Welcome Rain at the Farm

We drove up yesterday afternoon after having lunch with Steve's dad. Rain was in the forecast but we just got sprinkled on. We brought a van full of stuff from the attic at home. It is exciting to be moving stuff from the town home to here. Next week we will begin packing up garage stuff and the rest of the boxes in the attic and bring up another load. The buyer's bank called to let us know that the appraiser will be calling us next week to set up a time to come over. The sooner the better :-). When the appraisal is done, we can start moving some of the furniture to the farm. The closing is set for June 10th. Next weekend is the last weekend we will be up here for a while. Since it rained so much today, I didn't get the chance to mow and it is long after a 2 week absence. Tomorrows forecast is rain, too. My gooseberry & jostaberry trees were delivered on Thursday but they will have to wait until next weekend to be planted, I'm afraid.
So today we built a shelf in the basement out of lumber we had here to hold some of the boxes we are bringing up. Next week we will probably build another one for the garage items.

We are starting to try to keep things organized. I am going up in the attic tomorrow to categorize the piles of boxes so I can find things more easily. We will be moving almost everything from the town home here, so it needs to be in some order.

Tonight we walked over to Eli & Lizzie's to get some eggs. The boys were shoeing a horse, the baby sheep were running around in the pasture and the new calf was peaking out of the barn. Everyone seemed to be healthy. We stayed & talked until a visitor (Lizzie's brother) arrived from Ohio.

Last Sunday, I headed down to visit Kristin, Tim & Jaelyn and stayed until Tuesday afternoon. I just love being there! I got to watch Jaelyn all day Monday while Kristin & Tim went to work. Kristin's day off is Tuesday, so we got a chance to hang out too. Jaelyn is so sweet. She loves seeing herself in the mirror now. She smiles & makes noises like she is talking.

I had to get back home by Wednesday morning for the home inspection. Everything went pretty well. We did find out that the central air unit wasn't grounded. Wish our inspector had found that when we bought. We had it fixed by Thursday morning at a cost of $80. The only other thing (that I heard about so far) is having CO2 detectors installed. It is a new law as of 2008. Not sure if we will have to do that or if the buyer will do it. Haven't got the final report back yet.

So things are moving along. June will be here before we know it. With a baptism and two weddings before we move, seems like every moment has to be productive. We have three weekends free to finish moving. What a rush!

Farm Weekend

Thought I would finally get around to writing about the weekend. We have been so busy this week with the contract for our house sale. It is finally all set. Everything is signed & initialed, earnest money is in our lawyer's hands. We have been going back & forth all week. Yesterday, their realtor came over and said that they were worried about the appraisal. What if it didn't appraise for what they were buying it for. So I got out our appraisal from the re-finance in March and showed her. She said it probably wouldn't be a problem (condsidering they are getting it for well below appraised value) but she wanted to know if we would go down lower in price if there was a problem. I told her we had it for sale by owner so we wouldn't have to pay a realtor fee & it was her fee that was making it impossible for us to go any lower. Just a note here...if you see a "For Sale By Owner" sign and you are in the market for a house, don't use a realtor to look at it. It will give you a chance to get a much better price. Anyway, she left with the contract, said she would talk to them, came back a little later & said it was fine the way it was. The guy really really likes our townhome. So if for some reason it doesn't appraise for what they are buying it for, the deal is off and it just wasn't meant to be. Next Friday is the home inspection & hopefully soon after that is the appraisal. Really don't want to think about it any more :-)
So Saturday at the farm...I was up at sunrise. Would have rather slept in a little, but tell my mind that. LOL. Went out & took a couple pictures of the sun coming up behind Eli's property.

