Jeepcats27
Senior Member
Awww you have one gutsy character here! Thanks for the update! what kind of soups is Edie making?
Story Edie (Complete)
- Thread starter Kathy in FL
- Start date
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Anther big thank you.
beaglemama
Contributing Member
Thanks, Kathy!
20Gauge
TB Fanatic
Note
Note: victim restitution should not have any taxes taken out. It is a "repaying of expenses", thus should not be taxable.
I'll have to re-read what I wrote, dead dog tired at the moment. However, the Clerk of the Court do take fees out of the money before the money is distributed. The debt that the restitution lien creates is non-dischargeable, however people who pay the restitution generally can claim them as a tax deduction. Federally the restitution generally isn't taxed except if you made some other loss claim ... for instance you get paid restitution on a stolen car that you made an insurance claim on or got some kind of depreciation on.
However, there is another potential issue. Similar to social security, at a state level it can be added to your gross income and if it goes over a certain amount it creates a "taxable" income.
I am neither a lawyer nor accountant, however I have had to deal with restitution. A guy t-boned my husband's work van during a criminal chase. He was granted restitution for the lost of the van ... it was totaled as were some tools in the van. No medical expenses thank you Creator of All. But the restitution was never paid and the guy died while out on bail. It could have been a problem but the question for us was moot. But our accountant at the time said we'd need to see what came of it, how it was paid, where our other insurance fit into the situation.
Bottom line generally no, but there are situations where it can be taxed. Same with insurance pay outs. Generally and usually they are not taxable but there are situations where they are taxable. Makes my head hurt and that's why we have a lawyer and an accountant on speed dial.
20Gauge
TB Fanatic
Yep, they are taxed only when it is for things like pain and suffering. If it is restitution, that is to replace a loss and would not be taxable. People have the habit of calling it all restitution when it is not.
In this case, what she is getting would be tax free as she had medical bills, and if you really push it on going bills from having the child, ( food etc ) that is a result of the issue she experienced. You just have to declare it on your taxes with the "expenses"
But like you indicated, if it is for mental stress alone, it is taxable.
Sorry, I was not referring to the fees they take.
accountant
Contributing Member
Thank you Kathy for continuing Edie's journey.
A.
A.
Chapter 36
I shut everything out and worked on my report until Teena threw her binky at me making me look up. Little stinker was standing in her crib smiling. When she saw she had my attention she said, “Num, num, num.”
I looked over and saw that at some point Winn had fallen asleep with his ear buds in. I also realized the room felt cooler despite the fire still going. I got up and picked my daughter up and she started pulling at my shirt and I had to juggle her a little bit so I wouldn’t be putting on a show in case Winn woke up.
After putting another log on the fire and setting a percolator of water near it to warm I finally crawled back on the bed and pulled a blanket around us so I could feed the bottomless pit with some modesty.
I was glad that the entire terrorize-me-out-of-a-decade-of-life was over, and that Teena was feeling better, but I was also glad that after being fed that she seemed ready to sack out for another power nap. I’d finished the term paper and was plowing through all the assignments that had been forgotten about while Teena was in the hospital. I was caught up and trying to move through the rest of it when my laptop started telling me it was running out of juice. Great. I saved my work, checked my phone for anything that couldn’t wait to be taken care of, then decided to work on my paper notes.
Eventually you just have to get over yourself and the messes that sometimes get made or you’re just going to sit and spin and make more messes only with less excuse. And when you have to figure out how to do things without electricity and running water, it uses up a lot of the time you might otherwise have to sit around feeling sorry for yourself. And did you know that water can freeze in the toilet? It didn’t down in the basement level but I had slush in the upstairs bathroom. Other people had worse, much worse, and there were lots of calls and texts that came through on Winn’s phone once they got them up and running again … three days after the storm.
It took them nearly a week to get the power back up in our area and boy did that give me a freak ton to think about. The cistern water froze causing me some serious heartburn. My water storage turned out to be a lot more inadequate than I thought. I went through nearly all the water I had stored and that was even with Winn and I being careful, frugal, to downright Scroogey about it.
“It’s been several years since we’ve had the power go down for this long during this kind of weather. Good thing that the County drove out to make sure Godfrey hadn’t done anything stupid. If they hadn’t he would have died of exposure. Cindy said that they are fairly certain he is going to lose at least two toes and might even lose most of the fingers on his right hand if not the hand itself. They can’t do that though until he is stable after the surgery on his face.”
Looking at Winn I saw he was affected even though he was trying not to show it. Not liking someone doesn’t mean you don’t feel badly when they are hurt. “Have they figured out what happened?”
“Slip and fell on some ice. When he fell he banged his head on something. Lost his key in the dark. Couldn’t get back in the house or in his car and was suffering from hypothermia and a concussion.”
“Sounds awful. Does he have family?”
“Supposedly, but the story is he doesn’t get along with them.”
“I guess trying to figure out what he’s going to do is none of my business anyway.”
He just grunted before asking, “You sure you don’t mind?”
“Stop worrying it to death. You said the switchback has a washed out section forming. You barely got the truck and jeep down with your tools. No way are you going to sleep in the truck even if it is your death fantasy.”
“What?!” He said with a startled laugh.
“Seriously Winn. Just … just let it be okay. I don’t mind and you shouldn’t mind. No one has to know. They can assume whatever but they don’t have to know.”
He looked at me and then said, “Now who is worrying for nothing? We were just learning we both have things we’re … er … sensitive about. Just don’t broadcast it and we’re square.”
“You sure?”
He just gave me that look that said he was thinking about popping me with his hat. Or would have if he hadn’t been forced to put on a fleece beanie instead. And a sweater on under his jacket and over long johns, a flannel shirt, and a sweatshirt. And a second pair of socks. And ….
It was cold. I didn’t dare take Teena upstairs. It was bad enough when I went up there to make sure that nothing was freezing and exploding and making a serious mess. There was frost on the inside of the windows. When it finally melted and stayed melted I had a lot of a different kind of mess to clean up but that took three days and the house still didn’t warm up precisely, it just warmed up enough that it stayed above 32 degrees while the sun was up. I lined my sleeping area with blankets and had extra blankets to make a tent that included the trundle. Made for a weird “roof” over the two beds but who cares since weird or not it kept us all a little warmer. Three bodies and the fireplace we had to keep running 24/7 or risk the cold creeping in worse.
No electricity so the days were short ones and I had to add to my list of “needs” alternative sources of light, other than kerosene lamps which I didn’t use after I noticed that some of them made Winn twitchy. That’s one of the “sensitive subjects” we learned about each other. Most of the time fire or flames no longer bother Winn but open and unattended flames when he was stressing did. He also learned that waking up with someone looming over me, even if it was just to throw another blanket over Teena and I, could make me strike out … and that I’m stronger than I look and know how to make a fist. Thankfully the bruise wasn’t visible and I didn’t hit his bad arm where the dog bite was.
