The Box

It's here! 

The long awaited box has arrived! 

It's the annual "Countdown to Christmas" box 

carefully packed by the elves at the 

Missouri Star Quilt Company.

(It was preordered on Dec. 27, last year!!)

If you are a quilter, you know! 

Each year, beginning in 2016, the MSQC has offered this Advent calendar with sewing/quilting related gifts; one for each day from December 1 to Christmas morning. The gifts from Christmases past have included: pre-cut fabric packs, project patterns, books, mugs, pin cushions, threads, puzzles, and all kinds of cute, sewing related items. 

This will be my fifth year of participating, and I can't wait! 

(But, unlike some folks, I will!) 

Jenny Doan, the MSQC Maven and her husband put up daily videos of their gift opening.

I chat with my BFF while we both open the gifts and oooh and ahhh about what is inside.

The process brings the inner child in me to life! 

As a child I always had a darling Advent calendar, gifted by my grandmother. 

I loved opening each little door to see the image inside. 

I made an Advent calendar from a fabric panel for my own children. 

Each day they would move a tiny bear from one number to the next, 

in anticipation of Christmas.

• One year I gave a tea Advent calendar; each day my friend opened a flap to get a different flavor of tea.
• My grandkids get LEGO Advent calendars. They have a scene that the kids get to populate with LEGO minifigs and accessories. 
• I gave my hubby a fishing Advent calendar, which gave him a different lure each day. 
• I have also received an online Advent calendar where you "open" an animated part of a holiday scene each day.

Do you participate in an Advent calendar? You may have noticed, there are many sorts of Advent gifts on the market now. It seems there are several choices for folks of all ages and all interests! 

 

Countdown - Week 1

Tick. Tick. Tick. The hands of the clock are moving on, whether we are ready or not! This week has been a whirlwind. Just read on to see what I mean. You won't believe it!

Waaaayyy back in April I began the countdown; ten weeks of work to get the house show-ready.  It was just a guess. Perhaps more of a challenge I made for myself. We won't make it, but we will be darn close!

Here is how this incredibly crazy week has progressed:

Monday:

• the junk hauler/mover came back to finish cleaning out the garage. All of our extra stuff is gone. Of course, within 30 minutes or so I realized things I needed that used to be in the garage: a water bowl for Bob, insulation hangars and a can of white spray paint. I wonder how many other things we are going to realize we have sold, given away or thrown out!

• 1000 square feet of carpet was installed in the finished portion of the basement, and up the stairs. It looks fabulous!

• I cleaned the upstairs. The sort of cleaning you rarely do for yourself but will do for others; the "scrub the baseboards with a toothbrush" sort of cleaning. Mr. Dreamy did a fabulous job of getting some stubborn spots out of the carpet. I contracted with a cleaning service to get the downstairs show-ready clean. They will be working next week.

• We had the septic tank pumped and inspected. We failed. (I have only failed one thing, one time in my life - and I really didn't fail it but was given a "0" on part of a French exam for talking. Hmmmm, imagine that! Darn you Mr. El Kodsi, you scarred my life!) We need to have the pipe replaced as it has sunk down where it connects to the tank and roots have gotten into the tank. Mr. Dreamy is working to expedite the repair. If I'm not careful, he will get the LMOS (lawn mower on steroids) out and begin digging himself!
• We selected our replacement Realtor. When we talked with Realtors in May realtors all came within $50,000 of each other on their estimates for a selling price. When we talked with Realtors last week they gave us estimates that were almost $100,000 - $150,000 less. Needless to say, we were quite discouraged. Then the last realtor met with us. He had done his homework to find truly comparable listings. With his research and digging, he said the house should list where the original realtors saw it listing. The other guys had simply plugged in "horse property, 10 acres, barn and 3400 sq ft house". The computer fed them matching listings that weren't really matching. The computer doesn't take into account the distance to town. The computer doesn't take into account upgrades done on the house. Also, there are very few houses like ours, that are for sale or that have sold recently, so to get "comps" the realtors had to move farther away. Even 10 miles makes a huge difference in price.
• I posted some more items that didn't sell on Craig's List. Who knew that a pile of concrete siding that had been sitting in the corner of the paddock for 6 years would be worth money?!

