Planning Commision

The planning commision has been at work around the farm lately. Margie is going crazy wanting to get started on renovations and I don't blame her. When we bought the farm, we knew that major changes were in store for the farm house and the landscape, an we've spent 99% of our efforts so far on getting things more to our liking outside.

Deciding on how to proceed inside the house has been interesting, if not down right entertaining. You should see Margie wandering around the place as if there was a wall for her to walk around, or commenting how a new window "here" as she points to a blank wall would improve the amount of natural light entering the house.

We've been searching the internet for design ideas, bought a 3D computer design software program that allows us to adjust the house floorplan with with just a few mouse clicks, and we've been to the local home show for some ideas too. We walk around imagineering what might work, would be cool, and then come to some realization that all these big dreams take big money.

Transportation is a big priority for us too as we know we need a vehicle that can transport building materials as well as tow the Jeep now and then, so we think a pickup is in our near future. We will be looking for a reliable 4x4 pickup, and expect we'll find one in the near future. Until we do, we're really limited as to what we can haul. I could buy a trailer to tow behind the Jeep, but that doesn't seem to be a good compromise at this point.

Part of the planning process includes some plumbing upgrades. Those of you that know a little about home construction can see from the picture that the folks doing the plumbing in the past followed a different set of building codes than are currently in effect. I'll have some fun in the basement too.

So besides the farm and home improvements we want to get started on, we've got a vehicle purchase to include in the budget, rising fuel costs, an RV to sell, and weeds to wage war against. Winning the lottery would be a big help...too bad you can't win if you don't play.

Sunday Drive

We took our first Sunday drive since the weather was so cooperative, and we're finding that there is something interesting just about everywhere we go in Nebraska. We loaded Casey (our Golden Retriever) into the Jeep and headed north into Frontier county on this trip into a land of huge farms and few people.



Our first stop came after seeing a road sign for a Nebraska historical marker. Nebraska is great for putting up historical information markers, but this one didn' give much information other than we were along the McPherson Trail and what years it operated. My first efforts to find information about this trail has yielded little information other than it was a connecting trail from North Platte to Hays, Kansas.



We planned on heading into the county seat of Frontier county which is Stockville. I admit that most towns around Nebraska have a water tower so we were looking for one and drove right through town thinking we should be in town by now. After climbing out of the Medicine Creek valley to another Nebraska historical sign, we stopped and learned a little of the history of Stockville, and realized that we had missed town.



It's pretty unusual for a town not to have a sign letting you know you are in town, but we didn't see any at Stockville. The only real indication of town was the county fairgrounds and the speed limit dropped. As we drove back into town, we looked for a main street, and headed south on one of two possibilities. We lucked out and were on main street and drove right past the county building, post office, and one other business establishment that we noticed. And then we were back in the country heading towards Bartley.



I suppose there may have been a sign someplace designating the county courthouse as such, but we didn't see it. Just a pop vending machine and a tall flagpole made the white building appear somewhat official. The US Post Office declaired we were in Stockville, and the business I believe was called the County Seat.



This small village it turns out has an official population of 32 according to the Frontier county web site, and is the smallest town listed in the county as well. It also looks like they have some fun in July when they have their county fair including a rodeo, demolition derby, and tractor pull. You can learn quite a bit about Frontier county and Stockville at http://www.co.frontier.ne.us/index_html.



The rest of our trip had us exploring to see of Road 725 cut through, it doesn't, trying to stay out of the local's way (I wasn't in a hurry), and seeing plenty of what we're becoming accustomed to seeing everywhere we go in southwest Nebraska...wildlife.

Scientific Discoveries

Over the years, mankind has discovered, or at least explained some pretty cool stuff that we take for granted everyday. We deal with natural laws daily without giving most of them of second thought. Isaac Newton "discovered" gravity, and at at least explained what keeps us from flying off into space. He also came up with other laws of motion such as inertia and the lack of it, and though most of us don't think about these laws, we have little choice but to obey them.

Yesterday brought this to mind as the ACME Automated Snowthrower and his son came for a working visit and shifted into building demolition mode. You may recall that we learned that the farm at one time raised over 700 hogs, and we've got some old pole and corrugated metal structures that are in pretty poor shape. One of these structures was an old shed closed in on 3 sides about 7 feet tall and 10 foot square, and that's were I pointed the human "machines" as the next project begging for their attention.

