Lighten The Load and Unload, The Great Debate

We haven't had a garage sale in several years and we are well past due.

It's time to get rid of the clutter. That means endless debates with my pack rat husband.

We are at an age when we can't use the hundreds of things we used to use back when we were young.

Right now we're arguing about two propane fed deep fryers. Back in the day, Greg made awesome fried turkeys in those fryers.

We haven't used either of them in DECADES. (the second one he bought at a garage sale, but who knows why)

We still deep fry turkey, ducks, and the occasional quail, but I use a much smaller indoor fryer which I love dearly because it's so practical and easy to store.

Greg tells me the deep fryers will be handy in case we lose power for weeks/months. 

We've actually been without power for 3 weeks once so it's not unprecedented, but I can assure you that even if we were without power for six months, no one is going to use that fryer. No one's going to be doing any frying at all without oil.

These are the kind of arguments that go on in my house. His reasoning is sound, but you have to think of all the things that have to happen to make it feasible.

Motorcycles, yes, plural: The photo above is the scene of the greatest and longest ongoing argument. He has been promising to get rid of that motorcycle for YEARS. And worse, he has two.

Oy! That man is a royal pain, but he's my royal pain and I still love him.

Christmas: I have the most beautiful Christmas items. They are gorgeous, some vintage, and all precious. The chances of us ever doing up the house in Christmas splendor again is almost nil. We don't have children, we rarely have lots of people over, and it's way too much work to drag down a dozen totes from the attic.

Christmas is hard to sell at a garage sale, unless you're having the sale near the holiday. Ours won't be until spring. I'll keep back a few things to decorate mantels or sideboards, but the rest I'd happily donate to nieces and nephews if they promise to keep them in the family. I spent 50 years collecting those baubles.

Knick knacks: I've amassed all manner of decorative objects over the years. Some are retired, and others I swap out as the mood strikes me. I'm ready to pare down immensely. Beautiful they might be, but they're also dust collectors. 

I'd rather keep items I truly love and get rid of the excess. If we move to a smaller house in ten years, I won't need most of it.

Equipment: In the last garage sale we had, I managed to talk Greg into selling an engine hoist and one other contraption. It opened up a big space in his shop. I'm hoping he'll see reason and get rid of other things he hasn't used that take up a lot of space. 

There really comes a time when stuff weighs you down instead of helping you. The old adage is that if you haven't worn something in a year, you don't need it.

I'd like to add that if you haven't used something in five years, it's highly probable you never will.

That's never more true as you get older and more likely to hire people to do certain things.

Even at our age, we can still get up on ladders, down trees, and move brush, but there are limitations.

Speaking of useless things, we now have empty pens. What can we do with a large, empty animal pen? I've got firewood stacked in one shed.

I thought I might plant some fruit trees, but I'm not sure that's a good spot for them. We deliberately kept the pen treed to give the animals plenty of shade.

We're hoping in the spring to put up bee hives in the woods, but I have no plans for more big animals. 

What would you do with a 50 x 100 foot enclosure?

In other news:

Odin had his eye surgery. He looked miserable the first couple of days. I felt horrible having to put him through that, but by the third day he was feeling more like his old self.

He'll be in that cone for at least two weeks. I'll be happy if we can have everything back to normal by Christmas, but I don't know. We'll just have to see how that eye looks when we go back to remove his stitches.

His eyes are no longer symmetrical, which is a shame, but if it keeps his lid from rolling too far on that left corner, I don't care. I just want him comfortable.

By the way, he's killing us with that cone. I've got bruises up and down my legs from him ramming me.

We caught a break bringing him home. The vet techs left him in the gurney and they raised the gurney so it was level with the back of the truck. We pulled him into the truck by his blanket.

Even though they'd given him the reversal for the anesthetic, he slept through the 2 hour trip home and 8 more hours after that. I finally forced him to get up so he could walk around and breathe out some of that dopeyness. 

Odin does as he pleases because he's a mongo-sized dog and he can get away with it. Fortunately, I raised him to obey me without question, so even when he doesn't want to do something, he'll do it for me.

Amazon is changing their product links so I can't show you pictures anymore. Use any Amazon link on my pages to buy from Amazon. I am an Amazon Affiliate. Anything you buy from Amazon through my website allows me to earn an advertising fee, and I appreciate it.