Day 209, Truck shopping

I went to bed last night and forgot to turn down the thermostat, so I woke up at 2am roasting and I had to get up and turn the heat down.  I like a cool room to sleep in and I usually set the heat to 65, but I left it at 70.  You wouldn't think 5 degrees would make that big of deal but it does.   Needles to say I didn't have a great night sleep.
 

2010 F150 Lariat



It was actually warm enough to wash the truck this morning I managed to get it done before going to church at 11am.  After church I went to lunch with my good friend Doug.  We went to Mazatlan Mexican Restaurant for our usual and of course it was excellent and fast.



With a clean truck, I thought it would be interesting to go back into Bend and see exactly how far apart my 05 King Ranch is from a new 2010 Lariat.  Anyone can pay full price any day of the week, but what I'm looking for is a deal.  The 2010 is now a year old, with the 2011 out and just 6 months until the release of the 2012 models.   At some point they have to have some incentives to sell the last of the 2010 models.  With just one more day in the month, dealers are usually are anxious to get vehicles off the lot.   After about 30 minutes it came down to $14,000 difference between my truck and new one.  I didn't feel that was that great of deal and my truck is still a great truck so I think I'll keep it.  At least now I know.

Tonight it's the Oscars and then to bed.

Day 208, -8 for the low.

WOW, did it get cold.  Several times during the night I woke up  and could tell the house was fighting off the cold.  The furnace ran non-stop trying to keep the house warmed to 65 degrees and loud pops and cracks would ring out from time to time as the extremes tugged at the house.

I got out of bed around 7:20am, got dressed and took fresh water out for the chickens.  Sure enough, their water was frozen solid.  The girls were all up and about walking around the pen and scratching in the feed.  They were very happy to have the fresh water and they drank up quickly.  It was now, -1 and climbing.

I had a number of chores to do, including picking up more feed at the feed store, running in to Bend to go to Costco and getting the changed. in the truck.  When I get my oil changed it gives me the opportunity to check out the new trucks.  To my surprise they still had a F150 long box, 2010 Lariat on the lot.  The full retail price was nearing $50,000.  I figured they would have some huge rebates on the 2010, however in true car dealer fashion, there really was nothing special and the best they could do is about $45,000.  My truck is a 2005 F150 King Ranch with 38,860 miles.  I didn't even want to know what they would offer me for a trade-in, but I wondered if $14k and my truck would get me into the 2010????  I just needed to walk away and forget all about it.  My truck is paid for and I don't need a new one.


22' 1950 Spartanette


I did text with the trailer restoration guy and he's going to get my triler into his shop the second week in March .  He wants to take a good look at it and give me his thoughts.  He say's it has had a lot of damage and the restoration might exceed the value of the trailer.  I told him I would go off his findings and if I need to let it go and find something elese I would do that.  I have actually found a 1950 22' Spartanette that could be an excellent trailer if the Traveleze needs to go down the road.

The temperature managed to climb up to 31 degrees for a high.  It was already warmer than yesterday and the low for tonight was expected to be in the teens.  The chickens survived the cold and really didn't seem to bother by the cold,  they even laid 5 eggs.

Day 207, So Cold

We didn't get much snow on Thursday, but the cold weather sure showed up.  As I drove to work my truck was reading 17 degrees.  It was so cold, the streets had that frozen look with snow blowing across the pavement. 

It was your typical Friday at work, Coffee Clatter from 8:30am to 9:30am, lunch at 1pm and then home at 5pm.  I did manage to come home at lunch and let the chickens out.  I even open the pen door to see what they would do.  I needed to refresh their water, because their water was frozen.  As I walked back to the house one of hens followed me and then the rest followed.  Once they realized that the snow was cold they walked up on the rock wall and stayed there, they seemed to be in shock.  I don't know if they would find their way back or not, so I picked each one back up and put them in the pen.  I was freezing and I worried about them freezing as the temp dropped even more tonight.

By the time I got home at 5:30pm the Chicken's water had started to freeze again.  The water sits on a heater, but it was just too cold to keep it from freezing.  It was now 15 degrees and the weather predictions was for -1 tonight.  BURR.  I decided to changed the light bulb in the coop to a Heat lamp and I hopped that would keep the chickens warm.

It was so nice to be home and to have the weekend in front of me.