I was in the house for maybe 20 minutes before I got out to see how the demo work was going, just in time to see most of Newton's laws of motion in full effect. Walking around the barn to the demo location found the roof collapsing, a wall buckling and the "machines" jumping out of the way. It was obvious that they were paying attention to Newton's laws!

Next was Gary swinging a sledge with "wreckless" abandon that had me quickly retreating as I know that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and sometimes you get in the way of flying debris. Nails, tin, and wood scraps were flying everywhere! It didn't take long to flatten the old shed, but there was some more motion law to apply.

An object in motion, tends to stay in motion. I used the Jeep with the intent of bumping the sheds support poles to loosen them to pull out of the frozen ground. However, the posts were pretty well rotted off, and the mass of the Jeep was no match for the old poles as they gave up about 4 inches below ground level.

With all the nails that were used to hold the old shed together...I'm talking literally hundreds, I'll be soon getting some high tech devices based on the laws of magnetism and electromotive force to help with the cleanup. A metal detector and a big magnet tied to a stick for nail retreival is in our future. Easy living thanks to science!

Cars vs Computers

I received the following email from a friend the other day, and though I've seen the contents before, I still like it...

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated:

"If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $2500 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:
If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash........Twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.

Venus

92 years ago today my Dad was born near a place called Venus, Nebraska. The Venus store is where the name came from as far as I know, and it was located a short distance north of Orchard in the northeastern part of the state. He grew up on a dryland farm without electricity or indoor plumbing, and wood stoves and ice houses were the way things were heated and kept cold.

The family didn't have much, and Dad mentioned putting cardboard in his shoes to extend their life. He rode a Shetland Pony to the school 3 miles away as a boy, went off to the Grand Island Business College, joined the Army and served during WWII, married my Mom, and worked as a railway mail clerk sorting mail on the California Zephyr between Omaha & Cheyenne Wyoming. When the Postal Service ceased mail service via rail, Dad was transferred to Denver where he retired several years later. Mom and Dad ended up moving to Washington state where Mom still resides. Dad passed away a couple years ago after a long illness.

Somewhere in there, I came into their lives. Dad taught me to fish, hunt, a special love of the outdoors, honesty, and to respect others and their property. We hiked, camped, and traveled throughout the USA and Canada, and I now know just how lucky I was as a kid to get to see and experience what many never get the chance to. Dad's railway mail job had him out of town several days a month, but he always made up for it when he was home. He taught me to use a hammer, saw and level, and I know these skills will come in very handy in the near future.

Thanks for everything Dad...you are as much a part of our buying the farm as anyone. I suppose you're up there smiling (you know) wondering when our minds took the walk off the map and decided to buy the farm. Happy Birthday!

Black Clouds

We've heard from numerous long time Nebraska residents that this has been a nasty winter compared to most years. We know it's been plenty cold many days, but here in southwestern Nebraska, we feel like we're living in the banana belt of the state. Our temperatures are almost alway warmer than at least three quarters of the state, and the town signs at McCook seem to have it right this time of year..."Nebraska's Hot Spot".

Even though we are still in the grips of winter, we've noticed some interesting black clouds that I imagine everybody notices at least once in a while, but for us it gets our attention every time. These clouds move can move quickly, change shape just as quickly, and unlike most clouds we're familiar with, they honk, quack, and otherwise make some pretty interesting noises.

We've seen more flocks of birds here than anyplace we've been, and the number of birds it takes to make up one of these black clouds is impressive. The sounds of these birds flying by is impressive too. I admit that sound seems to carry better out here in the country, but listening to these huge flocks of birds flying more than a mile away just helps us remember that spring isn't far behind.

The Yellow Pages

Big city phone books are really something. Take the Denver phone book for example. The white pages that list public, private and business phone numbers is about 4 inches thick, and the yellow pages have so much advertising that it takes multiple books to provide all the information available. On top of the "regional" Denver phone book, suburbs have their own version with white and yellow pages for the suburb, though as near as I can tell it's mostly a sales gimic to get businesses to advertise in more than just the main book.

So for the Denver metro area, you've got the main white pages in one book, the main yellow pages in 2 books, and at least 6 more suburban white and yellow page books. Some businesses advertise in all the books so for the yellow pages, their plan to sell more advertising seems to be working. By the way, the suburban books are about the size of the McCook/North Platte phone book.

