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Post by CountryGuy on Jan 1, 2023 16:04:47 GMT -6
41
It had been another weekend where things, for the most part, worked out in their favor and Merv and Matt were able to get the exterior of Tanya’s house mostly finished, which was the last big project planned for her house. As they drove home that Sunday they talked, they called Jimbo and they spoke some more. Edna had called Thursday and informed them she had a cleaning company come in and thoroughly clean the house and carpets. She said she knew much of it would likely be soon removed but she wanted it as clean as it could be for them.
Merv had thanked her and he truly meant it. Initially he and Matt had planned to clean it this coming week and move in the following week. That had changed the week after they had remodeled Tanya’s bathrooms. Matt had gotten a call at work from the leasing office asking if he might be able to vacate a week earlier than planned. Apparently the property company had a pending new tenant, so long as they could move in by a specific date. So towards encouraging Matt to leave early, they offered him some carrots. They’d give him $2,000 and ensure him the return of his full security deposit. He figured that was a bonus since his last roommate had put up half the money but forfeited it when he’d moved out.
That made the guys move up their schedule and they had to pull some favors from a couple of their coworkers to get their moving crew for the following week. It only cost them a few cases of beer and a couple bottles of liquor. To make life a little simpler the guys opted to rent a small moving van and a hand truck and Merv made sure it was one that had a lift gate. Tanya and one of her friends from work had come up Friday afternoon for the weekend to also help out.
At 7:30 Saturday morning Merv had a big carafe of coffee and a box of pastries and donuts waiting as their friends showed up. Technically they weren’t to make noise or move before 8:30AM but they figured to hell with it. They had most of the stuff already packed in boxes ready to go. The kitchen still needed a good amount of things packed in there but Tanya and her friend Kari said they’d work on that while the guys started carrying things down. Matt and Merv’s friends, Allen, Joe and Thomas were there on time and ready to get to work. The guys were as quiet as possible as they attacked the pile of boxes and totes stacked just inside the front door.
Three hours later everything was out and Tanya was scrubbing the kitchen floor, Kari was emptying the few cold things from the fridge into a cooler while Matt cleaned the bathroom and Merv was vacuuming the carpet starting in the bedrooms and then working his way down the hall and towards the living room and front door.
As Merv closed the roll-up door on the truck he looked around at their group “All right all, that’s half the job done.” He looked at the guys from work “So you guys are all in one car, right?” Joe nodded. “You have the address and my number in case you lose me in traffic or something?” “Yeah we’re good Merv, you lead the way and we’ll follow.” “OK. Oh when we get there, hang back a bit on the street as I’ll pull up and then back down the driveway and then you all can pull in front of the truck.” Matt said “I called the property office and the on duty manager is on her way over to do the walk thru, give me the check and take the keys. We’re going to swing by the bank quick to deposit the check and then we’ll be headed north behind you. Hopefully no more than 30 or 45 minutes behind you guys.”
It took about an hour in traffic with the truck and convoy behind them. When they got there Merv whipped around and backed down the driveway, cutting across the yard to stop in front of the porch. He adjusted it some to where they could put the liftgate down and create a step from the truck onto the the gate and then onto the porch and right in the door. They had taped index cards on the totes and written directly on the cardboard boxes which room each was destined for. They also taped and index card to the doors with which room it was. So Bedroom 1, Bedroom 2, Master Bath, Hall Bath, etc. In about 2 hours they had 95% of the stuff off the truck.
Matt, Tanya and Kari had arrived almost an hour after the van arrived because of a delay at the bank and then traffic. When they arrived Matt jumped into helping the guys and after Tanya gave Kari a quick walk thru of the house, they peeled away from moving duties to start some cooking in the kitchen. The smell from the kitchen smelled amazing and had the hungry movers stomachs growling. As the guys finished moving Matt’s furniture into the master bedroom and getting the spring and mattress onto the bed frame, Matt called a halt. “OK, I’ve been told by the boss that lunch is served so everyone wash up and head out to the deck.”
The ladies had made a big mess of homemade sloppy joes and there were chips, potato salad and bottles of cold water and Gatorade and beer. They also let the guys know there was a big tub of chocolate chip cookies and a big bottle of ibuprofen for any of them needing it. With the basically done everyone stood around talking, eating and joking. Matt, with Tanya leaning against him spoke up “Everyone, Tanya and I and I’m sure Merv want to say thank you to all of you for helping us today and making things go so smooth.” Matt held up his beer and made a cheer “To good friends, good women and cold beer” “Here, here.” came from Allen to which Thomas quipped “And just what do you know about good women?” the guys all laughed as Allen turned 3 shades or red. “Well they seem hard to come by.” To which Merv said “here, here” trying to take some of the spotlight off his friend. One night while playing cards with the crew he’d had a bit too much libations and had mentioned he was a virgin. The guys had playfully teased him every chance they got, though usually there weren’t ladies around.
Matt, also trying to help reduce the embarrassment burning up his friend's face spoke up. “Hey, how about we video chat with Jimbo and everyone can say hi?” “Hell yeah.” A minute later as they all sat on the deck and got to chat with Jimbo for a few minutes. After they ended the call Merv looked around and noticed the look on the guys faces. “You all OK?” Joe seemingly spoke for all of them “It’s… well that was the first we, well atleast I, had Saw Jimbo since before…” He looked at Merv not quite sure what to say “...well since before everything that happened to you guys. I guess I didn’t realize how bad…” “I’m sorry, guess maybe we should have prepped you guys for that. We talk to him every weekend and he is doing so awesome in the last 2 or so months. But yeah guess you guys hadn’t saw where he was.”
They all sat in silence for a few minutes as the guys seemed to absorb how their coworker was. They all grabbed fresh beers and seemingly to break the tension Allen asked “Merv, what’s up with that big garage, do you guys get access to it or is that the landlords?” “Oh yeah. No, we have full access and run of it. To be honest that was probably the main selling point for me. Come on, I’ll show you it if you want to see.” Allen, Thomas and Matt all followed Merv to the garage. Merv and Matt both noticed that Joe and Kari seemed to be hanging on each other's words and Joe seemed to be oblivious to what the guys were talking about.
Merv led the guys across the yard, unlocked the shop and opened the door. As Merv let the guys inside, Matt nudged him as he went by, last in the line, “I think Tanya’s matchmaking idea went off the rails a bit. I think she thought cupid might shoot you and Kari but looks like Joe stepped in and threw himself in the way.” They both looked towards the deck and saw the two chatting away like there was no one else around. “Good for them, if so.” Merv said.
Allen let out a low whistle… “Man this place is huge! What are you guys going to do with all this space?” Matt spoke first, “I don’t plan on much out here, I think this will be Casa de Merv.” This time it was Thomas’s turn “So you have plans Merv?” “Well I have ideas for a project or two.” “What sort of projects?” Allen asked. “Oh… I think one of the four wheel sort and some woodworking. Plus we’re trying to work out a deal with the landlord to exchange our labor towards rent so we’d use this as a workshop and storage area for that.” “Man… that is a sweet deal. Some luck you two have.” Allen quipped. Matt replied, “It wasn’t luck, it was work, mostly Merv’s to find some places and then this whole sweat equity thing was his doing. I’m just along for the ride.” Allen blushed a bit as he realized his words hadn’t come out as he meant and he also had a momentary flash to the hell these two and Jimbo had went through not many months back.
“So what sort of ride? A muscle car?” Thomas asked. “Naa, I’m thinking something maybe more like a 4x4 to do some off-roading or that I can use for camping, hunting and other things.” “Gotch ya.” Thomas replied. They walked around the shop for a bit and Merv talked thru some of the ideas and plans he had for the building. He planned to upgrade and enlarge the work bench. He told them he might make it like a big piece of furniture though so whenever he moves he could load it up and take with. He also told them that as an update to the property, he was hoping Matt could help with replacing the old weak fluorescent lights with new LED’s that would be much brighter and use a fraction of the power. He showed the bathroom and said there wasn’t much to do there other than maybe a bit of a good cleaning, painting and replacing the dripping faucet.
They’d all just walked back out the door and were standing in the drive talking for a few minutes when a little dark SUV pulled in the drive. Merv and Matt recognized it immediately as Edna’s. “There’s our landlord now.” Matt said. Merv and Matt walked to the car as it’s door opened and out Edna stepped with a big smile. “Hi boys, hope you don’t mind me stopping in. Please don’t think I’m trying to intrude but I wanted to get these papers over to you so we can get them signed.”
“Oh no problem. And you stop over any time you want.” Merv said. “We’re just sort of shooting the… umm we were just talking.” Edna laughed…”shooting the shit you meant.” She laughed “...don’t forget, I was married to a trucker most of my life. These ears have heard many a French word.” It was Merv’s turn to blush a bit “Yes Ma’am, but I was still taught not to cuss in front of a lady.” “Edna said “Well that juut shows good upbringing. So how’s your move going?” Matt chimed in first “Well we’re pretty much so done. I mean we have to unpack and all that. Have you eaten lunch? Tanya and her friend made a mess of sloppy joe’s and there’s potato salad and drinks. I think she has some sweet tea in there too.”
“Well that sounds lovely. I’ve been running errands all morning and this afternoon and hadn’t had a chance to stop for lunch.”
“Well you follow us inside and we’ll get you fixed up.” Merv said. Allen and Thomas hung out talking sports scores while Edna and the guys walked back to the house. Joe and Kari were still parked on the deck talking and barely noticed the three walk by and into the house.
When the door closed Merv chuckled “I think someone got bit hard.” Matt looked behind him thru the door. “Yeah, I don’t think those two know there is anyone else around for miles.” Edna smiled. Tanya turned around from where she’d been cleaning up “Oh Edna, I didn’t know you were here.”
“She just got here, she brought the lease papers over. Babe, I told her we had a mess of food and she hasn’t had lunch. Would you mind making up a plate for her?”
“Sure, it’s nothing fancy Edna, just some sloppy joe’s we tossed together to feed this crew. Is there anything you don’t care for?
“Oh no dear, whatever you have will be fine. Just not a lot, I can't eat much at one sitting anymore.”
“OK, not a problem, give me about 5 minutes.”
“Thank you Tanya.” Tanya smiled and nodded as she got a plate and started putting some things together. “Well, it’s just the four of us here. I have the lease here to sign and also, Merv, I have your proposal here too. I hope you don’t take offense but I had my lawyer look it over.” Edna said. Merv replied “No offense taken at all.” “Well he had a couple small changes, nothing big, just wording he said clarifies things. I’ll show you but if you're good with it we can sign it also. Then, assuming it meets all of your approval, I have a list of the things I wrote down that I’d like to see get done but I’d also like to see if there are things you all thought of.” “That sounds perfect. Let’s look at the proposal and see what changes they made.” Said Merv. Tanya walked over and sat a plate of food down in front of Edna. “Oh this looks tasty.” She handed a couple pages to Merv. “This copy has highlighter on the areas he changed to make it quicker to see. Then I have four clean copies for all of us to endorse.” With that Merv read thru it and agreed it was a few small things and better clarified what he himself had tried to say and one item basically saying any materials or work done to the property would become Edna’s property once complete.
