Build, Baby! Build!

After what seemed like an endless monsoon season around here, we finally have a dry spell. It isn’t so dry that the frogs in the ditch out front have stopped croaking their love songs at night. The bulls are mindlessly singing their alluring tunes to attract females. It must be working, in fact. They are still happy and they are still making more frogs for the next wet season. However, it is dry enough to hang clothes on the clothesline again.

 Oh, boy….here he goes again on a 500 furlong tangent. We have a nice clothesline out back and adjacent to the garage. It’s a beaut that is surrounded by a white picket fence. However, it has to have a willing participant to maintain it with an equally willing weedeater because the enclosure is too small for a lawn tractor (*sigh*). If one is not mindful, the small plot becomes an impassible jungle with a pocket gopher as the only tenant and supervisor.

Perhaps some folks don’t recall having sun-and-air dried clothes but I’m here to tell you that this procedure is coming back in vogue. Well….sort of. Some people have yet to retrograde their laundry process for the sake of frugality. You have to admit that you can save enough in electricity costs to feed a large ‘possum by letting your undies flap in the breeze. And, there is the wonderfully fresh smell of nature that is lodged in your socks (whaddayoumean you’ve never whiffed your socks?).

Of course, there is a small price to pay for this one-with-nature blast from the past. You have to endure a bit of abrasion from the stiff towels when you take a shower. It’s not all that bad, I suppose. It’s sort of like drying with maybe 180 grit sandpaper, but not much more than that. And, of course, you have to bend them into shape and loosen them up a bit before you use them. However, the upside is that you get to experience layers of aromatic nature and sunshine trapped in the fabric of the sandpaper that exfoliates your tender epidermis. Hey! Think of it this way. You will never be troubled by excess dead skin cells again!

Yeah, I suppose that there are certain areas of my epithelium that I don’t want to purposely abrade. Somewhere in the back of mind there’s the thought that my body will compensate by building a callous or two or at least respond with some skin thickening. Uh….I’m trying to get a visual on this and it isn’t looking very pretty so far. I can always use the localized drip dry method, I suppose. Oh, well.

I survived the first 20 years of my life using this archaic method so I reckon I’ll make it a few more years with some minor scratch marks. Besides, winter will always show up which forces the use of the gas dryer which produces a soft, warm, and fluffy towel which allows time for your reddened skin to heal. You also get to smell like Bounce lilac flavored softener sheets. Not a bad trade.

OK, so I haven’t actually met anyone recently who is hanging their skivvies out for the neighbors to see. But, I know that times are getting more financially trying and I am convinced that there are some secret “hangers” out there somewhere. More are sure to follow this time-tested method of drying everything from tea towels to didys. Rancho Ran’s tip of the day is: you may want to buy some clothes pins while they are still cheap!

In fact, a lot of folks are starting to be more conservative with their finances what with the economic climate with which we are dealing (for more on that, you may want to check out “Randy’s Rant Roost” at http://randyminnick.blogspot.com from time to time). We’re stocking up on lots of items that will come in handy if the fertilizer hits the ventilator (economically speaking).

Back to the barn….on Wednesday the contractor advised that he would “drop off” the lumber on Friday. Imagine our surprise when Connie and I came home from Torrance on Saturday night and found that the barn had been framed in! We were almost dancin’ in the moonlight! If we hadn’t been so tired… and so middle aged… and so...overweight, the neighbors may have seen us doe-see-doe! There had been a concern that the barn would not be completed by the time we have the big (we’re talking big) yard sale at the end of this month and would have to postpone it again. It appears that we’re good-to-go.

The dimensions of the big barn are 20’ X 40’ of storage space with an upper loft that’s 8’ X 40’. It will be the same color (powder blue) and have the same siding as the house. There are two windows on each side with a 16’ roll-up door in the front. I’m planning to stick a big swamp cooler on the west side too. There will be electrical outlets everywhere and it will be insulated. The Ford 8N and the big Craftsman GT5000 lawn tractor will now have a nice home.

The upper loft will likely be used for storing dry goods and dry foods like flour, rice, and beans. The garage is currently being used to store both goods and food. It shouldn't take too awfully long to transport most of the items from the garage to the barn. In fact, I will be hiring a friend of mine to help with that chore (I’ll hire ten guys if I have to because I’m not lumping anything heavier than fishing tackle).

Speaking of yards sales, on the way to Torrance, we knocked over a few of them. It was “home run” season that day! We made out like bandits! Treasures included a 15” flat screen monitor (10 bucks!), an IDE hard drive enclosure (5 dollars!), a couple of powered USB hubs (2 dollars each!), a really nice metal storage rack with 5 shelves for the barn (15 dollars!), and a couple of items for Ebay selling. The shelving was easily disassembled so it fit into the back of the already crowded van. Connie scored with some goodies that she got for the grandkids.

Sometime in the near future we hope to return to Morro Bay and catch the yard sales they have over there. We cleaned up last year! People were almost throwing bargains at us!

Here it is the end of the first week in May (Mother’s Day, to be exact) and Connie and I have only been fishing once so far this year! What the heck is that all about?! We now have more than 30 freshly overhauled rods and reels, several tackle boxes, and hundreds of dollars of tackle and have only caught…one fish and one tree branch (at the expense of a new Mepps spinner).

We just returned from a couple of days in Harbor City/Torrance where we went to see Trixie’s newly born baby boy. This is her fourth child. That makes two boys and two girls. Can you imagine being a boy and having two elder sisters?! From what I can tell, though, the girls, Liesel (6) and Cosette (3), really love their new gender-opposite sibling. I saw them smooching him on the forehead a time or two.

As you can guess, Grandma Honey, held fast to the sleeping wee one a lot. How could she not do so?! He was as cute as a bug’s ear (which I’m sure he’ll appreciate that accolade a lot when he’s 25 years old). The little guy slept like a log due to the hyper dose of melatonin that God gives newborns.

Also, guess who got to jam with the best Country and Western musicians in the south valley? You bet! Ol’ Tele Slinger, Ran! There was a big benefit concert in Pixley at the Risi’s Pond Campground last week and I was invited. I’ve played with most of the guys before but it’s always a hoot to strap on the Telecaster and hook up with these great singers and players! The weather was most pleasant and the temperature was accommodating so we stayed for the duration.

The icing on the cake was to get to re-unite with picker, Paul Dobbs, who happens to be among the premier steel guitar player in country. He has played with a number of Nashville greats! I met Paul back in 1978 while living in Fresno and when he was playing in a local Christian band. It was great getting to play with him back then. We hadn’t seen each other until about 4 years or so ago when he played at a huge jam session in Exeter, CA. It was a great pleasure to get to play with him again!

My selections were “You’re Still On My Mind” (The Byrds) and “Excuse Me I Think I’ve Got a Heartache” (Buck Owens). I almost loaded my Huggie when Paul kicked the songs! Oh, man! Talk about good music! Paul had to head back home shortly after. So, after a big hug, he was gone back to Fresno.

After all was said and done, I had played about 5 hours with some of the best pickers between Fresno and Bakersfield! These guys are great and I had the distinct honor and pleasure to be included with the group!

When we got home, I was dog tired and ready to “un-lax”. It took a couple of days to recover but it was well worth it. It was a long but memorable day.

Stay tuned for the adventures of Rancho Ran and his side-cook, Connie. It’s never dull at Rancho Relaxo.