Day 206, No Snow

After all the hype about a big snow storm coming our way, we got a dusting of new snow.  Throughout the day it snowed off an on, but nothing of any significances.  They did get correct that the temperature would drop, but even that didn't seem to dramatic with a high of near 30 and a low around 15.

The day was pretty average as Thursdays go and at 4pm I left for my workout.  I brought three dozen eggs with me, two for my trainer and one for the owner of the gym.  I swapped the two dozen eggs for two loafs of bread from Great Harvest with my trainer and gave the other dozen away.  Great Harvest bread is amazing so I was really happy.

That was about it for my day.  I came home and did 2 loads of laundry to get a jump on my weekend chores.  I was feeling beat so I was going to turn in early.

The forecast is for more snow, we'll see if they get it right tonight.

Day 205, Wednesday

This was a very ordinary Wednesday and the only big news was the pending winter storm that was heading our way.  It snowed off and on lightly all day and every time it would snow a little harder, we all wondered if this was the start of the big snow storm.

This is with a nighttime setting, when it's completely dark out.

I came home for lunch at noon and checked on the chickens.  I had some leftover potatoes from dinner, which I figured the chickens would like and they did.  They only laid 3 eggs, but after yesterdays 6, I figured they deserved a break. 

The day was very uneventful, and I had brought my camera to work to show them my pictures.   We have the same camera in the office, so we are all learning how to use it.  I've been very impressed with it, if I can make a bird house look good, than we should be able to get some great shots at work.

I was home by 5:30pm and it started snowing around 8:30pm with a constant light snowfall.  The weatherman said we could expect up to 6" by morning.  It will be interesting to see if he is correct

Day 204, Tuesday / Monday






House at night

Starting the work week off on a Tuesday is a great feeling and after having a 3 day weekend I feel rested and ready to go.  Of course this also means I was a day behind and I had a lot of work to do to get caught up and this means I was really busy, which made the day pass very quickly.



I had my workout at 4:15pm and following that, I had a meeting with the Sons of Norway Lodge to review the financial and hopefully get our taxes ready to go.  The one thing I really do not like to do is the paper work for paying taxes.  It's all a foreign language to me and that's what accountants are for.



The potting shed and Venus.

I got home around 6:30pm and I was eager to play with my camera again.  It was really dark, but I wanted to see what the camera could do.  I did manage to capture some neat shots and push the camera to it's night time limits.  The snow really reflects the light and made for some great pictures.  When these photos are enlarge you can really see the stars in the night sky. 

Day 203, President's Day

Having an extra day off was a wonderful treat.  I slept into 7:45am and enjoyed every extra minute just laying in bed.  I really didn't have much planed for the day, just a few chores in the morning and then return a DVD that I bought to Costco.


The 2011 KIA Optima



It was another sunny morning, albeit, cold.  I checked on the chickens to make sure they had fresh water and plenty of feed, which they did.  I left the coop door open or a while to see what would happen, but they would not venture out onto the snow.  They seem to be doing fine in their confinement and don't seem to have any issues with being cooped up.

Around noon, I ran to Costco and returned the DVD (I didn't pay attention when I bought it, that it was a Blue Ray disk).  With the disk returned, I grabbed a cart and of course I could leave with out spending more money and buying a few things that I couldn't live without.  I actually just ended up buying food, which will last a long time.


My home at night, as captured by my new Nikon D5000.



After Costco I wanted to stop off at the KIA dealer across the street and check out the new Optima.  I keep seeing the commercials and thought it was a pretty sharp looking car.  I wondered if they would sound solid or like it a tin can.  To my surprise, it looks and feels like a very sold car.  I decided that I need to drive it to see how it sounded and even here the road noise was way less than I imagined.   For the money it is a really sharp looking car, full of options, with the feel of a car that is much more expensive.

After KIA looking I headed down to the Old Mill District to check out the winter sale at REI.  I actually found a few Christmas gifts for next year at a third of their original price.  So with my items purchased it time to back home. 

As the sun went down I grabbed my camera and tripod and snapped a few pictures of the house.  I am amazed at what this camera can do and that "I" can actually take some great pictures.   With the camera set on "Dusk/Dawn" I was snapping pictures long after I thought it would be possible.

I am really impressed with this camera and I am excited to learn more about how to use it.

Tonight I have no plans, so I'm just going to kick back and enjoy the eventing.  Happy President's Day.