Thanks for the support and encouragement

All of your supportive and encouraging comments are much appreciated right now.  I have been blogging about this, the end of our sticks and bricks time, in part to relieve the stress and also to encourage anyone who is thinking about it, to get started.  Hopefully this will also show them that this phase will pass and we will make it to our goal of becoming full time RVers.

I was thinking about my blog this morning and came to the conclusion that this process is somewhat like a long illness.  It is with you every day, some days seem harder than others, and your friends and family get tired of hearing about it.   Like with an illness, we have had help from our doctor, the handy man. I do know, in my heart, that we will get thru and recover fully. 

Today (Wednesday), I finished my jobs by 1:00 o'clock!

 

Looking down on the garden, from the deck, before spreading the bark.

Craig cut and emptied the bags, and I spread them with the rake. 

It took less than an hour to do the job!  Big improvement!

This is the collection of paints and stains I dealt with today.

More:

I didn't take a picture of the empty shelf or space on the floor, but they have been sorted, emptied as needed, some put out to dry, and loaded up to take to the hazardous-waste place on Thursday. The motor oil has been poured into plastic containers, and I hope the HW people will tell me where to take it.  The rest of the van space has been filled with "to the dump stuff"!

Meanwhile, Craig went out and got our new smoke/carbon monoxide alarms as well as 40 boxes into which we will start packing his science fiction collection, to send to his nephew. He also installed the alarms, but grumbled that the California guidelines on where to install them are quite a mess.

So after a busy, but productive day, we indulged in home made Buffalo chicken wings.  I know, high in fat, but oh so good!

Do you enjoy an occasional forbidden indulgence?

My Good China

I will be spending much of this week sorting lots of things I have been tucking away in the garage for a future Flea Market day.  Well, the future is here.  The big flea market in San Jose has a free day on the first Saturday of the month. My main goal is to remind myself what is in all those bags and boxes, price things, and get on with it.  I want to sell the fake fur.  I can't see dumping it, and I'm not sure Goodwill will take it.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about "things" as I work.  Although my china set is not yet in the "go" pile, I am letting go of it mentally.  Years ago, on our 20th anniversary Craig wanted to buy china.  We had married very young and didn't have a wedding.  We struggled to make end meet more years than I care to remember, and never had money for the "finer" things like china and crystal.

I remember going to Macy's with him and looking as really nice china.  We picked out some, but when we were paying for it I was told that it all had to be "hand washed."  What?  I figured I would be using it for special occasions and big dinners.  Who wants to wash more dishes by hand than necessary at times like that?

We stopped the transaction, and I found a pleasant, inexpensive set that was on sale.  I could put it in the dishwasher without fear.

Some years went by and I used it often.  Then in 1989 we had a big earthquake and most of the china was broken.  The insurance adjuster appraised it at about three times what I had paid for it.  I didn't correct him because he lowballed us on other things.

In this house I have a big, beautiful dining room.  A beautiful place for beautiful dinners.  I also have a dishwasher that has a "China" temperature setting. So,  I used the insurance money toward a 12 place setting set of Noritake china and a beautiful set of flatware to go with. I have enjoyed using it, but I just don't see keeping it.

As I type this post, I have decided that I will keep the flatware.  Who says knives and forks can't be elegant in an RV?  My good flatware doesn't weigh any more than my everyday stuff, and hand washing is the way I'll be doing it in the Alfa.

We don't want to put anything in storage. Our daughter will keep a few things for us in her attic, but we'd like to be free of sizable items. Maybe she can keep half the flatware for me, it won't take up much room.  I'm sure we will probably settle down to a small house or condo someday, but when that time comes we can get new dishes.  I don't see our having a large dining room again, or my hosting family holidays.  I hope I can help my daughter at her house!

I feel that the important things are the people, not the dishes, and I can serve quite nice meals on my Corelle, or paper plates for that matter.  If I want china, I will find a bargain on eBay or at Goodwill.

I've checked eBay and Craigslist and find some of the same pattern going for about 1/3 of what I paid for it.  I just hate the process of selling things. I might do some research into an estate sale after the house sells.  The only question I have about them is that our house is not in a very good location for the casual garage sale buyer.

So, think of me on Saturday.  I have to get up at about 4:00 AM.  Yuck.  Craig is not coming along.  Hopefully he will get a lot done around the house that day.

Patience

I really am trying hard to be patient and take every day as it comes. Last week I spent some time sorting and tossing. So much stuff!