There were other things but those were the biggies. These days I might be able to almost laugh at the expression on his face after I knocked him tip over teakettle but only almost. He laughs about it now, but the entire incident still makes me cringe whenever it comes up which thankfully isn’t often and not when anyone else is around.
At three days we were both a little stir crazy. Then the phones started working and those that had the ability to use their phones started putting Winn on speed dial, most of them family of some type so he couldn’t just ignore them. There were also property management companies asking him to check on various properties. He couldn’t afford to turn down the work or ignore the family so, in spite of the weather he got really busy really quickly and for quite some time.
When the power came back on the wash outs had already been repaired and he said he didn’t have any more excuses, he needed to get back to his parents’ place and take care of some storm damage there and life started running at warp speed for him. Then two weeks later he finds out his parents have found a legit buyer willing to pay cash for the place, storm damage or no.
“And one of the property management companies that have been burning up my phone wants to hire me to basically do the same thing with a property they have. Live-in rehab. And they say they have two more properties after this one if I’m interested and available.”
Winn looked a little shell-shocked. I told him, “Sounds like your plans are falling into place.”
“Are they?”
“Are you having second thoughts?”
He sighed. “Not really. I just … just didn’t expect all this to happen the order or speed it is happening. Er … “
“I don’t need a babysitter.”
“Thank gawd or I really would be running nuts. But … er … uh …”
“Can I call you if … you know … I need some advice … I mean on this place … or whatever?”
“Or a couple extra hands,” he said like my question had actually eased his mind for some reason. “Er … don’t bite my head off but I’ll likely be coming to check on you by refilling the wood pile with some of the clean up work I’ll be doing.”
He acted like he wanted to say something else, and I wanted to say something but I didn’t know what or how. Teena saved us both by needing a serious diaper change and just like that, real life kept happening for both of us.
Chapter 37
Well it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that it took a while for stores in the area to restock and get back to semi-normal. Larger cities like Overton were first and as soon as they were I picked back up where I’d left off with The Plan.
Valentine’s Day was approaching so I actually sold a lot pieces of jewelry and some small trinket boxes. I had to get them in the mail toot sweet and that’s what I did as soon as I could get the Tahoe down the mountain. I also had a list of fresh foods I wanted. Was craving to be honest. The only reason I hadn’t lost everything in the frig was because we ate it all and freezer was due to how cold it was. I was a lot luckier that way than many people were.
I heard through the grapevine … Winn on one of his nightly calls to “check on me” since he couldn’t be there in body unless he was dropping off some wood … that the stores in and closer to Dunnville were having trouble getting restocked because no sooner would they get some fresh or frozen items in than people bought it all, even with the limits firmly in place. I had offered to try and pick stuff up for him in Overton.
“Naw. But thanks. I already ate your stuff … uh …”
“Don’t even think it. And before you say you don’t know what I mean oh yes you do. Consider it a trade for helping me to unscramble the directions for setting up the freeze drier.”
“You sure?”
“Of course. Have you ever known me not to say what I mean?”
He chuckled. “Fine. But you let me know if you need more help.”
“Who else would I call?” I said off hand.
“There’s people you could.”
I snorted. “No.”
“That sounded … er … definite.”
“It was. You are the only one getting through the door.” Quickly changing the subject before he could work it around to me needing more of a social support network or something I asked, “So did any of your jars break?”
“One but the jar might have had a defect in it. And …”. I heard his call waiting ding go off in the background and him swear. “Gotta take this call.”
“Go. You can lecture me some other time when you have less to do.”
I hung up before he could come up with a reply and got back to making a list while some of my last school assignments for my Junior year uploaded to the virtual school … slower than usual as the DSL internet I had was only three-quarters the speed it had been pre-storm. And I was sitting in the Tahoe the next day double checking the list I had made before going inside my second stop of the day, the first being the post office.
I meant to go to wallyworld but there was no way I was going to get near the doors for hours based on the length of the line waiting to get in. I tried the big box store but they had a line as well. I decided to try the restaurant supply place and … no line. But I had a feeling that wasn’t going to last so I grabbed my purse and Teena and hot footed it inside.
The next four items on “Easy Stock Up List” was four pounds of powdered sugar, and three pounds of oats per person, a case of canned pineapple, and a case of canned corn. Plus I was supposed to buy two more gallons of water per person. The first thing I noticed walking in was a sign that said they were out of water. Turns out they were out of most of the drinks they normally carried … except for my favorite fizzy water and luckily they sold me twice the limit since one of the managers remembered me from my other times in the store and we’d spoken about breastfeeding.
My focus that day was getting stuff to restock my freezer so I could start using the freeze drier. Aside from helping me figure out the instructions I had were for a “large” freezer drier that needed a dedicated breaker, instead of for a medium size that didn’t, Winn helped me to figure out that pre-freezing whatever I was putting into the freeze drier would cut back on the time necessary to process each batch. I was going to start with fruits and move on from there.
Instead of buying canned pineapple I bought five pound bags of frozen pineapple. A couple of the bags were for diced pineapple bits, and the rest was for pieces. The “bit-sized” pieces gave me lots of ideas. In fact I bought several five pound bags of the frozen fruits they had in stock … pineapple, blueberries, mixed fruit, sliced bananas, diced strawberries, diced and sliced peaches, diced mango, dark sweet cherries, tart red cherries, sliced apples, blackberries, raspberries, papaya chunks and dices, cantaloupe chunks, etc. Then I moved on to frozen veggies which were already blanched which would save me quite a bit of time upfront; corn, green beans, sliced and diced carrots, sweet potato chunks, potato chunks, etc. I also got a huge bag of diced onions and diced green peppers as I had hopes of one day being able to eat them again once Teena was fully weaned. I love onions and peppers but hadn’t been able to eat them in any quantity for months because they upset Teena’s stomach and made her diapers positively wretch-inducing.
In addition to all of the frozen stuff, including more ground beef and other oversized boxes of frozen meat like bags of rotisserie chicken already taken off the bone, I got the powdered sugar and oats in restaurant sized quantities. And then I casually strolled to the international food section, a place I’d barely glanced at before. They had freeze dried black beans and freeze dried instant refried beans for cheap compared to what they were sold for at the food storage websites. They also had the biggest dang tub of NIDO dried milk I have ever seen. It wasn’t cheap either but still cheaper per ounce than if I had bought the smaller tubs like I had been doing in the past so I got two. There were bags of frozen beef or chicken fajita strips, #10 cans of pinto beans and chickpeas, some bouillon like ham and tomato-chicken that I had never seen before, and a lot of whole seasonings that were too good of a deal to pass up. Last but not least, I got a big stack of flour tortillas and a couple of ginormous bags of shredded cheese because I like quesadillas just about as well as I do grilled cheese sandwiches and I also wanted to try freeze drying cheese for long term storage.
