moving day

Well, moving furniture day. Pam won't take up residence til next weekend after the internet connection is installed. Still a few things on the punch list so the fixit guy is coming back Tuesday. The last water leak got fixed Friday morning and that was the end of my tasks towards getting the house.

Of course, Saturday was our hottest day so far and humid to boot. It was at 84% around 8 AM down to 51% a few minutes before noon but Pam's daughter, son-in-law, and grandson rented a Uhaul truck, her granddaughter and significant other came in from San Antonio to help and my daughter and son-in-law also showed up and between them they loaded that truck up twice and got just about all the furniture she's keeping moved into the new house. 

It's sort of arranged or rather everything is in it's proper room. Plenty of packed boxes still to move, all the kitchen stuff, the pictures and other decorative stuff. I have two things to get...my bookcase she has been borrowing and a small art nouveau/art deco buffet she isn't keeping. In fact most everything she isn't moving to the new house is just getting shuffled around to various family members. I'm getting the buffet and the bookcase, all the guest bedroom furniture, another small buffet, and a couch and chair has been divvied up between my daughter and the twins. We don't get rid of furniture in this family, we just shuffle it around although some miscellaneous stuff will go in a garage sale.

Did I mention it was hot outside? The white ginger is suffering. It's usually the first of the gingers to bloom and is mostly done by the time it gets this hot but it was late to start blooming this year and sparsely at that. I had already got the shade cloth out and tied it to two stakes at the back with the intention of going out everyday unless it was overcast and drape it over the ginger for the midday hours when it's in the sun and then undrape it but I never remembered until it was already in full sun and shriveled so today I pounded two more stakes in the ground and created a canopy which I will just leave in place until fall.

And I'm back to watering parts of the yard, setting up the sprinkler every day. That 6 1/2” of rain we got a couple of weeks ago is a bare memory. It is just suffocatingly hot out there and no breeze at all. The dog likes it though, for a few minutes anyway.

Four of my banana trees are blooming but only two of them are producing fruit. All four trees will die now, I lost three last year because they also bloomed, but new ones are coming up all the time.

There was a giant swallowtail sipping nectar from the mexican bird of paradise this morning but this was the best picture I could get because it was in constant motion. Even when it was feeding it's two top wings shivered.

I had intended to clean the back bedroom today but I'm sweating just sitting here typing so probably not. Maybe tomorrow. Plus I got stung by a wasp first thing this morning when I went to open the garage door and announce to the world that we were up. I guess it was on the door somewhere and objected to my lifting it up. It really nailed me and now I have a red swollen spot about 3” x 1 1/2” on the inside of my arm just above the elbow and it's still zapping me a little bit now and then. That's the third time I've been stung this year. I usually just leave them alone because they are pollinators and they mind their own business but this is just too much. I tolerate getting stung once a season but they have pissed me off now.

No covid-19 report today. I only have one or two things that I've noted so it can wait another week but suffice to say, infections are still increasing, deaths are over 170,000 and counting, testing is declining, there is still no go-to treatment and still no vaccine though there are several promising things in trials. Trump is still having his so called pandemic press conferences, now with a new doctor, a radiologist, on the pandemic response team with no experience in public health or infectious diseases or epidemiology but he does echo Trump's talking points, which are really just an excuse for him to complain and whine and to lie about and denigrate his opponents, his substitute for his rallies he can't have anymore. Yawn. He doesn't seem to realize that this old worn out routine isn't working.

