In the mean time

I am slowly learning to expand my boundaries. I am an early early morning person. So just before sunrise, I decided to go look at a different place than our ridge to watch the sun come up. It wasn't really going to be a fantastic brilliant dawn.

But I thought, let's just drive around the countryside a bit and take a look.

This is a gravel road called Brookville Road, I drove down this road years ago when I took it to get over to the highway during bow hunting season to get some donuts at the bakery in town.

In September and October, this road at dawn has so much to offer in fall light and fog.

The shot above was at the end of September 2017. The camera was a point and shoot camera that had a pretty cool zoom on it. [I wore that camera out by 2019]

Saturday morning I thought I'd go back to the ponds to see if the Swans were still there. I grabbed the big lens and brought a smaller one. By the time I got into the river valley, I realized I wouldn't be able to see across the pond because of the fog. 

So, Charlie and I took our time and drove through the hills and valleys looking for something amazing and interesting. We found that and spent about an hour finding valleys, fog, trees, rays of light through the fog, and whatnot.

But I'll share that later. 
When I got back home, I got to work on my storage project. For all of our years, hubby insisted on having a large trunk in the house. It was a huge ugly shipping sort of trunk. It took up too much room in our tiny house and served no purpose other than to hold some of his Highschool books and an old Teddy Bear that was his when he was something like 6 years old.

Let me tell you, it smelled inside of it. Musty and icky. I rarely opened it other than to confirm that nothing in it was something I needed. This had been a bone of contention ever since I'd first lived there. A behemoth of a trunk that was not useful. 

I did later learn that Rich had stored this in his barn for years where he and his first wife had lived. [ewww, explains the musty smell]

These are photos that include a portion of the trunk from before our house remodel. To hide the trunk, I often put a table cloth over it. The TV sat on it.

Well, we no longer have Morris [the dog] or the bricks, or that heater.

Here is the living room now. The blanket on the couch is for the little dog how likes to hop up there. With the trunk gone, the room has opened up so much!

This was in the kitchen area for ever. This shot is from when I was trying to decorate for Christmas. I used the trunk to display my polar bears doing things. In the summer, it was a place to drop mail, keys, and junk. By the time we added several bottles of 02, the walker, and other items this summer, the space on and around the trunk became a disaster area. The little table on the left is an old farmhouse entry way table.

I've kept that. I'm going to find a nice spot for it somewhere and add the old water pitcher and washing bowl to it along with towels.

So to make a long story short.

I decided to order this....

After all, I've built really hard Lego Builds, so how hard could this be?

I sure learned a lot about cabinets, hinges. and drawers while making mistakes and doing it over again.

I learned how to fix and replace the hinges on the Lazy Susan by studying the hinges on this thing.

And finally, I got it all cleaned up and put together.

Tah Dah!

Done. Finished.
I'm getting another one to go around the corner from this one and replace where the trunk was. The storage really helps me with things that were just stacked around the place. Now the house/kitchen area looks very tidy. 

In another week, Ill be building again. I guess I do like 3D puzzles.

I wouldn't have taken on this task at another point in my life. But I thought this would be a good thing. Yes, it isn't top quality, but it is useful and I like it.

Ding Dong Doggy

Charlie loves loves loves his toy that he got from Rich's daughter! It is the first toy he has not destroyed in 7 years. It has lasted more than 3 days which is a record!

He loves it so much, he lays it down on the carpet next to his master and rolls on it. What a goof! We laugh so hard when he does this. Oh yeah, the oxygen tubing? You should have heard my hubby get excited when Charlie got caught in the tubing and dragged it away. 

Ouch. Says Rich. That hurts my ear!

But really, can you get angry at this funny pooch? I think not.

I think I'm getting close to go back to the Princess Sara stories. I have so many things I want to do and enjoy the process of a story. I often go off in tangents to other places. But still, the story should be about Princess Sara and her quest to save the world.

Don't we all need heroes or heroines these days?

The Twin Sister warriors converse 
with the Jungle Dragon.
They hear about Princess Sara's
Quest
and decide to join her and
offer their assistance against 
the rock monsters.

