Still no photos, but here is where we are at on the move and updates on other topics.

The Move

Pam is working hard to get the house set up. She has been painting and working on the pantry and updating the kitchen. Bad weather in the form of light snow pretty much suspended outdoor work for several days, but Pam and Becky managed to get quite a bit of outside work done, cleaning up some of the end-of-life flowers and trimming back overgrown bushes before Becky had to leave to go back to Rice Lake.

The furnace seems to be working fine! Pam reports the upstairs is cooler as it has no direct venting to the furnace, a situation we expected.

The weather has improved in the last few days and Pam will be putting in her Mary Lynn Memorial Garden plantings and doing some other outside work during this interlude.

The cats, both the outdoor ones and the house cats, seem to be settling in OK. The cat shed needs some additional work, including running some electrical power for lights and heated cat dishes and such. The only window faces north and lets in a lot of cold air so a cat door will need to be installed. Having no handle on the inside of the main door is a problem that I will have to address, not a major job but add it to the list!

The dogs had no trouble settling in but prefer being inside to running in the dog run. This is about the same as when in De Beque; JoJo tends to stay out more than Bru or Blondie but Pam makes sure all three get outside time.

Pam has made grocery runs and is getting familiar with the two major stores in the area, HyVee in Charles City and Fareway in Cresgo. Both towns are about 25 miles from Elma. HyVee is a bit more upscale but Fareway has all the essentials one needs so we will probably use both over time.

The Lot

Last Friday I headed up to The Lot with two main goals; winterize The Box and put tarps over the chipper and Ford 8N tractor.

Normally I winterize The Box earlier in the fall. This trip found some water lines had already frozen and there was no water available when I arrived. A night with the furnace running and the water system came back to life. I was able to drain the fresh water tank and water heater then use my waste water kit to drain the holding tanks. (The waste water gets hauled over to a dump station provided by the homeowner’s association.) After that I added antifreeze to all the water lines and sink traps.

Other winterizing chores included removing all food items. Thankfully it did not freeze hard enough to affect the canned food. Then all the sheets and linens were packed for transport to De Beque.

Last on the list: Remove the batteries from the chipper and tractor and get tarps in place to help protect them from the winter weather. I had purchased tarps, tent stakes, and cord and used all to cover the equipment.

This shuts down activity at The Lot for the year. I was relieved to be able to get this work done as we have been having record low temperatures. Left any longer I feared The Box would have suffered major freeze damage.

In De Beque

I am still packing the garage and am making progress. Both workbench areas are pretty well packed but I need to bring home a few smaller boxes to finish. Still a lot to do; I have not even begun cleaning out the garage attic of my old Macintosh computer gear, most of which will end up in an electronic recycle business.

I have found a home for my Gilson tractor and possibly for the left over Ford tractor parts I have sitting along the garage. One last mowing and trimming of the lawn and that will end lawn care, even though there will be leaves to rake as the trees here start to drop them.

I am getting used to a very quiet house. With most of the furniture and rugs gone the place echoes quite a bit. However, Pam left me quite a few cooking utensils and food supplies so I plan my meals and cook as needed. Not fancy, but I won’t starve. I just have to get used to taking care of the outside cats (food and water mostly) as part of my normal routine.

We have a couple that may be interested in the house. They are trying to arrange financing and are checking out several lenders. We are holding off listing the place until we find out if an offer will be coming through from this couple. We hope it happens; Pam has an arrangement with a realtor to act as a “facilitator” which would avoid most of the traditional realtor costs involved with selling a home. Stay tuned.

Next Steps

More packing, getting rid of stuff I don’t plan to move, and finding homes for some equipment are all tasks on the agenda. I plan to make a trip to Elma over Halloween weekend using the F-150 and my 12 foot trailer. Hopefully that will move all the garage stuff, except for a few basic tools, and include a few larger items such as my kerosene space heaters and my ATV. Most of this will go into the storage area we rented in Elma. If possible I would also like to get one of the motorcycles moved this trip so it will be quite an undertaking. In the event of bad weather I will rent an enclosed U-Haul trailer instead of using my open trailer.

It will be a few weeks yet before we have photos of all of this. Our internet service install was rescheduled and won’t be done until October 23. Rather than try to send all the photos via e-mail, and Pam has taken quite a few, photos will have to wait until we have internet e-mail or I can transfer them to a flash drive when I am in Elma at the end of the month. We did purchased a refurbished HP laptop for Pam to use once the internet service is established. Doing a lot of e-mail on a smart phone is a real pain, mostly because the Verizon service we use only gives us one or two “bars” and taxes one’s patience waiting for web sites and mail to load.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!