“The Move" and other subjects

 Ok, I'm gonna start out with a YGBSM Rant!  Sorry! (OK Not Sorry!)

How about the USS Gettysburg shooting down an FA-18, shooting at a second, but missing and targeting a third?  Fortunately, the crew of the one shot down was able to eject and was rescued.  The report reads that the Captains Situation Awareness was low.  

No SHIT, Sherlock!

 Apparently, the Captain thought the three jets were inbound Houthi missiles.  HMMMM, I can think of several, maybe a dozen, different ways to identify inbound targets and that's from experience 20 years ago. None of which will be discussed here, but which have very good reliabliltiy in ID'ing targets.

USS Gettysburg 

Source

YGBSM!  Court martial, reduce in rank to E-1 and cashier him out of the Service after a lenghty dereliction of duty sentence.  But that's my charitable side.  Is Criminal Stupidity causing fratricide a crime? If not, it damn well should be!

ANYHOW enough on that debacle...On to this week's assessment of progress in the "Move to College Station" campaign plan.  The ratio of Boxes packed to Boxes not packed yet is getting closer to turning the tide.  (I'm writing this paragraph as I look at a picture of a cruiser, so...a Navy quote.)

Movers come for pickup a week from today and we depart for our new location the next morning.  Should be interesting, 3 dogs and a cat in a small-ish 4 door, for about 4 hours.  Sanity?  Who needs Sanity?

Rental house is standing ready, a bit small, but will work until the new house is built (about 8 months, if we're lucky).  But there is quite a bit of work that needs to be done. So...Grin and bare it. 

No, that's not a typo!

On a different note, we attended the annual 'Burg Christmas Parade, Friday Night.  

Traffic was terrible.  We're an hour and a half prior to parade start and 4 blocks from where we parked our "place holder" car and now can't find a parking space.  The parade IS a big deal!

 

Always a big turnout and it's great to see people you know but haven't seen in a while, (Unless at HEB, then it's almost a foregone conclusion).  MBD and gang joined us for the parade festivities.  The Grandchildren are now old enough to somewhat understand the goings on.  So, a good time was had by all.

 

 

 

 

Yes, a truck and horse trailer decked out in lights, Who'da thunk?

 Now, be advised, these were only 3 of the hundred or so float pictures I took.  The parade went on for 90 Minutes.  There were "a few" floats in it, ok, "Quite a few".  The parade route was about a mile and a half.  We were at the end of the route.  By the time the FHS band marched by our spot, well, one could tell they were a bit tired.  But, as the song says, "The Band played on!"

A little chilly, but all in all, well worth the time.  BTW, both sides of the street were parked in completely.  It's a big deal in "The Burg".

As to the title,  as mentioned above, this time next week the movers will be in the house schlepping boxes and furniture onto their truck.  The horses will be chauffeured to their temporary quarters awaiting construction of their quarters on our new property.  Again about 8 months.  

No, Beans, their conveyance isn't pictured above.  At least, I don't think it is!  Who's to say?

We'll be headed to College Station shortly after the horses depart here.  And then the "New Adventure" will begin.

Wish us luck!

Peace out, y'all! 

Updates on a Happier Scale

 Having trouble with my computer. It and the photo's I clipped from websites didn't seem to get along.  Finally got them tamed when I deleted the problematic page I was working on and started all over.  Just something to file away in my  limited brain in case it happens again.

So,  This is the 5th day in a row I've published a post.  I have no earthly idea how Sarge can publish 1 per day 313 days per year.  (He gets Monday's off.). Every day has challenged my post authoring skills to the max.  However, he deserves a break.  I just hope he comes back soon.  His fictional stories are much better than my pissing, moaning and complaining.

But, here we go!

As most of you regular readers are aware, Mrs J and I are about to move to College Station.  Our Daughter, her Husband and two children live there.  In addition, my Son, his bride and daughter will be retiring in a couple of years and have expressed an interest in settling in College Station also.  Since all 4 of that generation in my Family graduated from Texas A&M University, I guess that explains things.  

