Amish Country

I hadn’t been to Lancaster County’s Amish country in many years, and Leslie had never seen any Amish life. So this was the perfect jumping off point for our cross country trip. IStockphoto has recently opened up an editorial class of images which do not require model releases, and I’ve been keeping an eye open to specific locations with people. The Amish prefer not to have their pictures taken, so I kept my distance and only included them as incidental parts of the image. I would love to have gotten some closeups of the hats and bonnets, but I’ll leave those for people with longer lenses or more chutzpuh.

One of the images I wanted was the sign for Intercourse. If you hang around long enough fooling around with composition and exposures, a horse and buggy will surely come along. I got lucky and also caught a guy standing on a buckboard led by three horses.

We stopped at a tourist trap compound of shops and had a Lebanon bologna sandwich. For once I thought to shoot the sandwich before biting into it. I liked the way the meat was tucked under on the edges.

Sunday into Monday

On Sunday, we we worked nonstop wrapping up. As the PODS container filled up, I made some decisions. The first one was a no brainer: I didn’t need to schlep the old-style tube TV to California. I could buy a new flat screen TV on the other end. I don’t watch TV much anyway. Then came the issue of the mattresses for my bed, and where to slip them in at the end. I decided there was nothing special about my double bed, so it would be pitched (I kept the frame though, which comes apart to long skinny pieces).

Then by some miracle, Mel, my friend who took away donations earlier in the week for his church, showed up to take extra folding tables for the animal rescue shelter in his town. I offered him the TV and bed for the women’s shelter, so he took them off my hands. Linda and Henry also came by to take back the 50s dinette set I had taken from Henry a few years ago, so that disappeared from the porch.

Leslie and I started hauling other things out to the curb for lucky trashpickers, and eventually we were left with only cardboard boxes and plastic not used for packing. By now it was past midnight, and we started cleaning the house and making recycling center runs for the excess cardboard. Halfway through the office room, the vacuum cleaner developed a clog we couldn’t shake loose, so we turned to the shop vac in the garage for the carpets, and a corn broom for the rest. While Leslie vacuumed, I cleaned up the walls that were concealed earlier.

When we thought we were almost done I remembered that I hadn’t checked the loft area in the garage. Turns out I had stashed a lot of junk up there that should have been thrown out. Outdated software and books and other obsolete computer stuff. I divvied it up so some went to the curb, some to paper recycling, and some to trash.

By the time the sun came up, we were almost done with the cleaning. I waited until around 8 am to use the leaf blower in the garage so the noise wouldn’t be a problem.

Somewhere along the line we took our showers and organized our stuff for the car trip. Somehow it all came together around noon, when I finally put the orange plastic seal on the PODS box and we declared our job done. I left some small items for the new owners and a note wishing them all the best. After stopping by the post office to return my PO box key we headed to Panera’s to grab a bite, check the internet and develop a game plan.

About 10 minutes after leaving Panera, I pulled over and declared that I could not drive another minute without some sleep, so we took a power nap in a random parking lot on route 70. Refreshed, we headed out to the Amish country in the Lancaster, PA area, only a few hours away, for our first destination. By the time we got there it was too late to actually do anything and we were exhausted. So we found a MacDonald’s with wifi and bought sub-par coffee drinks so we could hop on the internet and find a cheap motel that took dogs. The Knight’s Inn we found was pretty foul, but the price was right, and best of all for Star, they had a nice grassy area for some doggie soccer.

Settlement postponed!

Thursday afternoon when it was clear the house wasn’t going to be emptied and cleaned by Friday morning, Sandi called with news that the buyer’s mortgage company was delaying settlement. What a relief! I desperately needed more time. Ultimately, the delay would be more than a couple of days, so Sandi and I arranged to meet with the title company Friday afternoon to take care of anything I had to sign, then give Sandi POA to sign anything else on the actual settlement day.

The buyers had already moved out of their other house and were crashing at the parents, so they were anxious to move in. We agreed for me to stay through Sunday, and on Monday, they would move in and pay me rent until settlement.

The first thing Leslie and I took care of was moving the two difficult pieces of furniture: the sofa bed and the industrial sewing machine. Dave had suggested a few days earlier that it would take 3 strong guys to move the sofa bed. But Leslie and I thought about this, and ended up ‘tumbling’ the bed end over end, with cheap comforters laid in the path. We got it to the pod without even breaking a sweat, let alone our backs. So no, not 3 strong men. Just 2 smart women.

