This week we’ve been packing and moving. The garage in our current house is filling up with boxes and the garage at the rental is filling up with furniture. After this weekend we’ll have made seven trips with my little truck. It’ surprising just how much will actually fit in that truck. Sure it’s not an F-250 but it holds enough so that between loading and unloading we’re pretty beat by the time we get home. The best trip though, was the first one. We got over to the rental with the first load only to discover they had given us the wrong key. So the first load is parked at Barbara’s place.

Mind you we don’t plan to take everything over before we leave for Minnesota next week. The cats are staying in the house while we’re gone so we want enough in here that they will be comfortable. What we're not taking now we're packing so when we get back the rest will be ready to go.

Now, all this moving has taught me a few things. First Marsha has let me secure each load. “You’re the one who’s good with ropes”. The thing is I know exactly three knots, a square knot, that funny knot we used to tie down airplanes at my folks shop, and a noose because I went to a REALLY tough junior high. Everything else is a Half Tangle. I never was a Boy Scout. Indeed I was one of those kids that always made fun of the Scouts in school. (What the heck IS a Webelo anyway? I mean I know what a Cub is and I know what a Boy is, but Webelo Scouts have always seemed a bit undefined. I wonder if Webelo means early onset acne.) So ropes and knots are not one of my strengths. But for some reason Marsha is convinced that I know far more than she, who grew up on the farm, roping cattle, tying hay bales, securing tractor loads, and making fishing nets out of twine does. [EDIT: I never did any of that, Marsha] It’s odd.  Finally after fighting with the rope for a few trips we stopped by Canadian Tire and I got some webbing straps with ratchet things on the ends to tighten them up. They’ll work much better than clothes line and my normal Moron-Hitch.

I learned something on that visit to Canadian Tire. I learned the meaning of Gratuitous Packaging.

Is there anything more manly than webbing tie-down straps for a pick-up truck? I never thought much about it but apparently it implies testosterone to somebody at Canadian Tire. When I got the package home I discovered that the front was plastic with a cardboard back, nothing unusual about that. But rather than the normal plastic straps or heat welded seal, the back was held to the plastic with eleven sheet metal screws. Apparently somebody there thinks that real Canadian men , buying real manly things want to use a screwdriver to open a blister pack. I wonder if they also weld their Happy Meals closed.

We did get back into the house that we’re buying to take pictures and measure the rooms. I took a tape but the agent that let us in had one of those super accurate digital devices that use a laser to measure the distance. I discovered that in the hands of someone like the agent it’s accurate to within a foot in a twelve foot room. Not quite sure how he managed it but he literally couldn’t measure the broad side of a barn with a laser rangefinder. I’ll have to interpolate a lot to draw a halfway usable floor plan.

But this was the same guy that gave us the wrong key to the rental so it was about par for the course.

Doug & Marsha

P.S.: The flower in last week's letter is a potato flower. I've seen potato plants but never one in bloom before. I would have never guessed that something like the lowly potato would have such a pretty flower.
P.P.S.: We heard about the storms in MN this week. Rick, Jody and family - No, you are not allowed to have your new house blown away before we even get a chance to see it.

PIX: The New House

The living room, Doug and the Agent with his [surprisingly inaccurate] laser measuring tape. No it's not our stuff.


A better shot of the beautiful fireplace in the living room


The kitchen, smaller than our current one but recently redone so it'll do. Does anyone know if you can paint brand new but amazingly ugly formica countertops? Seriously, I think the formica pattern is 'Flaky Rust Balls'.


The Deck, I'll be able to leave my telescope set up all the time and just wheel it out to look at the stars. The space not covered by the awning is even larger than the space that is covered.


The Back Yard and the top of the stairs down to the garden area.


Looking up the stairs from the garden area toward the workshop and the back of the house. No we don't get the kayaks.


Raised bed garden plots and the greenhouse, with well established rhubarb, lettuce, chive, and the big leaf purply stuff. We have no idea what that is but we're going to assume it's edible. There's a lot of plants around the yard that we have not identified yet. Jean, I think we will need your help with that the next time you come up to visit.