moving update number 2147. We loaded the third and fourth and fifth half's of the hens in to the van Sunday evening, and then strapped the bee hive to keep it's components from separating and loaded them in too. It was actually a quiet drive home to the dome house. The hens settled down to quiet muttering in their crates (two crates of hens and one rooster by himself so he couldn't pick on anyone. Anybody want to buy a pretty rooster who was supposed to be a hen?) The bees were completely silent. It probably helped that I'd plugged their doors with dead leaves and then taped over them with packing tape to keep all bees inside inroute. Logan helped to load and unload everyone.
As of Sunday evening, we had everything but the fish and the emus moved. Tonight John fetched the fish. The emus? well, we're working on that one. Slowly.
So as of today, 28 October 2003, we have 39 chickens (three are Olivia's), twelve goats, twelve sheep, one hive of bees, six cats, one dog and three humans all living here at the dome house. Oh, and Our Friend Fernando, the Llama. We'll add the emus soon, and also probably a pair of burros, who I hope will hang out with the sheep or the goats and help discourage predators from bothering them.
We've already had one lost goat, although we found her after about two days. She went visiting a couple of neighbors, and finally word got to one who we had checked with about her, and he called us. We kept her (Curry-Goat, who was one of the kids born just days before our wedding!) in the barn for a day, and then let her back out with everyone else, and she seems to have gotten the idea.
John is almost to the adding the fish point of re-setting-up the fish tank. I'll take a picture in a few days, after the water has had a chance to clear again. Right now it looks more like a mud pond in our living room.
Our weather is supposed to be changing this week. Rain tonight, and the rest of the week, and we're going from lows in the 40's to highs in the 40's over the next couple of days. Watch the weather pixie and see what she's wearing.
We're at the new place. The animals are almost all at the new place; chickens and emus still have to move, everyone else is here. A lot of our stuff is moved. There's still plants in the ground to get. And hoses. And stuff in the shed, wood shed, and carport. When does it end? I spaced out and managed to double book myself today and was supposed to be facilitating Baby and Me at the same time as I was supposed to be at the dentist in another city. Oops. My brain is a little bit overloaded.
The details of moving are still sorting themselves out. I've got my dirt devil vacuum, but I'm not sure where the cord for it is packed. The dentist's office asked if I'm using the fancy sonic tooth brush regularly, and I had to tell them that I haven't seen it in a couple of weeks. (All three of us survived tooth cleanings with good grades, or whatever one gets at the dentists. No cavities. Some stickers. New teethbreesh.) The laundry pile seems to get bigger with each load that I wash, as do the dishes by the sink. And Logan is slowly gaining socks again. John found a whole bunch when he was cleaning up, some that look like the fit her before her first birthday. Now we just have to find the pair we borrowed from Aidan last week to return them to him when he gets back from visiting his aunt.
Logan isn't at all slowed down by her friend being out of town. She does things with both Aidan and Greta on a daily basis. For a few days Greta was a coin. Now she and Aidan seem to both simply be invisible, and of variable size. Yesterday we also took two invisible horses with us everywhere we went. And Logan talked about how when she and Aidan get big they will be able to gather eggs from the chicken coop by themselves, and she will drive her yellow truck to pick Aidan up. Aside from being busy with friends I can't see at the moment, Logan is also very busy playing with the cats. The kitten is very agreeable, and is keeping the older cats tired out and not too unhappy about being indoors while they adjust to the new place.
Quick rest. 
Narnia I'm up too late, and Logan will be awake coughing in a couple more hours. We have all had an attack of seasonal allergies. Hers aren't bad, except that they lead to coughing at night. My brain is still ready to be up, but the rest of me is winding down to sleep. We're all still out here, even if you haven't heard from us. :-)
Whose Grandma? Saturday 11 Oct 2003
A few days ago I asked John if he'd had any luck reaching his mom on the phone. He said "no", and then Logan announced that next John should try calling her mom. So I asked her who her mom was. The answer was "Grandma Wilma."
So we talked about that, and tried to explain that Grandma Wilma was Logan's grandma, and John's mom. Then I asked Logan if she knew who my mom was. She answered, "Grandma Wilma.
I explained that Mum and Papa did not have the same mom. So Logan tried again. Her next idea was that Grandpa Piers was my mom. Where does Grandma Cam come in to all this? Well, she knits the sweaters, of course!
Grandparents have been a big item of conversation for Logan recently. She wondered if we'd see any of the three of them at the grocery store today. She talks about when they will visit. And she tells me where they will put her pictures. I have a couple of her pictures that I'm supposed to be sending, except she keeps taking them back and putting them in new places.
Today we moved several more boxes of things from there to here. Our kitchen is almost completely moved, although hardly at all unpacked. Logan is going without naps in order to be sure not to miss any of the excitement of putting things in to boxes and then taking them out again.
