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Saturday, February 4, 2012

Sorting and Planning

I spent most of Thursday morning taking all of my  fake furs off the shelves in my studio and from the upper hall where I have kept the "extras."  As I did this I culled out lots of smaller pieces and clusters of odd scraps.  I filled at least two large bags for the trash, and emptied and squashed a half dozen boxes.


Some of what I culled out was too good to throw away. I filled three large trash bags with fur and fabric, tied them closed and labeled them "Flea Market or Donation."  I put these in the back of the storage closet in the studio.  I will probably forget what is there, but this is the first step in getting rid of it.  I did a lot of that last year.  I put things into bags or boxes in the garage and then six months later donated or tossed them.  It works for me.  


Friday morning I faced a huge pile of furs covering my work benches and the couch and chair in the family room. 
 I made a list of the  animals I might want to make "on the road."
 As I put the furs back onto the shelves, I sorted it so that only furs for those went on the front shelves. 


 The rest went into bags and are stored on the back shelves.  I made a little key chart of the back furs. I need to keep all of these materials because until I actually go "on the road" I will continue offering  a much wider variety of animals on my web page.


 I consider this a first step in understanding what I might need to pack along if I take the Animal Head Biz with me.  I can still cut this down some and fit it into a large car top carrier.


Thursday afternoon I started planning our summer trip up to Crater Lake.  I really enjoy planning.  I've been reading about places we might stop at and looking at maps and directions.  I would like to take a week getting there, spend a week there, and take a week coming back. 


 Maybe we won't come back!  Maybe we will keep going and have a longer trip.  It will all depends on how much we get done on the house and on what our fall trip is looking like.  (I'm figuring on six weeks in Utah,  New Mexico and Arizona!)


Craig has had a productive week.   In addition to shopping for and ordering the new shower enclosure for the middle bathroom, he reworked the drywall on one of the walls in the bedroom we sleep in. 


It is an interior wall that was an exterior wall before the garage was added. The two windows, already removed in this picture,  looked into the garage. The built in air-conditioner unit has not been used for many years.  All are gone, and it is now a smooth wall. 


There is other drywall around the house that has to be finished and textured before it is painted.  We will do it all at once, so for now this wall is just patched.


Today he cleaned up the mess from the drywall and we will be able to sleep in our own bed again tonight. We've been sleeping in a regular double bed in the guest room, cosy, but a tight fit!


Earlier in the week he fixed the broken tile edge in the front hall.  I have wanted it fixed for 20+ years!  It took about an hour's actual work.  But it's done now. 


He also did a little repair on the Alfa.  A drawer had broken on our trip and need some TLC and a few screws!


I wonder what will be accomplished next week? 



18 comments:

  1. Lots of good work going on at your house. I like planning our journeys also. I usually end up with way too many things for us to see and do and we don't have time for everything. But I make sure we get our money;s worth.

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  2. Great progress! It astounds me that we finally get things done that has been put off for years....go figure!

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  3. Wow, you guys have made a lot of progress! I bet it feels good to get a few things out of the way. I like planning too..and Crater Lake will be a wonderful place to go.

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  4. nice to get some things off your 'to do list'!!

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  5. Planning is part of the fun of RV'ing -- whee can we go and what can we see! Sounds like you guys are motivated to "git 'er done."

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  6. Have you ever considered vacuum packing the fake fur to reduce the bulk for storage?

    the hermit

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  7. Great progress, Merikay! Tell Craig, he's doing good work! It's always so hard to get some of those projects done when they are right where you have to live around them!

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  8. We left for 12 weeks and stayed out five years, so I know just how you feel. Hopefully we'll get back out one of these days and meet up on the road.

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  9. That's quite a handy guy you've got there, Merikay! Glad things are rolling along for you on the repairs. It sure is fun to plot and plan the next trip! Sounds like a winning destination!

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  10. Craig has really been getting things done since he retired.

    I'll bet you don't want to come back when you go on your next trip!

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  11. That's a lot of work you both accomplished. Pretty soon I'll start planning my three months when I leave here. If it goes as usual, the plans will change many times. :)

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  12. Good for you! I wish I had even 1/2 of your motivation. The trip sounds dreamy - for me planning is 1/2 the fun!

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  13. Doing all that work will take it out of you. Take a trip and rest.

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  14. I was just looking at the Crater Lake area, such a beautiful place. You seem to be making good progress. I remember how overwhelming it was when we were getting the house ready to sell. Just keep chipping away at it. :)

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  15. We've been on vacation so I'm catching up on blog reading. Glad to hear your lump was a cyst. What a scare! You guys are amazing in the amount of work you are doing. I was also overwhelmed at times, but keep plugging away. It will happen. And planning for the next trip is a great incentive to keep going!

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  16. Good work. Nice to have so many accomplishments to look back on.

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  17. Wow, that is a lot of work Merikay! It sure helps that Craig is handy though. You'll get it done & take that wonderful vacation that we're all looking forward to reading about :-)

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  18. We are also in our planning stages of becoming full time RVers. It's so hard to to trim down a life's worth of "things". I have recently downsized from a 4K sq. ft. house to a 1 bedroom, 1 bath Farm house. That was tough, but now my partner in crime says I have to cut down from 5 large storage containers of clothes to 1! OMG, this is harder than I thought.

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