Wish I didn't know now, what I didn't know then...

So it's been a couple full days since we moved in and things have so far been great. D is over the top happy, telling me every 10 mins or so. I don't mind it really, as they say "happy wife, happy life."and the alternative would be a nightmare. We hit the ground running and have basically all the important stuff set up. The kitchen is functional, the office is up and downloading movies, the shower is hot but the garage is still full of boxes and that's ok for now.

In terms of farm work we bought a few key tools, mostly shovels and rakes, I've located the spot for the garlic to go and cleared much of the overgrown vegetation around our deck. Halfway through my battle on the deck jungle I thought for a minute Jane Goodall was studying me, but it was just a shadow.

Weepin' Willow

Our twin 50ft willows are now trimmed and no longer sagging to the ground. Some may think the willows could have waited but the trimming had ulterior motives since we needed some sort of ground cover for the garlic bed once they are planted and after a couple light frosts have it. Covering them with 4-6 inches of straw or leaves helps to regulate the ground temp and stops the bulbs from being dislodged during frost heaving. See there are things to learn here... Once we plant the garlic we are trying different combinations of additives and soil enhancements to see what benefits work. I'll let you know the final choices and ultimately the outcome in a later blog(s).. so stay tuned...

We pick up the puppy in 5 days, he'll be 8 weeks and ready for a new home, the cats will not be thrilled but they'll live. They haven't really adapted to the bigger house yet, both them and D are pretty jittery with the new noises. I sleep through anything, literally. In our old condo, the fire alarm would go off right outside our bedroom and it wouldn't even phase me. Hope that's true when the puppy (and kids) are whining/crying... I may fake it anyway... 
  
Life Lesson #76: What ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s...










      

Be careful with your actions, you never know when you're creating a memory...

Tomorrow is the day it all begins. We did our final inspection today to make sure the farm wasn't burned down or rented out to hippies with a grow-op. The place itself was still standing but the homeowner has not lived up to her agreement to get a list of issues taken care of. Let this be a lesson to anyone buying a house from a bitter old curmudgeon. Get the price to where you want it regardless of the issues with the idea you're fixing it. When it comes time to sign and get the keys, if things aren't done, you're pretty much out of luck unless you want to cancel the deal and sue in court for a year or two.

Well, even with a grow-op we'd be taking the farm but the hassles we are now faced with have just added a few more posts in the future blog file. Including but ot restricted to a new AC unit, oil tank replacement and garbage removal from 10 years of bad landscaping jobs. All in all, it's better to have us do it, at least it will be done right. This will be a constant theme in the future. You want something done right, do it yourself or at least watch the person doing it and figure it out for next time, unless of course it's a root canal or colonoscopy.   

We drop off the cats tomorrow and await the pods we filled a few weeks ago. Everything will be on site for Saturday so when the movers show up we can have it done ASAP. At $150/hr we'll do anything we can to speed things up including oil up the driveway with PAM. We ended up finding a good moving company on the website www.homestars.com , it's the same place we found our home inspector and that worked out great for us so I'll let you know how this one goes.

Rules change after 30...

"Don't you have friends to help you move?" you're asking?

Of course we do, however we are trying to live by a new rule of thumb. Once you ask someone to help you move, you're on the hook to help them. So let's say you ask 4 buddies to help you move once. You now have to help 4 people move, and if your friends are like some of mine, they drift around like plastic in the ocean, it could be every year or so. Not to mention, you shouldn't ask people to help you move after you're 30. Add that to the list of things to not do after 30, including using "party" as a verb and men having piercings.



Life Lesson #888: People will forget what you said and what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel, so be kind.