June 101 in 1001 Update

Another month, another update.  I did barely manage to get three complete this month.  I am working on others as well, but I'm really beginning to wonder if I'm going to actually complete this entire list in time!  (see my 101 in 1001 list here)  Right now, I have 198 days left, and 38 items to complete.  I need to complete 1 every 5 days.

20. Thoroughly clean/reorganize farm workshop (here)

DONE!!  My daughter had this as her June project, and roped all of us on the farm to work on it with her!  It looks so much better!  All the hardware is in one place, you don't have to search through multiple toolboxes for one thing anymore because it is all located in one zone.  We made zones for the oils/lube, the woodworking/electrical, the hardware and parts, and all the power tools, and then there are the main project counters!  They went from loaded full of stuff to clear and free!  Even mounted battery chargers to the walls, and put up a pegboard.  I still want to make a few things (like a shelf for charged vs need to be charged batteries next to the wall mounted chargers, and labelling the 2 remaining large tool boxes) but it is so much better!

23. Build cow fence (here)

Work has been slow, but it is continuing.  We have some of the wires up, but are waiting on more insulators to come in the mail, and my husband is picking up more wire today.

24. Work out a budget/farm plan for the year

Slow going on this.

27. Fix floor properly in bulk tank room  DONE

It needs to be done shortly after milk pickup to give the cement a little cure time before it is hit with all the water from the tank wash that occurs after the tank is emptied each and every time.  There is not a large window of time to do it.  So... I did it today.  It does look a lot better, but it is also still wet.  Hopefully it will cure ok (even though every time the robot washes, we get water running everywhere).  Happy to be done this, but likely will need to revisit this one on an almost yearly basis.  Anyone know how to protect the rest of the bag of concrete from hardening on me?  We have 3 different half opened bags of hardened concrete I've found on this farm now.

47. Do ‘on farm’ work that saves us at least $20 000 from if we would have hired out.  (12500/20000)

So, I filed the farm taxes again this year, and oh boy am I happy I finished!  This was the first year I had some initial problems where it wanted us to pay taxes, but I was able to see where I made a mistake and fixed it.  So thankful for that.  Anyway, that is another $3000 saved (might actually be more, since the price of everything has increased so much and $3k was the approximate charge in 2020).

Also, after reorganizing and cleaning the workshop, I went online to search for what it would have cost us to hire that out.  It was such an overwhelming job that there was actual talk of doing so.  With a bunch of research, it looks like it might have been about $3000 (looking at half day charges, full day charges and estimations of how many days it would take a huge team vs the whole month it took us, also there were estimations for things like workshops, garages, etc).

Also, fixing the floor would have cost about $300 to hire out.  At least, that's the number I found.  So that's what I'm putting up there.

49. Find a way to pay for a garage/expansion without a loan

I think I may change this one as it is not looking to be something we will do.  I do need a new kitchen.  Perhaps that is what I'll pop in here instead.  And that will be simple enough to pay for as I have managed to save enough to do so if I keep on budget!  Hopefully we can get the kitchen built by fall.

78. Visit Mennonite Museum and dress the part  DONE

Canada day was the perfect opportunity.  We donned our most Mennonite like clothes (long skirts for some of us, and high necked shirts, bonnets/hats or little head scarves) and went to the museum.  We used the old stroller that I refinished 7 years ago that is from the 1930s and wheeled that thing around all day.  I will say, the newer strollers are much easier to fold, have better storage, and nicer turning radius.  But that's all fine.  It was fun to go out, enjoy the festivities, and 'dress up' a little.

63 down, 38 to go.