Lots of Decisions

Lots of Decisions was Originally Posted on April 26, 2012 by lavarock

I have been having to shuffle dogs back and forth because O`Lena is just at the end of her cycle and Koa is still interested in her. Although Koa is fixed, I still have to keep them apart.

If the mating took, she will be delivering puppies in another 8 weeks. They would be black and chocolate Labs with no EIC. EIC is exercise induced collapse and has been recentlt diagnosed in labs. If I had bred her with a different male, one who had the gene, I would then have to test the pups and work with the owners to ensure they knew about the issue and how it might effect their dog. Responsible breeders do that.

Speaking of breeding, my friend has just 4 of the 10 red poodles left. Because they are over 8 weeks old, she is a bit concerned that they have not been purchased yet. I am not that worried myself, but then again, they are not my puppies and that seems to make a difference.

It has been cool here and it looks as though our rain has returned. I have turned my back and now have grass and weeds very high again. When the teres get tall enough I can attack the weeds without getting weed killer on any of the leaves on my trees.

It is also time to spray for CBB (the beetle effecting coffee). Years ago I bought a $1,500 riding mower but traded it for labor a year or two later. It was not sturdy enough to cut the grass here and I ended up buying a $15,000 tractor and a $5,000 mower attachment. I should have kept the riding mower and taken the mowing deck off of it. The resulting unit may have been sufficient to tow the mobile sprayer needed now to kill weeds and spray for the beetle. Backpack sprayers just don’t cut it.

So now I am looking at an ATV to do the job. I cannot use a backpack sprayer for any length of time, so it is an ATV or another riding mower or hire people.

When I bought the riding mower my thinking was that I was spending many hundreds to cut the grass on the farm. The mower paid for itself compared to paying someone to bring his tractor and mower here. I was also able to write off the depreciation. I was just fixing it too often because it was not up to the job.

Hiring people is usually not the best solution as there can be issues with insurance, potential theft and so on. At least with equipment I can write off and depreciate the item. It would make it easier and cheaper than the truck or tractor to cart parts around the property and to get back and forth.

The one drawback si that used ATVs here are going for $3,000+ and they may be 10 years old. A new one is about $4,400. That is $4,400 I don’t really have.

Well, I do have about $3,300 today I didn’t have a few weeks ago. I reinvested in Apple stock a few months ago and then when it continued to go up, I threw many thousands of dollars into it. I watched it closely and when the stock dropped a few days in a row, I sold out, taking my profit with me. The stock got too volitle for me. In 3 days I lost $800 of profit but yesterday, had I been back in the stock, would have made that back. Now today it is back down again. See why I got out? Until the other week, it just constantly increased in value and people who invested a year or more ago made lots of money. Just since the beginning of the year the stock had increased 45% and a $10,000 investment would have brought you $5,000 in profit in 3 months. THAT IS, until a few weeks ago

So I took my profit and ran, and had it earmarked for paying bills. I can use it for an ATV or bills. Hmmm. Using the ATV to spray the crops can bring higher yields of products and save me lots of time. But then again, perhaps there is a government paymnent for loss of production and I should wait.