So, getting on in years, Mrs J and I thought it wise (OK, she thought it wise, I just said "Yes Dear!") to move there also.  But, there are some caveats.  We don't want to live in downtown College Station, or Bryan for that matter.  Just don't want the hustle and bustle.

So, we've decided on a piece of property about 15 miles south of town.  4.8 acres, so we can bring our horses with us.  They're good listeners when I'm frustrated, annoyed, or just in need of a quiet listener.  They're very good at that, and I don't want to give them up.  So...They're coming with us.

In any case, this is the property we're purchasing.

Yes, it's got a lot (OK an awful lot) of trees on it.  That will be one of the first projects we'll need done.  

If you look closely in the center of the Red Rectangle, you'll see the prior owner's house.  It was probably built in the early '60s.  It is NOT in good shape,   The owner and seller of the property  is a widow and is also the daughter of the original owner.  The house is a wreck,  According to our Real Estate Agent, the furniture such as it is, is still in it.  Such as it is, being defined as a hospital bed and a TV. The original owner lived in the house until she passed and was there a bit longer.  In adition to that, the house is now lived in by about 20 cats.  The good news is no mice are in it. Not much else in the good news pile.

So, that house is being razed.  A beginning part of thinning the forest will involve creating a clearing to build our house in.  That will call for a Well, Electricity and a septic tank as the first things that need to be put in.  Then barring any further excitement, actual construction might go forward.  However, our contractor said the project will take a minimum of 8 months and quite likely a year.

So, Mrs J and I have been packing things in two categories, things we need and things that we can wait for.  We've been ruthless in the latter category.  Why?

Well, this is the house we'll be renting.  Quite a bit smaller than our current house and so...Stuff has to go to storage.  The yard is fenced in, so the dogs will be able to go outside.  Don't know if there are additional dogs in the vicinity they can "talk" to. Should be interesting.  That move in, should be Mid December. We've got to be out of this house by the 15th of December.  

Times a-wasting!

‘

But, we've got something to look forward to!

 

Courtesy of Akashi Designs

 

The plans were from Akashi Designs, just in case anyone is interested.  Really a nice home.  Looking forward to that move. 

 

Peace out, y'all! 

Give Sarge a Break!

 OK, Folks, as you are aware, Sarge and his Muse are taking a short (we hope) break in the blog writing.  I thought I'd give him a break an follow up my normal Monday post with another, So  you get a twofer from me.  

I want to thank all the folks that wished me well after my accident.  I'm OK, still in a bit of pain and wearing a neck brace.  My short term memory is pretty well shot. Also, I'm on Doctor's orders to take it easy, not lift anything more than 5 pounds and wear the brace for 5 more weeks.  Oh yeah, I can't drive for 6 months due to the black out that caused the accident.

It's quite comfortable...Not!

 

My recommendation to y'all is avoid a traffic accident. 

Anyhow all the above makes the upcoming move (which occurs in less than a month) a bit difficult.  Mrs J is doing yeoman's work to get things separated and boxed up.  Separated because we're building a house in College Station on some property we bought south of town.  

Unfortunately, building a house on bare property is not an instantaneous thing.  The estimate is 8 months to a year.  So...We're renting a smallish house in town.  Yard is fenced and big enough for the dogs which is important as they think they are guard dogs.  Our neighbors are likely to try hard to influence the speeding up of our new house's construction. 

 

Atticus, Leader of the pack. Very good dog!

Gryndll the intruder alarm, barks at birds and the wind among other things

Annie, keeps folks warm at night.  Yes, that would be the Mrs.,  AKA "the Boss

 "

 

Sadly, there was a fourth up until a week ago.  Cooper was a great dog.  We'll miss her, Passed away in her sleep.

Anyhow, we'll be living in the rental for a while.  It's quite a bit smaller than our current dwelling (as well as the new home), so we need to pick and choose what will go in it, instead of into storage for a while.  Packed up my hand tools and small power tools (Drill, Circular Saw etc), but the table saw, work bench and a few others will get a break and rest in storage.  I did, however, include my lathe as a "take to the house" tool.  My logical argument to Mrs J was "Turning wood into sawdust while attempting to make a pen is relaxing to me."  

