A Non Sentimental Mood

    Do you ever get like that - non-sentimental?  It happens to me a few times a year and when it does everyone else here wants to head for the hills.  Usually I'm a very sentimental person, holding on to bits and pieces of life for no logical reason.  Then it happens - a major non-sentimental moment of tossing and recycling.  May hit me in the basement, the kitchen, or the bedrooms.  You just never know.  Well, it happened earlier this week and seemed to not let go so I designated yesterday as garage clean out day.  Yes, I did not go to the farmers market.  No, I don't feel bad about it.  Yes, I missed visiting with other vendors and folks that visit, but this purge of stuff had to be done.
    Here is my thinking on the garage clean out...we're in a severe drought.  We are already having to feed hay to the sheep and horses, which is not normal.  We have now not cut our grass in a month, which of course the kids are estatic about.  We worry about the water level in the well, which is a mystery, and the pond drying up more and more every day.  I also see another hay shortage, worse than last year.  What happened this past late winter and early spring is folks ran out of hay due to lack of it the summer before and then there was not much to be found.  What was around went up in price 100% when it could be found and people had to make very  hard decisions on their animals/livelihood.  Nothing like a mid-sized really gave us a work-out pushing it out to the field round bale going for $30 in the fall and then a smaller light as air bale from the same person selling for $60 in February.  Yes, it is true...and it was weedy and had prickers and I even found plastic in it.  Ok, so that's neithe here nor there now, but that was the case then.  
    Ok, off my soap box and back to the story...  Bright and very early yesterday morning we began operation clean out the garage day.  So what if we were to hit the upper 90's and possibly 100.  So what if we usually do this chore in the fall.  Why waste a beautiful fall day sweating when we could sweat yesterday.  Besides, I bribed the troops with a swim at Deer Creek State Park and a cookout there with burgers and dogs then a stop at Frosties for ice cream cones afterwards.  No, the bribery didn't really work because they still didn't want to do it, but I'm queen of this here farm and I designated it clean out the garage day.  Everyone would fall in line, do their job, and then appreciate that swim and meal!      
    We hauled just about everything out, which is a lot considering I couldn't even get the van in there if I wanted to.  I may have been able to if it was really necessary, but that would have meant me picking up every scrap of wood and tool Hon and the kids have used and not put back over the past oh, say, 8 months.  We swept, we sorted, the kids went through toy boxes that hadn't seen the light of day in years.  It was crazy!  We went on search and destroy the mouse houses, bomb the bug bungalos, and played stomp the big hairy spiders.  Then before we knew it...ok, so it was about six hours later...the garage was clean (or as clean as it was going to get).
    We now have a garage that has space for the van if I want to put it in there.  We also have, what my ultimate goal was, to have another area to stack hay and straw.  There are not a lot of hay storage options in the red barn and the barn because they are small.  This gives us another place, which I think we're really going to need.  And yes, I did make good on swimming at Deer Creek State Park, a burger and dog cookout while there, and ice cream at Frosties afterwards.  Oh, and on an end note, we actually have a storm brewing and I. Put. The. Van. In. The. Garage.  Now the big question is will we see rain?  Smiling & Waving, Sharon