Missouri « Robin Writes

With the start of the school year, we’ve changed to only working at the farm on weekends; that means approximately 48 days, weather depending, to get everything ready for the spring move.

Last weekend, we spent the entire time—except for a little gardening and a little shopping—inside the house.

The gardening resulted in fewer weeds, cucumber and yellow squash harvesting, a little burning, and one less damn copperhead.

The shopping nearly filled our supply unit and added some drywall to our collection.

And then we worked our butts off.

The living room/kitchen dividing wall frame has been drywalled and painted! Actually, we finished the second coat on the ceiling in that half of the house and almost all the painting.

We still need to get paint for the doors on that side, which is the same for the bedroom/office/bath-side walls, and we need to hang the door to the lean-to. And of course, the kitchen remodel/rearrange/additions.

But this coming weekend, we’ll be moving the bedroom/office into the living room and finishing drywall, ceiling repair, and more painting.

After, of course, the skim coating. Ick. So tired of that, but the alternative is worse . . .

And yes, we’ve started moving. To a point.

Originally, I wanted to wait to move just about everything so we wouldn’t have to do it twice, once to the barn and then again to the house. In light of certain economic issues—the world, not ours—we’ve started the process a little early.

Pretty much anything that we won’t need or use between now and spring is headed out the door.

Extreme? Perhaps. But it needs to be done sooner or later and I hate to drive a few hours down there with an empty truck. And we have to LIAH, there would be items that I couldn’t take but would miss.

Due to certain, er, issues, we’re stepping up our game a bit.

Let the move begin!

Ha—this is the second house I’ve lived in that I’ve stated, vehemently, that I’M NOT MOVING AGAIN. NOT.

Ah, well. Things change, right?

And for those wondering about all the actual work posts, well, school started and so our schedule changed. We can only work at the farm on the weekends now, which gives us approximately 50 days to finish the prep before we fully make the move. That’s not counting “snow” days when we can’t travel down there.

Remember last winter? We bought the place sight-unseen because we couldn’t get to it and were afraid someone else would snap it up. So, there’s that . . .

As we reviewed our leave-in-a-hurry plan the other day, I realized that sure, we’d get out of the metro area with our lives, our pets, and most necessary items, but what about other needed things and, too, some sentimental pieces?

So that’s where we sit: packing.

Yes, most of my friends and family think I’m nuts. It’s always a possibility. But what we’re packing are things that we don’t need between now and spring, but are nice to have around, and the things that I want to keep but, if the leave-in-a-hurry plan is implemented, probably won’t be able to.

Think about this for a moment. At best, leaving your possessions behind may cause sorrow and regret after the fact, days or weeks later; at worst, the idea of doing this is a distraction while you’re in the midst of LIAH.

Not everyone will have this problem, of course. Right now, though, I’m in my office looking at the manual typewriter my grandmother used in 1930, and the rocking chair that my great-grandmother used to put babies to sleep since 1915. What can I say? These things are important to me.

Just because we’re going to live in a cabin in the woods doesn’t mean it’s only going to be furnished with sticks and rocks.

And now, I’m off to make a fashionable tinfoil hat . . .