She couldn't stop laughing long enough to say no to me.  Victory!!

So, when the house is built, and the water, sewage and electricity attached. we'll move in and that will be the final move after about 40 in my lifetime.  Military Brat, College Dorms, and the Air Force.taught me a lot about moving.  I will expend the remainder of those memories on this one.

Once the house is built, they'll build a smaller one and a Barn.  Then my Brother will join us as well as the horses, Cabernet and Merlot.  While I like Wine, they were named that by the Animal Rescue Folks before we got them.  Mrs J and I just thought it was destiny, so we adopted them.  They're good horses. 

Merlot

 

Cabernet

No Beans, based on my neck from the prior episode and this one, I don't ride them.  They're "pasture ponies", but I enjoy talking to them while I'm feeding them, They listen and don't interject with opposing opinions.

But with my Brother and their arrival on the property. the move will be complete and the "Gang" will be reunited.

It's another Tequila Monday

 Well, time is running out.  Lots of boxes either full, half full or still to be taped into readiness.  

The Wine Closet

That having been said, still a lot of packing to do.  Progress on the moving front is OK not great, but it has made some progress.  These are the contents of our wine closet.  60+ bottles of PDG* wine.  That will be loaded into my truck (inside the cab of course) and transported to CStat (AKA College Station) and stored at MBD's house.  Too big a risk of theft/heat damage to move it with movers.

Mrs J and I went to College Station last Thursday, spent the night and returned on Friday.  Took a look at the property that Mrs J was interested in.  It was a lot nicer than it looked from the air photo.

We'd set up an appointment to meet with a builder to talk about what was needed, what issues we might have, water, all the things that are needed to build a house.  The property is about 4.8 acres, which we feel is enough for a house, a barn, grazing area for the horses and privacy.  Lots of tall oak trees, but quite a bit of underbrush to be removed.  Fencing-in the perimeter will be one of the first tasks.  Then we can bring in the horses to graze.  

Mrs. J also had a pretty good idea.  She had done a bit of research on situations like this.  Apparently, there are people who have herds of goats that they will rent to "mow" the underbrush.  Gonna have to check out that a bit more, but if that works, well...

Got boxes all over the house, some full, some partially, some still need to be "built".  Got until December 18th to be out as the house changes hands at that point.  So...Time's awaistin'

Oh, one more thing,  after a long day, Mrs J and I were sitting out front having a medicinal glass of wine.

Being somewhat interested in aviation, Austin Bergstrom and San Antonio Airports flightpaths are within viewing range.  (Yes, Beans a glass or two of Josh Rose' aids the visual acuity).  In any case, I happened to notice this rare vision.

Given the bearing of the X and from where I'm looking. I'd say that they three Airliners passed over a TACAN station along I10 northwest of San Antonio.  Just thought it kinda cool that they all (well except for the fourth one) passed over pretty much the exact same spot.  The accuracy of the station is a couple of miles, so pretty accurate navigation, Mates!

Yes, Beans, they were also altitude separated as well as time over the TACAN.

So, sorry for a short post, Gang, that's all I've got at this point.  Gonna be a very (OK very, very) busy next few months.  Looking forward to completion and move in.

Peace Out, y'all!

*Pretty Darn Good!  (Sarge wouldn't allow the other "D" word!)

It's another Tequila, Monday*

Ok, Campers, we are officially back on our normally scheduled postings.  Beans, that means I only have to write one post a week, not one daily for 11 days or so.

Folks, I don't know how Sarge does it (and gets it done as superbly as he does).  Heck, almost all the posts I did in the past couple of weeks were reruns.  Still a bit of work, updating them a bit, choosing better verbage, fixing misspelled words. That sort of thing.  And even with all that already done, getting it published was still a bit harder than I thought it would be.

