Start of a New Week, Puttering at Home, Cupboard Purge, RC toys

On Monday, Aug. 14^th I woke up at 6:30 and since I’d gone to bed and dropped off right away at 9:45 I knew it was time to get up. Clemson joined me but only for a brief outing and then hopped back into bed. It feels chilly in the Suite sitting at 18C and it was only 13.6C outside that early. I opened things up, made my tea and closed the bedroom door so Bill could sleep.

Beautiful morning sky

This sky looks promising, at least not foggy like yesterday’s start. Could we get two nice days in a row? There is very little wind so this might encourage Bill to go visit the flying field in the Hanover area. While he prepares for that I have my own little jobs to do and I get right to work.

To the northeast

We have 6 upper cupboards on the slide out with our recliners and dining table/hutch. The first 3 when you enter the Suite are perfectly packed with only items that we use. The last 3 are filled, jam packed if you will, with plastic storage containers of all shapes and sizes as well as various water/juice jugs. I need to do some serious thinking.

After my purge

Also, on the underside of the table are 4 hutch cupboards which I absolutely love. These are great for things not used on a regular basis. One is actually our ever-changing ‘books-to-read’ storage with envelopes/address book/recipe book storage as well. We use this one a lot and yet it takes up no livable space. I’ve already purged my recipe books a couple of times and have a folder that needs to be cleaned out again. Another day.

The hutch cupboard beside my dining chair

The book storage cupboard

On the opposite side of the Suite is a large slideout with the tv/fireplace/dish & food cabinet/stove and fridge. Things here are pretty organized BUT I know that we have dishes (cups and glasses) that we don’t need, didn’t use this past year. I was trying to have an extra few cups/glasses on hand for visitors and really, more than a couple extra is too much. I’ll drink out of a bowl if I have to just to accommodate rather than cart excess stuff around for those rare occasions.

So much better in my dish cupboard

Knowing what I have to accomplish, I set to work emptying the plastics cupboard. It doesn’t take me long to decide what to keep, what is give-away acceptable and what is recyclable. Once when Bill came in I asked his opinion on a few things and I honestly think he was shocked at my ruthlessness! When he saw me wrestling with an item, he calmly and sweetly said “then keep it, you don’t have to get rid of 

things you love”. Be still my heart. 💗

this is only the beginning of my purge

With our island counter filled to capacity I realized that I don’t even have a box to put the stuff in to take for donation. Hmm, I had to double up some bags to get it all out of here.

In the middle I stopped for an egg and zucchini for my brunch

Some items that I have chosen to keep will go into the bunky right now for storage as I will only use them when we are parked here at The Ridge. Things like my little sealer jars for jam and apple sauce.

this drawer is opened and closed a lot

 My food processor will also go out there to see if I miss it at all over the winter. I doubt it now that I have picked up a good blender, which I use a lot. Next summer I can make the final decision. Trying to be reasonable, sensible all that stuff but at the same time trying to get the overall trailer weight down, I wonder how much of a difference the clothes and dishes actually make? No easy way to weigh it as I ship it out.

spice drawer
My rule: if it doesn't fit in here, I probably don't need it
ps - I do have a tall floor to ceiling narrow cupboard beside the fridge for bigger bottles

Bill left at 11:45 after having a sandwich for his lunch and it was kind of neat seeing Black Beauty pulling the cargo trailer. It has been over a year since he has done that. I’m hoping that he isn’t disappointed at the club and is able to meet some other rc flyers. As I walked to the restroom earlier I had a peek behind our car shelter (under which the c t sits) to see the other little shelter Bill put up. This is a great idea to put his table under and work on planes for the rest of the summer.

My pantry at the end of our island

So, while he was gone I continued emptying cupboards and even checked the spice drawer. Probably 1/3 of these spices I only use once in a blue moon but with the cost of the darn things, I’m not getting rid of them. Next project, maybe tomorrow, is to empty and clean out my fridge. This is a much easier process in the Suite than it ever was in our house. Things don’t sit in this one near as long.

Clemson and I sat outside reading, well, I read, he snoozed. When the sun became too warm I could feel myself wanting to close the book and doze off. I put the awnings out and pulled out my ‘new’ lounge chair and put the quilt on it for comfort. A quilt never seems to get hot the way other blankets do so we relaxed on that around 2:30.

My morning view

Little piggy Chippy eating the nuts and seeds

No sooner did we put it into an almost full recline when I heard Bill coming down North Line with the trailer. Clemson gets so excited when someone comes in and as much as we’re sure he won’t run in front of the vehicle’s tires, I tried to hold him still until Bill backed up. Well, what a feat that was! He was just squirming like crazy and finally I released him to go greet his Daddy.

My feet were cool this morning so I wore my 'Aunt Mary' slippers
Hand made :)

Bill had a good time even though only the club president was there when he arrived. He flew his Timberwolf, the electric plane and his Cub so that will be the first time this year at an actual flying field. It is nice to see him get back into it even though it is late in the summer. He has the ‘toys’, he may as well make the best of them.

After he got home he did some more puttering and I went up and started trimming tree branches up on the hill. I started this after noticing that the vine that I’ve dealt with down at the road is attacking those trees. I pulled and tugged until the vine either broke or released its hold. That was when I noticed many dead tree branches and others too low for Bill to cut grass under easily. snip snip, they're gone!

Holding Clemson while Bill drives up the lane

We sat and had a cold drink when Bill decided to get the sun shade out. With the cement blocks that we brought from the house a year ago, he will create a temporary/permanent (figure that out!) brace to tie down the corners of the shade. 

Our sun shade and side shade

My outdoor chef

Not sure what this bush is

wildflower down our lane

That done for the moment he installed the end shade that we bought in Yuma at the same time. It isn’t a perfect cover if you have a group sitting out there but for the two of us, it will work better than nothing.

The empty space with Bill's new canopy set up at the back

At 5 Clem got his supper and I remained outside with my book. It is a good one for sure so hard to put down. We lit the Weber Q around 6 to bbq our chicken breasts and a chop for Bill. We washed the corn and wrapped it in foil and butter to put on as well. I made up a salad to go along with it. That was plenty of food and it was delicious!

I didn't need the heat but I wanted to burn some of our documents that
we couldn't recycle

With the outside temperatures hovering around 24C at 6:45 I decided another walk down the lane and maybe another stab at a few chapters of my book were in order. 

Mama watches me watch her feed her baby

The sun hasn’t been prominent all day but it has been a wonderful day with few clouds and light breezes. The humidity here seems low, it actually feels like the thermometer reads.

We were enjoying this beautiful day

When I felt cool, instead of putting a light jacket on I put the quilt away and came inside. I was tempted to curl up on the bed in the bunky when I popped in there. It was so cozy! I snapped a couple of sky pictures and thought I’d finish my post.

My supper tonight
Bill had a butt chop instead of the chicken

I hope you have enjoyed your day too.

Good night from The Ridge

Thank you for popping in today for a read. I love to get your comments.