RANCHO FIXO

The feed line to the water heater had to come over the top instead of the wall like before.

Sooooo....that's what our kitchen sink looks like from behind!

 

 Above and to the right are the same picture of the exterior wall looking from the patio toward the kitchen. The garage is on the left.

Another shot from the patio.

This is one of the three solar powered attic fans that we had them install. If we had not installed them, the county (great oracles of wisdom and thievery) would have required us to install "eyebrow vents" with the new roof.

 The pair of vents. The windows on the left are where my office/sweat shop is.

The vent on the garage is a different brand and model. We weren't quite sure at the time if we were going to put a single vent on the house so we just ordered two. Later, our contractor advised that having two on the house would be a good way to go so we boogied over to "Lowe's" and picked this one up.

A close up of the garage vent.

All three vents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well….the fix is in. We’ve finally got the new roof stuck on and the plumbing leak has been arrested (and charged with a misdemeanor). We’re officially back to square one….which seems to be a lot further away from my pocket book than I remembered.

Did you know that roofers and plumbers don’t work for free ….or peanuts? I think I may have missed my calling. You know….”Roofin’ Ran” sort of has a ring to it, eh? Maybe folks would call me “Ol’ Rufe” for short. I’m not trolling for votes at this time so….don’t. Besides, I don’t need no stinking hanging chads.

 Anyway, it’s nice to not have a bog or swamp in my back yard. Had we waited much longer I’m confident that we would have been alligator ranchers. Now, alligators do make great shoes and such but they really are tough to keep if for no other reason that they eat a lot….and….rather indiscriminately. I’m sure that we could explain away a few missing dogs and cats from the neighborhood but, after awhile, folks would, no doubt, encourage us to raise hogs instead (probably at the point of a gun).

 Maybe we could have raised guppies or minnows for fishing. After all, Lake Success is a mere 6 miles from here. At 3 bucks per bucket of 25 or so, I could make a bit of extra gas money for my boat (that hasn’t been wet yet). That, on the other hand, would have necessitated moving Connie’s clothesline to some other location. I didn’t ask her opinion about relocating it given that I knew what the answer would be. I was prepared to offer great evidence of how advantageous it would be to have another income source. But, I wasn’t prepared to see the scowl and grimace on her face even after presenting such compelling evidence. So, there was no way that the “Minnick Minnow Marketing and Management" maneuver was going to fly. We just fixed the dang leak. Part of the good news is that the water pressure is back up in the shower. No more having to run around in the shower to get wet. I hate that.

 We still have to have the contractor glue our siding back on for us. The plumber did a great job of not destroying the wall and siding but he’s a plumber and not a builder. We decided that it would be best to call the guy (now a good friend) who finished our barn and patio. Nice guy and quite competent (unlike Klepto The Clown who built the barn in the first place. We’re still smarting from his complete lack of concern for us and our project).  Though our wall looks like it barely survived the bombing of Berlin, it will look just fine.

 And, we won’t have to concern ourselves with rain drops falling on our head for about thirty years (the warranty on the new roof). The tradesmen (only one spoke English that I could tell and that was the contractor) did a great job and tidied up after themselves. They installed our three solar-powered attic fans for us too. That should help with the utility bill by a few percentage points. We stuck two on the house and one on the garage.

 The big “Springville Apple Festival 2013” yard sale extravaganza is almost upon us. It’s slated for Oct. 18-20 and Connie has been hustling around like a duck in a dry pond getting stuff (ours and others’) ready for the big sale. We will have around 20 sellers this year and could even tally more in the next week or so. Last year saw 22 vendors (I run Vendors 7 on my computer, yah sure!). It’s a lot of work but it’s also a lot of fun. We usually whip up a batch of stew and baked goods for everyone and just have at it. Everyone dips into their ice chests and grabs their goodies and away we go.  It works out great for us because there is a lot of stuff that doesn’t sell on eBay that we can sell and recoup our investment. To make matters even better, we often find a “free box” at random yard sales that we haul off. We may profit only a few bucks from it but, it’s FREE MONEY and free money is our friend. Also, it’s not all that rare that someone will simply give us their yard sale tailings because they have neither the time nor inclination to deal with them. No problemo. We have a solution that we can all live with. That’s why we have a nice 4’ x 8’ stake side trailer and, if that isn’t large enough, a really nice  6’ x 12’ covered trailer (aka “Heffalump”) with which to haul our booty.

Maggie the Wonder Dog will be in her element making sure that, after she sniffs and greets everyone, she'll be in their way. For reasons known only to her and God, she likes to flop down in the middle of the driveway where a hundred people are and insure that folks have to walk around her. *SIGH*.

 That’s what’s happening (for now) at “Camp Swampy”. Stay tuned for the further adventures of the Not-So-Dynamic Duo, Connie and Randy the Yard Sale Champions.