Busy Weekend

Today is over, and it's been non stop since I got up. This weekend is the big move for my stepkids. H is 22 and bought a house 10 minutes away. She played it smart and bought rather than rent, and got herself into a 6% fixed rate on a 30 year mortgage....smart kid. Her 22 year old brother A is going with her for a year or so. So today was the first of the moving process.

I got up, read my usual forums with coffee and we headed out the door. I borrowed my uncles truck since all we have is my work van, Lisa's Saturn Vue and H's Scion XB, none of which have much cargo space. (my van is loaded to the hilt with tools) We first went to Butch's to get the truck and visited for an hour or so, then went to mom & dads to deliver a bag of fresh peppers and a bathtub grab bar I found for him at Goodwill. (gotta love a $25 item for $3!) We left there, took back a pile of library books and went to lunch. We don't go out very often, and we just decided to go so we wouldn't have to take the time to make something when we got home.

The first load was easy since I had a huge pile of boxes ready in the shed. I loaded 'em up and we took 'em to the new house. The place looks great. The owner put down sod, finished the painting, and made the few required repairs per the agreement. Ahhh the smell of fresh paint and carpet....kinda like that new car smell. We got that unloaded, and came back for more. I backed the tractor and trailer up to the back door, loaded it, and drove it around to the truck and got it all in. I cant get the truck back there since it's so damn tall, plus the ground is awfully soft to drive that beast back there. The other side is now blocked with clotheslines and strawberry beds, so acess that way won't happen....the tractor & trailer just made the most sense.

We got 2 more loads over there, and I have the bed frame and matresses in the truck ready for a first load tomorrow. Her couch is in the trailer, covered in plastic, ready for the load after the bed. After that,all thats left of her stuff is a dresser and exercise machine. Then we get to start A's stuff.....and he has a LOT of stuff lol. I have to get her drier over there too, and then a buffet and china cabinet we saved for her, but that can wait till later in the week. We still gotta find her a washing machine soon, but for now she can just come home to do laundry.

H's room will be scrubbed, repainted, and turned back into Lisa's sewing & craft room like it was before H came back home. I'll have to build her a new sewing table, and another to cut material on, but that's easy stuff. It's gonna take a week or more to get it all put back together since Lisa has so much stuff, but she'll finally get her own little space back. The other room that A was in was at one time our bedroom, but we're going to turn it into another living room kinda space for us. All of our homesteading books will go in the shelves, and we'll put all of our emergency & camping gear down there that's now stored in the garage. We'll put a chair and couch down there, and I'll move this desk and computer there as well. I'll also be FINALLY bringing in all of my hunting and fishing gear from the garage to put in there, and use this desk for a gun cleaning/work station for all my goodies.....reel cleaning, reloading, etc. I've really been wanting to get all that stuff back somewhere I can get it all neat and organized, now I finally can.

More than likely, I wont start that room till sometime next month. There is just too much to do here to prep for winter. I need to get the big stuff out of the garage and stored in the canopy shed, clean and grease everything, remove the belly mower from the LowBoy, mount the snowplow, move the rabbits into the garage, build the bigger chicken coop for winter, finish the garden and canning, clean the garden and plant a cover crop, get the generator into the mud room, clean and oil all the garden & yard tools, get and mount the woodstove in the garage, get the cold frame ready for some winter crops.....and I'm sure more than I can think of right now. Sometimes it amazes me how busy one acre can get. At times I really wonder if I could handle more and still work full time. I'm not worrying about it for now, unless I hit that ever-elusive lottery, we're here on our acre till I get Butches place....and that's quite a way down the road. He's 73 and active every day, hell he just decided to finally retire last year after working 40 years with the county, retiring from that, and working 50 hours a week as a greenskeeper at a golf course and doing the same for 2 churches, he's a busy guy, always has been. I really hope I still have his drive at 73 years old! He makes me laugh every time I visit. He keeps giving me things he thinks we can use, than comments that he's only "loaning" it to me since it will be coming back when he dies. Funny, but still sad to think about. Sure, I want the place, but the idea of waiting till he dies makes me feel somewhat guilty and sad.

All for today.....I could keep writing, but I need to jump in the shower and head to bed.....another busy day tomorrow!