Another Round of out West

My leave of absence has come.  For the second year in a row, I have given up my life in MN and travelled to SD to spend a couple months.  This year is a bit different as it has been just over a year since my mom passed away so my expectations of how this is going to be has definitely changed.  What a crazy lead-up to leaving my home.

We sold our house (actually to a friend of mine) and the closing date was far enough into winter that it made sense for me to simply leave right after.  And I took that to be RIGHT after as I was on the road less than an hour after the last paper was signed.  I know I have a bit of a difficulty understanding completely the enormity of situations as I am currently in them and this was no different.  It probably didn't hit me for a couple days that I am technically homeless.  And I have no idea where I am going to live.

Fortunately, really life-savingly, I have a tremendous friend that allowed me to consume a building on her family's farm to store all my shit.  I have WAY too much shit.  Collecting crap over 20 years has amounted to an entire building's worth of stuff.  Mostly bicycle related.  My Ebay account is going to go insane when I get back.  Actually, it will start right after the first of the year.  I intend on selling most of the things I don't use all the time.  There will be a few items that are not used constantly (my touring bike and panniers, just to name a couple) but otherwise, as I bring loads back into my living arrangement, I will assess how necessary they are and if I can't make a really good argument for it, on the auction block it goes.

Gear dandruff

So coming back to ranching life, I have done a fair amount of cleaning, my stepfather is not known for his organization and cleanliness.  I have also tried to make his place ready for winter.  Last year, we didn't really have winter at all.  This year appears to be making up for that.  Prepping for the first significant weather of the season, one of the projects was to fix the garage opener which he thought was simply unlocked from the track.  It turns out that the "Professional Series" opener uses plastic gears.  Plastic!!  This opener has been having issues for probably 5 years and I decided to take matters into my own hands.  Taking the cover off I discover all the remnants of what used to be the gear mechanism.  Fortunately they are not too expensive so a new gear mechanism is on its way.  It won't be here for the weekend, but at least I will be able to have it operational before much more inclement weather happens.

A difference this year is that it seems like I don't have much time at all.  Last year seemed like the winter was a very long time.  This year, I am more organized and have a number of projects I wish to accomplish.  This is changing how I think about my time out here.  It already seems like it is too short even though in several ways, I cannot have it be over soon enough.