egg rolls and the nitty gritty

I decided about a week and a half ago that I was going to make some egg rolls. What spurred me to that idea was seeing part of a short video on FB of my neighbor's granddaughters doing just that. So I bought a package of egg roll wrappers with the recipe that would make 16 – 18 egg rolls and gathered everything I would need and Sunday I spent the lion's share of the day doing just that. Chopped and mixed and cooked all the vegetables, added the flavors to the meat and cooked it and then mixed it all together ready to start rolling it all up. Opened the package of wrappers and peeled one off and while it seemed kind of thick, what did I know? I've never done this before. The recipe called for a tablespoon of filling. Really, that's all? I added a little more and continued on. Got to the end of the package and I had 8 egg rolls ready to cook. I did think it was kind of odd that there were only 8 wrappers with a recipe for 16 egg rolls but there was nothing on the package to indicate how many wrappers were inside. So I covered the filling and put it in the refrigerator for when I got more wrappers on Monday and then I walked the dog and stopped to talk to my neighbor whose granddaughters' video I had watched and told her about my 8 egg rolls. No, she said, there's more than that, are you sure they weren't two stuck together? No, at that point I wasn't sure but that was how they peeled off with no hint that they were two stuck together.

Anyway, I bought two more packages of wrappers Monday and got busy. And yes, there are 16 wrappers in a package and they peeled off easily. I kept slowly increasing the amount of filling when I decided they must have meant a heaping tablespoon of filling because when it was all wrapped up I had a total of 30 egg rolls, 8 from Sunday and 22 from Monday. I cooked the first 8 Sunday and we had them for dinner but they were a little chewy because...two wrappers y'all. The rest I have frozen and bagged up for future frying and consumption.

So, down to the nitty gritty on the house. The skirt is up on the house, the punch list is almost done, both hose bibs are in, a slow drip where the water line for the 2^nd hose bib tied into the main line under the house has been identified and scheduled to be fixed today, there is a leak at the meter and the plumber says it's on the city side so I called them this morning, and Rocky got the bracing on the small porch done today. 

Edit: the city water maintenance guy came out this morning and nope, the leak is on our side where the new water line to the house got tied in so hopefully that will get fixed today as well.

Saturday furniture starts getting moved in though she won't take up residence until the following weekend. For all I have been dealing with the stuff on the outside, she's been dealing with the stuff on the inside...the punch list, the transferring of electricity accounts, the wifi hook-up, the touching up the current house here and there as well as deciding which of her stuff to keep, which to give away, which to put in a garage sale which is overwhelming all in itself.

I burned the small brush pile yesterday because apparently the ambient temperature wasn't making me sweat enough. It was actually on part of the field behind the house but we keep it mowed back there. Anyway it was the remnant of the burn pile before we moved it over to the shop yard and stuff would get tossed on it now and then being too lazy to haul it to the back of the truck to haul over to the active burn pile and I expected it would eventually compost down but trash weed stuff grows up around it in the summer and then dead stuff has to be dealt with in the winter and there is the Wild Space at the back end of the property anyway which is basically a giant brush pile so I torched it. It will need some consolidation and burning again but now it can be mowed over.

And Joe picked Kamala! People are either thrilled or griping that the ticket isn't progressive or left enough. I think it's a strong ticket that is progressive and center enough to court the moderate republicans who are sick of Trump. Too far left and we would lose those voters. It took Trump all of 20 minutes to call her 'nasty' which only goes to show how rattled he is. He knows how strong, intelligent, powerful, and capable she is, he and Ivanka both have donated to her previous political campaign, and we also know how much he hates women who won't take shit off of privileged white men. I'm seeing a lot of joy and hope on social media. It's a nice little boost but now the real fight begins. There's been some speculation that Trump will ditch Pence in desperation for Nikki Haley to counteract Joe's pick of Kamala.

83 days!

just about done and screwing up code

The AC and furnace have been installed in the new house, still waiting on the plumbers to come back and install the hose bibs and secure the water line under the house which they are supposed to do today (so far a no-show) but other than that my job is done. The walk through and the skirt installation are scheduled and I'm waiting to hear back from the surveyor for the final elevation certificate. And we are four months ahead of our drop dead date! Pam is slowly dismantling her house, some of the furniture she isn't keeping has already gone away to new homes, and now that the AC is in and on she'll start bringing small stuff over. The weekend of the 15^th one of her daughters, son-in-law, and grandson are renting a Uhaul and they'll start moving furniture.