I've got a problem with the local phone book. It covers too big an area. From Arapahoe to Wilsonville, the phone book covers it all in southwestern Nebraska. The local book states it has listings for 42 towns, and the yellow pages cover them all. For a newcomer looking for business information around here, I need a map next to the phone book just to decided if I'm looking somewhat close to where I live.

To make matters worse, some of the business ads don't state where the business is located, so I get the opportunity to waste my and their time, and my cell phone minutes finding out that they don't serve my area. I know...woe is me and sour grapes too.

Since I love the Internet, I've started using local towns web sites to locate phone numbers for businesses close to us. This doesn't always work either though, and I'm afraid I'm unable to contact some good businesses providing the services I want, just because I can't find their ad in the yellow pages, or they haven't got their business listed on the local web site.

Maybe it's just me not being smart enough to figure out the phone book around here, but if I can't find your business, I can't give you my business.

The Home Show

Since we're about ready to start renovation construction on the farm house, we decided to head west from Cambridge and see what the vendors had to offer at the McCook Home Show yesterday. We hadn't been to a home show in years, so we thought we might see some new and interesting products we were not aware of.

Our day didn't start off great. We didn't look at a map to see where the show was being held thinking we could figure out where the airport was, but we missed the sign for the airport and Airport Road and ended up turning around north of McCook. After asking directions, we had little trouble finding our target of the day.

A couple bucks apiece got us in the door and entered into the drawing for a gift certificate, and off we went. To make a long story short, we saw some interesting things, spoke to some of the vendors, looked at the fine craftsmanship of the high school wood and metal shop classes, and were headed out the door in about an hour.

I personally didn't see much I was interested in, but the concrete coatings booth caught my eye as a possible floor surface for our mud room, the York heating and air conditioning guys will be getting a call for an estimate for replacement of our heat pump, and the corn and pellet stoves and barbeque's were of interest as well. Margie liked looking at the craft section, the cooking demo, and the bathroom fixture display.

The McCook Home Show was worth the time and money. A trip through a big city Home Depot or Lowes store would yield more specific information about home renovation project ideas to me, but the cross section of vendors at the home show can not be touched by the big box stores. For example...you can't get information about a pole barn, corn stove, house foundation, and crafts...it's just not gonna happen at a single retail store

So thanks McCook and home show vendors for taking the time and effort to show your good stuff to us homeowners looking for ideas.

Networking

If you look for just about any type of executive or management employment in a city, unless you're networking, your chances of landing that great job you are trying for is severly reduced. So what does that mean really? Well, you need some influential people recommending you to get a leg up on the competition thus improving your odds of even getting an employment interview. Networking is a useful tool to help business folks weed through stacks of resume's they get for open positions, and probably the biggest factor in getting a job interview with many companies.

A new neighbor stopped by this afternoon, and we discovered that there is quite the information network here along Road 409. We've been waving at a yellow pickup that goes by a couple times a day whenever we're outside, but had no idea who we were waving at. Today he stopped in to introduce himself, and asked if we are thinking of selling our motorhome. It seems that one of our neighbors (he said who, but we have not met them yet) mentioned that we might be selling as they had heard we were setting down roots in the area. We told him yes it's for sale but haven't advertised it at all. He plans on stopping by to talk about it in a few days, and maybe we'll get lucky and won't have to advertise.

I have a feeling that the rural network is much more powerful and widespread than most city dwellers would ever imagine. I just hope that it's not run like the cell phone industry and requires a two year contract to join. I'm thinking more along the line of a lifetime contract for it to be most effective.

Just Another Day

It's Valentines Day! What would it be like if it wasn't for the flowers, cards, jewelry, candy, TV pieces on the subject, and a host of other ways that we're reminded we should remember the day? I guess it would be just another day for most folks, but not us.

You see...today is our wedding anniversary. I'm not really sure how we decided to pick Valentines Day, but I think it was a smart move. For example, I have absolutely no excuse for forgetting.

I don't know anyone that actually has forgotten their anniversary, but over the years there have been TV shows and magazine articles about guys that have forgotten their wedding anniversary, and the forgetee is usually pretty upset with the forgetor in these accounts. From the cold shoulder to much worse have been portrayed as the result of forgetfulness.

So guys, in the unlikely event you think today is just another day, don't forget that Valentines Day is pretty special to most of our ladies, and the consequences of forgetfulness will be... well it won't be pretty I'll bet.

One last note to my wife and best friend...Happy Anniversary Margie! Thanks for saying yes!

