(AF) MOVING UPDATE - - Rain Barrels and Tadpoles

 Please don't laugh too hard. One of the things on our list of outdoor items to move is my rain barrels. I collect and save some rain water to use to water plants, and, when it is fresh, to water my chickens with. They love it!

The problem right now, is .. all of my rain barrels are full of . . . TADPOLES! Normally this isn't a problem. Normally, it is a GOOD thing because the tadpoles gobble up any mosquito larvae that find their way into the rain barrels and really keeps the number of mosquitoes around here down to a minimum. But in order to move the rain barrels, I need to dump them, and I just can't kill all of those beautiful, graceful little tadpoles!

So what is a person to do, other than to relocate them? Some have been moved to Dave's rain barrels, but they are now full, and oh, so many tadpoles still left! We are now turning to Dave's pond. His pond used to be a nice, thriving pond, then a couple of years ago in the high heat, all the water drained out and it has never held water since. But this summer, during what is usually one of our driest months of the year, we have had well over 20 inches of rain! He checked his pond the other day and not only is it filled up with water, but the creek is still flowing into it . . yea! SOOOO.... I am spending a little time each day, dipping and catching the little darlins' so that we can relocate them to Dave's pond. The first bucket that went in acted overjoyed! Oh, how they loved that big, fresh, clear body of water!

Fishing out all of those little tadpoles is a chore, to say the least, but I just can't kill them without a purpose. If they ended up as bird food, snake food (we have watched this happen!) or some other natural food, it wouldn't bother me so much, but I just can't send them to their death for the sole purpose of moving my rain barrels. It just doesn't seem right. I have learned that shining a flashlight on them at night to capture them makes the odd chore much, much easier and faster. If I just leave the rain barrels, no doubt, the new owners would immediately just dump them out thinking they were eliminating a mosquito trap or getting the old barrels out of they way, (or the neighbors so they can walk off with the barrels) so the little tadpoles would still end up meeting their demise.  Relocating them it is!

Maybe they will hang around and gobble up all of Dave's mosquitoes!
Thank you for reading our post. Stay tuned and have a blessed day!

(AF) MOVING UPDATE - - A Buffet and a Piano

My emotions seem to be running on such a roller coaster of highs and lows right now. One minute I am so excited that I found something that survived the flooding and other destructiveness and got it moved, then the next I am at an extreme low when I learn of a total loss of a beloved keepsake.

Three of David's fantastic relatives came yesterday to lend their muscles to move the buffet and my piano. (Bless you all!) The lighting is very dim in this house, especially since I have had to cut most of the power to it off a few months ago. Both of these (piano and buffet) have been stored in a corner in an area we had thought to be one of the safest and driest in the house. When they went to move the buffet, they could see that quite a bit of the laminate was coming off of the back and it had sustained a little bit of some other high humidity damage, but it was movable. It may no longer have its full antique value, but we can still probably refurbish it into our kitchen counter/cabinet in our future Tiny House, as we had planned. I was so glad to see the great, extra pains they still took with the mirror to get it moved safely. That mirror is the original mirror on the piece and supposedly over 100 years old!

My piano, which I have had since I was 5 years old, and matches this buffet, doesn't have such a good ending. It is extra heavy ... an antique upright, player piano. We were so very poor when I received that piano and my dad must have had to pay half or more of his month's paycheck to get it for me. He had seen, even at an extremely young age, how much I adored music and wanted me to have something that would encourage that love over the years. I have had it moved to every house I have ever lived in over the years, always hiring piano movers to move it (it always took at least 4 of their strongest men), but this time, we can't even find a piano store in this town!

David and his helpers tugged and lugged on that old piano and, one broken toe, one asthma attack, one nearly broken arm, another smashed arm, and many more bumps, bruises and pulled muscles later, they finally managed to get it moved the 15 feet to the front door. On the way, pieces began  to drop off. As they got it into better light and looked inside, they could see that all of the metal parts inside were rusted up solid! Also, as the flood water finally made it into this front room during this last, very unseasonable heavy rains, the wood of the bottom half had apparently soaked up much moisture, making the already super heavy instrument, even heavier. Then they tried to get it across the thresh hold. Nope, wasn't happening. (Yes, the piano is on wheels) Even lifting it just two inches over the little hump seemed near impossible. It just wasn't going to move.

