Retrospect

November 14, 2021

Hello again,

Now, halfway through November, I find myself thinking about a year ago as we were just beginning to pack up our house and get ready for the move. We had driven out here to New Mexico at the end of October 2020 to meet who would become our new boss and interview for the job. Having been offered the job, and then having accepted, we finally were trying to figure out how to accomplish this enormous task of moving. Just to spice things up, we found out on the way home that we had sold our house back in PA and would now have a definitive zero day to aim for. Originally, once we found this caretaking job out here, we figured that we'd just get ourselves out here and then leave it to the realtor to sell our old house and we'd have the time to figure out moving our stuff. Now, with a new deadline hovering about six weeks in the future, we kicked it into high gear and contacted our local Mayflower agent, who was an old customer from our feed mill. We had picked his brain many times about the best way to move the most amount of things and cost estimates, etc., so we felt beholden to repay all of that great information with our business now that we were in need. We had so much stuff that it would basically take a whole tractor trailer to move it all! Keep in mind, in the year and a half before the move, we had sold our cabin, apartment building, feed mill and house(not to mention what was left over from taking care of Erin's Gram for nearly ten years), and had relocated all of our stuff, little by little, piece by piece, into our house's basement and backyard. Two dates were set up for loading, one about two and a half weeks ahead of the move, and one only a few days before the move. The first was the big one, with a huge effort on the movers part to prep, pack and move absolutely as much as they could, and then all the rest on the second trip. The only thing that was left after that was what we could fit into Erin's car and the mini-van we had rented...plus three dogs and four cats!

The movers did an amazing job and, even though they were impressed with how much we had packed ourselves, very effortlessly and professionally got the rest all packed up and moved. We had a large number of things that we felt Erin's father could use and he made many trips down to our house in his old pickup truck to haul another load back to his place about an hour and a half away. Of course, we'd have to then go get a bite to eat and a few drinks at our old haunt, the Lewisburg Hotel, when we were all done. We had water pumps for when the river flooded and old shutters and blinds and drapes that we passed along to him for his home nestled on the North Branch of the Susquehanna River. Best of all, we were also able to pass along most of our plants to him...including a whole bunch of enormous Elephant Ears that we used to have all around our place, inside and out. The last few days that we lived there we were literally sprawled out on the floor in our second floor living room, set up on all of our dog beds and an air mattress that we were taking along with us. We kept one tiny, little TV to hook our Roku up to so that we could stream some shows while we finished packing. Just to make things interesting, we got dumped on with snow three days before we were to leave. I don't remember the amount exactly, but it was in the two foot range! It completely buried my two old Mercedes and thoroughly complicated my efforts to get them into storage. Not only did I have to now dig them out to even access them, I had to keep jumping my yellow one because the alternator/water pump belt had snapped twice in a row the week before! So, with a last visit from Erin's Mom, her Grandmother, her Dad and his partner Astrid, and then my parents, our friends David and Addy stayed right until the end and helped us pack up the last of our things in the mini-van. Without pausing to think much of the consequences, and having gone way too far to change anything, we drove off into a dark December night with two full tanks of fuel and some food from our local Sheetz. We then got on I-80 in the middle of Pennsylvania and headed west, arriving here three days later. It's all so hard to believe that it still blows our minds that we pulled this whole thing off, let alone that we were brave enough to conceive of it in the first place.

So, some recent pictures for your perusal. First, a shot of the local Kitchen Witch of San Jose, working her magic with the cast iron. Next, an altered shot of myself that arose from one of our horses, Xena, headbutting me in the lip and me taking a selfie to see the damage while I was still out in the pasture after dark. Then, a hilarious episode that I was able to catch in four shots with the camera of one of the kittens(Zia) shooting up to the top of the screen door, only to cling a few seconds and then drop straight back down...the dogs about lost it! Then, a couple of shots of two of our old millcats, Buckwheat(19?) & Smokey(10+?), lounging on the bar at home...and reminiscing about all of their past ratting exploits. Next, two shots of Ela with her intense gaze, one black & white, one color. Then, three black & white shots that I took of my boots while I was out watching the horses. Then, a nice shot of Rui. And, finally, two shots that show what happens when you're the shortest horse at the feeder...you get covered in hay!

See you later.