Only last wasn’t last when the manager pointed out a couple of sales items. I got a couple of #10 cans of mandarin orange segments and one of ruby red grapefruit segments because I liked them and hadn’t had a chance to eat them in a while. Some I would eat right out of the can and the rest I planned on putting in the freeze drier.
I got eight more cans of canned butane and was lucky to get that because someone forgot to put a limit 2 sign up. I also had the same luck with the cocoa mix and some instant tea, lemonade and koolaide drink mixes, and Gatorade powder. My last purchase from there was five flats of eggs. I know it sounds crazy but you can freeze dry eggs and that was near the top of my list of experiments that I oh so wanted to do. Those eggs were pricey-pricey but they were still gonna be cheaper than buying those eggs from the bulk food websites.
I was going to wander the aisles one more time but other people had started to come in and I wanted to get gone before drawing attention to myself and my purchases. From there I headed to a store called Tractor Supply. The place carried freeze driers, or did seasonally and the same brand that I’d gotten at the estate sale, but more importantly they carried the supplies I needed to store the freeze dried food properly for long term storage. I’d called ahead and made sure they had them in stock and low and behold they did and in the 10 mil size in 4x6, quart, and gallon sizes. And they also had the oxygen absorbers in stock that I would need. I bought everything they had in the store and put a ship-to-store order in for more when I found out they would honor the on-going sale so long as I paid for them that day. You betcha I did. Their 7.5 mil was the same price as some other brand’s 3 mil mylar bags. Then they had the oxygen absorbers to go with each size. They gave an additional discount for bulk purchases. Well I wasn’t turning my nose up at that. I planned on using them anyway so why not buy in bulk and use that discount to save me some money.
I hadn’t even used the freeze dryer once and I was treating it like it was a done deal but the truth was I had already sunk so much money into it that I needed to make it work.
I suppose it was about then that I started getting sneaky about The Plan. That’s about the time that it came THE PLAN. Even though I wasn’t shopping in Dunnville, I was still shopping in places and was becoming a recognized face. I’d wracked my brain and some of the online forums for ideas and came up with one to try … local international food markets. I’d been warned to be careful of food quality, especially the Made in China stuff, but I figured it was worth a try.
There was a warehouse store on the other side of Overton called World Market. I had to apply for a membership but easily got one as I used the EIN number for my online sales that I’d recently been forced to get for tax purposes. Before I’d always used Aunt Nita’s but whoops, they hadn’t allowed me to renew it but had to file for my own. Fine. At least they didn’t ask for my date of birth, just that my LLC was legitimate per my state … who for whatever reason hadn’t asked for my date of birth either, just my social security number. Whatever. I had what I needed and once inside decided I’d made a good choice.
They didn’t just have Asian or Spanish foods; it really was a world market. I started in the British UK section and let the memories roll through my mind as I rolled the cart along the aisles.
Chapter 38
Dad and Bobbie had a weird hobby. Well maybe not weird but it wasn’t your average hobby for a couple of blue collar guys, or so said Aunt Nita who hadn’t been quite as enthusiastic about it. They liked to try unusual food at the holidays. For instance, most people had a traditional meal of ham or turkey at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Maybe they would have steaks or a standing rib roast or something like that. But, it was still traditional American. I was told that the family used to do that when Mom was alive as well. But after she died one of the ways that Dad made the holidays bearable was to do the meal different. That way they wouldn’t miss Mom’s cooking so much.
Dad settled on picking a different country or culture and having the meal be that. I remember a few disasters that we all laughed about but most of the time it turned out cool. My friends – or those that I thought were my friends – always thought it was weird or gross or some thought it sad, but I didn’t share their opinion. It wasn’t just at Thanksgiving and Christmas either. I remember one Easter we had a Hawaiian luau and one Fourth of July was an Australian cookout on the barbee. It struck me that I could do the same for Teena. It could be our tradition for the same reason Dad had started it. Sometimes you just had to do something different so you wouldn’t get swamped by the memories of things you no longer had.
In the British section I got canned mushy peas, canned Devon Custard, Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup, orange marmalade, black current jam, lemon curd, ginger preserves, scone mixes, clotted cream, Shepard’ s pie seasoning packets, canned Spotted Dick, and some Walker’s shortbread. They had a large Italian foods section but I bypassed most of it as Aunt Nita had taught me her recipes for making things and I already did it regularly, or at least I made a huge batch of things and canned them. And no, I won’t admit to crying through making the first pot of spaghetti sauce. That’s no one’s business but mine. When Winn helped me eat the last of the lasagna to keep it from spoiling I found someone else beside Aunt Nita who thought my recipe was da bomb.
The German stuff was interesting. There were lots of different egg noodles but there was also things like schnitzel seasoning packets, marzipan, and cream of asparagus soup in seasoning envelopes. There were a bunch of different kinds of gummy candies and chocolates but I was trying to avoid too much of that sort of thing. The Japanese section was a little beyond me but I still picked up milk tea and strawberry milk in cans. At the same time I kicked myself for not thinking of things like shelf stable milk or canned evaporated milk for my storage. I quickly scribbled a note to myself on my phone and kept going. Constant self recriminations was a good way to waste time and I didn’t have it to waste.
Indian food I was familiar with but I skipped over it as curry and Teena didn’t go together right now. Like I need more nuclear waste diapers to deal with. The French foods were okay, just a little strange and expensive, heavy on the expensive. Sparkling Rose Lemonade anyone? Or how about truffles? No, don’t think so.
The other sections were European, Asian, Hawaiian (no I’m not kidding), Scottish (carrot and butter bean soup especially caught my eye), Australian, Middle Eastern (sour cherry juice was recommended), the Iberian Peninsula which generally meant Spain and Portugal, Korean, Russian, Caribbean, Irish (yeah I buckled and bought a couple of no sugar added juices like apple & black currant and apple & pear), and Latin American. I made a note of items and prices but didn’t walk out with near what I could have. I was thinking that if the freeze dryer worked out I would definitely be coming back and it has and I have.
I wasn’t tapped out but I had really started to watch my pennies. My last stop for the day wouldn’t be cheap but it was necessary. I was finally running out of the cleaning supplies that had come from Vintiques. I knew what I wanted and what I needed and I also found a janitorial store that sold the same brands that had been our tried-and-true products.
