Picking Money Off the Money Tree

For the middle/end of March in the northwoods, it stayed remarkably warm last night. The low temp overnight was in the low 50s. Unheard of for this time of year, I say, unheard of!

Last night a bit after 9 o'clock, we decided to grab our sweatshirts and go sit out on the deck and gaze up at the stars. There were about fourteen billion (I counted 'em) up there, one or two planets visible and I think we saw a couple of satellites moving across the sky.

Anyway, we got to talking about how fortunate we are to live where we do and what a little oasis we have. Then we started fantasizing about what we would do if we had an unlimited supply of money to work with. Oh, boy.

Actually I think it was my brain that was on overdrive and I kept coming up with different ideas and suggestions. Papa Pea was right with me though and made plenty of comments and chimed in with a lot of " . . . and then we could . . . "

What did we discuss? Well . . .

- A new expanded deck. Ours is literally falling apart and we have to do something this summer to provide a stop-gap, for safety's sake if nothing else. I've always dreamed of extending the deck out to the south (the yard slopes gently away from the house and present deck) with another deck area two or three steps down. Maybe screen in the present existing deck so we could sit or sleep out there on muggy nights without fear of being sucked dry by our Minnesota mosquitoes that are the size of pileated woodpeckers.

- A huge storage shed in the back for all of the "stuff" we need to keep under cover and protected.

- Vehicle storage. Probably a four-bay, three-sided pole building would do the trick. We have room for one vehicle in the garage, but that means that area has to be kept clear of any of the myriad of projects that are usually going on in there. As a result, ALL of the vehicles sit outside unprotected.

- Another wood shed. I know, we already have two big ones but that's not enough. For example, this year we used very little wood because of the mild winter. One of our sheds hasn't been touched and the other one is still a good three-quarters full. (Not a bad problem to have, huh?) We have a huge stack of wood in the back yard (a HUGE stack) which we want to get processed this summer. If we had a third shed to fill, we would be about two years ahead on dry, seasoned wood even if we next had a couple of severe winters in a row. As it is, we're going to have to cut, split and stack the wood on the ground and try to cover it with tarps . . . no simple task.

- A garden shed for all my tools and equipment down in the garden area. I spend too much time walking back and forth when I'm working in the garden. Besides, I'd design it as a rustic, but lovely, little building that would add to the garden landscape.

- A new, slightly bigger chicken house. The one we built when we moved here sixteen years ago looks pretty tough. We designed it purposely small so our few chickens could keep it warm with their body heat. It's butt-ugly and, for convenience sake, needs some design modifications.

- A barn. The chicken house issue would be solved if we could build the barn we've always wanted. The chickens would be incorporated into the barn. Plus, then we could get goats again. We have a perfect area for a goat pasture . . .

- Which would have to be fenced in with 7' high deer fencing and strands of electric wire to provide protection for the goats from the wolf population which seems to be ever-growing in our area.

- A guest apartment. We have a storage area on our second floor that could be remodeled for this purpose. We have only one bedroom and one bathroom in our house and nowhere to put up guests. These guest quarters would have a small cooking stove, refrigerator and bathroom. Beds, too, of course. It could be designed so it would have its own outside stairway entrance.

Ah, yes, dream on. I think that's a pretty realistic list of what we would actually do if we could harvest ample amounts of money off the money tree. (Well, except for helping a certain daughter of ours, but it kinda hurts to even think about that because it's not possible in reality.)

Okay. Now what would YOU do if there was no limit of cash available? If you would take off on an extended vacation across country, that's fine. Your list should be something that would bring you joy, contentment and make you do a happy dance every day. Anybody?