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It's Coming Along Now

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 4:38 am

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It's coming along a bit faster I think or we've done enough to make it more visible. Today I was going to rest up but by two o'clock I was out in the back sorting things again. I went into the garden and rolled up the soaker hoses and emptied out the pots and stacked them and took my tool caddy to the shed. There is only the windmill in the garden now. I emptied the flower pots in the backyard. That cold snap last week turned everything in the pots brown except for one zinnia. I still have a pot of dianthus too. I think I will give it to Dan. I still need to wind up the hose but left it in case I need to water anything else or wash something. I now have a stack of pots to give to Dan and one for the neighbor. So the backyard and garden are about cleaned out. The lower backyard only has a bench that we will sell at the yard sale. Then, I moved to the side yard and emptied a few more flower pots. I opened my garden shed and started sorting things in there. I have it mostly done except for garden tools and the weedeater and some saws for cutting wood. Tomorrow I will fit the things I'm keeping into a tub to be stored in the big shed until moving day. I put three large black trash bags out by the dumpster for tomorrow's trash pickup.
I have decided on November 8th as my last day of work. That sort of gives us a time line for things. The next weekend will be the yard sale and after that just the last packing up of things we are using. dr has decided what size truck we will need. A man had one up at the flea market this weekend and dr climbed into it and decided what we wanted to take will fit into one. There will be room for Chance to ride in the front with us. We can trailer the truck behind it. Then, we won't need anyone to come with us that has to come back here and we won't need to make two trips or a trip with the moving truck and our truck. Gas prices are coming down but not that much.
I went ahead and put my scarecrows on the fence and put up some fall stuff in the house. It looks a bit weird to be decorating for fall amid the boxes and mess but I feel better with it here. It gives me a sense of order or something. I don't know what we will do about having a Thanksgiving here with our friends. We told them it would have to be early and it was okay with them. We may not have dinner here but go out with everyone somewhere. That might make more sense and with all the things we usually cook it might not be any more expensive.
We cleaned out the freezer and hopefully it will be about empty when it's time for the yard sale because we are going to sell it. We've had it for 20 years and dr says moving it would not be cost effective because it would probably quit anyway if it gets moved across the country like that. The refrigerator isn't moving with us either. We do have a new electric stove and the house we are going to move into has all electric so we can use it. There will be a refrigerator/freezer in the kitchen so we won't need to buy our own right away. I guess things will work out in the long run and before we know what's what we will be living in Texas. It sure is wearing on one's nerves though. dooley

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Wishful thinking?

Category: Choices | Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 5:30 am

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Wishful thinking? Oh, to be one of those people who just picks up the phone and a moving company comes and packs everything, even the dirty dishes and trash, and moves it where ever you tell them.
Today, we moved most everything out of the shed up by the back door. Then, we started moving things we know we want to keep into the shed. Then in the space we cleaned in the house we started stacking things we want to sell at a yard/moving/estate sale in November. It's a good thing we had to stop so I could shower and get ready for work or we'd probably still be at it. I'm happy the weather is clear for a few days because the backyard between the house and the shed is such a mess. That stuff has to be sorted and boxed either for the sale or for dr to take to the flea market. The saying, "it'll get worse before it gets better" applies to moving I guess. I may never go to another yard sale myself. How did we ever wind up with so much stuff that we just don't need to pack around. I found my box of mom's stuff that I'll move. It's smaller than it used to be because I gave some of the stuff to the boys as they got married and had families of their own. It used to have little sweaters and bonnets and baby shoes and momentos of early life of the kids. School papers and pictures and other assorted memories that mothers treasure but fathers say, "Are you keeping this junk?"
Anyway there is a never ending amount of stuff still to be done because I'm not one of those people who can afford to pick up the phone and call in the movers. dooley

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The Joys of Moving

Category: Choices | Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 7:14 pm

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The joys of moving? Are there any? We've been busy for what seems weeks now sorting and boxing and tossing. This morning was trash morning so we went through cupboards and shelves tossing unwanted items. I took all the spice jars off the shelf and went through them. Toss the older ones, kept the jars. We buy our spices from a bulk place where we bought spices when we lived in Wisconsin. They sell over the internet now. We buy small amounts to suit us. I'll make a list to reorder when we get moved. Then, I went through the pantry closet and tossed odds and ends and bits of stuff not used in a while. Some bulk cereal not finished last spring, some flour not used but not enough to make anything with it. I still have a bit of that to do. We cleaned out the laundry room. Ugh! Cobwebs gathered on the back of shelves not cleaned lately. I used to do a lot more around here before I started working. One would think that working only 20 hrs a week and those in the evening that I would be able to keep doing most of the things during the day. Last night we went to Dan and Laurel's for dinner. It was a combined dinner for both of their birthdays this month. Dan baked two loaves of bread. It was great. One was Country French in a large oval shape. The other was dill bread in the tradition rectangle shape. I thought about it and I haven't made bread from scratch since I went back to work. I make quick breads and coffeecake and cookies but not the kind of breads that require kneading and rising and time. Friday we sorted out closets. Why keep things that we don't wear anymore or that don't fit anymore? Was I hoping that I might lose weight again? Off to the thrift shop with those things. Book shelves? I've pared down six large boxes of cookbooks to two boxes. That is probably one box too many as I seldom use a cookbook anyway. After 60 years of cooking who needs a book. You need two cups of flour, half a cup of sugar, a tablespoon of baking powder and half a cup of shortening of some sort and two eggs and enough milk to make a batter. Add apples chunked up, a handful of raisins and you have a coffeecake. You can vary it with fruit or spices but you don't need a cookbook to make it. Oh, you have to add a bit of salt to help it rise. The people at work wonder how I make coffeecake for work on Saturday morning. But, it takes only about five minutes to mix it all up and it bakes while supper is cooking. Sometimes a drizzle of frosting or a sprinkle of sugar goes on the top.
Well, anyway we've been busy cleaning things out. We've gathered so much and some of it is sentimental. How can you toss something that you have carried around the country for 40 or 50 years? Do we need it? Probably not but sometimes you just have to keep it anyway. dr says he's planning on shipping everything UPS, even the dog. LOL We haven't decided just how we will get it there but it will work out someway, somehow and come December we will be busy putting things away and wondering just what in the world we are going to do with such a big house. But, take my word for it, we will fill it up in a short time and wonder where we will find room for anything more. dooley

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