“Tanya, this sandwich is very good. I haven’t had a sloppy joe in forever, always seems to be one of those things that makes way too much for one person unless I want to eat it for a week straight.” Tanya chuckled “I like them but not that much. You're right, they always seem better when made in a big mess.” When Merv had finished reading he handed it to Matt and he read it with Tanya doing the same over her shoulder. Merv asked his two friends “Do you guys have any concerns, objections or questions?” Matt and Tanya looked at each other, both nodding their heads no “No I think it’s all very straightforward and clear.” Matt said. Merv said “I agree. Edna I think everything looks fine. If you’re happy with everything we can all go ahead and sign the lease and sign this agreement. I also have a check for you for a security deposit. I know you said one isn’t necessary but we feel it’s only fair to you.”
Edna pushed her plate back and looked at Tanya “I’m sorry deer but I’m stuffed and can’t eat another bite.” “No need to apologize. I probably put way too much on there.” As Tanya picked up the plate she stepped over and dropped it in the large trash can sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor from when they’d been sorting thru things before sticking them straight in the cupboard. “Could I interest you in a chocolate chip cookie and a cup of coffee? I got these from a bakery down in the city and they are some of the best I ever had.” “Oh that does sound tasty but I’m much too full right now.” “OK, well maybe later or one to take home then.” “That is very sweet of you. Yes, maybe later.”
Matt spoke up “A cup of coffee sounds great babe.” “Well you know where the coffee maker is.” she winked at Edna who laughed. “Oh I see how it is.” he said “Yep you live here now, Edna is a guest.” she said to Matt in jest, blowing him a kiss. Merv said, “Well since dessert is on hold, how about we get these signed and look over Edna’s list of things.”
Ten minutes later the three roomies had read over the lease and the remodel agreement and all were signed. Edna signed their copies and they were done. Tanya said to her “I might want to get a blank copy of your lease agreement. I’m thinking seriously about renting my place in Lynchburg and this seems to be very simple but inclusive.” “Oh now problem, I’ve been using this for fifteen or more years now and it has served me well.” “Thank you. There are a couple nurses I work with that have asked me if I might be renting my place when I move. The one girl is a hot mess and I’d never rent to her. However, two others I think would be good tenants.” “Well word of caution dear, no matter how well you know them, ask them for references from their last couple landlords and don’t be afraid to call those references. Then it is up to you but often if I’m on the fence I ask to pull their credit check.” “Thank you, I'll heed the advice.”
“Edna, if you’ll excuse me I’m gonna check on our friends and see what is up with them. I’ll be back in a couple minutes.” “Oh yes, please don’t ignore them on my part.” Merv walked out on the deck and the guys and Kari were all there sitting enjoying the beautiful afternoon. “Hey guys sorry, we’re just going over the lease and things on the remodel for rent deal.” “Hey no problem, we get it. Well, is there anything else you need us to help with?” Thomas asked. “Well no we got it all knocked out for the most part. We really appreciate the help today, without you all it would have taken us all weekend and probably half killed us, especially the furniture.” Allen spoke “Hey no problem. But now wait till it’s our turn to move.” He winked with a smile. “We were talking and to be honest, your idea here of moving out of the city is a good one. We get there is a commute tradeoff but rent is a lot less and you get a lot more space for the money you do spend.” “Exactly, plus there is a lot more freedom when you get out of the district.” Merv said.
“Well, then we’re probably gonna call it a day and head back to the city.” Thomas said. “Well OK, don’t want you guys to think we’re rushing you out.” Joe spoke “No we get it. There is a lot of stuff going on. Plus, I think we’re going to go out on the town tonight.” He said looking at Kari who suddenly had reddening cheeks. Merv just smiled and said “Oh…. yeah, sure that’ll be fun. Well let me grab Matt and Tanya to say goodbye.” Merv walked over to the door and stuck hie head in, “Edna if you could excuse us for a minute, Matt and Tanya, can you join me for a minute. They’re all getting ready to leave.” Edna simply smiled and nodded. When Matt and Tanya came out the door, Kari took Tanya by the hand and pulled her off to the side for a little chat.
When the girls rejoined them they were all smiles. Matt spoke first “Guys, Kari, we want to thank you all for the help today and giving up a good chunk of your Saturday to help us. It really meant a lot to us.” Tanya said her thanks also. They all walked out around to the front of the house to Joe’s car. Tanya and Kari stopped by her Jeep so Kari could grab her bag out and then put it in Joe’s trunk. The guys all shook hands, Tanya gave hugs and then Joe opened the passenger door for Kari as Allen and Thomas got in the back seats. Joe then headed around to get in the driver’s seat. With a big, bit of a sheepish smile, he said he would see them tomorrow. Merv and Matt had raised eyebrows and smiles for their friend.
They waited till they backed out the driveway and gave a wave as they pulled off. Matt asked, as he turned to Tanya “Care to explain what that is about?” Tanya grinned “Cupid I think. Kari told me she really hit it off with Joe and how he’s so sweet and funny. He asked her if she might want to go out dancing tonight and that she could stay at his place, have his bed. No strings. She asked if I minded and I was like you are a grown woman girl, do what you want. She said he’d have her back here by 1 tomorrow in plenty of time for she and I to leave in the afternoon to drive back.” “hmmm” was the response from the guys.
As they walked back in from the deck, Edna had two papers laid out on the table. “I hope I didn’t run your friends off.” “Oh no, nothing like that. Guess they have some other plans, well at least a couple of them do.” Tanya said smiling. Edna just gave a knowing smile back to her. “Well, what I have laid out here are two copies of what I’ll call my ‘wish list’ of things I’d like to see get done. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking when I printed these, I only made two copies but I can send you it in email.” “No problem” Merv said “Electronic version will be great, we can share for now.” Edna continued, “I really loved the pictures you sent to me, Merv, the work you all did on Tanya’s house looked very professional. I also really liked the styles you all picked.” Tanya spoke up “If I’m honest, I think they did a better job than I’ve seen done at friends by so called ‘professionals’. Here are some pics of the outside before, and then of after they cleaned it and painted it a few weekends ago.” “Oh my, that doesn’t even look like the same house.” “I know! And the bathroom is so amazing now. I have so much light and the faucets and sinks work great now, not like before where I hardly had pressure nor did they want to drain. Plus, no matter how hard or often I cleaned them, they just looked gross.” “Oh I can understand that. Looking at the faucets here and how they look, even after being cleaned I understand completely.”
“Well, let’s see what is on Ms. Edna’s list.” said Merv. Tanya sat down next to Matt and slid over close to share the page in front of him and Merv slid next to Edna to read off her sheet. They spent about 30 minutes going over her list, Merv taking notes almost the entire time. Her items were about the same things Merv had on his list but he had some different priority and orders along with things more of the mechanical systems. His included things like some areas of the plumbing and electrical as well as the heat system and water softener. He then mentioned some of the upgrades he’d like to add in the shop and made it clear to her those were more out of his pocket, he didn’t expect her to foot that bill. She asked him a simple question, would that improve the value. Yes. Well then it’s on the list.
Merv also had a sort of separate list of more general maintenance. This was the list he suggested they start with so that they could take care of the basics and it would let them understand the condition of everything. Edna said that made sense and Merv also said that would include some of the outside projects likely first while the weather was cooperative.
They then walked thru the different rooms and Tanya and Edna would talk about the ideas, styles and colors for the rooms. Tanya explained she’d likely want to go with a similar palette to what she had in her home. It was modern, and fairly neutral to go with many different styles. She told Edna she get some color chips pulled together and in two weeks when she was back up they could go over them. Edna said that would be great.
After about an hour and a half of walking thru the rooms and basement for Merv to show the items he had in mind they ended up back at the kitchen table. “Edna, I just wanted to point out, you Might want to think about heading out, it’s going to start getting dark in about an hour.” “Thank you Merv. I had lost track of time a bit.” “Well Edna, would you like that coffee and cookie now?” Tanya asked. “You know, I think I would.” With that Tanya made coffee and they all sat and chatted a bit till Edna said she should be going. “Edna, I hope you don’t mind but I put a plate together of food in case you want it for dinner or tomorrow for lunch.” “Oh Tanya, that is so thoughtful of you.” “It’s nothing, you’re helping these guys out helping to put a dent in it. Otherwise they’re going to be eating sloppy joes for the next week.” They all laughed. Matt said “well there are a lot worse things in life than having to eat your tasty cooking baby.”
Edna said it was time for her to get going so they all walked her out to the car. Matt opened her door in preparation of getting in. Edna looked at them and said “I can’t wait to see what you all do to this place. I can’t wait to see you kids put life put back into her.” With that she gave each of them a hug and got in. Once she was seated Tanya handed her the plate she’d made up for her along with a bag with a couple buns. “Thanks again sweetie.” With that, she backed out and drove away as the friends waved her goodbye.
Merv walked with them back towards the house. “Well now we have an idea on what to do. What I’d like us to do Matt, is work out a project schedule. As Tanya and Edna figure out what they want, we’ll need to figure out a budget for each room or phase and make sure we track the budget. I also want to make sure we track how many hours we spend working on things just to understand our sweat equity and also just to have the figures if Edna or her lawyer or anyone was to ask.” “Yeah I was thinking similarly. That keeps everything above board in case anyone questions us.” “Exactly.”
Merv continued “Well while we have the truck, I’m going to run down to one of my storage lockers and try to get a truck load out of there today and hopefully get it emptied out totally tomorrow.” “Oh OK well let me put my shoes back on and I’ll come along.” “Naaa, I appreciate it though. You guys stay here, work on unpacking or whatever. I know the last month you guys have had about zero alone time so enjoy it. I won’t be back till later and the stuff I have will all be on pallets so I should just be able to use a pallet jack to roll it on there and roll it off here.” It was Tanya “Are you sure, we can come help, might make it quicker.” “Naw, thanks though. I think I’ll just make a couple of those sandwiches and grab a couple cookies and sport drinks and get heading.” “OK well while you guys close up the truck, I’ll run in and put a lunch bag together for you.” Tanya said. Merv replied “Thank you, that would be a big help.”
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Post by feralferret on Jan 1, 2023 20:46:40 GMT -6
That was a long but excellent chapter. I'm going to have to go back and refresh my memory about Jimbo.
Thank you for this story.
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ydderf2
Member
"I'm from the government and here to help" hahahaha
Posts: 321
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Post by ydderf2 on Jan 2, 2023 10:44:23 GMT -6
Thank you
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Post by CountryGuy on Jan 2, 2023 11:26:43 GMT -6
That was a long but excellent chapter. I'm going to have to go back and refresh my memory about Jimbo. Thank you for this story. Jimbo was the other work friend that was attacked, along with Merv and Mattt, while they were camping. He suffered severe injury and TBI and is now with his family in MI undergoing intense rehab.
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Post by CountryGuy on Jan 8, 2023 21:02:55 GMT -6
42
Fifteen minutes later Merv was pulling out of the street and on his way. He did stop at the local gas station and filled the truck up since the fuel was quite a bit cheaper than down in the district. It took him a little over an hour till he got to the storage place. There were a few people around but for the most part, it looked like many were finishing up for the day as the sun was in the process of setting.
