Health wise, Sharon and I are doing pretty good considering. Sharon's Parkingsons causes her mostly pain at times for which she takes her meds to counter. She's concerned about her memory issues she thinks is failing her, but I keep reminding her that at our age, memory does not function as it had when we were in our 30s & 40s. Myself, I have those moments where I go for a tool then get to the tool box and forget what I came for. My old age goal is simply age as gracefully as I can. Learning new and complex things just takes longer to absorb. Myself, my heart issue has not created any concerns. I try to consume more health benefit foods. I eat a ton more vegetables and far less red meat and fatty foods. I admit I consume too much red wine and salt which I'm sure I'll pay for later, but growing old gracefully doesn't mean giving up all vices. ( smile ) My April visit with my new cardologist was uneventful with no major issue to be concerned with. The cardologist that performed my four stent placement left for another medical practic. I really like him as he was a great communicator and shared some great tips on healthier lifestyle. I'll really miss him.
I finally managed to get on top of all the vehicle mechanical break-downs. Well, at least to the point of they not consuming all my time. Sharon's Bimmer is running fine and my Windstar trans issues still exist, but not to the degree of eminent treat of failure. This has enabled me to work on other projects. I've install two Old Hickory brand sheds. A smaller 10x20 barn type shed for the purpose of clearing out the third bedroom in the house which currently exists as a storage room. The second shed is a 12x28' garage type shed to store our tractor mowers in. We really liked the paint scheme on the first 10x20 shed that we decided to paint the house the same scheme. I managed to get three fourths of the house painted before bad weather set in. Of course the addition of the 12x28 shed interfered with the house painting schedule as I had to engineer a concrete slab and get concrete poured and set before the delivery of it. It was a tough schedule this fall, but managed to get tractors in a cleaner enviroment out of the bird poop, dust and critter trailings. We still store motorhome in the big three sided shed, but it's there to keep the ice and snow off the top.
Thats about the major highlights of the year for us. I don't know if I mentioned it, but I purchased a new John Deere 1025R tractor with a 60" mower deck and 4' bucket loader. Our Kabota 1860 has been a very reliable mower/loader, but I started to get a little nervous about its 760 hours. It still runs just fine and will use it primarily for spraying. We mow the propery here for the purpose of fire prevention because we are totally surrounded by wheat fields. I couldn't take a chance of mowing being delayed due to tractor break-down. John Deere offered a financing plan that was well within our budget. The 1025R has been a wonderful addition to our tractor needs for this property.
That's a wrap for 2020. ( smile ) Hope you and yours have a safe, healthy and happy 2021.
The last several months, I've been plagued with auto failures. Small things to begin with then much larger things recently. Sharon's Bimmer has been pretty faithful over the years, but recently I noticed a slight vibration developing towards the rear end. An internet search revealed that BMWs like hers develope an issue with the rear universal joint at the differential. It was slight to begin with, but lately it started to get worse so it was time to investigate.
BMWs are not the most easist vehicle to work on and this 328ci convertible is true to that form. To get to the drive shaft, a front cross-member support has to be disconnected and dropped, then the whole exhaust system has to be disconnected and dropped down. Then there is a heat shield to be removed as well and another rear cross-member. This is a two piece drive shaft that not only has to be unbolted from either end, there is a center carrier bearing support connecting the two halves. A very time consuming task.
Sure enough, the rear u-joint has gone bad. Now the big issue... the u-joint is non-repairable! The whole drive shaft is designed to be totally replaced as a repair option. I searched the internet and found a remanufactured drive shaft through Part Geeks in California to the tune of $450 which I ordered. I installed the remanufactured drive shaft and after all the work to install it, discovered it had a vibration issue as worse as the old drive shaft I took out. In the mean time, I discovered the fabric convertible top rear seams starting to separate. Wonderful! So, I sent the remanufactured drive shaft back to Part Geeks and waiting for credit. Not only am I searching for another drive shaft, I'm now researching replacement convertible tops. So, Sharon's car is out of commission for the foreseeable future.
This brings me to my Windstar van. It is now displaying signs of inevitable failure as well. The transmission at 230,000 miles is starting to display error codes of torque converter clutch slippage. This is a major, major issue for me. Changing the transmission is not a trivial task as the whole lower front end needs to be dropped just to get to the transmission. I don't know if I'm able to tackle this task on my own and I certainly cannot afford to have it done by a repair shop at the tune of approximately $4000. I found a used transmission with garantee for $600, but still, taking it out and putting back in is a major task. The van is still drivable if I'm careful to drop to lower gear on steeper inclines, but the fact that this is necessary tells me the end is quite near. Fortunately I have AAA in the event is does completely go out that I can at least get it hauled back home.
With all this vehicle repair uncertainty, I've put more efforts into our 1990 Chev flatbed truck. Just before the snow quite falling here, I put new studded snow tires on it. I needed one vehicle to fall back on in the event the Windstar went completely down. This truck has 280,000 miles on it and I purchased it just to have a pickup for hauling garbage to dump and for general hauling. So, the high milage was not an issue for me as it has become a good runner after fixing the steering and going through giving it a good tune up and correcting some bad engine sensors.
When the snow stopped falling, I decided to take truck in and remove new snow tires and re-install the old highway tires. Again, I was met with disappointment. I discovered the old tire has severe cracks in the treads and that they were eleven years old! This forced me to spend MORE money for new highway tires. Wow! What next! At this point, the old truck is in fairly good condition in the event the Windstar dies. Every day I wake up thinking... what next? ( smile )
Aside from all the vehicle misery, we are starting to think about getting garden ready and going. I pickup up some starter planter boxes and potting soil to get some plants started inside the house this year. Last year, a very late freeze took out most all that was planted by seed in garden. I'm sure hoping this year is not like last year. We just cannot let our plants get frozen this season.
With that, that's about the jest of what's going on around here. Sharon is doing well, but is having some recurring pain issues that are good some days and bad others. Myself, I have an appointment with my cardiologist April 2nd for a check up as to how my ticker issue is coming along. I've been feeling fairly well so hopes he doesn't find any major issues either. Fingers crossed... ( smile )