SAFE!!

We’re “SAFE” in Springville. Well…at least our rifles and shotguns soon will be. We just mounted our 625 lb Patriot Safe Company 39 gun “Warrior” 59'' x 39'' x 27'' gun safe in the garage. It hasn’t been opened yet because no time has been allocated. The big beaut has been patiently sitting in the driveway for four months. She has been all decked out in cardboard and squatting on a wooden pallet all this time waiting to be included in the family. It happened today.

We borrowed a pallet jack from great friends, Mike and Frankie Archer, so that we wouldn’t have to hire elephants to move this beast.  It took a bit of shouldering and grunting but we finally pushed the huge chunk of beauty into place. The next step is to drill a hole in the concrete, hammer in a concrete anchor, and bolt it into place. 

Connie and Julie Hergersheimer (Christian friend and neighbor) spent a great deal of time in the heat (with the aid of the trusty and blustery “Turbo-Fan”) in the garage making way for the safe. Part of the plan was to clear the garage of “stuff” (most of which is just “ffuts” spelled backwards, don’tcha know) so that we can actually use it as a garage and to get ready for our huge (not an exaggeration) yard sale. The gals did a bang-up job at the expense of a lot of time and sweat.

Now…I don’t mind flexing what few muscles I have left. However, I have long known that when you flex a muscle, it equates to “work” and “work” equates to heat. Let it be known to all that “heat” is my enemy. I fiercely defend myself against heat of any nature except for food which needs to be near the molten point for me to enjoy it. If my food isn’t hot enough to rip off the top layer of skin on the roof of my mouth, I probably won’t enjoy it. It is recommended that you don’t ask about such a dynamic because Ol’ Ran can’t explain it to himself much less anyone else. The bottom line is that I did a “Garfield” and watched the gals do their thing while I stayed in the cool shop working on computers. Hey…there has to be a little bit of an income to pay the help!

“SALE”

Speaking of yard sales, our May yard sale is ready to go for this weekend. Oh…you did the math on that? I thought so. We’ve had to put it off because the barn wasn’t complete. The big twelve family (with more pending) yard sale has come upon us for this weekend so we’re up to our ears in getting ready. That means that we had to go to Exeter with the big white 6’ x 12’ covered trailer (nicknamed “Heffalump”) to pick up some yard sale goodies for dear minister friends, Paul and Sherry Breski.

On the return trip, we stopped at dear friend and fellow musician Bill Hull and his wife, Jan’s, place in Porterville to pick up some of their goodies. That filled the remaining 30% or so of the trailer’s available space. Then, we all headed to “Rancho Relaxo” to unload.

When we arrived, we found that our new awning cover for our eight pole 12’ x 20’ car port had arrived (the old one was trashed)! We had actually believed their initial shipping forecast that the cover would be available on the 5 of August. What a blessing that it arrived in time to be available for the yard sale! We all pitched in and got the cover pulled into place and secured in almost no time! It will afford at least some shade for the welcomed shoppers at our gala affair. We have a couple of other nice “easy up” awnings to work with as well.

It has to be noted that we originally had planned this big event to be concurrent with the “Springville Rodeo” in April. What with all of the hundreds of cars passing our place, there’s no way we could have anything but a successful yard sale. However, we just found out that the “Mountain Fest” musical event is being held in Camp Nelson this very weekend of the yard sale! There will be scads of people passing our way!

In all of our travels and loading, we’ve had to deal with a phenomenon called “summer heat”. And, that means that we were all melting into a puddle of primordial slime while we loaded and unloaded everything. What is really interesting is that it hasn’t been all that hot lately here in the Valley. It has been only about 95 degrees or so and will remain about that temperature for the next few days. “Hot” here means 105 to 110 degrees. I’m most thankful that it wasn’t hot enough to boil crabs in a crock pot but I’m still filling my armpits with a swamp when I have to be outside for any length of time.

“BARN”

The barn is almost finished! The electrical part has been completed and there are a few small finishing touches that will be needed. We’ve already started loading it up! The new swamp cooler is patiently waiting installation too. At least the water to the cooler has been plumbed (tied into the house line).

The apron/ramp still has to be built up to the floor. As it is, the floor of the barn stands almost 10” above the pad on which it was built. I couldn’t even get the little Toyota pickup in there! The contractor has a pile of dirt and a pile of DG (decomposed granite) with which to build it.

Also, the trench needs to be filled in and a couple of small trees removed. After that, I can think about having a lawn again. What’s there now is not a pretty sight after not having had water on it since March.

Stay tuned to find out how the big yard sale turned out!