Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men.....

We decided to move our 5th wheel out to the farm this week.....

and what a week it's been!

My brother graciously agreed to do the hauling,

as we don't own a vehicle that has enough horse-power

to do the job ourselves and he has a one-ton dually truck.

The-Man-of-the-Place and my brother spent two days

getting the truck road-ready,

which included attaching the 5th-wheel hitch to the bed of the truck,

and then rebuilding the brakes as they were shot.

We had planned to load up and leave about noon on Thursday,

and they finally arrived at our home around 3 pm.

They pulled the one-ton truck into our gravel drive

and zipped into the yard to turn around for the hook up.....

and the truck promptly sunk to its rear axles!

(9 inches of rain in the last week...DUH!!...wonder how that happened?!)

They hooked a tow strap to our "Old Blue" 1/2 ton pick-up, and started jerking.

Had to keep the pickup on the gravel drive, for fear it would sink too,

which meant they had to jerk the one-ton around 45 degrees to get it out.

Took some time and terrible revving of engines and banging noises,

but they succeeded.

So we all looked at each other and said,

"..............., What do we do now?"

When we bought the trailer, we had them park it off the gravel drive

 so we could have access to the back part of the property.....

during the heat of summer when the ground was dry and hard.

There was no way we could get the one-ton backed up under it

without sinking it to the axles again,

and we weren't sure we could even get the 5th wheel out either.

We kind of gave up the idea of moving it until dry-er weather.

But as we were sitting around commiserating,

someone had the bright idea of maybe a neighbor had a tractor with a bucket?

So off went the Man on a mission.

Before too long, here came Neighbor M with a backhoe and bucket!

They decided that if they could hook the bucket to the 5th wheel,

they could lift it up enough to pull and ease it over onto the gravel drive.

Great idea! And it almost worked.....but when he went to back up,

the weight of the 5th wheel sunk the front wheels into the soggy mush.....

so, they unhooked, backed up, repositioned.....

planked under the wheels.....

and tried again.

Inch by inch, Neighbor M eased the big old beast

over onto the gravel drive.....

although at one point he had to stop and extend the back-hoe bucket

as far as it would go in order to balance the weight

to give the back wheels better traction.

Finally----success!!!

They blocked the 5th wheel up with its own front jacks,

and backed the one-ton under it ...had it in good position...

but the hitch bumped the trailer and it rolled backwards off the plate

and fell off. (forgot to scotch the trailer's wheels...)

BIG BUMP!!!

(Broke the jacks on the 5th wheel as well.)

 

Which brought me to the question...

At what point do you say, "The Lord must not want us to move this thing today(!)"

versus, "The Lord must be having a lot of fun teaching the lessons of perserverence(?)"

Fortunately, I'm the help-meet in this family,

and I know my place!

(doesn't mean I always stay there, but I'm learning...)

so all I had to do was pray, then ask my Man--

"What do we do next? Are we staying or going?"

The answer was always, "Keep going."

So they re-enlisted Neighbor M and his bucket-machine,

and tried to lift the 5th wheel with it.

No luck.

Finally, they went to Neighbor M's and borrowed his hydraulic floor jack,

placed it on the bed of the one-ton and lifted the 5th wheel back into place.

This time they scotched the wheels and were able to back under the trailer again

and had the Man in place to lock the manual pin.

Finally---success!!

By now, it is 10:00 pm, with mist and light fog.

Once again the Man said, "We're going."

And so we did.

The man and my brother drove the one-ton,

the Treasure and I drove "Old Blue" behind them.

It was a trip of full of adventure, but this is enough for one post.

We arrived at the farm around 9:00 am the next morning (Friday)...

Parked the 5th wheel and we crashed.

It's done.

I'm beat.

Autumn Olives

I have an on-going love affair with the lowly Autumn Olive.

My passions rise twice a year.

First in the spring, when the trees are in bloom.....

they have the sweetest-spicy-est scent

that simply tantalizes my olfactory bulbs.

I wish I could capture their essence and wear it as perfume!