No worries if you don't get what's going on either. Sometimes I don't even know.

But it is getting close to spring and that is when I believe things will start happening again with Princess Sara.

In every fantasy tale there is always a quest isn't there? 

I have to check in soon with the Princess and see what she has been up to!

With so much weighing heavily on my mind, I do need these beautiful distractions. This weekend will be busy both Ariel and Dennis will be coming on different days to spend the weekend.

I wonder if the kids will be impressed by the desk in my spare 'toy' room.

I took the whole day and washed walls, dusted, and organized the spare room. It was in desperate need of picking things up. Good that the kids both decided to visit so I could get this job [I've been putting off] done. 

There is a Futon Bed in this room for surprise visits. It folds up to make a nice little couch when not in use. But it isn't for the faint hearted to sleep on as it lays right on the floor.

However in years past it has made an awesome bed for company and kids.

Wait. What? Its the year 25?

I went to bed at 9PM. Woke up at 10PM and stared out the window until much later, then wrestled the covers a while. Rearranged pillows. Got up, walked downstairs. Looked out the window.

The New Year didn't look any different at 2AM than it did the day before. But at least there wasn't fog.

I went back and beat my pillows up a bit and pushed around the blankets much to Charlie's disdain and sighs. He sleeps on a corner of the bed in his own little nest.

Welcome 2025 your start sucked.

By 4AM I made decafe coffee and decided to go through my files for December and back up other photo files.

Delete 
Keep
Hmm
Delete...and so forth.

By 5AM I got up and started stretching. Either a pressure system was moving through or suddenly I aged a gazillion years over night. Everything hurt from head to toe.

Maybe I'd just skip 2025 all together. 

Charlie watched me sleepily and went to his nest on the couch. Big help he was!

I thought I'd check into my mileage for the year of 2024. I was surprised. I did reach a pretty cool milestone. 1,070 miles hiked since January 1st 2024. I had no intention of reaching any goal other than just having fun keeping track.

Maybe I'd better get my oil checked for this year.

After another morning walk and some other Mobility work, my body felt much better.

So I guess 2025 may not be so bad after all.

I think I'll go do some Loopy Yarn work today and perhaps a nap.

Happy New Year Day.

A shot from last year. 

on a mission....

Oh goodness. Have you ever decided to do one thing and then find out that you need to do several things to DO that one thing?

I wanted to put my mountain bike downstairs for the winter. Or at least for these subzero days. So the first thing I had to do was make sure I had a good spot. At first I just pushed a few things around in the little basement. Then it got serious.

I got out the shopvac along with a broom after rearranging things. I moved the fall and spring stuff to the bottom of the pile and moved the Christmas stuff to the top. I rearranged the gear hanging on the hooks. I made a mental note as to which items were no longer needed.

I vacuumed, I swept, and I went at it with a purpose.

Hubby stopped me as I came back upstairs and said, "I'm hungry. When's lunch?" I gave him the death stare and said, "I don't stop until the bike is downstairs."

He huffed and he puffed but...

knew better than to try and stop me.

When a woman is on a mission, no man can stand in her way! Or...he shouldn't!

In order to carry the bike safely down, I needed to take everything off the stairs that I'd dropped there because it was more convenient than putting it away. 

Now I took the time to put everything in its place and clean the shelves that I put it on. I took inventory of the items on the shelves and put the older canned goods in front and the newer ones in back.

I stacked put the distilled water on the bottom shelf in the order it should be used and faced the labels of other goods so a glance would be all I needed to grab something.

I eventually came back up to get the bike.

Hubby: "I'm hungry." 

Me. Another look. "Then you make lunch."

Big sigh. I explained that if I didn't get it done then, I'd put it off.

I wheeled the bike to the door and took it down. The storage area now looked nice and clean except for the cobwebs in between the rafters. I reached for the shopvac and stopped. I guess those webs could wait for my next burst of energy.

That was the start of my day. I was in that sort of mood to organize, clean up, and rearrange.

