Living not wholly out of boxes

Well, all the moving boxes that were in the bath tub are gone - just have a few last straggler items from the last box that was in there, to put away.

Yesterday the plan was to try to plant something - anything! But, my sole, little shovel was no where to be found so I wound up spending that time organizing all my cookbooks and getting them into the flat back cupboard which is now living in the kitchen.

After that and other chores, I headed to Ace hardware for a new shovel, a heavy duty hanger for one of our prints, and a hanging basket for some of the flowers I bought the day before, My days gardening chores were watering the many potted plants and putting together a basket of four fuschia plants and getting that hung on the front porch.

Now that I have a shovel I will get in the garden after breakfast and plant some of the deer proof (I hope), plants like marigolds, heliotrope and cosmos where our resident deer love to tread in the back yard. I'll plant roses and veggies in the future secret garden once we can fence that section of the back yard.

I haven't seen our very pregnant resident doe for two days, so I'm assuming she may show up in another week or so with one or two fawns.

It's so lovely living in town and seeing the deer browsing their way through the neighborhood, Three of them were hanging around our house a lot and sleeping here at night; but with all the activity and construction noise here lately, and a resident dog, they may be finding other sleeping arrangements in the future. Time will tell once the construction noise from the new combo laundry room/powder room is finished.

After that project is completed I'll have to address these ancient kitchen cabinets. I'm hoping I can just reface them and add a couple of new ones; but I'll only do that if they can put proper roll out hardware in the existing ones. Unless I can get someone to start that project immediately, it will probably wait until I've recovered from the hip replacement surgery which is in another month.

Unpacking continues, albeit very slowly. I still haven't found my gas kiln, so I'm hoping it's buried at the back of the garage along with the freezer full of food that the movers assured me was plugged in. In another week or so I'll try to hire some of the young moving guys to come in and move everything out of there and put things where they should have been in the first place. There's furniture in that garage that needs to be sold or given away, but I can't even reach it for all the boxes and other things blocking it.

They put all my garden shed contents in that garage instead of putting them back in the shed, And there are household boxes in there as well. I'm just hoping I can be a lot more organized in the few weeks I have left before the surgery.

My old handyman and new one have both been unavailable due to illness and accident, and that is also slowing things down a lot.I know it will all get done, but it will probably take the whole summer before we can feel settled.

The garden awaits, so time for our bagel, smoked salmon and cream cheese breakfast, and then I can finally get my hands in the soil! I definitely need a break from unpacking.

Still inundated with moving boxes and construction mess

A bit of advice - if you decide to move into a charming 100 year old cottage that's less than half the size of your old house, get rid of your excess stuff before you move! In my case it just wasn't possible. With the condition of Jim's health and my surgery next month, it was imperative that I get us moved and settled as quickly as possible into a smaller place.

We put our old house on the market last Wednesday and it sold full price the same day. Guess the universe is supporting this move in more ways than one.

It's been a couple of weeks, and boxes and furniture and much needed kitchen and other items are buried so deep in the two garages that I would have to empty the garages fully to find most of them! The movers put my full freezer in the back of one of the garages and then loaded the garage to the rafter with boxes and other things. The only good thing is that they said they did plug it in. Time will tell is that was the case.

They put kilns, slab rollers and big glaze materials bins in the wrong places, so we will have to hire a bunch of guys in a few weeks to move a lot of that stuff again.

I've been giving away clothes, furniture, kitchen items, etc. My cleaning lady and our son and daughter-in-law are benefiting very well from our lifestyle change. Simplifying is hard work!

Today I've been dealing with the Larry the tile guy who is laying tile in what will be the new, small but efficient, combo laundry/powder room. The gardener was here with two other guys for a few hours doing a major cleanup, tree pruning, some tree cutting, etc. Hopefully they will rototill what will be my little, planned secret garden soon. Today one of the guys cleared a short area enough to plant the four raspberry plants I came home with yesterday.

All my potted plants from the old house are scattered in the back and side yard and hopefully in another month most of them will be planted. They'd better be because of July 23 I go in for my second hip replacement surgery.

The new range is in but I still have to order the vent and cover. The second air conditioning company was here yesterday and promised an email bid today, which still isn't here. It will take at least 2 more weeks once we select which company will do that job. Meantime, one of the subs furnished us with a lender portable air conditioner for our bedroom. We had a couple of those 100 degree days without one and are so grateful to be able to sleep in some comfort.

The deer are still coming around, even with all this activity. One of the does looks like she is going to go into labor any second. Two days ago she was within a couple of feet of our bedroom window munching happily on some shrubs. I won't try to keep our resident deer out of the property, except for my secret garden which is going to be for veggies, flowers and herbs that deer would love to dine on. We do love seeing them in the yard. One of the males now has a rack that seems to get bigger with each day. He and Bodhi got in a bit of a scuffle a few days ago when Bodhi lunged at him. I pulled him back right away, and I'm sure he'll think twice about doing that again!

Well, that's a bit of update on the Perry, scaling down, lifestyle change move. Even with the mess and all the work ahead of me, we are feeling very good about being back in Ashland again. There are a lot more and better shopping choices and a many more services as well as very good restaurants that deliver and have take out menus. That is going to be particularly useful when I'm recuperating from my hip replacement surgery late July and August.

Hope everyone is enjoying some lovely summer weather and making lots of pots! Right now I'm off to get the car washed and pick up a couple of fill in groceries. With no garages free to park the car, living under the huge evergreen tree next to the driveway makes for a very dirty, messy car.