Nov 16 – Week 3 of moving in begins by getting a delivery of six, 5ft white pine trees that we were placing at the western edge of our property to act as a windbreak. The delivery driver is an older fellow who expressed horror at the idea of hauling each of the 200 pound trees between 40 and 400 ft through frozen field and icy mud by himself. Can’t say I blame him. Apparently the person who took our order for the trees forgot to add where and how we needed them placed. The driver called in reinforcements and after an hour or so each of the trees were lying on their sides by the stakes I had placed. Over the next two days, Tom and I dug holes 4ft wide and about 2ft deep and set each of those trees in their new home.
Nov 17 – The satellite TV and internet folks were to arrive at 10am for a 5 hour installation. They showed up at 6pm. (Ugh! #7) You read that right. 6:00 in the evening – in the dark – in icy mud. Oh they were so happy to install it for us! (/s for the snark impaired) In any case they did manage to get it done in just under 5 hours – so they left by 10:30pm.
Nov 19 – Closing day! Although we have been unpacking every day and getting deliveries and installations done, we still don’t have the finalization of the build. A technicality, but we were expecting a check back since they didn’t spend all of the expected amount. We are still expecting to spend that money on the home – finishing the driveway, an enclosure for the future tractor, riding lawn mower and little boat. In addition, it will help us get the tractor itself since that will help us get the property on its way to being a pasture instead of mud.
Nov 20 – Our new freezer finally arrived! In other non-unpacking news, I managed to figure out the washer and dryer, microwave and the oven. The induction range needed to be cleaned and instructions read. Yeah – it wasn’t obvious.
Nov 21, 22, 23 – Thanksgiving! This is a wonderful one! We bought our first groceries and cooked a simple meal. Tom hung our new TV on the wall. Great days for relaxing, watching movies and just catching up on resting.
Nov 24 – Kitten day! Tom and I have been talking about adding a kitten. They are like chips – can’t ever have just one. Our first is Matai, which I briefly mentioned in an earlier post. Matai showed up on our doorstep on Sept 21. At that time he was a scrawny 4 pound – 4 month old ball of confident gray fuzz. Now he is about 7 pounds and is at the 6 month old mark. At that time, I had just opened my laptop and looked up Petfinder when I heard plaintive meowing. At first I thought it was the website. Annoyed, I closed my laptop, but still heard meowing. Looking through my glass door of my apartment, he was just sitting there – no people around, no collar – totally helpless. He saw me and put his tiny paws up on the door as if begging for help. I opened the door and fed the starving little fellow. After checking to be sure he was not being claimed by anyone, I took him to the vet for a checkup, shots, neutering and microchipping and such.
He is turning into a fine young cat who really needs a playmate. So, on the 24th Tom and I went to our local humane society shelter to see what kittens they might have. I had seen on Petfinder that they had several Maine Coon/mix kittens. When we got there, the ones I had seen had already been adopted, so we asked if they had any others. Yes, they have zillions of kittens, but only one Maine Coon left and that one had already been spayed and first shots done. They were waiting for the second round of shots in a few days and was about to put her cute little fur face on the website. She is 9 weeks old, 6 inches tall and about 2 pounds. She has long orange hair (like me!). She is very calm or she was really tired and in need of a long nap. Also like me! I guess we will find out on the 28th when I can pick her up. We have set up one of our guest bedrooms for her so she can be introduced slowly to us and Matai. I suspect that once she figures out that Tom and I are the source of all good things such as food, safety, toys, and love, she will blossom.
(Update – we named her Aisha)
So now we are all caught up. We are still unpacking and hanging pictures, but we still have a lot of work to do. More to come…