Hard Times and getting by

No secret that I spent A LOT of money last year on big projects. Pretty much my entire liquid cash reserve. Then in November Mrs Kraps Cancer turned everything sideways. I don't care how good your insurance is the Travel, the Co Pays on every test, doc visit and prescription adds up to A LOT out of pocket pretty fast. She had like 150 days of sick days on the books and 130 vacation days that she used to keep her salary flowing in but all of the addition expenses ate through her pay checks pretty quickly. And Got pretty deep into my regular monthly income from some leases. And sporadic sales of grain and cattle. LOL at the end of the year we earn almost exactly the same amount of money but it comes in much differently. The original plan was to live on her income and recover the cash reserve with my income. It didn't exactly pan out that way hehe.

So for the last Six weeks we have been falling around $2000-$3000 per Month short and this will continue until Mid November. She had to retire and her Pensions won't Start until December and she was instantly approved for SSD That won't start until mid November. I just wont liquidate my retirement investments investments as the taxes and penalties would be like throwing money down a Government Toilet. On paper I am in great shape with a very large asset number but I am not going to sell land, base livestock and equipment. We could take out a loan to get us through but we both agree that breaking out ZERO DEBT for ANYTHING Rule Shall Not be broken.

So how to make up the short fall in Monthly income until her income starts flowing again????? JUNK has became the answer LOL. Like most working farms equipment beyond repair ends up in a fence row or a junk pile. So I have been running the Acetylene Torch around cutting old implements into chunks that the M5660 can lift with the forks.... around 2500 pounds and loading the GN Trailer up with 7500-14000 pound loads and hauling to the scrap yard. Light loads on the 20' utility trailer and heavy loads on the GN and have been bringing in $350-$1200 per load depending on what the implement I cut up is, or if I just use the utility trailer and take storm crunched steel roofing and siding , Chain Link and Cattle Panels and misc junk. lightest load I smashed into the utility trailer brought the $350.. There was a fair amount of old fence row iron here when I bought the place so its not all mine. Several old cars and trucks that I need a title for if I take them whole, no title required if I pull the engine take out the glass and cut them up into 3-4 sections I am a cheap ass and not going to pay the state for a junk title...... The acetylene and oxygen is cheaper.

After loading up two old haybines, a old square baler, a badly broken 4 bottom plow, a couple of wagons and the old mobile home this evening it will be another $1200 load tomorrow and put me right at $20,000 of junk hauled in over the last 6 weeks. I am quite pleased with myself cleaning up crap I should have done years ago and making good money at the same time. More than enough to get through this rough patch with money to spare........ And I am only half way through the fence row junk. I have been cutting the alternators and starters off of the cars and trucks and throwing them in a separate pile and have scrounged up around 400 pounds of old copper pipe and wire from my wore out appliance pile, the pipe was a big stack in a fence row that someone ran over with a heavy something long before I owned it and smashed the center of the pile. Scrap yard guy tells me that stuff will make a FAT payout when I bring it in........... and to be sure to shoot a hole in all of the appliance compressors before bringing them...............

The junk sure has taken a load of worry off of Mrs. Krap she had been fretting and worrying herself to death about paying the regular bills and the medical bills and that I would have to start selling off things I really don't want to sell off. So me coming home every 2-3 days and handing her 350-1200 in cash makes her smile....... Not something I have seen a lot of from her since the cancer diagnosis. That little Lady is the world to me and if I had to liquidate some stuff on the sly to keep her from stressing and worrying I would be selling stuff off out the back gate in a heart beat. She has more than enough to worry about without adding financial worries to the list.

Edit just learned of BTs Passing........... I am really not looking forward to being Where Alaskachick is now. The only thing harder than being the Cancer Patient is being the Cancer Patients Spouse It is damned hard to put on the brave face every morning and not let the negative emotion show and try to keep everything up beat and positive. This just ain't how our story was supposed to go. I Retire and build our new house and lake and ponds and she retired and we live a long time sitting by the fire ring roasting marshmellows and laughing to the end........ Can't even imagine my world with Mrs Krap in it. She has found a lot more peace in this than I can find.

