Over The Rainbow

Our first night, sitting on the porch and eating our dinner, we saw a Western Bluebird! I have always wanted to see a Western Bluebird.

Last night I heard the owl hoot-hooting.

And who knew gopher holes were good for anything? Betty found a good pile of gopher diggings and she had the happiest dirt bath of her life. Bliss.


The gophers may decide to move out... Maria runs around the yard so much they are probably getting cave-ins and tunnel collapses!


I had better get back to packing. I love this house so much, I cannot get moved in soon enough.


It's like we are over the rainbow. And there's no place like home.

The Nitty-Gritty

I love the first few days of a move... the early days when I take a carload of precious treasures and new sponges to the future home and I put everything away and the new house is the loveliest-tidiest-prettiest spot on Earth. I love how clever and neat I can be, how manageable everything is. It's such a brief time, such a tiny, tiny brief time. If time and money were no object, then I could move all of GarageMahal over to the Bird House six boxes at a time and unpack in an orderly, leisurely manner. **sigh**


But sooner or later the luxury of taking it easy is surpassed by the annoyance of not being done. That is when the big truck arrives. That is when, under the pressure of getting the truck back to the lot in 24 hours, we pile it in. We stack and shove and haul and load and make big progress. And in two days we accomplished a lot... we completed Phase One in two days, so that 99.98% of our outdoor stuff is moved from point A to Point Bird House.

w00ts!
Yahoo!
Awesome!
Cold beer.

Okay.
Settle down.
Party over.


Oh dear. Now the Bird House is looking a bit lived in. Know what I mean? I mean we are trying to move out and move in and we have to carry on with the usual chores and homework-school schedules, and apparently laundry doesn't take a holiday when we are up to our ears in bubble wrap. The new house honeymoon is waning. Don't misunderstand me... I am loving the new house and I am totally smitten with the view and the big kitchen and the ours-ness of it all. It's just that I am passed the point where I can keep the new place fantastically cute and tidy, while packing and clearing out the old place. And in the rush to move as much as possible, as soon as possible, we were not exactly setting everything in its ideal space. And at the end of the day I am a bit sore, completely whooped, a tiny bit overwhelmed and slightly confused. The cats are here. The cat food is there. The fifth grader is there and his homework is here. Get the picture?

I have seen it all before. It's just one of those moving things, and it will pass. Eventually. Right? Oh please say it will pass!

Just kidding. I am totally in control.

Phase One :: Day Two

Other than the many light loads I've made during the week, yesterday marked the official start of mission impossible our big move.


I am calling this Phase One.
Phase One is all about everything in the yard moving from GarageMahal to the Bird House.
Everything, including:

pots
plants
barrels
hoses
chairs
the table
bikes
trike
pots
wheel barrow
potting table
buckets
pail
shovels
hoes
brooms
art
gizmos
gadgets
pots
a rabbit
and...


even her, Lady Betty Oprington.

We started yesterday, and even with some minor setbacks (like the truck we reserved not being actually available...) we still managed to make a good sized dent in the job. Unfortunately, "good sized" does not equal "all done" or "almost all done" or "nearly there." Oh man. Why can't "good sized dent" = "almost done?"

It's not just that there is a lot to move, it's that a lot of it needs to be de-spidered. No matter how often I brush and sweep throughout the year, those spiders, the shiny black ones with the decorative red stamped bellies, keep coming back.

**heebie-jeebies**


Onward!

I am bolstered by all of your sweet-sweet comments and encouragement. It is so much fun to feel like you are celebrating with us. Thank you.

We are going to keep brushing, sweeping, stacking, sorting, lifting and hauling, we are going to get all of the tools, and flowers and vases and spades and the hutch and the coop and the stuff moved over...


here.

Then on to Phase Two. Amen.