Saturday morning notes from the Ranch
One thing in the moving from the apartments to the house and then out to the ranch is the subject of little noises.
In the apartments, little noises could be attributed to the apartment next store. In the rental house, it was not so easy pass them off but I suppose I eventually learned to what was causing them. Something that sounded like an electronic beep, for example, was identified as the creaking of a bed or chair.
Here out at the ranch, well, it is not so easy to write off. If, however, it is something to really worry about, the cats will warn me about it, if only by running out of my room to the far corners of the house.
That is one thing about the house is that it is SO QUIET! I get up for my midnight shift, walk out to the kitchen, and the impact hits one right in the face. Of course, part of it is that there are no outside lights unlike as it is in the city, so it is a visual and audio assualtess presentation. In any event, practically my first thought is put some music on (much easier now that I have a TV with a player hitched up) to liven up the place. This morning, it was Stevie Nicks' The Wild Heart, one of my new arrivals from the CD buy of "which is "cheaper", to just get the CD or run conversions from the LP".
It is a good thing that I am not an instant action type person, but more of "I'll get around to it" and "In the mean time, there are other ways to do that.". Last weekend when I got up early for a weekend dance trip, I was a little bit put off when my new gas stove didn't light up. Sigh, another thing to address about my new house. A thing to address with the gas supply company, but I just constantly put it off.
Well, this morning I was curious about things, was it really not pumping gas to the burners, when it lit up. I just needed to give it a little bit of time to begin. Chalk one up for the advantages of being lazy, such as in saving me the cost of a house call.
So now I am enjoying my first perked mug of coffee as I do my Saturday morning notes.
The water pressure from my boost pump is decent. It's nothing like the city but it works and it makes one conservative of their use of water, such as in the shower. Well, sort of in the shower. It takes a little while for the shower to warm up but what comes around goes around seeing how the water is from my well, it goes down the drain to the septic tank to be eventually sprayed out in the field which, I suppose, drains down to my aquifer. Big picture view without all the little details.
With various power systems, I have to keep in mind which one I am currently using and how it is being paid for. Main power which does the lights, the heat, the electronics comes from PEC and paid by cold hard cash. The stove and the water heater are also paid for by cold hard cash but it comes from the tank out in the yard which means I don't keep the stove on just to keep my coffee pot warm. Since that tank has to filled up so often by someone coming out to do it, I have to keep in mind that it may not always be there just by the flick of a switch.
The well and its storage tank is solar powered, so at least that's one of those not a cold hard cash comforts. That's it for what is in place right now though my gate opener will be solar powered, to batteries, as well......once I open up the box in the garage and install that.
Now on my second mug of perked coffee and it actually is quite good. A rarity of one kind and not of another. I find with fresh "brewed" coffee, the first mug is the best but the second is just "eeeh". That is not the case this morning. In any event, it is better than instant which is what I've had to do with this past week when I thought my stove was not working.
My move is not over at all but today is more of a shopping trip to get flea medicines for the pets since their supply is packed up somewhere, rugs for the rooms before the movers bring the heavy furniture next week to go atop of them, and floor screens/dividers to shield my bedroom windows. On the last one, despite that I have a my own forest surrounding me, that I can't see the next house over unless I pick up my glance to see their roof, I am still not ready to play Lady Godiva in my bedless bedroom (sleeping bag on the floor) for whatever animal kingdom audience I may have.
The temporary arrangement I have set up in the house will have to be moved, a little or a lot, when the rest of my furniture goods get here. Right now, my desk consists of a folding party table that has two laptops (the kitchen laptop & my main laptop) on it, a DVD player, and a large flat screen TV. It's nice and compact in that when the computers are not in use, they are closed so they don't block the TV. Next to the party table is a folding wood bedside table (Pier 1) with my printer/fax machine on it. All this is next to the fireplace where the mantle holds my music CDs as they come in and then a cat has a mini rattan sofa to rest on.