 

Saws All with good blade to quarter
AND KK Your a Good man AND A Gentlemen .
Sir

 

Sorry to hear about the cancer returning. There are a lot of natural ways to attempt to cure cancer. One way I have recently read about is megadosing on Vitamin C. You can even get it intravenous. Most Lyme Literate MDs will provide this service.

https://www.cancer.gov/research/key-initiatives/ras/ras-central/blog/2020/yun-cantley-vitamin-c

You can also take apricot seeds.

Another thing to try is fasting. This can regenerate your body and purge any cells that are unnecessary, which can cause cancer. Sayer Ji is a helpful resource for this:

GreenMedInfo | Alternative Medicine | Vitamin Research | Natural

Animals and people who live in nature do not develop cancer. We only develop cancer when we live in our unnatural society, due to the chemicals we ingest on a daily basis.

 

The Latest Cancer-Fighting News

 

Seems like someone told me something about some food grade hydrogen peroxide , os something like that a few years back ,, that somehow sterilized the cancer cells .
If I remember right ,,,

 

Junk metal is cash. Prices are the highest around here that I have seen in years. Last year at work we scrapped the copper wire pile and bought a new John Deere zero turn to mow with, saving $2k a year on the mowing contract.

 

True I am gas cutting more to get my cutting skills back up to snuff, lol I am still ashamed of those first cuts on the mobile home frame!

First thing I hauled in was the old Massey 285 and when the Payout lady handed me $1227.68 I was like HELL YEAH the fence rows are coming!

Last Fridays load before I strapped it down and drove it off. Doesn't look like $1102 sitting there but it was. This mornings load has the last of the haybines from the fence row on it A ancient Heston and a international had to cut a lot more off of them, they each weighed about 800 pounds more than the New Holland on the main body and the M5660 just couldn't lift them without cutting the rollers and pick ups off. Todays gets rid of the last of the haybines! This makes me happy because they are a PITA


The New Hollands axle was still very solid and I might have a use for it. And amazingly the flotation tires on the axle are in great shape as well and I know I have use for them.


Thanks guys but there is no miracle cure for aggressive pancreatic cancer. We were lucky that it was caught fairly early and that she was even a candidate for the surgery. The Surgery and Chemo had a chance of curing it not a guarantee. With the Chemo 2-4 years, if she stops the chemo 6-9 Months. It is coming down to a quality of life decision and the final decision is solely hers to make. Since last November she was a very strong 175 pound woman, last doctors visit she is 85 pounds and has to have me open her med bottles. Then there is the constant pain that she is in that the meds take the edge off of but still there. We talk about it and she is finding it hard to think about continuing on for another 2-4 years with a steady decline over that time. It just plain sucks at every level and there really are no good options. What ever she decides as far at continuing treatment or not I will respect and support and won't like either choice even a little bit.

 

My prayers are with you and Mrs Krap ,,, I'm sure that's hard load to carry ,, seeing your misses in the shape she's in and not having anything you can do do to help ease her pain .
I truly hope the best for you both .

 

KK, I had a load of scrap but no good way to get it to the scrap yard without lots of little trips, ended up giving it to a friend who got about $250 for it. But he knew how to split it up and get the most bang for the buck, so to speak. Such as removing the radiator from the truck (yes a '96 f150 was scrapped). Funny thing was that he had 2 car batteries in the bed of his truck, said he would get $5 for them at the scrap yard, my daughter piped up that she would get $18 at Autozone (yes, she works there). He promptly pulled the batteries from his truck and gave them to her. He said there were a handful of 'tricks' that he has learned to get the best return at the scrap yard, none of which I was aware of, basically I would have been lucky to clear $200 if I took the load.

Sorry about your wife, I lost my dad to lung cancer about 15 years ago, I still remember his battle with it. It was hard seeing my dad going through it and when it spread to his brain we all knew it was a lost battle. 11 months from diagnosis. Praying for your wife and for you.