I stood there, hugging my beloved piano, tears flowing, and silently telling it good bye ... then told them to just push it back against the wall. I just couldn't ask them to put their bodies through any more to move a piano that could not be repaired (would have cost thousands of dollars and still wouldn't be the same) to be used again, and would only be able to be a wall decoration. Getting it unloaded where it was being moved to was going to be even far more difficult than getting it out of my house, and I could not ask them, nor anyone, to do that.

Through my tears, I asked them if there was anything at all on it that could be salvaged to be repurposed into something else, so I could  at least take part of it for memory sake. Everyone brightened up and the ideas began flowing! So . . . that will be today's project . . . to dismantle what we can of my beloved old piano, and move just a small portion of it.

Thank you for reading my post. Have a fantastically blessed day! ! !

(AF) MOVING UPDATE - Treasured Keepsakes ~ I

Yes, we are still at it, frantically trying to get all of my things moved before time runs out. Time is quickly ticking and there is still LOTS left to move, but we are beginning to see some progress.

As I said, I have lived here for 18 years, it is a large house, with several filled storage buildings. Some things I have not seen in a very long time! During that time there has been a destructive divorce and quite a bit of Nature's destructions, so every time I find a precious keepsake, I get very, VERY excited! It is mind boggling and amazing what manages to survive over the years. Here are some things I came across that I wanted to share with you .  . .

Okay, so why would I have saved baby powder jars? The one on the right is the one that came home in the hospital bag when my mom had me (her first baby). And yes, it still has the original powder in it!
The one on the left is the one that came home in the hospital bag when I had my first baby! It still has a little of the original powder in it. What a difference 19 years made in jar designs! The one on the left is now over 30 years old. I am going to have to see what the new ones look like.

This is the vase my mom received flowers in when she was in the hospital having me. The hands are long gone, and it has a couple of hairline cracks inside, but it is still completely intact and for being over 53 years old, and having been used a LOT for a variety of things over the years, I think it is still in pretty good shape! I used to get into trouble when I was little for playing with it every time I could get ahold of it, because I loved it so much. When I was grown and moved out on my own, my mom finally just gave it to me. Oh, yes, and the baby blanket that the above two items are setting on was also mine, given to me/my mom as a gift when I was born.

Awww.... my Tomahawk! When I opened up an old tub that had been stored for a long time, to see what was in it, this was the first thing that caught my eyes and the memories and tears flowed until I thought I was going to flood the yard again. Oh, how I loved looking for great rocks when I was little! (And still do!) This was a flint rock I found one day when I was out walking the shore at the lake with my dad. We thought it looked like a Tomahawk head, so he said he would make me one out of it, and he did! I wish I could remember what kind of wood the stick was, but it sure has held up!  I am sure I was totally annoying, but I hung over and watched his every move as he made my new "toy."  He worked the handle over with such love and care, then split the end. I was very little, yet I still remember my scared shock as he split that end, thinking he had just ruined that perfect handle! He calmly told me to just watch and wait. He expertly continued on has he inserted the head (rock) and wrapped it up tightly with waxed string. I thought it was finished and ready to play with but he still wouldn't let me have it, yet. I had already thought it was funny that he had put wax on that string, but he said he had to put some more and it had to dry good. He said it would hold it together much better and make it last much longer. It may have been just a "toy" but he wanted it made right and to last a long time for lots of good play. Too bad that kind of care doesn't go into today's toy making!
When it was finally finished, he handed it to me and gave me my "rules of play" (all those do's and don't's). I wasn't about to break any of those rules and get my precious new toy that my dad had worked so hard to make for me, taken away!
Oh the fun I had with that Tomahawk! I can still visualize myself as such a small child, running around in my little leather fringed moccasins swinging around my "real" tomahawk! It must have been a pretty funny sight for all those that saw me, ha, ha, ha. This is one treasure that NO price could be put on and it is MOVED!

