In last night’s blog, I showed pictures of how I had decorated the ledge in the kitchen of our tiny home. I asked for opinions and suggestions, and I got some. Judy and Lav said to put the large egg between the two beasterhops on bicycles and the two smaller bunnies where the big egg used to be. I did that and I think it looks better. What do you think?

I think I still might need to move the larger beasterhop a little more to the right.

Jean and Lav seconded that I should change the display with the seasons; especially since this is virtually my only place to display things.

This cork board is my only place to display photographs. This is really a tough one for me. I think everyone who reads my blog knows how much I love pictures. I can look at them for hours even if I don’t know the people in them. There is something so magical about capturing a moment in time that you can look at and remember how you felt and what that experience or that person meant to you. I can imagine there are a lot of daughters out there pouring over old photographs of their mothers. I look at my old family photos all the time. I haven’t specifically taken pictures of items that I love, but at the suggestion of Patti Arnieri, I will in the future. It’s an excellent downsizing tip. I wish I had taken more pictures in the past. Kip wishes he had pictures of his first car. I wish I had a real picture of my dog, Berferd. I can’t believe we never took one.

I pinned some pictures of the grandkids to my board today. I don’t have everyone represented, yet. It’s time to print more recent ones. I will do that and take another picture for you after we get moved.

The second picture is of a plate Heidi had made for me. It has all of the grandchildren’s names on it. I think that was three babies ago.

On to the buffet. Here are a couple of choices. Remember, what I don’t use will be stored if it has a family attachment… or given away.

1. Above the buffet is the traveler’s map Heidi gave us for Christmas a couple of years ago.

The smaller, framed picture is a picture of Kip’s Grandpa McNinch’s Lazy three Quarter Circle Brand. He named his ranch the Star Corral. The other figure is the Beasterhop sitting on a snail and reading a book.

Below is with the plate without the stand, two minimalist ideas, and the antique egg made in Germany that I want to get a dome for. I may put it in the glass display cabinet in the bedroom. I have several things, such as the Queen E. anniversary saucer and cup, Jean gave me, Grandma Sanderson’s demitasse cups and saucers, and Mom’s stemware to display in that case.

I’m trying to find the perfect spot for the ‘meaning of my life’ collage, Judy Dykstra Brown made and gave to me at the 2016 reunion in Murdo. It’s very special and includes a Betty Crocker Homemaker of Tomorrow pin contributed by Judy’s sister Patti. I first thought she had given me the very pin she won in high school, but she later told me she found it on eBay. It’s all very cool. I didn’t win many awards and I lost my pin years ago.

I included a couple of shots of a few other things I put on the counter. I am so determined to keep the counter clear of clutter.

I took a picture of the entry stand. I put a little RV replica Kip’s sister gave us and one of my hats on it. Any ideas here? I had Kip put a rack with hooks behind the door in our bedroom for jackets, since we don’t have a coat closet. The thing on the floor is an old boot taker offer.

I still have the remainder of the kitchen to complete. I’m almost finished unpacking and putting away all of the things stored in the cabinets and drawers. We have the bathroom and bedroom to put together, and we get to pick up the pictures that are being framed on Mother’s Day. I can’t wait to see them hung on the walls.

I also spent quite a bit of time, today, in the big barn going through the partially emptied boxes. I’m consolidating the ones that will be stored, packing the things that will be given away, and saving things we think the kids might want before we give them to someone else. We have four huge crates of photographs and I’m the only one who ever looks at them. There is something to be said about being able to download all of your photos onto your computer. I have also scanned thousands and stored them on an SD card. The next thing I will have to do is organize everything on my computer, but let’s not go there, yet.

This is a lot of fun for me. My tiny home might not be full of glam, but I’m beginning to love the idea of being a minimalist. It’s more difficult than I thought it would be, but I intend to stick with it.

Water tomorrow??? We Shall See what We Shall See

I said I was going to involve you in my minimalist decisions as I decorate our tiny home. I haven’t gotten as far as I wanted to before doing that, but I will show you some pictures and tell you the kind of challenges I’m having.

We have been pulling boxes out of the garage, one by one. On average, I have decided to find a place for about two-thirds of each box I’ve gone through. I already know what things I will be storing in the shed or barn, but I will keep them at a minimum. I do not want to have to go through the mountain of things that made the first and second cuts, a third or fourth time. I will store three categories.