Beans, that means the next time Sarge goes AWOL, you've got the keys to the blog until he shows back up.  Your gonna  love it.  I absolutely guarantee. Bwaa-Ha-Ha!

Anyhow.... An update on the Mrs J and my "Move to College Station Front".  Some progress has been made.  Almost a month ago, we had a realtor from Colorado contact our Realtor and ask him if he could visit and video our house.  Our Realtor contacted Mrs. J and I.  We went into the clean and store extraneous stuff out of sight mode.  That was the easy part of this episode.

Their realtor came by and did his Cecil B. DeMille work and emailed it to them.  Didn't hear back from them for about 3 weeks.  Oh Well!

But then, their realtor contacted ours and said they wanted to fly down and do a walk through the following week.  We were able to work out a date which worked for AlCon.  That morning, as the time of the walkthrough approached and the house had been set again (we're getting pretty good at that!), we loaded up the 4 dogs on leashes and the cat in a carrier and put the gaggle in the two cars.  Drove into Town and went to the Sonic Drive-In for a Route 44 Diet Limeaid with Burgers and Fries. Taking lunch slow and easy for an hour and a half until we got the all clear.

Well, they asked our Realtor if we would accept a Contingency clause of 60 days so they could sell their house in Colorado.  Since that's what we will have to do soon with the house we like in College Station, we understood that the Real Estate market isn't exactly booming, so we said OK.  Haven't gotten that paper work yet (or the offer), but progress!  

So, fingers crossed and prayers going heavenward relatively frequently. We shall see what will be!

One of the irritating things about getting the house ready as well as living in the country is animals.  Now, I'm not talking about our pets, or our horses. (Oh, did I mention the folks from Colorado have horses and want to bring them with them?  Merlot and Cabernet (our horses) will have some new friends (if this goes through, Please Lord!)

Back on Subject, juvat!  On subject, Aye, Sarge.

No, animals as in undomesticated animals.  It seems we have a Roll of Armadillo on our property. A "Roll" is what a herd of Armadillos is called, didn't know that until now. Now you do also!  

ANYHOW!  They don't really do any damage to the property and they do keep the ant population under control.

BUT, I'm sure you remember our two adopted Great Pyrenees (GPs) , Atticus and Gryndhll. 

Atticus

Gryndyll . Both have been on guard duty all night outside, Chasing who knows what!

Well...They seem to like "playing" with the Armadillos. No, Beans, the Armadillos don't reciprocate in the liking of the game.  

In any case the Armadillos seem to have taken residence under the shed where we store our lawn mowers and other gardening equipment.  It's far enough off the ground that they can get under it, but not the dogs.  But like all of the Lord's creatures they must eat.  Since the GP's are guard dogs by genetics and bark at any strange noise and I like my sleep, they have been sentenced to spend the night outside.  Which is when the armadillos come out to eat.  That's when the fun and games begin.

Well,  I've gotten used to waking up in the morning, getting dressed, getting a shovel out of the garage and scouting the yard for dead armadillos.  Yes, Beans, the dogs' Kill Ratio is rather high.  I'm thinking about painting Armadillo silhouettes on the sides of their Dog House, but I'm pretty sure (OK positive) Mrs J will not approve.  Party Pooper!

(Update as of this morning) Canine armadillo Kill Ratio went up by one.

Just in case anyone thinks I'm spoofin them.
 

So, Mrs J has decreed that my anti-armadillo project for today, as you are reading this, is to put some wire mesh for horses around the bottom of the shed to see if that keeps them away.  So it is written, so it shall be! 

Finally, this week has an important date in it.  It's one of the two most important dates for me to remember in any given year under a penalty worse than death.  Any married guy reading this already knows what dates they are.  Yep, Beans,  the date of your Anniversary and her Birthday.  This one happens to be our Anniversary.

So, I've spent the last few days in my workshop working on a Top Secret project for our kitchen.  Saw it on a YouTube video.  It's a 6 part video on easy gifts to make (They had me sold at "Easy").  This one was #5.