Thank you for reading my post, stay tuned, and have a HEAVENLY day!

(AF) MOVING UPDATE - - Receiving Shots Fired !!!

 Today, something I had suspected came to light, more so than I had even imagined. It appears that my next door neighbors have been shooting at my dogs and things in my yard on a regular basis!

A couple of months ago I discovered that my young dog, Sneezy had a big bloody spot on the end of her tail. I had a hard time getting it to quit bleeding and it has taken a very long time to get it to heal up to the point it doesn't drip blood every time she bumps it on something, as she is so active and kept breaking it back open. It looked like the end of her tail had been shot off! Other than that thought, I just couldn't figure out what had happened to it, but I couldn't imagine that would have happened inside our yard.

Fast forward to yesterday morning. As many of you readers know, I have been making most of the dogs sleep outside right now to guard and protect the property (been having attempted break-ins at the gate and the side yard) and protect the trailer as we pack and load it for moving. When I went outside yesterday morning to tell all my babies good morning, I noticed that Dopey's eye was all swelled up, his eyeball was cocked sideways, and there was a bloody red circle just above his left eye. It looked like a BB hole! I thought maybe he had gotten stung by a wasp, but it was really too big of a hole for even a wasp. I cleaned it up and irrigated it with salt water and watched it closely all day. Fortunately, it improved as the day went on and he didn't have to go to the vet. These pictures were take today, after it had healed up quite a bit. We were so blessed it wasn't any closer to his eye!

Bear with me, here. You might remember we have been dismantling our steel storage building. It is now down to just the floor to be moved. Next to that building, on each side, I had some boxes of assorted dishes and vintage canning jars stored (dragged home from the flea market). With all of the recent heavy rains, the boxes had broken open and the jars and dishes had spilled out. Yesterday evening (Thursday), I picked up all the dishes and jars, shook the mud and dirt out of them, and set them up on the floor of the steel building to dry so I could pack them. The few that were broken I set aside. All that were waiting to dry and be packed were thoroughly looked over and not a one was broken.

 This evening, when Dave and I were packing and loading, I started packing up those dishes. I went to pick up one of the jars and nearly cut myself on the bullet hole in it! (1976 Liberty Bell, vintage quart jar, at that!) The fresh, new slivers of glass are easily seen inside of the jar.
Sometime during the night, or the wee hours of the morning, someone had been shooting into my yard! Now I know what the dogs were so violently barking at most of the night. We figure they had been shooting at the dogs and hit my jar. The only place the shots could have come from was the Phipps' property. Will these people ever leave me alone!?!?!?!? Not even knowing we are leaving, will they quit their bullying and harassments!  This area where the bullet holes were found is just a few feet from the house, and only a few feet from where I sit in the evening to relax a bit and enjoy the stars and lightening bugs.

 We started looking around the whole area to see what else might have been shot. There appears to be BB holes on our dog Dusty, our dog Bubba, more on Sneezy, and in another jar. (Vintage Kerr self-sealing) What was very telling about that jar was that where it had been shot, algae/moss had begun to grow in the point of impact. That means that this has been going on for quite some time! With each of us having 5 acres, there is no reason to be shooting that closely to my house and living space, except for intent to harm. I have to wonder, "Will I be next?"



I am absolutely horrified that my dogs have been going through all of this! How often does this happen when I go in to town for errands? I have literally become a prisoner in my own home! I can't leave for fear one of my babies will be injured, and/or property will be injured/damaged or stolen. More and more I am having to ask people to run my errands for me and pick up my groceries because it is just too dangerous for me to leave my property unattended. Recently, my other next door neighbor (Leroy Hacker) even stood at my gate yelling at me, "You never leave! You are always here! You never leave this place and go anywhere!" (I found that very odd for him to say and it made me wonder why he was wanting me to leave so badly), "I am going to come in your yard and kill all of your dogs. I don't like how many you have!" (And yes, he is close friends with the Phipps') 

What I kept thinking was the strangest tick bites I had ever seen on my dogs, and lots of them (perfectly round sores, but no ticks), now looks to be BB shots! My dogs stay in our tightly fenced yard, never getting out. Some of them are even inside an electric fence on top of this, and the gate stays locked 24-7. The ONLY way my dogs would have gun shot sores/wounds is if someone was shooting them within our own yard! ! ! ! KARMA - wish I could see it when theirs comes, but not badly enough to stay here any longer. . . . . . .

