Long distance communication

If you are moving long distances, as we just did, and one of you is here and the other there it really comes in handy to have access to texting. We have been texting back and forth for the last week and a half and it really helped us in dealing with things that cropped up, feeling a part of what's going on, and keeping the all important cell bill to a minimum. Isn't technology wonderful?

Please text responsibly.

Wildlife, we've got wildlife

Jeannette has been walking Logan along the road that the house is on and learning all about the area as she meets our new neighbours. We are in the Annapolis Valley, in an area known as the Bear Belt and the Snow Belt. Apparently we can expect 3 feet of snow at times, and Black Bears wonder the plentiful forest areas around us.

We also have Deer sleeping in the grass behind the house, and lots of Toads, birds and other fauna. This doesn't take into account the many rivers, creeks, and lakes and the wildlife that will be found there.

Awesome!

Cardboard pick-up is going to be tough this coming week

The furniture and boxes have arrived and are now in the house being sorted out and put in place. It took 4 movers 5 hours to unpack the truck into the house and garage in the pouring rain - but now the house feels more like home. Gizmo is now much happier, since he has a familiar place to lie on - the bed. Logan will be much happier, since his food will have a place a lie - the fridge. Jeannette is much happier because everything arrived safely, and she has a comfortable place to sit, sleep, and eat at.

This good news also means lots of unpacking, and with 80+ boxes that means a lot of recycling of cardboard.

While we wait for furniture to arrive...

here are some recent photos of the house, taken by Stephanie when she was at the pre-delivery inspection. You can see the garage and chicken coop in one, and the back deck (with Christa sitting) in another. The hanging flower baskets are quite nice, and while I was sitting on the veranda on Wednesday morning a hummingbird flew up to it.

The story of the cat, the dog, and the plane

After a fairly stressful process of moving everything out of the house Gizmo and Logan had to suffer through the jostling, waiting, psychologically exhausting plane trip to Halifax. Gizmo was still hiding under the bathroom vanity when I left, though I'm sure a big part of it was because there's nothing there for him to feel comfortable about, which will change when the furniture arrives (more on that in another post). Logan is doing just fine, and while he still follows us around wherever we go he seems to have settled quite well into his new home in the sunroom.

Both of them came off the flight without injury and the WestJet people were awesome in making sure that we had whatever help we needed to ensure minimum difficulty.

The poor quality picture above is of the 2 crates going up the belt to the plane (I took it with my camera phone, which isn't quite up to snuff, but at least it got the idea across).

The last night with Logan and Gizmo in Ontario

We are preparing for the flight tomorrow morning to Halifax, and Logan and Gizmo are sticking to me like glue. They know something is up, and so they don't want to let me out of their sight.

Logan and I went for our nightly walk and Lake Ontario is quite rough. I tried to get some video of it, but it's just too dark, and the sound was not doing the wave action any justice. Here are a couple of grainy images to give you the impression of what we saw. I know that this is one thing I will miss about being close to the lake - then again, we are close to so many bodies of water in Nova Scotia that waves will be easy to find.

Surviving without food or Brita water

After having spent half a day in the house without a fridge or stove (or furniture, with the exception of the computer desk, chair, and a futon) it makes me wonder how people survive after catastrophic events like a hurricane. I can only imagine what hardship of that magnitude is like, but I really miss the fridge - Doritos don't quite cut it. Luckily, invitations to dinner have prevented needing to live on them.

I slept on the futon last night, with Logan taking up half the mattress on one side and Gizmo tucked in behind my knees. It was as though they needed the solice of being close after the events of the day. Tomorrow they take their first flight on a plane.

Jeannette and Stephanie are past Moncton now, making good time and should comfortably make it to Halifax by 2:00 pm.

On the Road

The movers have been, packed, and gone. If there's one tip that I can leave you with it's that you never really know what you have until you pack it. We counted the boxes, and as we reached 60 we realized that we had more stuff than we thought. As we reached 75 we started to think that we should have purged more, but the truth is that you can't get rid of things that mean something to you. Pictures, books, dolls that you had as a child - they all have meaning to you, and the reality is that you may not have used it in the last few months, but you're packing it because it means something to you.

That being said, junk is still junk, so don't keep that broken toaster because it looks good. It's still junk.

Necessity is the mother of invention

How do you pack yard tools for a move. We looked at a few different options and came up with this one as a solution to the problem. We'll let you know what the movers think of it tomorrow.

How to make an already arduous task more difficult

So...as we approached the big day, with only 2 days to go I decided to add an extra level of difficulty to the job of packing everything up. While running with Logan on Friday night I went over on my ankle (the left ankle this time - having done the same thing to the right a few years ago playing ball hockey) and this is what it looks like. At least we're not loading the truck and driving down on Sunday, so I just need to get through the next 2 days and we'll be all set.

Doh!

48 hours to go

We've been packing for what seems like an eternity now. While the end is near it still seems like there's a never ending amount of stuff to get organized. It's also been remarkable how often we've had people excited about taking stuff that we're not moving and then not come by to pick it up. We can't seem to give it away! Crazy. Back to the boxes.

Now that's an adventure!

I'm not sure if any of you have heard of this blog, but Jeff Barbee, a photographer from South Africa, is travelling the Atlantic to bring awareness of climate change to the world by using islands as the litmus test for the planet.

There are some great photos, and he gives a good sense of what it's like to undertake such an adventure.

If prisoners had to pack all day there'd be no crime

Well, that's probably not even close to being reality, but when you have to pack for a major (or even minor) move the hours seem to drag on and on and...you get the idea. We purchased 2 'moving kits' from AMJ Campbell that contain a number of large, medium, and small boxes, bubble wrap, plate dividers, foam sleeves, and packing tape. Possibly the worst packing tape ever manufactured - it won't even stick to itself.

Combined with the need to pack, is the need to get rid of that stuff that you're not going to take with you. We've had a couple of yard sales ("How much for the thing-a-ma-bob? 50 cents? I'll give you 25." It's only 50 cents for a fully functioning thing-a-ma-bob, which would cost you 20 bucks to buy on eBay from a guy in Rhode Island. Some people just have to haggle, no matter what the price.) We've dropped off car loads to Goodwill. We've been to Environmental Day and gotten rid of toxic stuff and old computers. But we still have things that didn't make it through the sifter the first few times. And that means there are lots of garbage bags at the curb come Thursday morning.

Above are some examples of packing tape sculpture - the baby pulling the sign post is my personal favourite.

We'll, it's now August

August is finally here and that means that moving month has arrived. It's been a long time since we visited Nova Scotia and purchased the house - in a way it feels almost too long, since we've been in a virtual limbo ever since. The packing has begun in earnest, with 10 boxes packed already and approximately 55 more to go. I've found that using my art and computer books as packing material has helped spread the load and reduce the need for crumpled newspaper and folded cardboard. It also means that there aren't going to be 3 or 4 heavy boxes of books, just 10 heavier boxes of other stuff.

We've had the House Closing Party, and now we're trying to get in all of the visits to people that we haven't been able to connect with properly over the last months. With a move of this distance we're not sure when we're going to have the chance to see some of you over the next few years. With relatives coming to visit from Scotland this weekend it makes the job even more difficult, so please don't be offended if we aren't able to get together - we are thinking of you.