Prepping, and moving woes

We've been going through everything and deciding what we will take and what we will not be. The only furniture we are planning to take will either fold up flat or be used to pack things inside, we can always replace it. We have been getting offers from a few people to help up design our home and temporary home a gentleman who lives in MO a few miles from our new property is going to get us some quotes on lumber from the places he normally buys from.

We are having issues still with getting our moving vehicle as the van/bus we are going to buy isn't running right now and the owner has promised to get it running by today... still waiting to hear from him. we have found out the manufacturer of our station wagon does not "recommend" putting a trailer hitch on it... which we are taking as "it's a very bad idea". So it seems we are waiting with baited breath on this van/bus. If the owner gets it running I will get a picture of it thankfully the last owner was using it as a work vehicle so it is not "school bus yellow", it also no longer has it's flashing lights and only has 2 of the bus seats inside. So if we get it after the move it will be a great vehicle for hauling things in it.

Tomorrow I will call the branches for the job I currently work that are near our property in MO to see if I can work out a job transfer, the extra money will help us a great deal at first, then when we are set I can stop working and focus on the veggies and our future live stock. I am hoping to have a small laying flock next year if all goes well.

The trouble with Transportation....

Well it's been a fun few days.... We went to go check on the full size bus and the person we thought it belonged to it doesn't. It belongs to the person next door, we got a closer look at it and it is loaded with junk... I'm not sure we want to try it might take them 3 months to unload it.

Then we went and looked at the mini-bus we have seen around, yep the man wants to sell it, it runs, and he'll take exactly what we want to pay for it. Told him we'd be up this morning to pick it up and pay for it. This morning he called us saying that he can't find the title... Now Silver asked yesterday if he had the title, and he said yes. So we are waiting for the man to call us to say he has the title, problem is though Silver already insured it. I'm not holding my breath that the man will call back on it.

So now we are thinking about putting a hitch on our station wagon and throwing a trailer on it, and load that with everything we are taking. We got a quote on the hitch it's $200, and we can find a trailer for $100; we have to order the hitch Silver is thinking on it.

I mailed off this month's payment, so it's the first payment after contract on the land yeah! hopefully a month from today we will be on our way.

Fun finds!

I found a few things over the weekend for our homestead that won't take hardly any room when we move. This lamp was a steal:

Silver was visiting his son over the weekend and found it at the "mall" in the town dump down there. The town his son lives in has a town dump that has a "free" shop for anything that is still in working order... they call it the "town mall". :) Hey I'm happy it's beautiful and with possibly a little rewire it will become a normal wall lamp.

This next one is a very pretty clay butter dish I bought for under a dollar at a thrift shop has a small carack on the outside top. does anyone know if you can seal that with anything so it won't get worse?

Then last but not least this metal corner shelf:

The shelf folds down flat so we can shove it next to something when we move. As for transport we went to see a man about a bus this morning... and they weren't home. *sighs* oh well... we left a note for them hopefully they will call us. Silver isn't to sure about the bus though, it is an old 27 passenger bus that the owner has stuffed with junk.

So just in case... we are going to check on a mini school bus that a car mechanic has in his yard, we might be using that one, it just means we need a trailer somewhere along the way to hitch to our car or the bus.

Found a fun find in Loews too, I bought a packet of "moon and stars" watermelon that one of the "big" seed sellers now seems to carry... if they do well great, if not oh well; sometimes seeds are a gamble.

Careful what you ask for......

... you might just get it. Isn't that the old line about wishful thinking?

Well we got snow... and snow... and snow...


The kids got Wednesday off of school, due to the amount of snow; and we had to dig out. Not easy when you don't own a snow blower. So of course we sent the kids out first, after an hour they had a 1x4 ft area dug out... not very helpful so me and Silver went out and in 30 minutes with one shovel dug a 7'x10' area, after which my 13 yr old decided that maybe he should be helping better rather than horsing around with his sisters.

we also lost power Wednesday for 4 hours and the kids were bored, they aren't use to living without computers, TV, and radio's... guess they will have a lot to get use to.

Then yesterday we got tons of rain when they predicted more snow... the kids thought they were getting today off of school because "everyone says" that we were going to get tons more snow and nasty winds. Well, when I woke up at 2 am this morning we still were getting rain. All it did was make some lovely slush under the snow so we step into the yard where we didn't shovel and we sink in almost a foot.

What a fun week! oh well... Monday we go shopping for our transportation I hope the full size bus does work and the people are willing to sell it to us.

There is snow in NY state!

It's true I can prove it. There is snow in upper New York state! We (finally) actually got some snow today after most of this winter without. Now that it's late February of course. The front yard of our current home is 90% mud... 10% rock/tree... it's nice to see it covered in snow, but don't let that layer of white fool you you step outside and sink into the mud a slight bit. I believe total around my home we have had maybe 2 ft of snow. This might be my last “real” snowfall to see before we move, but who knows maybe while we are living in Mo it will decide to snow 20ft in one winter (laughs).It's going to be odd I have always been around areas who get bad cold and snow in various amounts, Mo will be a change for me.

I picked up three single plant greenhouses for my kids so they can contribute to our garden when we move, the seedlings in them should be ready to plant by the time we are down there and the ground is ready. It will be so nice to have fresh watermelons. I have almost a pound worth of bean seeds from last year that I can plant as well as some zucchini, cucumbers (2 kinds), and peas that I can plant without buying more. Any suggestions for a first year garden in unknown soil? I won't have much to work with as we need money to build our home, but any advise will help.

We have our eyes on this old full size school bus that's been sitting in someone's yard for who knows how long. I am going to get Silver to ask them about it. I swear I saw it hitched up to a trailer the other day which tells me it might still run semi OK. If that's a no-go then we have our eyes set on a mini school bus that is in a mechanic's lot, Silver has looked at it before and it supposedly runs; but we will see.

Well that's all for now,

Be well

ads...

Yes I put up ads... I'm hoping.. though I doubt it will. that it may help us offset our construction costs some if it works out.. if it doesn't I may very well remove them in a few months.

Monday fun

Well it's a lovely day... and I wish we were already moved but i know that will come soon. The kids just went back to school after a week off for "mid-winter break", only in NY I guess. I surly didn't have it when I grew up in the Midwest nor when my kids were in school in the Midwest.

Anywho... this means me and my partner Silver are out having a slow breakfast and using the internet seeing as how where we currently live we don't have any. After then we are going to Loews to replace a tool belt I bought for Silver, we noticed it was missing the buckle... so it might be hard to use it if it's sitting on the floor. But getting to use the internet means I get to do some reading on the different homestead sites as well.

Next week we go shopping for some kind of vehicle to move us in, wish us luck!