He stopped just past the gate and went into the office. There was a younger girl sitting there who was reading what looked to be a college textbook. Must be a part time gig to help pay here way thru school. Good for her he thought. “Hi there, I’d called a few days ago and spoke to Janice about renting a pallet jack and I bought some things she was to leave with it. “Ahhh.. yes. She said to expect you this afternoon. It’s in the garage. I’ll go out and put the door up, it’s the second door.” “OK” he said as he walked outside as she disappeared thru a door in the corner of the office. As he went out and walked toward the door he could hear the squeak of metal as she must have been sliding the doors lock bar.
The door went up and there sat the pallet jack and the box with some packaging materials like some bubble wrap and tape. He may or may not need it, but he figured better to have it and not need it than have the reverse. He pushed the power button to lower the lift gate a bit and then flopped the tongue on it with a loud bang before lowering it the whole way to the ground. He walked over and took the jack and pulled it out of the garage. “So I’m OK to park at the load dock for a few hours” Merv asked. “Yeah, do whatever. The crush for the day is over plus there’s another dock back there if someone did show up.” “OK Thank you. I’ll let you get back to studying.” Merv said. The young lady just smiled, stepped back in the garage and rolled down the door. He turned and pulled the jack towards the liftgate, hearing the squeak of the door being locked again. Merv stepped onto the lift, dragging the jack behind him and up on. He pushed the button and the lift slowly raised. As it stopped, he reached down and unlatched the trucks door and rolled it up. He pulled the lift in and grabbed a bungee cord he’d left in the box and quickly strapped it to the wall cleats inside the box for the short ride back to the storage building.
Merv headed straight back to the dock, pulling around and backing right in. He locked the truck, and went around and up the steps into the building. He rolled up the door and then dropped the truck's lift-gate to create a load ramp. He grabbed the pallet jack and headed for the freight elevator. Once he got in his unit the work began. He’d grab a pallet, wheel it to the elevator, wait for the maddeningly slow thing to take him down to the dock where he’d drag the jack onto the truck, spin it around and place it side by side with the previous one. It took him about two and a half hours to get the truck loaded. When the last pallet was in, he left the jack down most of the way but leaving some pressure on it against the pallet to keep it from rolling around while he drove.
With the truck loaded he locked up the back and went out to the cab and grabbed the bag with his dinner off the seat and headed up to the storage unit. He opened up his folding chair and sat down. He opened the bag and took out one of the bottles of water Tanya had packed. He drained it in four pulls. He mowed thru the first sandwich and the small cup of potato salad. With his thirst and hunger slightly relieved he took out the second sloppy joe and stood up and walked around looking at what remained in the unit. He worked thru in his head how he wanted to load the couple empty pallets he had with the black and yellow totes so they would be grouped in the most logical way. As he finished the last bite of the sandwich he laid a pallet on the floor and started pulling the totes off the shelves and stacking them. As he did, the clipboards from the shelves were added to each stack. Then he would shrink wrap the stack to keep them held tight and to also secure the clipboard.
After another hour he had the few empty pallets he had full of totes. He took account that he’d need about 3 or 4 more for the rest of the totes. He began knocking the empty shelves apart and stacking each up in it’s own pile before then wrapping each stack with shrink wrap to bundle it. He decided that was enough for today as he still had close to an hour drive and then needed to unload the truck tonight. He felt the good thing would be he could back the truck into the big shop and then all he had to do was pull off the twelve pallets and set them on the floor for later sorting and organizing. He grabbed the bag with the garbage from his dinner and pulled down the door and locked the unit. 10 minutes later he was going thru the security gate and starting the trip back.
It was going on 10PM when Merv backed up to the big roll up door at the shop. He was dragging, it had been a long day, but he still wanted to get the truck offloaded so it’d be empty in the morning for him to make the next trip. Tomorrow he’d have to drive to the city, get the last load, bring it back and unload it here and then drive back before 3PM to return the truck and pick up his car, before driving back.
He’d unlocked the empty shop’s door, flicked the buzzing overhead lights and was just rolling up the door when he heard Matt’s voice behind him. “We were starting to think you got lost or ran away.” “Naa, you’re not that lucky.” Merv turned around and could see Matt was in relax mode, he had his shorts and a tee on and a beer in his hand. “What’s your plan?” Matt inquired as Merv climbed up and opened the truck's door. “I want to get this off tonight so the truck is empty and ready to go in the morning.” “Do you want a hand?” Matt asked. “Naaa you’re all cleaned up. I can get this.” Merv said as he hopped down off the back of the truck. “I’m just going to back in here so I don’t have to wheel things as far. There’s only 12 skids on here.” “Well then, how about I supervise you and I’ll operate the lift gate for you.” “You know, you doing that would be a big help actually.” “OK well then get moving. We have cold beers in the house chilling and I got a hot woman I’m watching a movie with.” “Yes boss, I’m hurrying Boss.” Merv said as he headed around the side of the truck to back it in.
It took about 30 minutes and with Matt running the lift gate, Merv had the truck empty the the pallet jack secured in the back of the truck. They closed and locked up the shop and headed into the house. As they went thru the back door and into the kitchen, Merv was hit with the mouthwatering smell of fresh popcorn. Tanya was standing in the kitchen, bag of microwave popcorn in one hand and a cold beer in the other. She walked over to Merv and offered out the beer. “Here, I figured you could use this after the marathon day you just put in.” “That’s awesome, thank you. And a bag of fresh hot popcorn.” Merv said. “As if. You get the beer, not my popcorn.” Matt said “Yeah, not our popcorn.” Tanya looked at Matt and continued to tease “Did I say ‘ours’? I don’t think so, pretty sure I heard the word ‘My’ Mister.” “What if I rub your feet?” well a foot rub might earn a piece or two.” she giggled. “Well, you kids fight over the popcorn and I’m going to find my bag and shave kit and take a shower. I stink.” It was Tanya again “You do stink. While you were gone I set your weekend bag and things in your room along with a few other things of yours we found while unpacking. I was going to start unpacking your boxes but then thought you might want to do that yourself.” Matt spoke up “Yeah I told her I wouldn’t, who knows what weird shit you might have. I mean I don’t want to find your collection of midget porn or something. No twisted titles like Granny Debbie vs Midgettown or some other freaky shit. You look like the type.” Matt laughed. Merv laughed…”Sorry to disappoint… but no such luck on finding something like that..” “Why? Did you hide it really well?” Matt said grinning. “No, if I want to watch that stuff I just borrow from your collection.” Tanya looked at Matt “Do you have a porn collection?” Matt got a deer in the headlights look. “And with that, I’m off to the shower.” Merv said with a grin from ear to ear.
Merv had crashed hard when he got out of the shower. He remembered having a towel on and sitting down on the bed and then next thing he knew he woke the next morning. He was a bit disoriented and out of sorts in the strange surroundings. He laid there a minute hearing birds chirping but not hearing traffic and sounds of a city. As his mind worked out where he was, he smiled. The sound of those bird songs was comforting and soothing to his soul. He stretched a long minute before getting up. Oww…he thought. Feeling the stiffness in his muscles and ligaments from the day before. He got up and went over to his bag on the floor and pulled out a clean pair of underwear, jeans, a tee and socks. He dressed quietly and then fished in his shave kit to find his deodorant and the bottle of ibuprofen he kept in there. He shook out two of the gels, then thinking a sec he added a third to his hand. He closed the bottle and tossed it back into his kit.
He grabbed his phone off the nightstand and saw it was 6:40. He slipped the phone in his pocket and opened the room door. The house was totally quiet as he slipped down the hall to the kitchen where he grabbed a bottle of water and downed the pills. Next mission was to get a pot of coffee brewing. He quietly peaked thru the cabinets taking notice of where Tanya and Kari had homed everything. He found his travel mug and set it on the counter. The box of chocolate chip cookies was there so he grabbed out one of those. He stood there sort of blankly staring out the back window of the kitchen eating nook, looking out on the yard. He could see some birds flitting around from bush to tree and he also saw a squirrel bouncing from here to there. Merv took it in as he waited for his brain to start.
The gurgling of the coffee pot finishing its cycle brought him into the present. He stepped over and filled his mug. He opened the fridge to see if there was some cow in there but as he saw only a bowl of sloppy joe and a tub of the potato salad he remembered they still needed to get groceries. Well then, black it is this morning. Merv went over by the door and slipped his boots on, taking a seat in a kitchen chair to lace them up. With that he grabbed his coffee and his cookie and he slipped out the back door headed to the shop. He had a slight shiver in the cool morning air as he walked along the small sidewalk that tied the two buildings together. Once he was in, he put the door up and then went and looked over the skids of stuff he’d unloaded last night. To his credit, Matt hadn’t asked questions about what all the stuff was or anything else. Merv thought for a few minutes and slightly adjusted the plan he’d had in mind last night. Since he had the truck he was going to make full use of it before it had to be back this afternoon. He just needed to make sure he did things in a certain order, not necessarily the preferred or most efficient route but it would be the one that would ensure he would not end up a felon.
Merv jumped in the truck, turned the key over and waited only a couple seconds for the glow plug light to go out before he fired the truck up. He watched in the sideview mirrors as a huge puff of black smoke rolled out from under the truck and into the shop. He waited a minute for the motor to warm slightly and the idle to smooth out. He dropped it into drive and eased it out of the shop far enough to clear the roll up door. He jumped back out and pulled the door and then locked the man door as he went out and got back in the truck. Trying to not make a lot of noise he eased out of the driveway and then out of the neighborhood.
A few miles down the road he looked at the fuel gauge to see if he should stop to fuel up. He had plenty for now but he decided to whip into the mostly dirt lot of the small station. It was only a few miles down the road from their new place. They’d stopped here before on one of the trips to look at the house when they needed gas. Merv felt like this would be his new spot to stop. It looked to be a locally owned place and was sort of a gas station convenience store but it also had a fuel island making it a touch of a truck stop. They also had a small food counter and deli making sandwiches and things.
He went in and grabbed two 1.5L bottles of water and then went to the counter and ordered two bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches. He stood and watched as the older lady cracked the eggs on the flat top, dropped his toast and was heating the bacon. In less than 10 minutes he was walking back to the truck with his waters and two hot fresh sandwiches wrapped in butcher paper. When he got in the truck he opened and Chowed down the sandwich, the hot cheese like napalm on his lip. His hunger satisfied for the time being he washed it down with a few sips of his coffee, closed the bag to leave the other sandwich for a morning snack, pulled the truck in gear and got back on the road.
It being relatively early, especially for a Sunday he made good time back into the city. When he got to the storage facility the office was empty and the gate still closed. He swiped his access card and waited for the gate to slowly lurch open. As he backed into the dock and set the brake he looked at the clock on the truck radio 8:05. He got busy getting the door opened and the fork ramp in place before grabbing the pallet jack and heading for the elevator.
It took Merv about two and a half hours to get the last few pallets loaded and the racks tore down. The racks, once bundled, he laid across the jack forks after he’d jacked it up to about max height. This way it would roll easy with the load. The long shelf legs fit easily down the wide hallways and onto the truck where he then stacked them into a pile between the row of pallets. He hoped that would keep them from shifting around. He secured the lift to the truck wall and closed and locked the door before he went back to the unit. He grabbed a broom and dustpan off a wall that the storage company had for people to use. There really wasn’t much in his unit but he swept it up and dumped it in the can and hung the things back up. Last thing he grabbed was his collapsible chair. Then he rolled down the door and put the lock back in place. He’d come back a day this week during lunch to return the key and close out his account.
