Now that I have found most of my computer stuff, here are a few images of us moving to our new Iowa home.

These next two photos take a bit of an explanation. The new place is a two-story Victorian with a steep and narrow staircase. Getting “upstairs” items in would be a problem. Pam devised a plan; hire a man-lift to raise the goods to upper window height and move the stuff through an open window.

Since the move took place over a five month period, starting in October 2019 and ending in February 2020, weather and travel conditions were always a factor.

We also had a few breakdowns of the U-Haul gear during a couple of the trips.

And, to close this photo essay, here is the house as it appeared at my last trip from Colorado.

As spring begins to arrive there will be more activity around our new home. For now, I am enjoying my first few days of at-home retirement.

During the two weeks from February 14th to February 28th I made two round trips to western Colorado with the truck and trailer and sold the De Beque home. Now it is time to relax!

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

I am now an Iowan.

The home sale in Colorado went through as scheduled; as of February 26 we no longer own a home in Colorado. Immediately after the closing, brother-in-law Craig and I left Colorado and headed for Iowa. I was driving my F-150 and pulling a 6×12 U-Haul trailer while Craig was driving our Honda sedan.

The last trip was uneventful; no bad weather, breakdowns, or other problems cropped up. Long days of driving, though, as the first night we spent in Ogalala, Nebraska, due to the late start after the closing. That left a 13+ hour drive on Thursday to make it to Iowa.

Friday we unpacked the trailer returned it to the U-Haul rental spot in Charles City. Craig and sister-in-law Becky (who had brought Craig to Elma and was staying with Pam until Craig and I arrived from Colorado) headed north to their respective Wisconsin homes. Pam and I really appreciate the help from Craig and Becky!

Friday afternoon and most of the day on Saturday was spent unpacking the latest batch of boxes and setting up the “media room” where my computer is now located. The media room also has the upstairs TV, a recliner, microwave oven, and my stereo system. During the winter months I will be spending some time in that room.

We still have multiple boxes to sort through and find spots for more “stuff” brought from Colorado, but we are now functioning pretty well in our new digs.

Now that I am retired and the move is complete, what’s next? Many projects, that’s for sure! Today I finished cleaning snow and ice from the Elma sidewalks, something Pam chose not to keep up with while I was not here. The garage needs to be organized and I need to start finding some of my tools. House projects will wait just a bit until the weather warms up some, but small jobs, such as patching some of the plaster spots and using the shop vac to clean out some of the vents, can go ahead now.

Then there are the relocation tasks; changing driver’s licenses, getting Iowa titles and plates for the Honda, F-150, and motorcycle. Finding a doctor, dentist, and barber shop. Making sure all banking is transferred to the new bank. All “stuff” that needs to be done when one makes a major move.

I hope to get back to a weekly update of this blog after the disruption caused such an erratic schedule. Most of the updates will be boring, I am sure, dealing with home updates, continued unpacking, weather reports, and other matter-of-fact aspects of moving into an old home. Still, tune in from time to time as we will be exploring Iowa and southern Minnesota and discovering the best places to visit.

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

Pam’s Two Cents:

It has been five long [and quite stressful] months since the purchase of the Elma, IA property. Since we were unable to winterize during the fall relocation, suffice to say winterization systems will have been addressed by the fall of 2020 before the next Iowa winter.

I’ve had to learn a few tasks outside my comfort zone – packing Qwikcrete into the foundation, trapping mice, working with the local HVAC shop to update the furnace burners all come to mind. Jerry has likewise been exploring grocery purchase, cooking, doing laundry and cleaning on the CO end. It remains to be seen what cross over from these experiences will survive the relocation.

Our relocation pre-planning and predictions re: number of trips, expense, and timing mostly were accurate. Jerry retired several months later than planned, the Colorado house sold several months earlier than anticipated. We landed on our feet financially. And we are finally both here.

Now — can I learn to coexist with strident hog manure odors riding on the change of the wind?

Tomorrow I head back to Colorado for what, I hope, will be my last “moving” trip. Before I go I wanted to pass along this snow report; current snow levels in NE Iowa.

