A WOMAN'S VIEW ~ Lenore Buth

How to move without leaving home

Sorry I've been so stingy with posts lately, but we've been moving.

Well, not really. It's just our stuff that's been moving.

It started (as it often does) with me, thinking we needed to paint our great room and kitchen. Let's say this has, a-hem, been mentioned before.

This time my husband surprised me and said, "Well, call someone and get an estimate."

Yeah!

This would be a first, since sanity dictated we needed to let a pro paint our high ceilings. So I made one phone call to a painter we knew and set off a whirlwind. By the time he arrived next morning to give us an estimate, we had decided to paint all our interior walls but the laundry room and my office. After all, in our home you can stand in the hall and see into all the other rooms. 

(By now I'm off-the-charts delighted and ready to nominate my spouse for Husband of the Year.)

When would said painter have an opening? Well, he said, "I have several exterior jobs scheduled, but they predict rain all next week. This is Saturday. Any chance you could be ready by, say, Monday?"

We looked at each other and said, of course we could, since they would move all the furniture out to  our garage. "All" we had to do between then and Monday was to take down the pictures, clear off the bookshelves and all other surfaces, strip down the place to furniture only....  Everything ended up in the laundry room, the garage, our not-to-be painted closet and yes, my office--the only safe places in the house.

Monday morning they showed up promptly at 8 a.m. For the next three days we wandered around, going home only to sleep and glad they used low-odor paint. (Since they did one area at a time we would always have a bed to sleep in.) Yes, we could have left town, but we both wanted to be available and to be able to see the progress.

They finished up Wednesday evening, earlier than expected. The painters had set the furniture back in place and cleaned up after themselves neatly, but we when we looked around, we groaned. All that stuff we yanked off the shelves over the weekend had to go back, piece by piece. Worse yet, although we had been told there would be "dust" from spraying the ceilings, we hadn't realized how, despite their masking off surfaces, this film would cling to every inch of every surface and not wipe off. That meant anything not freshly painted would need to be cleaned and polished...first.

Years ago I swore off spring housecleaning, but that's what it feels like. The good news is that we suddenly have clean windows and polished cabinets and furniture. I've worked my way through most of the piles, bought a new shower curtain, etc. After all, while we're at it, maybe this thing would look better over there, which means that place needs something, so maybe if I move this and then take that over there....

You get the picture. Please be kind and don't even mention the mountain of laundry that nags at me. 

So it's been fun, but also exhausting. The beige-y color is great and everything looks fresh and clean. Still, it's a new color scheme, don'tcha know? So some things don't work as well with this.  (It's kind of nice to have an excuse to replace a few things.) 

By now I want it to be o-v-e-r. I love our new digs, but I want to settle in and get on with life.

You might say we had all the "fun" of moving, with the added bonus of already knowing our great community. Both my husband and I agree that we probably needed to be pushed out of our, shall we say, ruts--and that's a good thing.

Question for you: What's your story about moving, or about being nudged out of your comfort zone?

Blessings,

Lenore

 

 

 

 

Sheep may safely graze--and goats, too

Have you ever lived around sheep? We have, when we farmed in central Illinois, but not with about 2,000 at a time. Who woulda thunk we'd be here, looking out on a sea of suburban roofs in northern California where suddenly, sheep and goats rate as Conversational Topic #1.

A friend shot these scenes across the road. The flock spent the past week or so happily chomping away on this year's early crop of grass and weeds that cover the city-owned open space surrounding our community.

The number of animals in the flock keep changing because, well, it's spring, you know, and baby lambs and goats keep appearing.

These past few years several communities around us have contracted with owners of flocks like this to bring in their sheep and goats to graze what otherwise would have to be mowed. Shepherds then put up temporary fencing before bringing in their animals, along with a few well-trained dogs who keep the flock in line. Someone stays on-site all the time, moving the fencing when the sheep and goats have the vegetation eaten down in an area.

Early tomorrow morning the police are shutting down the main street that divides our community. Then we'll have the Great Sheep Drive, with probably most of our community there to watch. Picture crowds of fascinated city-dwellers standing there entranced as the flock moves down the city street and comes over to our side. No cowboys on horseback. Just the shepherds, their whistles and their dogs, now as in Bible times.

Then we'll be looking out at a scene somewhat like this. Probably some residents have never been so close to a sheep or a goat.

Back on our Midwestern farm we didn't have wild turkeys parading out back several times a day, or deer, or hawks nesting in our trees and soaring overhead. Never heard a coyote, either, or owls hooting in the night.

Perhaps it's the novelty, perhaps it's the charm of it, but nobody's complaining about being invaded by these itinerant shepherds and their flock.

And imagine, these peaceful creatures captured our community without firing a shot.

Well, that's the peaceful news from the city.

Blessings,

Lenore