Apocalyptic Homesteading (Day 1240)

Hello Everyone!

A long morning hike, A quick supply run, New wheels on the wagon & Some peculiar bird activities!

Alright, I am beginning my writing routine a good bit ahead of schedule this evening... because it has been a heck of a long day, my thinking is all over the place and I am fading fast to boot! Part of me wants to 'write off' the writing this evening altogether... but per usual I would rather slog through it all than to feel like I have failed to stay on track... so go figure.

Last night I was up really late yet again... but thankfully not quite as late as the previous two nights when it was close to dawn before I actually drifted off to sleep. I also only slept a handful of hours before waking up again... which yup is also what has happened the last few days as well.

Instead of doing my Hive engagement routine (or even brewing some espresso) I immediately set my mirror up outdoors... and set to trimming up the hair on both the front and back of my neck. Letting my hair and beard get all 'crazy looking' does not bother me all that much... but having too much of it tends to make me feel hotter than I really want to be feeling.

The other reason for the quick trim was because I have been running really low on food... and had run out of rolling papers a few days ago... which meant that a hike to that closest store was in order. The hike down the road itself was not too bad this time... because I did it during one of those 'perfect times' like I mentioned in a previous entry.

When I got to the store I was a bit bummed to find out that the place had been sold to new owners (for like the fourth time in three years) and while the store itself looked really nice... they had gotten rid of all the good grocery items. Heck, they were even out of the cheap rolling papers that I prefer... so I bought some alternate papers (which all leave a funny taste in my mouth) and opted to skip getting any of the overpriced junk food altogether.

After getting back from the hike I dicked around on the computer and sold off a bunch of HBD... so that I can afford to pay that deposit on the electric service for the new place. I was going to pay that today but decided I would wait until all the 'eclipse' madness was over... and do it tomorrow just in case the person that I need to call to do it was trying to watch the eclipse or something.

Just about the time I was going to get started on working on the packing stuff I got a message that someone was bringing my packages out to me... so I put doing anything that was 'too involving' off until they got here. My thinking behind that was that I did not want to get filthy dirty... until I knew whether I could bribe them to take me to that small grocery store that is nearby.

Thankfully, they had time to give me a ride down there... and I was able to get stocked up on a few items that I was nearly out of (like bleach and toilet paper) plus get some food to hold me over. After going to a real store the last time that I went on a real supply run... it was even more shocking to see just how few groceries that I got for the amount of money that I spent.

No complaints there or anything because the person giving me a ride would not have had time to make such a long trip (to a real store) anyways... and I am happy to have gotten stocked up on supplies again given that it is one less thing to stress about. I also got myself one of those 'treat' meals while I was out... and whoa it sure did do wonders for my morale once I got a chance to sit down and eat it.

Anyways, once I got all the supplies put away I took the time to open all my packages... and look at what I had ordered to make sure that everything was what I thought that it would be. I also wanted to unpack the new non-inflatable tires that I got for the wagon... and if at all possible get them installed on the wagon before the hour grew too late in the day.

As far as the tires go... I have some mixed feelings because although I got the right size for the stud which are five eighths of an inch (or 15.875 millimeter) I failed to get the right tire size. I really do not know how I buggered that one up because I thought that when I measured the stud size that I had also measured the tire itself... because the ones I was ordering did not list an actual tire size to compare to the old ones... but yup the new tires turned out to be much smaller than the old ones.

Honestly, aside from the wagon (or what I like to call my 'truck') looking a bit funky with the tiny wheels... and having a lower clearance... the new tires should work just fine. Getting the old ones off was a bit of a bear... and I had to use a crowbar to get them to budge... but eventually I got them all off and got the new tires installed in short order.

Another variation that I noticed is that the center of the hubs themselves (where the bearings are) were not quite as wide as the old ones... and there was a bit more play in the tire between the spacer at the rear of the hub and the cotter pin on the outside of the tire... than I wanted to have. I will gloss over how I hunted all over the place for some washers that were the right size (to fill in the extra space) but whoa I looked everywhere I could think of to no avail.

I did happen to find a bunch of washers with a nine sixteenths opening (or 14.2875 millimeters) but when I went to get the drill bit to enlarge them... I found out that I had remembered that bit as the wrong size... and it was only a half inch (or 12.7 millimeters) bit! At that point I was like 'the hell with it' and decided that although I could probably use the smaller bit to slightly widen the holes in the washers... the effort just was not worth it.

At that point I had kind of given up on the whole thing... and decided to go work on getting some of my routine chores done before the daylight really started to fade. I think that I was cleaning up the dog waste when I realized that the simplest solution for the wagon was to just slide the existing washer towards the hub... and cinch a zip-tie between it and the cotter pin to hold it in place.

Of course I stopped what I was doing and immediately implemented my solution... and yup there was just enough room between the washer and the pin to squeeze a zip-tie in there and get it cinched down. We will see how well it holds up over time... but for now I at least do not have to worry about the tires shifting around... or the bearings getting damaged due to there being too much play in them on the studs.

On a different note, during the solar eclipse my chickens started acting kinda crazy. In short both the hens went and hid in weird places... and both the roosters started making these wild noises that sounded what it sounds like when a hen is laying an egg which is something I had never heard before.

Well, I have rambled on enough for this entry. I hope that everyone is doing well. Ta ta for now.