Litter Patrol

It never ceases to amaze me that people toss their unwanted items out of their cars...let someone else take care of it is their idea of cleaning out the car (or garage in some cases) I guess. Within a mile of the farm, someone dumped a couch along a minimum maintenance road...much cheaper driving a few miles out of town than going to the dump right? Somebody else will take care of it right?

Littering and unlawful trash dumping is a huge problem just about everywhere, and though I have not seen anyone throwing their trash out along the US highway near us in Nebraska, I have seen people throw their cans and bottles out of their cars in front of our place. Adopt-A-Road programs are just about everywhere to help states keep roadsides cleaner without spending tax dollars doing what shouldn't have to be done in the first place.

Since we don't like to look at trash in the middle of the road or in the ditch, we pick it for them...so I guess the offenders are right...someone else will clean up after them. I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky that they toss their crap out near the house so we don't have so far to go to pick up after them.

This isn't a new problem by any stretch of the imagination. We camped along old Route 66 in Arizona last year and the rusty cans and bottles along the abandoned highway told a tale of hundreds, if not thousands of people adding to the unsightly collection of junk. In the old days, recycling wasn't available much I suppose, and roadside trash barrels hadn't become popular, so people being people, the stuff got tossed along the road.

Plastic bottles are one of worst offenders of this migration of a useful item to roadside trash. I wish these cheap containers would go away and be replace by aluminum containers. At least that way I could make some money off their trash by recycling. As it is, I end up discarding about 1/2 of the trash dumped along the road, and saving the relatively high priced aluminum for recycle. Fortunately, few glass bottles are dumped so we don't have broken glass to deal with much.

I suppose somebody has spent a bundle of tax dollars researching why people litter instead of taking a few extra seconds to discard their trash properly, but I'm pretty sure I could have saved them some money... A lot of people are just plain lazy and don't care a hoot about who has to follow them around.

Love Songs

Most of us like music...I don't know anyone who doesn't, but there are probably a few folks out there that don't. Now if you start to break the various types of music down, then you'll find a wide range of interests. R&B, pop, rock, rap, polka, and country music are just a few of our choices. I imagine love songs have been around about as long as music, and over the years we've all heard some pretty good ones.

Last night during the Grammy awards show I got a reinforcing listen to one reason I'm not too fond of country music. A performer named Brad Paisley sang his country song, but I gotta tell ya, something about it just doesn't make it fall into the love song or any other category for me with the following lyric..."I want to check you for ticks". YIKES! How romantic!

Now I admit the song is kinda comical, but I'm pretty sure I'd never put the little blood suckers and romance together in the same sentence...let alone a song. Nope...I figure if your checking for ticks, there's a reason other than romance behind the search. Since I'm not a doctor, I decided to look up what ticks are good for and found that the little devils are responsible for spreading Lyme disease, human granulocytic and monocytic ehrlichiosis, babesiosis, relapsing fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Colorado tick fever, tularemia, Q fever, and tick paralysis. Doesn't that sound romantic?

So country music fans, go ahead and rip me on this one if you want, but I'm sticking to love songs about love, not ticks.

Sidetracked By Signs

I started my internet search looking for information about permitted uses of Nebraska public lands, and found a link to the Wyoming BLM (Bureau of Land Management). According to the Wyoming BLM web site, 7700 acres of federal public lands are managed in Nebraska but I have no idea where...yet. I've written BLM Wyoming for more information about uses permitted and their managed lands locations and I'll let you know...if they ever let me know.



As I was looking for more information about these federal public lands, I stumbled on a link to the National Sign Center. Since I have a good friend in the sign business in Colorado, this link caught my eye so away I went to see what the National Sign Center does.



To start with, the BLM NSC is located in Rawlins Wyoming. According to their website..."The Sign Center manufactures signs for BLM, Bureau of Reclamation and other Federal & state agencies. Ordering is restricted to government agencies". What I found most interesting was that you can see exactly how many tax dollars it takes to make a sign.



We've volunteered hundreds of hours to BLM over the years, and seen just about every type sign they have, but I'd never thought about how much those sign cost until I found this link... Sign Center Products.



Those signs are pretty expensive, especially when vandals seem to take some of them out often. Too bad they don't also come with video surveillance to help nab the bums that help drive up our taxes replacing what they destroy.

It's What We Do

"It's what we do" is a statement I've heard repeatedly since we moved to Nebraska. The first time the statement came up was at the farms sale completion. We got to visiting about things to do in Nebraska and when high school sports came up, I was told that when it comes to supporting the local team..."It's what we do".

