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Ugggh permits. Bane of existence. Good luck with that. Your regular water must be pretty expensive if you turn to a well for irrigation. It gets spendy here during the summer but it keeps the plants green and my wife happy word.
mspart
Yowzah, 91F today, 90’s all week. I’ll water the lawn and place a lawn chair right in the middle of the shower.
I spend about $75 per month 10 months out of the year for water, the about $225 in July and August. Part of the issue is the sewer bill (public sanitary system) is a percentage of the water bill, about $50 per month. I end paying a disposal cost for the water not going down the house drain.
Hey Ryou,
Yeah, that is how most jurisdictions do it. I know in UT, at least in parts, they have a different water feed for watering lawns that are not subject to sewer costs. My water bill grows similarly for Jul-Sep.
2 months ago Diesel was $4.39/gal. It is now 4.89/gal and will go to 5.01/gal Jul 1 with a new 12 cent/gal tax that is coming. We have a CO2 thing here that jacks up the price around 50 cents/gallon. So very expensive to drive around here. My VW Passat is a diesel and it works pretty good.
Our high temps are coming in about a week. Today 78, next 3 days in 60’s, next 2 in 79’s, then next 2 days in 80’s. It has been fairly dry, although it rained +.5 inches last weekend word.
mspart
NJ fuel Tax is 44.9 cents per gallon for gasoline and 51.9 cents per gallon for diesel fuel.
Regular: $3.134 per gallon.
Average cost per gallon
Mid-Grade: $3.669 per gallon.
Premium: $3.908 per gallon.
Diesel: $3.651 per gallon.I pay on the low side for regular at about $2.90. It was down to $2.70 earlier in the year. We’ve got some Exxon stations that are charging +/- $3.70 per gallon.
Cheap gas here is $4.29/gal. We had my wife’s cousin here a few months back and they couldn’t believe how much gas was. They are from NH.
I think the gas tax here is 0.50/gal, then there is the CO2 tax which adds 0.50/gal and now a new gas tax takes effect 01 Jul that adds 0.06/gal for gas and 0.12 for diesel. They don’t want us driving Internal Combustion Engine cars so they subsidize the electric cars. Now there are so many e-cars that they aren’t getting the gas tax they want/need so they up the tax on us and are proposing a mileage tax. Even here, where extreme liberal is the norm, people do not want some device in their car that tells the state where they are going. So then they will inspect the odometer and charge from that. But what if I took a lot of trips outside the state? That’s miles not on WA roads that they are charging us for. The state is too hungry for money to pay for all the non essential things they want to do that they don’t do the essential things they should do and then say they have to raise taxes to do the essential things. And people put up with it. They think that is the way it should be word.
mspart
NJ charges EV owners a $250 registration fee which is about $200 more than a car gas. They say it’s because EV’s don’t pay a dime for road wear and tear which is funded by the fuel tax. On top of it the electric utilities in the state jumped the rate charged by 19% on average as of June 1. That was on top of 15% rate hike last year. Those jumps came on the heels of a study that opposed the installation of wind farms off the Jersey coast because the cost of production would cause a 50% increase in the rate. I sure does appear they were trying to up the cost of electric without wind so when it did get added the bump in the rate wouldn’t be as large. NJ shares an electric supply with NY and CT, all 3 are liberal and pushing hard for wind even though it will send the cost of electric skyrocketing.
We have Hydro power here and the government wants to tear down the dams that provide that. In their place wind farms mostly. There is some solar. They never think about the issue of reliability. The dams produce 24/7. The wind and solar produce somewhat less.
We have the e car registration tax as well which seems like the right way to go. My personal opinion is that the hybrid is the best way to go if you want to do that. Great mileage, great ability to drive forever without having to stop and charge up. When the e-car can charge in 10 minutes and not destroy the charging system, they might have a product that can work. But they are heavier and ruin roads faster word.
mspart
Ripping out hydropower is plain stupid. It has the lowest operational cost to produce. These politicos keep trying to find to increase the cost of power production.
We just came through 5 days of heat 95-103F (2x). The AC only stopped running late at night we had the thermostat set at 78. The daughter was here for 5 days with her 5 kids, then no. 2 son called Sat morning, Hey we’re coming down for the weekend. I had to turn on the AC for the upstairs too. Daughter and clan return Monday AM for 5 days. 2 of hers are taking sailing lessons during the week while 3 stay at home with us. It’s non stop until they leave Thursday, just as no 1 son and his 3 kids appear at the door Thursday afternoon. It’ll be like this through July.
It’s great you have a place that your kids want to bring their kids to. We see our grandkids quite often but because they live 5 minutes away. That’s a lot of activity for an extended period of time. Reminds one that raising children is for the young.
We worked pretty hard on Saturday. I felled a small tree, it did not fall where I aimed it, it went backwards (the way it was leaning anyway), and took out the cable so we lost internet. It also took out some of my wife’s plants. So now we have to get the chipper out and chip the limbs all up. We finished that and my wife wanted another branch taken down on some other tree. So I turned the chipper down and went to cut. She took the limb and shoved it in the chipper and killed it. I can’t pull the start string, it is stuck somehow. So I hope the engine is ok. I will be taking it all apart and hope that something is just stuck in the cutter wheel. That would be the best case scenario. I’ll probably sharpen the cutters while I have it all apart.