I got there and popped Teena in a buggy – something I hadn’t expected them to have – and started popping things into the carrier part out of reach of the octopus arms she was developing about that time. If she wasn’t grabbing my hair, she seemed to be trying to grab everything else. Lucky for me she fell in love with a brand new microfiber mop head and I was able to finish shopping quickly. Sheila shine for the stainless steel surfaces and sink. Dawn dishwashing detergent concentrate – picked up a couple gallons of this stuff as I use it for lots of things besides dishes. Cleaning vinegar in gallon jugs. I got a few containers of ammonia as well but couldn’t use it until the house was open. And outdoor bleach that I stored in a completely separate location because if bleach and ammonia mix it creates a deadly gas and I’d gone to school with a guy that had almost died at his after school job because the dork was cleaning the walk in cooler with both of those chemicals at once. I picked up the hospital grade disinfectant that Aunt Nita’s doctor had recommended during her cancer treatments to keep the nasties from infecting her chemo port. Hand sanitizer, Lysol super concentrate, wood cleaner and polisher, stone and tile cleaner, grout cleaner, etc. etc. etc.
After checking out I was cooked, especially after trying to separate Teena from her new best friend Mr. Mop Head when I was putting her in her car seat. Good thing I bought two of the things because she was not giving up the one she had a death grip on.
I was driving back up the mountain when I spotted people at Mr. Godfrey’s house. And I also spotted Winn’s truck. And he spotted me and waived me to come into the drive.
Chapter 39
“Been out shopping?”
I nodded. “Had some errands to do.”
“Is anything going to spoil if you come in for a bit?”
“Er … no. I have it in coolers.”
Winn nodded then turned where the people at the house couldn’t see him. “Come check out this place. It’s … look I know what you are probably thinking but they aren’t going to have an estate sale, they are going to take this stuff to the dump tomorrow … or I’m going to take it and they don’t really care what happens to it. Tomorrow afternoon the new owners are going to take possession so they can bring the place up to code and rent it out.”
“I … I kinda shot my wad for the day and …”
“I’m serious Edie, they want the stuff gone. They don’t want to bother trying to sell it, they just want it gone. When we heard that Godfrey wasn’t on good terms with his family it wasn’t an exaggeration. This woman is some kind of cousin and if she puts her nose any higher in the air people are going to be able to see her brain. And … please … she’s about to drive me bug crap but I need this job because it is cash paying out of the closing, and … there are some supplies in the garage I want. Just …”
Winn hadn’t really ever asked a favor from me and I owed him plenty. At that moment Teena stopped conversing with Mr. Mop Head to spot Winn. “Weee!!!!!!!” Luck for me that the glass was pretty thick or I would have needed new windows on the Tahoe.
“Er … I’m kinda dirty,” Winn said recognizing the signs when Teena wouldn’t be satisfied with anything but being picked up.
“Just throw the seat blanket over your shoulder. You know she won’t stop until she has your full, undivided attention for a few minutes.”
“You sure?” He asked starting to smile. I rolled my eyes and grabbed the blanket and threw it over his shoulder.
“I am not going to pay for you to socialize.” Said words were coming out of the mouth of a woman that turns out I recognized as a regular customer at Vintiques, one I didn’t particularly care for but whom Aunt Nita said we couldn’t afford to offend because her money was the right color and came in plentiful amounts.
“He isn’t,” I told her. “You are getting a two-fer. Winn – a friend of the family – called me to help organize the estate so your timetable isn’t affected.”
She blinked suspiciously like she couldn’t believe someone was actually speaking her language.
“Now, let me take a look around and we’ll get this all divided up so it can go where it belongs.”
“I want it gone.”
“Yes ma’am. That’s what Winn said. You need to make room for your cleaners to come in and not charge you double for the clean out. That leaves the building emptied to meet your closing time. They sure are pushing you. You’d think that given the value of the property … then again, I suppose that is the reason for their anxiety, they don’t want to lose it. Well now, let’s look around.”
“I don’t have all day. I suppose I can pay …”
I held up my hand. “No need for that. Winn and I already discussed things. You are paying him a sum for the job. The quicker he completes the job, the better all the way around. He and I have already bartered.”
“Oh?” She said perking right up. “Well, if you’ll oversee things then I’m going to run to town and take care of a few things with the bank.”
“Yes ma’am. Please be careful. The road is full of crazy people.”
“Thank you Dear.”
After she pulled out Winn said, “You’re hired.”
“For?”
“Dealing with crazy customers. Were you serious about giving me a hand with this stuff?”
“Yes. It’s not really bad.”
“This isn’t bad?!”
“You should have seen some of the places Aunt Nita used to drag me. Gag me, some of them were disgusting. But she taught me there are always a few things here and …”. I stopped as I got a good look at what I was seeing.
“Told you.”
“Um, Winn? Do you think that woman knows what all this stuff is?”
“Junk,” he said definitively.
“Er … no. No it isn’t. Or at least there’s good stuff mixed in with the junk.”
And there was. There was a lot of Rada knives that I set aside right along with the Sheffield vintage stuff. Winn took a bunch of old, vintage hand tools out of the garage along with a lot of newer Milwaukee battery operated tools. I bagged up all the clothes to be taken to the men’s charity in Overton. As I emptied a piece of furniture Winn moved it to an enclosed trailer. I found a few photo albums and pictures in frames stored in a chest in the second bedroom and I set them aside for the woman to determine if she wanted them or not since they looked personal.
The pictures weren’t all that I found in the second bedroom; should have called that space the land that time forgot. “Winn are you sure she just wanted all of this stuff tossed?”
“Yeah, she took one look, got angry, and just …” He took a good look at my face and asked, “What?”
“Winn, these dishes are … I mean sure there are a lot of mix and match stuff … but …”
“Something wrong?”
Looking at him, “What if I said I know where I can get $600 for that tankard.”
“I’d say you were crazy. It is ugly as sin on Sunday. And old.”
“Yes. The backstamp said it was made before 1900.”
“So it’s an antique.”
“Yeah. It isn’t just that it is old … it is the brand,” I explained, having a hard time thinking the woman just wanted this stuff tossed. “Lenox, Vintage Lenox-Belleek. Oh geez, Winn this is signed and dated 1909.”
“And that means?”
“It means a hand painted vase like this sells for over $1500 in that place downtown.”
“You gotta be kidding me.”
“Winn, are you sure that she … ?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. She was pretty … er … yeah, she specifically mentioned these boxes when she was telling me exactly what to do with this stuff.”
“And at was?”
“Get them gone. She wasn’t taking care of some old bunch of junk, exclamation point. End quote.”
Trying not to let the spit dry up in my mouth I said, “Do you trust me?”
“Er … yeah. Why?”
“Because I can sell a couple of these pieces and we’d have money to finish out those plans we were talking about during the ice storm. You could finish turning your trailer into a mobile workshop, I could use my share to get stuff to freeze dry and get the cabin put together … or at least the kitchen and upstairs bathroom … the way I have it looking in my head.”