After working on art materials and writing a thoughtful post about moving on, I got a couple of orders in Friday's email from customers who are willing to wait the couple of weeks it will take me to make the animals they want.  One is from a lady that has ordered something for her son every Christmas for the last  five years.  He has quite a collection! The other is from the UK, and the customer promptly reconfirmed when I emailed the shipping cost, and production time details.   So I guess I'll be working on sculptures for a bit.

Craig had a cold early this week and so put off starting any new work around the house.  But he felt better by Thursday, and since the weather was dismal, he took my suggestion to do a little drywall repair in the upper hall. 

 We had a leak there before the new roof was put on and there is some water damage. It's a good "putzy" job for a rainy weekend. It will probably take a couple of days for him to do, and then the hall will be ready for me to paint. I'd like to have that done before we leave for Christmas.

Friday, I spent some time going through my closet. 

I pulled out everything that was too big, worn out, or not wanted.  

I have done this several times in the last two years and although I know I still have too many, I  feel I am getting closer to having the right amount of clothes. 

Over the weekend I measured the length of the closet pole in the Alfa and marked off the pole in my closet in the house to be the same size. There is  24 inches of pole on my side of the closet.  I have installed some plastic shelves and a shoe holder on my side that take up the remaining space. Craig gets 32 inches of pole on his side.

Now I can see what is going to fit. It looks like I still need to cut down by about 1/3. It seems that jackets take up a lot of space.  I eliminated two today, but I still have more than I will have space for.  

I also have more Tshirts and sweatshirts than I need.  I tossed at least a dozen Tshirts into the rag bag today. We will be staining some new doors and woodwork soon and they will come in handy.  Since it is winter now I am wearing long sleeve shirts every day.  I know I'll need both long and short sleeved shirts in the future.  I wonder if I can stow some clothes somewhere other than the closet.

Little by little I have also emptied the overhead shelves on my side of our closet. 






I did another pass thru my dresser drawers too, and have tossed just about everything I don't wear.  I found a couple of pair of shorts that I didn't remember that will fit me now, and got rid of several that don't.

I also found this old treasure: A pair of cotton lady's dress gloves.  I've had them since we lived in Wisconsin 35 years ago.  I had a dressy winter coat that had a fur collar and three quarter length sleeves.  I wore these long gloves with it. I wonder where Goodwill will put them.  They are in perfect condition.

Craig doesn't agree with my way of getting rid of things a little at a time.  He says we can just load up the Alfa and whatever doesn't fit we will dump.  I told him his head will explode from the pressure of all the things he will have to think about in the weeks after the house sells!

[From Craig: as Merikay has been talking about this, I'm about ready to go in and throw almost all of my old clothes away. It would be a lot of
fun, and I would avoid having my head explode...]

 We will get through this.

Sorting ...

Rain again today ...

Friday morning is our trash pick up. I pay for three cans a week, but often do not fill them. I recycle some things, but because we are on a small rural road our trash is all together.

This morning I filled two cans with debris from the studio.  Not hard to do.  I have been getting rid of stuff on and off for a couple of years, but there always seems to be more to toss.

Over a year ago I pulled several boxes out of our little attic that needed to be sorted. I tossed things that I considered "mine" and set Craig's aside in the upper hall. He needs to say: "save or toss" if it is something of his. He has not shown any inclination to deal with stuff, but he knows he will have to.  

Today he went thru the pile of boxes in less than a half hour.  Almost all of it went into the van for the next dump run.  His decisions prompted me to cull out a half closet of fabric scraps.  

Dare I add the skis?  I know I will never ski again and there doesn't seem to be anyone who wants them as a donation.  

Maybe tomorrow. The van is not full yet.

What was hardest for you to sort thru?

Is Craig Coming Along?

On Sunday, we went  to a very nice BBQ celebration of a friends 50th anniversary.


We got to see a lot of our mountain friends that we haven't talked to much over the long winter months.


One of them reads  my blog, and when Craig was talking about our future RV intentions, my friend said he couldn't tell if Craig was going along or not. 
The answer is ...  


drum roll ....


Yes.


It was his idea in the first place!  At times he seems reluctant, but it is not so much about the idea of spending a couple of years in an RV, as it is about the process of what we have to do to get there.


People have asked why we are "doing so much" to the house, why not sell it "as is"?  