Tuesday:

• In the morning we got a call from our new Realtor. One of the couples who saw the house during the estate sale wanted to see the house again. He asked if we would allow a showing Wednesday morning. (Who asks to see a home at 8:30 in the morning?!) This meant that we Dreamers worked tirelessly (well, to be truthful we were totally and utterly exhausted!) for over 12 hours straight to clean, organize, rearrange etc. We can now walk into our bathroom. We don't have tons of extra stuff in our bedroom. The kitchen counter is amazingly empty of stuff! Additionally, the dumpster was leaving the next day so we needed to capitalize on it and load every bit of garbage we could find. 

Wednesday:

• We did not have an especially leisurely breakfast! We ran around picking up and cleaning last minute items. I vacated the house with the dogs and went to see my dad. Scott stayed out in the RV barn and got on the RV when the potential buyers came in.
• Our IKEA shelving system that was posted on Craig's List walked out the door, and I didn't have to lift a finger to help!
• Mr. Realtor came by to do a walk-through, now that the junk is all gone. He liked how I had "staged" the upstairs and felt confident that we could have the house ready for a photoshoot on Monday, the house will hit MLS on Wednesday and we will begin showings on Saturday, a week and a half from now. Yikes! That timeline is really scary. List making began: Things to Buy. Things to do before Monday. Things to do before Saturday. So, it looks like we might sorta, kinda, almost make my goal after all and will be "show ready" by the end of this week!
• A representative from the estate sale folks came by with a check. It far exceeded our expectations - even with their commission, labor expenses, food and tax taken out. Wow! Oh, and he bought one of the oil paintings!
• I took the IKEA shelves in the living room apart, well as much as I could without destroying them. We will be moving them to wherever. For now, they are in the garage. The living room looks so much brighter and larger without them! I also stopped by IKEA to see if one can purchase the chintzy backer "board" they use on the shelves, which would break apart if I tried to get it off. Nope. Not available, so the shelves will have to travel as they are. While there I bought some new towels to make our bathroom look more lovely than it is (if that is at all possible!), but Mr. Dreamy didn't like them so I will have to take them back. 

Thursday:

• The realtor stopped by and placed his sign at our driveway. Oh, my gosh. It is really happening.

Friday:

• I sent a text message to Mr. Realtor. I had some concerns/questions about furniture placement in the living room. I asked about his "staging" services. He called me back and said the house looks great and not to worry. Oh, and by the way, he heard from the realtor for the folks who came by on Wednesday and they are putting in an offer. He also wanted to ask if we would allow another couple to view the house in the afternoon. Why not? We Dreamers decided. So began another round of running around, picking up, putting away, wiping down and getting out of the way.
• Our driveway was sealed. This means we have to drive through the pasture to get in or out. This also means that the couple who came to see the house did not get to see the curb appeal of our home as they drove in the stately long driveway, viewing the beautiful new lawn, the freshly painted garage and front doors, the pretty flowers I had planted (both real and fake) and the newly mowed front pasture. Oh well! 
• It turns out that the folks who toured the house were also at the sale, at least the father and son were. The father had said he'd be coming back as soon as the house was listed. He wasn't kidding! At the sale he talked with both of us Dreamers and "toured" the house. He brought his wife back today. Their realtor indicated that they will also be putting in an offer! My first thought was that staging is hugely overrated! Both offers are coming from people who first saw the house during the sale when it was hugely cluttered and messy!!
• The CertainTeed siding we listed on Craig's List was picked up and is gone.

Saturday:

• I prepared an extensive, detailed list of the remaining paintings and sent it to a national auction company. I had to submit 5 photos of each picture as well as any details I had about it. It took far more time than I wanted to spend doing it.. but the list is finished and hopefully the paintings can be sent on for auction. Nicholas de Largilliere (1656-1746) painted this portrait of Ulrich Frederick Woldemar. It appraised for over well over $10,000. I am thinking my great grandfather had this piece and it has been passed down over the years. The other paintings/prints are not of this caliber.

• We continued to work on items on the list(s) to prepare our house for showings and sale.
• I took some time to pull some weeds and trim in the gardens. One of my gardens has gone wild! I can't even get to the back to pull weeds since the flowers are so thick. 