But when the movers come with the rest of my furniture, all this gets shuffled. The sofa will probably only go to the middle of the great room, but the printer to the den (but after my father's desk gets moved in) where the Fax line is located. This TV to my bedroom (but after my great aunt's secretary desk gets moved in) since it is older and doesn't have as many HDMI connections on it. I have to figure out where to put items of other furniture, from three curio cabinets to a Chinese dinner linen cabinet to the standing desk which will be my dining table.
One of the things that I am moving in today is my wooden bed frame. Just 5 pieces of wood that I bought when I was in the service in Charleston in the 80s. I think it cost me $250 (or was it 500?) but in 30 years, it has served me well. Easy to put together, to take apart, to put back together again.
Of course, it won't give me a bed; I need the box spring and mattress for that (and that may have been part of that cost decades ago) and that's still down the road. (on the 3rd mug of coffee, lukewarm but still good) It will give me marks, though, to figure out where other things can go. I am thinking of putting the bed in something of the middle of the room, the desk in narrow dresser alcove, if it fits, with the older flat screen on top of it (if it fits), and my dresser which is too wide for the alcove to the back of the head of my bed. My great aunt's camphor chest will probably go by the windows. (rain this morning in the country which means, if it continues, any moving today will be done by the Forester (covered by less cargo) and not by the F-250 (twice the volume load))
Dressers, life's stresses, and where one lives can be interesting things. My parents got me my dresser when I moved by to Texas after my time in the service and for 10 years, I made good use of it. Then in 2000, I moved into a 2 bedroom apartment that was slightly shorter, bedroom wise. About a year after that, I inherited the camphor chest and the space infront of my dresser turned into a catwalk. So while I may have still be able to use the top drawers, my life essentially turned into living out of clean laundry bags.
Then there was the rental house phase. Master bedroom upstairs and the dresser, with the rest of the heavy furniture downstairs. Living still consisted of using the laundry bag method, even when my bed became the fold out sofa downstairs, dental surgery on out.
So I am looking forward to being able to use my dresser again like a normal person even if my lifestyle isn't quite that way. I suppose having my own washer/dryer will help as oppose to hauling laundry bags to the complex or city laundromat.
The end of the coffee and the day should be started.....even if it is tempting to be lazy.
In the apartments, little noises could be attributed to the apartment next store. In the rental house, it was not so easy pass them off but I suppose I eventually learned to what was causing them. Something that sounded like an electronic beep, for example, was identified as the creaking of a bed or chair.
Here out at the ranch, well, it is not so easy to write off. If, however, it is something to really worry about, the cats will warn me about it, if only by running out of my room to the far corners of the house.
That is one thing about the house is that it is SO QUIET! I get up for my midnight shift, walk out to the kitchen, and the impact hits one right in the face. Of course, part of it is that there are no outside lights unlike as it is in the city, so it is a visual and audio assualtess presentation. In any event, practically my first thought is put some music on (much easier now that I have a TV with a player hitched up) to liven up the place. This morning, it was Stevie Nicks' The Wild Heart, one of my new arrivals from the CD buy of "which is "cheaper", to just get the CD or run conversions from the LP".
It is a good thing that I am not an instant action type person, but more of "I'll get around to it" and "In the mean time, there are other ways to do that.". Last weekend when I got up early for a weekend dance trip, I was a little bit put off when my new gas stove didn't light up. Sigh, another thing to address about my new house. A thing to address with the gas supply company, but I just constantly put it off.
Well, this morning I was curious about things, was it really not pumping gas to the burners, when it lit up. I just needed to give it a little bit of time to begin. Chalk one up for the advantages of being lazy, such as in saving me the cost of a house call.
So now I am enjoying my first perked mug of coffee as I do my Saturday morning notes.
The water pressure from my boost pump is decent. It's nothing like the city but it works and it makes one conservative of their use of water, such as in the shower. Well, sort of in the shower. It takes a little while for the shower to warm up but what comes around goes around seeing how the water is from my well, it goes down the drain to the septic tank to be eventually sprayed out in the field which, I suppose, drains down to my aquifer. Big picture view without all the little details.