The truth is we are really only doing things that we should have done over the last 20 year!  We have ignored a whole lot of maintenance and cosmetic repairs.  


I remember an old John Wayne movie where the rancher Dad kept saying "Come next summer ..."  when it came to some repair or other.  Well, our theoretical "next summer" has come.  Now is the time!

We made two big steps toward the future because of the BBQ.  One of our friends teaches photography at the University, and there was talk about how she had just put in a big new darkroom into her garage.  Does anyone still develop and print film?!!

Three houses ago, in the 80's, Craig had a darkroom.  We still had all the equipment in boxes in our garage.  We talked to her, and she agreed to take the enlarger and any other equipment we wanted to get rid of.  If there are things she can use, fine, if not she will take them to the University and find a student that can make use of them.


We hurried home, began unpacking the big old boxes and bagging up the disintegrating and (only slightly) mouse chewed wrapping papers.  Dusted things off and repacked them nicely.

We discovered the packers had mixed photographic equipment with fish tank stuff, so we unpacked all of that as well.  When we lived in Texas, 30 years ago, we had five salt water tanks.  When we moved, we sold a couple, but brought most of the associated stuff with us to California.  Living in earthquake country, I was not inclined to have a couple hundred gallons of water in glass tanks around the house, so we never got back into it.


It is all so old, we don't even want to offer it on free cycle.  but Craig has agreed to help me load it up and take it to the dump this weekend!


YES!  Yes, he is coming along.   He is talking about our plans to our friends and he is willing to get rid of the fish tank stuff!   


Great progress!

Flea Market Tomorrow

Well, the truck is packed full of stuff.  I don't know if it will sell or not, but at least it is out of the house and out of the garage.


I'm less well prepared for this Flea Market than I was for the very small church one I did last summer.  I don't want to think about pricing until it is all out.  I did do a little, but I also noticed last month when I went for a look-see that not everyone had everything marked.


A chance of Rain has been forecast for tomorrow, so I packed my Easy-up Tent.  The big bag with the top in it was the last thing I stuffed into the front seat of the van and as I was reparking it in the garage I noticed a strong "musty" smell.  It was the tent top.  It has been in the bag, in the garage for several years.  


I have it spread out in the sun for the afternoon, and hopefully it will air out enough to be useable.  


I dread the fact that I have to get up really really early tomorrow.   


Think of me ...   I'm not doing this for the money ...  


I'm doing this as another step toward reaching my dream.

Master Bedroom is FINISHED

Well, almost. 

 I still have to clean the free standing cone fireplace and give it fresh a coat of high temp black paint, but that's another project and may not happen for a while.

I left the tape up on top so I can make a plastic tent when we spray paint it.  Before we had the roof redone water dripped down the pipe and there is a bit of rust that has to be cleaned of

But everything else is done!  

I ended up deciding to save the light sage green color for another room and go with my own custom mixed color.  

I had tried three different sample quarts of paint and none of them were right, so I took some white paint and started adding a bit of bunt umber and a bit of burnt sienna until I got the color I liked. 

 Then I  added more white to get it to the correct shade. 

 I took this to Sherwin Williams and they almost matched it.  Their sample match was still to dark so I had them mix it at 75% saturation for the gallon and it was just right.  

The new color is very much like the background color of the Blogger Dashboard! Neutral, but a good color to bridge between the barn wood wall and stone wall.

On Sunday we carried the big brass framed mirror into the kitchen and I spent a couple hours polishing it with Brasso.  Craig had gone off to the store while I worked, but when he came back he did some rubbing too.

Wow, it came out like new!   

The entire room has been transformed!

You will never confuse me with "Susie Homemaker."  I hate to clean, and rarely do housework, but my recent painting has been very rewarding.

As I work thru each room I become more and more motivated to keep them nice. 

The good news is I won't be doing any more renovation for at least the next two weeks.

 I have a couple of sculpture orders to get done this week, and next week I have to get stuff ready for the Flea Market on April 2nd.

  I've been stashing stuff in boxes in one of the garages for several months.  Now I have to haul it all out, sort it, price it, and decide what should go to the market, what should be kept for storage, and what should go to the dump. 

Craig is no help in this. Whenever I bring it up he makes "unhappy noises."  I don't know if thats just his way of getting out of dealing with things. 

So if I don't do it, it won't get done!

Well, at least it's not painting!