Yeah, I threw in a new Cookbook also

It's a combination Cookbook holder and can be used as a cutting board if needed.  The Board itself is popler and walnut. The Stand is Maple.  3 coats of Lacquer for the finish.  Mrs. J thinks it looks fabulous.

That opinion is the only thing that matters!

 Well, that summarizes a fairly busy week.  I'm looking forward to Sarge getting his Muse spun back up to speed and some of his excellent posts coming into view.

Peace out, y'all! 

*With apologies to the Eagles

Progress...Slow, but Progress!

 Well, campers, we had another "fun" filled week.  First half of the week was in the "fun" category, second half was in the fun category.  You folks are intelligent enough to figure out the difference.

So, the existing houses are ready for showing, all staged and such.  Mrs J is very talented in that arena.  Me?  Well, I am handy with a vacuum cleaner, broom, windex et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. 

Just thought I'd throw that in, one of my favorite movies.

Anyhoo...

So, Mrs J and I got the house on the property pretty well straightened out, and in such a fashion that it can be shifted from functional to showcase with about an hour's notice.  The rental guest houses are always in pretty good ship shape.

So, we got that going for us.

But...What if the 30.9 acres sells?  Where will we live?  Have we thought out a new home strategy?  Questions, Questions, Questions?

Since we've already decided that we would move closer to our Daughter and SIL (AKA College Station), we decided to take a few days off and do a look see.

Yes, Beans, my Brother stayed and took care of the Animals (2 Horses, 4 Dogs, 1 Cat, and many Deer but they don't count).

It was pretty nice to get away, frankly, and to be on the other end of the stick.  Looking at houses.  Our College Station realtor put together a list of 3 houses in addition to the one I showed y'all last week.  She was getting ready to take something I believe is called a "Vacation" and so hooked us up with one of her associates to show us the houses and answer questions.

He did a great job.

The first house was a non starter from the git go.  The driveway was not very wide and was surrounded on both sides by trees. When we commented, the realtor said there was a rule that trees more than 4" in diameter could NOT be removed. Period.  We did go inside, and discovered it was very cramped, not well lighted and the stove did not have a vent.

So... 

Next please!

He agreed.

Skipping ahead to the 3rd house in this discussion.  This one was OK, not great.  Nice looking, but...

Coming in the main entrance, you're met with a curved stairway.  Nice looking, but very steep.  OK, the primary residents (us) are 70+ YO.  We have 3 grand kids under 5 YO.  Those stairs go up to most of the important rooms in the house, bedrooms, bathrooms etc.  So, a bit of risk involved in getting up there.

Nope!  

He agreed. There's another reason for the nope. We had seen something we liked in the second showing we'd had (prior to that house).

Source

 

Second house, was pretty VERY nice,  sitting on ~2.5 acres fenced in.  Nice back yard about half of which is lawn, the rest is forest.  Trees are pretty tall, so keeps the sun under control along with the long porch ceiling.  Nice place to have a quiet sit outside and enjoy an adult recreational libation.  (Whilst reading Sarge's blog of course!)

Source

 

Downstairs has an excellent kitchen. (I'm the chef in the family, that's a crucial for me).  Looks out over the family room, so cooking and watching football is doable. Informal dining room fits our needs and is just right of center of this next pic. Formal living room and dining room are adjacent but nicely separated off the left side of the picture and reasonably sized (aka not a ball room).     

Source

 Oh, yeah and one small, but very nice addition, which we will use quite a bit.

Source

 Yes, a built in wine storage closet .  Now Mrs J has talked about converting it into a cell for me when I get out of line.  I'm not sure that will be a deterrent if the wine is still in there though.  C'est la vie! 

And, the nicest thing about the house is it is priced in our price range.

So...We've placed a Contingency offer on it and crossing our fingers that our house and property sells fast. 

Our selling agent and buying agent are putting their heads together for options, JIC!

 Oh, and just in case you're interested in some nice property in Central Texas, you might stop by here.

 Peace out, y'All!

 

 

Monday, Monday, So Good to me!

