Wheeling and Dealing

On my previous blog I listed a few items we had recently sold.  Well, that was easy but we weren’t done yet.  With all this easy money I guess we were getting just a little greedy.  We did have one more thing we decided to sell and Terry was out cleaning it up.  This was the first kayak he bought last summer.  He used it a couple times before he upgraded to his current kayak.  The kayak wintered upside down in our son’s garden.  Other than a little dirty it was near perfect.  It went up on Craigslist and within a couple hours we had cash in our pocket for that too.

What’d we ever do without Craigslist?  Well, it was certainly much harder to sell items than it is now.  Heck, Craigslist helped us downsize.  Of course, it’s not all a piece of cake. Your phone or email can get bombarded with folks who just want to make ridiculous offers sight unseen.  Then, there are those who let you know they’ll be right there and they never show up.  Don’t forget the emails from people who are sure you might be interested in trading your item for their unwanted item. 

It can be challenging dealing with all the different phone calls, emails and people but it is definitely worth it.  We sold each of our items to the very first person showing up.  Yes, it does make you wonder if our prices were way too low.  Bottom line is we sold things and were happy with the price we did get even if it might have been more.  Now that is all behind us and it was time to move on to the next project.

We weren’t wheel-less because we still had our trusty little Jeep Liberty with no plans on selling that one!.  However, we really weren’t through dealing with wheels. because we wanted a knock around little 4X4 pickup and wanted it to be under 3500 pounds. That meant more research as there aren’t a lot of trucks under that weight 

We were back to Craigslist and started looking first at the Dodge Dakota.  However, every year more pounds were added to the weight of the Dakota and it was soon heavier than we wanted.  Next, we checked out the Chevrolet Colorado but there weren’t a lot of those around here to choose from.    So, we slowly migrated our thoughts towards a Ford Ranger.  The deal is that Rangers weren’t made with a neutral selection on their 4 wheel drives.  We discovered that could be corrected for about $300 with a new part and an ECM tweak from the dealer.  So, we felt we were good to go and that’s what we ended up with. 

Duchess has a perfect window seat.  She is entertained by watching for all the critters  ‘cuz then she gets to bark.

We weren’t through wheeling and dealing yet.  The truck had been found but we still need to find a bed cover and that probably won’t come from Craigslist.  More than likely it’ll be from Amazon.  We might also need a rack for kayaks but we haven’t looked into that yet.  We consigned last years nearly new Thule J Hooks with a Portland kayak shop.  We figured we’d probably get more from a kayak shop than what we would get on Craigslist so that’s what we did.

The way we buy and sell sure has changed.  Thank goodness it has changed and thank goodness for Craigslist, Amazon and Ebay. 

In the meantime, our motorhome is sitting in Lee’s driveway without us.  We’ve “checked” into our home base for a few nights before we head to the coast.  The deer are happy to see us, the birds wake us up in the morning and little “kitty”  has returned.  “Kitty” is the friendly feral cat we fed last year.  I’m sure at one time she must have had a home.  I was glad to see she did well over the winter.  The fellas in the maintenance shop feed the cats all year long so at least they do have a constant supply of food.

New docks are being installed on the lake.  Terry and I went over to supervise the work but realized they were doing a fine job without our supervision.  Once we get all of our tasks behind us we’ll get to put our kayaks in the lake. 

With rain in the forecast and our upcoming trip to the coast, it’ll probably be a couple weeks before the kayaks are launched.

We’re starting to see more and more out of state plates returning to our little area.  I guess snowbirds have left the warmer south and headed north for the cooler climates.  

With Memorial Day just around the corner, our community pool will now be open 7 days a week instead of just the weekend.  I like that  because we only have to walk up our hill and across the pool’s parking lot to be able to soak in the hot tub or swim a lap or two.  Things are good.

‘Tis life on the road.

The only thing worse than it raining after you wash your car ….  is having to poop as soon as you get out of the shower.