Good morning!!!!

[riptides]

..... And I wonder how many others get abused
because they don't protest, like the old folks.

Wonder how many actually look at their tax bills. Some on property go right through/to escrow.

I got into it over a year ago about taxes and outbuildings. Seems my tax office was using a geospatial program to look at images and get dimensions of buildings. Since I paint roofs, they thought the buildings either were new or upgraded. They were actually lean to types.

They cleared that up, but I was sort of dismayed that they did that without a drive by or site visit.

 

[cat fever]

Winds from the south usually bring us relatively warm weather. Not today, it must be nippy on the other side of the English Channel as this breeze from Spain and France is freezing. At least it may stiffen the mud.

Do snowmobiles like mud ? Cat fever, how long do you think it would take a turbo powered Polaris Pro 800 to clean out the mud for your cattle ?

LOL,
Not sure about mud, but if you want to see something fly up a sand dune; watch a high performance snowmobile.
I think the only thing I can do now for the mud is wait for dryer weather. I am not going in there with the tractor, I might sink up to the axles.ullinghair:
So today it's starting out at 25 degrees and light snow.
My wife was able to pick up the new sled yesterday so I spent the evening polishing it up and putting on a new can. (muffler) And of course the exhaust cooker. (Muff pot) Nice to have a hot meal while riding.:licking:

 

[wngsprd]

59 this morning. Felt like spring during our Frisbee walk about. Should hit 62 but windy, gusts to 34.

Riptides, you have inspired me to wash the truck, assuming the wind's not too tough...lots of road muck film left from the snow a couple weeks ago.

Don, nice work on that spillway.

Drew, new career...tax assessment consultant/ombudsman.

 

[txdon]

Good morning! Cloudy 38˚. I'm about half finished with the spillway. Besides running low on diesel the ground started to sink like quicksand so It needs to dry a while longer.

Back to trail work. Two more work days and I'll have the East perimeter trail finished. All that will be left is the North side and a little more on the West side - about 20 more work days of hand and grapple work.

Does anyone know what makes the Credit FICO score fluctuate. Mine goes up and down 35 points for no apparent reason? I have had no credit or loan changes.

 

[ronjhall]

Drinking first cup of coffee. 35ｰ with clear skies this morning. Heading to 56ｰ with lots of sun. Got back from wife's doctor appointment yesterday to find we had visitors. Harvey (wroughtn_harv) and Glenda. They are on their way to Western AZ. Nice dinner and visit. Not much planned today other than see Harvey off on rest of their trip. He is parked across the street from me.
Don, spillway looks good.
Drew, we did many years of going before tax assessment board. Won most of them. But since we are in AZ when the board meets we have not done it for a few years. 2 of our buildings are almost 80 years old.
Good Morning All.

 

[ronjhall]

Does anyone know what makes the Credit FICO score fluctuate. Mine goes up and down 35 points for no apparent reason? I have had no credit or loan changes.

As long as your score stays above 720 it does not matter. We see ours move from 790 to over 800 for no reason that I can see.

 

[daugen]

Good morning! Cloudy 38˚.

Does anyone know what makes the Credit FICO score fluctuate. Mine goes up and down 35 points for no apparent reason? I have had no credit or loan changes.

when I went to buy my Subaru the F&I guy came back in about 60 seconds with a smile, said I scored an 840, highest he had seen.
I have a lot of available credit I have not used, which usually is not good. Finance guy said printout now shows top credit score as 900
and said that was a new end point, and he seem surprised about it.

If you can cancel any store charge accounts you don't use, that's always a good idea. Less credit out with all bills paid on time gets the highest score. The formula seems to be a closely guarded secret Don. I had/have no idea why my 820 went to 840 but I also know it may easily drop back down too. As long as the number starts with an 8, I don't care how they figure it. Now if my 8 dropped down into the 7's, I would do something to get it back up. The good finance deals like zero percent interest don't go to folks with scores in the 600's usually.

since you have lived at the same place for awhile, likely have consistent spending habits, and if your payment history remains without issue, it really doesn't make any sense why the number changes other than they instituted a new formula, perhaps when they jiggered with the calculation for 900 it then treated you differently. Lot of different numbers out there, FICO, Equifax, blended scores, but FICO should be the same calculation consistently everywhere.

protested my tax notice, nicely...guy grew up around the corner, knows all about my crazy farmer neighbor, said he would "look into it", ok..., and that they relied on overhead spying also by Google Maps or whatever high res source they use. Am thinking they must save an old copy and compare it to new...
I have two new sheds I bet they will get next year. Plus a scolding about no permit. But these sheds are professionally built, clearly one is professionally wired, so they can't fault the work. But they do want their 35 bucks.

 

[PJSprog]

32°F and cloudy this morning, going up to 37° today. The front that came through yesterday brought wind with it, which was still howling through the trees when we let the dogs out this morning.

 

[toppop52]

53 going to 60 they say, morning showers supposed to clear and be sunny later. Then it gets cold again.

Our credit score fluctuated wildly when we were building this house, once we moved it dropped about 20 points for several months then went up 40ish points. The methods elude me.

There use to be a guy from PA that lived in Elizabeth City, NC. He had 2 snowmobiles, locally he'd get to use them every 3-4 years, but he hauled them back to PA. We serviced his tow rig at the Amoco station, a '65 Bonneville wagon with HD suspension, factory air shocks, bucket seats and console, power everything, trailer package, 8 lug aluminum wheels, 421 H.O., turbo 400 trans, 3.55 gears. I would love to own that car today! By around 1969 he replaced it with the new Blazer.

 

[wngsprd]

Info from my bank...