The flowers are small and barely mentionable,

until you get up close and personal.

Sensual in scent, they are.

The rest of the year the plant is very un-mentionable,

closely resembling the Russian Olive.

Most would call it a weed, a nuisance.

Not me!

I know what's coming:

These are the berries which fully ripen in October.

They bring my love to fruition.

They are sweet and tart and very delicious.

(If you can beat the birds to them!)

They make delicious jam. I use the same recipe I would

for elderberries, currants or other wild berries,

(although you may want to adjust the sweetner to your taste.)

I don't know if I will get to make jam from them this year,

but I wanted to introduce you to them so you can.

Go for a nature walk in your neighborhood

and see if you can befriend my friend,

Autumn Olive.

I'm happy to share.

Our Next Home

Here's a quickie post---

just wanted to throw up a photo of our next home.

We are packing up (and moving) our 1200+ sq. ft. home,

and basement, detached garage, two outbuildings...

plus the contents The-Man has collected about our 3+ acres...

and this 5th wheel will be our next place of abode.

We bought it very inexpensively,

and it was very lived in before we acquired it.

There are a few things we will be doing to it

to utilize the tiny space more efficiently.

It measures 7 feet wide by 38 feet long

and includes two bedrooms, full bath with washer and dryer,

living area with slide out sofa, kitchen,

and a small room with a table and two chairs

which the previous owner called the "dining room"

but will not accomodate our family,

so it will become our office/homeschool resource center

and we will have a folding table that we bring out for mealtimes.

Truthfully, I'm having a hard time downsizing enough

so that all our possessions will fit in it.

So, though I'm getting rid of a lot,

the rest I'm packing and we are placing in a storage unit,

and we will finish sorting it out when we get relocated.

(They have donate-stores there too!)

We had hoped to be in a more permanent shelter before winter

in our new location on the farm,

but it is looking as if that will not be the reality,

so I am doing research on living through the winter in the 5th wheel.

 Now, THAT will give me much material for future posts I'm sure!

We have gleaned some good tips from the internet

and we have a couple of ideas of our own for coping,

so with a can-do pioneer spirit we will be learning a lot as we go.

If you have any winter-living-in-a-5th-wheel experience--

we are all ears so please share!

Carob Mint Smoothies

Here's a quick fix I often turn to when I'm craving
something that I know isn't good for me!

Carob-Mint Smoothies

1 1/2 cups soymilk

1/4 tsp. white stevia powder

2 sprigs chocolate mint, leaves only

(could substitute other types of mint, or flavoring)

1/4 cup carob powder

1/3 cup natural peanut butter

6 frozen bananas, chunked up

Place first 4 ingredients in blender and whiz well.

Add peanut butter, and then start adding chunks of banana.

This gets very thick like soft-serve ice cream,

so you may have to carefully "help" the bananas get down

into the blender blades with a pusher of some sort.

Pour into 3-4 good size mugs,

grab a spoon and enjoy!

Bringing Momma Home

First kiss.....in a long while!

My momma has been separated from my daddy

by circumstances for 5 years and 9 months,

but today we brought her "home."

"Home" being a care center located about 15 minutes drive from

where daddy lives, and "home" meaning it is the same

care facility that my momma worked in for

the best 10 years of her nursing career (according to her.)

We didn't arrive until after 10pm,

but I have to brag on the staff--they were incredibly kind.

The nurse who was expecting her was scheduled to leave

 in 10 minutes, but she stayed an extra hour and completed the paperwork.

The oncoming nurse, and one of the assistants had worked with momma

years ago, and momma remembered them.....

so, even though she's not really at home in her house,

it still feels like home.

When I called daddy to let him know we'd made it in ok,

the joy and excitement in his voice.....

just filled my heart.

Made all the planning and waiting and work worth it.

A long-time goal, finally accomplished.

It was late when we got to daddy's house and finally to sleep,

so we slept in quite a while next day.

Finally got ourselved around,

and daddy got all spiffied up,

and we took him in to see mom.

I wish you could have been a mouse in the corner...

yup, that was a satisfying moment!