Thank you for reading our post . . stay tuned . . . . and have a FANTASTIC weekend!

(Yes, I bought dirty jars and they got even dirtier in the heavy rains, but they will clean up nicely to use for making candle lanterns)

(AF) MOVING UPDATE - Dismantling the Building Pt 3

As some of you have read, I (Anna) am losing my property to an illegal foreclosure and we are frantically trying to get me moved. Right now, we are about to finish up moving that steel storage building that will later by our Tiny Home. We had tried to get our local Towing (Morgan Towing) company to move it. After nearly 2 weeks of a run around and empty promises of calling us back with an estimate, they finally gave us an estimate of a minimum of $2000! Their way of saying 'no'.

Then there was Davis Buildings of Stigler, Oklahoma, whom we purchased the building from. They had said, sure, we can move it. But, once again, we got the run around for over a week, then they basically said they couldn't do it. They said that they could put us on a waiting list and someday, when they were this way delivering a building, they could move it then. Geez! When people move, and need a building moved, they don't have months and months to be on a waiting list to get something moved! We figure that they figure if we liked the building so much, we would just buy another if they didn't move it. WRONG! We DISMANTLED it! Actually, Dave did most of it and I helped.

It turned out to be an absolute blessing that we had to dismantle it to move it. That building was not at all built to the quality that they said it was! It was supposed to be fireproof, waterproof, varmint proof, never going above 95F, nor below freezing, etc. None of that was true!

I had trusted that it would not freeze, nor get too hot in there, so that is where I had all of my candle fragrance oils stored. It DID; however, freeze and got hot at times, expanding and contracting the bottles of oils so much that many of them busted, ruining a huge section of the flooring, not to mention I lost $$$$$$ worth of fragrance oils! So much for that 25-year flooring, too, that nearly nothing was supposed to be able to damage.

The building was not properly sealed. The roof had been sealed, but there were many, many gaps in the sealing, letting in ants! The entire inside of the roof was one, HUGE ant colony! Dave ended up with hundreds of stings/bites before he had the whole building down! For there to have been ant colonies in that building, that meant that water was getting in and it was staying damp inside. Not good!

The ants didn't stop at just the roof. There were millions inside the walls, too! Here is a section of wall where they came rushing out as Dave took the top piece off. I am allergic to ants and if we had had this building moved, we might not have ever known we were living with walls filled with ants until after we had gotten our tiny little home all set up. Again, ants live where it is nice and damp, so that meant that it was staying damp, all the time, in those walls, for the ant colonies to have been as large as they were!

Here is our little building (future home) most of the way disassembled. A storm came up and we had to stop. Looks like I didn't do too badly of a job with the layer of primer I had put on the wood floor before I laid the tiles, as the water really stood on the floor. Would have made a good slip 'n slide! (not really)  We are hoping all that rain didn't further damage the floor. So far, it looks okay.  Dave had a really hard time getting the screws out inside the building. I had painted it awhile back and did so in a way I wanted the screws to blend in with the wall and not show. He said I did a really good job of it! He had such a hard time getting through all of that paint and into the head of the screws to get them out! I felt so very bad for him, but proud of my paint job at the same time, lol. I had never painted metal walls before, and had asked at the home store how to do it. They gave good instructions!

For a professional building, there sure wasn't anything professional in its building quality! This is a picture of the inside of one of the door facings. They either got in a hurry, ran out of materials, or something didn't fit right and they just waded up the metal at the top of this door frame before putting on the door facing! 




Then there were the tiny little blocks off wood just stuck inside of the edge of the door frame, all up and down the frame, to hold the door! Each one was held in with just one tiny screw, easily removed with a hand held phillips head. You can see on the left the little screw holding the block of wood in, and the scrunched up metal above it where they just folded the metal in, rather than make sure it was completely full of the foam insulation and good and solid.  What you see of this wood block is all that there is of them. They do not go all the way back into the door.

