Hay and The Annapolis Rock

George Halterman delivered hay this morning, 40 bales. We're in it now! Forty bales are now stacked in the garage/shed, on pallets. George's family is from here, has a road named after his grandparents. He had a very interesting story about THE Annapolis Rock, told us a portion of it is on his property.

The story, true or not, is fascinating. The Annapolis Rock was named because you could see the Annapolis capitol building from it's summit. The rock is made up of white quartz and was broken up over the years to make eye glasses. Apparently it is only about 600 feet above sea level at this time, having been mined and chipped over the years. I don't think you can see the State House in Annapolis.

Penn Dutch Structures Comes Through!

Penn Dutch Structures delivered the 10 x 18 run-in shed on Friday morning. Since he couldn't make it through the main gate, he drove up from the Utility right-of-way in the corn field and up to the pasture. The shed is beautiful! The boys come over for good tomorrow.

Thursday!

Moved the bed tonight, we no longer will spend the night at the old house. Another night spent in the trailer, A/C cranked! Irene sleeps with April, all through the night. Maybe she thinks she's a dog?

3 Days and Counting

The power outage lasted longer than we expected. The power came back on Tuesday late afternoon. Packing up in the dark, and it was still blazing hot.

Mircro-Wave/Fan Hood Installation

This is just plain AWESOME!! Tom did such a fantastic job putting the microwave/range hood assembly over the stove. It looks great, and works even better. He works like a dog and is a perfectionist. I can't imagine how much this would have cost for a professional installation.

5 Days and Counting...

Closer every day! Shower will be in on Thursday, run-in shed delivered on Friday. But the most exciting thing is that we have NO POWER at our old house! Horrific storm blew through on Sunday afternoon, dumping an inch of rain, which we needed, but caused wide-spread damage and power outages. Power allegedly will be back on Thursday? Our neighbor, Eric, called us about it, don't hurry home there's nothing for you here.

Moving Saga

Continuing to box things up, put them in the trailer. Washing walls and mouldings, putting discarded junk on the driveway for the City pick-up. My advice to anyone, moving or not, get rid of stuff you don't use anymore. We've held on to things so long that they are no good to anyone. Gaskets are dried out, plastic is shot, etc. My advice to anyone is to clean up, clear out before you have to. After 22 years in our house, we have accumulated all kinds of things, wanted or not. Now we don't want anything but our boys in the back yard.

Abandoned Trailer (Dumped!)

Among other things, too numerous to list here, there is a communications trailer (no wheels) dumped here. The decals on it say "Naval Surface Weapons" so we contacted the local branch and got a nice letter back from them. We didn't expect it to go any further. My fantasy is to have this thing taken off the property without us having to pay for the disposal. On Monday morning Tom got a call on his cell phone: the facilities group at the local weapons testing facility wanted to come out to have a look-see! Field Trip!

Two cars, four personnel show up after lunch. Great bunch of characters, don't know what the end result will be. They were going to report back to the chain of command. Whatever.

Bathroom Demolition!

Friday Night! and what are we doing? Removing the vanity, mirror and the wall between the bathroom and the bedroom! Wahoo! We really know how to have fun, right? This bathroom is going to be awesome, we just need a little time and a trip to Plumbing Parts Plus, Home Depot and the County dump!

Have to have a working bathroom before we can 'legally' get an occupancy permit. We don't need no stinking permit! But a shower would be great. Using the KeiferBuilt's shower is good, but walking across the driveway in a towel is really like camping out. It's hot now, but fall is just around the corner...

"I'm Late, I'm Late, for a Very Important Date!"

One basic issue that we have combated for years seems to be our chronic lateness for our riding dates. We are famous for being late, no matter the time of day. I will take full responsibility for this, but some of these issues lie with boarding our boys. The barn was only 15 minutes from our house, but we always seemed to be hung up, trying to not to forget to remember to bring stuff we'd need for a ride, dressing properly, bringing drinks and snacks or money. Sometimes traffic would gig us, missing every single light, rush hour or road construction.

Sometimes we'd get to the barn and the horses hadn't been fed yet or were still eating. Sometimes they had just been let out and didn't want to be brought back in. Other horses would drive our horses away from us. Sometimes we'd have the barn help hold them in, but Skip would be so wound up being left in without the herd he would be soaking wet, weaving in his stall and hard to handle. There were particular incidents that I won't even go into here that were just awful and simply dangerous.

It also didn't help that we had tack and equipment in the tack room, our house, the car, our two horse trailers - the Glick and the KieferBuilt. This has led to having halters, ropes, buckets, muck buckets, manure rakes, etc., in quantity. I know we should try to be more organized. But that apparently takes more time than we allot.

We have ridden probably 5 or 6 times since: Skip's injury; working on the corral project in West Virginia; back-to-back-to-back snow storms; my surgery; my beloved uncle Dellman Eppstein's death; the work-load on the farm; and anything else I've left out. Our boys seem to think they are semi-retired, having only time to visit them, rarely ride.

I do feel that once we are moved we will be able to be on time for a change. We'll know exactly when are boys are fed, where they are in the field, how dirty they are, have the designated trailer loaded with needed riding equipment and have a better attitude about trailering out. We also can walk 50 yards back to the house or shed to get what is missing. Plus I'll be more relaxed not having to deal with people at the barn that seem to want to get in my way.

Our horse life is going to be excellent, soon.

EARTHQUAKE!!

