Bitter Cold , Barns Old and Gratitude Bold

We purchased the BoggsMobile in late March 2008. From then until December 2014, we parked outside whenever we were home for Christmas or any other time. Can you see the Dodds Church van and the funnel cake trailer parked at the church next door about 200' away?

The van and red trailer are parked where we parked with permission for a week or two at a time for nearly seven years when we were home. We were grateful to have a place to park at home. That was a wonderful blessing. 

But the winter weather at Christmas was ridiculous. 

We have had frozen everything there more than one time. The challenge to keep the bus from freezing was about to drive me crazy and I had determined not to bring the bus home for Christmas ever again.

Then the property next door with the big red pole barn came up for sale and we jumped as quick as we could. The guy that rented the property was there one day and I went to talk to him. First, I wanted to make sure that he was not trying to buy it. I did not want to step in front of him.

Next, I wanted permission to measure the door. When the height measured 14', I nearly shouted. Do you have any idea how many perfect places we found for sale and the door was 10' or 12' and could not be raised without removing the roof and trusses?

We knew we had found a home for the BoggsMobile!

An individual stepped up and loaned us most of the money we needed to purchase the property and we have thanked God for them a thousand times. Everything has been completely paid for over a year and we are very thankful for that too.

We are so incredibly thankful for what we call The Lazy OD Ranch and especially thankful for the only building on it when we purchased the property in December 2014. That building is the red barn. It is a pole barn built in 1982.

It needed some structural work and a roof when we bought it. That and many other things have been done and there still remains a lot to be completed. I would love to eventually have it totally insulated and fairly airtight and maybe even heated. That is the end goal.

However, it was great the first day we pulled the bus inside in December 2014. 

It changed our lives for the good and removed a heavy burden from my shoulders. The bus is out of the wind and easy to heat while it is inside the barn.

What makes me think and write of this now? Good question. It is never too far from my mind, but winter has hit with a vengeance this week.

It was already cold and then it was 20 shortly after midnight Wednesday night and felt like 7. Yikes!

Thursday morning it was 15 about 8:30 AM and felt like 9. 

It was supposed to get to 23, but I do not think it did. By 5:00 Wednesday evening, it was 19, snowing and felt like 9.

Eventually, IF it stays this cold, the barn will get below freezing too. But at this point, it is still 37-38 degrees just inside the front door. I will take that any day over being outside in the cold, snow and wind!

I do not think the pipe will freeze, but I always have a lightbulb in the place where the water enters the barn underground. I usually turn the water off while we are gone in the winter just in case there is a break from a frozen pipe.

Can you see why we are thankful for this old barn? Praise God for a barn! Praise God for protection, provision and providence! God knew what we needed and had a guy build it for me in 1982 when  I was 15 years old!

Yep, I am sold on the providence of God enough to believe that!

I am thankful for you, too! Thank you for spending a few minutes with us today.

Davy

When One Door Closes

When one door closes, another door opens or something like that.

When we first purchased the Lazy OD Ranch in December 2014, the old red pole barn was in pretty sad shape. Bro. Mitch Boggs Jr. brought his crew and Bro. Jason Fellers to shore it up structurally, replace the roof and finish it out with trim in the summer of 2015.

This is how the front looked until August of this year.

The overhead door finally arrived and was installed in August.

While the installers were here, they helped me take down the old sliding doors that were built in 1982. I laid them next to the driveway until I could get home and remove the metal.

We had a day in mid December without rain and with only mildly arctic temperatures so we removed the metal from the frames.

I suppose this is the manufacture date of the metal. 12/8/81. 

I was amazed that the screws came out so easily. The guides mounted on the barn did not come off easily, but we finally removed them!

I am saving the faded red metal to finish around the new door and for a few other places around the barn. I kept the frames, tracks, rollers and guides and they are in really good shape. I was hoping I could find someone that needed doors and did not have money to build doors like these.

Each door is 14'x7', but could be rebuilt to a smaller size if needed. As they are, they can cover a 14x14 opening. I put them on Craigslist in Dayton and Cincinnati at a very cheap price. You could not purchase the track and rollers for the price of everything.

The ad stayed up on Craigslist for two or three weeks without one bite. I did not even get scam emails or texts! I usually always have someone wanting to send extra money in exchange for my account numbers.😍

I put up the ad and did not update it, renew it or even look at it the whole time. I heard nothing but crickets from the ads.

Monday night a guy text me from 9:30 to 10:40 about the doors. He decided to take them and he made arrangements to do the deal Tuesday morning. By 6:00 Tuesday morning he was pulling in and loading up.

He drove 90 minutes from Kentucky to get the doors, tracks, rollers and guides. He is finishing up a new building and they are the exact size he needs. He saved a lot of money and got exactly what he needed.

By 6:30 AM, we had the doors loaded, strapped and he was on his way to work.

I sold them for half the asking price and the asking price was WAY less than new material so I was super happy to send them to a good home. That worked out just like I had hoped and imagined!

Some days things work out great!

Thank you for reading today.

Davy

It Has Been A Great Week! 11/19/21

It has been a busy, happy week and we would not have it any other way.

Before we purchased the Lazy OD Ranch in December of 2014, our time at home was completely different. We would come home, rest a day or two and then go to church, visit with family, work on the truck and trailer (later the bus) and then hit the road again. That pretty much described our limited home time for eleven years of road life.

With the ranch, much of that has changed. We still go to church, visit with family, work on the truck, car, trailer and bus, but we now have added the responsibility of the bus barn, the yard and the house. Fortunately, the house is newish so it does not require much attention and Odie can take care of the small stuff.

The yard and the bus barn demand our undivided attention much of the time. It is not all bad though. The blur of activity Monday included Mom's pumpkin pie for Odie, lunch at Odie's with Mom and Dad.

You know that we have to do some vehicle shuffling. Dad had dropped the truck off before we arrived home. The Jeep had to be unhooked and moved, then the truck hooked to the small trailer and move it away from the barn. That made room to park the bus next to the barn.

The Green Machine was parked in the house garage and would not start. I pushed it out of the garage and rolled it down the hill toward the barn. After spending an hour on the battery charger, it cranked right up!

Tuesday and Wednesday KJo assembled the last to cabinets that we had purchased for the barn before we left. I aired up tires. Lawnmower tires, Green Machine tires, ten trailer tires and truck tires.

All of this was in preparation for our only warm day of the week and maybe the last warm day of the year in Ohio.

On Wednesday, the warm day in the 60s, KJo finished the cabinets, mowed and generally worked her amazing domestic magic!

I washed the plumbing bay in the bus and shuffled vehicles again. This time the shuffle included everything, including moving the tent railer out of the barn and moving the BoggsMobile into the barn.

I also shuffled some equipment between the bus and the tent trailer while they were parked in close proximity in the picture below. We need different things with us for each trip and I am looking ahead to what needs to be in the bus when we roll again for a long tour in January.

The bus had not been inside since mid August so quite a bit of tools and such had to be handled to make room for it. While inserting the bus, I washed the back of it. Washing it beside the barn makes a muddy mess, so this was the best that I could do.

I washed the top part of the back and then took a picture. Can you see the difference between the unclean and kind of clean?

This is the first time the BoggsMobile has been inside the bus barn with the overhead door installed. That felt good!

Every time I push the button to open or close that big overhead door it makes me smile from ear to ear! It does not take much to make me happy! That door is there because of a gift from dear friends and we are incredibly thankful!

Our beautiful week included Tuesday and Thursday at our home church at Dryden Road. It was so good to be back. We love our Pastor and church family.

Thank you for stopping in today.

Davy