Here's a shot of a really handy gadget. This is Quatro, our 250cc Honda quad-ATV and latest addition to the rancho tool collection. One of our clients passed away and his widow gave it to us. She's about a puller, let me tell you! She's hooked to Woolly Pully which has a load of goods for the yard sale.
This is early Thursday evening prior to the Friday 8AM kick off. Everyone is tidied up and ready to go! There was a slight chance of rain which is why the canopies were hunkered down.
Here's Abby, the official yard sale greeter. She did just exactly that and had a great time! She's just doing a little bit of eyeball patrolling from a position of rest at this time. A good coon dog has to conserve energy, don'tcha know.Below and to the right are a few shots of the stuff we are setting up. We had 25 tables out this year!
All of this is our stuff and there's more that you can't see!!
To the right is Leanne's goods. She owns all four
canopies in the picture. We even have a saddle maker from Montana down at the end of the row near the road!
Looking north from the middle of the driveway and toward the house. In the background is some of our goodies. We sold a lot of stuff! But, we also bought a few things! Things are our friends!
This is the "Duggins Citrus Express" band playing a gig at Fountain Springs. They recently remodeled the place and we were part of the kick off celebration. It used to be "El Tapatio" (same El Tap chain as in P'ville). The place really looks great now! Ol' Bass Man Ran is on the end. I play lead guitar for another band a couple of times per month at "Golden Hills" in P'ville. It helps to keep the rust off the old fingers.
Well...it's November 2019! Doesn't that make you want to hock your Barbie Doll Collection?! And, it's only a few weeks until Christmas and the Ol' Rancher is still working on getting ready for last spring! That just burns my cheesy grits. Moving along.....
Hello, Sell-o!: we just finished the big yard sale. Man!! Talk about being BEAT! We can hardly move! By the time we got to bed on Sunday night, we didn't have the strength to fluff our pillows. We just fell down on the bed, made two craters, and slept in them until sometime the next morning.
More than two weeks after ending, we are still not finished packing up stuff and moving it out of the way! That has never happened before! Usually, we're cleaned up and gone in less than two weeks and down the road for a vacation. Here we are three weeks later and still have a lot of cleanup to do! We're mighty close to going full Hawaiian and changing the name of the place to "Rancho Gonna-Take-A-Nappa". Hand me a flowery print shirt and pass the pineapples, please!
Hello, Sell-o!: we just finished the big yard sale. Man!! Talk about being BEAT! We can hardly move! By the time we got to bed on Sunday night, we didn't have the strength to fluff our pillows. We just fell down on the bed, made two craters, and slept in them until sometime the next morning.
More than two weeks after ending, we are still not finished packing up stuff and moving it out of the way! That has never happened before! Usually, we're cleaned up and gone in less than two weeks and down the road for a vacation. Here we are three weeks later and still have a lot of cleanup to do! We're mighty close to going full Hawaiian and changing the name of the place to "Rancho Gonna-Take-A-Nappa". Hand me a flowery print shirt and pass the pineapples, please!
We did well again this year so I suspect that the extra income will
provide a reasonable salve to our joints, muscles, teeth, eyeballs, brains, backs, and depleted souls. Let us hope so; the tanks are empty.
There's a reasonable expectation that we may be able to take some time off this spring (if the old people aren't busy cleaning). However, we may yet defer from that if we aren't fully recovered and don't feel like we can handle the task. This is also to say that, because of the extreme taxation of the old folks, we decided not to go on vacation this year at all. There simply wasn't enough spizzerinctum left to even mop our sweaty brows. But, we do miss the kids and grand-cuties and all. So, we'll see.
There's a reasonable expectation that we may be able to take some time off this spring (if the old people aren't busy cleaning). However, we may yet defer from that if we aren't fully recovered and don't feel like we can handle the task. This is also to say that, because of the extreme taxation of the old folks, we decided not to go on vacation this year at all. There simply wasn't enough spizzerinctum left to even mop our sweaty brows. But, we do miss the kids and grand-cuties and all. So, we'll see.
This actually may be the last year that we do anything but supervise. As much fun as it is, it's still a tremendous work load for three or even four weeks in a row; that takes a lot of helium out of your blimp, let me tell you! I think that next year we will probably provide the pulled pork and coffee, haul out the lounge chairs, and just take pictures of the event.
Rancho Buy-O: this gigantic sale is also a great place for the sellers to pick up a few super deals. This year, I picked up a like-new $300+ pallet jack for 150 dollars. That'll
come in handy for moving the big dog house and the big chicken coop that have
sat in one place for far too long. And, I just picked up a dozen FREE pallets
so I can now shuffle pallets around during my free time, eh? I've been needing a pallet jack for a long time and now there's one on hand!
Then, I got more than 500 dollars worth of camping equipment including a NIB (new in the box) dual burner Coleman stove and another NIB
single burner stove along with a number of fuel bottles that go with them. There were two more used (but in good shape) dual-burner stoves and two more used smaller single-burner stoves with propane bottles. Add to that a new small propane lantern, a large bundle of new tent stakes, a fold-able camping saber saw, two new small flashlights, a new small battery powered lantern ,and a Shakespeare open face ultra-light spin cast rig. One cool item was a new portable
camping shower. That could come in handy but I still prefer a dip in the creek.
The entire tab was...hang on to your new Easter bonnet, Aunt Bea.....30 dollars! I was so excited I was fumbling my fricatives! I need a day off so I can go camping!
Other goodies from the sale include more than $200 worth of
fishing lures and tackle for..... $20.00. There was a ton of expensive flies
included and a great deal of the other tackle and lures was still
in the original blister packs. That'll work (but, I still need a day off so I can go fishing)!