We looked at each other and we didn’t even have to shake on it. Some of those pieces from that collection of “junk” went for less money than I expected, but some of it went for a lot more. Come to find out that Mr. Godfrey had at one time had his own antique store along the tourist route but had had some kind of “epiphany” after catching one of the pandemic covid varieties. He’d never been a warm and fuzzy kinda person but getting sick and almost dying changed him all out of whack and afraid of actually dying. He also focused on the environment – something he was already a bit of a nut about – and got kind of paranoid.
Some of that paranoia was kinda evident in the personal papers and stuff I found. It looked like he was also more OCD than I can be about bookkeeping and record keeping and the like. He recorded his energy usage like religion, had all of these plans for surviving the end of the world but didn’t really seem to do much to get his plans from paper to reality. I never could find out if he was just afraid of it ending or wanted it to end. Or just wanted it to end on his terms for most people in the world while he survived to lead people into living the correct way. I stopped paying attention to it after a while.
Several hours later the woman finally showed back up. Winn had all but the appliances loaded into the enclosed trailer. The broken and worthless stuff was in another pile for him to come back for in the morning. I had a lot of stuff bagged, boxed, and labeled. I had some of the most expensive “collector” items wrapped and boxed and put in my vehicle and the remainder was in Winn’s truck. Winn had tucked the stuff from the garage in his truck as well.
The woman walked in and then walked out quickly, before spotting the piles that Winn and I had made. Winn walked away with a look, leaving me to deal with the woman. He took Teena with him just so I wouldn’t have any excuse. I nearly laughed before I started to tick things off.
“The clothes will go to charity first thing in the morning. Either Winn or I will bring you a tax credit for them. Luckily the one that I’m thinking of doesn’t require an inventory before they’ll issue a receipt but I made a general one for you anyway. All of the kitchen items will go to another charity and you’ll get a charitable contribution receipt from them as well. Most of the food is still within the Best Buy date on them and if you are agreeable I will take that to a local food bank which will issue a general receipt and I’ll try. Some of these books …”
“Trash if you can’t find someplace to give them to.”
“Yes ma’am,” I told her. I already had a consignment shop in mind that specialized in old books. “Mr. Godfrey’s personal papers …”
“Shred them. Burn them. I don’t care. The family isn’t interested in retaining any of them.”
“Yes ma’am. However, there are a couple boxes of photos that you really should look at before disposal. If nothing else they could be boxed together and donated to a family history center as a bequest from the family. I understand you are from the Atlanta area. There’s a rather large history museum there specific to Atlanta and …”
“Oh very well. My sister can handle that. She’ll be here in the morning anyway. Just slide that back in the door. But I want those personal papers destroyed so she doesn’t insist on holding onto them for her blasted genealogy project.”
“Yes ma’am.”
I continued on and she seemed relieved that we’d even gone in and cleaned out the few things in the attic.
“I’ve grouped all of the cleaning chemicals – a surprising number given the … er … um …”
“My cousin was a pig of a man. It is no wonder his marriage didn’t last. His daughter isn’t much better than he is. She should be the one dealing with this mess instead of sitting around feeling sorry for herself,” was her succinct and brutal reply to my attempted politeness.
“And Miss Godfrey …”
“Doesn’t have a damn thing to say about it since she can’t get up off of her lazy butt. Now what is left? I am not staying the night here and it is getting dark.”
It sure was and a lot later than I had planned on being out. I’d already had to feed Teena and she was ready to tune up again.
After the woman left again I turned to Winn who was handing me Teena like she was a lit bottle rocket. “She’s hungry again.”
“She’s always hungry,” I grumbled but not in a cranky way. “You need help with this stuff in the morning?”
“Actually I was going to ask if I could crash on the trundle. If you don’t mind I’ll leave the trailer here and come up with the truck. I’ll help move this stuff into … er … you were serious about … uh …”
“Yes,” I told him with certainty. “I’ll call Dotty … the woman from the furniture consignment stop … and we’ll get rid of that stuff first thing in the morning and then while you head back to here I can run some of this give away stuff and get those charitable contribution receipts and …”. We continued on with the plans.
With that one operation Winn became the go-to guy in the area for quick clean outs when a property was being flipped. You wouldn’t think a small area like Dunnville would have many of those but there has been. A lot of cabins and vacation homes have changed hands, or been foreclosed on. He’s done at least two a month, one month he had eight and that month nearly broke both of us.
None of them were as financially beneficial as the first but the others were real nice. Re-sell of the appliances alone made Winn a good chunk of change that he insisted on sharing with me since I was helping him to turn the houses and cabins. We also ran furniture and stuff through my EIN for tax purposes. The appliances were run through Winn’s EIN. I know it sounds like a mess but for some reason we did it that way and in all honesty it has worked. And it worked for us to work on the plans each of us made.
Jeepcats27
Senior Member
Thank you for the great chapters!
beaglemama
Contributing Member
Thank you, Kathy! What a wonderful surprise finding these new chapters! When I clicked on the story, I figured it was just someone bumping it. So glad I was wrong! 
larry_minn
Contributing Member
Wow. I had to go back a few chapters to remind myself. Kinda fun catching up on old friends.
You're not the only one.
Cedar Lake
Connecticut Yankee
Excellent, thank you, Kathy
Kiwibutterfly
Contributing Member
Thank you so much, hope you are back tomorrow lol...
Chapter 40
I was feeling a lot more comfortable going into March that I wouldn’t regret the money I was spending. Before March everything was out of fear. From March onward I had a confidence that hadn’t been there in a long time. That didn’t mean that I wasn’t still looking for ways to get more out of the pennies I was pinching.
One of the things that constantly surprised was finding in quantity old canning jars. Even some of the large half-gallon jars. Some of the old colored jars I used for storing dried stuff in. There were also jars like the ones that deli shops get their pickles and such in. I also started holding on to any cleaning supplies that were in the estate clean outs to keep me from having to buy any in the stores. A gallon of bleach here, a quarter gallon there, a half a bottle in another place adds up and helps. Some was for my own use and some was used if we weren’t to do what Winn called a turn-key operation.
Another thing I did with Winn’s help was design a new septic system after hearing some of the problems he was running into in his property management jobs. I was real lucky that the septic system at the cabin was on a good incline from the house. The septic tank was below the cabin but above the leach field so gravity did most of the work. The leach field was near the flat area where the old garden had been. And the leach field flowed out from there.
“Edie …”
I should have knocked on wood when I had said I was glad I didn’t have the problems some other people up on the mountain had. I sighed. “Let me guess. Roots and stuff are in the leach field.”
“Yeah. I’m sorry to say they are. Your aunt told me she thought she’d have to replace it eventually but she thought she had a few more years left.”
“Probably the drought you told me about. The trees went looking for water in the ground when they weren’t getting any from the sky. So tell me what the owners want at your current renovation when you told them the septic system was failing.”
Winn looked at me curiously. “You’re a whole lot calmer about this than I expected.”
