Well the damn weather folks were right, I was surprised this morning that I did not wake up to white stuff on the ground, but as I type this the snow flakes are starting to fall. I guess time will tell if we get the full 7 inches they are forecasting. Right now it is a kind of a rain/snow mix, but there are definitely flakes.
Last night and this morning I am really missing Jennifer. As I was laying in bed this morning I was thinking of the various deep conversations that we had laying in bed either at night or when we woke up in the morning. That is where we often formulated how we were going to attack/handle/contemplate whatever the situation was we were dealing with at the time. I will greatly miss those conversations, not that they were all fun. There certainly were some stressful ones and ones with heated discussion and disagreement, but we always worked through them and it usually worked out. That is until August 8, 2023 that last one, which I am so ever thankful for was the last one.
During Covid we had a lot of those conversations as that is when we really started thinking about relocating for retirement. The summer of 2019 was one that we truly enjoyed and was one of the funnest, most enjoyable summers that we had in our adult lives. However, the long drive back to San Antonio finally got Jennifer to seriously think about moving closer to Montana.
I would have moved to Mesquite back in 2018, but Jennifer was not onboard. We had visited Mesquite for 5 weeks staying in our trailer. At the end of that visit Jennifer was not for moving there. She stated we were too young and that the community was too old (as far as the population). So she dug in her heels. So we did not make the jump.
Then Covid hit and we knew that we wanted to be closer to family. We had no strong ties to San Antonio. Overall we liked living there, but none of our family was close and most of our friends had moved away with the closure of the Marathon San Antonio office. So she softened up some on Mesquite.
Financially things turned out OK. If we had moved in 2018 we would have gotten into a house in Mesquite for a much lower price point, but our house in San Antonio would have never sold for the price we got in 2021.
Living wise it was the best decision we ever made and Jennifer was very happy that we did make the move and was even a little regretful that we had not done it sooner. We actually got to know our neighbors and had a social life for that last year and a half of her life.
Anyway, I will always miss those bed conversations.
Yesterday we had another productive auction prep day. Again thanks to the efforts of Cindy and Chad. Most everyone slept in a little and when they got up I cooked up a nice breakfast (French Toast, Sausages and hash browns). Then we started cleaning out the hayloft of the horse barn. the horsebarn is probably the oldest original building on the ranch. During my lifetime we never used the hayloft for hay, it became a depository for mainly items that might come in handy,but was not needed at the time. So it was full of a mish mash of stuff.
Now the floor of the hayloft is sketchy in several areas. So I was not a good candidate due to my fat ass to be working up there. So I was the tractor operator and I had my foreman (Case) on the tractor with me. I would drive the tractor and raise the bucket up and then Chad and Cindy would load the bucket with either things that we were going to put in the auction, stuff that was trash, or scrap metal and then I would drive the tractor and unload it in its respective location. Most of the stuff that came out of the horsebarn hayloft was either trash or scrap. There were a some items for the auction but the majority was in the first two groups.
Then Cindy and Chad looked through some of the carpentry type tools and picked out tools to keep and ones to sell. While they were doing that, I had to help my foreman out. He accidentally spilled some diesel fuel on himself. So we needed to get him cleaned up. He stripped down and got in the shower and then he got the joy of doing laundry the old school way. We took his oily clothes down to the Milk House and put them in the old washing machine (see photo below). The photo is one I snagged of the ineternet and is not the actual machine. As I mentioned in a earlier post we have a whole collection of these type machines in the barn.
Anyway, Case got educated on doing laundry the old school way and got educated on keeping’s his fingers out of the wringer. I enlighten him on the horrible accidents that have happened with these wringers, just like I was by my grandparents/parents. So some of the old family knowledge was passed on.
He is very inquisitive and very observant. Some of the stuff that comes out of him is very interesting. I enjoy time spent with both kids, but the differences and similarities is interesting.
After that Chad had to take off for East Helena, as he has to go to work, the Cindy and the boys and I tackled the attic of the milk house which was also another depository place for a mish mash of stuff. Most all of it will go into the auction. So we got a lot uncovered/accomplished yesterday. Of course we had the big boss (Dad) supervising all of this from his scooter. We gave him a few heart attacks as we positioned the tractor in the Milkhouse, but everything was done with no injuries and no damage to the buildings (which was his main concern).
Well I should probably get to moving.
Hopefully Janice and Kenn wil be arriving in town this afternoon, provided this weather does not hamper them. Unfortunately I wish it was for better circumstances. They are coming in for our sister-in-law Pat’s mother funeral service. Pat’s mom passed away on June 14 and her service is tomorrow. Pat’s mom was quite the lady and she passed one week short of her 95th birthday.
It will be nice to see Janice and Kenn and may be the only chance for me to see them this summer as they are awaiting the arrival of grandchild #2. So they may or may not make the July 6 memorial service for Jennifer’s brother Mike. Time will tell, but I hope they have a safe trip and I will be anxious to see them.
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