The other project, the shop buildout, is also almost done. Just some trim around the bathroom door, a couple of switch plates, and finishing a repair in the sheetrock.

I spent Monday and Tuesday working on the website. The new 'technique' page is done and published which took me nearly three days. The revised 'about us' page is also done and published though I may work on it more but for now it's fine. Not sure which one I'm going to tackle next, probably the 'contact us' page or 'news and events' though I have very little news and only one upcoming event in the fall. I'm working on the 'home' page but I need to create a new picture button for it.

I just saw a different little bird, yellow breast and head but not bright yellow, gray wings and back, skinny pointy beak, I'm pretty sure it's a warbler of some kind but we don't usually see them in the summer. They winter over here. I took this terrible picture through the window on high magnification.

I walked out to the back of the property Sunday and saw this looking west over the field behind our house.

And this is all I have unless you want to hear about all the times I screwed up the code on the page I was working on and how long it would take me to find the error and fix it. Yesterday afternoon Marc called from the other part of the house, 'lots of heavy sighing going on in there'. Maybe instead of working on a page today, since it's a yoga day, I'll just sort through all the pictures on the server that no longer show up on the website.

Or maybe I'll go make a blueberry crostata.

still uselessly wandering around

More rain yesterday, another inch. So, of course the electricians showed up yesterday to hook up the house and septic system. The guy was under the house when the heavens opened and a heavy downpour ensued. Just what you want when you're working on electricity. He was trapped under there til it abated somewhat. I had just walked over to the shop to check on something and so was trapped in the shop. It's been rainy, overcast, or drippy every day since Saturday. I think we've about reached the saturation point so it can stop now. Can't we just have a nice soaking in rain every 4 or 5 or 6 days instead of these long periods of no rain and then days and days of rain? Apparently not. Not in the time of climate change. Well, the sun is out today with puffy clouds and it is hot and humid, steamy actually, and the mosquitoes are back. The electricians finished today and the AC guys are scheduled for Monday. Once the AC is in I have to get the surveyor back for the final elevation survey which will prove the house and AC unit are as high as they need to be and submit that to the county.

When we came up with a timeline last February for getting the house and getting it ready for Pam to move in we didn't realize how quickly it would all come together even with the pandemic and so set a drop dead date for the end of November which would give her a month to move before putting her house on the market after the holidays as our fav realtor recommended at the time. I thought we would have to order the house which would take a couple of months right there but as it turned out we bought one off the lot. So now, next week the house will be ready to start moving into. But things have changed in the interim. Apparently Sugar Land, then Richmond/Rosenberg have become too citified with Houston stretching out and Wharton has become a real estate hot spot. To which Pam and I always wonder...why? There is NOTHING to do here. Our few restaurants are mostly Mexican food and barbeque or fast food or a country kitchen where they serve the food on styrofoam with plastic utensils, no movie theater, no bowling alley, no aquatic center (all of which El Campo does have 12 miles further down the road as well as a much better selection of restaurants). We do have a funky little outdoor public pool and several brand new sports stadiums for the local schools, one gym, no nice pubs, no shopping besides Walmart. What we do have is a glut of hair and nail salons. And churches. Lots of churches. But I digress.

I've read that with so many people working from home during the pandemic, some businesses and employees are finding that that works just fine and it may actually be a sea change, that when the virus is under control via treatment and/or vaccine that some businesses will continue this way giving up expensive office space as they find their employees are more productive working from home which frees people up from having to live near their place of employment. Hence the migration out of the city to this little podunk agricultural town. So, checking with our fav realtor about the new timeline, she says every property she has listed except for one run down shack has a contract on it. Houses go on the market and they are snapped up.

So I did absolutely nothing yesterday, and I'm pretty useless today too, except read a little more in the book I'm trudging through and once again spending too much time online. These last 100 pages are taking forever. I've sort of lost interest, no longer care much for the main character, just want to get to the end. Why don't you just put it down, you ask? Because I'm stubborn that way. Surely something will redeem it at the end.

