Sep 5th - Thursday
The big day has arrived. One of countless "Big Day's" to come, I'm sure. I have contracted ABF U-Pack service to move our belongings cross country. I can't say enough good things about this service. ABF is a conventional freight hauling company that will move household goods for a very reasonable price. They will drop off a 26 foot trailer at your home, you load it up, paying per foot for the space used. A ramp for loading is provided and a lockable plywood partition wall (your padlock) secures your goodies in the front of the trailer. Space left over is used to haul freight or "pod like" furniture containers belonging to other customers. They estimated 17 feet of space would be required and that is exactly what it took.Sep 6th - Friday
Well, the belongings are on their way and we spent the day doing final clean-up at the mobile home in Tucson. Vacuuming, sweeping, mopping and paint touch up -- everything neat and clean and we were on our way cross country ourselves in the late afternoon - only making it a hundred miles down the road before stopping for the night, but hey - it's a start.
Sep 7th - Saturday: New Mexico
Sep 8th - Sunday: Arkansas
Sep 9th - Monday: Tennessee
Sep 10th - Tuesday: North Carolina
Sep 11th - Wednesday
Arrived!! Driving up the house looks as impressive as ever and knowing how huge a project we have undertaken - looks a bit daunting now, but the weather is fine, the birds are chirping and the squirrels in the oak trees look particularly fat and happy. Yes - we have arrived, in many more ways than one. Our furniture is at the truck terminal in Richmond and we arranged to have the trailer dropped off at the house on Friday.
Sep 12th - Thursday
After spending the night at a motel in our new "home town" of South Hill, VA, about 20 minutes south of the house, we returned to the house to start cleaning the top few layers of dirt and grime off before the furniture trailer arrives. We stopped off at Home Depot to buy a pole saw for trimming tree branches in the way which would scrape the sides of the trailer pretty badly if not removed. We encountered our first not unexpected challenge at the house.
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| 12" bore well 40' deep with 14' of water and old tired pump |
Sep 13th - Friday
Spent the night at the motel in South Hill again and received a call at 7:15 AM from the ABF truck driver that he was at the house! So much for a one hour prior to arrival phone call. I told him he would have to wait a 1/2 hour until we arrived. We packed our luggage, checked out and drove on up the road to the house. We had the driver spot the trailer near the back door on the west side of the house - all friendly and courteous, no problem waiting, sorry for not calling, and so forth. We drove back to town to have breakfast and another stop a Home Depot for more stuff. On the way back to the house we stopped by Rocky Top Lock and Safe, which is located at the owners home about a 1/2 mile down a dirt lane just north of the river. Brenda followed us back to the house and picked the lock on the front door which had not been opened in maybe twenty years - partly because no one had a key and partly because the door was jammed from the house settling. She got it open, got the antique lock set working again, installed a new lock set for the dead bolt and keyed it match the back door, and made a couple of extra keys for us. The price for all this including a trip charge and a round trip of 12 miles from her place to ours was $139.00. Of course we can't get the door completely properly closed again because of the settling, but I'm unwilling to plane the antique door to fit the out of square opening until I get the house jacked back into place and only then shave the door if necessary.
I nearly exhausted Kenny in the afternoon, working him like a rented mule to unload enough of the trailer to find and move the mattresses and bedding into the house so we could sleep for the night. Twice I filled the bathtub with buckets of water from the well and heated 5 gallons of water to boiling on the stove (Gemma's giant size stock pot) so each of us could take a nice hot and soothing bath. Ahhhh!!!! We slept like rocks that night.
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| Sunset overlooking the pasture next door |
Marissa and Justin drove down from Charlottesville, VA to help unload and clean. Marissa did a great job cleaning all the kitchen cabinets, inside and out and unpacking many boxes of kitchen stuff into them while Justin, Kenny and I, and Marissa too, finished unloading the trailer. Slept like rocks again that night.
Sep 15th - Sunday
Definitely living in the country!! I looked out the kitchen window this morning to see a bullock and a heifer grazing under the pecan tree in the backyard.
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| Black Angus bullock and heifer |
Somehow they got out of their pasture on the west side (sunset picture), actually she got out because the heifer is the brains of the outfit and the bullock, with his one track mind, is just sticking close to her to get what he wants. The pasture is owned by my neighbor, but is leased to the owner of the small country store a few miles away on the main road to South Hill. As this is Sunday, the store is closed, I'm on my own. I went down near the road where there is an "Oklahoma Gate" (a gap with the fence line with the wires stapled to a couple of 2x4s and held in place next to the fence posts with wire loops). The top wire was broken off the 2x4s and the whole thing was laying down on the ground so I knew how they had gotten out of the pasture and into my back yard.
I also knew I was not going to be able to drive the critters around the house through the trees in front of the house and through the gap in the fence back into their pasture so I had my morning coffee and waited until they had grazed the row between the soy bean field and the tobacco plot down to the pond, back up and around to the front of the house and were next to the fence line of their home pasture again. By this time the rest of the heard was at the fence line on their side having a conversation with the two wanderers about how the grass actually was greener on the other side. I opened up the gate and then drove the two down the fence line and through the gap back into their pasture.