I heard the same words uttered about keeping and eye out for your neighbors place when they are gone on vacation or otherwise away from home..."It's what we do". The same words came out when I was visiting with one of my farming neighbors about what I don't recall at the moment, but "It's what we do" was the ending of the sentence being spoken at the time as if to let me know exactly what is and what to expect in the future.

Being told "It's what we do" is the perfect way to let newcomers like us know how it is, and how it's going to be. Learning what area residents do is part of our indoctrination into a rural lifestyle, and we're finding that the community while geographically large, is tightly knit with common goals an interests. It's what you do here.

I hadn't heard the statement "It's what we do" until I got to southwestern Nebraska, but now that I've heard it a few times and I'm starting to understand all that it means, I look forward to the day when I can honestly say to someone..."It's what we do".

Land Of Laws

There was recently a story in the McCook Gazette about someone that was trying to get a zoning change to accomodate his dog kennel business. It seems that the guy jumped in both feet before he found out that he was in violation of the law. It seems that even though he lived outside the city limit, he lived within a town administered area. Someone summed up their feelings about the guy commenting that he should have researched the laws before he started his business, and I agree.

Trying to learn about all the laws that effect us here on the farm is beginning to seem like Mission Impossible. For example, I just read about a law that restricts the trapping of animals along the county road right of way, and that made me wonder what other laws are on the books that could get us in trouble...ignorance of the law is no excuse I know, but trapping along the road would never have crossed my mind as a newcomer to the area if I did want to trap something.

The problem for us is where do we look up the laws that effect us. State, county, and even town laws may control some of our activities. I want to be a law abiding citizen so we'll do everything we can to make sure we keep it legal whatever we do. Part of the problem is that even the people we need to rely on for information don't always have it right. The other day we wanted information on getting an open burn permit. We first called the county that refered us to the city that refered us back to the county.

Do I need a permit to remove a building? How about putting up a building such as a pole barn, garage, or shed? Can I add a water bib someplace near where we want a garden, or do I need a permit for that? Can I add an electrical outlet in the house without a permit, and for that matter, who issues the permit if needed...town or county? OH MY!

So for the time being, our search for the rules and regulations to keep us out of trouble will continue. I hope I don't need to put a lawyer on retainer for advice every time I want to modify or do something around the place. Heck, I just learned on TV last night that one town doesn't allow the Bunny Hop. I'd sure hate to end up in trouble for doing the wrong jig.

The Noon Whistle

Though we're a little over 3 miles out of Cambridge, we usually hear the noon whistle. The first time I heard a noon whistle was visiting my grandparents in Ewing when I was a kid, but I really never gave it much thought 'till I started wondering why there is a noon whistle at all.

Perhaps one of you out there know why this weekday occurrance in rural Nebraska got started, but I wouldn't doubt railroads had something to do with it. Seems like I remember that before time zones became defined, the time of day corresponded to the actual location of the sun making for interesting train schedules. Perhaps the whistle was blown to help the town stay on correct "railroad time"?

It didn't take us long to find out that a lot of business locations close up from 12 to 1, and the noon whistle is as good a way as I know of sounding a town-wide notice to shut down for lunch. City folk would go nuts with an area wide business lunch hour. Many city slickers run out of their office to run errands or go shopping or whatever. Having to schedule time outside their normal work hours to accomplish these tasks might even create traffic jams because people couldn't accomplish their errands during their lunch hour.

I like the noon whistle. Until I learn of a different reason for having the noon whistle, I'll continue to imagine a Pacific 4-6-0 steam engine and mixed freight consist chuffing into Cambridge station at the stroke of noon, and the station master blowing the town's whistle to keep time.

Up In Smoke

Brrrr....It's -4 at the farm this morning, though that's not close to the -22 our friends that live in a small town in southern Colorado have this morning. When we followed the seasons with our RV, this time of year we'd likely be in the deserts of Arizona or southern California, and I'd email them the warm temperatures we were experiencing down south. I'm still able to brag about the warm temperatures we have compared to them, but somehow -4 just doesn't sound that great.

The ACME Automated Snowthower changed attachments this morning and is now the ACME Automated Chainsaw. This "machine" is much like the snowthrower as it is completely self sufficient and operates without supervision of any kind. I guess our wood pile doesn't look big enough as Tom is adding more fuel to the pile.

