(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 - 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 - Half the Ducks are Moved!

Bunny & Rover

Yesterday was another super slow, tedious moving day. We can't have all these slow days and get everything moved. As it is, it already looks hopeless, but we are not giving up! We WILL get it all moved, somehow!

We moved half of our ducks, our just-starting-to-feather Khaki Campbell ducks yesterday, along with what other items we could cram in Dave's Jeep. The little darlin's had outgrown their baby cage, so it was time to put them in their next up size jumbo growing cage as we moved them. All of our cages seem to be in use as we are moving critters, so we had to refurbish an old one to move them. I have no doubt, now, but that we could have built a new cage much faster than we could have refurbished that old one! BUT, that old one and some remnant cage wire is what we had to work with and it came out pretty good, I might say! Sorry no pics, it was well after dark when we got it finished. But oh those ducks were happy with all that new space!

We also took time to give my Angora rabbit a short hair cut to cool her off and get her ready to be moved. As soon as she adjusts to the short doo a couple of days, she will be moved to the rabbit barn with the meat rabbits. I was afraid such a short haircut on her would be a huge shock, but she is so frisky and flitting all around, now! She seems to love her haircut! She even went to sleep in my arms towards the end of her cut.

The moving is going waaayyy toooo slooowww, still. At the moment, it is just David and me moving things for about the next week. One day of that last week, we may have another set of hands to help, but right now, we are DESPERATE for help!

My COPD flared up and isn't improving at all. I am having to chug bronchitis medicine and I don't like having to do that. We are doing all of this in the heat with no air conditioning, one tiny fan for the dogs that need it inside, and one tiny fan for the Angora rabbit. As some of you remember, we had to cut most of the power to this house due to flooding, to keep it from burning down. It is in the upper 90s, with heat indexes well over 100 degrees. This does not mesh well with COPD. The arthritis in my legs, hip, back and shoulders is badly protesting, too, but it has been worse, so although slowly, I am still moving.

Not so much for Dave, though. His arthritis is EXTREMELY bad right now, and his pain level is through the roof! I have never seen him in so much pain and that breaks my heart. The other day, one of his legs went numb, and now they are both numb and he is not able to walk more of the day than he is able to walk. It is something from an old injury flared up. One small jeep full was all we were able to get loaded yesterday.

We still have mountains and mountains of stuff to move. . .  important stuff. . . . . heavy stuff, oh, so much heavy stuff, still! We aren't even half way, our bodies aren't cooperating, and July 8th will be our last moving day. Gas money to move stuff has pretty much run out, too. Some how, by the grace of God, WE WILL DO THIS!!!
Please keep us in your prayers and uplifting, positive thoughts! Thank you for reading our post and sticking with us! Have a terrific day!

(AF) Two Farms FINALLY Merging Into One, but . . . .

  It is a sad, stressful, high speed move.

We are losing my (Anna's) property to an illegal foreclosure. I am trying to make some time to write out all the details, all that has happened, is happening, and is going to happen, but for now, I will have to be brief. I need to get back to packing and building some more temporary/transport pens.

The payment here ballooned, even with a fixed rate. Over the last few years, it went up several hundred dollars! I tried to do a loan modification, took the steps they told me to take, but they had set me up to turn it into a foreclosure instead, which was their intention all along.

I have been here for 18 years, and these are the houses that the banks (in this case, Bank of America), are pouncing on! Everything they have done so far.is illegal, yet everything just keeps going right on through. I was still thinking I was in loan modification negotiations, then got a letter that I had one month to vacate because my house is being sold in a sheriff's sale on July 9t!. Only one month to move an entire farm of 18 years! Although it has  been just me here for a long time, now, there are still 8 people's belongings here to go through and pack.

We now have only 2 weeks left and not nearly half way through. My COPD has badly flared up, along with my arthritis. Dave's arthritis is just BAD, to say the least. He is barely walking and can't at times. We have planned all along for me to move in with Dave and merge our farms, but we weren't quite there, not quite ready yet. We were turning Anna's Farm into a Homeless Eco Village and was laying the ground work here before we moved me over to Dave's Farm. We were getting close, and even had our first couple soon on their way (they were just waiting for a bus ticket), when all this hit.

What we really find odd, is that, all this time, we had mostly been working quietly on the Homeless Village. But as soon as we made our plans public and had our first couple on their way, the foreclosure hit. Coincidence? I think not!

Please keep us in your prayers and lifted up with your positive, energetic thoughts. Our bodies have already given out, money is all gone (each load is a 2 hour round trip) and we have a long, long way to go with the moving, and still have all of the ultra heavy stuff to move. At the moment, it looks impossible. Right now, it appears I will have to be walking away from half of my life long possessions and business supplies we have accumulated, but we aren't giving up! We are determined and positive that help will come from somewhere to help us get everything moved out of here.

Thank you for reading our post and staying with us, even when we are away for long periods of time. Have a blessed day!