Really kinda bummed tonight. I'm forced out of the house by random circuits popping today so am staying in the "bug-out", or guest cabin for now which is alright but not meant to be a home, so more like camping with internet etc.,
Insurance Adjuster was out today too and informed me they would cover less than half the actual replacement value on the equipment and tools lost in the fire, as I didn't have the proper coverage on those. Nor will the cost of rebuilding/ repairing ANY outbuildings be paid, only the house and horse-barn were underwritten on the policy! He said he "snuck" the equipment through by not stating in his report that it was in a separate building! And I thought I was well insured, I really did. In fact I had a farm plan that should have covered everything...anyway, it didn't. Read yer policy renewals, especially when your old carrier is bought by a new company.
And it stormed all but early morning today, with heavy-assed rain soaking the damaged horse barn and adding more difficulty to the work of clearing the mess all around the place, and to finding the cause in the horse barn.
I dunno. I have some assets, have some saved. I've started over before, several times, from less. I just feel like I don't know whether I can again. Maybe tomorrow'll be better though...
sw
It's a sad thing to say but it's far more cost effective to just buy spares than to try to insure tools and equipment once the financing is over.
I wish you luck and patience. If you need suggestions for replacement sources like auctions, PM me.
Quote:
8 hours ago, caikgoch said:
It's a sad thing to say but it's far more cost effective to just buy spares than to try to insure tools and equipment once the financing is over.
I wish you luck and patience. If you need suggestions for replacement sources like auctions, PM me.
Spare tractors, manure spreaders, bobcats etc. ? Hmm. Hadn't looked at it like that. They are the losses that hurt. Hard to run a place without them. I also had some kinda irreplaceable horse-drawn equipment I used here that went up. The shop should have been in a separate building and wasn't, so all the tools went too. Neighbors have been great letting me use their excavator and dozer, and even helping me, so I don't have to pay someone and that takes a load off but...
The guy who's housing my horses has offered to buy them, at a very good price, to "help me get back on my feet". If I let them go, I don't know...
I'm not where I was last night but this whole thing has got me kinda defeated. I'm near 60 and some disabled. When I last rebuilt, this place, I was 40, had fire to fight the disabilities, and had a lover, Shadow, beside me. Today I feel I have have little or nothing worth fighting for.
sw
07-18-2019, 12:24 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-18-2019, 12:31 PM by heavyhorse.)
@sw: This is EXACTLY how insurance works. It's a real downer. You probably feel pretty well screwed over. People who have never filed a major claim have this grand illusion that it's like the TV commercials, or what your agent told you. (I'm betting your agent won't even show his face now). Even with "full replacement coverage" there are unwritten rules that keep you from getting full value. If it's older than the warranty period. If it's not a "normal household item". If it's not 100% reduced to ash, they can get by with only paying a percentage. You only get the percentage of the total policy that the barn was, not the policy total. You have to not consider insurance as "making you whole", it's just a start to getting back on your feet. Yeah it sucks. Don't try to do it all at once, it's going to be a long haul. I'm really sorry.
Quote:
2 hours ago, silverwolf1 said:
Spare tractors, manure spreaders, bobcats etc. ? Hmm. Hadn't looked at it like that. They are the losses that hurt. Hard to run a place without them. I also had some kinda irreplaceable horse-drawn equipment I used here that went up. The shop should have been in a separate building and wasn't, so all the tools went too. Neighbors have been great letting me use their excavator and dozer, and even helping me, so I don't have to pay someone and that takes a load off but...
The guy who's housing my horses has offered to buy them, at a very good price, to "help me get back on my feet". If I let them go, I don't know...
I'm not where I was last night but this whole thing has got me kinda defeated. I'm near 60 and some disabled. When I last rebuilt, this place, I was 40, had fire to fight the disabilities, and had a lover, Shadow, beside me. Today I feel I have have little or nothing worth fighting for.
sw
That's not as hard as it sounds. I'm a dirt farmer so tractors etc are mission critical. I don't buy two of everything, I just don't trade in or sell the old equipment. I do have 50 year old tractors with brand new guts. I prefer the old style high torque/low speed engines. Most "modern" diesels are designed to be throw away so you are compelled to update your technology at least once a decade.
Re the horses (and overall attitude), I'm north of 60 and on the transplant list. I have someone to get my critters to a good home when I can't take care of them but until I am room temperature, I'm not giving up any important part of my life without a fight. I've been told that I'm stubborn and foolish. I've also been told (by doctors) that I'm alive because I refuse to give up.
