Off-Road Ranger I
- 2,865
- First Name
- Donald
- Last Name
- Diehl
- Member #
0745
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- WRPN 506
Sometimes I do miss having my small shop that I used for everything from wrenching on my vehicles to doing light woodwork. I gave all my heavy duty tools away to a good friend, sold some other stuff. The rest of the stuff? Paid a junk collector to empty out the carriage house, two full 5 yard loads, another 5 yards out of our basement and two pickup truck loads to goodwill. I will never again tie myself down to any more stuff. here’s a sample of the kind of simple Craftsman styled woodworking I did as we restored the 1914 house . I don’t miss doing this stuff nearly as much as the fond memories my wife and I share at what we accomplished with the old house. We realized long ago that when we were traveling part time, we didn’t miss the home. When we were home, we sure did miss being in the back country.This resonates with me. Stuff is a pain to maintain!!!
My life has become like living in those tiny houses… It’s like “Aim small, hit small” in shooting. When I retired, we decided to move. Going thru our “stuff” I said we are not taking things that we have carried around for 25 years. Yet still it took 2 U-Haul’s to move.
The cycle of collecting stuff, debt and the random pack rat mentality has really taken hold of many I know. I have successfully been able to break from that mentality. Besides my tools, which will never fit in this category, if I don’t use something for a year and then find it again, away it goes. Sometimes it bites me and I have to buy it again for that 1 time use but we are living small now and it feels nice. Yes I miss my garage and pole barns….but it’s just stuff.



Last edited: