Finally! After 2 months of waiting and waiting we finally, on Thursday, got our truck back from the mechanic. They ended up rebuilding the engine to the tune of $2600. Still cheaper than going into debt to buy another car. The mechanic feels like the truck is in really good shape. Aside from the engine rebuild he found nothing else really wrong with the truck. He had done some work on the truck for the previous owner, but had no record of any transmission service being done. As a result he thought it prudent to have a service done on the transmission just to make sure. Aside from that we're good. He says it's running great. We still have money set aside for the truck and so will look into the transmission service and getting new tires. I have no delusions about the future in regards to our motor vehicles. I know things break and the time comes to purchase another new(to us) car. We don't buy brand new. Just doesn't happen. We buy used cars so I have no need to save tens of thousands of dollars. However, my goal now and in the foreseeable future is to put back some of our savings each month to a car account. This account will be used for either car repairs or a car purchase further down the line. My goal is to never go into debt to purchase another car. I make no promises, but that is my goal.
My life is work and tomatoes. More tomatoes than anything else. I have just come in from about 4 hours in the garden picking, weeding, tying up and cutting back tomatoes. Some of my plants have out and out died due to the hot weather we've been having. This is par for the course. Happens every year. They will start to come back in August as the temps moderate a little, and then I will have these large gorgeous tomatoes that never get a chance to ripen. For this reason, if there is no new growth on the plants right now, I get the good tomatoes and up it comes to make way for something else productive. Ironically the tomato plants with new growth are the one type of plant I really don't need...namely cherry tomatoes. They love all this weather and have no problem continuing to produce. Corn is starting to come in and I need to pick it yesterday. It was on my list of things to do today. I will get to it I hope tonight when it cools off some.
My gardening "second wave" will begin August 15th. That day I plan to plant more beans both green beans and pinto beans, and more squash. I will be starting cabbage plants sooner than that. Sept first will be my day to plant spinach, lettuce, and my cabbage seedlings. The tomatoes will still be going as well until the first frost (Oct 31st) and right before our first freeze I will be digging sweet potatoes. I can keep this gardening thing going a while if I have the time and inclination. Probably by the first freeze I will be ready for a break. Christmas will be on the way and that takes a lot of my time as well.
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