He took a minute and ate the now cold and slightly soggy breakfast sandwich and washed it down with some of the water. He pulled out his phone and punched in the next address to navigate him to his next stop. He pulled out and headed to the front of the lot. He saw the gate was open and saw the young girl was again in the office. He waved her direction when she looked up but she didn’t acknowledge him if she’d seen him. It was about quarter til eleven. GPS said it’d be 35 minutes to his next destination.
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Post by feralferret on Jan 9, 2023 19:37:47 GMT -6
Nice repartee between Merv and Matt!
Thanks for another fine chapter.
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ydderf2
Member
"I'm from the government and here to help" hahahaha
Posts: 321
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Post by ydderf2 on Jan 11, 2023 15:14:19 GMT -6
Thanks CG
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Post by CountryGuy on Jan 22, 2023 11:00:13 GMT -6
Sorry for the delay, work has been busy with travels and weekends busy with things for Cub Scouts. Here is the next section...
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Post by CountryGuy on Jan 22, 2023 11:05:46 GMT -6
43
As Merv pulled down the road he could see the gate was open so he pulled in and when he was in off the road and sure he wasn’t sticking out in traffic he parked and went into the small office. It was getting hot out and the humidity was definitely up. Dust from the parking lot swirled around him as he reached for the door and stepped in. The small room was cold from the small window AC unit but the air was stifling with the smell and haze of cigarette smoke. The little old man behind the desk had yellowed fingers that nearly matched his yellowed teeth from the years of chain smoking.
“What can I do fer ya young buck?” “Ahh yes Sir, just going to get some things out of my unit, haven’t been here in a long while but wanted to let you know.” “I ‘preciate that. Keep me from wondering if you’re up to no good.” “Oh no Sir. Recently became single again so need to get my bachelor furniture and stuff. I’m tired of sleeping on the floor.” Merv said boldly lying. “Been there myself back in the day, them floors are hard.” “Yes Sir, they sure are.” “OK. We’ll, take it easy, it’s getting a touch warm out there today, don’t over do it. Also, I close up at three today. Some days I can stay longer but not today, got to get home.” “Yes Sir. I’m hoping I can get a good piece, well at least enough to get off the floor tonight.” The old fellow laughed and then coughed a bit. “Yep, floor just ain’t no good for sleep’n.”
Merv’s unit was again, by purpose, towards the back of the small storage facility. He pulled the truck down and around from the opposite direction so he’d be headed out but also so the truck would block most of the view from the most likely side someone might approach from. He hopped out and walked around to the unit. When he got to the lock he looked at it closely. His makeshift wax security seal he had cobbled together years ago was still there, unmolested. He pulled it away and inserted his key and unlocked the lock after what he was recalling might have been 6 years. He sat the open lock on the back edge of the truck's deck. He rolled the door up and saw the blue tarp he’d fastened to the inside of the door frame, much like a curtain.
He pulled back the one edge and tried glancing in. The tarp filtering much of the light but casting a dreary blue hew on everything. Merv slipped his small EDC flashlight, an Olight i5R, out of his pocket and shone it around. Everything looked the same as he could recall leaving it, just dusty. Everything was covered in cheap, thin plastic, painters drop cloths and under many of them was the blue of moving blankets. He shone the light up over his head and untied the knot and began to undo the lacing of the twine through the grommets and from the small eye screws he’d threaded into the doubled up 2x8’ Header that made up the upper frame of the door opening. As he worked his way along, the tarp came down and as it did more of the small room was flooded with bright daylight. Merv gathered the tarp into his arms as he stepped out into the driveway area behind the truck. He took his time and folded the tarp and when it was bundled in his hands, he laid it just inside the open truck door.
He glanced inside for a moment and then went to the passenger door of the truck, opened it and reached in and pulled out a couple trash bags from the roll of contractor grade bags he’d put there on the floor. Returning to the open door he slowly began pulling and folding the plastic sheets into themselves. He wanted to minimize tossing a bunch of the dust into the air in the small space. It took about 15 minutes to have all the drop clothes balled up and stuffed into the trash bag and to have the shipping blankets folded up and stuffed into another bag.
Merv got the pallet jack and pulled out 4 pallets but rather than loading them in the truck he set the along the concrete apron out side his unit and the ones on either side of his. As he thought about it he put the jack back on the truck and reorganized the pallets there so they were all to one side. With that done he hopped down and headed into the garage. There was a furniture dolly sitting already in place under a gun safe. He stretched the straps around it and ratcheted it down tight. Then with quite a bit of effort he got it tipped back and balanced before quickly wheeling it out and onto the lift gate. The motor groaned under the weight of the safe as it lifted it up. He again got it tipped and balanced and wheeled into the now empty front corner. He then used the rented load straps to dog into the rail system built into the wall of the trucks box and secured the safe. He then moved the pallets to that side in order to open the other side and corner.
As he got down with the appliance dolly he went in to retrieve the second, slightly larger and heavier safe. He thought at this point he should have asked Matt to help but he’d wanted he and Tanya to have a relaxing morning though. His wrist and hand ached where they’d been injured. Times like this reminded him he still was not 100%. He grunted and groaned through loading the second safe, securing it similarly in the other corner. With that done he grabbed his other breakfast sandwich and a bottle of water and took a ten minute break. He felt drained but also good for getting those to heavy beasts loaded by himself. He also realized how stupid it had been. If he’d lost balance with either of them and they came back on him. He shuddered to think of laying there under the weight, waiting to be found at closing time when the gate guy wanted to go home. Five more pallets to go and two of those would be heavy, one of them very much so.
He grabbed the next two and easily had them loaded. With those on he was back in the unit where he stood staring and debating whether to first load the ‘heavy’ pallet first or the ‘Oh Dear Lord it’s heavy’ one. The second one out as he figured he better use the burst of energy he had from his break. On the heavy duty, full decked pallet was a Ford 7.3L diesel motor that was bolted to the pallet via some home made mounts Merv had made years ago. This was a Craigslist find from years back. A guy had rolled and totaled his truck. He somehow ended up with the motor with visions of doing something with it but the bills paying for lawyers for the DUI he got when he totaled it were more pressing so Merv got it for a song. At the time he himself didn’t have a plan or project for it but it was too good of a deal.
There was a lot of grunting and groaning but he got it on the truck. Then it was back to the next heavy pallet, perched on it was a Cummins 4BT along with boxes of parts and other goodies. After the 7.3, the small Cummins felt like a feather as he dragged it out and got it loaded. There were two more pallets, three of the heavy duty totes and the unit was empty. He made sure the skids had some straps across them to dog them to the walls to keep them from sliding around. He was working on sweeping it out when his phone buzzed. He pulled it out and saw there was a text from Tanya. She was asking if he was still in the city, would he possibly be able to meet up with Joe and Kari and give her a ride back to save Joe needing to drive the entire way out and back. Merv thought for a minute and told her he’d text Joe. Merv sent a text to Joe and sent an address telling him to meet him there in about 20 minutes and he’d pick up Kari.
With closing out at the storage unit and with the Sunday traffic, it took Merv about 30 minutes to get to the Lowe’s parking lot he’d told Joe to meet him at. Joe and Kari were there waiting when Merv pulled in. He parked the truck and hopped out and walked over towards Joe’s car. They were already out and Joe was around to Kari. Merv noted they were holding hands, standing close and smiling and talking quietly. They kissed and as the did Merv looked away trying to give some privacy. When he looked back he couldn’t help grin at them. “What are you smiling about?” Joe barked jovially. “Me? Well hell I’m just surprised, in the couple years I’ve known you I never saw you show interest in a woman. I figured you were gay or a member of the he-man woman haters club.” Merv said smiling. Kari quickly quipped “Oh he most certainly isn’t gay…” it was Merv and Joe’s turns to turn red. “Oh look at u guys all blushing.” Joe gave her another kiss and said she had better get going. As Merv went around to get back in the truck, Joe helped Kari up into the cab and put her bag on the floor by her feet. “He looked up and across the cab at Merv and said “Thanks for taking her back with you.” “No problem man. I’ll see you at the office tomorrow.”
Joe shut the door as Merv cranked the motor over and pulled the truck into gear as they headed out. Kari thanked him for giving her a ride back and he told her no problem. They made small talk on the 40 minute ride back to the house. Much of the time she gushed about Joe and asked questions about him. Merv was slightly embarrassed to realize he didn’t know a great deal about Joe outside of their professional interactions. There were quite a few things she’d said about Joe that were news to Merv. He decided as they rode along that he needed to actually get to truly know his coworkers, well the ones he hung with beyond Matt and Jimbo.
When they got back to the house he again backed up to the garage. He got out and went around to help Kari out as Matt and Tanya came out to meet them. “Matt, can you give me a hand unloading this, I don’t want to try killing myself again.” As Merv headed to open the door the girls conspiratorially headed for the house, whispering and giggling. “I’ll back in and then we can get this unloaded quickly. As soon as it’s off I’m heading back to the city to drop the truck at the rental place and get my car. I’d wait till tomorrow but I don’t want to pay for another full day.” “Yeah I don’t blame ya. I think the girls are going to leave soon, if so I’ll ride with you and keep you company.” “Sounds like a plan. Then we can stop somewhere on the way back and get some dinner.” Merv said.
As they got the truck in and started unloading Matt noticed the motors. “What are those for?” “I don’t know yet totally, if I’m being honest.” “Well what are they?” “Well… that big beastie is a Ford 7.3L diesel that was actually built by International. This smaller one is a 3.9L Cummins diesel known as a 4BT.” “So you’ve just had these hanging out in a storage shed for years?” “Yep, that’s about it. I mean i got great deals on both of them and couldn’t pass them up but I also didn’t have a project to put them in or a garage to work on them even if I did have a vehicle.” It was a lot easier moving the engines with Matt’s help.
“Are those gun safes?” Matt hesitantly inquired. “Yes. I’m going to stash them in here for now but once we get things going in the house and we’re done doing work in the basement, I want to move them in their” “Are they loaded?” “Not in the literal sense but they are full of guns…” Merv chuckled. “Smartass, ya know what I meant.” “Well they are pretty full. They have the guns my Grandpa left me and ones I bought back in college. I want to go thru them and sort of thin the herd.
Some of them are cheaper ones that did what I needed at the time but I don’t need them now. I think I’ll look to sell or trade them to turn them into cash and buy ones I want.” “That makes sense.” “I’ll give you first option on any you want, several would make great starter guns. Oh and I promise, I won’t charge you more than two or three times what you can get them for new.” “Wow, that’s some ‘friend’ deal.” Matt scoffed. “I know, what are buddies for.” Merv smiled. “Seriously though, I’ll make you a good deal on any you or Tanya might want.”
