This Happened Fast

We needed a new hay hauler

So we bought this 2021 Can Am Commander 1000R

Then we got a new trailer for it so we can haul it around behind the Escape

Of course we had to take it out to Tahuya & test it on the jeep 4x4 trails

This was an expensive purchase & now that our cash is gone, the electrical on the truck has messed up. There is a horse show this weekend, now we've got to borrow a trailer & haul with someone elses truck. We're still going to have a good show.

In 10 days we head to Nevada for our usual trip to Vegas. 

We'll be taking the commander instead of the Mountain bikes this trip.  

We're going to be doing a lot of dusty trails in it, exploring for old gold mines.  I'll have to make sure to take my good camera & extra batteries.

 

New Orleans

 We've never been to New Orleans but we'll be there tomorrow. Staying at a plantation in an old slave cabin. We'll go into the city after we get to the plantation.

This building on the plantation was used in the movie Interview With A Vampire.

They offer tours for $12 so I think that would be fun.

So many people have told us of so many places to eat, 

we're going to be way fatter by the time we get home.

The second day of our trip, we're heading toward the Florida panhandle 

to stay a few days with my ex-coworker, Wendi. She's the one not looking at the camera.

We will go with her & her husband, Rich, on an alligator boat trip. They're also taking us to beaches along the Gulf Coast and other food places. I want to try all the southwest food specialties.

I'll also try to hook up with Laura, a FaceBook friend of 10 years that I haven't previously met. 

I'd like to catch a sunset with her.

We're flying out tomorrow morning, standby since we got 'free' tickets on Alaska Airlines. Still, another expensive trip.

Our bags are packed, our ride to the airport is arranged, I'm excited. 

There's still so much to do!

Finish mopping

Clean out fridge

Take John Henry to Jeans house

BBQ the steak that's in the fridge

And so much more

What's Up?

 We haven't been doing much here on the farm, no planned updates, all the big ones are finished. Lan of course has a never ending list he works on. Today hes putting hog panels along the bottom of the front pasture so we can let Havva out there. We'd like her to be able to roam the entire farm.

I have been trying to make plans for a wall can organizer

For the pantry wall. 

This post was started a month ago and forgotten...

The can rack is up & almost finished. You know how you're taught to measure twice, cut once? Well he didn't do that right. Its 4x4 & theres a heater controller box in the way. So just cut a hole out of it. 

The cans fit in the one row fine, as long as its Campbells Soups, veggies and larger cans are too big.  There is a lot of leeway so its still good.

We sold the Nomad travel trailer 

We paid $4,000 last year, its 2014 & in decent condition. 17' long, queen fold out bed, bunk beds, bathroom with tub, 2 burner stove, A/C, microwave, electric awning. We took it on a few trips and enjoyed it. Had to put new tires on it the day before we sold it for $9,000.

Yes, we made $5,000.

We bought a Lance Camper

We paid $8,000 and it includes the metal canopy. 

2000, its 11.6 feet long, a bit of water damage in the front above the bed window.

They had already painted most of the inside white, yay not a lot of brown.

They used tin for back splash and put in new flooring.

This folds down into a bed & the upped is a twin bunk

I used picnic table vinyl to make new curtains, the gingham pattern is on both sides

I think there is an outside shower but no place to store the Blackstone griddle.

There is a stand up shower/bathroom. 

They already switched all the lights out to LED.

The mattress is a THICK queen size memory foam.

Now we just need to go camping.

Except, we already have a trip to New Orleans in 2.5 weeks and a trip to Las Vegas in May, then in June we'll be going camping for a long weekend.

Bored so making garden plans

 I'm completely bored. I currently have no projects I'm working on in the house & have none planned. The garden is my next project but its a couple months out yet. We did get it rototilled & put a lot of compost in the soil but its far from ready to plant. 

I've got a good selection of seeds, many heirloom but mostly not. That's OK, we'll see if I can even get anything to grow. 

I want to do raised beds in addition to in ground. I've got heirloom corn for eating and decorative corn for Halloween, I've got pumpkins and a few other tall things that can all go in the ground. I'll need to plant the deco corn a long way from the eating corn & then I'll need to keep the rabbits, chickens & deer out of the garden.

I only have one container for a raised bed so far & its small, I'll either have to build a bunch from scratch or buy kits. I'd like to have whatever I use be uniform.

There are about 13- 14 eggs in the incubator that should begin hatching tomorrow or the next day so of course we're expecting the coldest days in the coming week. I'll have to find a way to keep them warm inside the house for a week instead of in the barn in the brooder.

Flooding

We decided to go for a drive to go see how flooded the Skokomish River was.

Its been raining all year, inches and inches of rain. Our farm in drenched, the dirt can't hold any more water & its just forming lakes. We haven't seen this much rain in a very long time, years.

This is the Union River outside of Belfair; it's supposed to be a creek.

Here is the Skokomish. It was this high for miles & miles. Its not helping that there was a high tide right as we were in the area so the water has no place to disperse to.

To be honest, this river floods every year but not this high, this is the first time we've seen the houses on stilts still have high water. The road we usually drive down was closed & I'd say it looked to be a few feet deep. 

Here is a photo from a trip a long time ago of the road I'm talking about:

We have seen Salmon fish swimming across this road before.

After we couldn't go see that flooded road, we headed north on Highway 101. 

Stopped at Potlatch State Park for lunch.