I even got the chair out its usual place and set it in the living room.

It is waiting for me too....

No one starved. Lunch was made.

Charlie begged...

...and life goes on.

The Big Shed

Update:

This is the area that needed to be cleared out.

There used to be an indoor stall here but at some point Rich decided that this would be where he stacked lumber and hay. He took 4X4's and made a floor for the hay and stacked sheets of plywood against the wall. At some point, he decided to stack the pieces of a large cabinet he purchased at some auction for future use.
It has resided there for about 9 years.
The cabinet will never be built so it had to go too.

Close up of the stack of metal...

I purchased some masks to wear over my face as there was a lot of hay chaff and bird poo, mouse poo, and dust over everything.

The plywood was moved just to the left. I started to pull up the boards that Rich had screwed together. I wished he had used nails as it would have made the job easier to take it all apart.

No matter. He'd coached me well over the years on how to take 'stuff' apart.

With some elbow grease and a lot of pulling and pounding, I got the boards all apart.

The stall will be 12' by 16'. The rings are still in the supports for attaching the 12 foot panels.

Here is what it looked like in 2008 when Sunshine had to be placed on stall rest for a collateral knee ligament injury.

This 'stall' will house the elder mules together with plenty of room for them to bicker.
Neither mule will tolerate being in a shed/barn alone. So I am banking on the fact that they will keep each other company on those horrible days we get.

It rained and blew all of yesterday, but I got the rest of the metal pieces loaded into the skid steer bucket and started to drag the pieces that didn't fit to the 'metal' pile where it can sit until we have an auction.

This weekend I should have help to set up the panels and secure them. I will be prepared to keep Fred [Circa 30 something] and Mica [25 yrs old] on their special feed and help them maintain weight without fighting the elements.

Well, that is my best laid plans so far.
I'll be working on the rest of the shed all winter. Organizing the thousands of piles of bolts and other items. I need to make room also to put the riding mower and the 4 wheeler inside where I can use the trickle charger on their batteries once a month.

Lots of work to do!

Progress!

Well a few hours at a time does wonders. This is not an All Day type of job you can do.

When I run into a road block of where to put things or what to do with 'stuff',  I have to walk away and take a break.

Three days ago this little part of the shed just inside the doorway was filled with scrap metal and other chunks of wood and things stacked so deep that I couldn't get to what was hanging on hooks. It slowly accumulated over the years as I found parts of projects and whatnot that got tossed there.

Now? I can see the wall! I even moved the sweet feed tub up to the door so I don't have to walk to the other end of the shed for it.

The little blue tub has some scrap in it that I intend on tossing in the Subaru and taking to the dump.

This spot below is where the stalls used to be.

 Same place but a few days later .....
The tractor is still to the right, no way I can move it.
I have to move all the plywood and the boards. We stacked small bales here on top of wood for a few years. The bolts are still in the wall for the stall panels so I intend to put it back in the same place.

This is the pile of metal that is giving me fits...
I'll need the skid steer bucket to move this stuff.
Rich finally conceded that perhaps it should be scrapped.

Well I guess he is right. It has sat there collecting dust for about 8 years.

One more shot of a sort of before ... photo.
Although I've done a lot of work on it already.

If you can see the tires stacked up...I put them there. They are wheels and tires that go to Rich's truck. Well, not sure what to do with them. The other tires are going to be sorted, the good trailer tires will get sold and the old crappy ones will be recycled.

The line is where the stall panel will go. That large window is too heavy for me to move so it can stay there until I have help, but I need to move the wood from where the stall will be to that pallet and up against the side there...
well, that is the plan.

It may change.
I have already made huge progress. I have cleaned out the area where all the halters and ropes were kept. I can reach that stuff now!

So a few hours a day have gotten me far along in the project. I could use some more help I suppose, but it doesn't seem I have any willing volunteers.

I may have visitors the next couple of weekends. Would it be wrong of me to ask for some extra hands?
I know they expect to be taken on hikes, but ...
Well there you go.

So you got photos of the ugly shed. It will get better!