Then there was our biggest shock! More proof that the building was NOT property sealed. When David took the walls off, he discovered that the seam at the bottom had not been sealed at all! Water had run down into the ridge that held the walls and that part is VERY rusted, the entire perimeter of the building! Had we just had this building moved and not disassembled it, long about the middle of winter, we would have been all nice and cozy in our little house and the walls would have dropped off! I guess these people don't ever expect anyone to take these buildings apart and see how they are made. But we did, and we DO NOT recommend that anyone ever purchase a building from Davis Buildings in Oklahoma!  We think we caught all the problems in this little building just in time and can make the needed repairs to still use it, very comfortably as our Tiny House, but I would never  buy one of these buildings again. But for now, this is what we have, and this is what we will work with. The concept is great, and they could be nice, cozy, long lasting buildings if built property.

Now, for some GOOD NEWS! ! ! !  We have been given at least 2 - 2 1/2 more weeks to get moved! !  ! Happy Dance! ! !  (except my poor old body is just too tired and exhausted right now to dance. But I am dancing in my head!) God is good! Prayers were heard!
Thank you for reading this post and supporting us, and please keep praying and sending those positive, uplifting thoughts.  Have a terrific day!

(AF) MOVING UPDATE - - Dismantling the Building Pt 2

Although far too slowly for us, dismantling the building is coming along.  So far, all has been possible to do. Not easy by far, but possible. We are still trying to figure out how to move the heavy floor, though.

If you remember, I originally purchased the building from Davis Buildings based in Stigler, Oklahoma. They had said they would move it but gave us the run around until it was too late, so we are dismantling it and attempting to move it that way. It will be our Tiny House to live in. We find it very odd and interesting that, since we first posted about our issues with them a few days ago, their entire website has been taken down! There website had been up for years and I had just used it a week ago. Very odd.

When taking a building like this down, it is very important to study it a bit before beginning, and mapping out the order in which you want to take it apart so that you don't have walls, roof, etc, crashing in on top of you. Those sections are very heavy with many sharp edges and could badly, even fatally, injure someone if not done in a logical and proper order.

We have one lower wall and 2 half ends left to take down. This part is going much faster than the rest. Here are a few more pictures and explanation. . . .

The building was supposed to be leak proof. They assured us of that. Yet after moving things out of it and getting a better look at the walls, we are finding several bad leaks.

We had much of our camping stuff stored under this window, especially our tents. As you can see, this window leaked, BADLY all the way across! Some of our tents and camping supplies got really wet and we lost quite a bit of it. Davis Buildings obviously did not seal things properly. More on this in the next post.

Balcony wall and window removed on one end.

David removing the other balcony wall end. The entire wall could be moved in one piece without doing this, but it is much too heavy for one (even strong) person to do this. The door was also removed and this wall was taken down in three pieces, plus the door.

This wall could be moved in all one, long section, but it was far too heavy that way.

Top part of wall removed. Removed in 3 or 4 sections. The remainder of the wall was removed in 3 part sections. Although still heavy, much easier to carry and move that way. 

We now only have 3 days left to move. I am trying hard to hold up, but I am beginning to break, and break badly at times. Our bodies are harshly arguing against moving any more, and we still have MOST of the moving to do. We have been going at as fast of a pace as our bodies will allow, but it just isn't fast enough. We have not had, nor does it appear we will have, any physical help moving. A couple of people that were had to cancel, but they had legitimate reasons. The rest, well . . . . just didn't seem to truly care and backed out. . . . kind of went into hiding without a word. If we could just, somehow, have more time to move, (and build new animal pens) the two of us could manage to get it done, except for possibly my piano and the wood stoves. I have had my piano since I was 5 years old, moved it to every house I have ever lived in, and now it is in danger of having to be left behind. My beautiful, old, antique piano is more than just a piano, it became a part of me through my entire life and holds the most beautiful and fun family memories. Somehow, I HAVE to find a way to get it moved. But it is super heavy.
PLEASE continue to pray and hold positive thoughts for our move, for a miracle of extended time, and for our health, strength, and reduced pain so that we can do the remainder of the moving. Thank you so much!
And thank you for reading our post. Blessings for a terrific day!