Next was the sewing machine. It’s a 4-foot table with a removable sewing machine head on top (so no problem there), and a heavy motor affixed to the underside of the table, making it 80-100 lbs. And it was in Jeanne’s basement. Armed with confidence about the couch, Leslie and I headed over to Jeanne’s and after about half an hour conceded defeat. I called Sandi, who made a phone call, and the next morning, two teenagers showed up and we got the deed done in just about an hour. I paid them $75 each which was 3 times what they were expecting. It was $150 well spent!

Down to the wire… 3 days to go

I’ve been so busy doing the final wrap up that I haven’t had time to post. I decided to show you what my POD looks like when most of the boxed items have gone in, and a little bit of furniture. The left foreground is quilts and empty bins; they aren’t part of the packed stuff.

 

POD in progress

The vertical supports are 4 feet apart. The back section is nearly filled with boxes of all sizes, things I’ve been boxing up for the past several months. The next section is about half filled. Next I’m loading in the rest of the furniture and then the last of the boxes within the furniture (shelves, drawers, etc.) I think I’ll have enough room.

My former neighbors Allyson and Dave have been very generous with their time, and have helped me load larger items, and even brought me food on Sunday! THey’re coming again tomorrow evening. Tomorrow morning my friend Pat is going to help me carry out a couple of tall Ikea bookshelves, then treat me to a farewell lunch. Denise took me out Friday, and Phyllis and Penny, friends from my women’s business group, took me out last night.

My friend Mel came by today to haul away a lot of stuff destined for his church’s women’s shelter program. He’s also a handyman and carpenter, and has a friend who recycles metal, so he hauled away a lot of other junk too. Tomorrow a woman comes to take away a lot of stuff for a fundraising garage sale, to help finance a missionary trip to Haiti in January.

Mike, the former neighbor who bought my kayaks, came by Sunday and bought the lawn mower. Jeanne came by yesterday and took the recliner, and Thursday Sylvia, the person I bought the house from in ’96, is coming to take a few items to sell on consignment. Now if I could only get Verizon to come and take away the T-1 equipment that I took out of service 5 years ago. I might end up taking a hacksaw to it.

My goal is to get everything loaded by Thursday morning, and spend the rest of the day cleaning and taking the unused boxes to the recycling center. I’m afraid I won’t get around to power washing the back patio and certainly can’t use the leaf blower in the rain we’re having. Just as well!

First piece of furniture moved

I met some nice people from the TrashToTreasure mailing list (the local version of FreeCycle), who came to pick up some mailing boxes. I got them years ago – paid for them even – but when I started using Priority Mail exclusively, I had no need for them. Why didn’t I get rid of them 10 years ago? I guess Michele and Alan, the couple who responded to my offer, were meant to have them.

Soon as they left, Maria, from Philadelphia, pulled into the driveway to see me one last time. We had a nice visit and she showed me MapQuest’s iPhone App that rivals a typical GPS, with spoken directions and buttons to find gas stations, grocery stores, post offices, and other points of interest. This will come in handy for the drive across. My Garmin does all this too, but the iPhone app is much more visual and immediate. And if the place of interest has a phone number, naturally, the iPhone is smart enough to let you call with just a touch.

Allyson and Dave, my former neighbors who were also Star’s caretakers whenever I travelled, came over after Maria left and helped me move a couple of pieces of furniture into the POD. After loading it with nothing but small boxes for the past month, this was a symbolic step. I was afraid the POD wouldn’t hold all my stuff, but now I think it is going to be plenty big.

No sooner had they left, than a guy stopped by to pick up about 100 wire coat hangers, another offer I posted on TrashToTreasure. Sounds like I had a lot of activity today, but I actually got a lot done. The place is starting to empty out!

Game Night at my house

My game group (we play at Linda’s in Philly) came over to my house last night to play one last time before I left town. We used to play almost weekly, then it became monthly, then bi-monthly, then even less frequently. And on top of that, we hardly ever have everyone at once any more, and we haven’t played at my house in about 4 years. So it was a real treat when I had a full house last night with Frank, Linda, Kevin, Dave, Andy, Carolyn and Tammy. We played Power Grid and I just missed winning by a hair. Carolyn edged me out.

I tried to send everyone home with something: photographs, pots and pans, half-used pantry items, potted plants, etc. Frank even went home with a vintage version of the game Gettysburg that he thinks is worth something. (Yeah Frank, all you need is a buyer. That mint condition 1962 version of Risk that you and Kevin said would fetch hundreds is only getting $20 – $30 on eBay.)