• Our realtor called. He said he had some good news, and....   some more good news, and..... still more good news. The Good News: The first offer came in at asking price. Cash! Only contingent upon the closing of the sale of their own house, which is 11 days out. More Good News: The second offer came in at $20,000 over asking! A partial loan would need to be acquired but shouldn't be a problem for the buyer. And, Even More Good News: The first offer was upped to $30,000 over asking, cash, closing on August 11 and they will let us stay in the house for up to two weeks after closing if we need the time. Holy Cow!!! I think we have sold our house! 

Sunday:

• We reviewed the contract, then discovered it was no longer accessible online. We thought it was because we had requested a change in our name, but it appears that the buyer was misinformed about their closing date. They are scrambling (I presume) to get things straightened out by 3 PM tomorrow. So we went from, "Yippee!!, we don't have to get the house ready for photos or stage it for showing!!" To hauling out the To Do list and getting to work again. The realtor has suggested that we not offer the house to the other bidder as he thinks, based on the swift interest we had from these first two buyers, that we should list the house higher and see where the chips fall. In the "Coming Soon" listing on Zillow he calls the house "arguably the hottest listing available." (And he said that before we had the little bidding war!) Hopefully he is right!

This was an incredibly busy week with events escalating to warp speed. Each time I typed something I would think, "What's next?!"  Talk about a host of emotions: scared, elated, terrified, worried, sad, anxious....

This is the end of my Countdown. We are almost there. Cleaning crew and photos tomorrow. The listing goes up on Wednesday and the house will be shown beginning on Saturday. 

Countdown - Week 2

It has been a busy week with everything focused on the Estate Sale. There isn't a lot we have done besides shuffling items for sale, moving them from here to there and back again, cleaning things, fixing things, hiding things, pricing things....

So, here's a list of this week's accomplishments:

• I put in a few extra hours on the long arm machine to finish a king-size quilt. The machine had to come down before the sale. I will use the backing to bind the edges until I find my sewing machines and my fabric, and have time and energy for sewing on a real binding. 

• We interviewed realtors. Back in May we "hired" a realtor. We never signed her contract, and she never pushed for us to sign it. She never did much of anything. We were disappointed. Mr. Dreamy stopped in her office and felt she was very unprofessional. He was uncomfortable and he struggled for 2 weeks about what to do. Finally he decided he couldn't work with her and he called her to tell her so.  We talked with 4 realtors. 
• We received an unsolicited bid on the house. However, because of the situation with the Realtor, we felt we might be painting targets on our backs for a lawsuit, so that is why we began the interview process again. It's a nice feeling to know we have one bid on the house and can turn around and sell it immediately! (Additionally, should his second bid be high enough, we might not have to pay the full 3.2% that selling realtors normally receive.) After 5 interviews, a few that were excruciating, we hit upon what we hope will be a fabulous Realtor. 
• Our house-sitter extraordinaire came to take her horses off our property. What a circus! She came with two horses in her trailer. She offloaded one, and loaded sweet Zoe. Off she went to one location. Then she came back to get the two that were here, destined for another location. One that she had just offloaded and the other, Lady Bug, who has been living here for the best part of a year. Everything went well until Lady Bug decided, uh, uh... I'm not getting on the trailer! Ugh. Poor house-sitter spent almost 2 hours working with LB to get her to load. Meanwhile, her other horse, who had loaded on the trailer like a champ, was getting anxious and was pawing and kicking. Crazy times! I was able to help for about 30 minutes, but then we had a realtor come by to meet us so I had to leave. My mind was on the horses, not the realtor's presentation, if you want to know the truth! Finally, I heard a truck engine, heard a whinny, and knew our house-sitter was heading out. I wasn't sure if she had Lady Bug on the trailer, or whether I'd find a dead horse in the paddock. (Just kidding. I know that our house sitter would never hurt a horse.)
• Ready or not, the dates for the Estate Sale came. We had three long days dealing with lots of people. The first day cars were at our gate by 6 AM. The sale didn't begin until 10!