(AF) MOVING UPDATE - - Dismantling the Building Pt 1

Many of you may remember from our recent posts, the run around we got from both, Davis Buildings (1-888-502-4086 300SW A Street, Stigler, OK - where we purchased the building) and Morgan Towing, (Muskogee, OK) when we tried to get our steel building moved. We desperately need to get it moved because that building is what will be turned into our Tiny House, and until then, we will be tenting it indefinitely. So, with no other possibilities of professionals to move our little building, and no more time to get permits, what is a person to do? The lightbulb went off when I was standing there, gazing at the building, trying to figure out what to do. Some may remember that I had come to the realization that the entire building was put together with nothing more than phillips head screws! So, I wondered if we could dismantle it and move it in sections. And THAT , our wonderful readers, is EXACTLY what we are doing!

David took the lofts out first.You have to before you can take the roof off.  The first one was a bit of a struggle, but by the time he got it out, he had the mechanics of the building figured out and the second loft was fairly easy. The building is, indeed, put together in foam filled segments that are about a foot and a half to two feet wide. You can take them apart individually or in longer sections. You simply unscrew the screws on each side of the sections (Be sure and save the screws!!!

The roof hasn't been so simple! Although it was logical, we had not anticipated that each and every seam would be GLUED together with some kind of cheap, but very gripping sealer! SO, not only did David have a scary time up on that ladder taking out screws, some of which were put in very crooked, but he had to pry all that tight holding sealer loose without ripping the metal

And then there were the ants. If you ever try this and are allergic to ants, TAKE PRECAUTIONS! There may have been lots of sealer on that roof, but it wasn't enough to keep out the ants, Actually, it gave them just the home they needed. Up under all those seams, the ENTIRE length of that roof, was the largest ant nest we had ever seen! Dave ended up with hundreds of stings, poor guy. And their sting was powerfully painful! If we had not taken this building apart, we might not have known about all those ants until we were living in it, and that could have spelled disaster! Yes, I am allergic to ants and that would have been a powerful lot of ants to be living with in a home!

As we (mostly David) started taking this building apart. Ideas began coming to us, ideas we might not have come up with if we had simply had it moved. Taking it down ourselves has opened up some great opportunities and ideas for us. For one, after Dave got that first couple of roof sections down, the lighting in that little building flowed in! It was wonderful! So now we are pondering different ways to replace a couple of those sections with plexiglass or something similar, instead of the foam filled metal, to give us sky lights. Wouldn't that be nice! We would have to shade them in the heat of the summer, but it would also reduce how much heat we had to use in the winter. This alone could be worth having to move it ourselves, although some more help in the way of some muscle would have been greatly appreciated, especially when we get to the part where we have to move the floor in one piece.

So, that is where moving the little steel building stands, so far. We have the lofts down and three-fourths of the roof. It is going FAR tooooo slowly, but it is going. We so desperately need a miracle, somehow, of more moving time. I am trying to hold up and keep positive, but it is growing harder and harder to hold it together as I look around me at the multitude of my belongings that still needs to be moved and only a few short days left. Please keep the prayers and positive, uplifting thoughts going, to keep us going and for that miracle of extra time we so desperately need. And for those that are wondering about "work" through all of this. David still has to work his 7-day a week part-time home health job through all of this, and I had to completely halt my flea market and online sales to be able to pack and move. That is to answer those that have been wondering and asking.  And yes, we will be painting the outside of the building with a really good, quality paint. Suggestions are welcome!
Thank you for reading our post and have a fantastic day!

Back of building and loft before removing.

Loft after it was removed. The gray is primer.

A peek at what the inside of the loft looks like.

Bracket that holds the loft.

My Mr. Muscle . . . so stroNG!

A peek Inside the roof. Dense foam.

Cool beans! A skylight! ! !

Three-fourths of the roof off. It got too dark to finish, even with flashlights, and thunder was rumbling.

