Money isn't everything.

What is it you say?  I'll tell you.

I've decided I'm going to probably live in my run down log cabin for a few years.  Maybe it won't be so run down when I'm ready to move.  I've made some improvements and lots of plans for more.

In anticipation of sweeping the dust and creosote down the chimney with my wire brush attached to at least  four fiberglass rods, I decided to make it easier.  The roof is a 45 degree pitch on both sides, of the peak and the chimney is right on the end.  I can get up to the chimney easy enough with a ladder laid down on the roof .  The challenge is getting up to the top of the chimney.  For the last four years, I climbed up the rocks and somehow sit on top of the chimney and then sweep it down.  I inevitably scrape the bejesus out of my arms and legs on the mortar.  NOT THIS YEAR.  I'll build this little table, carry it up there, maybe even tie it up there permanently, so I can stand on it.

The responses I got from my friends on facebook were less than encouraging.  Almost all said to hire a real chimney sweep.  Only one of my friends  thinks like me and offered to bring the video camera so we could win some money on America's Funniest Videos.  And one friend even claimed the benefits of hiring a real chimney sweep.  Armed with a camera, they could video the inside of my chimney, and if there are problems, I can then pay a professional to install a stainless steel flue, and insulate for a gazillion bucks.   

It dawned on me, I live in a very different world than most of my friends.  For one thing, suggesting I pay someone to do something I can do is in my mind absurd.  I can do a lot of things, and with help, who knows.  My buddy Vance can do everything, as well as a few other shop teacher buddies.  I don't ask for help but when they offer, I jump on it.

I keep an eye out for a bargain or even free stuff that can be fixed. Right now on my porch, I have a door to install, and in the shed, a bathroom cabinet and a roll of linoleum.  That will go in upstairs as soon as I finish the downstairs bath.  Need to position the tub, install a sink, run some plumbing, and oh yeah, put up some sheetrock.  I fix things I don't know how to fix even.  I've fixed my washer, a couple of dryers, built sheds, fix lawn mowers, cook and bake some, make peach jam, cut grass.  While I'm not afraid to replace brake rotors and pads, and even changed out a caliper lately, I stay away from drum brakes.  I just don't like them.I'll change the oil of course...doesn't everyone?  I've got some maintenance coming up on the scooter soon, which will also be a new experience.

Do I like doing all these things?  Hell no.  If I had the money, I'd pay someone to do it, just like all my friends suggest.  Like so many others these days, both single and couples, I'm living paycheck to paycheck.  Yep, the guy that used to sell insurance and mutual funds, never followed my own advice.  I had a friend ask me incredulously "Why don't you have any money?"  You are a school teacher.  Don't you save money? My response was "I never have enough left over at the end of the month to set aside."  I am luckier than many though.  At the moment, I have a regular paycheck, and when need be, I hire myself out as a handyman.

I never went into teaching to make money.  In NC, one of the lowest paying in the country, and where we have not seen a raise in 3 years, and with 21 years of experience and a Master's Degree, I still make less than $50k a year.  I'm not complaining.  Just stating the facts.

Two can live cheaper than one but being ornery I guess, I've been single most of my adult life.  The only time I lived with a woman and shared expenses and incomes was my ten years of marriage.  Without going into details, it is not something I've wanted to try again.

My daughter came to live with me full time at age eleven.  Again, I didn't save.  The extra cash went to helping a teenager do teen age things (like get braces), and I eeked out some fun to at times with short trips to NYC or DC or Cleveland.  Lately, my daughter has needed some extra help with transportation and getting into an apartment.  I gladly support her and share what little I have knowing that some day, after she finishes school and gets a good job, I'll be able to catch up on credit card bills.And she can support me in the lifestyle I've grown accustomed to.

So back to the original advise about hiring someone to sweep my chimney?  I've invested in chimney sweeping tools years ago.  I'm pretty darn healthy, strong, agile and pretty safe.  I spent a few weeks crawling all over the roof nailing down shingles last summer so being up there doesn't phase me.  As for hiring an expert to tell me I need to have work done on the chimney.  I already know that.  The firemen told me it should be brought up to code.  Don't you love that word..."should"?  Wouldn't be able to pay to fix it anyway.  And besides, I have home owners insurance.  A nice 3 bedroom, two bath modular in place of this log cabin would be the best thing that ever happened to me.

My first Toast Master's Speech

This is my first speech, where I get to talk about myself.  If I was sitting in your shoes, I might want to get up and leave, please don’t.  I know how you feel.  A lot of people feel that way.  But what others in your shoes have found is that by just listening you might be pleasantly surprised.  Hey, wait a minute.  This is starting to sound like a sales pitch, isn’t it?  That’s not surprising because I spent a couple of years trying to eke out a living in sales.  There were:

·        cars,

·        insurance products,

·        mutual funds,

·        collection services,

·        health drinks,

·        metal buildings

·        satellite dishes,

·        long distance phone packages,

·        and the last effort involved air and water purifiers. 

I don’t own any of the things I tried to sell.  That’s too bad.  Imagine.  If I had put money in a good mutual fund back in 1992, who knows what it would be worth now? Naomi would know.

Back to you though.  You might be thinking, as I ramble on, “What’s In It for me?”    I’m hoping to broad of your horizons, or just pass the time  pleasantly and hopefully bring a smile to your face.  How am I doing so far? 

Walk with me down memory lane back in Cleveland, Oh, in 1954  where I was the baby of seven.  Childhood consisted of fighting for scraps and wearing my older brother’s clothes until I got my first job at the age of 10 cleaning a bird bath twice a day.  Two dollars a week didn’t buy a lot, but things starting looking up when I got a paper route. At 13, I became a caddy at an upscale country club, followed by several years in and out of food service as a:

·        busboy,

·        fry cook,

·        waiter,

·        bartender and

·        finally a  galley slave and deck hand on Maine’s oldest functioning two masted schooner, called the Lewis R. French. 