1. Christmas decorations…I only kept the tiny ones. I have my nutcrackers and a few other things with sentimental value. I feel good about the culling of the Christmas decorations.
2.  I will store my beasterhops, and everything that goes with them. I want to continue writing about Beastertown and I will use all my pieces as props for the photos. I already have them organized in plastic tubs, so I feel fine about keeping the source of much of my writing joy.
3. Off season clothes…I will store our winter clothes, now. I have cut down considerably on the size of my wardrobe. For someone who still struggles with finding her “look,” this has been tough. Keep in mind, I love to go to resale shops. If I have learned anything through this experience, it’s that too much is too much, no matter what you paid for it. That has been a depressing discovery for me.

That’s about all I will store. I know when I’ve completed purging and storing, and I sit back in my comfy chair on the porch, I will feel a sense of freedom. I’m sure I will miss a few things, but I will have everything I need. (I could still shop for others, but unless it’s for a really good friend, or a family member who won’t be offended, I can’t get comfortable with doing that.)

I started my challenge with the ledge in the kitchen. All this time, I have thought I wanted to decorate it with beasterhops. For those of you who don’t know, a beasterhop is a rabbit who rides on a bicycle. I want your opinion on this. I’m a little gun-shy because one year, I wanted to leave my nutcracker collection up all year, and my girls said, “absolutely not.” I haven’t asked them about the beasterhops.

The large egg on the left is an antique basket-weave egg that was given to me by a good friend. I like the way it looks, but I don’t want it to get damaged or dirty sitting up there. She did tell me it has been in her attic for years, so at least people would enjoy it. She gave me another egg that is an antique made in Germany. It’s much smaller and I could possibly find a little glass dome to put over it and display it, instead. It’s really beautiful.

I found the large lady Beasterhop on the bicycle, when we were camping in Glen Rose with a group of friends. All the girls went shopping at these really fun places, so I associate Missy Beasterhop with an especially fun time with friends. I think she may be a bit too big to be up there. What do you think?

The ceramic boy and girl Beasterhops were given to me by another good friend. I love the way the boy bunny is looking back at the girl he must really adore. I think they look good. Maybe I should find another little bicycle to set beside or behind them. The Beasterhop on the bicycle is The Beasterhop. The day of the book signing for We Shall See what We Shall See, Kip found the bicycle and I took Mr. Beasterhop off of one of the thousands of decorations my friend, Pat had given me. He was on a ladder which is why his legs already looked like he was riding a bike. Kip took Mr. Beasterhop and the bicycle over to our friend, Scott’s, and he shaped and sanded the wooden stand that holds him up. He will be displayed all year round. See how special all of these are to me?

I promised Kip I would not load the whole house down with beasterhops riding on bicycles. After all, I must have some room for crowns and hats.

We have eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, so there is not room for everyone’s pictures on the walls, which is why two years ago, I asked for a nice looking board to tack pictures on. Heidi got me the neatest framed cork board. I love it and it’s easy to take down the old pics and replace them with more current ones. That’s it hanging on the wall in the hall. I haven’t put the pictures back on it, yet.

Heidi also gave us the map above the buffet to chronicle our trips. We put little pins everyplace we have been on our motor home vacations. It looks a little high on the wall, but I’ve since put a couple of things on the buffet so it looks better, and it needs to be at eye level so you can see all of the pins.

We now have little red stools around the island, and big stools at the counter. The bar stools are pretty big, but Kip wanted them to be comfortable for big guys like him.

 

As you can see, the place is still a cluttered mess. Remember, we are still moving in and we can only visit until we have water. The sewer is in, but of course, it doesn’t work without water….Sheesh! What an adventure this has been. Thanks for hanging in there with us. I’ll take more and better pictures of our progress, tomorrow.

We’re trying very hard to remain happy campers. Some days we succeed, and some days we struggle. Hey… at least the dogs and cat haven’t run away…yet! They’re just hoping the recliners still have their names on them.

 

They showed up yesterday. I was so excited, I almost ran over and hugged them. They were strange fellows. They didn’t talk much and wouldn’t make eye contact. They got the sewer in and said, “We will be back tomorrow to do the water, if it doesn’t rain.”

Kip stood outside all morning waiting. The temperature was not very comfortable inside.

It didn’t rain until 1:00 pm, today. It didn’t rain hard until 4:00 pm. Kip enlisted the aid of a guy from our church, who knows his stuff as far as plumbing is concerned, and they worked all morning on the house-side of the connections.