The rumbling, from the rear of the house, going through the house and down the street, woke me and April up at 5:03 a.m. - I woke Tom up as it was still rumbling and rolling through the house - been a long time since I felt one of those! 3.6 centered at Germantown - I have no lamps to rattle, all moved into the farm's house.

Irene slept through the whole thing. She has discovered sleeping 'under' the covers. I don't know how she can take it, it being so warm anyway, but she's a baby - what does she know?

Rainy Wednesday

After work we spent the evening packing more boxes, and getting the tool chest out of the basement - ugh! That thing is heavy, no matter it is on wheels. We slid it down the front steps on a moving mat. Sometimes we don't know our own strength, but we got it up and in the trailer. Hand-tools are heavy, too, as are small kitchen appliances. We have to get our table out of the house because the table in the dining room at the farm is actually a work table, belonging in the basement. At this point the only thing in the family room is the sofa and the guitar stand. It echos in there now!

April and Irene must have had a good day, they were sleeping when I got home and the house was in good order. April likes having a kitten, and Irene is devoted to April, following her around instead of me. They really are cute, cuddling together for a snooze. Neither of us are 'cat people' but Irene was a good addition to our family.

Another Day, Another Trailer-Load

Packed up and moved the stereo/speakers/TV system on Tuesday. Previously we had moved books but no bookshelves. Bookshelves were in this particular load and it will make all the difference. Plus my saddles, toys, lamps, pictures and artwork. Whew! This is hard work, but has absolutely nothing to do with farming. We are allowed burn piles out here and there are some things that are going to fall into the inferno.

It was threatening rain, so we hurried, emptied the trailer in record time and it did start raining as soon as we loaded the empty boxes back in the trailer. We need a consultant to help us with arranging furniture in the feng shui attitude. Basically we have too much stuff and glad this house is twice as big as our old house.

Today is a good day to be at work; it's been raining, heavy at times, off and on all day.

More Electric!

Tom spent the day working on upgrading and increasing the electrical outlets in the house, inside and outside. The kitchen has three outlets, one did not work. It does now. He also put an outlet outside (there were none) so that we can plug in the trailer AND other appliances, too.

The 'hole' that he used was where the old propane system went out of the house to the tank, back in the day. The pipe was still there, snubbed off. He pulled it out and ran two wires out the hole, two different gauges. Awesome!!

Sleep Over!

First night spent at the house, but technically we did not sleep IN the house. We stayed in the trailer, with the A/C cranked! April loves sleeping in the trailer, too, but Irene had never been in it. Irene had been very active Saturday night, running and jumping all over the house. She usually sleeps through the night, too, so we felt she would settle down quickly. She did explore the trailer for a few minutes, but got into April's bed. They are so cute together!

Rainy, Cloudy Saturday

Perfect for moving!! Yeah, we really need this rain and the cloud cover makes great shade. Unloading the second load from the trailer, getting things set up and in working order.

We stopped in a couple specialty plumbing parts showrooms this morning, too, looking for the corner shower. We can order it on-line from Amazon, honestly what can't you get from them? Or we can order it from a local place, the price is almost identical. We would like to see it in real life instead of on a computer monitor but that is what it is looking like. It's all in our imagination.

Still have to find time to go up to Dutch Penn Amish Farm Market in Glen Rock to have another look-see about the barns and get moving on that front. Time is of the essence.

After dinner I finished drilling the face boards on the fence. Tom still has to finish shooting in the rest of the nails, but it is substantially completed, and it holds horses! Yeah!

Moving Van

Loaded the trailer up with boxes, my desk, etc.,

Been hot as Texas here, record breaking heat wave up and down the East Coast. Those boxes aren't going to put themselves in the trailer, so let's go! Fans in the trailer are on, and we're working, working, working! I hate moving, but looking forward to getting in the new place.

The Boys Come Over for a Visit

We finished the fence, installed the gates, and found time to actually go for a ride! We rode in the morning, before the heat settled in with friends at the Club. They wanted to go for a 'short' ride so we said we'd join them and if it was too short we'd continue on, on our own. It was not technically a short ride, it was four hours. Caught up with the latest from our buddies and came back to the new place with the boys. We could actually turn them out in the pasture !!! YEAH !!

After that, it really heated up, reaching a 100 degrees - WOW - We're feeling Texas again, darn it. Right after we got back Tom's mother stopped over. She was amazed at the amount of work that we managed to get done since she'd last been here. Farm life is not for sissies, but somebodies got to do it, right?

Brilliant Idea and Strategy

We've been going around and around, trying to figure out a way to install a shower in the main floor bathroom. By Jove, we've got it!

In the 'blue popcorn' room there is a recessed shelving unit. Back in the day this was the doorway into the main floor's bathroom. When the renovated bathroom was put in the door was moved to the hallway. The old doorway, still framed, was closed off with the shelves. In the bathroom the wall is actually a false wall. We plan on taking this wall out, plus the shelves and the framing around it. This will gain us 6 - 8 inches on the interior of the bathroom, sufficient to install the new shower surround. We'll have to move the toilet 6 inches to the left, and move the door over, too. I'm sure we'll find a sink small enough to fit into the newly arranged bathroom. Can't wait!!

Tom has said that using the trailer's shower will become a burden, but it will all fade from memory as soon as the shower is installed, the sooner the better. Just throw money, right?

Water Heater Update!

Installed and ready to go. While the 'hot' water was turned off we discovered that the toilet is plumbed with hot water, so no toilet while the install was on-going. This place is full of surprises! Always.

FIOS!

'Nuff sed! It is great and wonderful to be on-line and have TV and a new phone with lots of features we've never had! This is country living? Ya betcha!