still no pictures

Yesterday was amazingly tiring. I haven't done anything I planned to do today except go to the grocery. I'm too tired to think.

Yesterday I had four men with pickups moving things from my parents' house, which is still far from empty but we're almost ready to start sleeping at the new house. If it doesn't snow Monday I will be over there bringing some order out of the chaos. 

Grateful to be moving

Too tired to take any pictures. My neighbor helped me move some more furniture in the morning before leaving to spend Thanksgiving with his in-laws. I went back in the afternoon and cleaned and put things away. It's not even halfway there yet, but it's beginning to look like a start. To quote Churchill: "not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning."

Er, NOT!

Southern Living December 2008 page 172: "Studies show we only really enjoy the taste of food for the first three bites." 

Veering completely off topic here, but come on. What kind of weird half awake subhumans were they studying? If I'm only eating on auto-pilot why do I go back for seconds and carefully choose exactly the right variety?

I read that after breakfast this morning and twelve hours (and two meals!) later I'm still boggled!

more proof of furniture

Not all the furniture is in its final position. Here's my father's bedroom, without the bed yet. The black armchair is one he found beside the road about thirty years ago and had reupholstered for fifty dollars.

Here's the front door. The green cabinet was painted to match my parents' living room (and hall, and family room, and bathroom...I'm just a little tired of that color in large amounts) when my father took the old television out of it--it had been my grandparents' until it couldn't be repaired anymore--and installed shelves to make a sheet music cabinet. 

One lonely armchair in the living room, waiting for a couch and at least two other armchairs to join it. They can't all be next to the stove, can they? It's not fair.

Not very much in my study yet, especially no bookshelves, which can't be moved until I get the books off them. The chair was made by one of my great-grandfathers as a rocking chair, but when my parents got it the rockers had rotted so now it's a straight chair. 

I can't believe how long everything is taking. Today, on my third try, I managed to drill holes for the hooks to hang fifty feet of clothesline in the basement. Using power tools above my head while standing on a ladder is not one of my favorite things.

I also took the dog over and washed him in the new raised tub. He's forgotten what a high velocity dryer sounds like--since I quit working a year ago to stay with my father I've been bathing him at home and towel drying him. For a dog who whines if I don't vacuum him when I use the shop vac in the kitchen, he didn't readjust to the HV dryer very quickly. He never used to mind it. 

There was a little flurry of snow last night, and I got to see the new house with touches of white on the grass (and weeds.)

furniture in the living room

There is furniture in other rooms, too, but after I got this one, the camera told me to change its batteries and shut itself off. 

Yesterday my neighbor helped me move some of the things I need someone to carry the other end of, and next week we'll go back for another round. In the meantime, I've got more than enough smaller things to deal with. 

a few things

This afternoon, as planned, I moved a few things: a few drawers and a few boxes, just enough to fill the Jeep, and loading and unloading that, plus gluing the missing pieces of laminate onto the dresser I'd already moved, took four hours, longer than I like to be away from my father. I took the camera but didn't have time to take progress pictures. 

Tomorrow I get someone to lift the other end of things and move some more.

No snow

The forecast for snow last night and this morning came to nothing. My lawyer-friend cancelled plans to come see the new house in its empty state because of it, so I have spent the whole day on the couch with the computer. I'm enjoying the rest, and staying out of the cold damp wind.

Tomorrow, though, I can't take time for any moving because I'll be away from home all morning getting the car's oil change and checkup. Tuesday there should be some moving going on. 

another little bit

This afternoon I unpacked boxes while the heating contractor's man diagnosed the bad thermostat. He said they've never had one of that brand go bad before, but it has to be completely replaced, the whole thermostat and not just the sensor. The thing about the passive solar is that even on a cloudy day I couldn't tell that zone was any chillier than the other zones. 

Another "even on a cloudy day" moment: I was washing kitchen things before putting them away, and the sink is not near the windows, and I didn't even think about turning on the light. Here at the old house, the kitchen lights stay on all day, even on sunny days. I'm going to love this.

