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Getting out of My Daughter’s Way

February 2, 2015 by Ashley Hackshaw

She has been asking for a dog for a long, long time.

We’d been visiting our local shelter the past few weeks and she had expressed interest in a sweet mutt, but the dog ended up testing heart worm positive. Then we applied for a yellow lab out-of-state and he ended up going to another family. We kept visiting the local shelter to play with the dogs and she had her heart set on on one of these lab puppies:

She even used her Christmas money to sponsor a dog when we told her any money she donated we would match:

We were a little worried about how big the labs would get, but we went through the adoption process. Two weeks ago the shelter called all our references, talked to our vet and neighbors in California, and we were finally approved to adopt River. But…somehow wires got crossed and when we went back to visit last Friday to hopefully finalize an adoption we learned that all three pups had been adopted. One puppy had already left and the other two were leaving that afternoon. When we heard the news Boo walked quietly out of the room without saying a word and disappeared. I knew she was off crying with the puppies.

For a split second my mind said: Phew, I’m off the hook. Because that’s where my head has been for the last few years. The repeated declarations to Boo of: We will never have another dog. Dogs are messy. No. No. No. No. No more dogs. We won’t be able to travel, don’t you want to travel? Do you know how much vet bills are? And I will be the one that has to take care of it!

I had every excuse in the book…because I have never naturally been a dog person: I don’t like having my schedule interrupted by dog walking. I don’t like the look of crates and gates cluttering up the house. I can’t stand all the dog smells and shedding. I’m tired of potty accidents in the house. I don’t like poop in the yard. But watching my daughter set aside all her money for dog donations and dog supplies the past few months began to wear down that grumpy dog person in me. I’ve watched in awe as she concentrates on dog training DVDs and videos, sometimes watching them twenty times over. I’ve sighed as she has asked me to stop the car so she can take her stuffed dog on potty breaks to proved to me that she can take care of a dog. I realized I need to get over myself, and see how much joy might come out of something I am so adamant against:

I need to get out of my daughter’s way.

So anyway, back to the puppies. I found Boo crying over the two remaining labs, knowing she would never see them again. But then we found out that they were being adopted to neighbors which ended up being a silver lining. We were happy for them that they would not be separated. And as we left I said, “we will find the perfect dog for you, I promise.”

That night, after Boo was in bed, we scoured the Internet again looking at all the shelters and ads within a 100 mile radius. Brett found a small terrier that a family was no longer able to keep. He was a shy, skittish one-year-old that had spent most of his life in a crate. Twelve people had expressed interest in front of us but they chose us because they liked the idea of the dog having a small playmate like Diesel to live with. And just a day before we were contemplating a lab. I think that’s a sign that it was meant to be. When we finally met him we knew he was going to be ours. He let Boo hold him like a little baby and he just nuzzled right up to us.

Meet Maximus aka “Max”

And Max loves Diesel, although Diesel wants nothing to do with him. Diesel’s licking his chops and saying: ain’t nobody got time for that.

Now I have a permanent shadow following me around all day. If he could crawl into my body and wear my skin to get closer I think he would. He just wants to be loved and to please us. Boo was worried about him not eating so she hand fed him every morsel of dog food at dinner last night…Max appreciated every second of it.

Max has a lot of quirks and we know we’ll have to be extra patient with him. I set up a camera so I can watch him from my phone at night to check on him. Boo has woken up the past few mornings on her own to take him out first thing. She scours the pet section of every store to see if there is something he might need. She’s so happy taking care of him.

Brett: It’s strange, I don’t feel like he’s a new dog. It’s like he’s always been here.
Me: It’s like he knew we were his family right away.

We feel like he’s always been part of the family, and we think he does too.

Diesel is still thinking about his verdict.

Me: I think you should build two permanent dog beds into this cabinet.
Brett: But what if one day in the future we only have one dog.
Me: Then we’ll have to go and find another.

DIY Marquee Letters

February 1, 2015 by Ashley Hackshaw

These cool DIY Marquee letters by Heidi Swapp are now carried at Michaels stores. I had a chance to preview them and I chose to spell the word “outdoors” to remind us to spend more time outside this winter. It’s way too easy to try and hibernate when it’s cold out. Here are the letters on my fireplace mantel, right below an awesome heart shaped succulent wreath that a friend sent to Boo for her birthday:

There’s not a lot of green outside right now so this is the perfect substitute:

The letters come individually packaged with a stencil for cutting paper to overlay as decor:

But I just decided to add a coat of bright green spray paint to mine:

I love how they turned out:

And how gorgeous is this living succulent wreath? It has to stay indoors right now so it won’t freeze. I hope I can keep it alive all year:

The Marquee Letters can be found here at Michaels.

The heart shaped succulent wreath can be found here at The Little Succulent Shop.

Wide Load: Moving the Train Depot

January 30, 2015 by Ashley Hackshaw

I took Boo to her basketball practice last night after a long day and a few familiar faces said “was that your building being towed through town this afternoon?”

It was. I had a building moved 50 miles. A crazy hair brained idea…but one that I was dead set on. I wanted to save an old building and recycle it into something new.