Yesterday, however, we also got the satellite service transferred, so we have television and the concrete guy came and cut a couple of feet off the driveway.

Remember the retail therapy I told you we did on Monday? Well, three bar stools and three counter stools got there today. Kip had to do some assembling. He has assembled so much furniture in the last thirty-seven years, he has collected 38 allen wrenches. They always come in the box with anything that needs put together. We also got the headboard. I had to leave to get back to the RV to walk the dogs, so I didn’t get to see how everything looked when he finished. I’ll take pictures tomorrow.

I unloaded boxes and put things away, today. I still have too much and I don’t like the “too much” look, anymore. Tomorrow, I will decide on what will stay and what will go. I will take pictures before and after and you can help me decide. That will add some fun to it.

We’re still looking forward to the day we can sit by our fire pit on the porch and watch the grass grow. 

We will not get water tomorrow, because it’s supposed to rain again. There is no rain in the forecast for next week. I’m not going to despair, you all. I am sitting, right now, in a perfectly nice motor home with Cyndie sitting beside me. She’s in MY recliner. I’m at my makeshift desk with my laptop. My feet hurt and I’m tired, but on the plus side, I have reached my goal of over 10,000 steps every day for over a week, so I’m getting fresh air and exercise.

Stay tuned for pictures of the decor…

 

 

When they said they were going to put our water and sewer in this week, they didn’t mean Monday or today. I think they’re purposely playing around with my emotions, and that can be a dangerous thing to do. They have added insult to the injury the electric company heaped on me until I was close to snapping. Do you think they could be in cahoots? Is there a conspiracy against my tiny home? Maybe they’re not used to tiny houses and to them they are of no consequence…invisible to the utility naked eye. Not worthy of their precious water. I should be happy they begrudgingly gave me electricity. I could still be waterless in the dark.

Wait…I forgot to breathe.

Kip said, “Call them.”

“Hello my name is Mary McNinch and I was told your guys were going to put our water and sewer in this week. Can you give me an idea what day that might be because we’re trying to line up a plumber to hook it up to our house so we can live there.”

The water company: We can’t  tell you that because it might rain and we don’t dig in the rain. We only dig when it’s dry and it’s supposed to rain.”

Me, again: But if it doesn’t rain, will you still do it this week? Hello?

In the beginning….

When I got off the phone I heard Kip on the phone with the satellite TV service.

“Hi, this is Kip McNinch. I need you to come and set up the satellite service at my new house. Also, I need a smaller box because I got this new stand with an electric fireplace in it, and the side shelves are smaller. When can you be there? You’ll be there at eight o’clock tomorrow morning? I guess I can be there that early…See Ya!”

I’m telling you…I’m invisible…

So we decided to hang pictures today. We have done this eleven times now in our married life with very little drama. After trying two or three different places for the things we like best, and fighting for a great spot for our personal favorites, we usually agree on the best spots for everything and get to work measuring, leveling and hanging. Of course, now that we are tiny home minimalist, we should have been done by noon, right?

Wrong…

By noon, we had a gash in one of the walls and two of our favorite pictures had broken frames. We only got one picture hung.

Have you been watching television when the ads come on for the new picture hangers that stick to the wall and to the back of the picture, and…they saaaay… will never, ever damage your wall even if the picture is finally taken down ten or so years later? Have you watched as the confident lady pulls down on the sticky strip and it comes off without so much as a smudge on the wall? It’s lies…all lies!

We went to Lowes and bought the things in every size to accommodate every weight. They weren’t that easy to work with to begin with, but just when we thought everything looked beautious, CRASH!! To the floor they went. The frames in splinters. Well, two of them anyway. We tried one twice, but when that didn’t work, I told Kip I wasn’t willing to chance it again. I could just see us awake all night wondering if pictures in an unoccupied tiny home make a noise when they fall even if no one is in the forest, I mean in the tiny house to hear them.

Tomorrow we will be making a trip to Michael’s in Dallas or Tyler to get new frames or maybe have them frame them for us. The ones that splintered are old ones and they could use a little freshening up. But there are other places for money to go right now. The pit is deep and getting deeper.

I’m really doing a lot of fantasizing about the 1939 life insurance policy the bank in Murdo discovered in an old safe deposit box my parents abandoned years and years ago. I know my parents, and they never would have forgotten they had something of value, anywhere. I can still imagine several scenarios all of which end with MG being a rich girl, and Billy would be wealthy, too, of course.

