Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Saturday is the only day we're both off work, so we try to make it count.  The big project this past Saturday was to move the food stores from their present location to the new area we had prepared.  It took us most of the morning to get it all moved, but we got it done.  The new storage area is a bit closer to the house which is a big bonus for me.  As the primary cook and shopper for this outfit, I'm the one that is usually in and out of there on a regular basis.  The biggest bonus for Yeoldfurt is having his shop back.  I believe every man should have his own shop, and he ought not have to share the space for any purpose than his own. 

We were pretty pleased with ourselves for having accomplished a big goal, but then some unexpected trouble with one of the vehicles threatened to put a damper on the mood.  We got ready to go into town for supper to celebrate our anniversary this past week, only to discovered there was a problem with one of the trucks.  The big truck is a diesel and, hence, has two batteries ...both dead as doornails.  Dead batteries certainly explained the truck refusing to start, but it does have over 100,000 miles on it and all of the components of the starting system are still factory original.  So since we have towing coverage on our insurance, we decided the best course of action was to have it towed to the shop Monday morning and have everything checked out.  We are both scheduled to work on Mondays, but one of us would have to stay home to meet the wrecker and wait on the truck.  Yeoldfurt is off on Tuesdays and could have requested to switch his days so he could be home on Monday.  But if something besides the batteries was wrong, it might take longer than the one day and we would have the same transportation problem on Tuesday.  I've been at my job almost two years and have plenty personal leave accrued so we decided I would be the one to stay home.  I'll drive the other truck to work tomorrow and stop by the shop on the way home to pay the bill.  Then Yeoldfurt and I will go back to town tomorrow evening to bring the other truck home so we can both go to work Wednesday morning.  

After Yeoldfurt left for work Sunday morning, I set about organizing the food in the new space and doing a real inventory.  Our goal is to accumulate and maintain a 6-12 month food supply.  We don't count what's in the cupboards in the house on the inventory.  Once an item leaves the storage area, it's subtracted from the inventory even if we don't use it up in the house for a week or month.   The new storage is also a lot more space which makes organizing and keeping track of what we have a whole lot easier.  The new storage room is approximately 12 x 12, with sturdy wooden shelves on three of the walls.  The shelves run the full length on two of the walls, and 18 inches short of the length on the third wall.  I use that unshelved bit of wall to hang a wisk broom, dustpan and store a step ladder.  We have two plastic shelving units in the room as well.  One of them is set up with four shelves and the other is set up as two separate two shelf units that I placed underneath the wooden shelves.  I have stored non-edibles such as cleaning supplies, aluminum foil, sterno, and assorted soaps and shampoos on all the lower plastic shelves.  The rest of the food items are organized by categories that make sense to me since I am the one that will usually be looking for what I need.  The only items that still remain to be moved are paper goods ...the ever-important toilet paper and convenience items such as paper towel, paper plates and paper bowls.  We will store a year's supply in plastic crates but since those items don't 'expire' like food stuffs, we won't rotate them when I do grocery shopping.  Home-canned foods will be stored in the house for now simply because I have the space and it's more convenient to put them in the cupboard after I process them, than to tote them all down to the food storage room. 

So it was a good weekend as far as accomplishing what we set out to do, and a frustrating weekend because of unexpected vehicle expenses.  Two steps forward, one step back.  But as much as I dislike having to spend money on unexpected repairs, I'm grateful that both trucks are paid for and have been for years.  The occasional repair bill is a whole lot easier to swallow than monthly truck payments.