Just random thoughts

     Micah and I went to work on a back deck on a house this morning. It has a looong ramp down to the back yard. We are going to tear it out and put steps up to the small back deck.

You can just see a part of the ramp in this photo. Sharon took this picture last week just before she mowed the weeds down. When we got to the house the dog was loose in the back yard. Micah said "it's a black Lab it will be friendly." It wasn't. It wasn't friendly to the point I think the dog was thinking about jumping the fence and attacking us. We decided the tenants were most likely still asleep on a Saturday morning and went to clean out our storage garage. It had gotten to the place I was just opening the door and chucking stuff in. There was no way to walk into it and find anything anymore. It was due for a cleanup and today was the day. 

We got it all squared away with a pile to go to the dumpster next week.

 I had a woman contact me last night. She wanted to talk about the property line between a house she owns and one of ours. She is trying to sell her rental house and wanted to sell it with this entire driveway and the bushes. She assured me that she had planted the bushes 16 years ago and had tended them since then. She also wanted my tenant to stop mowing part of her yard. Little problem there.She had planted the bushes on the neighbors property which now belongs to us. She wanted us to deed her several feet so she would have a better lot to sell. Um, no, I don't think so. The only reason I know she did not own the land the bushes are planted in, or the yard my tenants are mowing is because the neighbor behind us had a water line break 9 years ago and she refused to let him fix it, as she said the line was running through her lot. She had her lot surveyed to prove her point only to find out she did not own the land the water line ran through. Sorry lady I promised Shawn he would never have to worry about repairing his water line because I would control it. Wow that got an angry response. She is going to remove the bushes from my lot now because they evidently belong to her. Sure, fine, whatever, knock yourself out woman. If she is selling the house what does she care?? I have found in these situations it is best just to lent them rant away and don't respond. Some people seem to feed off of opposition, if you just ignore them they quiet down, and the real plus, if I just ignore them, is I don't say or write anything I will regret later.

We have 4 rental inspections this month. I found the cold air ducts in one of the houses had wooden sides. I called my HVAC man and he assured me it was in code. I had been told by the inspector they were making all the owners replace wood sided duct work. I sent him the above picture and was relieved when he texted me that it would be fine as long as the wooden duct work did not go all the way to the furnace. That was a great relief. I found another one of the 4 houses with the same type of cold air duct work. That would have been costly to fix a non problem.

Micah and I did replace some GFI outlets this afternoon and installed some new smoke detectors in one of the houses up for inspection.

I am looking forward to a bit of a more laid back week. I need a less stressful couple of weeks. Stress can be hard on a person and it has been a stressful couple of weeks. Jesus called his disciples to come apart and rest a while. We all need a time of rest. Next week I have some steps to put in, 3 doors to paint, some siding to put up for Marlys, a garage to straighten a couple of degrees and 4 shingles to put back on the hip of a garage roof. I think I will start just a little later in the morning and end just a little earlier in the afternoon. Take some time to enjoy just acknowleging all the blessings God has given us.