“Oh I’m coming apart inside but letting it out doesn’t fix it and could just make an even bigger mess for me to clean up. This isn’t your fault and I know it. And I’m not going to shoot the messenger just because it is bad news. I watched Dad get run over a few times like that and it was stupid.”
“Oh.” Then he perked up. “Well, okay then. Let’s see what we can do about it.” About that time Teena blue raspberries and covered her face. Winn thought it was hilarious, about like he thought everything Teena did was. It did kinda stink but not nearly as bad as a few of her nuclear waste diapers have.
Turns out that I also needed a new tank but when I priced them through the only company I could find that did work up here on the mountain, if I hurried and placed an order the same truck that was coming out to do the one where Winn was living could bring it at the same time and I would avoid the drop charge – the cost of delivery and having a tractor take it up the roads and dropping it in place. Basically it would save a bunch of money. I couldn’t turn that down. And Winn borrowed a tractor and dug out the old septic tank and had the hole ready so it could just be set in place. Made for long days and Winn pitched a fit nearly as awful as Teena could when I asked what it was going to cost me.
I wanted to throw something at him but decided it wasn’t prudent and didn’t gain me anything. Instead, I surprised both of us by simply saying, “Fine. I’ll figure out something else. Starting with you are eating here instead of pulling a bachelor. Got it?”
He opened his mouth on some more cranky and then just stopped when what I said finally sunk in. I think we were both too tired to really fight and we just moved forward. Next day I had to go to town to mail off some stuff and I was also picking up tax receipts where more furniture and odds and ends had been selling at the antique and consignment stores we’d been putting stuff in.
Dotty caught me before I could leave and asked, “Edie, you ever thought of having your own booth? You’d make more money. It wouldn’t be like Vintiques but you also wouldn’t have the headache of property taxes and the like.”
Dotty had been working up to this nearly since the beginning of finding out Winn and I were in partnership. What she really meant was she didn’t want to have to compete with us if we decided to open our own storefront.
“I’ve thought about it,” I told her.
“You know the business.” She got a crafty look on her face. “I tell you what. If you agree to rent a booth from me and keep the furniture consignments with me, I’ll give you twice the space for the same rent. And if you help me get the other booths looking better, I’ll give you a discount off that. You can even pick the day you come in to do it.”
I agreed to sign a six-month contract to see how it went. I talked it over with Winn while he was stuffing his face at dinner that night. “We’ll make the best money if we continue to get those clean out jobs.”
“Well you can count on that continuing. Job Dunn … and yes, he’s a cousin of some stripe … works at a bank in Overton. He is in charge of the REOs – the bank’s foreclosure department – over both the residential and commercial properties. He’s going to be sending work my way. Most of it is R&M stuff but there will be a few clean outs too from what he says. They have a cleaning team but it is the clean out and maintenance that needs more than the contacts they currently have can provide.”
“What kind of commercial clean outs?”
By way of explaining he said, “I’m kinda outta work for the next couple of days while the septic people are at the place where I’m at now. So, tomorrow I’m going to go to a diner to assess it and maybe, depending on my partner, gonna see what all I can haul off. Job says the place closed down last month but the power has stayed on so it shouldn’t be too gross.”
“Depending on your partner huh?” I said with a smile.
“Make you happy?”
“What?”
“Uh … nuthin’.”
“You mean us being partners? I’ve been telling Dotty that we are since we worked the Godfrey place.”
“Er … you have?”
“Yep? Want another grilled cheese?”
"Naw. Wouldn’t mind another bowl of that vegetable soup. I mean if you have it.”
I ladled another bowl for him out of the crockpot – it was Dad’s recipe for hamburger vegetable soup – and brought it over to him.
Winn was looking around while I was doing that and when I sat down he asked, “Looks like you hit some sales. Anything worth mentioning?”
“It wasn’t sales so much as I went back to the international store after working things out with Dotty.”
“More weird stuff for me to try?” he said with a hopeful look.
I had to laugh. “Sorry, maybe next time. But guess what? They now have an entire bank of coolers in the back of the store and there were no limits on some things I’ve been having a hard time getting. They let me buy a dozen whole chickens.”
“A dozen … you’re kidding me. Now if they’d said the same thing in eggs … naw … uh uh. Now you gotta be kidding me,” after he saw my huge grin.
“Somebody goofed and bought straight from a local chicken farm but apparently didn’t get the permit for them. I bought 300 eggs … five 60-count cartons suran-wrapped together … right off the back of the truck. Same place I got the chickens. The freeze drier is going to be going constantly from now until Juvember.”
“And you’re happy about that.”
“For both of us. Now if those farmers markets pay off like you say they will …”
“Like I think they will. If not, I’ll see if anyone needs any help in their gardens and I’ll get you …”
“ … get us.”
He nodded. “Get us some of those soup fixings you’re so anxious about. But them bags aren’t all from that World Market place.”
“I went to the big box store and picked up the next things on my list.”
“Such as?”
“Why?”
“Huh? Oh, so I can be on the look out myself. I know you don’t want people in your business … okay, okay … in our business about this stuff, but listening to some of the women in the family cackle I sometimes hear stuff and it might be useful. For instance, got a line on a job through Celeste. Someone who used to run a roadside stand passed on and the family just wants their house cleaned out and the worst of the falling down stand taken down so they can hurry up and get the property on the market before housing prices drop any further. That’s another one I’m supposed to go look at tomorrow. I figured maybe we could pack a picnic of some KFC …”
“The one over by the clinic closed.”
“It … you’re kiddin’ me. When?!” he yelped like I’d informed him his best friend has passed on and he hadn’t known it.
“Has to be in the last two weeks.”
“Well that shoots that down.”
“How about I fix some chicken salad sandwiches and a thermos of soup …”
“I … I wanted to treat this time.”
“You’re ‘treating’ me by doing the driving … um, if you don’t mind.”
“Don’t mind at all. We can take the other enclosed trailer and hook it to your Tahoe in case there’s anything that needs saving right away. You still have them tubs and boxes handy?”
“They’re still in the trailer from last clean out.”
“Good deal Lucille,” Winn said. “Now tell me why it looks like there is deer corn stacked over in that corner.”
I looked where he was pointing and laughed. “That’s sugar you Goof. Brown and white. And some ginormous bags of flour. What you can’t see because I’ve already taken it downstairs to put away are two cases of the good mac and cheese, and three cases of the ‘cream of’ soups. That’s what came from the big box store.”
“Hmph,” he grunted. “Er … got a question for you.”
“What?”
“And don’t chew my head off. But you’re careful when you are out hunting your bargains up, right?”
“Yes, and no I’m not going to chew your head off. I hear the news same as you. And … thanks for caring.”
Boy did Winn’s ears turn red. It wasn’t long after that he finished up and had to get back to where he was living to finish a few things before the septic people showed up and so we could head out first thing in the morning to check out two estate clean outs.
