Full Size Jeep Network

So some big news from my world. Those who pay attention to any of the random stuff I post may remember that just a few years ago I could barely walk, was unemployed, and life was suckin' big time. Once the VA finally got spun up to start giving me back injections, life started to change. I enrolled in school (good) but got involved working at a shop that went South when the boss's mismanaging caught up to him. He (supposedly) attempted suicide and I got stuck holding the bag. Spent the last month there trying to get customers their vehicles back, deal with vendors and tool folks that were owed money, and a landlord who was trying to push me out before I got the owners stuff put into storage. It sucked... A LOT!
Around may I finally began making progress with a government job working on ft Carson and by October I was back to a steady, decent paying job I enjoy. The wife and I have struggled and skrimpted and sacraficed and it finally has paid off. On 03 July we closed on our house and on Independence day we moved in.
It's south east of Colorado springs and is a small, simple, modular (not mobile) home that sits on 35+ acres. It has a well and the property is flat enough for a decent size shop whenever we can afford to build one. As I sat on the small patio watching the sun go down and drinking the first beer I've had in probably 2 years, I realized I have finally made it!
There are a million projects to attend to and I need a riding mower (eventually a tractor and bush hog) pretty desperately but I'm super excited and life has gone from bad to awesome.
I've even started to get the herd set up in a small motor pool of my very own.



Just wanted to pass on the good news and say thanks to my fellow jeepers who have always been there for us!

Congrats.

Thanks man!!

Congratulations!


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66stepside wrote:Congratulations!


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Thank you sir!

35 acres... that's like a dream! Good for you. I am happy it is working out.

Congrats

will e wrote:35 acres... that's like a dream! Good for you. I am happy it is working out.

I know, right! Location isn't too, too far out there but you still have to plan to avoid an unnecessary trip. The nearest gas station/food/parts store is about a 20 minute drive.
I plan to take the scrambler out Friday to explore the back acreage. Hate to admit it but I have not even seen it.

It has been a roller coaster for you it seems. Good to see some things looking up

Congats.... on keeping on through all of the obstacles you and your wife have been through in the last few years. Enjoy your house & property. seems like you've earned it.

Thanks guys!
Fwiw, I'm not too far from RAM off-road park. If anyone is heading there, feel free to give me a shout. I'm also not far from Dragonmans but with 35 acres I already have plenty of room for my own range.

Congratulations! There is nothing like sitting on your own porch, taking a minute to rest, looking out at your property, and realizing how much you have to be grateful for. Your property looks great.

Ted, that is wonderful news for you and your wife. Very pleased that your hard work, all the saving and expense trimming have all paid off so wonderfully! It's great to read about good things happening to good folks, especially as hard as you worked to do right for your boss and all his customers. Looks great proprty and a great crop of Jeeps already growing. Congrats

Great news! Happy for you. The struggle is real, but the payoff is so good.

Life’s struggles man !! Congrats on perseverance and success!
Most people give up and/or settle

Props to ya !!


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Thanks everyone. Living the dream!
One thing that isn’t so dreamy about the place is there is not one single out building of any type. I have absolutely no place except the spare bedroom to keep any tools and HH6 already put her foot down banning that idea. But since there are always mountains of projects I am going to NEED my tools, even just the home repair/construction ones for now. Driving back and forth to storage is a non-option. But not having any place to store them presents a need. A need... for a shed! Not a full on shop or garage, just a relatively simple, dry, somewhat secure hut to keep things I will use.
Miter saw, compressors, hand and yard tools, etc. The biggest hurdle is cost.
In a word, we are BROKE. Not broke like before when ramen noodles were a luxury. Simply feeling the impact of a new home purchase, move, cost to break our apartment lease, etc. So funding a spending spree at Lowe’s is pretty much out of the question. So what to do...?
Scrounge!
THAT I am very good at! And since there isn’t really a time crunch (beyond maybe winter coming), I can put my scrounging skills to work.
Today I did just that and started gathering wood. One nice thing about working for the government is the waste. My job gets a goodly number of pallets and shipping crates in all the time. Not having anything to pull my trailer I’ve been a little hamstrung in what I could carry. Today I kinda said “screw it” and turned poor Walter into a pickup. Well, not literally. I simply mean I put him to work.
First I had to crawl in the back and fight the rear window clips to let the glass drop. The motor/wiring is a disaster but I had to get it down. Walter fought back a lil and took a bite but, in the end, I won.
As my last break of the day arrived I drove around to the back of the building and began loading whatever looked useful. Some wood is simply 1x? pallet wood that I had sawzalled up a couple weeks ago. Mostly it’s 1x4ish and lengths from a couple feet to over 7’. Then there is some plywood and OSB that used to be crates. Most of that is 1/2” and have a border of 1x around it. There is also some “special” wood I was able to hide. The army has a variety of flatbed trailers for many uses, mostly construction (engineer) vehicles. Some of these have wood decking that is some sort of ultra hard wood (think teak or mahogany) though I’m not precisely sure what species it is. It’s all about 7-8’ long and vary between 4+”s- 8”s in width. It’s also about 2 1/2”s thick.
As the boards get beaten on they eventually fail and after a while they must be replaced. But just because the last couple feet are split doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of use in the rest. I have about 6 or 7 of these and will keep collecting them as they become available. I plan on running them through the planer and turning them into an antique style dining table. If I could get a lot more I’d be tempted to even make counter tops from it. This stuff is that(!) hard. We’ll see where that goes when the time comes.
I was able to get about half of what I’ve already selected as useful loaded into Walter. It did make him squat some so I’d guess it’s around 1000-1500lbs. He took it like a champ and drove fine all the way home. Looked a lil Beverly Hillbilly but who cares. Not me!



More to come as this moves along slowly.

I see half a shed right there in the back! Keep going man, your winning now in ways you don't even realize. Behind you 100%.

Fleet Fox

So I need help. After riding the mower for about 6 1/2 hours yesterday ( only stopping for gas) I was exhausted. Sun set and I called it quits. Went to put the gas can in the Waggy and noticed the dome lights were on. Guess they came on with the tailgate down. So being exhausted and stupid, I simply slammed the tailgate.
CRASH!
Shattered the tailgate window!
Not the end of the world, it didn't work anyway and I have spare tailgates in storage. But my issue is the dang dome lights are still on. I checked all the other doors and the headlight switch. It has to be the tailgate.
So what wire do I need to cut to stop that from killing my battery?
Help!

My tailgate doesn't have a switch for the window. I have to manually turn on the switch on the rear cargo lamp. Mine's an 84 though.

I'm going to have to look at the fuse block and see if I can just tank the fuse for the dome lights. Hopefully that's all it controls. Don't really want to keep disconnecting the battery every time I park it.