When I pulled up to the building yesterday the mover that I’d found was already hard at work. The depot was jacked up and they had used hydraulics to pivot it 45 degrees toward the road. Their trucks and trailer made it so I had to stop right in the middle of the road and park. I could see the looks in their eyes as I parked: great, we have to move all these trucks so that vehicle can drive through. I waved to them signaling I was fine and got out of the truck. They had stopped working for a second, while looking at me. A man walked up and said: I sure hope you are Ashley. And I said: You must be Mickey. As soon as we shook hands the hydraulics started up again.

Mickey Simmons is a salt of the earth kind of guy. You can tell he’s a hard worker, no b.s., and takes care of his workers. They work like a well-oiled machine with their signals, movements, etc. I didn’t do a lot of research right at first to find a mover, I had a few referrals from locals and I called them all but got mostly answering machines. The few that answered the phone or actually returned my call said it was too big of a job and they couldn’t do it with the equipment they had. So I searched on the Internet and found a few house moving companies. Brett asked how I picked Simmons House Moving and my answer was: well, he sounded just like my dad. It was more than that though…I have a really good sense of people. I liked Mickey right off. I knew I could trust him.

And yesterday, as we finally got to meet after days of talking on the phone about the job, I told him I was glad the day was finally here because I’d had anxiety about it, not about transport necessarily, but the owners of the property on the other side were worried about having trucks in the horse pasture and making it muddy, how fast we were going to get it moved, how we were going to get it moved, about heavy equipment tearing up the asphalt, and truck oil on the driveway etc. etc. etc.

Mickey: Anxiety? You didn’t need to worry about any of this.

Me: I know, but there were so many logistics and I was worried about putting these people out while we moved it.

And then he looked at me all serious and said:

Listen here, the sun is going to rise tomorrow. And then it’s going to set. And then the sun is going to rise again. Don’t worry about all that other stuff.

I nodded. He was right.

And then as it started pouring rain in the freezing cold I stood there watching them work. I wasn’t cold because I was mesmerized with the process….and the scenery:

I noticed that they were spending a lot of time underneath the structure attaching metal straps everywhere. Me: Is that going to keep it all together? Mickey: Yep, this is what is known as a balloon construction. The building is just resting on the floor. We have to secure the top and bottom together to keep it from falling apart. (I love knowing just a little bit about just about everything.)

I think it probably took longer than they expected because of the condition of the building. And with the rain everything was getting slick. And then just like that, the sun came out, and they were ready to transport: We’ll just follow you.

Me: Uh oh, I have to pick up my daughter from school. I’ll run go do that and then meet you back at the highway exit.

Nothing like packing in a full day right? I ran to get Boo from school thinking I’d have enough time but they arrived faster than I thought they would. When they called to say they were on the exit I had to answer: Um, I’m stuck in a carpool line. I can’t go forward or reverse. I bet that’s never happened before.

So I called Brett who was working on a roof right at the corner of Main Street: Hey, they are headed your way, I’m going to tell them to look out for you and can you get in front of them and direct them up to our property and where to put the building?

Brett: I see them. They are at the stoplight.

Talk about good timing. I had switched trucks with Brett in the morning, because Ruby was leaking transmission fluid, so I told Mickey to look for the “1982 red Chevy pickup” and to follow it. But then talk about bad timing: at the same exact moment I said that ANOTHER red chevy pickup pulled in front of the convoy… and they followed the wrong pickup! It took them up to the hospital. What are the odds…. Brett eventually caught up to them and they were able to get back on track to drive around the hospital to our place.

But then there was the mud. It had been hailing in Bryson City earlier in the day and the ground had thawed from being frozen. Also, the gas company had dug a trench up the yard earlier in the morning….a perfect storm of mushy red clay. As soon as they got the trailer down to the edge of the yard, the truck began slipping. Another truck was brought around to pull it through the mud:

If they were nervous they didn’t show it. I wasn’t nervous either…the sun is going to rise tomorrow right?

So then, they methodically inched the depot into place and began to lower it, positioning blocks and leveling it as they went. I could hear them talking: we need to dig this out or it will settle eventually. I thought for sure the building would just be dropped, but they made sure it had blocks to sit on for as long as I needed them. It will probably never move from that spot as long as we live here:

And then as fast as they came, they were gone, onto the next city for the next move. Boo checking out the new addition to our property:

There are some people that walk this earth that you are just glad you got a chance to meet, to cross paths with if even for a few moments. I got to spend a day with Mickey, his son and their team and watch them work. It was awesome. I could just follow them around all the time and watch them move really big things.

But the best part is that I’ll always remember Mickey’s words, in the same southern accent my father would have had: the sun is going to rise again tomorrow.

That reminds me of something Kid President said recently:

If you ever need a house, or anything huge, awkward and heavy moved, I’ve got your contact: Simmons House Moving I even love the story of how they got started:

“Every family has a dream to own their own home and in 1981 that dream became a reality for me and my family when someone offered to give me a home to be moved. Not only do I still live in this home today but also our business was born out of that move. “

Check out the structures they’ve moved on their Facebook page here. Impressive.