Chapter 41
The man … Job Dunn … was telling Winn, “When the old guy that ran it passed on, no one wanted to take it over and no one was interested in buying out the back taxes. Foolish if you ask me though I will admit the county was about to close the place down due to some code violations. He’d already lost his liquor license when they caught the underage waitresses serving their friends without carding them.”
I stayed quiet. I didn’t want my underage personage to cause Winn any grief in the deal.
“Doesn’t look that bad from out here,” Winn said in some concern that we might be getting in over our heads.
Job shrugged, “He’d just locked down for the night and just barely managed to make his own 911 call. No one has been inside beyond the front door just to turn on the security lights and change the locks when the family sent us the jingle mail in lieu of any more payments. The guy took out a loan to pay for some expansion about five years ago, using the property as the collateral, then used the money for some medical bills where his wife got one of them bariatric surgeries … the weight loss thing. Heard she weighed over five hundred pounds and is down to about two hundred now. She managed to outlive him and has already moved on, if you know what I mean.”
Oh my gosh, the TMI never seems to stop when you’ve got the last name Dunn.
He continued on by saying, “He might have turned the business around if he’d had a decent manager to help out, but the staff he had for the last year was kinda lazy and his wife ate all his profits from my understanding. Look, I hate to run like this, but I need to get to a Board Meeting. Just lock it back up if you decide you can’t do anything with it. If you can, consider yourself hired and here’s the proof. Just sign the contract and drop it off at the branch on Henderson St, the one where my daughter Lulu works. You still willing to use whatever you can find inside as a down payment?”
“You still willing to pay if it takes us more than two days to move things out so your cleaning team can move in?”
“Well, between you and me and that contract in your hand …”
Winn whipped through it then handed it to me for a second pair of eyes.
I told him what jumped out at me. “They are going to bulldoze this place after it has been cleaned out. No clean team. It says we’re taking all payment in re-sale items instead of any cash payment.”
Winn looked at Job and said, “I’ll let you know one way or the other this afternoon. Good enough?”
Job snorted. “Better than I expected after they handed this to me last night. Just try and let me know by one o’clock if you can.”
After Job drove off Winn turned to me and said, “Sorry ‘bout that. Let’s go see what I got us into.”
“Will you stop worrying? We can find something that will be worth a few hours.”
“You sure about that are you?”
About that time we walked in and I said, “Winn …”
“My gawd, what a mess.”
“Winn …”
“Edie I’m sorry.”
“I’m going to break you of that.”
“Edie, be serious."
“Did you say you had the next two days on top of today?”
“Er … yeah.”
“Okay first we need to figure out how to get those diner stools and the countertop. I wish we had the long trailer. I gotta call Dotty.”
“Er …”
I pulled out my phone. “Dotty, you still have the name of the guy looking for the old diner furniture?”
“Honey, he’s standing right here in front of me. He’s buying that old drugstore shelving unit that I got from the Hermans woman to pay off her tab last month before she went out of business.”
“See if you can sell him on a … let’s see … I’ve got eight stools but only seven still spin but they all have the original covers. The aren’t in bad shape, or at least nothing a little buffing and polishing won’t fix. Give him the name of that guy that refurbishes old chairs. He might know someone that can help him even if he can’t. Then there is a matching countertop that is … Winn? …” Winn pulled out his tape measure. “Twenty feet. Finders fee if you can, that way we don’t have to cart it to the furniture consignment shop.”
The guy wanted pictures and practically begged to buy it when he found out where it was coming from. The history alone was worth it to him. He was opening a bar and grill on the river near Dunnville. Dotty got her finders fee and took in the money since she had my EIN and it would look better. However, when the guy came to the diner to pick it up directly rather than have to pay a delivery charge, he also bought a bunch of fixtures, the refrigerated front counter that the register sat on that used to hold homemade pies and cakes, and about half the booth seats in front of the windows. He and his brother were real happy to get everything. Winn told me to make the deal while he helped to dismantle everything so it could be loaded into their trailer. We threw in some of the memorabilia stuff hanging on the walls including some demented looking roosters that totally creeped me out and didn’t do much for Teena either.
And seems they knew of a place looking for a new cook top grill and called them up and wham, bam, thank you ma’am most of the kitchen area was cleaned out including the monster overhead range hood and the stuff that it used to vent it outside. That all went through Winn’s EIN.
They left and we hadn’t really had to load anything into the trailer. I was feeding the eating machine when I heard a bang and a curse. I called, “You okay?”
Teena gave me a dirty look for interrupting her meal and Winn answered with a question. “You finished with Darth Teena? Can you come back here.”
I put Teena in her bouncy seat that I’d started bringing when we worked and handed her one of her dog biscuits … er … her teething cookies. I made sure the front door was locked and then hurried back in case Winn had hurt himself to find him carrying out …
“They didn’t even empty the pantry?!”
Winn looked at me and grinned. “They didn’t empty the walk-in cooler either. You need to check the dates on that stuff to make sure whether it is still good or not. I’m not leaving any of this in here. Can you freeze dry ketchup and mustard?”
That’s right. When Winn had cut the bolts off the pantry and walk-in cooler he’d found both of them about nearly full, like an order had just come in and been put away. The pantry had a bunch of #10 cans … green beans, mixed vegetables, whole kernel corn in both yellow and white, carrots in sliced and dices, apple slices, peach slices, ketchup, mandarin oranges, apple butter, apple sauce, cheddar cheese sauce, pie fillings like apple and blueberry and cherry, chocolate pudding, vanilla pudding, canned pumpkin, pizza sauce, tomato sauce, tomato puree, diced tomatoes tomato paste, mushrooms, whole peeled tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, diced potatoes, sliced potatoes, whole potatoes, chili, kidney beans, pinto beans, English peas, yams, three bean salad, diced chicken, lima beans, hominy, creamed corn, great northern beans, black beans, baked beans, cannellini beans, black eyed peas, chili beans, butter beans, pork ‘n beans, and pickled beets.
There were other things in there too like canned spinach, canned asparagus, big tubs of dried hash brown shreds, canned butternut squash, giant bags of rice, tubs of peanut butter. I don’t even want to guess how many spaghetti noodles, egg noodles, and elbow macaroni we pulled out of there. All sorts of plastic gallon jars of peppers and relishes like banana peppers, jalapenos, sweet cherry peppers, and hot dog relish. And enough pickles to pucker Peter Piper. There were large packages of real bacon bits. Giant containers of seasonings like powdered garlic, powdered onion, chili powder, cinnamon, salt, pepper, cumin, and more of the kind that was just not at the top of my list because I considered it too expensive in the big jugs like they had them in at the big box stores.
There were huge plastic barrels of pork rinds. I found out that they ground those up and used them on the breading they used to fix breaded pork chops for on of their Sunday-only specials. They had some cases of Slim Jims, canned cheese, and canned butter because he used to sell take away meal boxes for hunting and rafting parties.