It still sails today with a crew of four. It takes out 22 passengers for a week at a time. For those that like bathing, they provide cold sea water showers from a bucket.  Not much has changed since I polished brass and hoisted sails back in 1979.  The schooner industry prides itself on doing things the same way year after year. 

That summer though, I changed.  I developed skills that I still use today, and pass on to my students, like knot tying.  I learned that you can work hard all week, build muscles you never knew you had, and that after 13 weeks of eating lobster once a week, I’d rather eat a couple of hot dogs. I experienced contra dancing for the first  time but not the last. 

 In preparing the ship for three months of sailing, I discovered the satisfaction of fixing things and making things but I only made $65 a week though.   So I searched for a career that blended the pleasure of making things, and helping others do the same thing. 

When I enrolled in Kent State in 1980, my major was Industrial Arts Education.  The focus was drafting, wood shop, metal shop, graphics and a little pottery thrown in for good measure.  After teaching two years in Richmond County, NC, I moved to Boone to get my Masters.  After 21 years of teaching in three different counties, eleven different schools, including the NC School for the Deaf for one year, I am every bit as challenged and excited about my career as ever. 

How can that be?  I have the good fortune of teaching from a curriculum so broad that I choose which topics to teach, based on resources, my personal mastery of the material, and the most important criteria…will it be fun?  I select activities from the Career and Technology Exploration curriculum.  The way I see it, whatever I want to teach can be part of some career or some technology in one way or another. 

What would you see if you were to walk into my classrooms?  If you plan to visit, and you are welcome to, but call ahead.  I work at four different schools: Parkway, Cove Creek,  Mabel and Bethel.  I visit two schools a day, and then the other two schools the next day.  If at Cove Creek, all I have to work with is a computer lab.  At Parkway, I have more of a regular classroom; however, there is a light duty kitchen in the corner, and a greenhouse at the playground.  Bethel, usually considered the orphan of the county schools, has the best set up.  It has a Computer lab upstairs, and downstairs in the dungeon, one classroom with a full kitchen and another room with a workshop for carpentry and small engine repair. 

If you were to walk into my room, you might see students making a video about business etiquette.  Other students might be building a stand out of recycled lumber to support a rain barrel next to our vegetable garden.  you will find students researching a small business idea on the computers, hopefully not too distracted from the music they have playing through their ear buds.

 Others are taking pictures and learning to edit them for their power point presentation. 

Others are taking surveys about careers.  A couple of kids might be taking a part a lawn mower that has seen better days, and destined to never run again.  I tell them we are going to reuse the parts, but in reality, they are just learning to use tools on a machine that they can’t break.  I keep band aids handy. 

On a pretty day, you might find kids hauling mulch, to cover the flowers that we transplanted in a flower bed. 

At all my schools, kids learn to take and edit photographs and create a business like PowerPoint.  This year, with my new found enthusiasm for public speaking, they will present their work in front of the class.

All my students get instruction in using  3D computer assisted design, basic computer programmingand keyboarding, also known as typing.

 You might think traveling and teaching so many different things is challenging.  It is but that is not the biggest challenge.  Neither is coordinating supplies, which with limited funding for my program has gotten easier. 

My challenge is to remind myself daily that kids are kids, and given the chance, they want to learn how to do things that are relevant.  They also want learning to be fun.  I have to remember there will be messes to clean up, broken tools, and wasted materials.  Kids like teachers that like them. Kids, I tell myself, are doing the best they can, and if I were in their shoes, I would do the same thing. 

I have a favorite quote.   “Kids don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” More important than lessons, the grades, the projects, my first priority is to let them know that they matter most and I care.

How to cut a box frame in half so you can get it up the stair well.

Cutting a box spring in half

Moving presents its challenges.  Recently my daughter moved into an apartment.  Moving her queen size sled bed went well despite the narrow stair case going upstairs to the bedrooms.  The box spring wouldn’t bend as well as the mattress, so we had to cut it in half, take the haves up, and then reconnect.  This job is immensely easier if you have a friend that is good with tools.

 If not, all you need are:

·         Circular saw

·         Razor knife for cutting fabric

·         Staple gun

·         Cordless or corded drill

·         1-5/8” self tapping deck screws

·         2’ long pieces of 1x4 pine

·         Patience

·         Strong back

Start off with a basic oversized box spring.

Remove just enough fabric so you can cut the wood and cardboard without catching the fabric in your saw blade.  (Note:  If the box spring will fit up the stair well without modifications, stop reading and carry the thing up there.)

Notice that the frame to a cheap Big Lot’s brand box spring is pretty simple.  Mostly 1x2’s poorly nailed together and covered with cardboard and fabric.  For demonstration purposes, fabric and c cardboard isn’t shown. 

Using an appropriate tool, with safety glasses on your face, cut down the middle of all the pieces holding the two halves together. 

If successful, the halves will look like this.  If they don’t, consider going back to big lots and buying another one and trying something different. 

Using short pieces of 1x4, and self tapping exterior screws, reconnect the two halves. 

If you find that you reconnected the two halves and you are not in the room where the bed is, then remove the screws and short pieces of wood, carry the two halves to your destination, and reconnect the two halves. 

Use screws to attach the short splicing boards to the frame when you put it back together.  If the points of the screws come through, make sure they are coming out on the inside where you don’t have a mattress.  Duh!!!

Staple your fabric back on if desired and put it on the bed frame.  VOILA!