They got all the skids off and then the safes and sat them in the corner and sat the engines and thins in front of them. Merv thru blankets over the safes to help camouflage them and then started pulling out the plastic drop clothes and covered things back up for now. As Merv was working on that Matt had ran into the house. When he walked in, the girls who were sitting at the table sipping coffee and talking, got quiet quickly. That was followed by sheepish looks on both their faces. “What? Ya’ll didn’t have to stop on my accord.” he said. “Nothing, just some girl talk.” Tanya said which elicited giggles from she and Kari.
“Your right, I don’t want to know. Are you girls getting ready to leave soon?” “Trying to rush us off? What have a hot date?” “Baby you are all the woman I need.” Matt said with a grin. Tanya’s cheeks blushed “Yeah we’re gonna finish our coffees and use the bathroom. Our bags are already packed and just need tossed into the Jeep.” “I’ll take them out for you. Merv is getting ready to take the truck back to the rental place and I’m going to ride with him. So I wanted to say goodbye.” “OK, well give me a kiss before you leave Lover.” Tanya said. She stood and they exchanged a passionate kiss. As she broke away from him Tanya took a deep breath before she looked at Kari and said “See what I told you…” Kari and Matt both blushed. The two stepped out on the deck where they said goodbye and told each other they loved one another before they shared another kiss. “Text me when you guys get home so I know your back and safe.” “I will. I love you.” “Love you too Sweets.” With that Matt picked up the girls bags and headed for the Jeep while Tanya headed back in to finish her coffee and to get ready to leave.
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ydderf2
Member
"I'm from the government and here to help" hahahaha
Posts: 321
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Post by ydderf2 on Jan 25, 2023 19:34:48 GMT -6
Thanks CG
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Post by CountryGuy on Jan 29, 2023 18:42:52 GMT -6
Working on writing some more but have been busy with my Cub Scouts and we're also building their Pinewood Derby cars for their race next weekend. At the rate we're going, fingers crossed the paint is dry before race day this coming Saturday.
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Post by CountryGuy on Feb 8, 2023 17:04:38 GMT -6
A short piece but to keep things moving...
44
The next few weeks went by quickly as the guys settled in and started on the list of projects that they’d worked out with Edna. The first one they started the very first weekend after they moved in. That entailed them cleaning and power washing the outside of the house and garage. The cleaning included a gentle cleaning of the house’s asphalt shingle roof and a little more robust cleaning of the metal roof on the garage. It took them the entire weekend and a few nights after work to have everything done to their satisfaction. A few areas were gone over two or three times. The transformation was pretty incredible as the decades of grime, algae and moss washed away from the roof, vinyl siding and aluminum wrapped trim.
The following weekend, Tanya and Kari came up and worked on redoing the planter beds around the house. They trimmed the bushes, tore out some dead and overgrown ones, planted a few new bushes and quite a few colorful annuals to add a huge pop of color and then gave everything a fresh coat of mulch. They used Matt’s ‘new to him’ truck to pick up the loads from a local landscape supply place. The ladies even added a small circular bed around the mailbox post, made from some of the precast landscape stones they also found at the supply place. It really added a nice colorful accent to the street side. In fact it looked so nice they decided the mailbox needed a fresh coat of paint..
While the ladies worked out their inner green thumbs, the guys, plus Joe, went to town sanding the deck before then starting to add a few coats of a tinted wood preserver. Merv showed them a trick for the sealing part. He’d bought a cheap, small, one gal garden sprayer. He had them help tape up some cheap plastic painters drop cloths to keep the spray off the siding and things and then he showed them how to spray and then back brush the sealer into the wood making things uniform and quick to apply it. He explained to them it actually wasted less sealer in the long run then slapping it on with a brush and roller. In between the coats while the sealer was drying, they also worked on edging the front and back sidewalks and along the driveway before they then pressure washed the walks and driveway. While they worked on the last of the pressure washing the girls finished up the landscaping around the deck really bringing the entire look to completion. On that Sunday afternoon, they stood back, out front on the street and looked at what they had accomplished that weekend. The transformation was truly amazing. Over the last two days they’d met several of the neighbors when they had conveniently stopped by on strolls thru the neighborhood. They received many compliments on the improvement in the look and curb appeal. Many were surprised when the friends answered No, they had not bought the house, yes Edna still owned it, yes they were just renting. They didn’t go into further details. The friends decided that the next weekend they would have a cookout and invite Edna over to see what they had finished so far. That Wednesday evening Merv called and asked Edna if she would be able to join them for a cookout that Sunday afternoon. She said she could so their planning began.
Early Sunday afternoon Matt hollered that Edna had just pulled in. He and Merv headed out to meet her but as they were walking up to her as she stood next to her car with her hands over her mouth and tears in her eyes they became concerned. “Edna? Are you OK? Are you upset? Did we do something you didn’t want?” Merv and Matt both rapidly asked, genuinely concerned. “No you darling boys, completely the opposite, you did everything perfectly. The house looks so amazing, it reminds me of how it looked when my Charlie and I were still living here. Thank you boys, you have this place looking better than ever. I know Charlie is smiling down at the job you’re doing.” The guys enjoyed her moment of happiness and they had a moment of pride in seeing what it meant to her. “I guess I hadn’t realized just how run down it had gotten over the years.” “It wasn’t run down, just a little dirty and in need of a good cleaning and a little spit shine. She’s got solid bones.” Merv said. “I’m glad you like what we’ve done so far. Why don’t you come around back and see what we did there.” with that both guys offered her their arms and they started to guid her towards the backyard. “I can’t believe what a beautiful job you all did with the flowers.” Matt spoke up “Oh no, we take no credit for that, those are all the hard work and sharp eye of my lovely girlfriend and her friend Kari. They selected all the flowers and cleaned and trimmed and planted all the things. They even made the planter around the mailbox and painted that up as well.”
The friends and Edna all sat around and enjoyed the fruits of Merv’s grilling skills along with Tanya and Kari’s talents from the kitchen. After a few hours of visiting and having given Edna a full walk around of the outside to answer her questions and let her see every inch she wanted to look at, she spoke up and said it was getting time for her to be heading home before it get dark. Tanya and Kari also said they too should be starting back for Lynchburg. Then, within about 30 minutes it was just the guys. “Well heck, they all went and left us.” Matt said. “Sure is a lot quieter.” Merv chuckled. “Oh you wait till I tell Tanya you said that.” “I’ll deny it, I’ll say it was you.” Merv said. “Damn it, you know she’d probably believe you over me too.” Matt said, busting out laughing. “What ya’ up to for the rest of the day?” Merv asked “Nothing planned. Why? What ya got in mind?” “Thought I’d see if you want to see my new project and maybe give me a hand getting started on it.” “What project?” “So is that a yes, you’ll help?” “Do I have a choice?” Matt said as Merv reached in the cooler and pulled out two beers handing Matt one. “Not really, I was just being nice.”
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Post by feralferret on Feb 9, 2023 0:45:15 GMT -6
Thanks for the new chapter. It looks like Edna was seriously impressed.
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Post by CountryGuy on Feb 24, 2023 18:56:40 GMT -6
45
The next few weeks saw the guys turning to the inside of the house and starting to tick off jobs from the ‘To Do’ list they’d created with Edna. When he could, Merv would head out to the garage to spend some time on his ‘project’. They started with the spare bedroom, tearing up the old carpet, patching and painting walls, replacing outdated closet doors and adding a light fixture where previously there was none. The carpet was replaced with vinyl plank flooring and to finish things off, some simple crown molding painted in an accent color. When it was done, Merv moved into that room and they moved on to the room he’d been using as his bedroom. When that room was done, same as the first, Matt moved from the master, into it. One by one they began knocking things out. They lived in a near continuous construction site. The hall bath was next, getting a treatment similar to that done at Tanya’s. In this case, the solid wood cabinet stayed but got a coat of paint, new hardware and a new solid surface, one piece sink. The toilet was replaced for a more modern, more efficient one and the sink and shower faucet sets were all changed out to a brushed nickel. A ceiling fan/ light combo was added were they had not been one and the mirror replaced with a mirrored medicine cabinet. This became the guys only bathroom as they tore into the master suite.
The master suite was a major project and took a substantial amount of work and a few weeks for them to complete. Merv had shared some drawings he’d done up for the plans and shown them to Edna but he didn’t think she totally could envision what he was describing. The entire suite was gutted and the walls stripped to the studs. They ended up completely changing the entire layout of the bath, walk-in closet and bedroom to produce a more functional space. This required moving and restructuring the walls and doorways and moving the electrical, water lines and drain lines. Lighting was added and gone were the previous plastic shower enclosure and corner tub. In the bath area they created a small water closet for the toilet, giving it its own privacy. A large, well lit, walk-in shower was built and tiled and a new soaking tub was added. The tub received a matching tile surround. And a new double vanity was installed.
Tanya had mentioned that a jetted tub might be nice but Merv convinced her that they should go with just a large garden tub. After he’d explained the issues those often have with leaks and motor issues he mentioned how much more costly they were. If that hadn’t sealed it for her, when he mentioned about the potential sanitary issues of mold and stagnant water sitting in the ports, she heartily agreed on a big soaker tub. After she’d agreed he also pointed out that since the house was a rental, a simple tub would be less of an issue in the long run for Edna.
What had been a large but weirdly shaped closet lost some space but became much more functional as some of the space was given up to what was now the water closet. The bedroom remained mostly the same though with the entrance to the bath moving it allowed for the creation of a small sitting nook in the room with a view out the back windows over the back yard. When it was finally done and the guys showed Tanya she was amazed. After she applied her decorators' touch, they had a reveal for Edna. She was again amazed and brought to tears, saying how it looked like something she’d only see in a pic in a magazine.
It was about four months after they had moved in, after the upstairs was completely finished, that Tanya moved in. She and Matt moved into the master suite and she loved the room and the warm, cozy feel it had. She’d gotten a new job at a hospital near Martinsburg and would be starting it at the start of the following week. She initially said she was afraid she was going to be missing many of her friends but she would still get to see Kari often since she and Joe were ‘officially’ dating. Kari told her that she’d be up every few weeks to see Joe so they could catch up then and that she could always come down to visit her. It turned out that Kari and Joe were now discussing moving in together. They were trying to decide if it would be Joe going to Lynchburg or Kari to DC. The guys knew Joe wanted out of the city and that likely meant he’d be trying to either find a job in Lynchburg or one that would allow him to work remotely.
Soon after the guys had moved in, one of the first things Tanya had asked for was if they could put in a small garden before it got too late in the season. The guys were all for it, so one Saturday when she was up they rented a tiller and tilled up a ‘small’ patch in the back corner of the yard. They went to a nearby farm Edna told them about to get a pickup load of composted manure that went on top and quickly got tilled in to enrich everything. They put up some rabbit fence around the plot and then they went back to drywalling and Tanya got busy planting. Tanya had picked up some starts from a small garden center and a few farm stands so she got those in and going. She had a couple varieties of tomatoes, green and yellow banana peppers, cucumbers, green beans, spaghetti squash and potatoes. She even put in a few rows of corn. When she was done and stood back and saw all the strings, markers and seedlings as a whole, she thought she might have gotten a little over ambitious. She tried reasoning with herself, being her first garden she figured she’d likely kill a bunch of things so she might not even get anything.