There were things like cornstarch, sugar, pkgs of flavored gelatin, cases of those little jellies that get set out with breakfast at restaurants in the flavors of grape, strawberry, marmalade, and honey. Cases of bottled Jarritos soda flavors (I guess they had a large Hispanic clientele) – mandarin, lime, pineapple, tamarind, plain sparkling water, mango, watermelon, guava, fruit punch, green apple, hibiscus, and passion fruit. There was a ton of lemonade-concentrate in both regular and pink. There was enough coffee creamer that we could “gift” everyone in the Dunn family a good-sized bag of those single serving things had we been so inclined and that isn’t much of an exaggeration. There were big jugs of chocolate syrup and caramel sauce. Boxes of ice cream cones. Ten-pound bags of chopped peanuts. More bottles of maraschino cherries than I thought I could ever use. Lots of giant bottles of hot sauce as well as a bunch of small ones that would go on the individual tables. Gallon jugs of iced tea concentrate in unsweetened and sweetened and then the jugs of lemon juice to go with them. There were smaller jugs of other types of flavored teas … peach, raspberry, strawberry, green tea … and there was even chai teas concentrates, smoothie concentrates, and gallon jugs of koolaide type syrup concentrates.
Winn was dancing around about all the coffee there was and there were also a gazillion and one different flavored tea bags, some of them a little dusty with age. There were also packets of instant cider and hot chocolate mix. I nearly broke my neck on two five-gallon buckets of chocolate chips, and then Winn nearly did the same on one of butterscotch chips. There were tall cans of pineapple juice, orange juice concentrate, cranberry juice concentrate, great big jugs of grape juice and literally barrels of apple juice.
There were 25-lbs bags of rolled oats, instant oats, quick cook grits, bread flour, cake flour, cornmeal, and granola. A bunch of oversized cans of cream of chicken and cream of celery soups. The closer I looked the more amazed I was. There were two 50-lbs. bags of dried pinto beans, a few 20-lbs bags of mixed dried soup beans. There were split peas and lentils by the 10-lbs. bag, and 20-lbs bags of great northern beans, white beans, yellow split peas, and chickpeas.
There was powdered chicken soup base, lobster and crab soup bases (another season and Sunday-only menu item), bouillon (chicken, tomato, beef, ham), French onion soup mix, minestrone soup mix, and vegetable soup base.
I just kept moving things the best I could with Winn’s appliance dolly and the various laundry baskets that I’d been collecting from nearly every place we’d cleaned out up to that point. It took a heavy-duty dolly to move some of that stuff, especially the cases of cooking oils.
I came in to find that Winn had stopped to pick up Teena who was getting bored and about to sound off.
“You need to check out the walk-in. I found a couple cases of chicken that had been set to marinate that had gone over. There’s a freezer section and a cooler section.”
I waived my hand in front of my nose. “That explains the smell. How much else has gone over?”
“In the freezer area, nothing as far as I can tell. A couple cases of chicken parts looks from the dates like it is getting close but that’s about it. In the cooler there was some dead fresh stuff that needed to be tossed but I took care of that already when I ditched the chicken. There are some leftovers that are fuzzy and moldy but they’ll have to stay there until tomorrow. Er … I mean if you don’t mind stopping here so I can check out that other job. I gotta meet them at 3 o’clock.”
“Can you give me an hour, maybe half an hour anyway, so I can get some of these pantry items moved? Less we have to move today, the less we’ll have to do tomorrow.”
“So you’ll come back with me? You think this is worth doing?”
I gave him the look his question was worth and he smiled and said, “We’ll need all of your coolers. There’s a chest freezer with ice cream in it in a storage room that has cleaning supplies, brooms, and mops in it. There’s another chest freezer out back that I’m hoping works. I plugged it up and the compressor kicked on. I’m gonna bring my long drop cord tomorrow. In the morning I’ll move the chest freezers into the trailer and hopefully get it cooled down. Then after we finish with your coolers, we’ll fill the freezer with the big meat.”
“Big meat?”
“Yeah. Hams, roasts, stuff like that. There’s also bacon, big rolls of sausage, and that sort of thing. Edie, this is gonna be a lotta work. There’s not room for all of it in your stand-up freezer. The chest freezers are going to take a lot of room on your back porch, assuming I can even get it moved back there. Then there’s all the stuff in the cooler area that we’re going to have to find room for before it spoils.”
“Such as?”
“Milk cartons of egg beaters, big blocks of Velveeta …”
“What?!!”
Winn laughed and said, “Thought you would like that. How you don’t get a stomach ache from all the cheese you eat.”
“I also eat a lot of oatmeal. Next subject please.”
He wheezed a laugh and said, “There’s great big tubs of condiments like salad dressings and stuff like that. Even some expensive as hell Miracle Whip that you’ve been complaining is getting too expensive even with BOGOs and coupons.”
I’ve been teaching Winn to speak my language, or he’s been learning in self defense. Either way he was right, there was a lot of stuff that needed to be refrigerated or frozen.
I told him, “I’ve been thinking about that. It is still cool at night at the cabin. I’ll stack what I can in the back porch’s freezer room and it will just have to do until I can get around to it. I’ll set all my big crock pots for soups and things. I’ll just can soups and stews and stuff like that while the freeze drier takes care of other things. I’ll keep my Excalibur dehydrator going as well. And then I’ll have my second set of freeze drier trays freezing with the next batch so it doesn’t take so long to finish. I’m running low on mylar bags so if we can run by the tractor supply store to see if they have any. Whether they do or don’t I’ll go ahead and order some online and pay for expedited shipping. There are a bunch of cleaning supplies we should go ahead and grab though there isn’t as much as I expected for a place this size. They must have ordered that stuff on a different schedule from the food. And have you checked the office yet?”
He got a “Doh!” look on his face. He admitted, “Just long enough to turn the security cameras off after I called Job to tell him I’d take the clean-out but that it would take me until later this afternoon to turn in the contract since we were already working on things.”
“And he was fine with that?”
“Yeah. Not like he doesn’t know where to find me if there is a problem. Plus he’s friends with my mom and step-dad.”
“Danger of being a Dunn living in Dunnville.”
“You got that right. Stick your head in here in the walk-ins so you can have an idea of what we’ll be dealing with.”
“Whoa,” I said after doing so and realizing Winn had been understating things a bit. I was pretty sure I could do it, but I was going to feel like death warmed over and Teena was going to have to be in a cooperative mood and my school plans were going to have to be shifted a bit.
We both decided to take a quick peek in the office and that’s when I spotted it and started wondering.
Jeepcats27
Senior Member
Aaaahhhhhh, I was just checking before bed and what a nice surprise!!!!Thank you, Kathy.