Next Wall

Before I get onto the subject of my current painting project, I have to say how sad I have been for the people in New Zealand.  Their latest earthquake was quite devastating. 


We experienced quite a bit of damage and loss here in the 7.1 Loma Prieta quake of 1989. Seeing and hearing about the one in New Zealand brings back a lot of memories.  It makes my work here  seem so very trivial!


That said, heres the update on the dining room:
I finished the door and window sections, and Craig helped me move the plants, table, chairs, organ, and sideboard over to that side of the room.

I had already taken down all of the small pictures, and he helped me take down the moose. 


Good-by Moose. 


Well, not exactly Good-By,  We just put him in the garage. 


 I sent an e-mail to the president of the Moose Lodge last week, but haven't heard anything back.  I really do want to send him somewhere, other than the dump.  


The plants in the foreground of this picture are part of the four large ficus plants that are usually in front of the windows in the dining room.  They started as one, or two small plants in our last house 25 years ago.  I almost killed them many times by not watering them.  About twelve years ago Craig took over responsibility for them and they have flourished.  We have discussed the fact that they to will have to go when we put the house on the market.  They take up to much room and block the views from the windows.  Craig seems to be OK with that.  I hope so anyway.

This is the before picture on this wall.


I edged and painted it today.  Turns out that the high point in the dining room is not as high as the living room, so I was able to reach it by myself from my 8 foot step ladder.

If you look in the left corner of this picture you can see just a bit of the new blue color on the wall!


I considered just painting around and as much behind the hutch as I could and finishing the wall when we moved it out, but Craig wants me to "do it right" and paint the wall behind it now.


To do this we will have to move the hutch.  To move the hutch, I have to empty it first.  It is two separate pieces, and is chained to the wall.  It fell over in the earthquake we had in 1989 and just about everything inside came out and broke!

It will be a good opportunity to do a "first round" removal of things to be sold or otherwise gotten rid of.


The china stays.  We will need it and the glassware at Thanksgiving. 


 I have a few things from my grandmother and my mother that will be kept in storage or at my daughters.


I'm really glad never collected many nicknacks.  I have a few, but they will be easy to part with and will go down to the flea market box.  I'm not going to bother with E-bay.  I have a couple of picture plates that I found for sale on E-bay.  Highest price was $8.00.  Not worth my time to list them.  I will ask $10 for them at the flea market and accept $7.00. 


Well, that's about all for tonight.  Progress is slow, but any progress is good.


Hopefully I'll get some walking done next week!

Ebay research

I've sold things on Craig's list (have one up right now) but I keep wondering if I should try selling some stuff on Ebay.  


I have been doing the research part.  Finding listings of things similar to what I might have to sell, and seeing what the asking prices are. 


Checking the completed listings, I find it quite depressing to see so many " no bids," and when they are listed as sold the prices are very low.


For the very few "collectables" that I do have I might just as well take the pennies on the dollar at the flea market, or the very small tax deduction if I donate them.  


I've spent some time this week taking down pictures in the dining room, sorting thru the dragon picture collection from the stairwell wall, and considering  which, if any, to keep and wondering what to do with the others.


I researched "framed art" on Ebay and see the same as with collectables.  Few sales and those at low prices.  


For many of our pieces, the frames are worth as much or more than the images themselves!  


As I write this, I came up with one idea to explore. 


 When I was active doing shows and active in the local art guild I was often asked to donate a piece of my art to an auction to benefit this organization or that.  Maybe I should get in touch with some of those people and donate some of the pictures we have. 


 The local Public Radio station has an annual fund drives.  I should look into making donations to them.  I think I would get a better write off than at the Goodwill!


Now thats how Blogging is helpful.  If I hadn't written this out, I wouldn't have thought of PBS.

Exercise Goal:
1000 miles on the treadmill, 

2 miles Friday

Total walked = 316.5 miles  

Someday I will be hiking 1000 miles in National Parks!

Sorting thru years of papers

I find sorting thru papers and deciding what to keep and what to shred  more difficult than dealing with "things."


I know I have to keep all of our tax records for  seven years. These will be kept by our daughter in her attic, or somewhere that she can get to them if needed. 
 I remember when we moved to California I carried one year of tax records with us, but the mortgage bank wanted to see three, and I had to dig thru many boxes in the storage area of the moving company to find them. If our records are in a pod somewhere  it could be a problem.

But what about all the other records? 

I worry that I will discard something that we will needed. 