Rancho Rafto Report: well...we're moving along with getting the Rancho Rafto in the water (we figured that, if we waited any longer, we'd have a museum piece). The registration is updated and the stickers are glued on so that's out of the way. Also, now on hand are all of the grease, a grease gun, and gear oil required to do the maintenance on the boat. It even got a nice bath with the "Troy Bilt" pressure washer so it no longer looks like it once belonged to Huck Finn. It was running fine when I bought it so it's unlikely that there will be any difficulties. But, if there are, I'll just apply my most experienced screwdriver and deal with it. Now all I need is a ....day off....so I can go float the thing while the lake still has a few gallons of water left in it (it's almost "Stuck Duck Pond" again).
Princess Abby Report: now that there's a pallet jack on hand, the Ol' Dude was able to move Abby's palatial pooch hooch away from the back patio. It was in the way so it was moved out toward the chicken coop. The bloody thing weighs about 400 lbs and it isn't going anywhere without lots of leverage and no small amount of muscle on hand. Since the Ol' Rancher is not the brawny young fella that he used to be, the muscle was provided by the ATV (ATV's are our friends!). Since the house sits on a pallet, it was simple enough to use the pallet jack and tug it into place with the ATV. Abby hasn't protested yet so I guess she's OK with deal. I can usually get her to agree on just about anything with a doggie treat of some kind.
Zorba’s: the other day (when lots of things happen around here), we had to go to Shafter (about an hour from us) to see the FAA ME (medical examiner). It's one of the last steps (if not the last step) in getting my flight medical restored. Since Bakersfield is not all that far from Shafter, we decided to head down there and knock over one our favorite burger joints, Zorba's. Zorba is probably a Greek word that is transliterated as "The food tastes better than the place looks". In any case, it's our "go to" burger and fries shop.
Zorba's was already one of the favorite burger places of Don and Shirley Gerber who are the band leaders for the "Cedar Grove Bluegrass Band" (now based in Apple Valley). They introduced yours truly to the place back in '98 as we traveled up and down the state pickin' and grinnin'. I've been a fan since then and go as often as I can (which is not often enough!).
We got there in time for a burger combo for Connie the Canner and a pastrami combo for the hungry rancher. Boy, howdy! Good stuff! My only complaint is that pastrami makes me fill good air with bad noises. C'est la vie, eh?
If you are ever in the Oildale area and have a hankerin' for some really good vittles, stop by at their North Chester location (just north of Norris Road) and dig in! You won't be sorry (and, you don't have to speak Greek)!
Chickenin' Report: our girls are big and beautiful now and are doing great!! Once again, we have a constant supply of fresh, organic, free range eggs and are back in the swing of being spoiled at breakfast times! Few things are as rich and delicious as our eggs (pardon my crowing)!
Since we spent time with them as chicks, they are much tamer than the others. We spoil them a bit from time to time by hand feeding them stale bread and such. They get lots and lots of left overs, too. Their day starts with a round of chicken scratch when they are turned loose in the morning. If their scratch isn't ready, they come looking of me!
Ol' Roo is still cock o' the walk and takin' care of business around the barnyard. He's definitely the barnyard boss. I love this big guy to pieces! You couldn't ask for a better rooster if you had ordered one from a Sears catalog. He's protective of his feathery female followers and keeps them in line at all times.
There you have it: another short episode of the long happenings at Rancho Relaxo, home of Rancho Ran, the world's foremost authority (the previous one died) and Connie the Canner, the world's greatest side-cook (a Freudian slip as she stumbled trying to say "side-kick"): where the air smells like fried free-range eggs, bacon, toast, and 40:1 mix blue gas: where things can get...interesting and where...you just never know.
Zorba's was already one of the favorite burger places of Don and Shirley Gerber who are the band leaders for the "Cedar Grove Bluegrass Band" (now based in Apple Valley). They introduced yours truly to the place back in '98 as we traveled up and down the state pickin' and grinnin'. I've been a fan since then and go as often as I can (which is not often enough!).
We got there in time for a burger combo for Connie the Canner and a pastrami combo for the hungry rancher. Boy, howdy! Good stuff! My only complaint is that pastrami makes me fill good air with bad noises. C'est la vie, eh?
If you are ever in the Oildale area and have a hankerin' for some really good vittles, stop by at their North Chester location (just north of Norris Road) and dig in! You won't be sorry (and, you don't have to speak Greek)!
Chickenin' Report: our girls are big and beautiful now and are doing great!! Once again, we have a constant supply of fresh, organic, free range eggs and are back in the swing of being spoiled at breakfast times! Few things are as rich and delicious as our eggs (pardon my crowing)!
Since we spent time with them as chicks, they are much tamer than the others. We spoil them a bit from time to time by hand feeding them stale bread and such. They get lots and lots of left overs, too. Their day starts with a round of chicken scratch when they are turned loose in the morning. If their scratch isn't ready, they come looking of me!
Ol' Roo is still cock o' the walk and takin' care of business around the barnyard. He's definitely the barnyard boss. I love this big guy to pieces! You couldn't ask for a better rooster if you had ordered one from a Sears catalog. He's protective of his feathery female followers and keeps them in line at all times.
There you have it: another short episode of the long happenings at Rancho Relaxo, home of Rancho Ran, the world's foremost authority (the previous one died) and Connie the Canner, the world's greatest side-cook (a Freudian slip as she stumbled trying to say "side-kick"): where the air smells like fried free-range eggs, bacon, toast, and 40:1 mix blue gas: where things can get...interesting and where...you just never know.
