Gosh, it just keeps coming. 😕
But I will get to that.
Slept decently well last night. That was nice. I think the angle was slightly off on my bed, so there was a little bit of irritation in my back, but not too much.
Woke up later started listening to rules for radicals again while eating breakfast.
I forget which of my rabbit foods I ate for breakfast, but I ate something. 😅
I decided to try and finish contouring the spot where the burn pile had been, moving the last of the dirt out and putting it elsewhere.
That involved both the skid steer and the mini excavator. It took me a good little while, but I eventually got the area where the burn pile had been contoured decently enough for me to feel okay about it. I used the extra dirt to reduce the slope of some places down there where I’ve been living. There are multiple places where the field drops off pretty quickly before leveling out again, so I added the dirt in order to reduce the slope angle.
I did that in two main places.
The skid steer kept leaking, of course, but it is what it is, And it got done what I needed to get done today.
While I was working, I got a response back from my accountant who had mentioned some concerns about my salary that my S Corp pays me. Apparently, for the last however many years, it looks like maybe I’ve been doing the salary portion incorrectly. My understanding was That you base your salary on the average salary in the area. I was a mechanic, and when I started doing mechanic work, I looked up the average salary in my area and based what my S Corp paid me off of that.
When my accountant asked me about it, what wage I wanted to pay myself, I told her what I had found for the average wage. She mentioned that she thought that might be a little low, so she suggested that we do 40% of my profit as my wage.
So that’s what we did.
Now I’m finding out for my accountant that it’s a lot more involved than that, and That to do a reasonable wage calculation, which is basically necessary for accountants now because they are the ones who get fined if the IRS audits and fines that their reasonable wage was too low or too high. It’s like a $5,000 fine for the accountant if they don’t do it properly.
And there’s a pretty good chance, I would guess, that it’s been done improperly for the last… Ever since I started my S Corp.
I’m waiting to hear back from my accountant. I’m pretty discouraged. Maybe things will be just fine. I don’t know.
😞
I went down to the creek twice to take dips in the creek. It’s brutally hot today. Like yesterday.
I think I’m doing a little bit better at hydration and food, but not much better. I ate breakfast. And I ate half of a cantaloupe for lunch.
I know I’m dehydrated, though.
Horse flies around here can be absolutely huge. And they’ll dive bomb you. Drives me nuts.
I’ll tell you one thing, though, being in the water takes all the back pain and nerve pain away. So nice. So so nice.
And I’m grateful for my lifestraw water bottle, which allows me to take a drink from the creek without any concerns about getting sick. Of course, I could probably take a drink from the creek without getting sick anyway, as I’m filling up from the spring that bubbles out of the side of the Hill into the creek. That used to be the main source of water for the big house anyway. Well, not that spring, but the other one about 50 yd away.
After cooling off for the second time, I finished taking apart the hydraulic cylinder that tilts the bucket, the one that’s been leaking super badly.
It took me a little while to find the tool that I needed because I had carefully stowed it away and forgotten that I had put it back in its original box, so I looked all over, emptied out a bunch of the van trying to find it, frustrated and discouraged and overheated and dehydrated and overwhelmed, but only one flyer came out of my mouth.
I think only one.
I’m starting to catch myself ahead of time because it’s becoming a habit to be thinking about it now.
We’ll call it a win.
I still had a bit of a meltdown, though. 😕
It just didn’t involve a whole lot of profanity or cursing at God.
Gratefully, I was able to get the hydraulic cylinder fully apart with my impact wrench and didn’t need to take the whole thing To the equipment place again.
I finished my dip in the creek and getting everything taken apart just in time, as when I plugged WT equipment into Google maps to see how long it would take me to get there, it had me getting there at 4:55, with them closing at 5:00.
So I gave them a call, told them I was on my way, and they set the seal kit on the counter for me so that I could just walk in, buy it, and walk out.
I think I must have gotten some favorable light combinations, because I got there about 4:51, and was back out the door I think probably by 4:55.
🎉
Now I’m on my way back, clouds got dark quickly, and I’m hoping that there’s not rain over at the house, as I can see clouds that are raining in the distance.
Wasn’t supposed to rain until like midnight tonight or something. So I didn’t even really think about it. Was blue skies with a few clouds here and there. So I’ve got a whole bunch of stuff laying out on the ground from when I was digging through things to try and find The tool to remove the end of the cylinder.
So yeah, it’s just about 5:15 p.m., and that’s where we’re at. I’m waiting to hear back from my accountant. A bit nervous with what she’s going to say.
I’ve got that super sensitive conscience that says, well, if taxes were done wrong, and you Would have owed more money had they been done right, then you need to go back and do them correctly.
If they were done incorrectly, and I lost out on money that I could have gotten back, then I probably wouldn’t worry about it. I would just say great, we’ll call it a wash, unless it was a substantial amount of money.
I like to err on side of caution, which means I usually eat it if there’s any question about what’s right.
