~ Retired and Starting My Future In The Foothills ~

[gryeyes]

All rightie then. In order to please my Inner Child, I left work and headed to the new house, just to see what a Friday night commute might be like.

Not bad. Very pretty drive. Yup, one hour and fifteen minutes.

Once I arrived, I sneakily left behind some plants I'd ordered, which had arrived on the day I expected to close escrow.... I want to plant them in the yard: a pink magnolia tree, some "red hot poker" plants in 4 colors (not just red hot), and three butterfly bushes in different colors.

I'm really sad about leaving the 3 butterfly bushes I planted here (at the house I'm currently renting) because they've gotten huge and gorgeous. And a wonderful climbing rose I grew from a rose stick .... errr, cane... taken from pruning one already growing here. I guess I'll just snatch a few rose canes before I am finally out of this place.

The drive home was very, very pretty as the sun had just set. Very odd to be driving for MILES without seeing another car!!

So, this weekend I'll gather up some more stuff to cram into the back of my RAV4, and spend some more time planning where to put the coops, where to put my furniture, and, oh, yes - setting some eggs in the incubators.

 

[gritsar]

Sounds like things are finally looking up. I'm so glad for you!

 

[Carols Clucks]

what an exciting adventure!

Mom and I have spent the past couple of days clearing out 2 old garages. For now just to remove the old hazmat paint. I sure wish I had a CLEAN slate like you! But I can see how those falling down garages can be fixed up! I hope to end up with a photo studio in one!

 

[jeremy]

Linda, where did you order your butterfly bushes from?

I have some started from seed right now, but they're so tiny!

 

[gryeyes]

Quote:
Cottage Farms, <*ahem*> ordered off QVC. Same place I got the ones growing so well at the house I'm renting.

Here's what they have currently available:
http://www.qvc.com/cgen/render.aspx?qp=class|c661&plpb=G|0|96|2&CM_SCID=coll

Here's a link directly to the butterfly bushes:
http://www.qvc.com/qic/qvcapp.aspx/...arms-3-pc-Evil-Ways-Butterfly-Bush-Collection

Today I drove Up The Hill again. My feed store is on the way there, so after I got chick starter, All Flock feed, dog and cat kibble, I decided to turn right from Bradshaw to Highway 16, instead of left to come home. My friends HHandbasket and Farmer Lew agreed to store the boxes from the back of my RAV4 in their shed, so I can fill it up again.

Then I went over to the house, watered the non-planted pots of plants, measured the space for the Koi pond to see if I can use the largest one of my pond liners currently housing some very large gold-fish.

This afternoon I spent watching Louie - my Cayuga drake widower - play an avuncular role in showing all the ducklings what to do with and IN a kiddie pool full of fresh, clean water. He is VERY protective of them, although the 3 call ducks are not "ducklings" any more, just juveniles, and the 3 immature Cayuga ducklings are danged near Louie's size even though they're not yet fully feathered. SO heart-warming (and perhaps a bit damp, because those ducks can fling water quite a distance with their flapping wings).

I have so many landscape, coop, pond, "finishing" ideas floating around in my head for the new house and property.

 

[gryeyes]

On my way Up The Hill, today, I took another dozen assorted eggs to my favorite feed store for Amy, the employee with broody hens and no roos at home. I have her pay the same amount as if they were eating eggs, because they are no different than the ones I sell to customers for eating. Amy's hens already hatched 11 out of 12 eggs she got about six weeks ago. More hens have gone broody, so I brought her another dozen. As a bit of a joke, I included one bantam egg. She thought it was awfully cute and IS interested to see what hatches from it. But then she said, "Have you talked to the goslings yet?"

There's an open "horse trough" bin of goslings, one week old Toulouse and Chinese geese, on the floor between the wall cabinets of "hens" and "roosters" chicks of all kinds.

I bent over the trough and all the little goslings scurried to my end. Every last one of them stood up tall, extended their necks, pointed their bills in the air, and gabbled. I said "Hello, sweeties!" and they gabbled back.

Great, now I am gonna have to get a Toulouse gosling for my new property... BUT NOT TODAY.