Basically, if you gotta go, you gotta go. But be sure they know it was a fight.
Around here, it's pretty standard to not wire flammable barns. Leaves only lightening to set them afire. Shops and other outbuildings made of metal and wired but particularly hay storage is left dark. Sorry for your losses.
07-18-2019, 09:57 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-18-2019, 10:03 PM by heavyhorse.)
Quote:
7 hours ago, caikgoch said:
I do have 50 year old tractors
My primary tractor is 58 yo. The wiring and hydraulic lines are new (because the wiring was primarily made of black tape, and the hydraulic lines started getting fat when it lifted a load). And the tires are all new, because the old ones started returning to the environment in large chunks.
I asked the Case guy about using modern lubricants to simplify my life, and he said "Those tractors were so conservatively designed that you could use water for lubricant if it wasn't for the corrosion issue". I took the tops off of the gear cases so I could take the 3-point lift cylinder in to be machined, and I was amazed at the size and fine machining of all those gears. I don't know how they could make that so farmers could afford them.
There is a very different design philosophy. Old tractors were made massively heavy because you needed the weight. Mine are all loaded on top of multi inch thick cast iron everything. New tractors are not rebuildable because the engine has to made of thin iron to warm up within the federally mandated time to meet emissions. When brute force is the desired result, I'll go with big, ugly, and heavy.
<a contenteditable="false" data-ipshover="" data-ipshover-target="<___base_url___>/profile/1422-littlejohn/?do=hovercard" data-mentionid="1422" href="<___base_url___>/profile/1422-littlejohn/">@ littlejohn</a> The hay barn had no wiring. The horse barn's where the fire started anyway. Wind brought it everywhere else.
We got the roof cleared yesterday on the horse barn, with breaks for me to go down and take care of the horses, and the Fire Marshall and an Arson Investigator are crawling around above the stalls and whats left of the office and tack room. I guess there might be more than just a bad wire to blame here, and I'm a random target of some jokers looking for a place to get high. Burned spoons found over my office. Pissed! If that's the cause of the fire...
Anyway, on my mood. I went to feed yesterday and found the girl who works for me there brushing the colt. I've told how much she likes him. Well, she had all four horses brushed out and hayed and watered and waiting on their grain. Nothing really left for me but to go over their hooves and legs as she offered to work the next couple weeks sans pay, or at least see to the colt.
I've also told my plans for that colt. He'll be her's in a year after I've taught her more on training him. She's been a hard worker for me since she was 14, and a bright student. She deserves this reward. So that means I'm not selling him.
So that means I'm not selling his mama. So that means I'm rebuilding.
I won't let her work for free either. I can afford to pay her after all, I'm not poor.
sw
07-19-2019, 09:13 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-19-2019, 09:17 PM by heavyhorse.)
Quote:
8 hours ago, silverwolf1 said:
I guess there might be more than just a bad wire to blame here, and I'm a random target of some jokers looking for a place to get high. Burned spoons found over my office.
Well that's damned fracking irritating. I don't suppose any (human) DNA is recoverable....
I'm somewhat protected from that in that criminals are invariably lazy shits; if it's harder to crap on me than on surrounding places they will pick the easiest target every time. I'm a half mile off of the county road, there's heavy brush and bluffs along the road, and if they bushwhack through that there's 4 or 5 strand electric fence around every field. I'm known in the area for having Honkin' Huge Dogs you can hear for a mile, that reportedly "The big one put me back in the truck" when someone came to "pick up" repaired equipment without paying when I wasn't home. No dog bites ever reported, but, um, would crooks report getting bit? And to the irritation of some who think they should have access, every building is locked, all the time, if I'm here or not. And recall, if they think they are going to enter through the livestock doors, they have to navigate 5 strands of electric fence powered by multiple "mains" fencers (no wimpy "solar" fencers here; sheep are pretty well insulated, it takes a decent arc to keep the attention of rams when the ewes are wiggling their little tails). And a little clue: You do NOT, EVER, want to touch electric fence and a steel post at the same time. Try climbing over and it will still hurt the next day.
And I get an odd amount of traffic here from cops looking for fugitives or runaways; they can see some distance from the high ground, and have asked on occasion to search my buildings for people hiding (allowed; I sure as hell don't want to encounter them). Oh, and when the cops visit you want to turn your back and s-l-o-w-l-y drop the clip and clear the chamber of the 9mm in your back pocket and lay it on the car hood. Don't need more drama.
|
