More Move Preparations

Mailing the retirement paperwork!

This phase, 32 days from 'first motion' to Woodman's Lee, is a combination of drudgery and hopeful anticipation, mixed in with some anxiety.

Drudgery involves sorting, packing...and now getting estimates for moving. But we're making progress. S negotiated an early end to our lease, saving us enough money to pay for the horse transportation and a fair bit of our move, too.The gas grill was placed at the curb yesterday and it was gone in an hour. The retirement paperwork was completed and mailed. I will process the official termination this week. I cancelled my subscription to Aviation Week (after 30 years!)- its substitute will be Mother Earth News. This week we have to contact the Building Department to get information on building the barn and outbuildings, too. We'll need to arrange for movers if we will use them for packing and unpacking, otherwise we already have a transport company reserved.
We took loads of stuff to Goodwill and send more boxes of keepsakes to the kids. S emptied the upstairs closet, and the bed will be sold. It's a lot of solid progress, just a little bit every day.

The hopeful anticipation is the fun part. We discuss where to locate the outbuildings, the clothesline, where we'll park (down the driveway because mud season is coming), our mailbox, the design of the fences, new windows, the garden and of course, the barn and horses. We debate keeping chickens and ducks.

The anxiety is normal, I suppose. We wonder how we'll survive the winter, if the horses will weather the trip and transition to their new home, if the dog will wander off and we'll have to place an ad like the ones we see every day, and even how long our septic system will last. But we have our health and the finances look ok, so those are two big worries off the table...for now.