I did make a raspberry and blackberry crostata on Tuesday. I'm liking these better than the pies I usually make because there are just two of us and by the fourth day the crust is soggy on a pie.

I have nothing more to add unless I want to talk about politics and the latest bullshit from the twitler-in-chief, which rest assured there is plenty not the least of which is him whining about how popular Dr. Fauci is and how nobody likes him, him as in Trumplethinskin and so he had to make up a lie that he was invited to throw out the first pitch at a Yankees game which was news to the Yankees and the White House staff as well, and then claimed that he was just too busy to do it as another wall is being built around the White House at Trump's command, this one a 13' high anti-climb wall. You can't even see the White House from the street anymore. Or that he's musing about postponing the election, something he does not have the power to do, only Congress can do it and that ignorant Pompeo saying that Barr will decide if the election should be postponed except Barr doesn't have that power either and whether there's an election or not, his term will end on January 20, 2021 and since the entire House will be up for election, every House member's term will end on Jan. 3 which would mean the ranking Senator takes his place until there is an election. Not to mention the over 150,000 dead Americans. And he wonders why no one likes him.

more progress and stuff seen around the yard

Saturday Rocky and his current helper planted the meter box pole. 

My sister Pam then set up her new account and the meter is ordered and power should be brought to the pole one day this week. Then we get an electrician to come and hook it up to the house and wire in the septic system and then call the AC people to come install the condenser and hook it up. Rocky delivered the supplies for the small porch/deck for the front of the house yesterday and he's out there now getting it built. And Gunnar showed up yesterday afternoon and got the water hooked up. 

digging the trench for the water line

He had a little Kubota tractor with a digger on one end and a blade on the other and when he was done with the plumbing I asked if he would grade that dirt for me behind the house and he did! Saved me a buttload of work and didn't charge me extra.

Other than that, nothing new is happening. It is still hot as blazes, not fit for man or beast out there except for the long haired cat who likes to lay out in the garage on the concrete during the hottest parts of the day and sleep or observe.

Saturday I decided to finally dig out the volunteer maple tree that sprouted in a shallow dish of succulents and repot it. I'm afraid I killed it instead. The dirt was hard as a rock and while I thought I was being careful I ended up breaking the main root. I suppose I should have watered the pot first. It still had an intact small root so I went ahead and potted it up, watered it well, and brought it inside to recuperate but the leaves are drying and curling and it is not happy.

Sunday I was finally bored enough to do some house cleaning. I got both the bathrooms done and yesterday I cleaned the windows and the window seat of the bay windows in the living room and then vacuumed the upper house. Today I did the weekly shopping including going to Walmart to see if they had a couple of items the HEB did not and bought some cherries then came home and made tuna salad for lunch. Ate some of the cherries with lunch and they are terrible! They looked good, good color, nice and firm but they have no flavor, just bland. These are the worst cherries I have ever eaten. I guess I'll use them to make a pie or a crostata so they won't go to waste.

Pictures have been piling up so here's a few from around the yard.

little tree frog

fritillary

red crinum lilies

succulent bloom

the white orchid tree had 25 open flowers this day

the rangoon creeper has been exceptional this year and this is only half the bush

septic system is in

Yesterday was probably the most productive day I've had in at least a week since mostly all I've done is...nothing. Checked in with John the septic guy who arrived in the morning to continue work on the septic system, fixed breakfast, ordered the meter box pole which will be delivered Thursday, called my PC doc for a referral to a dermatologist, checked in with Rocky over at the shop buildout, went to the library to turn in one book and renew the other, went to the dollar store that had a sign on the door that said debit/credit card or exact change only and then turned around and went back to my car since I wanted to pay cash and didn't have exact change or any change for that matter, did the weekly run to the grocery store, called the guy to come spray the ditch and front fence line with poison now that the county finally mowed the ditch (I know but out here in the country sometimes that's the only thing you can do), and washed the dishes that had piled up.

The septic system is going in in bits and pieces, getting all the bells and whistles attached, because it is so hot and we have plenty of time and John has other endeavors to attend to. 

