What goes in must come out

The couch provides better scale; they don't look so big on the wall!

After driving ~1700 miles straight through by taking turns at the wheel, my guys got home at 11:00 last Friday night. Saturday night Rick brought in two of the three things on my list to bring back – the bigger set of longhorns and an antique German wall clock that had hung in my parents' living room (item #3 is a four-drawer file cabinet; our two-drawer file cabinet has long been insufficient for our record-keeping). We knew where the longhorns would go, and installing them was quickly accomplished. The wall clock needs some work, but we know where it will likely hang. That left the vast majority of the truck and trailer contents to be unloaded Sunday so the rentals could be returned by Monday morning, so for Fathers Day, Rick and Brian worked on that. Brian loaded his pickup with tools to take to work, Rick stored a few things here and there, but a lot of it is now taking up his parking bay in the garage. At the end of the day, Brian invited a couple friends out to drool over his 'haul,' and they started a campfire under a fiery sky:

In order to move the file cabinet upstairs to the bonus room I needed to clear the way. First, the stairs. All three of us have put books there instead of carrying them up to the library shelves (along with papers to file, etc.), but the shelves are full to overflowing already. So I pulled a bunch of books to take to GoodWill, along with clutter from elsewhere like old toys and sports equipment; the first load got donated on Monday. Next I cleared off and around our two-drawer file cabinet so it can be moved out and the four-drawer can take its place. I'm hoping that will happen tonight, so tomorrow I can file a lot of papers lying in stacks around the bonus room. Step-by-step, my One Big Thing of 2024 is moving forward! Here are the before and after photos of the stairway:

We had another cool, wet weekend (Sunday didn't reach 60°!) that's transitioning to summertime temps in the upper 80s. My garden doesn't seem to mind the roller coaster; everything is growing well. I took progress photos of both this morning, pulled some weeds, and ate some delicious parsley and tender kale for my efforts.

I'm getting excited about Black Sheep Gathering coming up the last weekend of this month. It's the 50th anniversary of the event, so several "Jenkins junkies" (those who love to collect and use Jenkins Turkish spindles) are making a special effort to come, and quite a few of us are making up 5g bundles of fiber as trading cards of sorts. I'm proxy-shopping again for those not fortunate enough to be able to shop for these special spindles in person, and providing transportation from the Portland airport to Albany for a 'junkie' flying in from Germany. We might even swing by here on our way so she can meet the sheep. 😁

That's it for now from . . .