Lots of Good News

My husband got the job offer he wanted for the salary he wanted, so he will soon be employed in the state we are moving to, which means that we can call that our primary residence for now on.

The real estate agent said that our local market is finally picking up.  He listed a house on Friday and has already had three showings.  That kind of activity was unheard of last year.  We've been telling

Countdown: Two Days

Two days before the movers arrive.  I can't believe how sore I am at the end of each day from bending and lifting for hours on end.  Today I strained my wrist.  I also am starting to get the lung infection that my husband and the painter have, and yet another eye infection.  Midge isn't doing well.  She stopped eating today.  I'm hoping it's just her neurosis about the increased activity around

Exterior Done

The painters finished painting the exterior of our house.  The body is a little lighter and the trim a little darker than before.  It looks clean.  No more flaky paint.



See those clumps of hay in the foreground of the picture above?  That's all that is left of my haystack.  My friend had a crew of young men come out and haul it all over to her place.  She wrote me a check for the hay, but

Countdown: Six Days

Six days before the movers arrive.  I got over my bug well enough to do a lot of packing today, but my husband came home from work sick.  He says he might not be able to leave for the new house first to meet the movers when they deliver if he doesn't recover.  He has a lung infection caused by having to use a blood pressure medication that makes him cough (because he left his other blood pressure

We're Trapped

The painters showed up again today and I thought they were just going to scrape, sand and nail in nails, and then leave before the storm moves in, but they sealed me and the dogs into our house by stapling plastic over all the windows and doors, except for the front door.

The head painter is sick.  I avoided shaking his hand, but now I'm sick with a sore throat, swollen glands, chills, nausea

Who's the Annoying Neighbor Now?

After having to listen to the sounds of weed-whackers and lawn mowers all day and night yesterday while my gardeners were here, my neighbors got to listen to the sound of pressure sprayers blowing the old paint off my house all day today.  Apparently, the guy had a difficult time of it, because the job was expected to only take a couple of hours, but he's been putting in a full day trying to

My Property Dropped Its Drawers

How's that for a title?  Yes, my property is naked.  It exposed itself.  Three gardeners came by today and weed-whacked everything in sight.  I promised my son I'd take pictures.  He'll understand the significance, because he knows how everything looked before.  Just imagine tons of clump grass, piles of moldy hay, weeds of every sort including tumbleweeds, mounds of manure, and grass about three

Off Topic, But Interesting

Sunday morning at 8:00 AM I was working on my computer and my husband was in the shower.  I heard and felt a large boom that shook our house.  My first thought was that something had hit our house.  My second thought was that my husband had collapsed in the shower.  I ran to him first, but he was fine.  I asked if he fell into a wall or something.  He made the sound of him falling into a wall,

Cleaning the Paddock

I spent the morning spreading manure, emptying water troughs, pouring rocks neatly in a pile, coiling extension cords, etc. in the horse paddock to get it ready for the gardeners and potential home buyers.  My friend came over to tell us that she's been taking care of the annoying neighbors' horses while they are away, and she asked another man who was taking care of their place if he could help

Tackling the Garage

This weekend I have been attempting to clean out the garage, a task I've been dreading and hoping my husband would do.  Digging around in the garage means dealing with black widow spiders, mouse turds, lost of dust, tripping over things, getting scratched, and dripping sweat.  I have contemplated just boxing up what is in the house for the movers, and leaving everything in the garage behind for

The New Accommodations

I picked up my husband from the airport this afternoon and he delivered more pictures taken with his iPhone. He visited the horses at their new accommodations twice. The first time he just parked in the street and watched them eat. The next morning he got out, and he said Gabbrielle was lovin' all over him. Lostine came over to say a quick hello, but Bombay was too far off in the distance,

Pictures, as Promised

My husband sent me some pictures from his iPhone of the new house. These are his sleeping accommodations...

I think it is funny that the master bedroom is yellow, because we keep trying to paint the rooms in our old house beige and they always end up yellow.  This is HIS walk-in closet...

This is one side of HERS walk-in closet with window and shutters...

My husband is worried that I might

Oh, So Far Away

I admit that every morning at the crack of dawn I still feel the impulse to go outside to feed the horses.  Then I remind myself that they are 760 miles away at a boarding facility.  At sunset, I still have the urge to go put them in their stalls and blanket them.  When I look out the window, I see them waiting by the gate, and then I realize it is just their freshly washed blankets hanging on

I'm Psychic!