There's a water pipe that runs from the meter at the fence in front all the way to the back of the shop that had to be crossed with the drain line from the septic tank to the spray heads so I got out there Saturday evening and started digging holes to locate the water line starting at the meter, the second one about 3' away, next one even further, etc. When I would get to the water pipe I pounded a stake next to it, sighting along the stakes getting my holes further and further apart, my goal being to place a stake about where the drain pipe from the tank would cross the water line. Located the pipe in each of the first four holes but could not find it in#5. By that time I was so hot and sweaty I thought I was going to either pass out or throw up so I quit and went in. Sunday morning I was back out there mid-morning dug two more holes further on, finding the pipe, with the last hole where it needed to be for John and the trencher.

John and Joe worked from evening to dark Monday night trenching and laying pipe for the spray heads to avoid the unseasonal heat and humidity. 

this is one of the spray heads that will pop up to disperse the water from the septic tank

He showed me two large hunks of concrete yesterday that were buried that he hit with the trencher, probably where poles were for a sign as this property used to be, among other things, a Waste Management site, said he couldn't have hit them any more dead center if he'd had measurements showing exactly where they were. 

these things are bigger than they look in the picture

All that remains to be done now for the septic system is connecting the sewer pipe to the house and spreading out all the rest of the dirt.

It's looking like just about everything is going to be done by the end of the week...septic system done by the end of today, meter box pole delivered tomorrow, water hooked up on Friday. Once all the utilities are all hooked up and functioning I have to get the surveyor back out to check that the house is high enough above the floodplain and that will be the last of my responsibilities towards getting the house. I'm not sure when Rocky and John are going to get the meter box pole planted but soon and then Pam will have to take over getting the electricity hooked up and the AC and the skirt installed. She'll do a walk through/punch list with the seller (we've already noted a few things that need to be taken care of) and then the house will be ready for her to start moving things in.

And Rocky is finishing up the build out in the shop today. We have tried to use all manner of materials lingering from previous work at our house and jobs that Rocky has had so the room is half sheetrock and half beadboard, the half bath is sheetrock on the inside and beadboard on the outside, I had to buy a little vanity but we re-used the sink from the bathroom remodel earlier this year and Rocky had a piece of countertop for the vanity, a toilet, sheetrock mud, some insulation and other miscellaneous stuff all from previous jobs and already paid for (we basically cleaned out his garage) plus some lumber we had in the barn that he ripped down for molding. I still have to fetch the big stainless steel shop sink  from our friend Gene who is giving it to us cause he doesn't need it and has no where to put it that will go against the left wall in the corner (you can't see the sink hookup as the trash bag is in the way)  and we have a faucet set for that that Rocky had previously given us.

house moving

Here it comes!

At the property where they unloaded the robot that they used to move and maneuver the house.

Pulled it forward and then started backing it up turning into the driveway.

Cedar tree needs more trimming. The guys who came before used a chainsaw, this guy is using a machete.

They placed a heavy board down to bridge the ditch.

More tree trimming and the beginning of the 50+ point turn (probably not that many but lots of small back and forth adjustments).

They've almost got it lined up. 

It's a good thing that the neighbor has a culvert in the ditch almost directly across from the property entrance. More tree trimming only on the neighbor's live oak this time.

Almost! They pulled it up for another adjustment.

Success! They made it past the gate. After that it went pretty quick.

Once they got it all the way in they turned it into the side yard and then it was a straight shot to the pad.

They rolled out thick black plastic (which they eventually spread out and covered the entire pad and then set the blocks on top)

and then used boards under the wheels, as soon as the wheels cleared one board, they grabbed it and put it in front of the next board as the house moved into place.

The house is in place (from the back).

These are the anchors that the house will be tied down to.

These guys carried four cinder blocks at a time on their backs!

Anchors in and straps attached.

Once they had the house supported by the cinder block they took the wheels off and then unbolted the axles from the undercarriage of the house.

Next...inside