(AF) MOVING UPDATE - A Very Wild and Memorable Load!

 Yesterday, while Dave worked on things at his end, my mom and I took a load of my cookbooks and more delicate things in her car. Not quite all of my cookbooks made it out, yet. There are still a few scattered around here and there, but I think one more box will do it. I can toss them in as I come across them , then seal them up and go. It is such a relief to know that my most important cookbooks made it out! That might not seem like much to some people, but it is HUGE for me! 

Just as we started to pull away from my house, a few rain drops began to fall. About 15 miles out, the sky opened up! It was one of the hardest downpours I ever had to drive in! I HATE DRIVING IN STORMS! Just as we got to David's, it let up to an occasional drip now and then. I counted that as a huge blessing! We got it all unloaded, left, and the sky opened back up! We had storm to drive in all the way back! Once, my mom nearly jumped out the window. My phone has a storm radio on it and the storm alarm went off. . . LOUDLY! ! !  She didn't know it was on there, or that any phone had them (I didn't either until it went off the first time), and nearly jumped out of her skin. Her friend and neighbor kept in contact and let us know how bad the flooding was getting in Muskogee, where she lives. There was even a large special forces police department unit driving around town looking for flood victims to rescue!  I went cautiously and tried to get back home, but the flooding was just too bad. By that point, we even had a hard time trying to get back to my mom's house, but we finally made it. I was a nervous wreck worrying about all my critters that needed to be fed, especially my dogs, but I figure God decided I needed one good night's sleep under an air conditioner before I jump into this last leg. And the ground needed a good soaking so that I could pop up some starts of my blackberries so we can get a blackberry bed of my variety started. They are so yummy!

When I got home, I discovered that the dogs had solved their own dinner problem. I was afraid that if they got hungry enough, they might try to get into the chickens. But they did something better. As we were emptying the old store supplies from the steel building, I had set a box of stuff to throw away, up on an old shelf outside. The dogs had sniffed out the candy inside of it! In the bottom of the box were lots and lots of old honey straws and gummy burgers. Obviously, they liked the honey straws best. There were only a few empty gummy wrappers, and a big pile of empty honey straws! They had also grazed on the ragweed. They love that stuff! I have one dog that stays fat on it.  My dogs are so smart!

I am betting that as you readers follow along, you are finding it interesting the order in which we choose the most important things to move/save/keep. The decisions have been, and are, extremely difficult to make!. . . . and not without many, many tears Our order, for the most part, has been . . . 1) Animals/Life first and foremost. 2) Keepsakes and Family Heirlooms (although I still have many of those to get out. I am a sentimental old fool for sure)  3) Business and Farm supplies . . . . without them we will not have an income much of any kind after we get straightened back out and settled. 4) Things of great monetary value    5) Everything else I want to keep
What would your order be?

You would think that since the neighbors now know that I have to move out, that they would leave us alone. But NO . . . . . . They have started their crud back up. A few nights ago, over at the Hacker's, they were shooting off fireworks. As they finished, they just had to shoot an aerial, right over my yard, right behind and against my house, raining firework debris everywhere. They don't know it, yet, but they will truly miss having me around to bully, lol. PATHETIC!

Night before last is when we moved out the trailer with most of the stuff out of that storage building (2 storage buildings to go). David left with the long trailer full right after dark. Apparently someone over at the Phipps' must have thought I had left with him, because he hadn't been gone 10 minutes when I heard loud thumps and crashes in the junk pile right behind that storage building! I was outside on the phone, and enjoying the lightening bugs a moment (I will miss their multitude out here), and all the outside dogs were sitting with me, so it wasn't them. But did they ever go running and growling to check it out! A big rustle at the fence and all was quiet again. I made it clear that I was here and would have the sheriff back out in a snap if they tried it again.  10 minutes . . . TEN MINUTES! ! !  is all it took for them to think I was gone and start to pilfer through my belongings! It is getting tough for us to be gone at the same time, which is very inconvenient and slows things down even more. Throughout all of this, we keep constantly catching the neighbors on that side, daylight and dark, peeking through the bushes, through the fence, to see what load we are gathering up next. Regardless of everything, I am so thankful I have my life and not theirs!