I headed off for my appointment with the representative for the Propane company, and my agent joined us there so she could let us into the house. Y'see, the freakin' escrow still hasn't closed! However, before they arrived, I hung a small set of wind-chimes from a hook on the veranda eaves. So there! (It's metal and has a rooster "clapper" and a rooster weather-vane, N, E, W, S directionals as the top section holding the hanging chimes.)

I listened to the spiel, approved the estimate and signed on as a customer. He explained everything to me very well, as I said I had absolutely no experience with propane. Not even in a BBQ grill.

I will have to take the plot drawing to the County Offices and get a permit for the re-piping and installation of the leased tank. The procedures for that were explained, and how the inspector will need to see the permit - printed on card stock - when s/he visits after it's all completed. Anyway, the representative will get my address on the schedule for work. Thank you, and thank you, and have a nice day.

The next door neighbors' chicks and duckling have grown. Doh! Anyway, they were out in their little covered pen and when I came back later with HHandbasket and ginormous chicken, we three admired the obviously straight run, feed store chicks. 7 chicks, and at least two of them are baby roos.

Scoping out places to eat when one absolutely does not have food in the house or simply doesn't want to cook anything is interesting in mountain communities. 10 miles for pizza. NOTHING IN BETWEEN. Nothing. A few places serve breakfast and lunch and close about 3 p.m. It was JUST after 3 p.m. So we drove 10 miles and had calzones - the establishment serves much more than just pizza! It was inexpensive and quite good. Nice employees, too.

I forgot to give the six-pack of eggs to my real estate agent as I'd planned, so HHandbasket and ginormous chicken split them between the two of them, to incubate!

So, I'm still not a home-owner and I can't move in until escrow closes, and that's not gonna happen until AFTER the danged deed package arrives at the title company.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

******waiting for move in announcement************

You are certainly having an adventure, though!

 

[HHandbasket]

It may just be held up in snail mail between the seller/bank and the title company. It's on its way, sweetie. I know this is frustrating, as you've had all this time off work. Maybe Ginger will call you today.

Fingers crossed and hoping!

 

[cackydoodledoo]

Sure hope they all pull their heads out of their butts soon! The anticipation is killing me so I can't even imagine what you are going through!

and hoping you will hear something soon!

 

[gryeyes]

The listing agent filed an extension of escrow to Friday, May 27th, but ONLY after suggesting to my agent "maybe you should file an extension."

She bristled (I have heard the story now, just this afternoon) and announced "Excuse me, the only party not meeting all the deadlines is NOT the buyer, but the seller. Your office needs to initiate the request, which my buyer will sign. If you have an idea of an extension date for the SELLER to get the deed into the title company for escrow to close, could you share that with me so I can inform the buyer how much longer she will have to wait past the original 30 day escrow?"

She emailed me the listing agent's request, I printed it, signed and dated it, and had it scanned and emailed back to my agent.

I forgot to get FEED at the Feed Store yesterday, so headed in that direction. Picked up the feed I needed, gabbled to the Toulouse goslings again, and departed the feed store. Again, it felt so much more natural to turn right at Highway 16..... And my agent's car was in the Real Estate office parking lot (I pass it on the way) so I stopped and went in. She laughed when I held out the original signed copy, saying, "So, do I need to drive this somewhere and nail it to someone's forehead??"

She had her dogs, Squirt and Smidgeon, with her in the office. They poked their little heads out of the soft, plush "sleeping bag" on the back of a low bookcase, wiggling the fabric of the bag. I loved on 'em for a while, while I got the full story and some other bits of information. Her partner (one of the brokers) was there and we talked about the grocery in Plymouth. (Kudos from both ladies, so my opinion of the store was buttressed.) The broker, who handled a lot of the stuff while my agent was on vacation, is the El Dorado County Sheriff's mother. Somehow or another, I was invited to attend a party in his honor to kick off his re-election campaign. "There will be a lot of people there it will be good for you to meet." At this particular point, I am feeling as if I have two fairy god-mothers.

She also indicated any items I want to leave in the garage on the property would be okay on principle, at this particular moment in the sale process, but shouldn't be anything of great value. Because the For Sale sign is still up, people could be tramping around and decide they might like what is in the boxes. I tucked them out of sight behind an old bench against one wall. Watered the potted plants I left behind a few days ago, since it will be a few days before I can make another trip up there.

Next trip better be one I can take with my two little dachshunds, so they can also claim the property in their own, special way.