🤞
…
It’s 10:53 p.m. now.
I’m back in Rover listening to random raindrops smack against the van. As of right now, there’s a light rain, and then the occasional heavy drops from the tree above me.
But I’ll get back to all that.
As I was driving home from WT Equipment, the rain started getting to the heavy downpour stage with only a couple miles to go before I’d get home.
I looked at the clouds in the hopes that maybe the storm might not be happening at home, and gratefully, as I pulled in, I could tell that it had rained a little bit, but the downpour hadn’t yet begun.
🥳
I quickly started putting things away, back in ET and what not. The rain started coming down again while I was putting things away, And then it started coming down harder, and then there was a flash and very very quickly after that, the crazy loud crack of thunder.
I don’t know where the strike happened, but it was certainly close enough that it wasn’t thunder that I heard but the loud, sharp, crack!!!
I quickly got everything else put away and headed up to Jim and Steph’s to bring Jim the tractor manuals that my mom had given me to give to him.
I stayed and chatted a little while, first with Landon about his first days of teaching, which brings back memories of my own time teaching.
I miss those days. I was exhausted and overwhelmed, but I absolutely loved my students and loved teaching.
🐿️
Chatted with Stephanie about things that were going on at her work. Chatted with Jim about what’s going on at his work. Chatted with Jim about what I’ve been listening to with the Rules for Radicals book.
The book’s been interesting so far. The author’s got some things in there where he makes some good points that make me think a little bit. He’s also got some things in there that I think are destructive and divisive, but I think he would agree with me and just say that it’s important to do it that way because of x, y, and z.
Anyway, I like learning about others’ perspectives. I often learn valuable new insights that help me think a little bit more broadly about things.
Mr Alinsky’s ends and means discussions have me thinking a little bit.
I like that.
After chatting with Jim for a little while, We were talking a bit about what I’ve been doing down by the greenhouse, and I suggest he come down and take a look. So he came down, and I showed him all the different things that I’ve been doing, and we talked about where to go from here.
He likes what I’ve done so far and suggested that I use the dirt that still needs to be moved and to continue filling in the lower spots that I’ve already started filling in.
I’m glad he wants the dirt there, as it means a lot less driving back and forth all over the property with loads of dirt in a skid steer bucket. 🙃
He’s going to put weed cloth down inside the greenhouse area, and I’m going to take the old plastic from the Oklahoma greenhouses and put that on the ground on either side of the greenhouse to keep the weeds down, and to set the greenhouse parts on top of. That’ll make sure that the weeds can’t grow up between the greenhouse parts like they have been.
Then I’m going to level everything out one last time and call it good. I’ll let the rest of Haven Hill decide what they’re going to do from there. But it’s going to be ready to go if they decide they want to do anything with it.
Showed him the dam as well, and the ramp that I had recontoured down to the dam. As we were talking about it, and as I was showing him what I’d been doing down there, he suggested that maybe we put in a ramp in a different spot on the creek. Where we had the ramp before, the bank on the other side is like 10 ft tall, so it would take a heck of a lot of work to try put a ramp back up the other side, and we’d be destroying large root systems of very large trees that are right next to where the ramp would need to be cut in.
So Jim suggested that we actually cut the ramp about 40 or 50 ft further down. The bank on the far side of the creek at that point is actually very low, Only a few feet above the creek itself. So it would be super easy to cut in on the other side of the creek.
I think that’s the new plan. Cut in a brand new ramp down to the creek on the near side, and then it’ll be a heck of a lot easier to cut in a new ramp to the creek on the other side.
Then Jim can take the tractor across the creek and start taking care of the land across the creek better, because it’s not getting taken care of at all right now. 😅
I don’t think anyone’s been able to go across the creek since I’ve lived here, and that’s been over 8 years now.
Wow, 8 years.
After chatting with Jim, he headed back home, and my mom invited me over for dinner, so I headed over her way. While I was there, a second storm rolled in, with warnings of 70 mph winds and 1/4-inch hail.
The wind did come in pretty strong, though where we were, I don’t think it ever got to be even close to 70 Miles an hour.
And gratefully, no hail.
But lots and lots and lots of rain.
And the power went out probably three times while I was there? Off then back on a few minutes later, then off, then back on 10 minutes later, then off, and then back on, etc etc.
Weren’t just little brown outs. They were full-fledged blackouts, but instead of lasting hours, each one only lasted probably 5 to 15 minutes?
I do love big storms. 😊
Got my mom’s shower curtain down. It’s an easy reach for me, but my mom would have to get up on a stool to do that, and she’s been losing her balance a little bit more lately, so the thought of having her standing on a stool to try and undo the shower curtain… uh… no.
Rearranged a few things in the basement, as well, as the rain had been blowing sideways enough to come in the basement door and start flooding the basement a little bit.
The rain on the drive home was coming down crazy hard. The last little bit was the worst. On our dirt road, coming down the hill to the mailboxes, the rain was so thick that even with my wipers on full blast, I couldn’t see probably more than maybe 15 or 20 ft in front of the car, so I was going really slowly.