After breakfast, we started drywalling. I wanted to mud in the bathroom and Steve hung some smaller pieces in the foyer. Did you know that mudding drywall is not like cake decorating? I used to decorate cakes when the kids were little to make money while staying home. Drywall mud is kind of like frosting consistancy. The first seam started out kind of easy but it went downhill from there. The screw hole mudding looks great. The seams, well we might be covering the ceiling with texture paint. It was just the first coat but I am not looking forward to doing any more. Our plans are to have wainscotting on the walls so only half the wall will show and that's a good thing :-). Yes,  we have the whole rest of the house to do, but the walls will be all pine. I see no reason to do any mudding on the walls if they will be covered up anyway. Steve was talking about mudding them. He might be doing that alone then :-).
Mark Shepard called in the early afternoon to let us know we could pick up our apple tree scions. We made the trip out to the New Forest Farm and had a good time catching up. We also got to see his wind turbine that is just awesome. He gave us a taste of an apple beer he's been brewing. It was better than my favorite beer, Woodchuck.

                    On the way to Mark's we saw this male pheasant trying to chase down a female.

Neighbor Jim tilling the garden.

After dinner, we went to a concert at Green Man Music Hall in town. A lone guitarist named Josh. He was really good and drew a fair crowd. Usually when we go to a concert there, there are only a few people in the audience. It is a shame, cause we've seen a lot of good performers. Make you feel sorry for them, playing to only a few people. When we got home, we toasted the sale of the townhome and went to bed.

Sunday, I was awake again at dawn. We were out grafting the apple trees by 10. We did nineteen trees. I put up fencing around the three I didn't have time to finish in the fall. Now they are all protected from birds landing on the new grafts and breaking them off. That's what we think happened last year.

After we were done, I started to mow. Can't believe we are already starting that. It is early in the season for us. It was a beautiful, warm day. Steve finished up more drywall and we packed up and got on the road.

This weekend is my niece's bridal shower on Sunday and then I drive down to see Kristin, Tim & Jaelyn. I am staying until Tuesday night and get to watch Jaelyn all day Monday and Krisitn is off on Tuesday. Very excited about that. Then home Wednesday for some intensive packing. The closing is now set for June 10th.Time is flying...

Guess What?

We have a contract! Nine days after putting up the "For Sale By Owner" sign, we have a buyer. The buyer and his mom, JR & Mary, made an offer on Wednesday. Then we went back & forth with counter offers and made the deal today at noon. What a relief this is. One property down, one to go. Someday we will move to the farm :-). The closing can be as far out as June 30th, but he is anxious, so we will see what we can do. I am very excited! A little closer to the dream...

Showing Went Well & Farm Stuff

I cleaned most of the morning for a half-hour showing, but it went well. The realtor lives in my neighborhood & so does the mom of the prospective buyer. The son likes our model the best out of about four different ones. We are very competitive and the $8,000 incentive ends this month, so we are hoping for a sale. If not, we'll keep plugging away.

This weekend we had all kinds of weather packed in three days. Rain, wind, sun, clouds, more rain on the drive home. I did get some outside time in on Saturday & Sunday. Took a long walk & checked out the apple trees, hazelnuts, blueberries, etc. Found out we lost four hazelnuts. They were bent over & out of the ground. We still have 96 left though :-). Our neighbor Jim came over & let us know he will till the garden asap. It is early yet, but he is going to till at least twice, the second time to kill any weeds that pop up. I still would like to go no-till, but that's not in the plans now until we get up there full time. So if he gets it tilled, I might be planting hull-less oats next weekend. We also hope to get our apple scions picked up to graft too. The following weekend, we will be busy with a bridal show & the kitchen & bath show in Chicago.

I went through more gardening catalogs and have decided on my order this year for bushes. I'll post that after I finalize tomorrow. I bought some onion sets (red & yellow) at the co-op in town yesterday. This nice weather is getting to me. Need to be planting soon :-)

The green home show in town Saturday was nice. We reconnected with a couple people & met a few new people from the area. Everyone it seems had looked at our propety before we bought it. We knew it had a lot of showings. Everyone is excited about it & wants to see what we did with it.

I think I will go back home now & enjoy the clean house while it lasts.

Steve, finishing the bedroom drywall.

The sky was beautiful on Saturday

Garlic is growing tall with all the warm weather

                                            Shep (border collie) & Brutus (rottweiler mix) visiting.

