Day didn't go as planned.

[Eugene]

Heat index, 114F. Crap and more crap. Excavating fixer upper house for sewer line and reducing parking elevation.

Noon. Brake line broke on Expedition, our main tow vehicle. Expedition at the mechanic.

Hard starting skid steer. Voltage check 12.01 Volts. Voltage drop test, 9.12 volts, engine started. Still 12.01 volts. Could be bad battery or alternator.

First bucket of skid steer dirt, skid steer turns around - right front wheel turning, right rear wheel not turning. Broken main drive chain.

Trip to acreage for jack and digital battery charger. Two trips to local tractor dealership for drive chain repair parts. First trip only obtained one coupling link. Magnet and fished out two chain links from the hydraulic fluid containing the drive gears/chain. Have repaired the drive chain 3 or 4 times, new chain ordered.

The battery charged up. Friday will replace the alternator. Alternator replacement is a real pain on the skid steer.

Did I mention 114F heat index?

[Bill V in Md]

I’ve heard it said “hard times make you a better person”.

[Eugene]

Today wasn't much better.

Yesterday's skid repair lasted about 10 minutes. Installed a new 60H chain. Turns out that the pins on the coupling link are to long and hit the main drive sprocket chain. Now, we have to find the coupling link, chain runs in 17 gallons of hydraulic fluid, remove, and then grind a bit off the coupling link pins and turn the coupling link around.

Mechanic called, $212.00 to replace the brake line and flush the brake system.

Heat index is still around 114 F.

[Eugene]

Skid steer easy fix. A drive chain keeper had fallen in the chain and locked up the drive.

Excavating fixer upper house for sewer line and reducing parking elevation.

Using the skid steer to excavate the sewer line. Hit hard pan, then decayed bed rock. Jack hammered out the hard pan and decayed bed rock to get the sewer line 1.5 feet below the parking and at elevation.

Good thing son and I have enough equipment for a small construction company.

[Eugene]

I didn't mention. Got a call from the city clerk early 27 July, said we had a water leak. Late evening 26/early morning 27 July the 10" diameter water main in the street sprung a 7' long leak directly in front of our fixer upper house. Emptied both of the towns water towers, 1/2 million gallons of water.

No damage to the house, some soil erosion on both sides, big ruts in the front yard from the excavator. Back, north west side of the house where we are excavating for the sewer line and drive had very heavy erosion. We had previously purchased straw bales to prevent any soil eroding on the north side street. The bales were soaked with and caught 3" or 4" of mud. No mud on that street.

We have a skid steer on site at the fixer upper house. Couple buckets of dirt from our parking excavation will fill the ruts and the erosion. Not worth it to file an insurance claim.