 

Yeah sorting it will get a lot more. Anything sheet iron is what what I have been hauling in as it is the most of what I have. The Copper, alternators, starters, radiators, burned out electric motors, compressors will make about 1/2 a Trailer load when I take them in. The Appliance metal, steel roofing and siding will be two loads and not worth a whole lot per load.

My big Money maker load will be the Soda Cans lol we sold cans of soda from the food trailers and put a barrel under a can crusher and asked folks to crush their cans after their meals. Amazingly and totally against the Liberal Narrative our Right of Center Customer base were great about throwing their trash in the trash can and crushing the soda cans and dropping them in the barrel bags. Anyway 15 years later I have at least 100 big trash bags full of crushed soda cans in the central part of the South Barn. I have a old 16' livestock trailer I am going to pack them all into and probably fill up the truck bed as well on that trip. That should be a real good payout. Then bring the trailer back and stuff it full of the crunched roof and side steel that won't be easy to put on a flat bed and drop the entire trailer off and leave it. LOL it is one of those trailers that if you are driving the truck in the ditch the trailer is riding the center line of the road.

A few more weeks of hauling and I will pretty much have all of the eyesores and junk removed. Just got back from taking the last load in. It was not as heavy as I thought it would be and only paid out $920 Not complaining LOL that is $920 I didn't have when I woke up this morning

 

The last time I hauled in scrap ,, I had a mixture of metals ,, but not enough to go to the trouble of seperating. But I took it in ,, had 2460 lbs of scrap. I got $ 24. 60. A penny a lb. That may have paid for the fuel to get it there ,, but at least I got it out of the yard .

 

Hope that those old plastic bags have held up over the years, otherwise you are going to need a grain scoop to get them back into a bag.  Been there, done that!

 

Been having some problems of my own recently, nothing medical thank GOD! They began cutting hours at work at the beginning of summer and now they are reducing almost everyone's hours, and part-timers don't get health insurance.  I and a lot of other people are looking for other jobs, and I have a good lead on a full-time position with another company.  Health insurance isn't going to be a problem for me because I can go the Medicare route, if necessary.  I really wish that I didn't have to look for a new job, because I like the company and the people, but as the song says, "...the moneys no good"!

 

Lamp

Prayer sent. I watched a brother, an aunt, father, and three uncles pass away from cancer and know that it is rough on you. I truly wish you and the wife weren’t going thru this hell on earth.

Jim

 

Those heavy duty big black bags from Rural King last forever under a roof. Outside and in the weather not so much LOL. UV seems to be their extreme weakness

 

Age will get them too! Hoping for the best!

 

KK I always said for a retired chap you stayed damn busy and yet here we are?

You love it!

 

I am working 5-6 hours per day and playing another 3-4 LOL. The work like garden, cattle, canning and the projects are a whole different mindset for me. I am not doing it for everyone else now, everything I am doing is for us and close friends. Oh I still dabble with the oldest loyal customers but they pretty much fall in the close friends list. Some of those folks have been loyal customers for 26 years. Watched a lot of their kids grow and a lot of them called me Uncle Mike and now and it makes me feel old some of those kids have kids that are starting to call me Uncle Mike. Can't just not raise enough extra to give them a basket when they visit. Just wouldn't be right in my mind.

 

I wish you my best. My wife wouldn't do any treatments that weren't recommended by her doctor. She lasted four years with over a hundred chemotreatments and a few weeks of radiation treatment. fasting to starve cancer is something I read about. Apparently cancer loves sugar. Some sort of THC treatment with concentrated THC is supposed to work wonders. my wife wouldn't try this. My much younger wife who was skinny and ate veggies all the time never smoked or drank, I figured she would easily outlive me but didn't. I do know a lady who did chemo and her cancer went into remission and she lived another twenty-five years.

 

Damn...$20,000 in scrap metal in six weeks. That's damn good wages! LOL!