Last of the tire swaps.

Took me a while, about 90 minutes all told to get the old summer tires off, new winter ones on, torque them down correctly, scrape, wash, and bag the summer tires ready for winter storage. So much easier when the seasonal tires are on their own rims. No fussing about with breaking beads, and getting tires over the rims etc… what a nightmare that is. I guess if you have one of those car shop bead breaking machines then it’s just more of an everyday type job. Not so if you are doing it with pry bars, 2 x 4’s, and a sledge hammer. Not fun. Don’t recommend it at all.

But the job is done, so I’m satisfied. It actually stopped raining, and got up to around 6°C so it wasn’t frigid outside getting the tires off. I wore work gloves because even if the air temperature is ok, that doesn’t mean metal items will be too. Working with fat numb fingers is no fun either.

I tried to remember to bend my knees rather than my back, but we’ll see later on if I’ve done a number on my back once again, or if I worked any smarter. A tiny wheely chair would be beneficial too. So would a flat & level driveway, but we get what we get, and we don’t get upset! Ha. The fact that 8 do have a 3 ton jack, matching jack stands (x2), wheel chocks (x2), a breaker bar, torque wrench, and an impact gun with 1150 ft pounds of torque for busting lug nuts is very, very handy. Like I said before if I had generational wealth then a separate heated/cooled shop with a lift in it for vehicle service would be high up on my list, along with a knee mill, metal lathe, and a full sized handsaw, and potentially a saw mill & log splitter at the farm too. I’d be processing wood for furniture builds like a mother fucker if I had all that gear, and the money behind me to use it without having to stop for a paid day job.

I got the Stihl MS170 chainsaw up and running once more yesterday, which is excellent news (so far), as it is nearly twenty years old, or there about. I too dream of upgrading the chainsaw to a bigger engine, and a longer bar. I think a twenty four inches would be ideal. But that’s a whole lot of saw for a little bit of work that I do with trees at the moment. Would help me process the longer thicker items at the farm though.

This year hasn’t been great financially, so I won’t be buying anything major until I get back to earning nearly equal amounts each quarter. Started the year out strong, and then had a dismal second quarter, a bit of a brighter third, and back to a slow fourth. If they were all like the first then I’d have the chainsaw, and the wood splitter too. Or maybe the handsaw!?! I don’t know. Gotta earn money to spend it. I don’t think I’d earn anything worthwhile with the log splitter so I couldn’t supplement the purchase price with paid work utilizing it. So not this year.

It’s not all bad, I did get new metal rack for the garage as a birthday present to myself. I used my visa card points to upgrade my mitre saw, and because I thought the first quarter success would carry over throughout the year (like an idiot) I upgraded my air compressor too. It was needed, my little one was having a real awful time. So I’m not hard done by, I just have my eyes on all sorts of toys!

Big news, well, mild news to anybody who can appreciate a real solid clothing purge. The school is running a coat drive for needy kids, and I was able to unload twelve to fourteen winter coats, jackets, vests, and rain coats. The basement closet, and upstairs Hall closet were the last hold outs for unused, outgrown outer wear. If they will take sweaters too, we can send in about sixty pounds worth of sweaters too. Now we need to revisit the shoes, old boots, snow pants, gloves and such. I’m sure with all these items going out a new bag of items will show up here sometime soon to take its place.

I have three 16″ chainsaw chains coming from Amazon today because I don’t fancy sharpening chains in the cold. This way I can try to process some smaller logs at the farm in the morning, after I drop off the summer tires at the storage unit. Dog gets to chase squirrels for a longer time. I get more exercise, and possible I provide myself with better sized wood to split. I might need to stop off for fuel tomorrow to keep the saw running for an hour or two. No biggy.