Working Our Plan, Summer 2017

Amador County Fair, July 2017

Amador County Fair, July 2017

I can’t blame a busy calendar filled with travels and entertainment for not having blogged in three months – just a shortage of inspiration. Outside of two or three trips to Carson City to clean out two storage rooms each the size of a single-car garage filled with documents from Verne’s days at Hayes Engineering and a half day spent at the Amador County Fair (that hardly counts as entertainment), we’ve been homebodies this summer only leaving to grocery shop. 

Billy Goat Gruff, Amador County Fair

For ten years now we’ve had a two-year plan to downsize (do the math and you’ll understand why this has become a family joke), but it’s only been recently that we’ve decided to make moving a priority and started working our plan with a vengeance (that word might be a little strong). At the top of the list is Verne’s barn. Actually, the contents in and around Verne’s barn. As I wrote in my June blog, his last big barn project is the 50 Chevy pickup restoration. I’m pleased to report Verne has made significant progress on the restoration spending a few hours every day working on the old truck. Occasionally I even help when he needs a second set of hands. Mostly, I just keep a watchful eye on him, encourage and take pictures of the progress. 

Had I known the complexity (and expense) of restoring the old basket-case, I would have emphatically supported Verne when he tried to discourage Jeff on the idea. We’re too far into it now to look back, so we just plod forward taking each new problem as it comes. There’s not a single thing on this old truck that doesn’t need some sort of repair or replacement. It had 20-years of hard use on the farm in Washington, has been moved a dozen times over the years, stored outside in less-than favorable conditions for its entire life, and was literally in pieces when this project began. The best part of the truck is the engine as Verne had it restored 30 years ago by a former automotive client when he was working as a CPA in SoCal. As for a current status report, the engine, transmission, radiator and exhaust system have been repaired (if needed), painted and assembled, installed and secured to the chassis. The cab still hangs from the rafters in the barn, but the firewall has been sanded, primed and painted with the body color (blue) this past weekend. The wheels have been primed and painted and will be re-mounted this week. The next job will be to lower the cab onto the chassis, secure it, and at that point the pickup will again be mobile and we can push it in and out of the barn to complete its restoration by next spring. That’s the plan anyway.

Attaching driveshaft

Painting the firewall and rims

This past week I woke up one morning from a nightmare. My heart was racing from the stress of it. I was in a classroom with about a dozen master food preservers. I recognized one person and she angrily told me that I had signed up to teach that morning’s public class, but nobody had agreed to help me with it. One by one each MFP walked out leaving me alone with a pallet of fresh meat (getting warm and spoiling) in the middle of the room. Weird. (Doubly weird because during my involvement with the MFP program I’ve never taught a class on preserving meat.) I don’t need a shrink to interpret my dream. From my training during the spring of 2014 to my last assignment in June 2017 when I was coerced into teaching a fermentation class at the MFP statewide conference in Davis, I have been consumed by all things related to food preservation. It has been a rewarding experience and I’m a better person, in general, for having participated in this volunteer program. But, enough is enough and I decided earlier this summer that it’s time to recharge and refocus my energy, get back to my hobbies that I’ve neglected, and actively work on our plan to downsize. While I resigned from the MFP program July 1st, I haven’t given up food preservation entirely and have still managed to put by several dozen jars of food this summer. Rather than out of obligation and duty to the program, it has been by choice. I’ve had fun experimenting with new flavor combinations and teasing the rigid boundaries set by the MFP program. I believe two new variations of fig jam made with pears, peaches, and white wine and a French prune plum jam with Ruby port will prove to be family (and friends) favorites.

I’ve used some of the extra time I've gained from giving up my volunteer work to reacquaint myself with my sewing machine and have been working on brainless, but satisfying, projects that use up my stash of fabric. Anyone who knows me (and my stash) knows that it will take more than a few small projects to use it up, but every little bit helps! An expensive problem with the electronics on my long-arm quilting machine has kept me out of the cabin and away from quilting all summer. That’s probably okay, because without air conditioning the cabin, my studio, is not a happy place when it’s hot. As of this week the Gammill is repaired and my plan is to begin working on the backlog of quilt tops. Stored in an armoire, some have not seen the light of day in years. Once finished, I’ll have to decide whether or not I should keep the long-arm machine. At this time, I’m not sure how the 10-foot table (an integral part of the long-arm machine) fits into our plan to downsize as it requires a dedicated room with a minimum width of 12-14 feet. A house with a basement? Or a great room? That’s a decision for another day.