Oh, how I love love love the rain storms here. 😊
I stepped out to see how deep the water was in the creek, and it actually wasn’t all that deep… yet.
I wouldn’t be surprised if my dam doesn’t survive. A Heck of a lot of water came down. I’m curious enough that maybe I’ll actually wander over to the creek right now, even though it’s almost 11:30, and see.
As I pulled into where I normally park my Civic, I didn’t realize that it was a puddle of water, so I pulled in, opened my door and took a step, and found that I was in about 2 in, or so, of water.
Fortunately, I was wearing my water shoes still, So it wasn’t really a thing, just an “Oh, I’m parked in a big puddle.” 🙃
Then I tried to move Rover back to the position he needed to be in in order to sleep decently, but nothing doing. I made it about 30 or 40 ft before the van got stuck in the mud.
Gratefully, it’s stuck in the mud with his nose pointing uphill, so I think I can just sleep with my head where my feet normally go and not have too much of an issue?
🤞
I guess we’ll see. 😊
On a different note, it’s really really hard to not be able to just jump online and veg out in front of something. I’m so used to being able to just stop my brain and just take in some mindless stuff.
But going back to the commitments I’ve returned to again and again for many many years now, commitments I return to because I actually believe in them and only stray from them when I’m really really struggling, I find that I don’t have any way to just veg out.
I can’t play music because then I think about what I’m playing and then I think about wanting to write more, and I think about wanting to be better at what I do play, and on and on and on.
It’s not restful or relaxing, it’s creative and anxiety producing. 🙃
I don’t really have anything yet to replace the media, so I’m having some withdrawals from that. 😅
As mentally and emotionally challenged as I am right now, I need some way to just disconnect and regroup and re-energize.
I need to find that quickly.
In the meantime, my journal entries are a little bit longer because I’m not able to just veg out and escape the world. So… I’m writing more here. 🙃
Coming up on 11:30. Time to go to bed. I’m going to wander down to the creek, hopefully avoiding any deathly poisonous snakes along the way, and then climb back into the van, hopefully not as muddy as I expect I will be. 🙃
Oh! Did I mention that I think I figured out that I’m actually okay with my S-Corp stuff? I personally booked 936 billable hours last year. With my level of expertise and experience, if I tried to go get a job at another shop, I wouldn’t make very much money. I’m really good at the things that I can do, but relative to what all is expected of a professional mechanic, I just… can’t do it. I don’t have the education nor experience, which means I wouldn’t be able to command much money per billable hour getting a job somewhere else. I think the average entry level mechanic around here makes something like $15 to $17 per billable hour.
Even at $20 per billable hour, 936 billable hours doesn’t amount to much money. Not even $19,000.
So, I guess this is one area where it pays to have neither the education nor the experience to command a high wage. 😆
So I think I’m okay! In fact, I might be better than okay. Who really knows. 🙃 But I’m a lot happier than I was earlier today, and I need to remember what I’ve remembered today about billable hour and expertise and experience and all that.
Health updates…
Back is a little on fire. Nerve issues. Pain, heat, tingling–all that stuff.
My mom mentioned she’s a bit concerned about it for the road trip, as last road trip, there were days where I didn’t even leave the van because I was in so much pain.
Definitely a valid concern. Good chance it would be a reprise, especially with me starting the trip already with my back and nerves freaking out.
I think I’m going to lose the fingernail on my middle finger on my right hand. If so, it’ll be my first one. 🙃
Other issues as well. If they persist, I’ll mention them. Otherwise… I think my next step is to make an appointment with a back surgeon and get some images done, x-rays and MRIs.
I really ought to see a skin doctor as well and have one of those checkups where they go over all the moles on your body. After the couple sunburns that I’ve gotten this summer, I’ve had a whole crapload of new moles decide to start, and skin cancer does run in the family, so… I best be getting on that. 😅
Need to talk to one of my sisters about that swallowing issue that apparently she shares with me. It keeps getting worse and worse. There was a new symptom with it today, but I forget what the new symptom was. Just a new time that I felt the catch in my throat.
I’m sure it’ll happen again.
Anyway, just about a quarter to midnight, so I’m going to hang it up for the night, …as soon as I walk to the creek and back. 🙃
…
The dam survived!!!
As of 11:55 p.m., the dam is still in place, and it’s full to the brim and overflowing. But it’s still there!!! It survived!!!
🥳
Heck, maybe this flood that came will bring enough debris with it to seal the parts of the dam that are leaking so that from now on, it will pour around the sides of the dam.
Probably wishful thinking, but… hey, got to find hope somewhere, right? 🙃
Maybe in some little things first…
Tried again to help break back into my friend’s old old email account, but I think it actually tried to do her current account. 😆 So she’ll probably be getting a text message saying someone’s trying to access her account.
😅
What a day. 🙃
Love and hugs.
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 