6:12 AM

9:40 AM

It was funny to see the hoard practically race into the house to find treasures they had seen online. We had a pretty good first day, according to the company. The second day was quieter, but we had people coming through all day. It was very strange to see people wandering around holding my things. Plenty of people inquired as to whether this was an emotional issue for me. "No", I replied, until a woman began to collect some of the Boyd's Bears figurines. She asked me about them, I explained that my sons used to give me those pieces as gifts... then my eyes welled up. What a surprise to find I reacted this way and had no control over my emotions. After she left with her new collection I pulled two figurines off of the shelf that had a special emotional attachment, and I felt better. 

• During the sale days the dogs experienced day care at Club Pet, which is less than a mile from our home. Tucker used to go to doggie day care for socialization. I don't know if Gypsy has ever been. They reported that both dogs played independent of each other, and would occasionally check up on each other. Tucker was so tuckered out the first day that he turned around one time and slumped down in the car seat, before I could even back out of the parking spot! Gypsy didn't show a whole lot of excitement about returning. Playing with other dogs isn't really her "thing". As I type this, on Sunday morning, Tucker has come over to inquire about going to camp! Poor guy will be disappointed today; No camp!
• I delivered my funky western/English/Australian saddle to a delightful young lady from South Dakota. She was in town for a wedding and was thrilled to get the saddle. She was particularly interested in the saddle because her mother, an American Indian, rode English and her dad was a rancher, who rode western. She thought the saddle was symbolic of her parents and their marriage. I loved her explanation.

• After the sale we sorted through the left-overs, piling things we decided to keep in selected corners of the house and marking them with flagging tape. We hired a service to deliver items of value to a charitable organization, chemicals and electronics to appropriate facilities for disposal and to toss everything else in the dumpster. 

They were absolutely amazing. Sean, LaDonna and Michelle worked practically non-stop for over 9 hours. They worked miracles. 

 Basement on Friday morning - day 2 of sale

(Photo from security camera)

Basement on Sunday

One benefit of the estate sale is that we had realtors come by to "shop". Perhaps they weren't all that interested in our things, but they were very interested in the house. What a great way for them to get a foot in the door, literally! I had a small deck of business cards in my back pocket by the end of each day. A few of the realtors came back to shop... with clients in tow. We were told by one of the realtors to expect a bid from her clients; they have just sold their larger home about a mile from us and are ready to move forward with a cash offer and a two-week move-in. OMG! Could life get anymore stressful?!! So, we continue to work on sorting and packing and we wait to see what the offer might be. 

Countdown - Week 5

I mentioned that my son and DIL purchased a house and moved. What I didn't share was the amazing timeline for this major life change!

• May 15: bid put in on the house
• May 16: bid accepted
• May 19: closing
• June 5: packers arrive at their condo
• June 6: movers load up and deliver furniture and boxes, the family spends the night at their new home.
• June 8: unpackers attack the mountain of boxes AND.... mom and dad arrive.
• June 9: unpackers complete their work.
• June 10: son and DIL host a 2nd Birthday party for Alexis, inviting 12 family and friends.
• June 15: their condo goes "live" on the market, with fresh paint, new carpet and staged furniture. 

Wow! What a crazy schedule they endured! Oh, and they still kept working - some days from home, but others at their offices. Amazing! Things move a bit faster in San Francisco!

And, on the home front this week:

• I caulked around the basement windows where the old caulking had cracked.
• I finished sorting through everything but the basement, garage and our closet. - oh, and the barns. But, a lot of that is Mr. Dreamy's stuff and he has to make decisions on that.  I have "Sell" and "Not for Sale" Post-its everywhere! Soon we will have price tags on our belongings!

• The baseboards in the basement were painted. 
• I rearranged the storage area in the basement, consolidating the "keep" items in one corner and dragging out items for the Estate Sale folks who spent hours laying things out and pricing. Of course I found boxes that we had packed years ago that were never opened. What surprises and treasures were discovered therein! Here is one of those treasures!

• Once I had shelves cleared I rearranged them to make more room in the storage room for the sale. 
• Mr. Dreamy flew to Florida to check on our property, progress on the pavers, and to celebrate his mother's 95th Birthday with family.

It takes a lot of help to blow out a lot of candles!

