Helping Move

Sunday Tom drove over to Mt. Vernon and slept at Jonathan and Kristy's new house. The following morning he picked up a 16 foot stock trailer (with no brakes) and drove it to Iowa. Jon and Kristy had packed and staged much of the stuff in the garage. The goal was to pack it into a moving van on Tuesday and drive on Wednesday.

Some how or another, the rental company lost their reservation and didn't have a truck. But Jonathan called around and found another truck... although it was a bit smaller. It was a miracle that everything fit into the truck. Wednesday they loaded 4 cows, two calves, 9 lambs, one goat, a dozen chickens, three cats and two dogs into the 16' trailer, an 8' trailer Kristy pulled behind her van, and into the truck, truck bed and van.  The left about 1pm to drive south.

Jonathan and Miriam stayed behind to help load the farm equipment onto a flatbed truck. They worried about fitting everything into the moving van... and it all fit. They thought for sure they'd have enough room on the flatbed truck... and they ran out of space for a few things. Jonathan and Miriam left Iowa about 5pm and arrived about midnight. Tired pups!

They signed the closing papers on their Iowa house and it closed on Friday after they left.

I decided to drive over to Mt. Vernon to meet the group as they arrived. I'd bought a pork roast on Monday and decided to make barbecue pork on Tuesday. So it seemed sensible to take dinner over to the new move-in's on Wednesday. I stopped at Aldi's for a few things to stock their refrigerator- bread, milk, cereal, fruit.

Of course the Frig was on the truck Jonathan was bringing, so it had to stay in a cooler for the night.  Then, they didn't unload the truck Thursday. They'd arranged for help on Friday. It was probably a good thing. They mostly rested on Thursday and took care of getting the animals settled in.

The children are delighted with their house. They love their bedrooms. They tramped around the property and through the woods to the pond. The grass is tall. The thistles are blooming. They went on a thistle hunt and whacked some down, but the experts say you have to dig them up or use broad-leafed weed killer to get rid of them.

Friday about 11 men and boys showed up to unload and they did it all in about 1 1/2 hours! They brought in some Subway trays to feed them as thanks for their help. It was the hottest day of the year so far. It was nice to chat with the men over lunch. Several are farmers or ranchers, so Jon and Kristy enjoyed learning from them.

After lunch we got Jonathan and Kristy's bed set up and their bedroom furniture organized. The Internet man came to finally connect them with the world-- and Jonathan with his work. The truck with the farm implements was to to arrive on Saturday afternoon. Apparently they'll need a tow truck to get the tractor off of the flatbed truck. (they had BIG ramps in Iowa to get it on.)

Early Friday afternoon Tom and I headed home-- each in our separate car or truck. We were kinda tuckered when we got home and Tom wanted an early bed-time. He had to get up early for a Saturday race. And he also promised the boy scouts who where holding a yard sale Saturday that he'd bring the donuts. He won the race for his age division! Horray Tommy!

I battled the weeds in the garden and did a little work. A week ago I'd spoken to a financial newsletter company and the Copy chief said, "we do auto-renewals.  I can't see a need for your services."  I was feeling a little bummed. Had I entered a niche that didn't have enough work? Then this week a large established newsletter said, "Thanks so much for calling!  We'd like you to send us a proposal for retention and renewals for both our front end and back end-- about 12 newsletters! So that was encouraging. Putting that proposal together will be my goal for Mon-Wed next week as it's due on Wednesday.

Today was a good fast Sunday. Nice testimonies. Good lessons. I spent Sunday School in the family history center trying to find out why Pauline Koch-- theoretically sister to Louisa Koch (wife of Bernhard Donop) is about 40 years younger than she is. And Louisa's mother was born one year before Louisa was. Sigh. Sisters maybe? Not much luck with the time I spent looking for links.

Next week shapes up to be busy.  But I guess that's good.