 I need to tell myself is that no one is put in jail for discarding a piece of paper.


Fined by the IRS maybe, but not given the death penalty!

I think what I dread most is Craig asking me for something that I have tossed! 


He holds me responsible for keeping track of papers.  If I can't find something he really gets upset.  But I will survive his rants. 


Actually I'm almost done with the boxes in the dining room.  I was pleased to see how much I had actually sorted thru last spring.  


Finally,  I have decided to put a couple of boxes of personal records aside for another time! I have decided I want to scan some of them and put them on  CDs or flash memory which our daughter can also keep for us.  These are records I want to keep, but don't need to have in the RV. These could go to storage.  
I've done enough for now!
So here is my Gold Star for today!

February Goals

I can't believe we are already ten days into February.  This year is going to just fly by.  I have roughed out a few goals for each month in my "to do" book.  Written in pencil of course so they can be changed, erased, and moved, but if I can get those  accomplished each month, things should look pretty good around here by next winter.

I can't speak for Craig, or plan the projects he needs to do, but he has been "talking the talk" lately and helping when he can, so I'm hoping he will get lots done this year too.

My February goal is to sort the all of the  papers I have moved to the dining room from the front hall closets.

(There were 22 boxes of records, one for each year we have lived here.  I went thru many last spring, but still have some left.) 

 I also have to sort the records and receipts  for the 2010  taxes! 


If I can get that all done, I can paint the dining room in March. 


There are a number of other things I hope to get done this month, but they will be fit in if I have the time. Small goals will also need adjusting if I get art work to do, and right now I am exchanging emails about two special projects, so it is likely there will be work to do.

I did make a big step forward this morning. It had nothing to do with the papers. The fabric samples finally came, so I made the decision, and ordered the new drapes and sheers for the living room, and a new drape for the patio door in the dining room, and new sheers for the other six windows in  there. 


And, keeping to my vow to appreciate "here and now," I gloried in the beauty of a sunny afternoon. 

I noticed the trees outside the window dancing in the wind as I categorized papers and filled yet another grocery bag destined for the shredder!


Tomorrow is another day.  
Another good day. 

Living Room Update

I came close to achieving my goals for January.  I had wanted to get the living room painting done. 


 I almost did. 


There is a little bit of touch up along some edges to do.  The paint color was so hard to see that it is only now, when I look at the dry paint in a different light,  that I can see a few missed spots.


 And the edging at the highest corner that I can't quite reach from the eight foot ladder. Craig will have to do it using the extension ladder.


I had not included the stairwell to the family room in my January plan.  Although it will be the same color paint, much of it needs to be done from the extension ladder as well.


When I took  the drapes and sheers down in the living room. I thought that  the sheers could be saved.  Unfortunately they were two far gone and shredded while being cleaned. 


 I'm almost happy about that.  It has pushed me into taking action on ordering new ones. The old drapes were also to bad to put back up. Now that the walls are clean, new drapes are a must.


I found a web site that sells customs drapes, and hopefully I can find an acceptable fabric, for an acceptable price.  
I have several samples coming in the mail.


 Their prices are pretty good, and they are also doing a 50% off  sale right now.  I'm trying to get the order together before the sale ends.  I talked to someone on the phone yesterday, and he was a bit vague as to how long the discount would be offered.


The drapes are manufactured in Hayward, California, which is just up the road from here.  I like the idea that they are American made, even if the labor is probably done by illegal immigrants.


 I didn't ask, but I think I may be able to go pick them up when they are done, and save the shipping costs. 
 (I could batch it with a trip to Berkeley Bowl!)


I'm pleased with my progress on sorting thru "stuff."  I agree with a comment that Heyduke left on one of my posts.  Something about "layers" of stuff.  I have found that by going thru and getting rid of the top layer,  it has become easier and easier to sort thru related things. 


I do wish Craig were more involved in it though.  I guess I just want to be sure he is OK with not keeping some things.  




On another note:

We are flying down to San Diego for a Super Bowl Party weekend with our daughter.  It should be a lot of fun, and of course we always enjoy seeing our grandsons.

Where are you watching the big game? 

Who do you think will win?

or

Art Work vs Working on the House

I have felt very conflicted this month.  I started the month with two animal sculpture orders, (Christmas shoppers that ordered for themselves.) One Polar Bear, and  one Large Moose.  I was pleased with this because it felt good to start the year with some business.

I also started working on painting the front hall and living room.