• Volunteers for "The Son & Reins Ranch", the equine therapy program run by our housesitter (and whose extra horses we keep on our property) spent about 4 hours doing chores. They stretched some of the fencing wires, and restapled where needed. They took down some mesh fencing that one of their horses had bent beyond description trying to get to the greener grass on the other side of the fence. They power washed stall mats and reinstalled them. The mowed the round pen and trimmed a bit under fencing and around the barn. And they power washed the front and side of the barn. Wow! They accomplished a lot!
• I took 5 bags of clothing to the Salvation Army, and I have bagged more garbage than I am allowed to put out for collection. We will be getting a dumpster closer to the sale date, so I guess it will have to wait until then.
• I printed out any information I had about my dad's art and some of our own, and taped it on the pictures.

• I packed 17 boxes and moved those, and others, out to the big barn. The pile is growing bigger!

• I made three trips to my dad's to bring paintings and stuff back to the house .... or was it only two? Or maybe it was four?!

The theme song for this week is....

But let's change the words a bit....

When I wake up, well I know I'm gonna be

Sorting, packing, and hauling a box or two.

When I go out, yeah I know I'm gonna be

Moving things around like a moving crew.

In the evening , well I know I'm gonna be

Hunting in this mess for the corkscrew.

And if I find it, yeah I know I'm gonna be

Enjoying a glass of wine, or maybe two!

For I have walked 10,000 steps

And I might have walked 10,000 more

And I've climbed the steps at least 20 times

No wonder I'm so gosh darned sore!

Doing the packing, doing the packing

I'm packing, packing, packing all day long. 

Doing the packing, doing the packing

With all of this work at least I will be strong!

Countdown - Week 6

My blood pressure has been really high. I know it is stress, and I'm not dealing with everything that goes along with the move very well. I think the hardest part is that I was raised to "finish what you start". I can hear my dad telling me that, over and over, and over.... with the move, there isn't a way to finish each task at this time. I can't pack everything in any one room because we need things to live with or for showing the house. Yet, we are having an estate sale before the house goes on the market and we have to make sure that things we want to keep are removed. Evidently, it is driving me crazy!! Everything is incomplete. There is mess everywhere I look. Even Mr. Dreamy has mentioned increased stress levels - and that just isn't his style.

And, speaking of incomplete, this "Week 6" has been interrupted by a wonderful trip to San Francisco. Our sweet little Alexis turned 2 and long ago we had made arrangements to visit. We had our reservations for the B & B near our son's condo in the Mission District long ago. Then, our son and DIL bought a house! Closed on the house! And moved into the house! So, we cancelled our reservations at the B & B and we stayed chez son & DIL! (I think they may have their own high levels of stress!)

So, here's what we accomplished half one week, and half the next:

• I met with the estate sale folks at my dad's place. They took pictures of the things we will be bringing over here to sell. We created a calendar for the next few weeks showing when they will be here for pricing, etc. They stopped by our house again and we planned where they will set up their tables and the basic traffic patterns through the house and yard.
• I was supposed to meet with a mover, but his estimator did not show up. Harrumph! I called another and got a price. The estate sale folks are going to get me another name.
• We had another estimate for painting. It was very reasonable. So, Mr. Dreamy bought the paint and the painter began painting. What a relief not to have to do all of that. When we arrived home we drove into a home with a freshly painted garage door, newly painted porches and a gleaming picket fence. Wow!
• We Dreamers began researching and writing up information about some of the fine art in my Dad's collection that will be going up for sale so we can share that information with potential buyers. We still need to get an appraiser here. 
• I packed a few more boxes. I am up to a total of 32. In addition,  I packed 8 boxes at my dad's place, and carefully bundled 8 paintings, and brought them over to our place and unpacked them for the sale. In addition, I carried out two large garbage bags of bedding. We finally cleared a place in the big barn to stack boxes, and I moved most of the packed boxes to that storage area. 
• We hired the painter to patch the ceiling in the basement where the plumber needed access to fix our leak. He also painted the ceiling and put in the baseboards.
• Our pool table found a new home. I advertised it on a "Free in Parker" FaceBook page and within minutes had a taker. I am so thrilled that Trey got in their first. He deserves the table. His dad came over with him and we took the table apart, carried it upstairs piece by piece and loaded it into Dad's truck. Trey (23 yo) shared with me that he played a lot of pool when he was younger as he spent a lot of time in the hospital. He was so excited to get the table. Dad shared that Trey was born with Short Gut Syndrome and his parents were counseled to "pull the plug" and let him die. Trey was a fighter. He's seen so much hardship, but for now, is doing well. I'm glad!
• Sod was finally put in place in the front yard. It looks great! I took leftover pieces and patched them into the back yard. I seeded bare spots where I didn't have sod. 