Last Tuesday, when I arrived, it was snowing. Today the sun is shining and temps are above freezing. Pam asked me to measure how much snow was on the ground after three days of settling. Here is the result:

As you can see, there is about 11 – 12 inches on the level in a part of the walk that is in the sun a lot. One result: the dogs are not running much; they get out and walk around. Poor Bru, who is the shortest, mostly follows existing paths as she does not like her belly to be dragging in the snow.

As we don’t really have a place to park the truck, our 3rd vehicle, a place was plowed out so I could park it off-street.

Weather for the trip back to Colorado should be OK, although it looks like I will be coming in a day behind a storm that is expected to dump some snow in Denver. Hopefully the road conditions will be OK for the round trip.

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

I am in Iowa for a few days. We close on the sale of our De Beque home on February 26, if all goes well.

I retired on February 14. Saturday I loaded up the truck with a few boxes of stuff and hooked up our aluminum open trailer, which had a few items in it that would not get hurt if they got wet, and headed out on Sunday. This trip was necessary to move the trailer, which I had for sale but did not get any buyers.

The last trip will be a joint effort between me and brother-in-law Craig. We will head for Colorado, pick up a U-Haul trailer, and load the last of my stuff, including my Kawasaki motorcycle. Loading should be completed on the 25th. The closing will be on the morning of the 26th, then Craig and I will be on the road; Craig will drive our Honda and I will drive the truck and trailer. We should be back in Iowa on the 27th or 28, depending on weather conditions.

That’s a lot to take in…retirement, closing, a move, and final move in less than two weeks. I will be glad to settle down for a few days once I get to Elma for good! It has been an ever-eventful five months.

The trip that brought me here, with the aluminum trailer, was, well, interesting. I ran through freezing drizzle that built ice up to over an inch on the front license plate and other parts of the truck. Then it began to snow. Elma received between 4 and 5 inches out of the storm, which meant one of my first chores was to shovel snow.

After the essentials were cleared I dug out my parts and pieces and put the snow blade on the John Deere garden tractor. Suitcase weights, tire chains, and blade were put to good use after the City plowed a batch of snow in front of our garage doors. The blade made quick work of cleaning up that mess.

Tonight…Cold. -14 is the forecast, then warming up with highs above freezing through the weekend. Welcome to Iowa.

A few more photos will be posted once I unpack the rest of my computer gear and retrieve my storage drives.

Wow. With my home PC packed and in Iowa, it has been hard for me to keep up with happenings and events. I am at work, after hours, to get this post done.

I  made another trip to Iowa over Christmas. It was great to be with Pam again, and we accomplished many items she had on her “to do” list.

We hung a door in Pam’s bedroom. Wall art was hung in the halls, as was Pam’s cross-cut saw that she inherited from her grandparents home. Many items were unpacked in the medial room, including stereo equipment such as my reel-to-reel deck. While the gear needs to be cabled in to operate, it was a relief to get some of the boxes emptied and recycle the cardboard.

A major project for this trip was to install a separation wall under the steps that would keep the dogs out of the cat area. Pam had been using a large piece of cardboard to close off the place where she put cat food, water, and the liter boxes, but that arrangement has serious drawbacks and was difficult to use.

Using some bead-board doors from storage cabinets in the basement, we closed off the area under the steps, complete with an arch for the cats to use to access the food and boxes, and retained a hinged door at one end for human access.

Sounds like a simple job but it was not. I had to search through the storage area to find my saws and other tools, then we had to take the bead-board doors off some old cabinets located in the basement. To get the angle of the steps right we made a cardboard template to use to cut the wood. In the end it turned out OK but still needs some “tweaking” and trim to finish off the edges. Still, it is a much better arrangement  that using the cardboard.

A highlight of the trip was getting Pam and her two brothers, Larry and Craig, plus her sister, Becky, together for a sit-down and talk session. We all met at a Rocky Rocco’s Pizza place in the La Crosse area and enjoyed a good talking session and really good pizza.

