Thursday, April 27, 2006
Fun in Cheeseland
This past weekend (which seems like an eternity ago now) was quite fun. The Wife and I headed up to my family cabin in Wisconsin with my mother. The cabin has been in my family for practically my entire life. It used to be just a run-down mobile home with shag carpeting. But it was right on Lake Winnebago, which was extremely nice when we were kids. A few years ago, my parents actually built a big house up there. That's extremely nice now that we're adults.
The weekend was generally spent doing work all over the place. You see, my father was a bit of a pack-rat. He hated throwing anything away. Part of that was actually rational. You see, he used to be a welder. So there were a lot of things he could fix or make out of metal. But his children are, generally speaking, boobs. Smart? Yes. Good with our hands? Not necessarily. (Unless you count my brother, the Vet, who operates on animals. But I haven't checked his mortality statistics of late.) We're not quite as clumsy as I make it sound. But the only thing we can do with rebar is have a familial javelin competition.
Anyway, since my dad passed away, we've been slowly getting rid of the stuff he used to horde. It took about a year to clean out my mom's old house. (Not that my mom should get off the hook either. If my dad was a pack-rat, my mom is a pack-mouse.) We've had our hands full at the cabin. The problem was that my parents built this beautiful house. Then they filled the yard with junk, like an old boat lift and an old snomobile trailer. Then they heaped junk on top of the junk. And our cabin looked more and more like Sanford & Sons every day.
Well, last year we were able to get rid of a lot of the junk. Then over New Year's weekend, I took my Sawzall to a 4-place snowmobile trailer that had virtually fallen apart. If you've never used a Sawzall, it kicks complete ass. I was able to saw through solid steel and rip the trailer apart. (It couldn't be towed out because the trailer had sunk into the ground. And the tires had all fallen off anyway.) So I put the old trailer into another snomobile trailer. (What? You don't have multiple snowmobile trailers? What's wrong with you?)
Anyway, there the trailer sat until just this weekend when I was able to haul it to the local scrap metal yard. I love that place. (You know you have problems when you frequent a scrap metal yard in rural Wisconsin.) We affectionately call the woman who works there "Guns" because her arms are bigger than my legs. And she's not a big woman. I'm guessing she weighs 150 pounds of solid muscle. Cute too. But not the type I'd like to meet in a dark alley. And I'd certainly watch my sexist comments if she were anywhere in listening distance. In fact, she's probably got super hearing. So no more sexist comments ever.
After dropping off the "trailer," we picked up some sand for the sand box that my brother built. Of course, we got way too much sand. So there was a little Mt. Everest of sand poking up from the sand box. Luke didn't much like the sandbox, and I'm thinking he was intimidated by the mountain. It's tamed much wilder beasts than he. (Sorry, I felt like the token old man in an adventure story for a second.)
He did seem to enjoy the swingset we put up though. My brother (the Vet) and his family are moving in about a week. They had a swingset in their backyard that wouldn't fit in their new one. Since I have the BFT, they asked me if I wanted to haul the swingset up to Wisconsin. It seemed like a no-brainer. So The Wife and I put that together right next to the sand box. Luke was quite happy about that since it has his very favorite thing in the whole wide world: a slide.
Then I got the Bobcat out. The Bobcat is a great piece of machinery that can make anyone who sits behind a desk all day feel like they actually do something. In fact, I wish they'd come out with a Bobcat videogame so I could feel productive at home too. Anyway, now that the snowmobile trailer and other assorted junk are gone, there are lots of empty spots in the yard. By "empty," I mean "lacking grass and missing a lot of dirt." Fortunately, there was a huge pile of dirt behind our pole barn. (Which iswhere we keep our boat and various other outdoor stuff that won't fit in our 3-car garage. Sigh.) So I used the Bobcat to fill in the empty spots. The Wife and my mom then spread grass seed all about.
Overall, it was a very productive weekend. We got the swingset up, filled the sandbox, got rid of junk, spread dirt and grass seed. Next time we go up, we have a couple trees to plant. But other than that, we can just sit back and enjoy the yard. Until we start finishing the basement.
The weekend was generally spent doing work all over the place. You see, my father was a bit of a pack-rat. He hated throwing anything away. Part of that was actually rational. You see, he used to be a welder. So there were a lot of things he could fix or make out of metal. But his children are, generally speaking, boobs. Smart? Yes. Good with our hands? Not necessarily. (Unless you count my brother, the Vet, who operates on animals. But I haven't checked his mortality statistics of late.) We're not quite as clumsy as I make it sound. But the only thing we can do with rebar is have a familial javelin competition.
Anyway, since my dad passed away, we've been slowly getting rid of the stuff he used to horde. It took about a year to clean out my mom's old house. (Not that my mom should get off the hook either. If my dad was a pack-rat, my mom is a pack-mouse.) We've had our hands full at the cabin. The problem was that my parents built this beautiful house. Then they filled the yard with junk, like an old boat lift and an old snomobile trailer. Then they heaped junk on top of the junk. And our cabin looked more and more like Sanford & Sons every day.
Well, last year we were able to get rid of a lot of the junk. Then over New Year's weekend, I took my Sawzall to a 4-place snowmobile trailer that had virtually fallen apart. If you've never used a Sawzall, it kicks complete ass. I was able to saw through solid steel and rip the trailer apart. (It couldn't be towed out because the trailer had sunk into the ground. And the tires had all fallen off anyway.) So I put the old trailer into another snomobile trailer. (What? You don't have multiple snowmobile trailers? What's wrong with you?)
Anyway, there the trailer sat until just this weekend when I was able to haul it to the local scrap metal yard. I love that place. (You know you have problems when you frequent a scrap metal yard in rural Wisconsin.) We affectionately call the woman who works there "Guns" because her arms are bigger than my legs. And she's not a big woman. I'm guessing she weighs 150 pounds of solid muscle. Cute too. But not the type I'd like to meet in a dark alley. And I'd certainly watch my sexist comments if she were anywhere in listening distance. In fact, she's probably got super hearing. So no more sexist comments ever.
After dropping off the "trailer," we picked up some sand for the sand box that my brother built. Of course, we got way too much sand. So there was a little Mt. Everest of sand poking up from the sand box. Luke didn't much like the sandbox, and I'm thinking he was intimidated by the mountain. It's tamed much wilder beasts than he. (Sorry, I felt like the token old man in an adventure story for a second.)
He did seem to enjoy the swingset we put up though. My brother (the Vet) and his family are moving in about a week. They had a swingset in their backyard that wouldn't fit in their new one. Since I have the BFT, they asked me if I wanted to haul the swingset up to Wisconsin. It seemed like a no-brainer. So The Wife and I put that together right next to the sand box. Luke was quite happy about that since it has his very favorite thing in the whole wide world: a slide.
Then I got the Bobcat out. The Bobcat is a great piece of machinery that can make anyone who sits behind a desk all day feel like they actually do something. In fact, I wish they'd come out with a Bobcat videogame so I could feel productive at home too. Anyway, now that the snowmobile trailer and other assorted junk are gone, there are lots of empty spots in the yard. By "empty," I mean "lacking grass and missing a lot of dirt." Fortunately, there was a huge pile of dirt behind our pole barn. (Which iswhere we keep our boat and various other outdoor stuff that won't fit in our 3-car garage. Sigh.) So I used the Bobcat to fill in the empty spots. The Wife and my mom then spread grass seed all about.
Overall, it was a very productive weekend. We got the swingset up, filled the sandbox, got rid of junk, spread dirt and grass seed. Next time we go up, we have a couple trees to plant. But other than that, we can just sit back and enjoy the yard. Until we start finishing the basement.
