First World Problems

Well -- I did get to enjoy my 4 day weekend, but it was fraught with first world problems! Saturday was actually fairly low key, I did some shopping for necessities (and made a frivolous Ariat boot purchase), and spent time with Ruby. Saturday evening, the boat we were trying out got dropped off, which meant I immediately knew Sunday would have no horse time.

Clearance + Coupon = $28 boots FTW!

 

Sunday morning our mechanic friend came out to work on the brakes of my Silverado (in case you missed the fun story of having to drive it home without stopping power!). We also had him crawl under the diesel (an F-250 Superduty), because it developed a bit of a front end wander that we noticed when we were driving to/from Indian Camp Creek a few weeks back. He quickly identified the problem, but said we'd be fine to haul the boat down to the river and test it out while he replaced the brakes on the other truck -- so off we went!

Poor Silverado

The boat test drive went fine, minus a kind of odd incident backing the truck down the ramp (the brake pedal suddenly went down the floor, but the brakes held -- our friend was driving the truck and he commented on it, but we all assumed it was just a weird fluke). We had a good time putting the boat through its paces, then headed back to pull it out of the water and head home.

 

Pulling the boat out of the water, the rear end of the truck started making an awful grinding noise. Turns out the weirdness backing the boat into the water was not in fact a fluke, it was the truck slipping a rear brake pad. *blah blah blah insert mechanic speak here* but the end result was the truck was not safe to drive home, much less on a highway, pulling a boat that technically didn't belong to us yet. God bless our mechanic friend, he had just finished up on the Silverado's brakes so he tossed his tools in his truck and drove an hour down to meet us with appropriate parts, installed a brake pad so we could drive the diesel home, then spent another few hours completely replacing the rear brakes and rotors.

Did not plan to be broke down on the side of the road for 3 hours... haha.

Our mechanic friend also helped us get the parts ordered to fix the front end issue and checked out the intermittent check engine light in my car (because when it rains, it pours apparently!). Thankfully some savvy parts shopping for the front end worked helped balance out the unexpected cost of the brake work, so it all should come out in the wash. He'll be back out soon to finish the front end work, and then we shouldn't need any more vehicle work for the near future (knock on wood!). It's definitely a trade off -- we own older vehicles that we use pretty hard, so they need regular (and sometimes expensive!) maintenance. But a payment on a newer truck would be much more expensive than this maintenance (and out of our budget anyway!).

Poor diesel.

At the point when the repair costs start to outweigh the costs of a newer truck, then we'll have to look at making some changes. But for now, Kate (the Silverado) and Brienne (the diesel) [shut up yes I named my trucks!] should be pulling our horse trailer and hay trailer for many more years.

Is there such a thing as too much teal? Asking for a friend..... 

Thankfully I had taken Monday off work, so we were able to spend a day with my dad and step mom -- we hung out, played with the goats, BBQ'd, browsed an antique mall, and generally just had a really nice low key day. We also finalized the boat transaction, so now DH has a new toy to play with on his days off and that will hopefully keep him more occupied so I can do more riding! I'm sure I will also spend some time out on the river with him -- we ordered a canopy and a radio (as well as a little doggie life vest so the teeny dogs can occasionally accompany us), so I'm sure that will feature prominently on nice weekends! While Monday was overwhelmingly skewed towards relaxation, I also stepped on a bee (ouch) and accidentally popped a pipe under the kitchen sink, causing a minor flood and forcing us to turn the water off at the main overnight. Because if I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all? Haha.

Teeny dogs are judgemental about our lack of water situation.

Thankfully Tuesday we were able to get the pipe fixed (hooray for showers), and I finally got to ride! I spent an enjoyable afternoon at the barn with Ruby, poking around in the field in my endurance saddle and hackamore. Tragically I forgot my phone, so no photos :( but soon! I need photos so I can review my friend's awesome paracord creations! It's SOOOOOO nice to have Ruby so close. I can't get over it. I might start biking down to the barn (that's more attainable than jogging lol) because I need to get back in shape! (plus my brother sold me a bike so I could ride the trail with DH). The indoor should be really to ride soon, so I need to contact possible new dressage trainer about lessons and find my motivation! Hopefully everyone else had a fun and safe 4th!