Another picture perfect Minnesota day, July 17th

Day 30, "Every picture has a story"

This is 710 3rd street in Devils Lake ND.  It was our first home and it was a time when I had a LOT of time to do things.  OR it could have been I just had a LOT more energy!  When we moved in there was a broken down cement wall in the front.  Some of the stories that could almost become book #2.

• Even though I came from a farm I knew NOTHING about owning a home.  I was in shock when we received our first mortgage payment and it was like $147.  I thought it would be like $110 or so.  I had NO idea that it included taxes and insurance!
• I borrowed a tractor from Lake Ready Mix on a Saturday afternoon to take up the old sidewalk.  There was a pipe in the middle of the walk and I tried to get rid of it!!!  I had no idea that it was a water pipe.  No problem BUT we could easily have had a water fountain in our front yard.
• I redid the water pipes in the bathroom and when the water was turned on we had Old Faithful but not every 60 minutes rather a steady stream.
• The second floor front bedroom floor was somewhat concave so I cut a hole in the floor and propped it up to some degree.  
• When we moved in we had a freezer, a card table and an old iron bed AND NO spendable $$.
• At first the banker said we did not qualify for a home loan because we had no credit rating.  We had not borrowed any money and we had no credit card!  It was worked out but we almost did not get the house.  IF the house fell through our only other place to stay was renting a smoke filled apartment that actually smelled like marijuana.  I think we lucked out.  Our friend, Ron, from Gate City Savings helped get us through it.  At the time I had the idea that never having borrowed money and having no debt was a positive, little did I know.
• The basement had dirt walls and a tiny platform of cement where we could put our apartment size washer/dryer on.  
• I poured the front walk and the back driveway (there was dirt when we moved in) with left over cement from my work on Saturdays.  I would ask to take out the last load of cement on Saturday and then I would ask Pete, the mix man, to give me a yard or 2 extra!  The day I did the driveway I had 2 friends (I thought they were friends) come over to help.  THEY did not show up!!  There I was pouring and leveling 3 yards of cement in the hot summer sun.  Towards the end of the driveway the surface was not so smooth!

Like I said the stories could go on forever.

Paul came over early yesterday and worked the longest day for him so far.  He intends to get the woodwork painted this week I think.  What I have seen so far he does very nice work.

I had several items in the truck to take to the junk yard.  So that I could get my $$ worth I went up in the attic to see if there were other items I wanted to get rid of.  Well I was surprised to find several empty boxes so I took them down and also some things that needed to go.  A trip to Twin City Refuse and $25 later I was done.  It felt good.  For sure there are several things that need to go from the attic yet but those are for another day.

I may need to mow the lawn today.  Terry and I plan to travel to ND Thursday and come back Friday so it needs to be done before that.  

At this point in the day I have not been on my bike.  Not sure my body can do it today.  Maybe it is because as I weighed myself today, after denying myself goodies yesterday, my weight was still a tad above my goal for Sunday.  What is a person to do?

Enough for now, maybe I can get at those darn darn fans today.  My thoughts went out the window in the same way the FP went down.