For on the deck she had gotten some planter boxes that sat over the handrails and in two of those she planted some lettuce, spinach and arugula seeds. In two other boxes she put in some strats she found at the greenhouse, these were kitchen herbs like chives, basil, thyme and oregano. Tanya loved spending time out in her small patch on the weekends she was up. She would be out there, normally barefoot, tending to things. She said it helped her calm down and to let her feel human; that being barefoot in the soil made her feel connected to the earth and the natural world around them. During the weeks before she’d moved up, she’d be on Matt nearly everyday reminding him to water things or to check this or that or to pull weeds if he saw them. She’d even make him video chat on his phone so she could see things with her own eyes. Between Matt and Merv they kept things alive in her absence, albeit under her close scrutiny.
About the time Tanya moved in much of the stuff was getting ripe and ready to start harvesting. For a good part of the previous couple weeks the guys had been savoring the fresh lettuces, tomatoes and cukes in either salad form or on top of burgers or their sandwiches or just eating fresh. Merv savored the amazing flavor and quality of the home grown, vine ripened veggies, it reminded him of the summers spent at his grandparents. Matt who had never had homegrown was beside himself with how amazing the food was and how easy it really had been for not a lot of work. They shared some things with Edna and a few of the neighbors. Earlier in the summer Edna had also taken to stopping by to help with the garden. The guys joked about believing there was a conspiracy between Edna and Tanya to keep them under a watchful eye to ensure they weren’t ignoring it or killing things. Edna complimented Tanya on what she had done and told her she put it almost right where she herself used to keep a garden but she told Tanya that her’s, seemed to be producing so much more than any of Edna’s had in years past.
On a Saturday when Edna had stopped by Tanya confided in her that she didn’t know what she was going to do with everything as things were coming on strong and it looked like in the next few weeks a lot of things were going to need to be harvested or go to waste. She said she planted so much thinking much would die. Edna told her not to fret that she could show her how to put things up. What they couldn’t eat fresh, they could eat from a can or freezer in the months to come. For now canning and freezing would be her best options. Edna told her she had her things for canning stored away in her storage building but if Tanya came and got them she could have all of it and Edna would teach her how to use it all. With a “Sure, lets go.” Tanya got Matt’s truck keys and told him she and Edna would be back sometime. About two and a half hours later Tanya pulled in and down around back and she and Edna supervised as the guys unloaded the back of the truck into the basement. There were box after box of quart jars, pints, half gallon jars and even one gallon wine jugs and then several crocks of different sizes. Among the boxes were two blue, speckled enamel Ball water bath canners, 2 huge thirty quart All American pressure canners and then various tools and boxes of jar rings. Edna said “In one of those should be my old Excalibur dehydrator.”
The next few days when Tanya wasn’t working she was busy washing jars and all of the tools and other things to get the years of storage dust off. The guys had quickly built her two long wooden tables out of 2x4’s and some half inch plywood. It would give her a place to cut up things, fill and ready jars and then give a big place to set hot jars to cool and seal. There was an old stove in the basement and Edna told her that it was there, along with the small utility sink, from the days when she canned. Tanya and Edna talked and planned and decided on the order of things and double checked what supplies they’d need and they got stocked and ready.
First up was the sweet corn. She had 3 rows of a white corn that had produced nicely, but to add to that and ensure enough till next season, Tanya bought 2 bushels from a nearby farm stand. The boys got drafted in to help and ‘General’ Edna took charge and showed all three of them the ropes of her production line. They’d first husk the ears, then wash and clean off any of the excess silk. Once cleaned it was on to the cutting table where they used electric knives to slice the kernels off the cob, adding those to a board so it could be scooped up, put in zip freezer bags. They did a mix of methods. Some was just straight up corn, others got a sort of brine mix of salt, sugar and water. They also took some ears and after peeling just the few outer layers they cut off the ends. THese would get put in large freezer bags and allow them to have legit, corn on the cob in the winter months. They made it thru the corn in about 5 hours and then Edna had them move on to the green beans they’d picked earlier in the day. Hat night though tired they cooked dinner it was just spaghetti but Edna had brought a jar of her spaghetti sauce for the ‘kids’ to try to be sure they liked her recipe. They all raved over it and Merv complimented her saying it reminded him of his Grandma’s sauce.
The next day was Sunday morning, the youngsters were up early as was their norm. As they sipped on their first cups of coffee they reread the list of chores Edna gave them the day before. They went out and picked all the ripe tomatoes they found in the garden which turned out to be three and a quarter bushel. To those they added two additional bushels Tanya had picked up late the previous afternoon at the end of the farmers market. She got a great deal and the farmer got something out of them rather than having to take them home and do something with them before they were no good. They cleaned and gleaned them and then began squeezing them for juice and filling the two large, five 5 gallon stainless pots. Those two pots took up the entire stove top and straddled two burners each. As the first pot neared about 75% full, they added the other ingredients from Edna’s list and started that pot cooking. It would take hours of cooking and stirring to slowly cook down and thicken. Just before lunch Edna came over after her church left out. She surprised them all with a big pan of lasagna for lunch. There was enough there for lunch, dinner and probably enough for lunch the next day.
After she’d put the lasagna in to warm up some before they ate, she came down to the basement and found the two huge, stainless pots slowly bubbling and steaming away. She tasted both of them and added just a touch of this and that and had the guys stir. She’d wait a bit and taste again. She did this over about an hour trying to get the flavor she wanted and then also working to make sure both pots tasted the same. Mid-afternoon Edna announced the spaghetti sauce was done and that it was time they could start filling the jars to can it. She showed them how to set up a production line of sorts, lining up hot washed jars, to be filled and then show how to wipe the rims, add the lid and ring and then to load the two big pressure canners. Merv also went and dug out a turkey fryer he had and they set up a kettle so they could also water bath can jars. They were most nervous about the pressure cookers but Edna assured them if they took their time and followed the steps, it was completely safe. As they emptied the first pot of sauce they refilled it and started the next batch.
They lost track of how many times they loaded and unloaded the canners with quart and pint jars. It was going on 10 o’clock by the time they were done. Even Edna had stayed until after dark lending a hand, though Matt drove her home in her car and Tanya followed to bring him back. When they shut the lights off that night they had ninety three quarts and fifty eight pints sitting cooling. Thru the evening they’d hear the occasional ‘pop’ as lids sealed. In the morning, before work, when they checked, all but one quart and two pints had sealed. They sat the jars that didn’t seal into the fridge. Looked like it was spaghetti or pizza for supper that night, maybe meatball subs the next.
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Post by feralferret on Feb 25, 2023 0:25:39 GMT -6
Looks like they spent all day getting sauced!
Thanks for another enjoyable chapter.
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Post by kiwibutterfly on Feb 25, 2023 3:45:14 GMT -6
Thank you
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ydderf2
Member
"I'm from the government and here to help" hahahaha
Posts: 321
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Post by ydderf2 on Feb 28, 2023 8:11:21 GMT -6
Thank you.
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Post by paulk on Mar 1, 2023 15:15:51 GMT -6
Just found your story and am enjoying greatly. Hope to see more soon.
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Post by CountryGuy on Mar 22, 2023 14:49:47 GMT -6
46That weekend they had spent a lot of time talking about food as they worked putting up a good portion of their ‘harvest’. They had talked about how great it was to grow their own food and to know how it had been grown and what had been or had not been put on their plants. They talked about how great it was to have all of the sauce and the corn and how they were looking forward to the other things that would be coming in soon. They talked of plans on what to do with the next plants that would be ripening, both things needed and recipes to try.
Edna was a huge source of wisdom in this new adventure, she told them how much fun she was having passing along her knowledge and how much she was enjoying spending time with them laughing and joking. She said that is what it should be, a great time to socialize. She told them how when she was younger, she and her sister and some cousins would join her own mother and aunts and her grandma in putting up the food from all of the families huge gardens. She said it was hard hot work for several days but also fun as they would talk and have stories of their family and the antics from years gone by.
The friends were looking forward to the fall and winter when it would be time to enjoy all the tasty fruits of their labor. The subject of whether doing all this financially made sense had come about. They agreed it was likely way more expensive than buying it, at least initially. They figured it might take many years, and many jars of food to come even close to breaking even. But they all agreed they were learning multiple skills, from gardening to canning and they had a fun time hanging out while doing it and getting loads of food as a result. They talked thru the costs they had paid out to that point. Starting at the very start they had the cost to rent the tiller, cost of buying the manure, setting up the garden, buying the fencing, the seeds and starts, all definitely a money sink on the front end. Then they talked about the labor and the hours they had spent; hours of work planting, watering, weeding and keeping the garden healthy. Then there was the time harvesting the food, cleaning it, preparing it and then the actual freezing or canning. They mulled over that they had been lucky in that they had not had to spend hundreds of dollars on canning equipment and supplies since Edna had so graciously given them all of her things. The jars, rings, water bath canners and then especially the two pressure canners, those alone would have been over a thousand dollars. No way did it make financial sense but the fun, time spent and pride of accomplishment far outweighed the monetary balance. Merv said “Ya know though, like any business or hobby, as they say, buy once, cry once. Everything here, with care, will last for decades more.”
Over the weekend Merv had steered their discussions several times from talk about food cost and the advantages of growing their own food toward things more along the lines of availability of food at the stores. “So what would you do if you went to the store one day and the shelves were empty?” Edna was quiet but gave a knowing look to Merv and allowed the conversation to go uninterrupted, she was interested to see what Matt and Tanya would say. Matt jokingly said “Why I’d go to another store of course. I mean this is the US, store shelves are always full and if a place doesn’t have what ya want, go to another store.” “And what if that one and every other one you went to was empty?” Merv asked. Matt paused and Merv could see he was thinking “Guess I never thought about it. I mean it’s just always been there.” Merv said “Right. Until it’s not that is. But what if they were all empty? You know, like when they have these big food recalls on something like lettuce or maybe beef because they found out it’s contaminated with some bacteria so they pull it all and throw it away till they can get new batches.. What if that was all food? Then. what if the little bit of food that was there suddenly cost three, four or five times more than it did just a few weeks or even only days ago? What if the power went out for days or weeks and the coolers and freezers didn’t work. What then?”
“OK Mr. Doom and Gloom. This is America, like that could happen.” Before Merv could respond, Tanya said “It does happen here babe. I remember when I was about seven we were living in Florida and a huge hurricane hit our area. It wiped out all the power, the stores were all closed and everywhere was out of gas. My family was lucky cause we had food and water, Daddy had a generator and gas and our house didn’t get totally destroyed. Others around us weren’t that lucky. They didn’t have power, water, food, even a place to go to the bathroom. Mom and Daddy tried to share with some of our elderly neighbors but even that got scary because when some other younger neighbors found out they had shared things, they came demanding ‘their share’. It was very scary. I remember Daddy having to chase a few people away with his shotgun. It wasn’t until the State and National Guard and eventually FEMA showed up with water, ice and food that a lot of people had anything to eat or drink, some had gone days.” Tanya got a far look in her eye as she stood there. “I’m sorry Baby, I didn’t know you had gone thru that.” “That was when Mom and Daddy said it was time for us to move, they packed us up, sold the house and moved us off to Colorado. That’s when they both really got into…” she paused, not quite sure how to say things without people freaking out. “That’s when they got into storing stuff.”
