I took a break from unpacking yesterday. Today, my goal is to get rid of the wall of boxes in front of the wall of shelves that I have to squeeze through to get to bed.
Sure enough, I found more damaged items. Like this. Continue reading
Month: December 2017
Cat Whisperer, and more
My younger daughter is some kind of cat whisperer!
Last night, when she headed out to give the outside cats some warm water for the night, The Mothman came out. He’s been hanging out more often, and even taken over one of the old dog houses at times. The other cats are nervous around him, so they won’t go in with him, like they do with each other. When she came out, there were cats all over for some reason. Then Mothman came out of the dog house and she saw why! Continue reading
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New Habits
As chaotic as things are, we’re settling into a bit of a routine. Mornings, the heating of water for washing begins. My past habit of staying up to the wee hours and getting up at around 10am has changed to going to bed before midnight *gasp* and getting up earlier. It takes most of the morning to heat enough water to wash up not only ourselves, but any dishes and stuff that needs doing. No point in heating all that water again in the evening, just to do dishes.
In the morning, someone goes to feed the outside cats and get them some warm water. A warm water refill gets done again, later in the day, when what we gave them earlier is frozen.
Packing my parents’ stuff, cleaning shelves, unpacking our own stuff, then finding somewhere to put it, happens when we can. I have been getting a fair bit of it done while heating water and stuff. Usually it starts with, “I should make breakfast, but I could really use… ” and then I end up going through several boxes to find an item, get distracted and do something else, get distracted and finish another thing… then, eventually, I remember to go back and actually make breakfast.
Green tea with chamomile, in my footed cup, all freshly unpacked!
We’re tea drinkers in general, but since the move, tea is ever-present. Even when I was just coming out to stay a short while (usually for something funeral related), and I stayed at the farm, the kettle seemed to always be on. We’re drinking more tea now than we did even just before the move, when the water at the co-op started tasting worse and worse. We have since found and unpacked our tea supplies – we have a LOT of tea and tea supplies! – so the variety is being enjoyed often.
Loading packed boxes into the van and taking them to the shed has had a bit of a stall. The van is currently full of stuff for the land fill.
Now there’s a new habit we’re going to have to get into. Regular trips to the dump. Continue reading
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Finding more damage
As we unpacked a box I packed myself and found a chipped mug, we went on the hunt.
Every box of ours marked fragile was opened and checked. Every unlabeled box (which they packed) was opened. If fragile things were found, we unpacked them.
Thankfully, there was not a lot of damage. Considering we have my daughter’s antique tea cups collection and things like the China I inherited (a pattern that was discontinued in the late 60’s), that’s saying a lot.
I’m not too concerned about chipped mugs or a broken glass candle holder.
Stuff like this is different.
The creamer of a sugar bowl and creamer set made for me by my cousin. It had survived about a dozen moves. Until now.
And this.
An old statue of the patron saint of music my mother gave me. It had already been repaired in the past. It’s beyond repair, now.
Still not as much of a problem as this.
Original painting by my daughter. She had even wrapped it in a plastic bag with another painting in her inventory. Something in the box dug into it, causing this damage.
So that painting is now can’t be sold.
Then there is the WTF? stuff. Like this.
My daughter’s metal yard stick. It was in the same box as the damaged painting.
The metal yard stick was bent to fit into a size medium box.
Who does that???
Meanwhile, we had to shove everything we unpacked into any nook and cranny we could reach. Which is not where they belong.
Where most of it is supposed to go is either blocked off by boxes, or not yet cleared of my patents’ stuff.
The girls did get some kitchen cupboards cleared and half or so of them cleaned, so we could start putting our pantry items away, at least.
We are in that “progress is going to look much worse before it starts to look better” stage.
The Re-farmer
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Mission Improbable
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Getting Creative
I got the desk and computer set up in my “new” office. This is where the satellite cable comes through the wall.
Before moving the desk, the router was set up on top of a couple of boxes to get a stronger signal. We still had to set up our signal booster in the master bedroom. After moving the desk, I put a folding table that will eventually be a work/photography space, in the corner. The router was moved to the table, propped up on the boxes again. Before going to bed, I popped an unpacked box on the table. This morning, my husband found that box was enough to disrupt the signal. It seemed just having it more in the corner was causing signal strength issues, too.
So we got creative and did this.
It looks awful, but it works, so who cares?
The girls have been joking about the squid on the wall since they saw it. Especially since neither of them had their glasses.
Update: our router now has a name. Benevolent Internet Bot.
The Re-farmer
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Progress?
Technically, I unpacked 4 medium boxes, 2 small boxes and a bin.
In reality, I took things out and they are just sitting on the table, or tucked into shelf cubes, until we can clear out the kitchen cupboards, clean them, then put our own stuff in. Which will likely take days.
I have never been so excited to see a box of kitchen utensils, tea supplies and cups before.
Also, pantry items. I have herbs and spices and other ingredients that aren’t several years old again. Some pots and pans. Plus one of my two big crock pots is unpacked. Even our stovetop popcorn popper and giant bowl! I also found our BluRay player and we opened a box with movies in it the other day.
If we can find places to sit, we could have a movie night tonight!
I have a pair of these. I bought them from a mail order company in California that specialized in everything dragons. They are almost 30 years old and the company no longer exists.
For now, tea. In one of my own cups (though not the giant ones I usually use. I found those later).
Pretty good for a couple hours work. And to think I went into the kitchen to make breakfast.
Oh. I should probably have breakfast!
The Re-farmer
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More moving causalities…
My older daughter is an artist. For years, she sold her paintings at art festivals and the like. These days, she’s focusing more on her online work.
Among the things we left for the movers to pack was her art. We figured that professional movers would have access to the sorts of boxes and wrapping materials we couldn’t find at the local Home Depot.
As our stuff was being unloaded, I got my first warning that things were amiss when I picked up what I at first though was part of a dismantled piece of furniture, and it turned out to be a blank canvas.
Just the canvas.
It wasn’t wrapped in any way. When I picked it up, I could see dirty fingermarks from any number of people who picked it up and moved it.
As the girls have been unpacking their boxes upstairs, my daughter found some of her watercolours…
There is another box of her stuff downstairs that we have to get at. It’s been opened and her portfolio sleeve was folded up in it.
I’m afraid to look at see what else in there was damaged.
The Re-farmer
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Casualty of the Move?
Well, after many attempts, it looks like we have a confirmed casualty of the move.
My husband’s desktop computer.
It came with us in the van, in the same box as my own. We hooked mine up to the TV because it is newer and could connect to the Bluetooth keyboard. As my daughter moved her system upstairs, he borrowed her keyboard and tried his.
It won’t even start up. It turns on, then just spins. It never gets past the point where the logo first appears.
Several more attempts have been made. We even found the box with the keyboards and monitor stands.
Nothing.
We are unsure of the cause. It was working fine before we packed it.
This really sucks.
Meanwhile, I need to put a priority on setting up my office and inventory. I need to print out a shipping label and mail off a purchase.
The Re-farmer
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More Outside Cats
It has taken me forever to get a good shot of Rolando Moon. He She is constantly moving!
Rolando Moon does not approve of Beep Beep’s methods of keeping the toes warm.
Bonus Mothman shot.
Strrrreeeetttccchhh…
The Re-farmer
The Re-Farmer 