Can you hear me?

I have joked with some of you that when our furniture actually arrived, you would hear me scream with joy no matter how far away you might be.  Well, can you hear me?  Our tracking indicated that it had been loaded the first part of the week and then we got a call from the trucker later in the week that he would be delivering it tomorrow (Saturday).  He called again today to confirm it.  Let the fun begin. In addition, we received confirmation today that we will be having health coverage with Kaiser as of October 1st.  Trying to find a clinic which would accept Medicare, or accept new patients was a little discouraging at first and we were able to get on a waiting list with one where they were expecting a new Dr. hopefully by the 1st of the year.  So that we put on hold for a few weeks, trying to decide what to do.  One more hurdle over now.  Having great neighbors here though has been such a blessing.  One neighbor loaned us two new lawn chairs and another brought us wood and a wood rack as everyone has fireplaces and there is so much wood here.  The same neighbor with the chairs brought us a bottle of wine and most everything else has been an easy transition...just takes time. 

Today, with errands to run, we decided to drive to the AM TRACK station. People, as the crow flys, it is 1.6 miles from the house, but it is a 10 minute drive.  Isn't it cute? A good many trains come through here also and I still am not used to all of the whistles though.  But if anyone wants to take a train trip (you would have to go to CO or UT to board, but) it might be a fun trip. We miss everyone but our phone # hasn't changed so I will try to stay in touch and will welcome news from wherever you are.

"It doesn't matter what side of the tracks you are from, the train still rolls the same." ~                                Robert M. Hensel

Bare necessities

 We are surviving with the bare necessities. Finally we purchased the above folding table and the computer which is sitting on a lawn chair shared it with my little singer featherweight.  That is until a few days ago when I purchased the old computer table below for the sum of $6.99 at Restore.  Really this is a jewel!  We are so reluctant to purchase anything as we have more contents coming than we have room.  I foresee a large garage sale in my future.  It will have been exactly one month from the 28th when our furniture was supposed to have arrived that it is due again.  I am not counting on that too much as my faith in this company has dwindled.

I haven't posted as much as I planned as there is really not much happening.  My daughter and I did go to a "Girlfriends Vintage Market" last weekend and I couldn't resist buying some fabric, and a small rolling pin and a "pounder".  I do collect all of those things and I had to resist buying a couple of other things.  I really enjoyed seeing all the great vintage items though.  There are couple of other events in the upcoming weeks which we intend to see. Because I did not keep the sewing table that I used previously, I do not feel guilty about this rather expensive one and it functions so much better.  The Restore here has such an abundance of things and the prices are great.  I really prefer to reuse and refurbish items that have had a previous life and they are often made so very well.  So now I am starting some more UFO's as I left all of mine with the movers.

"I'm working on my PHD (projects half done) in sewing."

News?

No photo today...no furniture yet.  Is that really news to anyone? We should have had a pool and the person who bet "no" to the furniture arrival would have won.  So now again we are supposed to get a truck loaded on the 23rd and be delivered by the 28th.  We have been told that we actually have a driver now, but we are not putting any money on this either.  In an effort to get on with our lives, we have purchased an inflatable bed, a small tv stand which will allow us to get our cable and internet installed and a few kitchen items from the thrift stores.  The installation is supposed to happen today.  Our daughter and son-in-law bought a new tv and have graciously loaned us that for now.

As time goes by, we have noted that our little dogs have become to show some age.  Little Spencer has developed some age related damage to a joint in one hind leg and is losing the use of it.  Thankfully, Erica's vet is so good with these dogs and very compassionate and we feel confident in her diagnosis.  He does very well and we all feel that surgery is not an option.  On another sad note, we left our cat Coalette with a dear friend and have been informed that she developed a growth in her brain and had to be put down.  However, our friend loved that cat and had her cremated and purchased a marker for her. 

We are learning more about this area and Erica and I have plans to check out some events at the fairgrounds this weekend and another in a few weeks.  We do have similar interests and I love being able to be near her finally.  Leo has started a pool league now and we plan to get a pool table when all settles down.  I will have a nice sewing room and we have met more neighbors who have welcomed us to the neighborhood.  Patience is not my strong point, and we have been here just two months...so if we actually get our personal belongs, you all may hear my shouts even from here.  Stay tuned.....

I don't like spiders and snakes!

Ok, it's harmless I am told and the picture doesn't do it justice. Black and a beautiful turquoise, it was just meandering across my path as I walked the dogs in the park. Actually it was the first snake I have encountered, but about the spiders.....They are EVERYWHERE and they come in all sizes, some of them are monsters.  I won't even mention the cobwebs they leave everywhere. 

We are still waiting for our furniture to arrive and it has become very frustrating to say the least.  However, I have heard a couple of stories from others who have experienced as much as 6 months delay and now I wish we had just sold everything and started from scratch.  We have been able to do some work at the house and have laundry set up and did buy a sofa which should be delivered this week.  As promised, our driver licenses have arrived and we officially are driving cars with WA plates now.

This past week we met more neighbors and they have been so very nice in welcoming us to the neighborhood. One of my neighbors is learning to quilt so we had a great visit. We were informed that our cat, Coalette who was left behind with a very dear friend was diagnosed with a mass which was affecting her eyes and nose and had to be put down. We are so glad that we did not try to bring her. Both of the dogs need to get to the vet this week as they are also experiencing some health issues. We knew they were reaching the age where we would be dealing with these problems. Having been with us for over 10 years, they were adult rescue dogs when we adopted them and we could not leave them behind.  Such is life.

