What a day. In some ways, it's been pretty good, and in others, just plain crappy. You know those days when it comes to homesteading. Days when things get done, but not as much as you want to get done, and you're glad some progress was made, but sure wish more had been made.
Downsides of the last few days:
Quentin got sick Thursday and had to take the day off.
Friday morning, he found out we'd have to get the beds we were given out of here that day.
So he had to take Friday off, too. (Thank goodness he'd already put in for a vacation day for that one.)
We can't get all the parts we need to fix the splice at Lowe's, but have to go to a specialty electrical supply shop instead.
We met at the trailer after I got off work Friday and did some stuff, then another trip today to do more stuff, but not everything got done like we wanted.
We had a mild tiff over things not going well.
The upsides:
We not only were given the beds (two queen-size mattress and box springs sets) for free, but were also given an old entertainment center. (Good thing the owner of the complex is refurnishing all the furnished units, so we were able to pick up these few pieces for free. Saved us a bundle there.)
Renting the U-Haul trailer for the weekend wasn't nearly as expensive as we thought it would be.
The van didn't burn nearly as much gas hauling the trailer as we thought it would, given that we made two trips.
One of our neighbors in the RV park part of the complex is having a garage sale, with permission of the managers. Sadly, it's because the husband's cousin and good friend is dying, and the cousin's house up in O- is being foreclosed on, so the couple is getting all his stuff out of the house and selling it for what they can to help the guy out a bit. They know that if the bank gets the stuff, it'll get sold for pennies on the dollar, so they're selling things for what they can get, but still ridiculously low prices.
The garage sale netted us a desk for me for $5, a small microwave for $2, and a really nice upright fridge-freezer for $20.
We did get all the stuff up there, including the last of the really don't need it right now stuff, barring exception of extra blankets and the wall stuff, as the blankets will be used to wrap electronics like my laptop, the TV, his stereo, and his PS2 before loading them into the van. We know it has way better shocks than the rented trailer does, and want to protect our few electronic toys as much as possible.
Sadly, the fridge, the entertainment center and one of the beds are all sitting outside yet. The entertainment center made it up to the porch before Q realized we couldn't get it up ON the deck because the thing weighs a good bit and the deck is pretty high. I understand basic physics, and know an inclined plane (aka a ramp) would get the thing up there easier than trying brute force. Being a rather stubborn man, he wouldn't hear of it, as usual. I have to laugh. We both have good ideas, but often come at a problem from different angles, and it causes issues. That's what caused our tiff today.
"I suppose," he says, looking at me from around the entertainment center as it stood next to the deck, "that you'd rather give up on the free one and just get one of those knock-together things from Wal-Mart right about now."
I replied, "Well, if you'll remember correctly, I wanted to do that to BEGIN with because it would be easier to get stuff into the house!"
(Mind, about now, we were both pretty wiped out. More on that in a minute. So it's no wonder why we were completely snipping and snapping at one another by this point.)
The one bed made it into the house and bedroom and got set up yesterday, but it's awful low to the ground for us and our older bones. And right after Q got them and the EC onto the trailer Friday, it began POURING here in H-. So of course, they got soaked completely through. So the one loaded on top dried out pretty quickly. The one on the bottom was still soaked when we offloaded it Friday. So it's sitting next to the woodpile to dry out, with logs stuffed under the corners to help keep both pieces off the ground directly till they dry out. Then we'll get those into the house as well and make the bed sit on the floor directly (thus avoiding the cats getting under it at all and anywhere NEAR the soft spot in the floor there), and put both box springs on the bottom, and both mattresses on top, making for a very comfy bed with enough height that we won't be struggling to get off the thing when we get up in our mornings!
The fridge ... well, we had been given a general dolly to use to help get things from the trailer, up the driveway and into the house. Sadly for the dolly, it couldn't handle that Ozarks driveway, and one of the wheels came off. Good thing we were told it didn't matter if it broke or not, lol. So we ended up cat-walking the fridge off the trailer and leaving it standing by the side of the driveway in the easement out of general sight of the road. Now to just hope it doesn't do a disappearing act before we can figure out how to get it down the driveway and into the house.
Now, as to why we were both wiped out. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Extremely Nasty And Gross Refrigerator That Had Been Left Full Of Food And Left Behind is no more. We cat-walked it to the front door, realized it wouldn't go out the door with it's doors on, took the doors off the thing (very nasty job, that), and slid it out onto the deck. I know that deck is sturdy for sure now, since it held us and the fridge without wobbling or creaking or anything. We scooted it over to the edge by the house and shoved it off, yelling, "BYE BYE YOU NASTY THING!" The doors went out that general area to the trash pile as well, since we'll be dozing it into a hill to cover with dirt and grass and flowers anyhow later on down the road. So it looks awful for now, we figure big deal. Eventually it will look pretty.
Now, it does smell pretty bad by the front door right now, but we know that's because of the bacteria in that fridge (thank goodness for work gloves that protected our hands and which will get washed with this week's laundry), and also that it will ease off over the next couple days as things things clear out, or maybe are cleared out. The saddest sight in it for Q was five unopened cans of Mountain Dew, his favorite soda in the world. They'd been left in there and had evaporated. To him, that's a complete travesty, or what he calls "Dew Abuse." The look on his face was almost laughable.
So not a lot got done that we really wanted to get done, but enough was done that we feel some progress has been made. We even made a few scores in the household stuff department, and things are moving forward a little bit more. It just is so hard to be doing so much and seeming to make so little progress, but that will pass. I think I'm just a little depressed by not being there already, but the more that gets done, the better I feel. Right now, it's late Saturday evening, and time for bed for me.
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