Casualties: Chipper, Tree, Cable (internet), azaeleas, other plants, my body is wrecked and am still very sore.
I think I would have been better off helping my son and his wife move apartments, which he said he didn’t need help word.
mspart
Sounds familiar, whatever can fail, will. AC went down for the upstairs bedroom, at night. Daughter woke up in a sweat. She told me she lowered the thermostat, so I checked it. She must of hit the mode button because she shut it off. Kids went to get bikes out of the garage and somehow blew the motherboard on the opener. I spent yesterday replacing the opener. I installed the new power head only to find out it would keep blowing the GFI…bad wiring. So I return the unit only to 0find out they are out of stock on the brand. I switched brands. No go. The attachment point for the powerhead is different. Now I have to replace the rail. More time spent. It turns out the new rail is 4″ longer than the old one so the structure holding the powerhead has to be moved. More time spent. I figured the safety detection sensors should work regardless of brand since as long as the beams connects, it allows power. Nope. Had to replace the sensors too. Spent an entire day replacing it.
BTW, don’t use a ladder to reach a high tree limb. I rented a pole saw to clip a dead limb about 20 feet up and needed a ladder to reach it. I was about 5′ up the ladder sawing away, no problem. The tree limb drops and lands on the end branches. It springs right back at me and knocks the ladder off and down I go flat on my back. Fortunately, I landed on about 4″ inches of mulch and not a bush or another tree. That really rattled my innards. I just laid there for about 5 minutes waiting for the pain to start while wiggling limbs to make sure I didn’t break my back.
I just read about Ben Askren. Double lung transplant. Geez, the guy had an unlimited tank and pneumonia takes him out.
UGH…just found out all 17 kids, kids coming for the weekend. Wifey flipping out. 3x3x19 meals. Daily trips to the grocer and ice guy.
Wow, what a weekend you have coming up! Maybe the kids can do the meals.
I am happy to hear you didn’t get too hurt on the tree cutting. That’s cutting it too close. You are indeed fortunate not to have been hurt bad.
Your house woes are too much!! Wow!
I got the chipper working yesterday, but I got disturbed while installing the cutter I just sharpened and forgot to get back to tightening it back on, so it let loose. I found it and one bolt. I need another bolt. But I have two holes in the very thick housing, I’m not sure if I did that or if it was there before, but that was scary really when I found it. Good thing I was nowhere close to it. I’ll have to take it apart again to reinstall the cutter. So I get to do that tomorrow. Tonight after work I get to cut some T-111 siding and install it. Too heavy for me, my son is coming to help. Straight cut and good to go other than another cut for an AC unit. But that is tonight. I hope not to get hurt word!!!
mspart
Regarding Askren, I heard he got staph which complicated into double pneumonia and ate him up. He almost died and got stabilized and got the double lung transplant. Just an amazing story word.
mspart
I hope the transplants work well for him. There’s much opportunity for infection to set in. His wrestling instinct will help him fight through all of this. His lung strength likely got him sufficiently through the pneumonia enabling the transplants. 2 friends recently died from pneumonia, one had COVID, that led to pneumonia. 5 years after the breakout he catches COVID after never having it before. He couldn’t get out of bed, then the pneumonia set in. The 2nd came down with it but refused to go into the hospital because his daughter was getting married the following week. He went to the hospital the day after the wedding, then died from it 5 days later.
Thats really sad. I hope the best for Askren as well. The folks in TX are having a bad day. I had a good 4th, not great, but good. My son came over to help put up some siding. I was on the ground he was on the ladder so I’m looking up for quite some time seeing him do his thing. He finished and was coming down and then I looked down and got extremely dizzy. That did not leave me the rest of the day. I was a little scared of a stroke or something but I felt otherwise ok. I drank water and never did feel much better. sitting was good which is not good. So I went to sleep and got up and felt a little dizzy, but not near as much. Longer story, I feel much better today. We had a “tiny library” in our yard. We tore that down because it was not structurally sound. We were going to fix it and decided to build new. I took care of that on Saturday with saws and drills etc. So I was feeling enough better. My wife doesn’t know I did that. She’ll find out today she wants to get started on it. 🙂
In addition, I cut down a tree and it went the wrong way. I don’t remember if I mentioned that. That was a disaster, with good consequences. But we used the chipper to chip all the branches and my wife stuffed something down it and bound it up. I tore it apart later and cleared it out. I took a blade off and sharpened it. I was installed it partially and was going to go after the other cutter when a friend came over. We talked and he gave me some grape plants and pepper plants. I asked him to help me put the thing back together. So we did. I ran it shortly after, it worked. But the blade liberated with the screws. I found the blade and one screw on the ground and said that explains why it wasn’t cutting so good. I looked around it more and there are two holes torn out of the 1/8″ thick housing. Good thing I wasn’t killed. It was rocking so bad due to imbalance that I had my foot on the kickstand (glorified motor cycle support) and it broke on me I think due to the shaking. That is 3/8-1/2 thick steel bar. Serious stuff. So I ordered a new kick stand that is better and hopefully will fit up and a new housing. Cheaper than getting someone to weld them back together. So I will do the blades and get it put together correctly this time and I should have a good chipper again word.
mspart
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