All-in-all it was a good trip. I had taken the Honda, but had packed in quite a few items such as a floor lamp, summer clothing, some more “garage” items, and other odds and ends. The return trip saw me going through a bunch of weather including snow, sleet, fog, blowing snow, and wind. I made it OK, though, and returned to De Beque without incident.

In De Beque, I have been working to make the place HUD and FHA compliant. This involves foundation work, title work, skirting work, and painting but we want to appeal to the widest range of buyers possible. Whole process has been a PIA.

I will try to make these posts on a bit more regular basis but nothing is guaranteed!

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

Addendum:

Deb (Thanks for the note!) asked about the status of my moving to Iowa so I thought I would make a few comments on that.

The plan was for me to work until the house sold. We have a buyer and the original closing date was set for December 20th. However, the lender put up some requirements that we are still working to fill. These included some foundation work (tie downs) and, more recently, replacement or repair of the existing skirting which has some holes in it.

One of the photos above shows the axles that had to be removed from underneath the home, a HUD requirement since 2001. Since we used a conventional loan when we bought the place the HUD and FHA requirements were not an issue, but the but now they are.  So, a number of projects had to be undertaken to bring the place up the lender’s standards. Even though the place was set up in 1994, there is no grandfather clause so we now have to meet current standards.

So, I am still in Colorado, working to pay the mortgage and arranging to get these other projects done.  It may take several weeks.

Another concern is my right shoulder, which I injured last spring but is acting up again. I have an appointment with a shoulder specialist on January 23rd and may have to have rotator cuff surgery to fix it. If so, I will need a place to recuperate and it will have to be in Be Beque for insurance reasons.

Wow. It has been almost a month since my last post. Here is the latest update plus some photos of the moving process.

Recap

We closed on September 16. A week later the first load in a U-Haul truck pulling our 12 foot open trailer and Pam driving the Toyota RAV4. Some pets moved as well. Next trip consisted of the F-150 truck pulling a U-Haul 6 x 12 foot trailer, Pam in the Toyota, and the rest of the animals to be moved. I return to work. Forth trip was Halloween weekend, F-150 pulling a 5×8 foot U-Haul trailer filled with (mostly) garage stuff.

In between I got rid of a lot of item I did not want to move, including Ford tractor parts, my old Macintosh computer collection, my Gilson lawn tractor and attachments, and a number of smaller items, many left on our corner with a “Free” sign on them.

Current status

Pam is working on projects in Elma, I am working and packing the remainder of the garage in De Beque, and we are moving forward with the sale of the house. A few issues there having to do with this being a manufactured home. There is some additional paperwork having to do with titles that needs to be done. The County changed rules in 2010, four years after we bought the place, and now we have to get some additional title work completed. Always something.

Photos

The rest of the post will be mostly photos and captions. There is a lot going on, including Christmas preparations, but more in-depth news will have to wait for another post. Here are a bunch of photos:

Next Up

I hope to make another trip to Elma over the Thanksgiving weekend with an open trailer, moving my motorcycles, ATV, and the remainder of the large garage items.

In Conclusion

That’s about it for now. There are more stories and anecdotes that will come in future posts, but for now this is the bones of our move to date.

That’s not for now. Thanks for looking in!

I downloaded a few photos from my camera. These were taken during my first trip to Elma for the closing on September 16.

More to follow when I get access to Pam’s photos from her phone. It may be a while!

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!

This is gong to be a long post.

I’ll take this in more or less chronological order. When I last posted I was getting ready to head for Elma to close on the house. The F-150 was acting up, misfiring on one cylinder, and I did not have time to trouble-shoot it so I ended up taking the Honda. (A neighbor worked on the truck while I was gone.) While cheaper to run than the truck, I could not take as much “stuff” as I had planned which messed up some of the moving plan.

Anyway, the closing on September 16th went OK. No surprises and we locked in a mortgage rate of 3%, the lowest rate we have ever had.

After the closing I went to the house and started unpacking the Honda. There were several other chores to be done in the few days I would be at the house this trip so I had to get right at it.