Well, back to my packing. Please continue to keep us in your prayers and good thoughts that somehow, we are blessed with the ability and means to do what appears to be the impossible. Our arthritis continues to worsen from the stress, exertion, and unseasonable storms/rain, and one of Dave's legs is almost unfunctioning, which is getting really scary. My bronchitis isn't any better, much, but it IS holding at the stage it is at and we are praying it doesn't roll on over into pneumonia. It is annoying, but I can manage it at this stage. Thank you all so much for reading this post, and continuing to support us in your own way. Have a super terrific day! Bless you!

(AF) MOVING UPDATE - - Still Loads and Loads to Move!

 I am really trying not to let myself get down and instead, keep focused on moving at as fast and steady of a pace as we can, but it is getting really, REALLY hard to do that. We have about one more small load to take out of the steel storage building that we hope will eventually be our Tiny House. There is still no one to move our building, and at this late date, there wouldn't be time to get the needed permits, so we WILL be attempting to dismantle and move it in sections. The decision to do that, though, will come at a price. We are now having to make decisions as to what may be the most important things for life to keep/move. To take the time to dismantle and move that building, may mean two days worth of packed and moved belongings/business supplies that have to stay behind.

My heart is absolutely breaking that we can't get things packed/moved fast enough and the possibility of losing most of what I own is taking me down to a level I can't even begin to describe. I am also filled with so much anger and disappointment for so many of my friends and family members that I know could help, yet, not only are they not giving us a hand, they seem to have totally disappeared into the wood work. Even people I converse with on a regular basis on Facebook and on the phone, have grown silent. This has been an enormous wake up call as to who my true friends are and to whom I can truly count on when needed. About 3 people that can't physically help, donated a little gas money, which helped far more than they can imagine! That generous gesture enabled us to move a couple of loads, loads of belongings that we are certain not to lose, which is a HUGE relief! Bless you two!

One person has brought us lots of sandwiches and munchies. That is a HUGE help! I am hypoglycemic and with all the extra stress and extra exertion, I have had some super bad days with  my sugar levels dropping too low. A couple of days it was so bad that I just couldn't function for half or more of the day, which represents lots of left behind belongings. Keeping us in ready-to-eat, protein containing foods, keeps me going without so many sugar drops, and actually ads a good 2 to 4 hours a day to the time I am able to pack and haul stuff. Without having to take time to build a fire to cook, or going too long without eating proper food and having blood sugar drops, we are able to work much more efficiently. What a blessing! And so are those cold drinks!

We still have left to move . . . . the almost empty steel building, two full small portable buildings to empty and move (Rubbermaid buildings), part of the contents of my little red barn, most of the outside stuff, which includes a 200 gallon propane tank, 5 concrete benches, a large kennel (will have to be disassembled), and countless other outdoor items, heavy, large, bulky and small, plants, too. PLUS we are just now about ready to START inside the house! The stuff inside includes a couple of wood stoves, my upright piano, a buffet, and a few other large, very heavy things, plus all the household items (for several family members, 3 of which can't legitimatley be here) and business items, that flooding didn't damage, which still leaves a LOT. 2600 sq feet of packed full house. And we only have about 6 1/2 days left to move it all in! So, I am getting off of here and getting back to my packing. I have someone coming in a little while to help me move a load. She pulls up to my gate, I load it, head to David's place, he and I unload it, then start all over. People don't seem to realize that, you don't have to do anything but drive to help us get some loads moved. While David is working on building pens at his place (oh, yes, we still have quite a few pens to get built to move the rest of the animals), people with limited physical abilities that do want to help could help us by simply pulling up to my gate, letting me load their vehicle up, drive to David's, then he can unload it on that end.... driving would be the only physical exertion you had to do. But only one person so far as been willing to do even that much and for that person, we are TRULY GRATEFUL! ! !

Okay, back to my packing. Please, at least keep the supportive prayers and uplifting positive thoughts coming! Thank you for reading my post and have a blessed day!