Merv looked at her “You mean preparing? They became preppers?” She looked at him and then to Matt with a bit of an embarrassed look. “Yes, but not the nutty types like they used to always show on TV. They just made sure we had extra things, things put away just in-case something ever happened.” Matt, who had yet to meet Tanya’s parents, looked at her quietly, not completely sure what to make of what he was hearing. Merv spoke “Well as my Grandparents used to say, that’s just living smart for when things happen. Granddad used to say Murphy is always just over our shoulders waiting to mess us up. He said Murphy was always hanging on his back. When I was little I always wondered who that Murphy guy was and why I never saw him on Grandpa’s back. Grandpa and Grandma got a good laugh the day I asked Grandma if I was ever going to get to meet this Murphy guy if he was always around. Grandpa laughed and said ‘oh you will someday and then you’ll wish you hadn’t met him.’ ” Edna spoke up “They were right, it is just good sense.” Matt looked at her and she just smiled and gave a slight shrug of her shoulders.
Merv spoke up “Don’t worry Matt, I’m pretty sure our home lives were about the same in the burbs. I think our parents are pretty similar in their political and social outlooks and how they tried bringing us up. My parents were probably a lot like yours I imagine. Run to the store every few days if not every day. Lots of take-out or delivery or if Mom did cook it was stuff usually out of the freezer section that she popped in the microwave for a few minutes or it came out of a box and you added some water and hamburger to it. I feel I’m lucky in that I had my grandparents around to guide and show me another way.” “Well… um… sort of. I mean we had Lucy our housekeeper and she pretty much made our meals and she did have quite a bit of food in the pantry. But I think that was just so she had a lot of things for options depending on if Mom or Dad asked for something particular. But yaa, if it had been up to my parents, none of us would have eaten often. Dad used to joke that Mom could burn water when they were first married. She always said she didn’t spend years in law school to be ‘Suzy Homemaker’. Honestly the little bit I learned about cooking came from Lucy. I always sort of liked to do it, I just wasn’t very good at it. Actually, Lucy taught me a lot about things I’d never have otherwise had a clue about. In a lot of ways she filled in the role of Mom more than my own mother did.” Edna had a sad look in her eyes as she heard what Matt said.
Their conversations drifted some over the weekend from not only knowing how to cook or to preserve your own food but the importance of keeping a pantry, and preferably a deep one. Merv brought up about how grocery and other stores now all followed JIT or ‘Just In Time’ delivery systems He explained how they had minimum stocks, usually three days or less, of the items they sold. Edna said she wasn’t aware of that and mentioned how that definitely added to concerns about having and replacing food. Merv went on telling them that long gone were the days of a stockroom with more of everything “in back“ ready to go on a shelf. Instead, now it was near daily deliveries. Nowadays things were ordered on a pull basis, meaning when the computer said there were only so many of an item left on the shelf, say 8 cans of tomato soup, that would trigger the computer system to add a set amount to the store's next delivery order. Then when the trucks delivered the replacement product, it would go straight out and onto the shelf. Then when the trigger level was again reached, an order woulf go in.
He said going a level higher the same was true at the distribution hubs. The hubs only held a few days worth of products as things steadily went in and out with great effort and amounts of energy required to keep it all going. Be it fuel for the tractor trailers or electricity and propane for the forklifts or electricity running the massive automated handling systems in some of the distribution hubs or the massive freezer and deep dreezer warehouses in the case of perishables. He went on that next up the rung were the distributors or actual food producers that supplied all the different store brands. Often there was additional inventory, but of less variety. So in the case of the tomato soup, the distributor might have a truckload of tomato soup but it was still only 3 days of use for maybe dozens of grocery stores. Then he talked about how spolied we were if you looked at the variety of foods we had and from the far reaches that they came and again the amount of energy that went into making that happen. Lettuce greens in winter from California, avocados from Mexico and columbia or a American favorite of bananas from Central America all took a lot of resources and logistics to put onto a shelf in every store in every town in America.
Merv said the bean counters, with their MBA’s, said the JIT system was the way to cut costs by reducing inventory and increasing turnover. Though that was true on some levels, he further explained how that also made the entire American food system very sensitive to the slightest of disruptions or interruptions. “So take a snow or ice storm, a hurricane, flooding, a trucker strike, etc… any sort of event that might shut things down for several days or even a week quickly impacts things to leave store shelves empty. Panic buying on the front side of a known event or the inability to get deliveries right after an event to replace products has the same results; empty shelves, empty bellies and angry people.” He also explained how the majority of households in the country had at best three or less days of food at home. Too many ate out, ran to the store every few days if not daily. Gone were the days of their grandparents and great grandparents and of all the generations that came before who from necessity had deep pantries and raised a substantial portion of their food. Merv explained that when these interruptions occurred, demand naturally spiked and outstripped supply and it became extremely difficult and slow to refill the pipeline. Limited supply with high demand drove prices up while at the same time increased panic buying further fueled demand in a vicious cycle. He said this could occur to the point that people who even had things would rush out to buy more of an item, fearful that they wouldn’t be able to get it in the future when they ran out. “Anyone recall any panic buys of say toilet paper to the point it wasn’t on store shelves for weeks?”
Merv reminded Matt how not very long ago, when they were still in the city apartment, Matt would pick on him about the amount of food he always had in the cupboard and about how he had totes in his room with more. “And how many times Grasshopper did you dip into my, the good little Ants, stockpile, when you were out of food.” “Yeah but I always replaced it when I went to the store.” “You did and you know I didn’t care, my point is what if there was no stockpile? Oh sure you could put on shoes and drive to the store and get some and come home and make it, but what if there was no store?” Matt slightly reddened as he replied “But you can only stockpile so much. So what do you do when that runs out.” Merv sort of spread his hands out in a ‘let me present’ style at all the jars of freshly canned food on the table in front of them. “Great question. Let’s say it takes a year till our stockpile runs out, what did it do for us?” Matt shrugged, unsure of where Merv was going. Tanya spoke quietly “Time, it buys us time.” “Time for what?” Matt asked. “To grow or find more.” she responded. Edna just smiled at what she heard from these young people knowing for sure they were smart kids and thinking ones that had their heads on straight. She could see that though Matt was unsure and in new territory, he was coming around and his girl had a great head on her shoulders. Yes he’d be OK. “And now if it’s 2 or 3 or more years stored?” Merv said “We have a lot of time to absorb things.” was Matt’s reply.
Sunday afternoon as they had just started another load of jars to cook Merv asked Edna if she might be OK if they were to get some chickens. “Well I’d like to get some chickens for eggs but I’d also like to raise a couple small batches of meat birds too. Would you care if we did or is it against any of the community covenants or rules?” Edna thought for a moment “There are no covenants or other nonsense in this neighborhood. We built here long before that sort of nonsense was commonplace. I don’t have any objection so long as they don’t make a big ruckus or anything to rile up the neighbors. Oh, and so long as you remember your kindly land lady when those chickens start laying those yummy eggs.” she said. “I miss home-raised eggs, no way can store eggs compete.” she said with a wink and smile. Merv grinned back “I think that can be arranged. Being fully open, if the chickens go well, I’m going to hit you up on if I can add in rabbits and quail.” “Let’s take it one step at a time but if the chickens don’t rile up the neighbors I don’t see why not. I know you are all responsible and won’t have a mess or cause problems.”
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Post by kiwibutterfly on Mar 22, 2023 19:11:43 GMT -6
Thank you
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Post by feralferret on Mar 22, 2023 22:39:54 GMT -6
Thanks for the excellent chapter.
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Post by gipsy on Mar 23, 2023 9:26:24 GMT -6
The light bulb is starting to glow. Thanks
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tsam
New Member
Posts: 8
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Post by tsam on Mar 23, 2023 15:47:53 GMT -6
Thanks for the update
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Post by CountryGuy on Mar 25, 2023 5:48:00 GMT -6
47
Monday evening Merv mentioned to Tanya and Matt, his conversation with Edna about the chickens, she was instantly excited. “Mamma and Daddy always had a small egg flock when I was growing up. In fact they still have a few, though not near as many as when us kids were all still at home.” Merv went on to tell them what he was planning to build, a small mobile coop. He said he would use some electronet so they could move them about to let them work up the yard and keep bugs down while also letting them fertilize it and eat the grass. He explained the more they ate and scratched from the yard, the less feed they’d need to buy. Matt gave him a queer look “Chickens eat grass?” Tanya was the one to reply with a slight laugh, yes silly, they will eat about anything.” Merv then said he also was going to build a chicken tractor with the plan to run about 20 meat chickens the first time. Tanya was less enthused but did say she loved free ranged home grown chicken, she just didn’t enjoy the killing part. Matt was sort of quiet about the chicken idea and didn’t say much. Later that night he did talk with Tanya about it while they were getting ready for bed. “Well aren’t you worried that we might get salmonella or bird flu or something?” As she patted her face dry with a towel she looked at him. She gently spoke to him that there is a much less chance of getting something like that from food they grew than from food grown in some big factory farm. She calmed his anxiety and dispelled his mis-beliefs from some articles he’d read that night after the topic came up.
The following two evenings Tanya and Matt both helped Merv after work with building the coup from plans he’d sketched up. The third night Tanya lent a hand to the guys as needed while they put together the tractor for the meat birds but her main focus was painting and decorating the “Egg Palace” as she’d dubbed it. She’d painted it white and then using various pastel colors painted flowers and Easter eggs on the outside of it. The finishing touch was when in baby blue, she penciled out and then painted “Egg Palace” over the entry door the chickens used. Matt shook his head and smiled when she’d excitedly led him from the house out to the garage to show him her handy work. “It’s beautiful Babe, I doubt there is a nicer coup in the tri-state area.” he teased. She gently poked him in the ribs with her finger “I meant the entire country.” “That’s what I thought.” she giggled. “Thank you.”
Merv said “We’ll leave it sit in here a few days to make sure all your paint is dry and then move it outside. No rush other than to get my garage space back. I mean it’s going to be months till we get eggs anyway.” “What?” Matt exclaimed. “Well yes, we have to buy chicks and grow them up and they don’t start to lay until they’re about six months old and then it can take a while till they ramp up. When we get into the fall and winter and sunlight decreases their production goes down if not stops. Though I did add in some LED light strips that can simulate daylight so we can increase their laying a bit if we choose. Though I don’t believe in using it all winter to force them to lay as it not natural for their bodies. It’s sort of out of the ‘norm’ to get chicks this time of year but they’ll be hitting time to start laying as we hit spring so then we’ll be in full egg production.”
“About that…” Tanya said. “Since you said about getting chickens, I’ve been looking around on FB Marketplace, Nextdoor and Craigslist and even at the farm supply and I’ve found a few people advertising they want to get rid of their chickens for free. So they might not be peak layers but I could get our flock going by the end of this coming weekend.” “Wow, that’s cool if you want to. Go for it.” Merv said. “But what if some turn out to be non layers, I mean we’re not doing this to have pets.” “No, I know. I figure once we’ve had them a bit and can be sure they are healthy we’ll give them a few weeks to adjust. Then if we have ones with no production, we’ll cull those out for the soup pot and Matt will get his first lesson in butchering.” Matt gave her a sideways look. “Have you ever butchered a chicken?” she asked. “Well no.” “So then I rest my case.”