Either that or I just have common sense.  You may recall that when my annoying neighbors began hauling in all those windows and sliding glass doors and piling them up inside the horse paddock, I predicted that the horses would cut themselves on the broken glass.  I even reported the neighbors for endangering those animals.  Did anyone do anything about it? 

No, of course not.

So, I stopped by

Having the Right People on Your Team is Everything

On last report, the horses are in good health and spirits after their day and a half haul out of state to their new temporary housing.  The owner of the boarding facility sent me a photo she took with her mobile phone to show that they arrived safe and sound at her place.

Since I can't haul Bombay around the corner from my house without him going Kamikaze on himself and my trailer, and Rick

Monday Morning

I told the horse hauler to call me if he had any problems with my horses.  About an hour after he left, I was cleaning stalls, and my mobile phone dinged.  I got a text message.  "Oh oh.  That's not good," I thought.  He said he'd call me in the evening unless there was a problem, and this was early afternoon.  The message just said hello and it was from someone with the same first name as the

Goodbye, My Loves

I spent the morning grooming, clipping and exercising the horses. I walked each one and "explained" what was about to happen by passing pictures of a big horse trailer pulling into the driveway, them loading into it, and driving off from my mind to theirs. I showed them a new place with other horses, and then us coming to see them in a few weeks.

They seemed to understand what was going on.

All Stretched Out

My original plans for moving were to move both our stuff and the horses the weekend after escrow closed.  However, then I heard about potential complications in closing escrow, so I planned to move the horses the next week after escrow closed, and move our stuff two weeks after escrow closed to leave room for problems. 

However, I was having difficulty finding a moving company that I could

Rest My Weary Soul

Or maybe the title should be "Rest My Wary Soul", because I don't trust anyone or anything anymore.  Even though we lost our discount price with the moving company when the other customers postponed their move, my understanding was that the company could still move us within our time frame, just at a higher price since we had to pay for the round trip instead of half the trip.  So, my husband

Keep It Together

I feel nauseated from this roller coaster ride I've been on for the past few days.  Between the moving sale and the charity pickup, I had to keep a close eye on the furniture in our front yard, because my annoying neighbors kept letting their dogs loose, and they'd make a beeline for our stuff and try to mark their territory on it.  My husband was out there with a chair looking like a lion tamer

The Next Hurdle

We made it through the moving sale, and as you can see, we didn't sell many of the big items...






The majority of our customers were senior citizens only interested in buying books and toys for their grand kids.  In past yard sales, I could sometimes get rid of furniture if foreigners showed up with just the shirts on their backs, but they never had money, so I often gave the furniture away

Just Lovely

I made an offer that couldn't be refused (I thought) to a potential home buyer.  Our house isn't on the market yet, but I knew there was a buyer in the area who wanted at least an acre of space, but had a budget that was less than what we wanted to ask for our house.  I told my real estate agent that if he is interested, he could have our house "as is" before I start fixing it up for his budget.

Foiled Again

My husband took the day off from work for a video conference job interview, and also to help move all the heavy stuff out onto the driveway for our moving sale this Saturday.  This morning started out warm, bright and beautiful.  I laid out a bunch of tarps and began piling boxes of books and toys on them just to get a head start two days before the sale.

Of course, my nosy neighbor had to come

I'm Getting Excited

I think this is really going to happen.  I haven't allowed myself to celebrate too much about moving out of this hell hole, because nothing is guaranteed, but today the title company put all our paperwork together and is shipping it to us for signing.  In exactly one week we, along with the bank, will be home owners of a new home.

I was boxing up stuff all day and piling garbage bags and moldy

A Very Satisfying Day

The vet and her assistant come by to do the works on my horses.  I figured I'd end up having to work three separate appointments into my schedule, but this vet managed to get it all done in one morning.  She gave them a physical first.  Everyone was good except for Gabbrielle who had never had a thermometer up her butt before.  I suspect she'd give any stallion a run for his money.

Then the vet

I'm Keeping the Vets in Business

First thing in the morning I found myself scrubbing another pee stain out of the carpet.  I've been closing the back bedroom doors since Midge seems to think that is her bathroom, and now she's going in the hall outside the bedrooms.  I don't understand what her problem is.  She's been treated with two rounds of antibiotics for a urinary tract infection, and one round of antibiotics for an