Up Up And Away!

I’m no longer in East Tennessee -

I’m outta here and Chicago bound!

Me Me Me

Honestly, why are people SO clueless?!

If you were boarding a plane, would you wait until you placed your bag in the overhead compartment and then, while holding up the boarding process, proceed to root around in your bag to find and take out your tablet?! All the while taking your time, as if you’re the only one that exists?

GRRR! Inconsiderate POS!

Phew! Okay, I feel better now. Thanks for listening.

Got “Flipped” Off!

Here’s an interesting one for y’all!

Actually, I find it a bit troubling if I’m being honest, and perhaps a sad sign of the times and where we are as people.

So, the picture above is an image that Amazon provided as proof that my package had been delivered - package circled in red; standard Amazon protocol.

However, the first issue is that is NOT a picture of my house! It’s NOT a picture of my stoop and front door! Nor is it a picture of my table! Which means, the package was NOT delivered to me!

The good news is that’s a picture of my neighbors house. Her stoop and front door, and her table. So no problem, we’ll stop by and simply pick up my package…

The second issue - Our neighbor, Merle, an 82 year old woman, answered the door. She was very friendly, chatty and welcoming to the neighborhood. However, she played Mickey-the-dunce and with a straight face, following a slight pause, flatly denied seeing or having any knowledge of my package - I kid you not!

The package contained a small cookie spatula, which works perfectly for flipping over easy eggs. It also had my name and address on the package too. Now, I’m guessing she wouldn’t know or recognize my name but she would most definitely know my address seeing that’s it’s new to the neighborhood! 

The one certainty that is highly unlikely is that Merle ordered a cookie spatula too. 

I’m struggling with a 82 year old nana type woman doing something like this, alas. 

All I can say is karma baby! It’s called karma and it will come a knocking on old Merle’s door one of these days.

We’ve Rehomed Some Veggie Plants!

And we’re off!

We picked up some veggie plants and got them in the ground yesterday afternoon!

Nothing fancy but that wasn’t the goal, rather hoping to further kickoff our homesteading -

(2) Early Girl tomatoes 🍅, (2) Better Boy tomatoes 🍅, (2) Green Bell Peppers 🫑 , (1) Red Bell Pepper, (3) Zucchini and (4) Cucumbers 🥒 

I have no idea how anything, except kudzu and poison ivy, can grow in this East Tennessee red dirt! We did our best to add some compost with each plant we planted so we’ll see how green our green thumbs 👍 are…

The Sky’s A Fire Tonight

What a beauty tonight -

Can’t beat front porch sitting!

#Blessed

Lights! Too Bright!

No, this is not am image from the Iran war!

So much for peaceful, relaxing nighttime front porch sitting -

This is a light that’s mounted below a cell tower, on a hill to our left when sitting on our front porch. 

As you can see it’s extremely bright, and for some odd reason, it’s pointed out not down towards the base of the tower, and directly at us!

We mistakenly assumed our homestead would be in complete darkness at night but that’s just not the case with this dude and a couple other neighbor's lights, alas.

Guessing it’ll be more bothersome come fall when the leaves have all dropped, we’ll see. Until then we’ll make the best of it, as the saying goes - “you can’t pick your neighbors…”

A tad obnoxious for sure…

Shoo! Scat! Scram!

Um, seems we have a cat now…

This was an odd site to see first thing in the morning because we do NOT have a cat!

Believe this is one of the many cats we’ve seen down at one of the neighbors houses off Pritchard.

I’d sic Ms. Trixie after it but worried she’d get her butt kicked, alas.

A Lot Of Buzz

I’ve missed you!

Finally reunited with my Oral-B toothbrush!

It’s the simple things…

First Night In New House!

It’s taken some time, more time than I expected anyway, but here I am about to spend my first night (in my own, literally, bed) in my new house, Ms. Trixie too!

Home sweet home 🏡!

I'm Not "Horsing" Around With This News!

Well giddy up!

Look who arrived yesterday safe and sound, Ms. Wisteria -

She seemed pleased to be off the truck and into her new pen.

She didn't waste any time checking the area out, as well as her new surroundings.

She also stopped, dropped and rolled serval times, enjoying the course grass scratching's on her back and side, see video below -

She looks goods!  It's nice to finally see her in the new pen we built, which was just an open field not too long ago.

NOT So Safebound

Well, it finally arrived - all my "stuff" from my home in Franklin, that is!

It was delivered on Tuesday, May 19.

It's a long story, one I'm not able to put into words just yet.  Suffice to say, it's an expensive and frustrating tale with missing items, damaged items and broken items...

That being said, we've made some great progress in sorting many of the boxes; those that go IN the house and those that go OUT in the storage container!  

The heavy items were moved into the house by the not-so-careful-movers, e.g. mattresses, furniture, etc., and placed in their new locations.

Many a box has been opened and items are being placed in their new locations!  A slow and, quite frankly, an overwhelming process.