These will seem normal to people who have moved before, but it had been many years since we had to get these tasks done.

1. Notify Post Office that we were in town.
2. Open local bank accounts.
3. Open an account at the local agriculture store as that is where our propane will come from.
4. Take delivery of new refrigerator and dryer.
5. Meet with the guy who would build the “catio.”
6. Find a grocery store, hardware store, and lumber yard.
7. Build a temporary dog run.
8. Set up a temporary kitchen and bedroom.
9. Meet with the city manager and arrange garbage pickup.
10. Get water running in the upstairs bathroom.

It was a very busy week, topped off with a return trip to Colorado. I arrived home on Sunday. Monday Pam and I  picked up our 20 foot U-Haul rental truck. We loaded the truck, and my 12 foot open trailer, to be pulled with the truck, on Tuesday. Wednesday we headed for Elma.

We had problems with the truck overheating on the long grade up to Eisenhower Tunnel. This delayed us for a couple hours until Pam, who was driving our Toyota RAV4, could get me some anti-freeze.

Did I mention I had two dogs with me, and Pam had our 3rd dog and 5 of our house cats in her car? A real traveling menagerie!

That night we stayed in North Platte, Nebraska, a few hours west of where we wanted to be. This led us to get to Elma very late the next night and we did not get to bed until the wee hours of the morning.

The wind was blowing very strong and gusty. One gust blew the hood off my John Deere lawn tractor and crashed it into the median. (I was able to recover a few parts of it on the return trip, but it will still cost $330.00 to replace the main hood which broke into dozens of small fragments.) Other than that the trip went OK, just a lot of miles.

OK. So we arrived in Elma with the Toyota full of animals and the U-Haul and trailer full of other stuff. We managed to get Pam’s mattress set up and my air mattress was still there from the previous trip so we fed the animals and called it a night about 1:30 in the morning.

The next day we moved the cats into the house and started unpacking the truck. Pam had had a wonderful idea; she hired a local handyman, in advance, to come with a lift so items going up to the second floor could be moved in through a window. This worked slick. The handyman (Dennis) brought a couple helpers who moved larger furniture out of the truck and helped move boxes from the truck to the lift and into the house. Process took about an hour and a half. We had unloaded some of the truck before the help arrived and were really getting dragged out so it was great to have helpers do the rest of the heavy lifting.

The next morning we returned the truck to the nearest U-Haul location, Charles City, which is about 25 miles away. While going through town we found the HyVee grocery store, a well known chain in the Midwest, and stopped to pick up a few food items. We also located the veterinary service that will take care of our pets. It appears to be a very neat, well kept, and well run operation. They even have separate waiting rooms for cats and dogs.

Back to Elma to unpack which continued the rest of the day. Another night over and Pam’s sister, Becky, arrived from Rice Lake. Becky would watch the cats and dogs while Pam and I headed back to Colorado for load #3. Becky provided us with some great tasting food so we did not have to worry about cooking, a great help and much appreciated!

Load #3 was my F-150 pulling a 6×12 foot U-Haul trailer. Several of the garage cats were trapped and placed in Pam’s Toyota. I had the last two house cats, Antonio and Mr. Bibbs, in the back seat of the F-150. Most of the cats trapped pretty easily but one, Gwyneth, eluded the traps and is still in De Beque. If I can’t trap her she will become one more of the neighborhood cats.

Getting started a bit earlier, we made it up to I-90 in the western part of South Dakota the first night and into Elma by late afternoon the next day. Top of the priority list was getting the cats settled. The house cats went OK as they were in separate carrying cages, but the garage cats, we thought, would be a problem.

Turns out it was not so much of a problem. The cats sought to hide in one of the carry cases Pam had left in the back of the car, so Pam just closed the cage door, carried the cats to the cat shed, and let them out. Repeat a few times and all the garage cats were transferred without incident. What a relief!

Events started to blur into each other. We unpacked the washer and Pam started doing laundry. There was cleaning, unpacking, arranging, minor repairs such as putting in light bulbs and finding the water shut off valve for the outside faucets. I managed to get the lawn mowed as it was looking pretty shaggy after weeks of neglect.