Saturday morning Tanya had Matt drive her to three addresses. From her first stop, she had two hens that had been Easter chicks that the family bought, seemingly forgetting they grow up. They were in an old dog crate the family had and threw in with the deal. She also got a waterer, feeder and about ¾ of a bag of a fancy chicken feed. The second stop was a bust. Someone had gotten there before them and took the hens. The people tried convincing them to take the two roosters but Tanya said she didn’t need them. She wasn’t looking to start a flock, she didn’t need pets and if she took them they’d only end up in a soup pot or casserole dish. That ended that conversation and the badgering from the people to take the rooster. When they were in the truck and leaving Matt asked “Don’t you think that was a bit harsh babe?” “Well maybe, but you saw the way that woman was trying to guilt us into taking them and how she kept going on about them having a long life. When she wouldn’t let it go, I wasn’t going to lie to her.” “Did you mean what you said?” “Well yes, we aren’t looking for pets babe. I mean if they aren’t making eggs or being turned into meat they are only pets. Here is the address of another place I found this morning.” By Sunday evening the Egg Palace had its first 5 tenants.
Merv showed Matt and Tanya how they’d move the coup set up every few days. He walked them thru using the solar fence charger, showing them how to not shock themselves in the process and then how to redeploy the electronet around the fresh ‘pasture’. He explained how the setup should prevent coons, coyotes and any neighborhood dogs from getting into them during the day or night and how the overhead net would keep out hawks and other aerial predators. Merv had splurged and bought an automatic door that ran off a small solar panel. He’d programmed it to open about 10 minutes after sun up and to then close at sun set. That would help automate some of their upkeep. They were all looking forward to fresh eggs. Merv and Tanya recalled them from their childhood, Matt said he’d never had them so Merv picked some up at a local farm stand to give him a treat. With the pick ups from the local ads they were able to jump start their flock. A couple of the hens were in their prime and a few others weren’t far from graduating to a soup pot or casserole dish.
For now, all 5 hens were laying enough to get them two to three eggs every day or two. Their new chicks were on order and due in a few weeks. Tanya had combed thru various websites, and from reviews and comments from various homestead type YouTube pages she’d decided on Metzer but when she went there found they only had Cornish cross listed. So she checked out Murray McMurray, Meyer Hatchery and Hoover’s. From those three she found Murray’s the most user friendly site with a very large selection. She selected a couple different breeds, both brown and white layers. In total there would be 12 chicks. She knew that 17 chickens would be a lot of eggs for the three of them and even with Edna. But she expected two of the old hens to graduate come spring and it was very likely a chick or two wouldn’t make it. She asked Merv if she should order meat chicks but he said with the lateness in the year and with all the other things they had going, they’d hold off till early spring for that adventure. He also said he’d like to see which variety or varieties they might want to raise out.
As the days grew shorter with the approaching fall the friends continued their weekly calls with Jimbo who continued improving. He still was struggling with some mobility and balance issues but they were all hopeful that would subside. The three friends were all settling into their new place. At times Merv did feel a bit like a third wheel with the love birds around. He’d always try to give them as much space and privacy as possible, spending many hours out in the garage on his project. Tanya was very happy with her career change. She missed her friends though they stayed in touch over text and social media. She now had a little longer drive than she’d had in Lynchburg but she liked her new position and the people on her team and obviously having Matt in her life everyday. Two of Tanya’s old coworkers in Lynchburg, both older divorced ladies, had hit her up separately about renting when they heard she was going to rent out her house. When she told them about each other the two ladies decided they’d roommate up if Tanya was OK with that. She was and they were giddy as it would let both of them save money by splitting rent. It turned out to work great for the ladies and they were loving the fresh remodel along with the quiet friendliness of the neighborhood.
Tanya was able to rent the house out for about two and quarter times what her mortgage was so it was a huge win for her too. It was allowing her to make double payments on her mortgage each month with the leftover balance going into a savings account which would serve as an emergency fund for any unexpected or eventual repairs. Initially she hadn’t thought about this until one night while the three friends were sitting around playing a board game they were talking about her house. When she mentioned how she was amazed that she was able to rent it out for much more than her mortgage was and still have extra money, Merv suggested the idea of the emergency fund. He mentioned that some day she’d get a call and find out it need things, be it a new roof or furnace or A/C unit and wouldn’t it be nice to already have a good chunk of money set back to cover it, paid for by the house. Her plan then changed to put back eight to ten thousand dollars with the extra she had beyond the double house payment, which she expected would take her a little over two and a half years. She and Matt had discussed that after she had the nest egg, every time there would be enough extra money to make a mortgage payment, she’d make an extra that month. They estimated that would add three or four extra payments per year. With just doing the double payments they had calculated she would pay off her mortgage in only eight more years while also saving herself around fifty thousand dollars in interest. They also discussed that with the equity she had built she could look at possibly investing into other rental properties.
The guys arrangement with work was working out well for both of them and their boss was happy with the quality of work they were putting out. They were happy with reclaiming hours in their days not commuting and the money they were saving commuting and in not paying overpriced rent in the city was adding up. Matt and Merv were both working from home 3 to 4 days a week and only having to make the trip into the District once a week. They were hoping soon to see if that could be stretched out to once every other week. They were both were coming to loathe the trips into the city more and more. Matt loved the truck he’d bought but he usually let Merv drive the beast since it got more than double the truck.
Matt was very happy with the new to him truck and they’d used it plenty the last few months with setting up the garden and things. He was glad he’d listened to Merv and that he’d waited and shopped around when his insurance check came in. He was also glad he hadn’t done as his parents had suggested and just ran out and plopped the money down on a brand new truck at a dealer. He’d spent many weeks checking out the local sale papers and online classified ads till he finally found what he wanted. It was a gorgeous truck and the guy had for sure babied it and for sure put way too much money into it. The guy had more truck than money and he needed to offload it in a bad way. Matt figured he needed payoff or as close to that as he could get but Matt hard balled him when the guy was asking a lot more because of all the extras he’d put into it. Things like a lift kit, custom bumpers and nerf bars, a winch, aftermarket wheels and big tires and some engine upgrades and an exhaust to the big diesel. Matt told him sorry but those things don’t increase the bluebook value and that if he wanted he could pass and wait for the next offer.
Matt knew the guy had been trying to sell it for at least three months based on when his first post was dated on the FB Marketplace ad. Matt finally told him he wasn’t heartless and that he would give him a thousand over bluebook value but that was his offer. He did tell him he could give him cash the next day if that helped him making his decision. The guy headed off, just out of earshot to talk with his wife. Matt could see them and was pretty sure the guy really didn’t want to but he could also see by the wife’s hand gestures and her round baby belly she was adamant about him accepting it. The guy came back and he could see he felt defeated but said he’d take the deal.
Seeing they obviously were in a financial bind, Matt tried to help them out a little more by offering to give him another grand for the factory wheels and tires he had told him he had since they wouldn’t be any use to him without the truck. The guy agreed and Matt was happy to have them to use for winter rims, better to mess them up than the expensive aftermarket wheels. The guy then mentioned he also had filters and fluids and some spare parts and the factory parts he’d taken off the truck. Matt asked if another fifteen hundred would cover it and the guy smiled and said definitely. They shook on the deal and arranged for a time to meet the next day to go transfer the title and plates. When the guy asked, Matt agreed to a sales slip showing he’d paid half the actual amount in order to help save the guy a few hundred in sales tax. No skin off of Matt’s back, the government already steals too much from everyone.
As they were walking over towards the car for Matt to leave, he offhandedly asked “Anything else you’re looking to sell?” The guy grinned and said “Might have a couple other things.” An hour later a smiling Matt got in the car while a smiling couple waved him goodbye till the following day. When he’d gotten home Tanya had just gotten there a little before and asked him “So how did that truck look you?” “Oh it was pretty, so pretty I just had to buy it.” “Oh that’s awesome baby.” “Yep got it and some of the extra parts and supplies he had for it, the original wheels and tires so I can run those in the winter salt and mess. Oh and I bought his side by side and three of his guns.” he said with a smile.” “What? What did you get?” “Well I got an Rem 870, a 30-06 Marlin lever action and he had a Ruger GP100 with a four inch barrel in .357 Mag” “A lever action and a revolver, you wanting to become a cowboy or something?” she giggled. He reached over and slapped her butt and “Yes’am, an I’m fix-in to treat you like one of them sexy dance hall girls.”
The next morning Tanya drove Matt to meet the couple at the title place. When they pulled in the truck was there, pulled off to the side of the parking lot. It had a trailer and a Polaris General side by side strapped down to it. “You bought that whole setup?” Matt smiled “Yep. That aluminum trailer is barely a year old and the side by side isn’t much older. It’s only got about a hundred and fifty hours on it. This guy took really good care of his stuff.” Pull over there next to him. As they pulled up, Matt put the tinted window down and as he did the guy saw it was him and did the same. After exchanging pleasantries Matt said “I guess you might be wanting some cash and then we can go inside and do the paperwork. Where’s the Mrs?” “Oh that’s her over there in the Corolla parked in front.” “Gotcha. Well here is what we agreed to. Please count it out and then I wrote up two sales receipts. One with the actual amount I’m paying you and then the one to show them inside. That good with you?” “Yes sir, that’ll be fine.”
When the guy finished counting the envelope he said “Every dollar. Thank you. Feels strange, I’ve never held this much cash before.” “Well you be careful with it. If you put it in the bank all at one time they are going to ask questions and make you fill out forms. You get pulled over with it and the cops might seize it claiming it’s drug money. You can say you just sold a truck or maybe you were on your way going to buy one, they just say prove it did come from drugs or illegal activities and it’s up to you to fight to prove otherwise. And good luck with that. That’s their little trick to steal you blind and to finance more of their illegal BS.. Anyway, just be careful with it.” “Thanks, I hadn’t thought of anything like that. Man and that is total bullshit but sounds just like something a lot of these damn departments would do. Oh hey, I have something in the back seat there, that is if you’re still interested in it, could you meet me halfway on the price? I also have an ammo can in there with maybe two hundred and fifty rounds, give or take. There’s three, thirty round mags and two twenty rounders that ill throw in. I also have a fifty round drum but that would be fifty more, I know I can sell it for that or more if not.” Matt only had to think for a second “Deal.” He pulled out his wallet and peeled out a few hundreds and some smaller bills and handed it to him. They signed the bill of sale and the man handed him two key fobs with attached keys. “Treat my baby well” he said. With that they headed for the office, Matt motioning Tanya to pull over to the building. About twenty minutes later they all walked out and shook hands and said farewell. Matt treated his lady to a hearty late breakfast at a dinner up the road before they began the 40 minute drive back to their place, him smiling and enjoying the feel of his new ride and looking forward to playing with his new side by.
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Post by sniper69 on Mar 25, 2023 7:21:22 GMT -6
Thanks for the excellent story, and looking forward to "the rest of the story". Looks like Matt is coming around from no guns to getting a few guns.
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