 Well, Campers, it's been quite a week, both personally and nationally.

On the national front, I don't have much to say.  Frankly, I'd like to solve problems between nations on a diplomatic front.  And, I suppose most current and former military personnel, especially those in combat organizations, would prefer the same option be taken.  

But, when diplomacy hasn't worked for, what? 40 some odd years?  And the same fecal matter is still being flung at us, it's about time, IMHO, to up the costs.  Looks like the Israelis have been doing an outstanding job taking out some targets.  It also seems that the promises of the B-2 capabilities were true.

I know, I know, but I just liked the picture for some reason! ;-)

 

Source 

 

Well done, lads.

As for comments yesterday about comeback from Iran, I ask, with what?  It seems the only weapon they have now is "refugees" in the US.  That's definitely a concern, but what logistics chain is going to keep them supplied/paid/armed?  I also suspect many of them will turn in their weapons and ask for asylum.  The government of Iran is virtually dead. Who's going to support them? Again, IMHO. 

Anyhow, we'll see what we will see.  There was an interesting article yesterday that said people should legally arm themselves if possible. Just in case you ran into the wrong someone/something, well… better safe than sorry.

Ok, on with the show.  Been a very long week and while I tried to help out with postings, frankly I was one, very busy getting the house ready to sell as well as move, resulting in... two, I was very, very tired.  I had one post that didn't make it to life.  I had it in the ready rack and when I went to edit, refine and publish it, it had disappeared.  Entirely, possible I hit a button marked delete thinking that was the original Roman word for publish.  

Who knows?

But, Beans and Tuna did a great job keeping the blog up and running. Good on ya' Mates!

 Mrs J. did a fantastic job figuring out and prioritizing the things that needed to be done.  The Listing goes live today, and we've already got somebody that might be interested.

Breakfast!  Cab is in front, Merlot is behind her

 

As many of you may know, we have two horses (Cabernet and Merlot).  I had gone to my hay supplier and while paying up, he'd asked me if our property was up for sale yet.  (We had previously talked about our moving.) 

I told him it was going up shortly, he asked for all the particulars, which I gave him along with the realtor's info.  Seems the lady involved lives in the Dominion in San Antonio (a very pricey/ritzi area) and her daughter raises and trains horses.  The lady was getting on in age and was looking for a place to relax and get away from the hustle and bustle while also helping her daughter do her stuff.

So....Maybe.  We'll see.

On the other side of this transition, we went over to College Station last weekend.  We wanted another look at the house we were interested in.  It had been on the market for a very (very, very) long time and we had spent a lot of time looking at pictures of it and asking the realtor questions about things we observed in the photos.  Things were not going in the right directions.  Unfortunately, our realtor's father was admitted to the ER with AFIB the day we got there, and, she was unavailable.  We swung by the house anyhow and saw this.

I find it hard to believe we missed this on our previous visits, so maybe something new?

 

Hadn't seen that before. and that was the final straw.  Texted the agent that picture and she agreed, I don't know if that damage was new, but I doubt we'd have overlooked it.

Anyhow, the realtor’s father was doing better after his ER visit, so she set up an appointment with us for another house she thought we might like for the next day.  We drove by just to get a quick look.

 

Realtor.com

 

Pretty nice!

The next day we visited the house and had a walk through.  Very nice, and, even nicer, in our price range.  The only down thumb was no fence for the dogs.  Easy enough to fix. 

The green trees are along the hill above the Brazo's River.  Yes the house is outside the flood plain.

 Realtor.com 

 

Could be the one!  We'll see.  So, potential buyer and potential seller.  Somebody just MAY be looking out for us.  As I said, we'll see! But, we’ve got 4 more identified as possible, so…we got that going for us!

Oh, and Happy Birthday to my Brother should he happen to read this! :-) 

Peace out, y'all! 

 

Progress Report # 3.14159

 Well, Campers, another week older and lots of tasks remaining.  Hence the title, Mathmeticians will tell you there's no end to the decimal definition of Pi.  Presale tasks putting a house on the market are much the same.  