Birthday Excitement 10/12/03
For my birthday I drove a big yellow truck! I think it's the first time I've driven one more than just to repark it. This was a 17 foot Uhaul Clone. It was fun.
Big Yellow Truck I also filled lots of boxes, and shoved some of them around. I didn't have to do any heavy lifting though, which was a nice change, especially since we were moving the honkin big and heavy stuff. We are now 8/10 moved, with the house probably 9/10 along. Andrea, Aidan and Bob came and helped with the lifting, shoving, loading and packing yesterday, and then stayed to have some birthday cake. They arrived a little bit before Robyn reappeared with sandwiches for lunch. That worked out well, since they took over stuffing boxes and loading things while John and I ate.
Thirty Six. John gave me, or at least agreed to me getting a kitten for my birthday. She is just over four months old, light enough that she can walk on the computer keyboard without typing, and very friendly. She's got a purr and a personality to grow in to yet. Her name is Narnia. I was going to connect the camera to the computer and put a picture of her here, but she's just decided to sleep in my lap. Maybe later.
Our internet connection is spotty at the moment. I think it's a problem with the phone lines, or with the number we dial. I thought we were going to get DSL, but it turned out to be available only if you lived (effectively) within the Sutherlin city limits. We have the same prefix on our phone number as Sutherlin, but we're a bit outside the city limits. Oh well. As soon as we did a trench, we'll see about getting at least new wire for the house phone line, so that if there are problems along the way there they will improve.
We are hardly unpacked at all. There are boxes everywhere. And it looks like more stuff than could possibly fit in this house, or even in two houses. The subtraction of the boxes should help with that some. It's going to be slow. Although Logan likes unpacking. She refers to it as opening presents.
Chair and a half 
Not quite the final arrangement 
Couch, (at last!) kitten, snail, etc 
The rest is still out in the shed! We do now have a refrigerator in the house. It's quite a luxury after four days of making trips out to the shed for anything friged. Andrea weeded the spoiled stuff out of the fridge, and then started cleaning parts of it once it was moved. I complained that I would have just as happily put it back together without noticing that it needed to be cleaned. It looks great now though, better than new. We'll soon have a washer and drier hooked up. They each need a little work - a cord changed, a connection tightened. At least they are here!
Hard at work. Logan and Aidan helped quite a bit with the fridge cleaning. They were very through. After a while we just gave up trying to keep them out of the fridge and let them work. They cleaned. They went to bed. They got up again. They ate meals. I never realized just how many things can happen in a 3 foot square apartment.
Cleaning, or something 
Cleaning. No really, we are! Last night Logan decided to sleep in her mouse 'jammas. And she slept in. I actually had to wake her when it was time to get ready to return the big yellow truck. Tonight, we're going to bed earlier, by a little!
Can you see the sleeping mouse? 
There she is.
We've changed houses now. It's not much since we still have the big furniture (dressers, china cabinet, TV) to get moved, but our base of operations is at the Dome instead of at the old house now. We can see the sunrise out the "eyebrow" windows. It looks like some kind of black and white photo so far, with trees and clouds silhouetted against the light. It's very pretty. The computer and the answering machine and the stereo all made the move yesterday, along with most of what we people needed. Tops on my list of things to get are sweat pants, slippers, and other cozy things. Almost all our clean clothes are here, but I didn't pick up those every day things for me. Oops. :-)
Logan is still asleep. A little later today we'll go to Eugene with Andrea and Aidan and drop the van off for Robyn to use for his move this weekend. Of course this all happens at once. How else could things possibly go? Sunny is here, but will probably get to spend the day at the other house, since he is quite prepared to follow my car down the road. I'll just load him and take him when Aidan, Logan and I go to feed. John is getting our first fire of the season going. We probably don't really need it yet, but without other comfort things, a fire will be nice. Soon I've got to figure out where the oats and things are so we can eat some oatmeal when Andrea and Aidan get here.
Today is John's second day off work to get a fence done, so we can move goats and sheep, and us. I'm about to head out of the house to go see if the van is unloaded yet, and figure out what I need to do to load more things in to it to get them moved.
In case any of you are wondering, our telephone number is not changing. Our mailing address is not changing. Only our physical address is changing, and only one line of that. The city/state/zip will all stay the same.
Lots of folks have offered to help us move our animals. That's very nice. We will simply shove them in the van if we need to. The real difficulties of moving for us are related to getting a place to put the animals, and then getting the heavy things hefted out of one house, on to a truck of some sort, and then unloaded and in to place at the other end. No one is volunteering for that one. It looks like it will be me and John, Logan, Robyn and Jim. John is the healthy, whole and strong one. I'm not strong, and my back is bad. Robyn's back is bad. Logan, well Logan is three. And Jim, when he's available, is strong, but has one arm still recovering from having torn the muscles in his shoulder off and having them surgically reattached. It is amazing to me what we all manage to move!
