From beauty to ugly

We had a great trip to Greenville. Unfortunately we didn't get to the solar cookoff as we had planned but we took everyone up to Crystal Lake instead and since it was such a nice day it turned out to be a wonderful thing to do. While we were there a bear decided to come down to the lake for a drink and Krista got some pictures of him but I was off climbing rocks and didn't get to see him. We had seen this bear a couple of days earlier when we had come up to the lake so I didn't feel like I missed much.

Now we are back in Idaho dealing with moving again and fixing things to get the house ready to sell. The basement has a couple of leaks in the walls and here is one of them. That hole is about 4 feet deep and with that water pipe in the way it was a little hard to dig. I covered the crack with an asphalt sealer and I don't think that will leak again any time soon. Now we have another one to fix but that one is going to be an above ground fix that involves concrete work. We don't have much time since we are leaving with our final big load for Greenville on Saturday or Sunday, depending on the time it takes to fill the truck. So in a few days it will be back on the road again but the end is finally in sight... YEAH!!!

On the road again

Tomorrow we are heading back to Greenville with the 5th wheel and the Jeep. We have lots of stuff in the RV and we are trying to kill 3 birds with one stone here, taking the 5th wheel to California and hauling some more stuff as well as getting the Jeep moved there too. Next time we move it should be almost all the rest of what we need to take but I'm thinking we will need to make one more trip with the utility trailer after that for the yard tools and maybe some of the shop tools. I'll still need to get my truck there too, so that will be the last thing to go I guess.

This trip to California will be more a pleasure trip than the last one. We are going to the Solar Cook off in Taylorsville on Saturday the 10th with Krista and Kayla, and Karen's brother and sister are also going to be there so we will be having a McKenzie family get together. Cody and his girlfriend are also coming and getting married in Reno on Friday the 9th, so that's yet another thing we will be doing on this trip. So, it's on the road again tomorrow and a nice break for Karen and I from all the packing the last 3 weeks. Ya gotta love it!

Moving is such a pain!

Yep, that's the way it is, moving is a royal pain in the you know what. This is what Karen's beautiful living room looks like now that we are using it for a staging area. We will be loading up a bunch of this stuff in the next couple of days to her utility trailer which will open it up a little but still, not only do we need to pack it in a moving device, but we need to unpack it on the other end. Poor Karen is having a hard time with this since she has been living here a long time and she is having to make some hard decisions on what to keep and what to let go. It's really hard when you are on the verge of the end of an era, and that's what it is for Karen. I recently had to struggle with that when I moved out of Susanville after 38 years so I understand the feeling but there is more to it for her, it's also saying goodbye to her old life and the remnants of her life with Ken. I feel very sorry for her. Well, like I said, pain, that's what moving is all about sometimes, huh?

Morning coffee

There is nothing like sitting out on the deck in the morning drinking my coffee and enjoying the view. The first several weeks of June we spent at our new house painting, mowing, and weed eating and trying to evict the local bat population. For the most part we were successful in all of our projects and as it always happens we eventually had to leave to head back to Idaho. Still, I really enjoyed sitting out on the deck in the mornings having my coffee and listening to the birds singing. You really have to enjoy the little things in life since you never know how long you are going to be here. Even though Karen and I worked hard every day we still had time for the little things. Life is good!

Green Acres

Boy, we have been busy beavers around or new house. We spent the first week there working on the kitchen cabinets, re-staining and varnishing so we could start using the shelf space. After that we decided that getting the tractor down from Karen's property on the hill was a priority so we could use the mower on the weeds that were getting very tall. That turned out to be a real 'Green Acres' moment so we had to take pictures of the process.


So all this work is getting us to where we will be able to move in on the 19th of July. Right now we are over at Tracey's for Alisha and Laura's graduations and then we will have another week to work on our house before we head back to Idaho. There is still lot's of stuff to do and getting the bat population relocated will be our next project. We have some bat houses that we are going to put up before we evict them from our attic so they have a place to go. We definitely want to keep those guys around for the bug control. Tomorrow we head back to Greenville and no internet service again so this might be my last blog entry until we get back to Idaho unless we get down to the library. Anyway, things are going great and we are loving this new place!

Heading to Greenville

Tomorrow morning we are headed back to Greenville with a trailer full of stuff. We sign the papers on our house on Thursday so we will be getting back on Wednesday afternoon. Looks like the weather is going to continue wet and cool so the trailer is totally covered and cinched down to keep everything dry. Karen's trailer is a big one and it really holds a lot of stuff as you might be able to tell from the picture. I have a couple of extra tarps on it for the night in case it rains but those are coming off before we leave. Moving is such a pain but a necessary evil since we priced having a moving company come and move us and the cost for that was so much we couldn't justify it. My rough figures tell me that we can move ourselves for about one third of what it would cost to have someone else do it. It is a lot of work and we do have to rely on friends for help but so far we are getting it done. I have no doubt that we will get it all done without much problem and even get a little exercise in the process.

Tomorrow night we are staying in Winnemucca for a change since we always stay in Wells. It will be a little farther to go but that will make it a little less on Wednesday. Ya gotta love it!

Packin' and plannin'

Karen and I have been busy every day packing and planning our trips and up coming move. Next week we go to Greenville to close on our house and start getting it ready for moving in. We have painting to do and a bunch of little things as well as a thorough cleaning so we will be busy for the first few days of next month. Right now we plan on moving around the middle of July but we are going to make some trips moving some stuff as early as next week. Karen has a utility trailer and that will give us the opportunity to move most of the stuff we have packed so far. When we end up moving the majority of our stuff we are renting a moving truck from Penske. Since I reserved it already for the middle of July, we got a really good rate and hopefully we will get most of the stuff in one fell swoop. Ya just have to love moving... don't you?