FICO:
35% Payment history
30% Amount you owe
15% Length of credit history
10% New credit opened
10% Types of credit you have

Top FICO = 900
Minimum = 250

There are many reasons why your score may change. FICO® Scores are calculated each time they are requested, taking into consideration the information that is in your credit file from a particular consumer reporting agency at that time. So, as the information in your credit file at that bureau changes, your FICO® Scores can also change. Review your key score factors, which explain what factors from your credit report most affected a score. Comparing key score factors from the two different time periods can help identify causes for changes in FICO® Scores. Keep in mind that certain events such as late payments or bankruptcy can lower your FICO® Scores quickly. Killing snakes and clearing fencelines will cause fluctuations.

 

[toppop52]

Info from my bank...

FICO:
35% Payment history
30% Amount you owe
15% Length of credit history
10% New credit opened
10% Types of credit you have

Top FICO = 900
Minimum = 250

There are many reasons why your score may change. FICO® Scores are calculated each time they are requested, taking into consideration the information that is in your credit file from a particular consumer reporting agency at that time. So, as the information in your credit file at that bureau changes, your FICO® Scores can also change. Review your key score factors, which explain what factors from your credit report most affected a score. Comparing key score factors from the two different time periods can help identify causes for changes in FICO® Scores. Keep in mind that certain events such as late payments or bankruptcy can lower your FICO® Scores quickly. Killing snakes and clearing fencelines will cause fluctuations.

Requesting your score will cause it to drop. Applying for loans will as well, even if you don't accept them.

 

[txdon]

I have noticed the months that whipper kills snakes the FICO score is higher. That's it, thanks.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Good Morning! 39F @ 8:00AM. Mainly sunny. High 48F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.

All credit scores measure is the financial institutions ability to make money off of you. It is in their best interest to give you the lowest score possible so that you pay more for borrowed money or insurance. People with little or no debt with only one or two credit cards get low scores, even if they pay their bills on time and there's a million bux in a stock portfolio.

The predatory practices of tax assessors are legion. Took me six months to convince mine that his assessment was $150K high, and I had to dig through old real estate listings to show him how the price had dropped for almost two years before it got low enough that a bottom feeder such as myself would bite. And then I had to show estimates for all the repairs and work needed to bring the property and house up to the level where it would be worth the original assessed value, but only if real estate prices in general recovered.

Don, is that a bolt on toothed bar on your FEL? Does it make digging easier?

Need to get two eBay items that sold yesterday boxed to ship, then head off to town for supplies. An old friend of mine gave me a slide hammer attached to a pair of vise grips a while back, and they proved perfect for pulling that last section of antenna cable out of the conduit yesterday. So I'll pick up a couple more sweeps to replace the elbows that were in the conduit and hopefully get that job done tomorrow. Last stop will be at the mechanic's, where we'll test fit the radiator fan shroud I tack welded together yesterday and get the poptop bolted down.

 

[sodamo]

63°F and only .5 inches rain since midnight.
Yesterday a beautiful sunny day, a much welcome change. The news was all excited how Hilo had doubled the days rain record, nearly 9 inches. I agree, much better than shoveling snow.

Don, those crackers look and sound very appetizing.

Be safe
Have a great day

 

[txdon]

Don, is that a bolt on toothed bar on your FEL? Does it make digging easier?

Yes and yes. I only take it off when doing finishing smoothing for my road. Two big bolts hold it securely.

 

[txdon]

Info from my bank...

FICO:
35% Payment history
30% Amount you owe
15% Length of credit history
10% New credit opened
10% Types of credit you have

Top FICO = 900
Minimum = 250

Thanks, The only thing that fluctuates is how much I charge in a given month. I took my monthly credit card bills and did a year graph and compared it to the FICO score yearly graph and they are exactly inversely related.

So the lesson learned: If you are going to make a loan in the next few months keep your credit card charges very low to keep your available credit high and your FICO score will jump 20-30 points.

So if you would pay more than what you owe and have a credit instead of a bill would your score be 840?

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Darn, was going to clear my property line, but won't if it lowers my fico score. Mine will go down, I applied for a loan that I'm not going to use. Until discover started putting my score on my bill, I had no idea what my rating was, but I had excellent credit so didn't care.

Cold wind here today. Snow in western md mountains.

Had a solar salesman give me a quote. $46k for a 19kw system, ground mounted. I can probably do it myself for half that.

 

[sodamo]

Those scores are interesting to be sure.
Always interesting to see how my wife's and mine differ month to month, especially when she beats me. I guess we aren't considered great potential customers as we payoff CCs every month within days of the statements and only long term are the house mortgage and vehicle loan, both paid ahead. I guess as long as they stay on plus side of 800, I won't complain.

 

[sodamo]

Darn, was going to clear my property line, but won't if it lowers my fico score. Mine will go down, I applied for a loan that I'm not going to use. Until discover started putting my score on my bill, I had no idea what my rating was, but I had excellent credit so didn't care.

Cold wind here today. Snow in western md mountains.

Had a solar salesman give me a quote. $46k for a 19kw system, ground mounted. I can probably do it myself for half that.

So is that strictly grid tied or have battery backup also?
Started my upgrade, installing the new charge controller today.
I paid $.76/watt for my new panels including tax and shipping, but still way better than I could get locally.
You can avoid the hefty shipping cost.

 

[daugen]

regular gas was $2.14 today, that was nice.
long busy day. Dormant oil sprayed the orchard, wind picked up and I got soaked.
At least this is the nontoxic stuff.
then....that motivated me to come in and pull the trigger on my second orchard, on the other side of the property.
8 rows of three trees wide ordered from Willis Orchard Company in Georgia. Three figs, three almonds, fifteen pecans and three English Walnuts, lots of different varieties. 6 to 7 foot bare root stock, so once they come in I have a lot of planting to do promptly. Not hard to do with 24" auger on tractor.