On my way back here, I had to brake suddenly to avoid the rooster in the middle of the road. The hens were already safely on the other side, investigating the ditch. These are the chickens I've been watching all summer as their pen was moved around their owners' garden. I've noticed a new coop away from the garden. Apparently their winter quarters aren't secure enough!

bits of moving

I really wanted to take today off, but I made myself make one trip. I called the heating contractor about the bad thermostat (I'm not even moved into a new house yet and already there are things to be fixed!) and made an appointment. Another few boxes of papers and a few kitchen things from my father's house. 

It was cloudy all day but it didn't rain much, and until the ground softens up some I can't get the mailbox post in. 

just a little moving

Getting my father to the doctor for his checkup this morning  and to the barber for a haircut took up enough of the day that I didn't try to move much. A long time after lunch I decided not to give up on the day after all, and loaded some clothes and one of the stereos in the car. 

I got it all put away, and tested the stereo. To my relief the radio reception isn't much worse than it is here. I was worried because cell phone reception is a lot worse. 

Tomorrow I have to see about getting the truck fixed, and take as big a load as I can find time for in the Jeep. 

lyrical luscious liver

 At eight tonight one of the men who hunts on the land at the new house knocked on my door with liver from two of them. By nine I had three pounds of liver sliced and in the freezer. Mine, all mine! (Stony had enjoyed the pieces that were all duct and the too-awkward-to-slice bits.)

When I was a child we lived next door to fourteen cats. When my mother cooked liver most of them would gather outside the back door and explain that they were starving and would collapse at any moment if not fed liver, so I was quite surprised to discover that there are people who don't like liver. Poor souls. 

Culture

I'm not sure whether this new gallery in town considers itself a gallery, a boutique, or a studio because every time I've been in town with a few minutes to spare they've been closed. The sign looks interesting, though.

I don't have time for any classes, but I must get into town for the music sessions and see what they turn out to be like.

showers

A few days ago the Bag Lady said "Even I don't take my camera into the shower with me!" so I took the camera over to the new house and took pictures from the showers. I didn't go to the trouble of removing the screens, so they're not very sharp.

Here are two angles from my shower:

The first one is from where I would be standing under the water, and the second looking straight out the window. Only if you have wings can you see in from outside, so no shades.

Here's the view from my father's shower:

I've taken several loads of things in the past three days, and the truck has chosen now to decide it needs a new fuel pump. Don't worry, there is no shortage of things that will fit in the Jeep needing to be moved while the truck is in the hospital. It's 17; we must respect its whims in its old age. 

Tired now

I moved two small loads to the new house--one from my house and one from my father's house. It took four hours. Thanksgiving is beginning to look too soon. Before Christmas, though, for certain. Zzzzzzz.

Diversity in the refrigerator

After I voted this afternoon (the polling place is halfway between the old house and the new house, so I took a load of things over) I stopped by the feed store for bird seed. My camera phone takes really bad pictures.

Along with the soda, chips and eggs, you can buy distemper, (something illegible that I can't remember--that's why I took a picture, drat it!), and "7 way dog vaccine" whatever that may be. Yet another reason living in the country makes me smile. 

It took me half an hour to vote this afternoon, although I didn't have to stand in line at all. There were half a dozen people there I needed to talk to.

Back Story

While I'm sitting around not actually moving things, let's do some history. This house in central Kentucky was designed by Gary Watrous of Watrous Associates for me and my 95 year old father.

http://sunearth.net

I requested a house on one floor (but with a basement) with accessibility features which seemed prudent, and which will be very welcome since my father broke his hip only a few weeks after the start of construction and now uses a walker. I have wanted to explore solar heat since the ice storm during my childhood when our house was without electricity for three days, and we cooked over the fireplace, but during the sunny days with highs of 20º F we

could let the fire die down to coals because the sun warmed the south facing rooms enough to take our sweaters off.

After growing up where the electricity went off several times a year, however, I don't want to rely on any single form of heat; I 

want backups of the backups. So there is radiant heat in the floors,

under the concrete (it's so pretty I wished there were such a thing as clear concrete)

 which soaks up the heat from the coils as well as from the sun when there is sun. 

But for when we have a power outage (I don't say if) I put in two wood stoves.

One in the living room, and one in the kitchen with a heating plate in the top!

So, off to the help pages now to find out why I can't copy and paste anything and why my images don't appear where the cursor is, and things like that. 

Stony

Stony says hello to Aunts Daryl and Chez. 

Nothing to see here

Move along now, move along.