This was the view

Continued north, through Quilcene and Chimacum, the headed east over the Hoods Canal Bridge 

Then south on Highway 3 toward Silverdale. There was an accident so bad traffic so we decided to do a bit of shopping at Sportsmans Wearhouse and Sierra Trading Post. 

I got socks & a new flannel shirt.

After that we headed home but there was another accident just past Bremerton & ALL THE ROADS WERE BACKED UP. All the side streets, all the main roads, everywhere just crawling. It took us 1.5 hours to go a 20 minute drive.

I enjoyed being with my husband & our dog, out on the road with no political BS on the radio. A day off work & not doing projects at home. 

That Didn't Last Long

The offer on the house fell through and we were thrilled that happened. 

You see, I don't want to live in a trailer in my In Laws pasture while we look for another home and I've decided I can stay here forever as long as I don't know where we're going to end up. Lan doesn't want to make an offer on another place until we have cash in hand. I had started packing, again, but it was HARD not knowing where my stuff was going to go and for how long. There weren't any good houses available for sale in Idaho or Montana when we were looking.

The people paid for a home/property inspection, found dead mice under the house. Big deal, they were all dead. They had also ruined the insulation but oh well.

Then the people wanted a septic inspection & the guy they chose to do it said one of the two arms had failed & the other had extra stuff added onto it, done illegally by 'some homeowner'. 

The people offered us $25,000 less, saying the drain field would cost them that much to repair. 

We said NO. 

They backed out.

Whew.

We spent $1,600 for our septic guy to come pressure wash out the drain field arms and do video; he said there was no failure, just dirt that you should expect after 40 years. He told us the Distribution Box needed to come up, it had sunken into the clay about 6". The 'illegal' stuff wasn't even there, it is exactly as the county plans were drawn up in 1978. 

We replaced the 'D' box & the pipes connected to it, brought it up to the correct height and put gravel on top to keep it up. Installed 2 risers over the tank openings & got it buried again.

This was in seriously rainy weather, all of it. The 'D' box, pipes & risers cost an additional $800 so we put $2,500 into it all together, just 10% of what they wanted to get out of us.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So now I'm turning the old dog room into a pantry. It measures 8x8, has this closet inside it. Its also got an outside window, an outside door & a door into the kitchen. I had to clean all the dirty dog dust, dirt, mud and smell out of there. Painted all the walls & trim then started on the closet.

We put in the supports at measurements I found here 

(this Pinterest photo)

It didn't work perfectly since our closet already had the one shelf & dowel but I worked around that. I want 5 gallon buckets to fit under the bottom shelf, I want the top shelves to be a bit smaller so I can use them & they aren't closed off by the ceiling/top of the door area.

I cut all the supports & painted them before I put them up; later I figured out they weren't thick enough & with any weight they would bow & fall. 

So we added more support on the left hand side but Lan put them up before I could paint them. 

That's OK though because I need to paint a couple other spots on the supports too. I hadn't painted the tops because I figured they weren't going to show but once we put the shelves in I discovered a few of the tops will show.

Here are the shelves I got painted today. The color is SHADED GRAY, its the same color as the room trim & on our bedrooms & bathrooms trim upstairs. I've got 1/2" of paint left in the can & still need to paint 2 more shelves and the doors.

These will be painted soon but not tonight.

Same with these doors, they will be painted but I'll need another gallon of the paint. 

Sigh. 

I'd rather get a gallon of the paint, then there is plenty left over for any spots I need to redo upstairs.

This is the door into the pantry from the kitchen.

A can holder similar to this will also be built, it will go on the wall to the right of the window & left of the closet.

I might do another one of these between the door to the kitchen and the outside door, all depends on how many cans I end up getting. There seem to be a lot of them in the kitchen now, stored here & there but I'm sure once I get things organized in the pantry that it will seem bare.

I have a Food Saver vacuum that I use a LOT and now I'll have a place to store all those containers that are currently stashed in various places. I don't feel like this is enough supplies to last very long in case SHIF but it will be better than nothing.

This silly drawing is what it should end up looking like.

 

We Got A Full Price Offer

We got a full price offer for the farm,

had it listed on Zillow for $649,999

The couple who offered are from San Diego

I sincerely hope they appreciate at least the house

They aren't hors people & it hurts my feelings that they won't even appreciate the quality of the barn

The lady was about 30, said they have a 2 year old daughter, an African Gray Parrot & an Australian Shepherd. That damn dog will just chase the chickens that I offered to leave here for them.

They wanted to keep our generator, the riding lawn mower & the tractor with all the implements. WHF do they want a tractor when they don't even do farm animals? We said NO on the tractor. 

When they tried to offer $15,000 less for no tractor, we said take it or leave it.

On Wednesday they had the inspection.

Yesterday it was the water test.

Then the septic inspection, which didn't go well. They discovered that one of the two arms has failed & practically accused us of 'fixing' the other one.

Today said they want $25,000 credit for repairs to septic and that the roof over the implement shed leaks so it needs to be replaced & there is no insulation under the floor except in the kitchen but rats got into that so its ruined. 

I said no, price is $650,000. Take it or leave it.

Stubborn assholes will probably take it.

I don't want to move, we have no place chosen to move to. I don't want to live with my in-laws, they are hoarders & their house smells. I'd go to work stinking to high heaven.

We should know Monday morning if they choose to purchase or back out.