The next project

I should take photos of what I am doing. A before... and some in between shots of progress.

I got tired of the 'waiting' for things to happen. Rich kept saying that he was going to get out to the shed and organize things.
In truth, since his stroke, he hasn't had any interest in going out there except when he was to use the skid steer to plow.

Last year the Pulmonary Emboli set him back again. And now? He hasn't ventured to the big old shed at all. I don't think it is a good place for him now anyway with his lung damage. It is dirty, dusty, bird poop, mouse poop, and ... well you get the point. Dirt and dust have a way of accumulating.

In the shed---- once upon a time--- Rich started to work on an Allis Chalmers tractor. He pulled part of the engine out. And then decided to find a larger one at an auction. He did find one and used it for a long time. Until he decided he wanted a skid steer. So he got a tiny one from another fellow that lasted for about 8 hrs before it broke down. He started to take that apart until he decided it was too hard to fix.

Now we have a pretty nice skid steer. It can do the jobs of either old tractor and the tiny skid steer. One tractor and one skid steer have become fixtures in the shed. Along with a Toyota pickup he purchased for hunting. It needed a master cylinder. It still needs that but hasn't run since he parked it there.

Indeed. We can't move that! The bed of that truck is where fencing supplies got stacked.
There are broken down boxes of all sorts of huge bolts pails of nails, light fixtures, metal chunks of 'stuff' plastic pvc pipes and a bit of this ... and that scattered everywhere.

I want to put a stall back in the shed for the elder mules this winter. I was pretty amazed how organizing 'stuff' can open up space. I decided to go on a hunt and gather long pieces of metal...I've been moving all of it to one part of the shed. Aluminum in one section and other metals in another.
Eventually I just stacked and decided not to separate things. I just wanted to move the stuff.

I collected all the shovels and put them in a huge plastic barrel. I have more shovels than I can ever use!

Before this year, the 'stuff' in the shed was off limits to me. It was Rich's personal man space. Now I have told him what I was doing and he just looks at me.

The guy I used to know would have had a cow if I organized HIS stuff. This guy seems vaguely aware that I am doing something. He has asked me not to throw things out.

Well, the scraps of metal will get loaded and taken away.
As will the old tires.
But my neighbor and I had a discussion about the 'stuff'. He said he'd been at auctions where ... he waves at the stack of metal is leaning, the wood that is leaning against another wall, and the buckets of bolts....along with rolls of barbed wire....
"People go nuts for this stuff! Sell it at auction!"


He has a point. I've seen used T posts sell for more than what a person can buy them new.

I am wearing a dust mask. When I peel back an old tarp to reveal a prize underneath it...I am amazed and the air is turned into a cloud of nasty un-breathable dust.
I knew my husband collected things he purchased at auctions and I always cringed when he came home and unloaded his precious cargo into the shed.
It has been an ongoing fight since he started to fill the shed after filling the small shed and the garage. I called it crap, he called it useful stuff. And once in a while he'd prove it to me too.
Something would need fixing and he'd disappear into one of the buildings and come out with the parts that would were needed. Or he'd grab some metal and cut and weld it, fabricating a custom hay fork for the skid steer, or modifying a plow.

The garage was crushed by falling trees 6 years ago. That is a project that will have to be hired out. It too is on my list.

The shed was supposed to be an indoor riding arena for me. That really never happened.

Maybe one day yet? Well. After an auction, that is. Lots of treasures are in that shed!

I am very happy though that the other end of the shed has plenty of open space for our winter hay.

I guess I need to take some photos of the place. Be prepared, it is ugly!

I figured this would be a good October-November project. I'm sort of wondering if I bit off more than I could chew. However, I'd like to create enough space to park the lawn mower, the 4 wheeler and the working skid steer in the shed and have enough room to lead mules in and out and of course pull out my sled of hay and sweet feed each day.

I'm even looking forward to the day when I can park my Subaru and Truck in there. At once time we could park everything inside.

I will be happy with just getting the stall set up before the weather turns really bad.

Dust mask, gloves, and coveralls! Yipee!