September Breaks II

Before New York, there was a solo drive here for Labor Day Weekend.

 

Yard Pick-up

Exterior cleaning

Porch washing

Wood hauling

Picking up all the things the movers left

And general 12 hours of audio books, quiet, and work.

Before we Left

We used up some ammo on the Wetumpka property.

No immediate place for this in our new world.

Alida is an excellent shot.

And Then

He got the kids, while the dog and I unpacked for four days straight.

 

Elaine has her own room.  Alida too, but that one is still under construction...

 

Dining Room made for our furniture.

 

A kitchen.  It'll work.

 

An office space.

 

Boys still sharing. Which is just how Ben wishes it to be.  Nick maybe not so much, but he's being gracious.

 

We're looking forward to welcoming folks here in our rental for a couple of years. 

 

Someday, we'll grow-up and figure out where to land.  Someday.

Other Odd Things

That have happened to me recently.

 

As we waited for the bus one of the final times this year, a red truck drove up to our remote cul de sac. And a man came out.  He said he was our neighbor, and there was no reason not to believe him because our neighbors here are remote and generally as secluded as we are.  He asked if he could walk onto our property to find his dog, who had a tracker but hadn't moved since the previous evening.

 

Well, of course.

 

Then he stepped out from behind the truck and the girls' eyes became as big as saucers at the gun holstered to his hip.  "Oh, this.  It's for snakes," he says.

 

And the bus arrived and it was suddenly safer to send them off in that thing than have them close at home.  And the man wandered off into the forest.  And I ran off, literally, on a morning run.

 

And when I returned, his truck was still there.  So, I just snapped a picture of the license plate and sent it off to Patric, asking him to just keep that for today.  And it may have been the first time here that I've actually turned the locks on the doors while I was home alone during the day.  The children brought in the note above when they returned from school.

 

End of story.

Except I returned home from somewhere a couple of days later and there was another note attached to the mailbox--not a broken leg, it was a snakebite. As in he returned and placed an update on my mailbox.  I'm still wondering why.

Early Release

I'm used to the end of school flurry of events now that have nothing to do with learning.

But the last text here was a new level of wonderment.

Please bring the folder back on Monday, unless your child is not returning.

As in, if your child will not be attending the last 3.5 days of scheduled school, please just drop the folder off in the office.

Because not only do I have to battle the argument that the last day of school is optional.  (it's not)

I will now have to battle the argument that the last week of school is optional. 

 

See that "No Service" message at the top?

Other things I won't miss about living here--no cell service most of the time in our house.

Things I Won't Miss About Here: Monsoon season

Three roof inspections later, the right guy finally fixed our problem.

 

There is no pan under the AC in the upstairs.  There is now at least an overflow shut off valve.

 

Waiting while the cable people argue that those aren't their wires.  Um, yes they are.

The county flatly telling me: we'll clean up the tree mess.  I can tell you it will not be a year, but I cannot tell you it won't be a month before we get to it.

 

That the top of this pole was just taken down, and the cable box re-attached to the broken pole--brilliant.

Aggravating Things: That Knocking I Hear

This female cardinal was pretty at first.

 

Then she started flinging herself against the kitchen window.

 

When I chased her off, she went around to another side window of the house.

 

And then came back here.  And then went to the front door.  And then came back here.

 

And what started out amusing me became quite creepy over ten days of doing this.

All.Day.Long. while I work from home.

 

But, I have a house to sell, and she is pooping on my rocking chairs and my front door, and she's pecking at the foot plate. And it's starting to make me mad instead of creeped out now. We went away for Spring Break, and then on the first Saturday after returning, she started at the front door at 5:00 am. 

 

I'm sorry that the bird feeder broke in two and fell over during a storm, really.  But I have a few things going on right now.

That Flooring Project

Sometime around 10:00 pm on Saturday evening, I started to loose faith in our ability as a flooring crew.

 

And I ordered a rug to just put over that space...

 

But, it turns out that they did such a good job, I didn't keep the rug in that spot.

 

Well Done gang.

Movie Marathon

We had two days and four Hunger Games Movies to watch--we loaded up on all sorts of healthy things.

 

And we watched.

 

And then we would break and tear grout out of the floor.

 

And then we would watch.

Four movies, four house tasks.

Well played gang.

 

Sunrise Here

Makes me think about the 5:00 am wake ups with four in diapers not so many years ago, where the windows were still black, but no one ever watched the sun rise because they were cleaning, diapering, feeding, crying (all of us).

 

Now, me with coffee on the front porch, others still sleeping.

Solitude returns from time-to-time.

Things I'll Miss About Here

 

Misty morning runs.

 

I will not miss--the neighbor's dog who would sprint ahead and then amble back wondering why  I was so slow. 

Fall Shopping

 

Hoping this works.

We went through fall clothes the other day a little ahead of the drop in temperature--forecast in the 90's this week.  My daughters, who never grow, call it shopping since we are lucky enough to have so many hand-me-downs from my nieces.

My sons on the other hand have each grown two sizes it seems in the last year, and we had to give up and go shopping for real, which is not their favorite activity.  But when their pajamas fit like pedal-pushers, a mother must insist.

Aggravating Things: I'm not a plumber!

Two years into owning this gravel drive, it needed a little patching ahead of some new gravel. 

(And we've managed to drive out a new circular driveway that is just dirt at present....)

We declined the $2,400 estimate to patch and lay gravel, thank you. I have a trip to the beach to think about.

 

So you load the gorilla cart with red Alabama clay from one part of your property, and haul it to another. Then later you call some folks that will just drive over with some gravel and dump it about.  Easy enough.

 

 

You even sneak in a few breaks along the way.

 

 

 

Then, just after you've assigned the last tasks and headed in to warm up some lunch, a girl walks in and tells you: Nick ran over "something" and now there is "water everywhere".

 

 

Said something.

 

 

Find the water main and shut it down;

Hack off the break in the pipe and cap the thing because we knew it was there; we had never attempted to use it.

Done. 

Plumber: other mothering duties as assigned.

 

Half the red clay that was careful packed and molded?

Wet disaster.

For another day.

Spring Sprang

 

And out every window, we had color.

 

And around every turn, we had new growth.

 

 

And we were buried in color.

 

For about a week.  Now it's all given way to green, and we'll be cranking up the air conditioner soon.

Our House

Is a very, very, very fine house.

Complete with alternate chess matches at all times.

Spring

Continues to spring

around here.

Sunday At Sunset

Perfect.

Our Sunday hike

It started out nearly serene.

 

Then the rest of our group, the boys, caught up.

 

Elmore County Living

 

Not quite on the cover....

 

But there was a full page spread in there on how we seek stability.

Ha.  A family can dream. On the day the woman came out to take our photo, we had raced home to meet her from a soccer game following her the whole way to our house, sandwiched in a photo shoot, and then took off for an afternoon outing of some sort.

 

Can't tell you how many people approached us about this and we didn't even know it had been published--at the school, at the grocery store, at church, at the hair salon.  One of the girls finally brought a copy home from school.  There were two other families in there too--well dressed, color-coordinated, standing together perfectly families.  It must have been the dog (or the sheer number of us) that earned the full page picture.

 

So much for disappearing into the woods.

And yes, I did consider taking a picture of the picture to use for Christmas cards...

Deer Season Draws Near

It makes me sad for them, even though they are eating everything in our yard.