Moving day

Dawn at our new home

Last weekend we finally moved out of the club. A large group of our friends showed up to help us clean up the site and load our possessions. What a job it was! We pretty much left the organization of the work to each person and the group worked really well together! I had rented, courtesy of daughter number two's credit card, a 24' box truck to haul the stuff to our new home. I was flabbergasted when I saw how BIG the truck was! We could have driven the trailer into it, it seemed! As I rented it I had to drive it. When I was inside I was eye level with 18 wheelers! And the thing had air brakes, a first for me. I did fine except for sideswiping one tree on the very narrow road out and skipping over a curb in the first five minutes I drove it! But I had purchased the insurance that was available so no foul to me!

The Big Guy and I worked on Saturday and the crew came on Sunday. One of our friends (a couple) provided a sumptuous repast, including gluten-free food for me. Another couldn't help so she gave us a check! Everyone there worked very very hard and we really appreciate that.

Another good note - another couple who were there helping bought the trailer for exactly what we paid for it six years ago! What a great relief to be rid of that! They have property near Santa Cruz where they want to keep it.

Two of the crew came over to the house and along with our great-nephew, Patrick, unloaded the truck. That was so nice. The Big Guy was spent by then. The only part of him still working was his mouth!

Monday we had to get up at five-thirty to return the truck. I got on the freeway, behind a semi, and toodled back to the barn. That made Monday pretty much a wasted day as neither of us had the energy to do anything else.

Between our daughters and our friends the whole operation went smoothly, was a lot of work, but is finally done! Thanks to everyone!

Now we are faced with putting all this stuff away! What a challenge. Where did it all come from? Where will we put it. We haven't even brought the furniture over yet - where will that go? Yikes!

The Red Sketchbook (and some blathering about my life)

WAGS

Greetings from moving-land. I think I have toted the equivalent of an elephant in the last two weeks! Where did all this stuff come from? Do we really need it? Oh well.

Chaos is our middle name today. We were informed Tuesday that the rest of our stuff was going to be disposed of because we had abandoned the site! Boy, did that tic me off. I have been out there every other day loading up my truck (one day to load, one day to unload - I'm OLD!!). The coop which owns the land is quite unreasonable and hard to deal with. I am at the end of my rope with them. But we have arranged for Sunday to be the final day of moving. Will be so glad when that phase is over! Then we have our single car garage sized storage to empty. We will have furniture instead of only boxes in the house. Oh boy!

NIXON

Did a couple of Red Sketchbook drawings. One is of Wags, my Mom's late dog and the other is of Nixon one of my granddogs. The Nixon one is done in oil pastel and the Wags is done in dry pastels. I found them in the move! Boy did I find art materials! My studio room is wall to wall two and three boxes high! Some organizing to do there!

The Red Sketchbook - Owl

Owl was inspired by a piece of bark from the huge sycamore tree in our new front yard. The bark is decoupaged onto the page and then watercolor and some shiny paste was applied injudiciously (!) over it. Am a little concerned about the bark staying on the page but can't do anything about that now.



The new house is coming along. The Big Guy and the Landlord are working hard. Well, not in this picture! They did a lot of prep for putting up drywall (on the ceiling - shouldn't it be called ceiling wall - or something?) and today will start putting that up.

One thing the Big Guy had to do was take down the ceiling fixture. We've all heard of plumber's crack..well I got a great shot of electrician's crack! But in deference to delicate sensibilities, I'm not posting it. It does trump plumber;s crack, however! He had to put on suspenders 'cause his pants wouldn't stay up!

I'm typing this blog entry and yesterdays blog entry on notepad. Storing it until I get over to Starbucks to use their WiFi. We don't have the utilities in our name yet and think I may not get any wireless or TV. Have heard that we can get TV with digital rabbit ears where we are (because it is FLAT and mountainless!) Starbucks is free and within walking distance. It would keep me from spending hours on the net and I can use that time to paint. A win-win. With texting and my cell I can keep in touch with everyone.

Home again!

KITCHEN FLOOR - WON'T IT MAKE A GREAT QUILT?!!

I am back in NoCal! Slept better last night than I have in four months. It was great. And in honor of my return it has been lovely and cool, only about 78 degrees! I was actually cold when I got up this a.m. The other great thing is The Big Guy and my dog are deliriously happy to have me home. The dog has not left my side/lap/feet since I arrived. Another perk is that the house is two hours closer to Mom's and only two blocks from Starbucks and a grocery store. So I'm happy. Still have to make the trip to the grandchild's, which I plan to do on public transportation, to see how that goes. Stay tuned!

HOMER, MOM'S DOG

ADDED MORE PAINT TO HOMER'S FACE

Artquiltmaker chastised me about keeping it too precious so I am working on giving that up. I drew/painted Homer, Mom's formerly rotten dog (he greatly improved with Mean Mary living with him for 4 months!). I am happy with how it came out as it looks exactly like him!

MOM AND BILL

HANNAH AND FRAN

RALPH AND LILA

JANE

Also took photos of the Sunday Lunch Gang. Banana splits were the dessert of choice on this day! I feel like SoCal is another dimension where I am a different person. In charge, mean, responsible and not even able to use my real name as Mom uses my childhood nickname :(. In NoCal I am an equal partner and not totally responsible to make sure everything gets done. It is a real relief.



Well, it is time to get to work on our new house - which is a definite fixer upper with lots of potential! More later.