A House Showing Today

We finally have one! Someone coming to look at our townhome at noon today. We put it up for sale by owner last week. That way we have more "wiggle room" with the price. A realtor saw the sign, called and asked if she could show it. We worked out the commision thing, and it was doable. So I am staying home this morning cleaning.
The looker is a first-time home buyer who is bringing his mom with on the showing. I assume they will also be looking at the many other properties for sale in our subdivision too. But, we liked this one the best after looking at about five other units, so maybe he will too. It backs up to a wooded area with a walking/biking path, ponds and a creek.
Have to get busy now...I'll write about the weekend at the farm later...

Snow, Snow, Snow

I have a day off today. It is snowing steady now and they are predicting up to 10 inches. I am very fortunate to work with Steve. He knows how freaked out I get driving on bad roads. So I'll be doing thing around the house and try to get some relaxing in too. I wish I had the snowshoes here. I'd go outside and play.
Yesterday, I got home from work around one to do a final clutter removal before the realtor came to do pictures. It did look pretty good when I was done. Then, when she left, out came all the stuff that is normally on the counters, the cat toys from the cupboard, extra pillows back on the bed, etc. I felt strange with all the "stuff" put away out of sight. I couldn't wait to get it out again and be me. I guess our personalities are linked to our stuff in a way. Just think, every showing that we have, all the stuff will all go back into hiding again (along with the cat). Sigh...but it will be worth it if it sells. Especially in these times. Six months is what the realtor says it is taking now on average. I am hoping the first person that looks at it, falls in love with it and all the work will be done :-).
I'm really getting excited about the upcoming birth of our granddaughter. It is bringing back so many memories of Kristin and Shane when they were born.
The last couple of days, I have been working on a slide show of the progress at the farm. Starting with when we first saw the property until now. So far, I have all the pictures picked out and now I have to find the right music. That always seems to be the hard part. Maybe I'll try to post it on the blog when I am done.
Enough writing, I have some crafting & relaxing to do ...

Moving Right Along

Where does the time go? It seems to fly by way too fast. We have been busy getting the house ready to sell & work & Christmas and on & on & on. Getting a little stressful. Still need to send out Christmas cards at work & home, finish a few presents that we are making, clean the garage & attic...
Not that I'm not having some fun in all this chaos. I've been Freecycling excess stuff that we have accumulated and it really feels good when the people that receive the items are excited to get them. I have met many nice people by Freecycling. I had lunch with one of them today. A couple years ago I asked on Freecycle for some perennials. Karen was the only response I received. We hit it off right away. A lot of the same interests. And I got some beautiful plants! We have gone out to lunch ever since. Yesterday I met a nice couple, Kristi & Pete. I gave them a desk and then I found the seat that went with it & Kristi came back today after lunch to get it. We talked for about an hour. She brought me some soap that she sells which was so nice. We made plans to meet for coffee or tea soon. I am a true believer in karma. The feeling alone from giving is so great and I feel I am getting a bonus by making new acquaintances.
Sunday, we spent the afternoon with Steve's dad visiting his mom in the nursing home. She has been in there for about 3 years now. She has vascular dementia. The home had a Christmas party which was really nice for the patients & visitors. They had an small orchestra & madrigal singers. His mom perked right up when the singers started. She was clapping after the songs & said how good they were. So glad we went.
I have been talking with our realtor and we will be putting the house on the market on January 4th. I have quite a few things to do before it is ready besides having Christmas breakfast for all the kids on Christmas morning, which I love to do. Tonight I am taping off the master bath to start painting tomorrow. I 'm taking the day off to do that & bake Christmas cookies and maybe start on the garage sorting. The carpet cleaning appointment is on the 29th (Steve's birthday) and all the decorations & tree will have to be put away by then. :-(  The realtor is coming on the 30th to take pictures & go over paperwork. I just have to keep thinking about how it is all worth it. When the townhome is on the market, we start with the shop. Lots of clutter there.
I am baking a casserole of sweet potatoes, onions & apples as I write. I picked up some artesian garlic bread at the grocery store to complete the meal. It smells really good in here now :-)
I think I will go & sit on the couch & take my "20 minutes to myself" time for the day. It helps me to de-stress. Hope everyone has a great night.