Midian Ranch Blog

This is the web log for Midian Ranch, an isolated homestead in rural Nevada. It is owned by Jason and Tina Walters, whom are also its regular posters. This blog is exclusively for the enlightenment and edification of our friends, family, and colleagues.

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Location: Gerlach, Nevada, United States

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

The Manly Art Of Shelving

There are certain activities and objects one inherently associates with manliness. Shooting. Motorcycles. Muscle Cars. Clewing Tobacco. NASCAR. Beer that comes in a can. This doesn’t mean that women cannot participate in, enjoy, or excel at these activities. Once could hardly be a rural Nevadan and not know that women can enjoy chewing tobacco and NASCAR! But these are generally male activities, much as Bunko, a deep appreciation of the baby shower as a social event, and watching the Today Show with Kathy Lee and Hoda are generally female activities.

With great humility I would like to enter another activity/object into the vaulted library of masculine undertakings: shelving, both the noun and the verb. I love shelving. I love buying it, building it, designing it, and using it. I love what it means, too: you have stuff. Useful stuff that makes other stuff. Stuff you just like to look at. Stuff you want to read, have already read, or will never read but want others to think you’ve already read. Stuff you want to store. In my case, stuff you need to store for other people, enabling you to make a living. You’ve organized yourself in a useful fashion that is itself a reflection of your masculine competency. (Again, not that women don’t love shelving too.)

Living out at the ranch I find myself haunted by the idea that I don’t – possibly can’t – have enough shelving to meet my family’s needs. Greenhouse? Needs plant shelving. Pantry? Food shelving. Warehouses? Box shelving. Game room? Shelving. Baby’s room? Shelving.

Shelving. Shelving. Shelving.

Not everyone shares my unhealthy obsession with shelving. Walters’ family friend JB has extremely kindly (and perhaps a bit recklessly) given me access to his storage yard of used pallet racking: the El Dorado of shelving. Which is a little like locking the town “mayor” in the bar at 2 AM. (Just kidding JB! Love you baby!) A dream come true! I’ve also developed my own method for quickly constructing large amounts of shelving out of old 2 by 4’s and those fifty-cent brackets you get from Home Depot.

Which isn’t exactly on par with designing an artificial heart, but it feels impressive to me.

Ah shelving! The smell of it!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

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