I have to admit that we are not one bit frugal with our heating fuel use this winter. The carbon furnace (wood stove) runs 24 hours a day, and we've got keeping the farm house toasty warm down pat. Bank the stove at night, reload once in the middle of the night and the house is 68 when we get out of bed when the temp dips into minus territory.

It's true that heating with wood is messy with the wood chips dropped from bringing wood in, and the ashes floating about on the way out the door, but the up in smoke heating between these events sure beats paying the electric company.

The ACME Automated Snowthrower

When I went to bed last night, the weather forecast was for 1 to 3 inches of blowing snow. When I got up this morning, we had about 6 inches of the white stuff, the wind was blowing, and the current forecast is for 6 to 10 inches of new snow before it's over.

Our sidewalk and driveway on the farm are pretty long, so you know I wasn't too enthused about shoveling. Enter the ACME Automated Snowthrower! This snowthrower is unlike any you can buy. You see...it's my father-in-law!

Industry should invent a machine that can do what the ACME Automated Snowthrower does. It fuels itself, starts itself, turns itself off (once in a while), and is always looking for another job to do. Not only does it automatically shovel snow, it also automatically cuts wood, moves furniture, hacks weeds, and is constantly looking for more work to do.

I can never say thank you enough to my father in law for all he does for us around the farm when he is here. I have to admit that I like his snowthrower and chainsaw attachments the best.

The Perfect Enemy

My dad didn't have many sayings that I recall, but one sticks in my memory like glue because it is more often true than not. Dad's saying was "Perfect is the enemy of good". His philosophy was that if it's real good, perfect is just about unattainable.

Most do-it-yourselfers know about this phenomenon. Unless you are a skilled craftsman, trying to get things to fit together perfectly can be almost impossible. The hardware stores know the truth of the saying as there are shelves packed with stuff to help people fix what they screwed up trying to get something perfect. Paint remover, spackling compound, and Goo Gone are just a few of the multitude of products to help fix what "perfect" messed up.

Here on the farm, the truth of the saying is evident in many places. Good enough is the rule when looking at the finish carpentry around the farms house. Trim pieces don't fit very well in most places, and it's obvious that previous owners didn't try to get to perfect, good was all that was necessary for them.

When trying to achieve perfection, we usually fall just a little short. Try to paint house trim perfectly, and you quickly learn that getting it real good is good enough...at least that's true for me. Same goes for interior house trim. I'm not a master craftsman, though I'm pretty good at most stuff, but I can't get two pieces of wood to fit together perfectly no matter how hard I try. Isn't that one reason why the hardware store is in business...to sell me the stuff to fill the bevel cracks and make it look perfect?

My lifetime experiences reinforce the truth of his saying, and I think good almost always wins out over perfect. Just ask the Super Bowl champion New York Giants.

Time For A Change

We've been looking out the picture window of the farm at our motor home wondering just how much use we have for it. When we sold the house and moved into the RV, we wanted as much room as possible to make life as comfortable as possible. While we accomplished our goal of comfort, we made big changes in the type of "camping" we did compared to the way we did before we sold the house.

We used pop-up campers for years when we were homeowners as they could be pulled behind the Jeep easily. We dragged them to some pretty remote areas, and we didn't worry too much if they got dinged or scratched. The motor home however was our home, and though we were pretty adventurous and only got stuck once, we tended to take it pretty easy by our standards.

Now that we have a stick built home again, we don't have a need for the big RV, so we've decided to see about trading it in on something very different and better suited to our new lifestyle and location. We made a couple phone calls to local dealers to inquire about the possibility of using the RV as a trade in, and we had a very pleasant fellow show up this afternoon to take a look at Gozer.

We're on hold as he determines the value he is willing to place on it, but I have a feeling we'll come to an agreement in the next couple weeks. Will we miss Gozer? You bet! We really enjoyed RV camping and traveling, but we also know that the type of camping we prefer isn't easily found with a large motor home. Bottom line...we just don't belong in the motor home set again.

I know that a dealer is in business is make money and we wont be recovering as much of our "investment" as we'd like. Thing is, I had a bad experience selling a car in Denver years ago, and I don't want to go through the hastle of advertising again, as well as taking the chance of having the vehicle stolen (happened last time I tried to sell on my own in the city).

So unless somebody out there is looking for a big old Class A diesel pusher motorhome and makes me a deal I can't refuse, I think Gozer's short term future has just about been determined.