With various power systems, I have to keep in mind which one I am currently using and how it is being paid for. Main power which does the lights, the heat, the electronics comes from PEC and paid by cold hard cash. The stove and the water heater are also paid for by cold hard cash but it comes from the tank out in the yard which means I don't keep the stove on just to keep my coffee pot warm. Since that tank has to filled up so often by someone coming out to do it, I have to keep in mind that it may not always be there just by the flick of a switch.
The well and its storage tank is solar powered, so at least that's one of those not a cold hard cash comforts. That's it for what is in place right now though my gate opener will be solar powered, to batteries, as well......once I open up the box in the garage and install that.
Now on my second mug of perked coffee and it actually is quite good. A rarity of one kind and not of another. I find with fresh "brewed" coffee, the first mug is the best but the second is just "eeeh". That is not the case this morning. In any event, it is better than instant which is what I've had to do with this past week when I thought my stove was not working.
My move is not over at all but today is more of a shopping trip to get flea medicines for the pets since their supply is packed up somewhere, rugs for the rooms before the movers bring the heavy furniture next week to go atop of them, and floor screens/dividers to shield my bedroom windows. On the last one, despite that I have a my own forest surrounding me, that I can't see the next house over unless I pick up my glance to see their roof, I am still not ready to play Lady Godiva in my bedless bedroom (sleeping bag on the floor) for whatever animal kingdom audience I may have.
The temporary arrangement I have set up in the house will have to be moved, a little or a lot, when the rest of my furniture goods get here. Right now, my desk consists of a folding party table that has two laptops (the kitchen laptop & my main laptop) on it, a DVD player, and a large flat screen TV. It's nice and compact in that when the computers are not in use, they are closed so they don't block the TV. Next to the party table is a folding wood bedside table (Pier 1) with my printer/fax machine on it. All this is next to the fireplace where the mantle holds my music CDs as they come in and then a cat has a mini rattan sofa to rest on.
But when the movers come with the rest of my furniture, all this gets shuffled. The sofa will probably only go to the middle of the great room, but the printer to the den (but after my father's desk gets moved in) where the Fax line is located. This TV to my bedroom (but after my great aunt's secretary desk gets moved in) since it is older and doesn't have as many HDMI connections on it. I have to figure out where to put items of other furniture, from three curio cabinets to a Chinese dinner linen cabinet to the standing desk which will be my dining table.
One of the things that I am moving in today is my wooden bed frame. Just 5 pieces of wood that I bought when I was in the service in Charleston in the 80s. I think it cost me $250 (or was it 500?) but in 30 years, it has served me well. Easy to put together, to take apart, to put back together again.
Of course, it won't give me a bed; I need the box spring and mattress for that (and that may have been part of that cost decades ago) and that's still down the road. (on the 3rd mug of coffee, lukewarm but still good) It will give me marks, though, to figure out where other things can go. I am thinking of putting the bed in something of the middle of the room, the desk in narrow dresser alcove, if it fits, with the older flat screen on top of it (if it fits), and my dresser which is too wide for the alcove to the back of the head of my bed. My great aunt's camphor chest will probably go by the windows. (rain this morning in the country which means, if it continues, any moving today will be done by the Forester (covered by less cargo) and not by the F-250 (twice the volume load))
Dressers, life's stresses, and where one lives can be interesting things. My parents got me my dresser when I moved by to Texas after my time in the service and for 10 years, I made good use of it. Then in 2000, I moved into a 2 bedroom apartment that was slightly shorter, bedroom wise. About a year after that, I inherited the camphor chest and the space infront of my dresser turned into a catwalk. So while I may have still be able to use the top drawers, my life essentially turned into living out of clean laundry bags.
Then there was the rental house phase. Master bedroom upstairs and the dresser, with the rest of the heavy furniture downstairs. Living still consisted of using the laundry bag method, even when my bed became the fold out sofa downstairs, dental surgery on out.
So I am looking forward to being able to use my dresser again like a normal person even if my lifestyle isn't quite that way. I suppose having my own washer/dryer will help as oppose to hauling laundry bags to the complex or city laundromat.
The end of the coffee and the day should be started.....even if it is tempting to be lazy.
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