Shortly after the New Year, on of my Christmas customers was so pleased with the Large Elephant, he had ordered for his wife's Christmas gift, that he ordered four more sculptures. A  Mandrill, a Hippo, an Armadillo, and  a Polar Bear.  Then he contacted me again and  ordered a Large Horse as a gift for a friend.

 The horse is on hold at the moment because he needs to get a better picture of her horse for me to use as a reference for the blaze marking.

Last week I got my first international order of the year.  I'm making an Aardvark for someone in Denmark.  (I don't ask "why?"  I just make the animals the customer wants!)

Now then, all of this is very nice, and since the recession started, I've had months when I have had no orders at all.  So I should be very happy. I do enjoy doing the sculptures.  The days just fly by!

But, it is cutting into time I really want to be spending on painting the living room!

My goal was to have that room done by the end of the month.

I've shipped the moose and first polar bear, and have the next four almost finished.  I'm quite sure I will get the aardvark done next week, and that leaves me with about a week left in the month to paint.  Not really a big deal.  It will get done eventually.

I really don't see how those of you with real jobs get anything done!

On another subject:

I have been doing OK with finding things to put in the "flea market" boxes each day.

 I'm  looking at everything with a very critical eye these days.  Some days I wonder why I have  this stuff in the first place. I find I really have very little sentimental    attachment to  things.  The question I keep asking myself is "will I need this again?"  and most of the time the answer is "probably not!"

As my Mother always said: "Tomorrow is another day."Mandrill

One more box sorted

My daughter and family were here for Thanksgiving.  For 22 years I have had a large "dish pack" box of her things  in our attic.  I asked her to go thru it and set aside what she wanted to keep.  We are driving down to San Diego for Christmas and I will take it to her.  I have decided to just seal up the box and put it out with the trash on Thursday.

One more box gone!

I have some art work to get out this week, and I am meeting Levonne on Tuesday.

I just might start stripping wall paper on Wednesday!  I have the stuff to do it, and it's about time I got back to work on the house.  I had told myself I should complete the sorting of the two front hall closets before I started on the wall paper, but maybe doing the walls will get me motivated to do the closets!

I have been doing a lot of blog reading and thinking about our alternatives.

  At the moment there  many options to think about!  If and when I figure it out, I'll write a post.

Hope you all have a good week, I will be reading.

I'm Still happily sitting in front of the fire every night with my laptop.


Hope you are keeping warm and dry as well.

Yet another new approach

How to stay motivated to do the things I really don't feel like doing?  That is the question. . .

I enjoy taking on BIG projects like painting the outside of the house, or even finding someone to do a big job for me like tearing down the shed, but I strongly dislike all the puttsey little things like going through papers or closet shelves.

So today I decided I would just set a timer and say to myself I would work on one closet for one hour, and I did.

I also took the barrel of toxic liquid off to the recycle station this morning, and the guys said I was one of the very few who did it correctly.  They told me that  they wouldn't have taken it  because it was to big if I hadn't had the little hand written note from the county hazardous waste inspector.

I had a feeling that's what would happen because there were no readable labels on the thing.  That's why I asked him to write the note and sign it.  It was just on yellow note paper, but they knew his name.

Exercise Goal:
1000 miles on the treadmill, 

2.25 regular miles Thursday

+1 extra mile in memory of Margie

    For some reason that extra mile is the easiest, perhaps she is giving me a little help.

Total walked = 221.75 miles

Someday I will be hiking 1000 miles in National Parks!

BUSTED!

NOTE: The following occurred with humor, but also with a touch of truth.

Among the treasures we have moved from place to place for 46 years, was a foot locker type chest that I believe Craig must have used to take his things to college in the 60's.  It was not "quality." It was made with some sort of laminated pasteboard and had a torn wood grain paper lining. The hinges were rusted. It smelled. I put it out with the trash cans for this morning's pick up.

Last night after dinner I tied up the last load of kitchen waste and was going to take it out to the cans.

"I'll do it for you" says Craig....

He comes back in  "You are throwing away my good chest. "

"It smells moldy"  I say.

"You could put it out in the sun" he says hopefully. "Wouldn't it be perfect for  storage in the RV?"

I harden my heart and answer "They have big plastic see-thru bins for that."

"Oh" he sighs,  "Another of my family treasures gone." And made a sad little boy look and went back to reading his book.

I do believe this was just in fun.