From this:

To this:

• The landscape folks also put mulch around all of the trees and in some of the gardens. I planted a few more bedding plants here and there. 
• The painter had a friend who was able to replace the missing stones on our fireplace. I hate to admit that one of my friends and I both scavenged construction areas for left over pieces of fake stone to replace the missing pieces. 
• I took the doors off the shelving units in the living room to make it easier to display items for the sale. After the sale we will need to take them down and move them out. This is all getting scary. It is really happening!

Things are slowly coming together. I am feeling a bit more confident that it will all happen, and I'm able to sleep without waking at 3 or 4 AM running through lists of things that need to be completed. So, here it is, Father's Day, and I'm fretting over "finish what you start"!!!

Countdown - Week 7

I'll take a break from posts about France to review what we accomplished in getting read to move this week. Last Sunday we arrived home from our trip to Europe a few hours early. Originally we had a 5 1/2 hour layover in Minneapolis. Luckily, we were able to catch the last two stand-by seats on an earlier flight. As we were out of bed on the ship by 3:15 AM, and it was 10 PM by our body clocks when we got home, we were understandably tired. However, we realized going to bed at 2:00 PM just wasn't going to work well, so we got busy! Within a few hours I had the lawn in the back and around the barn mowed, Mr. Dreamy had begun mowing the front acreage and I used the weed whacker to whack weeds along the garden fences and the barn.

Other happenings this week:

• removed wire "cages" from around the trees and rolled the wire into smaller bundles for the estate sale (they said, "throw out nothing"!) . I put the wire and the "T" posts (metal fence posts) in a staging area for the sale. (We have large herds of mule deer that wander around all year. They chew on tree branches, and in the fall they rub against the trees, none too gently,  to remove the velvet on their antlers. Trees in this arid part of Colorado have enough to contend with without dealing with damage from the deer.)

• determined sale/no sale items in the guest room and bathroom upstairs. I have a pile of things under a sheet that are designated for wherever we end up.
• doctored Malachi. When I went to feed the horses on Memorial day I realized Malachi had a HUGE lump between his jaw bones, and more inflammation on his neck. Clear yellow fluid was leaking from pores in the skin. Bleech! After discussions with his owner I cleaned up the area, and waited.... ugh! The abscess ruptured during the night and I began a cleaning routine.  The Vet came on Wednesday. She is not sure if the abscess is the result of a tooth infection or a disease called Strangles. He was put on a course of antibiotics and cleaning treatment 4 times a day.  If the infection returns after the course of antibiotics he will need x-rays to determine what tooth/teeth are involved. His owner agreed to take him to her house as she knows how crazy my days already are. If you want to see pictures... scroll all the way down. If you'd rather not... stop scrolling when I tell you to!
• yard work. We all did a bit in the yard. We contracted with a company to remove 20 dead trees, which they did while we were gone. However, they left two standing, so they came back to finish the job. The company removed our pitiful lawn in the front and brought in soil to prepare for sod. (unfortunately, there is now a shortage of sod so we have a beautifully prepared expanse of dirt.)

• The landscape guys replaced rock and the turned my vegetable beds, I worked on turning and weeding the back garden. It is planted. I even put some flowers in there.

• I trimmed some dead branches from trees and weed whacked around the trees, and around the garden beds. I sprayed the back yard for weeds. My sprayer broke and I've ordered new parts. Mr. Dreamy finished cutting the front acre.

• I'm making decisions and making piles. What to take? What to sell? I'm moving stuff from Point A to Point B and sometimes back again. I've packed a total of 24 boxes now - need to get more.
• we decided on the date for the sale. It's further off than I had hoped, but with our whacky schedule there was just no way to move it up. The sale begins on July 13 and ends that Sunday. We hope to have last minute things lined up so they can be done the next week and our house can be readied for going on the market. 
• Mr. Dreamy got a quote for paint work. He went out to buy the paint and do it himself! He finished painting the front fence. He started to scrape the picket fence. Ugh! It's awful work!