I watched a show on HGTV last night. It was late, but I couldn’t sleep. It was about a couple who won $187 million dollars in the lottery. They were looking for a new house. They started with a self-determined budget of two million and ended up buying a mountain for five million. The whole thing overwhelmed me and made me nervous. Can you imagine all of the bad luck Kip and I could have in a place that cost us five million dollars?

No thanks!! I would rather be a minimalist living in a tiny home with tiny problems.

Note to Patti: Billy graduated with a class of twenty-four. There were only nine girls. He quoted some other statistics about how many were still living and how many of those showed up for reunions. It was really impressive, but I’ve forgotten the numbers.

I’m late writing my post tonight because I have been working on Connie’s Story and Dakotah’s Story for the last couple of hours. It’s another long story, but because I have been given some great advice, I have taken on another edit of both books. I believe the stories are good, but they both still need a little finessing to make them exactly as I want them.

We see these ducks every day on the road to our tiny home.

It would help if I had a lot of money, but that could all change soon. Just as I thought this week couldn’t get any weirder, Billy and I got an email from the Jones County Bank in Murdo. They are sending us the contents of an old safe deposit box my parents had. One of the items is a life insurance policy from 1939. Dad was only twenty years old then. It probably won’t be worth anything, will it? Something tells me it probably lapsed somewhere along the line.

Today, we spent a lot of time putting the furniture back together and getting some things ready for the move. Electricity helps, but we still need water to really clean the place and of course, we can’t move in without it. Here are a few pics of the furniture we organized. It doesn’t look like much, yet, but we’ll get there. I’ll show you pictures as we progress. I told you in the beginning, I would give you the good, the bad, and the ugly, and I have kept my promise.

I want to tell you about one other thing that happened today. It’s important information; especially for people who have dogs. About two weeks ago, Cyndie started panting and drinking lots of water. We took her to the Vet right away, and the test they gave her showed her kidney functions weren’t what they should be. They gave her some medicine, and told us to give her a dog food that is easy on the kidneys, (low protein). She has been doing great since then.

Today, when we were taking them all for a walk, we noticed Cyndie’s stool was full of blood. We were concerned to say the least and took her right to the Vet again. After talking about her symptoms, he told us it was caused by eating grass. I always thought dogs ate grass to calm an upset stomach, but this doctor said they eat it because it smells good and it tastes good; especially this time of year. The problem is they can’t digest it, and it can cut up their intestines, which he believes is what’s wrong with Cyndie. We’re grateful for the best news we’ve had all week. It could have been a much worse diagnosis.

I’ll let you know if the symptoms disappear, but in the meantime, I wouldn’t let your dog eat a lot of grass if I were you. Cyndie has been munching too much around this RV park.

Have a great night, everyone…and a wonderful weekend!

We took another tiny step toward tiny home living yesterday. Since the RV garage is ready, we decided to move everything out of the three storage units we occupy, for a total if $150 per month, into the garage.

Does this look like minimalist living to you? This is only the contents of one unit. We have two more to go. It’s ridiculous!

I noticed many of these boxes were labeled, “garage.” Some were marked, “important tools.” I would be willing to bet 99.9% of Kip’s tools made the cut. 

Okay…full disclosure… I had more Beasterhop boxes than I remembered. And a few bunny paraphernalia I picked up at the church garage sale have.been riding around in the jeep with me.

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“Don’t worry, Fluffy. We came from Barbara’s house and we’re keepers. We just can’t multiply.”

I’ll go back and read my goal notes.

The question is, “Are we ready?” The answer is, “It doesn’t matter.” Like it or not. The time has come. Well, as soon as we get some electric juice and a water/sewer hook-up, we will be faced with ridding ourselves of a whole lot more antiminimalistic hangers on.

We don’t need them…the lesson here is, if you do what we just did, you’ll have to handle everything twice…at least. Remember all the stuff we so proudly got rid of?

On to something else. I had the facts wrong. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking,  “What was I thinking?” Penny and Midnight were not involved like I said in the last blog. Remember? Berferd was Penny’s offspring. His father was a homeless and rather mangy mutt with a sad story, and there was no denying he was Berferd’s biological father. 

(Berferd had a lot of personality. This dog is smaller than he was, but the look is similar.)

