Ghosts and Gravel/Blog Hop!

...OR....the first "I told ya so, Dan" of the building process. What? I'm the only woman who does that? Get outta here.

Dan is a garage guy. Oh, he is Mr. Mensa business man by day, but by night? He is the garage guy of all garage guys. He has lifts, jacks, air compressors that take 6 men to move, 3 different Snap-On Tool boxes and every single tool known to man. He has a place for every single wrench, every drill bit and every screw driver. He loves his tools so much. It's like the tool becomes part of his DNA as soon as he touches it.  He can feel it in his soul when one is not in the right place, and he goes into shock and wants to call John Walsh and put the missing tool's picture on a milk carton. His father was the same exact way. Every tool was like a diamond.

He cringes at the sight of my "tools". I use butter knives for screw drivers, steak knives for a Phillip's head, and I have been known to use a chunky heeled clog for a hammer. Hey- this gal can improvise.

Our current "man-garage" is 1800 sq. ft. And it is full. He has a motorcycle, dirt bike, a boat, his Jeep, the lift and all the other stuff listed above in our current garage. At one point, he had an experimental airplane shoved in there. Thank God he finally sold that silver coffin. The plan at the new place is to have 3 garages. One for farm equipment, one for his manly man stuff. The other garage will be attached to the house. It will be just for cars...like normal people. Except we are not normal.

The small garage was finished a few weeks ago. I told Dan the area he had staked off looked a bit on the small size. "Woman, you let me take care of the garages." Yeah...sometimes, he calls me "woman". Hello, 1860!

Guess what? "Woman" was right. He will be able to put his tractor in the small garage, but that's about it. Oopsie. Hope he never wants a bigger tractor! That would be like trying to squeeze a Squatch foot into a sample sized stiletto.

"Do you have this in a 43 wide?"

I really did feel bad for him. I told him it was an easy mistake to make, and that he will just have to make the "man-garage" even bigger- because he NEEDS it to be bigger.  Make it a garagemahal. Problem solved.

So from now on, I will tell him that it is always best to go bigger. Especially a bigger in-ground pool, a bigger kitchen, a bigger craft/sewing room, and of course, a bigger Wolf range. Because they NEED to be bigger. Size matters. ;)

Today is the 15th anniversary of Dan's father's passing. 15 years. He was only 55 years old when he died. It makes me so sad that Dan's youngest sister's children will never know their Grandfather. He was a good, hard working man who loved his family and his faith. He raised such a wonderful son, and for that, I send a big "Thank you" up to the heavens. I know he is watching the progress on our new place, and I know he is laughing because his son didn't take my advice about the "too small garage".

We now have a driveway!!

Last week, when we were walking the property and looking at the new gravel on the driveway, and the too-small garage, I got a little emotional. I was thinking about Dan's Dad and how I wished he was here to see our new farm. He would have loved it. Tractor Dan asked why I looked like I was going to cry. 

I told him that I was just feeling blessed and thinking about how far we had come. We were 18 year old kids right out of high school when we got married. (sssshhhh....I was preggers, but don't tell anyone) We had 3 children by the time we were 22 years old. I stayed at home with the girls while he worked full time, and then went straight to night college after work. He went to school 4 nights a week and on Saturdays, and received his bachelor's in only 4 years. We were poor as church mice, and at times, prayed for the phone to ring and have someone ask us over to dinner....and they always did. We sacrificed and did without the finer things for MANY years. No vacations, no "name brand" anything, no fancy cars. But we had love and determination, and it worked. 

I told him that I was thinking about his Dad, and how much he would have loved it. "Yeah....let's go", was his response. He doesn't like to think about his Dad being gone, even after all these years. 

I took out my phone and snapped some pictures of the "too small garage" and the new gravel so I could put it into our progress album, and then got into the Jeep to come home. 

Im not a huge believer in the supernatural, but I know there are some things that are unexplainable. Things do happen. I supposedly at one time lived in a haunted house, although I never witnessed anything out of the ordinary. I believe in angels, and I believe in the opposite as well. When I got home and started looking at my phone pictures, I saw this:

"Who ya gonna call...."

Of course, my intelligent brain took over..."It's just a reflection from the too small garage, dork, no need to call Ghost Hunters". Except there was nothing there...there is no water around, we haven't had rain in weeks. There was no metal in that spot...there was nothing in that area where the "thing" appeared. Kinda spooky, really.

Looks a bit like the ghost of Cousin It, or even Grimace. No, you cannot have my fries, you big purple blob! My Mom, who is the lover of all things freaky, told me it's Dan's Dad, especially since I took this picture right after I was talking about him. Dan just thinks I need a new phone. I don't know who or what it is, but I wasn't scared. If it was a ghost, he better get used to us, because we're not leaving. He better be ready to help me clean the pool, work the garden, and fetch me a cold one! Kidding....kinda. 

The Most Interesting Ghost in the World?

This week, we will be meeting one more time with our architect. He had a few small changes to my plan, so we will be looking at what he came up with. I am almost finished packing things that need to be removed before we list our house, and we should be ready to sell in about 2 weeks. I am also meeting with a cabinet maker to show him ideas for our new kitchen. I will let him know it's ok to "go big or go home".

I'm "hopping" today as well, over at Must Love Junk's blog!