years. The ones I encounter are largely so superficial. They barely like to be involved with being at work. Even at the shops where they are generally pretty good at the customer service, there is little that is real behind the facade. So, the work is lonely. I almost never meet a customer. I have no company in the car, where I spend half or more of my time. That pretty much sums it up. Lonely, lonely, lonely. Or fake. There are maybe two or three places where I have met some people who are friendly, and real. I am always chuffed to go to them. But due to the randomness of the app, that is not often.

No worries. I will sort things out and try to get to doing some real work earning some money from home yet. There has to be something better than this! Besides, I cannot expect to make money while systematically destroying our car. So, it has to be done.

Posted in Delivery Jobs, Firewood, Woodshop | Leave a comment

Thoughts on Earning Money for 2025

Posted on March 26, 2025 by Kelsey

I am doing a lot of work for the money I am earning. I can go and spend loads of time in town just to scare up $100 in earnings for the day. A third of it goes right back into the fuel tank on the car. Then I still need to account for a third for taxes. Well, $60 out of an hundred is not leaving much to cover bills and food and the like, and if I am not careful, that third can vanish on a meal and a bottle of water for the car just like that. When I said we could get by on hobby jobs, this is not what I meant. I did not mean jobs that just took up all our time and gave us nothing in return.

I cleaned up in the shop yesterday evening in the hopes I can transition to sometime in there making some things to sell at market. I think it might be nice to start to transition off the driving for free and into something I can do for a little money. But then, that might be a hobby job, too. I guess we’ll see. I am also getting set up to sell firewood soon. I need to get that rolling and I need to be ready to do a lot of cutting, so I have the proper chain sharpener on order and arriving Monday, and from there, I will be able to put the chains I have in use, and get some serious cutting done. A good sharpener is a fair chink of change, but it is on PayPal, and I got a decent price, and there is meant to be a bit of cash back and a rebate to account for, so it will come in around $100 cheaper than what I could have bought it off Amazon for. Well, we’ll see when it settles in against the credit account. Then I get six months to pay it off interest free. Well, considering it was the only hurdle left between me and that serious cutting, yes, I considered it a necessary purchase.

I have not been able to maintain my chains very well. I find files break in my bag and go dull too easily. So I have half a dozen chains just for the big saw that I have not been able to keep consistent sharpening on. Every tooth needs to be pretty consistent, and I am not good at doing it. So I think the machine will make up the difference and will be easier to keep chains running longer for me before they are too worn not to discard. But right now, I have good chains with dull tips I just can’t seem to bring back to life by hand. That sorted, I have a lot of good chain to use right now. I also have two other saws, and one of our kids has one, so we will need to be able to help him keep in order while he plans on being down here to cut wood for his place. I want to be able to bring a couple of conditioned chains with me when I go get wood, because it takes a second and no intention to completely dull a chain. So it would be good ot have a couple of extras ready to go since they are simple to change.

In other words, I feel good about the purchase of a sharpener, but the price is high. And in typical fashion, I go for professional grade, so I don’t have to buy it again in a year. It’s meant to be for life, and to eventually go to a kid or grandkid. I will eventually get diamond blades for it so I don’t have to dress the stones, and they can produce even more consistent results.

So, the plan is, I am getting some cleaning done right now in my free time. Then, in the next few days, I will also get the oil changed in all the equipment. I have to four stroke motors that need freshening up with the season. One on the sawmill, and one on the log splitter. Then I get the wood milled for a sales stand for out front. In addition to that, I get splitting wood to start drying for said rack. I will have to set up for a couple of types of wood. I cut about 20 inches for myself, but people tend to like 16 inches for their fires, so I will do that for public firewood.

I am also planning on cutting rounds. There is meant to be lots of rounds! They seem to be the preferred method for drying wood for a bit before splitting them. I could go straight for the split, but my theory on why I keep seeing them around on people’s fences and the like is that they are like round bales of hay. The shed water more easily, and cand be drying a bit from the ends like a log will do anyway, but the dry gets into them much faster than a whole log. So they are a good way of setting aside wood for splitting as an intermediary step before committing to a big pile of splitting wood for the shed or the rack.

Okay, so there is a lot of work talk. On a personal level, I have been doing good at it all, despite the tragic condition of my health over the course of my life. So that has been wonderful! Keeping physically more active than I ever thought I could has kept me in good cheer despite not making a lot of actual money. Being able to strategize more possible earnings has been good, too! I am lay in bed typing this, and I feel muscle pains for the activity I have been up to, but good hell, this is so much lighter than the day-to-day pain I used to feel when the joint inflammation was there. I worked yesterday for several hours, then came home and cleaned up a lot in the shop. I also kept up on my chores around the house, and when I say I feel better than I used to, in the old times, I would feel worn out from say, walking across the yard. So, yeah, slight improvement.

So the shop is getting cleaned up for the season. I need to get the big beams for the woodshed finished and out of there. I have asked a lot of those who have come out to access the freezer in there for having to walk over those beams! I won’t be doing that anymore. Time for them to have to push around a piece of furniture instead! But yeah, just getting up all the wood shavings and clearing the floor and what was on the one bench went a long way to getting it sorted out in there. I also got rid of some scraps of wood that were lying about and clogging things up. There is only so much someone can save! But there is also a lot to do in there still, and I think that I will be able to with the physical limitations severely reduced. So I am going to have to put free minutes to use and go balls to the wall. I need to get the steam box sorted out and get after some steaming. I have everything I need to do some shaker boxes except the practice. So, there is no reason to keep putting that off. I should separate off a YouTube channel and do the woodworking under the title of The Angry Woodworker or something like that. Anyway, the point is, I am getting myself set up to try to make some money in the shop as well as the firewood yard.

I have a kid who has a wood stove in his basement. He likes to be busy, too. So he has it all figured out that if he buys a trailer and sets it up to haul firewood, he can come here and get wood where I do, then keep his house warm all winter while also allowing to spend time with family and such. If he comes through, then we will be taking the tractor to get the wood, making that part of the job much easier, too. Once logs are on the property, we should be able to process them into all kinds of saleable stuff. Not to mention I can sell the time on the mill to make slabs and beams and such for folks. I am more ready to push than ever, and I am more able to, as well. So here goes what may be the best warm season of my life yet. I hope.

Posted in Delivery Jobs, Firewood, Regular Update, The Farm, Woodshop | Comments Off on Thoughts on Earning Money for 2025

First Day of Frogs

Posted on March 25, 2025 by Kelsey

Today is the first day of frogs for 2025.

Posted in Journal Entry, Regular Update, The Farm | Comments Off on First Day of Frogs

Writing on a Driving Break

Posted on March 21, 2025 by Kelsey

I really need a hobby for while I am driving and there are slow times. I do log into a second driver app, but I don’t like to unless I have to. The second app seems to like to send me out among the lilies. I can more easily control where I am heading with the one at a time. I think it might be slower today because there is a $2 per delivery bonus incentive. I don’t know, but I would think I would be busier than I am, and I’m not. There are probably other drivers out thinking they should be busier. Maybe I will turn on that second app.

So, today, in lieu of a hobby, I brought my computer along so I could press keys and moan about it all. I ate a lunch at Del Taco, just to see if I could get something more friendly to a low carb diet there. I am pretty happy with it overall. I will see how I feel later. That is the real test. I did not have any immediate negative effects. Sometimes, such as when I have a burger in a bun, I can feel the pain in my wrists from the inflammation right away.

There. On. Let’s see how long till I get an order. And done. McDonald’s but it is something.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Writing on a Driving Break