More to follow...

A tempting teaser for my follow up - notice where the 18-wheeler moving truck is parked on Route 11E!!

Round and Round We Go!

The local farmers are at it getting in their first hay cuttings of the season.

It's quite a sight and the smells of fresh cut and drying grass are intoxicating!

I took these pics yesterday on a neighboring piece of property -

Let me close with a "dad" joke -

Why do hay bales never argue? They just roll with it. DOH!

Little Legs, BIG Spaces

I finally brought Ms. Trixie to the farm for a visit; her new home, this past Saturday and she approves!

Here she is looking back at me with the look of, "are you shitting me, ALL this space" -

She was a bit anxious with the car ride over, which is typical for her, and perhaps a bit overwhelmed with the new place but she eventually settled in just fine -

And tuckered herself out but settled and drifted off to sleep -

Click this link to see a short video of her checking out the inside of her new home for the first time - "Trixie @ Pritchard".  Once off the leash, she went from room to room

She's been a trooper through all of the upheavals and changes these last six months.  She has handled and adjusted just fine, which is more than I can say for myself.

#Blessed

Blown-In Insulation...

How bout blown-out insulation is a better description!

Apparently, this is what happens when you finally get power hooked up and the heat pump is turned on and tested, UGH!

Seems the attic insulation made it's way into the AC/heat duct work during transport.  Each and every vent spewed said insulation into each room where there was a vent, GRRR!

It's all been cleaned up from the floors but the vents still have pieces stuck in them, which means they'll slowly spew more out over time, not only making a mess but we'll end up inhaling some of this shite too -

Another example of shoddy construction and shoddy work, which we're seeing first hand with our Timbercreek manufactured home - buyer beware!

D-LISH-US!

As Tina Turner belted out - 

"You're simply the best

Better than all the rest

Better than anyone

Anyone I've ever met"

Pretty much sums up the banana pudding pie that the wonderful Mrs. Maria made for my birthday!

#Blessed

That's A 10-4 My Stuff's Enroute!

Get outta da way, yo!

Looks what's arriving on Monday morning, May 18!

Unfortunately, it's not Cledus driving this BIG rig, rather Carlos but don't much matter, so long as it arrives on time, safely and all my belongs are unloaded in a timely manner and without any breakage.

Hope they steer clear of the smokeys, county mounties, check-point Charlies and don't get eat'n by a bear...

It's been a long time coming, seems like forever ago I watched Safebound pack my entire house and load it onto one of their trucks, so I'm ready to finally have it delivered!

Plop And Droppings...

Alas, I'm still getting adjusted to some of the weird stuff that the locals eat around these parts -

💩

The "Beer" Necessities!

GEA finally connected power, from the pole to the house, so one of the first orders of business was for us to pickup a few critical items to have on hand in case of emergency, e.g. parchment, thirst, etc. -

Mission accomplished!

Flushed Too!

I took my first pee in the toilet of my new house today -

Just saying...

"Current" Situation - We Finally Have Power!

Well, would you look at that!!

That right there is our electrical transformer -

Greenville Energy Authority (GEA) was out yesterday morning to run our electric line from the pole, install the transformer and wire it to the meter, which means we now have full working electricity in our house -

The person responsible for the "trim out" work on the house, was onsite in the afternoon to verify and test each appliance, outlet and light to ensure everything was working as they should be.  He found a couple outlet issues but otherwise all is working properly!

We are wired!!

Looting The Lumber Yard

We did some pillaging in Jonesborough yesterday at Julian Sawmill and Lumber Yard on Bacon Branch Road -

The owner was happy to let us root around through their scrap and first cut piles of lumber and help ourselves to as much as we wanted.  Although, these piles are essentially firewood, we were able to find plenty of suitable boards that we'll use to close in three sides of the horse run-in.

Very few had straight edges but they'll add a nice rustic barn look to the run-in, which is what we're going for.

We made a couple trips and feel we have enough pieces to accomplish our goal!  We'll see, as time will tell once we tackle this next project.

Plaster NOT So Fun Time

There was a section of wall in one of the closets that needed to be repaired, which required the plaster to come back out onsite.  We were not there when he came but immediately knew he had come as we pulled up to the house.

Seems the plasterer thought it was okay and a good idea to, I'm guessing, clean his plaster bucket in the front yard, right off the front deck and neck to the driveway, GRRRR

There are clumps of now dried white plaster littering the front yard, circled in red in the below pic -

Frustratingly, there is the THIRD time this person has been out to the house to do work and the THIRD time he's dumped his leftover plaster in the yard.

It's not so much the plaster itself, as it's relatively easy to clean up when dried.  However, it's more the gall of this dipstick and his inconsiderateness that bothers me!

And for that reason, I'm awarding him an "Asshole Merit Badge" -

This is, perhaps, a nitpicky post or maybe it's just my OCD but regardless of which, it irks me and I think the guy's a douche!