In the afternoon, being tired and bored with unpacking boxes and trying to figure out where to put things, Kenny and I spent time wandering around the property and tackling some weed and overgrowth around the house. Kenny ripped out all the weeds, woody shrubs and vines that had grown up near the stairs to the cellar and I cut down all the weeds and tall grass around the foundation of most of the house with my trusty new commercial grade heat duty weed whacker. That particular implement is going to get a lot of use around here - I can tell.
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| before Kenny |
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| After Kenny |
More unpacking, more wandering around the property day dreaming about what it will all be like in the future, Still living out of buckets of water from the well and out of a very large cooler full of ice. Eating REAL heirloom garden tomatoes before they are all gone soon. Daily trip to Home Depot for more stuff. I their is a customer of the year award - I'll win it hands down, no contest. I already know many of the staff by name and they ask "what's today's project" when they see me.
My neighbor Allen Green who owns the property to the west on both sides of the road came by last Friday. I had met him back in June when Kenny and I were looking at the property before buying it. He said he would come by in a few days and mow around the house, happy to do it, being neighborly. Allen's son Joe, who lives around the corner (which around here means between a 1/4 and a 1/2 mile away) came by with a zero turn radius mower and cut the entire property except for the back part planted in soy beans and tobacco. He cut about an acre and a half, more or less and quit only because he broke the main drive belt on the machine as the sun was setting.
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| neighbor Joe mowing |
Sep 17th - Tuesday
Tony and 'Bo' from Moseley & Nash Well Drilling arrived this morning and installed a new 1/2 HP shiny stainless steel submersible well pump and 20 gallon pressure tank.
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| new 1/2 HP submersible pump |
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| Installing the pump |
Sep 18th - Wednesday
Ray Skelton - Plumber and Hero arrives at 7:15 AM to fix/repair/replace plumbing wise all that is wrong under the house. He drives 10 miles each way, spends 3 hours at the house and uses $50.00 in materials. He fixes three leaks, checks and disassembles and reassembles the shower valve assembly cartridge to be sure it is working properly and installs a new sprayer at the kitchen sink. All this for $125.00 total. Unbelievable courteous people that are open and friendly and honest. Love every last one of them. I discussed with Ray a future project to put a bathroom on the 2nd floor of the house and he checked all that out and proclaimed it very do-able. NOW we have full use of that taken for granted modern convenience - INDOOR PLUMBING!! Now we can retire the buckets and do the laundry.
At the end of the day a crew harvested 8 rows of tobacco from the field to the east. That property belongs to the man who carved out these two acres and house and sold it to me. The small harvesting was just a test to check the maturity of the crop and get a final grading for the performance contract for the sale of the crop to the tobacco company. The equipment has changed a great deal since the 80's when I used to see tobacco being harvested in North Carolina.
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| Solar clothes dryer works just fine |
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| Harvester carries a wagon on it and loads the leaves in it. |
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| The harvester cuts the leaves from two rows simultaneaously |
Sep 19th - Thursday
Another milestone in our march toward the 20th century! Refrigeration. Early this afternoon the new fridge and freezer were delivered and the ice chest was retired. We bought a matched pair of appliances in anticipation of a future kitchen remodel. An all refrigerator unit and an all freezer unit that when sitting side by side are essentially like a gigantic refrigerator/freezer combo unit. Yeah 20th century technology!
Sep 20th - Friday
Today we advanced to the 21st Century. ViaSat/Exede/Wild Blue installed a satellite internet dish. We are back on-line, meaning it took me awhile to plow through the many emails that had been piling up since Sep 5th and spent some time reading my downloads from Mother Earth News and Grit magazines.
Also today Chris from Service Plus Gas came and installed a new 325 gallon propane tank near the house to replace the old tank belonging to another company. He checked the furnace and it's working but needs a thorough cleaning of the coils and so forth. Now that we have gas I can have a heating & air contractor come out and thoroughly inspect and adjust the furnace and repair/replace damaged heating ducts under the house.
Sep 21st - Saturday
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| Satellite internet dish |
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| 325 gal. propane tank |
Today is a cool overcast day with an 80% chance of Thunderstorms. It has been very dry here for the last few weeks, but it is time to harvest the tobacco so....... the rain is needed generally, but not when you are trying to harvest a crop. It seems too overcast to generate thunderstorms and feels very humid and tropical....... I don't know. Well it finally started to drizzle about 5 PM and slowly, very slowing increased to a general steady rain that lasted until about midnight. Another good day in the country.
Sep 22nd - Sunday - Today
Today is a fine day, 75 degrees, sunny and breezy. The rain is gone. The kitchen and pantry are unpacked and the blog is all up to date. This afternoon is time to unpack the books and fill the bookcases. Maybe do some raking and collecting and starting the compost piles. We have about an acre and a half of mowed grass, acorns and leaves to get things started. Lots of raking.
Sep 22nd - Sunday - Today
Today is a fine day, 75 degrees, sunny and breezy. The rain is gone. The kitchen and pantry are unpacked and the blog is all up to date. This afternoon is time to unpack the books and fill the bookcases. Maybe do some raking and collecting and starting the compost piles. We have about an acre and a half of mowed grass, acorns and leaves to get things started. Lots of raking.