ANYHOW! Our current house is in pretty good shape, we'll just need to fine tune the house (e.g. remove everything from on top of the counters and wiping them down) whenever a walk through is scheduled.  

(Yes, Beans, we'll also need to load up the 4 dogs and one cat when we get notified of a visit.  I'm thinking of a small, round bread whose name is also the acronym that describes this process.)

However, the last remaining major task is repainting the living room/kitchen.  As most of you remember from last week, we couldn't get a close enough color match to just touch up the area.  

 Even though looking at the area straight on, is a different picture.

 Since you can see the touch ups from one view and not another, well...we'll be painting the whole thing.  Gotta touch base with our contractor to see how much he'll charge to do it.  Or, I can resurrect my painting knowledge from back nearly 50 years ago and do it myself.  However....There's Danger! in that option.

Our previous house, on the property, has been pretty well renovated and is ready to be opened as a guest house which will sleep up to 10.  We think it and the two other guest houses (max of 6 guests each) will be a nice draw in the sale of the property.  (Beans, meaning our pretty nice monthly income from them should encourage that sale.)

One of the major projects that Mrs J and I have been working on recently is the reconstruction of a set of chairs we'd found.  

 

They were in not great shape when we found them.  This past week, I've been getting the wobble out of them.  Lots of glue, a few dowels to make them sturdy and stable, an awful lot of sanding and finally restaining them.

 

 Then I turned them over to Mrs J to get them all nice and shiny.

M

I think she did a pretty darn good job! Only one down and four to go. :-)

 

She also had time to develop a new breakfast item.  It's called a "Native American Omelette".

 

 Now...That's funny, I don't care who you are!

 

Peace out, y'All! 

Another busy week!

Well, Campers....For those of you who are still wearing their winter parkas, let me warm you up.  Highs down here in lovely Texas by the Sea have been in the high 70s and low 80's for a few weeks.  Absolutely lovely.  

View of the property from our front door

Ain't it?

On the however side, however, there have been a few of what we weather cognecenti call thunderstorms that occurred.  One last week delivered a very nice deluge of about 2" of rain on us.  It took about 20 minutes.  I say very nice as a friend of ours living about 20 miles North of us reported 8" of water in his garage.

Not quite so nice.  

Unfortunately, the 2 inches we had didn't even make it in to our two stockponds. (Our stockponds are in the first line of slightly darker green trees (mesquite) beyond the grass in the photo above.) Still no standing water in the ponds.  Rats!  

Right now as I look out my office window to make an official weather observation, Visibiliity is unlimited and no clouds in sight.  Wind is about 5 knots.  Temp is in the 80's.  

However, the forecast for tomorrow is 104⁰ and Tuesday it's supposed to be 107⁰.

Guess I'll be running through the sprinkler in my natural swimsuit.  (Try and get THAT picture out of your mind, Beans!) 

On a related note, most of you know we have a herd of 4 dogs, a rat terrier (emphasis on the rat), a Transylvania hound (Old, blind and deaf, gonna miss her sometime soon) and two Great Pyrenees (they're pretty good, but not great.  I'll refer to them as Good Pyrenees AKA GPs).  Well, the first two dogs are short hairs.  The GPs well...  As mentioned above, it's pretty warm down here, and GPs are bred to herd sheep in the Pyrenees Mountains where the high temperature record, I believe, is about 32⁰ F.  So, they get uncomfortable when outside.

So, Mrs J decided some pre-emptive action should be taken.  

One of our Vet's technicians has a side job of Canine Hair styling, (Ok Beans, she shaves dogs).  Mrs J called and got on her schedule for this past Saturday.  On arrival, we were concerned about the dog's reactions.

I mean, everytime they've been to the vet,  things happened that they didn't enjoy.  Kennelling, Shots,  Meds etc.  So they would get a little tense when they recognized any of the Vet Team. Can't say I blamed them.

No, this isn't the dog, just the fur

However, this time the GP's didn't even bark.  Couple of sniffs of the groomer, then they went over and laid down on the floor.  