• Mr. Dreamy also bought baseboard molding for the basement and he began installing it. The baseboard pieces are 12' long. It was awkward to try to get them into the basement by traditional means. So, I went down and opened one of the basement windows sand we simply put the boards through to the basement that way. 
• While dealing with the basement window I realized how disgusting the windows were so I vacuumed all of the dead bugs and loose dirt out of the tracks of the windows. I washed the windows, inside and out and cleared out trash that had blown into the window wells. We put 2 bags of gravel into the wells and they now look much nicer.

Until I wrote everything down, I didn't think we had accomplished much of anything. But on paper, er... on computer screen... it looks like a lot! I wonder what next week will bring?



I hate to say how relieved I am at not having to attend to Malachi 4 times a day. Taking care of him takes a lot of time, and I'm feeling a real time crunch now. I am so thankful that Sharron recognized this and trailered him back to her house. She was going to move two of her horses anyway, she just changed which horses went on the trailer.

Stop scrolling if you don't want to see yucky pictures! 

The weeping lump before any treatment.

This shot shows the swelling on Malachi's neck, as well as that under his jaw.  He also seemed swollen  along the lymph node area moving up the jaw. 

By the morning the abscess had ruptured. It looks awful. It smells terrible. But, the pressure has been relieved! Oh, and this picture was taken after I cleaned it up!

Hobby Horse Blog Hop - Week 15: Countdown

This week has been tough. I've been counting down the days until I take the horses to the trainer, who will later sell them for me. I talked about my decision to sell them on this post. The time marches inexorably closer. As I do something with the horses, I find myself thinking, "I will only be able to do this 6  5  4 more times." The numbers tick closer to 0. It makes me sad. Tears well up in my eyes.  But I know that this is the right thing to do. The horses need more than I can give them. They are young. They want to work. In gardening, it's important to pick the right plant for the right place. I realize this is true with horses, too. These aren't the right horses for me. They aren't in the right place. Some day I will find the right horse!

So, enough of this sadness. Let's get hopping!

Welcome to the Blog Hop. 

I hope you can join in the fun.

In case you are new... or as a reminder:

Each week I post at least one prompt.
Respond as you wish on your blog or in a comment.

Or, just link your blog to mine if you

care to share something else about yourself.

The part I like most is having blog hoppers

complete their blog posts (or comments) 
by asking a question of us.

I am really enjoying answering your questions,

and look forward to seeing other responses, too.

I think it's a great way to have a conversation of sorts!

Link your post to the Hobby Horse Blog Hop

by using the Linky Tool below.

Click where indicated, just after it says

"You are next...."

Or...

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on my blog, down below.

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Hobby Horse Blog Hop Prompts - Week 15:

1. Tell us about something you experienced which began with a countdown.

2. Count....  What counts for you?  Or what do you count?

3. Down.... What is a downer for you and what strategies do you use to overcome a depressing situation?

My answers:

1. We went to a Space Shuttle launch in 1994. My son's teacher's brother was the Commander of the flight. I wasn't prepared to be excited by this. However, when the earth shook under our feet, and then the sound rumbled over us, I was in awe. This was one of the most amazing countdowns I've ever experienced! 

2. Who wrote this question? This is too hard! I'll skip the first, and move on to the second. My kids and I used to count in the car. We'd try to guess how far we'd have to count before we made it home, or to school, or to a friend's house. We also practiced 'skip counting'. One of us would choose a beginning number, one would suggest the 'skip' interval and the last would decide whether we would add or subtract. For example, we might begin at 93, count at intervals of 7, and subtract. Then, we'd take turns naming the next number in the sequence: 93, 86, 79.... and so forth. Both of my boys are excellent in Math. I suspect that this type of activity gave them a head start!

3. Downers for me include grumpy people, rainy days, sad stories and seeing, or even hearing about, abused animals. It helps me feel better if I can confront the situation. If I can't, being active distracts me from the depressing situation. I think that's why I enjoy crafts. 

Now it's your turn. Respond to the questions on your blog, or in the comments. Don't forget to ask us a question!