The Mr. has been able to connect with some of the pool league players here and will start playing on  a team in a couple of weeks. I still have not been able to join a quilting group as so much of what I need is still in Cheyenne and I do not have the room here do actually set up much.  There are several contacts I do have and it may be closer to the first of the year before I can get to that point.  It has been so nice to be able to do things with our daughter and they both have been so patient with our residency here not to mention the dogs.  We hope it will not be too much longer, but we are at the mercy of the moving company and our hands are pretty much tied.  The one consolation is that they now have to pay us $75.00 for every day that it is late.  Perhaps we won't owe them anything if it takes several more weeks.

"When the snake decided to go straight he did not get anywhere." ~ William Stafford

Still waiting

 We are still waiting on our furniture to arrive....and as you can see the two little dogs are waiting, and waiting and waiting.  The latest news is that it was to be loaded today and should be here between the 23rd and 28th.  Our fingers are crossed and I am sure that our landlords here are as anxious as we are as they have relinquished their bedroom so we would not have to deal with stairs. 

 The photo of the fern above is for my friend, Bonnie and is as tall as my shoulders.  Erica has a multitude of these in her back yard along with several other varieties.  We worked over at the house today.  As I told friends on many occasions, we were looking for a place with a small yard and that did not happen.  Priorities in other areas took precedence in the decision to purchase this place. There are no stairs to deal with, a great fenced yard for the dogs, a much smaller home, updated for the most part, a nice quiet neighborhood, lots of shade trees in the back with a low deck and a large garage.  But the yard is not small, so the Mr. bought a self-propelled mower.  We teased him today as he did try it on the lawn and nearly had to run to keep up with it (not really)~~no pushing this one!

Erica is a gardener and above is the garlic that she just harvested.  It will dry this winter and she uses it all year long.  She also makes lots of vinegars...something that I haven't tried. She didn't harvest all of her carrots and they have gone to seed which she is saving.  Here another later crop can be sewn and she purchased some starts last week and put them in...beets, etc.  You can get a good fall crop here. We are supposed to be getting some rain finally so it probably will start just as our furniture is due to arrive. Keep your fingers crossed.

"What garlic is to salads, insanity is to art." ~ Augustus Saint~Gaude

If a tree falls..Does it make a sound?

 So I placed a 2 cup measuring cup beside the strainer of blackberries which were picked last week to compare it with the container. Erica has a huge bush in her back yard and it is thorny and invasive.  We can get this many at least a couple of times a week as they seem to be ripening continually.  I have also picked blueberries.  But I wanted to share these two pictures below.  Jeffery took us to another nature park a couple of weeks ago which is  Springwood park.  It was developed a few years ago by a family named Zable who collected varieties of Rododendrums from all over the world.  I am not sure of that spelling?  But when they passed, it was donated to the city of Olympia.  I am told that in the spring, it is just gorgeous and in the past had been visited from people from several countries. There is much more to the story of this park which is about 3 1/2 acres I think.  There are trails throughout the park and I am anxious to see it in bloom.

 The picture above shows a fallen tree with it's top rootball exposed and you can see the remains of the trunk where Jeffrey's hand is resting. The second photo shows the underside of the root system and really, it was a very shallow root system. In fact, where it fell away from the earth, you cannot really see any roots.  In the first picture, there is a untility pole behind this area which may give a better perspective of how thin these root systems are.

We have been over at the house working (there are always things to be done)..and waiting for news of our furniture delivery which is still unknown.  We have met our neighbors on both sides, about our age and seem really nice!

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now." ~ Chinese proverb

Tulip House?

Shall we call this the Tulip house? Yesterday was scheduled for the official walk through for the purchase of the new home.  This is the front door as we stood in the family room.  The double doors are flanked with stained glass windows ~"tulips"~to match the ones in the doors.  Having done some stained glass work in the past, it seemed meant to be.  We met our realtor but the lock box had no key in it, just a note that the key was on the side garage door.  Unfortunately, there was no code for that box but we did finally receive a code.  Again when our realtor opened it, no key.  After a couple of calls, we were told that the plumbing contractors had lost it in the crawl space and they would send a locksmith over.  He spent time on the front door, the garage walk-in door and the garage overhead door and did not want to drill if it wasn't necessary and FINALLY was able to open the back door off the deck. The previous resident did not leave any keys at all. All of the repairs have been made..new roof, new carpet, new appliances, updated kitchen and bathrooms, electric upgrades and plumbing and duck cleaning.  There will still be things to do.  Above, the family room is about 6 inches below the other floors and it has lots of windows. (doesn't really qualify as a "sunken" room), but does add a little charm. Now we have all of the locks re-keyed also, but have no idea about receiving our mail, so you will not get an address until we contact the post office. Things are done a little differently here.  We will sign papers today, then this sale has to be recorded downtown, and we will receive the "key" the following day.  We have a call in to the mover and have all of the utilities in our name now, so things are progressing.  We will need washer and dryer, (those go in the garage and almost all do here) and a microwave and we will probably have too much furniture since we downsized and have one less bedroom and bath. so..........'til I know more.