 A couple of years ago, I wrote about how we discovered Berferd’s paternity. Someone found a deceased dog on the side of the road and thought he was Berferd. How many dogs have wirey, mangy looking hair in three colors? (Penny’s hair was copper colored.) When Berferd came home from eating popcorn at the show, we figured out the dog, who went to a better place, wasn’t him. It was his father. Poor Berferd had just lost his only known relative.

Midnight was Scamp’s mother’s  puppy daddy. That makes more sense anyway, because Scamp was all black like Midnight and he lived south of Hiway 16 where Midnight spent most of his time when he was visiting from Pennsylvania. Scamp’s mother must have lived in the neighborbood, too. Maybe Greg Miller knows who she was. Scamp was their dog.

Scamp and Midnight were black and mostly some kind of spaniel. So was Smokey, Uncle Wayne’s dog.

We’re going to load more boxes, and then, the furniture.

P.S. Kip just said my housekeeping style is best described as, ” There appears to have been a struggle.” 

He’s gonna wish he hadn’t kept that heavy old crowbar.

We’re not exactly sure who wrote this accounting of a time in the life of M.E. and Mary Sanderson that began with a fun vacation at their cabin in the Black Hills, and ended in near tragedy.

My brother, Billy, who was with Grandma and Grandpa on the trip, found the letter in some papers a cousin on the Francis side of the family sent to him. I think most of the information is accurate, however, I know the young daughter of a family friend was also with them on this trip. I copied the letter verbatim.

The photograph is of Mary and Maynard Sanderson at their cottage in the Black Hills near Nemo (1951). Shortly after leaving for home, they were involved in a serious accident near Wall. Billy Francis was with them and they had stopped to get him a drink. When they returned to the highway, Maynard hadn’t put his lights on “bright” and hit a tractor which had no lights. A kind motorist had them taken to a Wall hospital where they learned that Mary and Billy both had broken thighs and were put in casts from the waist down. Maynard had several broken ribs.

When they could return to their apartment above the store in Murdo, Ella and Al (Leckey) also lived there and gave them special attention. How grateful the whole family and friends were, that they survived.

The cottage near Nemo, cost Maynard and Mary about $650.00. There was a cool stream in the valley below and a beautiful view. When Helen and Bob and family came from Michigan on vacation, they spent time with her Mother and Dad and also visited his older brother, Ray, (Marj and Darla).

The cottage was in the national forest and had to be burned unless it could be moved to private property.

They enjoyed many good times there without modern facilities, such as running water and electricity, for many years.

As the writer of this letter said, the family enjoyed the cabin for many years. We all loved to go there. Uncle Jerry Miller made improvements and updates to it through the years, but some things like the old walls papered in pine cones, beds with lumpy mattresses, and heavy warm quilts, as well as the sounds of the creek, laughter, frying fish, and the breeze blowing through the pine trees, never changed. Just like Grandma’s beads, you could count on them to always be there.

Billy was seven when they were in the accident. I was born a few months later. Billy was sitting on the lap of the young girl who was with them. She went through the windshield first and he went through behind her, which saved his life. I don’t believe she was seriously hurt. The man on the tractor was thrown off into the field and walked out of the hospital a few hours later. I think Grandpa also had a broken arm. I remember it didn’t heal right and he wore a leather lace up cuff when it bothered him.

 

 

via Murdo Girl…The Brick House..Party leftovers

I took a picture of a picture at the church garage sale. This is the story it told me.

An Apple for my Teacher

It was time to go to school. I was trying hard to hurry. I couldn’t find my shoes and I began to worry.

Mommy didn’t understand how nervous I was feeling. She said to look under my bed instead of on the ceiling.

I ate all of my oatmeal. I knew I shouldn’t waste it. I held my nose and swallowed so I wouldn’t have to taste it.

I didn’t have to brush my teeth like I usually do. The oatmeal was so soft, I didn’t use my teeth to chew.

Mommy helped me comb my hair. I’m not sposed to wear a cap. I don’t know how to button, and I just learned how to snap.

I think I’m almost ready now to get into the car. Mommy said my school isn’t very far.

I hope I like my teacher, and I hope that she likes me. I’m really going to try to be as good as I can be.

I’m bringing her an apple. It’s juicy, big and red. I just hope she doesn’t want a pinneapple instead.

I guess that I’m a big boy now. That’s what people say, when little boys go off to school…

Today is my first day.

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Grandson, Hudson is turning five