Perfection....

Today was our auction. It went extremely well....the best of any auction we've conducted. We started out with 52 names on the printout...about half paid some of their bill to get themselves off the list. In the end, there were 13 that went up for sale today. That was a lot more than what Linda and I had anticipated. All but one of them sold which is great for the new managers...means only one unit to trash out and after looking at this unit, there isn't much in it. Good news for them ! We went out to TGIF again to celebrate by having lobster tails again. They were heavenly! They have the cooking of these tails down to a science as they just melt in your mouth and tonight the broccoli was cooked more to my liking than last time. Scrumptious !!

The countdown of tasks begins for our departure on Sunday. I checked all the tire pressures today on Bertha, the rig and our Xterra. All are good.. Did some laundry. We're starting to box up some items as we think we won't need them again before leaving. After thinking about how it will be to store the rig at our new work site, we're going to take a look to see if we'd be able to get it into the field at Linda's family homestead and keep it there this summer. Since we'll only be six hours from Chambersburg, it would be neat to have it there so when we have a holiday weekend or some time off, we can come up there to visit family. Since we were in the field last summer, there have been a lot of changes. The street, near the lot, was dug up and curbing put in. We're not sure that the cut out will be wide enough for us to get through with Bertha and the rig or how firm the soil will be near the curb. I'm afraid that when we try to cross the fresh dirt near the curb that we'll sink in....that would not be a good thing. So....when we get to Chambersburg Sunday, we're going to check out the construction area and see if it's a viable choice for us. Another reason to put the rig there is that I'm not so sure there would be enough room for it at the facility where we'll be living. I've pulled up the satellite imagery of the parking lot area and I think it would be really tight to get it in there with no exit out the rear and no easy way to get back out of there. We could always take the rig down on one of our days off if we find that it will work. Gives us more time to check the space out before getting it down there.

We're getting excited to get started with our new adventure. Just a few more days here and then we'll be on our way !

How Lucky Can We Get ?

Wow, we haven't even been here a week yet but already we've had a site visit from the company President and then today, we got a call that the next auction has been scheduled AND the paperwork had to be done either today or first thing tomorrow. This first part of getting an auction put together is the most crucial. One screw up and it can cause the whole auction to be canceled. The list of units in lien has to be printed out and then lien letters get printed and then copied in duplicate (after being stamped as "original"). Then stamped as "Copy", then folded and stuffed in envelopes...certified paperwork attached...yada yada...

Since we didn't get word till 2 this afternoon, there wasn't enough time to get everything together and get to the post office by 5. So tonight was longer getting out of work than normal....took us 1.5 hours to get 52 letters ready to go to the post office in the morning. 52 isn't too bad....some other units have well over a 100 to get ready and get in the mail before the post office closes tomorrow at 2....No slacking tomorrow for these poor souls....

Weather is slowly warming up....snow is steadily melting and temps by Sunday are supposed to hit 50 degrees. That will be really nice....I hate Saturdays at work....It's a really long day....open at 8 and close at 6. Yuck !!

Auction...

Had our auction on Thursday at 1:30 p.m.Just a little before 10 a.m. that morning we got a call from the North Brunswick site that they needed help with their auction because their assistant manager didn't come in. I asked them how far away from us they were (cause we had no idea) and she said about 28 minutes. I asked her what time her auction was and she said 10:30....holy cow !Told them I'd jump in the car and be right there. I got there with 5 minutes to spare but the VP was still going through the files to see who should be sold and whose unit would be held out of the auction. North Brunswick's units are primarily drive up units which means they are outside. Well, Thursday morning it was cold, windy and rainy...not a great day to hold an outside auction. They had 30 some units and it took us about an hour to get through them. Once I finished up there, I headed back to our unit since our auction would be starting in about an hour. Grabbed a quick bite to eat and finished eating in time for the first bidders to start arriving and checking in. They have to give us a $100 deposit to participate, then they get a bidder's book. If they don't buy anything then they get their $100 back. If they do buy any units, we keep the deposit until they have cleaned out all of the units. That way we ensure that they don't leave any junk behind. The one exception is if the bidders have a resale permit, making them tax exempt, then they don't have to give us a deposit.

We wound up having 16 units go up for auction. Our company is really great at giving people ample time and opportunities to pay their bills before resorting to auctioning off their units. We started with 56 units on our list....some paid...and some were held to give them more time. Units went for anywhere from $1 to $400. I was talking to one of the bidders yesterday, while he was loading up items he had purchased. I asked him what he does with the items he buys. He said he sells at flea markets, e-bay, craig's list and auction houses. He said that you used to be able to make good money doing this but it has gotten harder. The stuff you think you'll get good money for doesn't and the items you think are junk sometimes bring in good money. Hard to predict, he said....I think so many more people are doing this nowadays too that maybe the market has been diluted by so much competition. He said he once paid $12,000 for a 10 x 10 unit...wow ! He took an incoming phone call before I could ask him what he bid on (or what he thought might have been in the unit) and whether it paid off for him or not. Didn't get the chance to ask him but it sure had my curiosity piqued.Most of the units have now been cleared out by the bidders. One guy has a washing machine to get yet and he'll do that Sunday. Tomorrow I will try to "trash out" several of the units that didn't receive any bids. There is a 10 x 10 unit that is packed with stuff, and (2) 5 x 10's that I will try to fill our dumpster with. There are 2 huge drive up units that are 10 x 20 or 25's that we'll need to wait for the 20 yard roll off. One unit has office furniture in it and the other has alot of twigs and bags of god knows what. I hope we are gone before that one needs to be trashed out. Might need a Hazmat suit for that one....

Tomorrow our new assistant starts his training. Hope that goes well and that he sticks with it. He will train for 5 days with us before going on his own. Tomorrow the couple that I have as my #1 pick to be the management team here goes for their second interview at another Mini U. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this other manager concurs with my selection so we can get started with their background checks and move them closer to getting hired.

In weather news, the remnants of storm Ida...now a nor'easter is moving up the coast and we are having very windy, rainy weather tonight. Supposed to have more of the same tomorrow. I feel bad for the Pop Warner football players out on the field behind our rig...they are getting blasted with wind and rain for their practice tonight. Not a night fit for man nor beast out there....

Hellish Gates...

Well our gates have been giving us fits lately. We have two front gates and one at the rear of the property and seems we've had nothing but problems since we arrived here in September. We're friends with the tech who comes to work on them....having met Steven when we were in training at the Whippany property. Anyway, Steven came yesterday at 1:30 to work on them and worked till 6:30 but at the end of the day two of them were still on the fritz. When Steven opened up the side panel, out popped momma and poppa mouse from this nest. A big ole fluffy nest was sitting on top of the battery that provides power to the system. As he stepped back and was pondering what he had before him, the mice ran back and jumped back in the nest, popping their heads out to look at him. I was only able to get a picture of the nest, minus its residents but Steven got one with them sitting there looking at him. How cute they were but they were not helping matters and had to be evicted from their home. Steven finally figured out that the circuit boards must be defective so he's ordered new ones and we are having to manually close them at the end of the day. Hopefully this next fix will do the trick to keep them in good shape for the new managers.

Tomorrow one of the Vice President's arrives to conduct our auction. We started out with 56 on our list, going to auction...we are down to around 23, which is excellent. Linda has worked really hard with these late tenants to get them to pay so their items don't get sold off. It is alot of work getting ready for these auctions. We will be really glad when it is over !