Oh yeah; hurricane update. Much ado about nothing in my part of the woods. Luckily I got away with 5″ inches of rain and a 12-hour power outage. No high winds, no fallen trees, no flooding. Other parts of the state didn’t fare so well. One of my friends further east is without power until next Monday! A tornado went through his area. His house is fine; it was a transformer that blew up.

Amy’s Ladies at the Lake and Jane’s goodbye dinner (14 days to go)

Amy’s neighborhood comes with a nice lake, so she had a few friends over today. Joanna came, Sandi, my realtor, Amy’s friend Miriam, and Amy and me. Amy put out a nice spread of sandwiches, watermelon and tomatoes from Miriam’s city garden before we headed out to the lake. We sat around chatting, largely about preparations for the upcoming hurricane of historic proportions. (Didn’t we just have an historic event a couple of days ago?) Stan brought down a couple of the kayaks and Sandi and I enjoyed a paddle around the lake, likely my last paddle in NJ, at least the last one for a very long time. The water was the unique amber cedar color I love so much. Incidentally, when our last big rain turned the backyard into a large pond, I noticed that it was amber too.

I got back in time to move my recycling bin, trash can and some potted plants into the garage, and move some things so they wouldn’t take off the category 2 winds. Then it was off to Medford Leas to have dinner with Jane and Liz, a few pals from my rock and fossil life. We had a great visit and I picked up some tips on car camping from Liz (Liz’ blog is in my blogroll). Here is me with Jane:

There was still enough light left when I got home to shovel some dirt on the far end of the house to fix a grading problem that Star created with her relentless hunt for chipmunks, and the resulting rearrangement of earth. The storm won’t hit until tomorrow night, so I still have part of Saturday to fret over stuff like this and ward off any potential problems with water.

Last round of decluttering

A lot of people are wondering how I’m coming with the packing. Actually I started packing about 2 years ago when I began the decluttering necessary for selling a house. Gradually neat stacks of boxes appeared in the garage, and when my PODS container was delivered earlier this month, I immediately loaded in a couple dozen boxes. Now I’m tackling hidden clutter in closets, drawers, and boxes that had been stored in the garage from the last time I moved. This condenses to about a 3:1 ratio, whether due to better packing, or weeding out obsolete or unimportant ‘stuff’. I donated several bags and boxes to Purple Heart this week, and have people lined up to take the final excess in my last week here.

It feels really good to live in an airy environment and I hope I can keep this up in my new smaller digs. I’ve already touched bases with storage facilities in Ojai and Ventura, so I can park seldom-needed boxes in an out of the way location.

Here is a photo of my bedroom as it looks now. Sadly, I did not take before pictures. Just trust me that the room was starting to close in on me.

Angling the bed, fresh new bed linens, and using the shelves for displaying my own art turned my bedroom into an inviting space.

This is the living room now, devoid of excess chairs, rocks, boxes, a big stereo viewer, etc. Angling the rug and furniture leads you from the front door to the doorway into the kitchen.

Earthquake! (17 days left)

Today I visited my friend Joanna, who’s a fellow gardener and photographer. I kept meaning to get over to her house to see her gardens, but never got around to it. So now 17 days before leaving town, I finally made it. Her gardens are lush and wonderful, English cottage-like, surrounded by woods and picket fences, and at the dead end of a quiet street. (One of these days I’ll remember to pull out my phone and take some pictures.) Then we went inside for a look at her photography and memorabilia from her world travels. She heated up lunch and we sat down at the counter to eat. We finished and sat there chatting when Joanna said “We’re having an earthquake!” And sure enough, for the next half minute we sat there in wonderment as the the ground shook. We both recalled the 1971 Sylmar earthquake when we were both living in southern California.

I left about a half hour later, and got all the details on the car radio: Historic 5.8 earthquake centered in Virginia, and felt all the way up to Canada and over to Ohio. Philadelphia businesses shut down and sent people home early, in case the buildings sustained damage.

When people hear I’m moving to California, they usually come around to saying something about earthquakes. Of course I counter that with something about east coast hurricanes.

18 days to settlement

Less than 3 weeks away. I really should have everything packed up and ready to roll a few days before settlement so I have time to clean up the place for the new owners. The POD is in the driveway now and I’ve moved a lot of boxes which were packed as long as a year or two ago, when I first started decluttering the house. Now I’ll be packing the final household stuff. Mostly I’m moving boxes. I’m not taking the larger pieces of furniture since I’m downsizing anyway. Today I’ll take a photo of my couch and see if I can sell it on Craig’s list.

Below is the house in NJ and the garage apartment in Ojai, CA. (I won’t be taking my lawn mower.)