BUT, he does read my blogs, and my mention of the computers opened another issue.

I put most of the items I plan on taking for the electronics recycling next to the front door.  The old Mac was in a box.

This morning he asked about it.  I showed it to him and pointed out that I had seen dumpsters full of the same type of machines at recycling events in the past.  It is NOT unique!

He agreed to let it go, but said it would haunt him all day thinking about old computers piling up in a dumpster!

So sad. But if people didn't keep upgrading he would not have a job!

Then he asked about the old Terminal.

 It was heavy and after I unwrapped it to see what it was I put it right into my van.  We looked at it and he says it goes with the other machine he wants to donate to the computer history museum. At some undefined future date ....

See Dear, it's back on a shelf in the garage.
 I tucked plastic around it after I took this picture.

Meanwhile, The guy came and bought the wine press and another is coming for three car boys later today.  Another $120 in the kitty. Thats the kind of progress I like.

Exercise Goal:
1000 miles on the treadmill, 

2.25 miles Friday

Total walked = 208.75 miles

Someday I will be hiking 1000 miles in National Parks!

Daily countdown:

383 days, or 1 year, 17 days.  To get the house fixed up!

Culling

With my part of the outside painting done, I have been feeling a bit at loose ends.  

I have spent several days out in a very dusty garage, and did manage to haul away one load of trash to the dump.  

We leave the door open almost all summer and leaves and dirt blow in.  There is also a table saw in there and every time we cut something up it a cloud of sawdust blows onto everything. (After shoveling up a summers worth of sawdust, I used the leaf blower to blow all the dust back out.)  It seems to work pretty well.

I keep all of my master sculptures in there and have each in a plastic bag to protect it.  Some hang on hooks, but most are just piled up on the floor.  Yesterday I went thru them and grouped them into sets that I then put into bigger bags.  I also culled out quite a few that I want to discontinue from my web site. 

If I stop offering them for sale, I can get rid of the boxes of materials I have collected. I put several large bags of masters into a big appliance box in the other garage where I'm storing some of the things that will go to the dump eventually.

I put a wine press and some of the Carboys on Craig's list.  One was sold today.

I also spent hours up in a very small attic.  It's about ten feet wide, and six feet deep.  The problem with it is the tallest part is only about five feet high and it angles down from there with the roof pitch.  It is all insulated and has a solid floor so there aren't any spiders or other critters. But I can only crouch over for a little while, so I've spread the task out over the month.

 I have been at it before, so almost all of "my" stuff is gone. This time I tossed a box of my old paintings.  I never was a very good painter! 

  I pulled out everything on one side and have been shifting boxes like a Chinese puzzle.  Most of what's in there are empty boxes from computers and other electronics we have bought over the years. I was able to cull out a number of them because the electronics have been trashed. Many are now stacked up in the hall. 

I did come across a 30 year computer old terminal and a 25 year old MAC.  There is an electronics recycle drop off this Sunday at a near by community center.  Craig said he didn't want to know!

I found two large boxes of things that belong to my daughter.  They will be left out and she can go thru them at Thanksgiving.  I also found some of my sons treasures.  I have gone thru them and boiled them down to one small box that I will mail to him.  I am not keeping all of his old game notebooks and charts, nor am I paying the shipping to get them to Washington.  Mixed in with his stuff were some of his dirty laundry from about 25 years ago!

There is a big box of coral I want to photograph and put on E-bay.   There is also a heavy box of papers and books from Craig's early computing days, and a small box of family papers I need to go thru. These can stay out in the hall area until I deal with them.

My goal is that by the end of the week the attic will contain ONLY empty boxes, empty suitcase, and a few of Craig's things that I will list in my "book." (All Christmas decorations are elsewhere in the house!)

So ... that's what I've been up to.  Small steps, but going in the right direction.

Exercise Goal:
1000 miles on the treadmill, 

2.25 miles Wednesday

1.25 miles today  (humid lazy day)

Total walked = 206.50 miles

Someday I will be hiking 1000 miles in National Parks!

Daily countdown:

383 days, or 1 year, 18 days.  To get the house fixed up!

Exercise Goal:
1000 miles on the treadmill, 

2.25 miles Wednesday

1.25 miles today  (humid lazy day)

Total walked = 206.50 miles

Someday I will be hiking 1000 miles in National Parks!

Daily countdown:

383 days, or 1 year, 18 days.  To get the house fixed up!