The Dish Network installer showed up to install our TV service. That went OK but the dish had to be mounted on the detached garage to get a clear view of the southern sky. That meant the cable running between the garage and house had to be buried. One more job I had not expected to have to do!

Then, for me, back to Colorado and back to work on October 7th. I had been off for three weeks and managed a trip a week to Elma. Each trip, with a few side jaunts, ran about 2,500 miles.

So, where are we now? Pam is in Elma with all the cats and dogs, working on getting things settled. She is paining, cleaning, re-arranging, and working with Becky to set up the house. I am working my regular job in Colorado and trying to get the garage packed in the evenings. There is still a lot to do.

Two more trips for sure are in the works, and I may have to rent a local storage spot for some items, such as my motorcycles, to be moved later or even next spring. We will have to see how the rest of the move goes.

We have photos on several devices and it will be a while before I can get them assembled into a gallery, so stay tuned for photos in an upcoming post.

The next few weeks are going to be hectic. Posts will be a bit erratic, moving away from near-weekly to whenever I get a chance. Why?

This weekend I head to Iowa to close on our Elma house. This means a 2,400 mile road trip is about to begin. While I am there several projects will be started; catio, dog fencing, bank account opened, create an account with the local Co-op for LP (propane) fuel, and take delivery of our new refrigerator. I will be in Elma for a few days before heading back to Colorado. The adventure begins!

Back at home

Some good news, some bad news. I worked on my F-150 truck, replacing the noisy idlers that keep tension on the fan belt and the truck ran much quieter. However, on my return trip from The Lot (more on that visit in a bit) the truck developed a misfire, running on only 7 of the 8 cylinders. I have replaced both the spark plug and the coil that fires the plug but those efforts did not cure the problem. Next up will be to replace the fuel injector but I just don’t have time to work on it now. This means the trip back to Elma will be with the Honda and not with a load of “stuff” (truck plus trailer) as I had planned.

The packing continues. I did a first pass through the garage and ended up with 3 bins of metal recycle stuff and a full garbage bag for the dumpster. Still to go though: all my old Macintosh computers and gear in the garage attic. Not looking forward to that.

Pam keeps working away at packing the house items and has completed several painting projects. She is one busy lady!

The Lot

I did make a trip to The Lot over the weekend of September 7 – 8. My goal was to see if the Ford 8N tractor could be used to pull the chipper around the lot a bit and get to places where the ATV could not pull the chipper. While I was able to move the chipper around, it is clear the 8N is not capable of pulling the chipper into the steeper parts of the lot. It just does not have the power and traction to move the chipper, all 1,700 pounds of it, up the steeper slopes present on the upper part of the lot.

Still, I managed to chip 4 piles of brush. Two were smaller piles but the other two were larger in size. I did not get the chips spread; that will have to wait until next year. I plan one more trip to winterize The Box and the other equipment at The Lot, probably the first week in October as usual.  That will close down all activity for the year.

Fall is approaching

I saw a few yellow leaves at The Lot, and the city of Steamboat Springs, in the north-eastern part of the state, had measurable snowfall on September 12th.  Summer is fast drawing to a close in the high country.

The upcoming weeks are going to be busy and involve a lot of driving. There is much to pack, sort through, and get rid of. Somewhere along the way I need to work on the truck. Stay tuned!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth

The F150 out of commission means I needed to revise previous plans to use it for hauling during the relocation. It now appears we’ll rent a 20′ U-Haul self-drive twice over the next three weeks. Those two trips — in addition to the one Himself is making in the Honda to begin project work this next week — should move most (if not all) of the items I’ve been boxing. I have at least 150 boxes stuffed around the house.

Over the past year I’ve been monitoring an old house renovation site in Iowa, and just this week I saw a fretwork item I have been on the lookout for. And I purchased it online (sight unseen), because it features a stylistic heart in the middle. Hearts have been something of a theme this year in the house hunt; I’ve been thinking of 702 Main in Elma as “Heart House.”

Happy Trails.