Sunday on Stauffer
Could we please have temps such as we have today . . . until the first frost!
As you have surmised, I have been on a mission of lightening our load here on Stauffer Avenue. Things have been really clicking right along. What we have no need of seems to be filling the bill for others. There is a carpenter, Mr. Ibarra, that took a huge amount of brick from us last year. I had at one point used brick to outline all the flower beds. Hmm. The flower beds have been dwindling and the bricks got piled beside the potting shed. When we began cleaning the inside of the potting shed, low and behold . . . there were more bricks. Yup, Mr. Ibarra to the rescue. As Vicente was inside the potting shed loading up brick, he checked out a patio door that we had in storage. Several times he would stop and ask if he could measure it and give it another look-see. All the bricks that we had were given to him. Vicente was bricking the entire front of his home and our bricks filled his need perfectly. We had set a price for the door. The price was firm as the door was in pristine condition and we had been checking out the price of such doors as well. Today Vicente Ibarra closed the deal on the door and came with cash in hand. He is returning tomorrow at three to pick it up. Perfect match when a seller and a buyer agree on the deal.
As I have been cleaning out, today we had an addition added to our home. Dennis has been helping his friend Dwayne as Dwayne and his wife are moving into an apartment here in St. James. Dennis had shared with me that there was a gun cabinet that Dwayne had put together in times past and he had it in his basement. Now there was no room in the inn, in their newly acquired apartment and his children didn’t want it. “Oh, it will fit right into my bedroom and I can take the gun racks that are on the wall and have them all in one place. It’s really not that big.” I kept looking at the three gun racks put up here and there in the bedroom and counting ensued. I said nothing as Dennis and Dwayne have been buds all their lives and I didn’t want to burst anyone’s bubble, as these two fellows had this perfectly-planned scheme going. I thought if things came down to it, maybe it wouldn’t be anything huge or perhaps not even sturdy to make the move from Dwayne’s farm home to our home in town.
The gun cabinet was delivered today. Oh my gosh! It was set right in the middle of our living room and those that delivered it left. I had felt pads on hand to set it on and Dennis and I would then be able to move it around easily. Dennis took a powder into the patio porch and I stood in the middle of the living room with this newly acquired “not very big” gun cabinet. That was a smart move on Dennis’ part. It is 6′ tall and 4′ wide. It is oak plywood and done very well. Hmm. No way was there room in Dennis’ bedroom. Dennis’ comeback was that it didn’t look that big in Dwayne’s basement. I suppose not when the basement is 20′ x 40′. This afternoon, I have been working in our home, making room for Dennis’s gun cabinet. Why not! It’s not as if we need to seat a lot of company at one time. We will still be able to have family sit around the dining room table when they come. We have always needed to move furniture for such occasions. I can make this work . . . and I did.
This cabinet made for Dennis to get all his stuff in one place. With the storage doors on the bottom, it was amazing where different shell boxes of Dennis’ appeared from. I had known that when I put Dennis’ laundry away, there would be a small plastic case holding shells here and there. Well, let me tell you, everything has been sorted and put into this one location in our living room. I was amazed when the guns were brought to the living room from the patio porch, his bedroom and I think even the garage. I was brave. I didn’t ask if there were anymore. After all, I have a sewing studio.
We are winding down this day in good stead. I hope everyone else has had this wonderful blessed day to enjoy being outside, traveling where they needed to or just mellowing out. I can tell you, I have on my hands a very mellow, content cowboy this late afternoon. My hope is that Dwayne doesn’t have anymore to share with his lifelong buddy – at least not large things.