Nor is this the dog, just the fur

 

About 2 hours later (yes Beans it took a couple of hours.) all was done.  Another hour of sweeping and all the fur was scooped up.

Treats, Mom? We were good dogs!

They seem very happy now.  Cooler also.

As to the other adventure in our life now, moving.  We're pretty well done prepping the guest houses for viewing by potential buyers.  The main house is progressing.  

Mrs J is "ruthless".  As an observation, I think junk procreates to fill available space. I've stopped asking if we are going to "keep this?"  No is usually the answer.  

Since we'd lived in our previous house for ~20 years and this house for 5, well....Thank goodness I own a pickup truck.  Myself, it and the trash bin are becoming pretty good friends.
Our neighborhood dumpster gets emptied every Wednesday around noon.  My neighbors have come to realize they have from Wednesday PM to Tuesday PM to empty their trash.  Wednesday AM the dumpster seems to magically procreate trash and fill itself up to capacity. 

Also, Goodwill and several other charities are VERY happy to see us pull up to their door.

C’est la vie!

To end on a high note, finally, I got the Front Door refinishing project finished. I think it turned out pretty well.

But, I've got to say, the house is really starting to be very nicely displayed.  So, hopefully/prayerfully, it gets an acceptable offer fairly quickly. That would make things a lot easier on the "Things to worry about" meter!

Peace out, y'all!

Progress

 Busy, Busy, Busy.  Getting the House(s) ready for putting on the market.  Our current house is 5 years old,  our previous house (on the property) is 25 years old and the two guest cottages are 8 years old.  I'm sure there's an old Chinese proverb that describes this situation quite well.

"Stuff expands to fill available space and given enough time (see above) this will continue until every cubic inch of space is filled."

I believe this quote was stolen and adapted from Sun Tzu.  That having been said, evidence shows it to be it to be astonishingly true.

Mostly!

As I've discussed earlier, we're getting ready to move to College Station, to be closer to our Daughter and Family.  Lot's of good reasons, Grand Kids and Family support as we get older are two key ones.  Aggie Football might also be on the list somewhere.

No Beans, I did not go to that School.  My money did and I'd like to get some return on the investment.

So back to the situation at hand,  the guest cottages are in pretty good shape as they're cleaned every time a guest checks out.  So, pretty much just replacing anything that's a bit worn/shabby.  

 

Our old house had been mostly resuscitated at this point,  Mrs J has done a really good job at doing the interior redesigning the inside.  Looks very eye catching, but simple also.  So, easy to maintain.  A lot of Stuff has been resigned to the dump or Good Will.  A lot of Stuff.

 

This dumpster was totally full when it was hauled off to the dump!  As I said...

In any case, my big mission was redoing the front porch. 

 

That's the original porch fencing.  The decking required a few replacements, but other than some weather fading, the wood's in pretty good shape.

 

 

Got the inside framing done and things were starting to come together. 

 

A couple of days later, AKA last Saturday, it was pretty much finished.  Still need to reface the upper supports between the porch fence and the overhang, but that shouldn't be too hard.

 

Famous last words. 

Our current house, 5 years old, is in pretty good shape, just a bit of deep cleaning and decluttering.  Easier said than done, I know!

 

 

 

 

And finally, the Horse Barn.  Doing my best to keep it clean, but between you know what and the hay in the barn, it's a full time job.  As I said, doing the best I can. 

 

Problem for this week is the water source to the horse's water tank, stopped working.  Hard water, finally froze the float valve, so water was watering the grass instead of the tank.  The horses still had water, just a bit more of it around the barn.  

 

I've already disconnected it so it wouldn't leak any more

So, gonna let you go and make a trip to Tractor Supply to pick up the requisite parts and go and fix that issue.  I'm replacing all you see except the hose.  We're having a contractor come in in the next week or so to install pipe from the water source to the barn.  That should take failed PVC links our of the picture.

 

Progress, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes unexpected, but....Progress!

 

Peace out y'all!