Tom Cruze helping with the hay

It’s been a busy week this week (and just another example of why jeep work has been delayed). With temps hovering in the 20’s and cold fog making it even colder, on Tuesday morning we had an opportunity to improve our garage gym by buying two Precor Cardio items–a strider and a treadmill– from a local Gold’s Gym for $500 a piece. At 400-500lbs per unit, most folks likely can’t move them nor have the room for them. So, we feel like we scored price-wise.

Now, you might think with all those strong folks inside the gym that we could get some help moving the items, but no. So, two female employees and I moved the equipment out to the truck, then I winched them up the trailer (thank goodness we bought a tilt trailer!).

Precor AMT 885 Strider with a P80 display on the left and a Precor Treadmill 885 w/ 4hp motor (though I discovered it needs a dedicated 20amp circuit, which we happened to have in the garage).

We’ve also added a functional trainer, which I used to use all the time when I had a gym membership. Unlike the rest of our equipment, we bought that new as a Christmas present for us both. Ann simply doesn’t have the hand strength to manage the free weights.

Here are the pics of our new setup. We are going to get some flat mirrors to place next to the posters  along the wall and add some more barn mats under the rack in the back, but this setup will really help keep us in functional shape. All the weights, the bars and some other items were mostly from Dad, as he lifted weights for almost 40 years.

After sliding the machines off the trailer on Tuesday, we then drove an hour west of us to pick up 4500lbs of hay (Alfalfa and some Timothy). We got back late, so, I waited until Wed morning to unload the hay, but, of course, it started snowing. So, as the snow fell, I unloaded as quickly as I could, because I had to make another run to get another 4500lbs of bales that afternoon.

It was snowing and slick as I unloaded the truck and trailer.

Our life here would be impossible without a tractor. Those tractor forks are invaluable!

I can stack seven ables on the front forks and add one to the lift in the back, for a total of eight, which I then moved to our “barn”, which is really just a series of lean-tos.

Having returned on Wednesday with the second load, and having learned my lesson early in the morning, I decided that since it wasn’t snowing, I ought to unload the hay that night. So, working into the dark, I eventually got the trailer unloaded and the remaining hay cleaned up.

The 140 bails ought to help us make it through the winter, especially as the warming temps next week will melt the snow, which will allow the cows to once again grave the neighbors pasture.

Turning to jeeps, I’ve been planning out my roll cage for the racer over the past few days. The cage’s major requirements include: 1) protect the driver and passenger, 2) support the seats, 3) provide the upper shock mounts, 5) support the flimsy fiberglass body 6) support the steering column and brake/clutch system, 7) the rear gas tank, and 8) some electronics.  I hope to reposition the racing chassis in the shop this coming week so I can more easily work on it.