May 15: End of Our Vermont Adventure

We are moving on to another adventure; however, our time in Vermont will remain really fond memories for the rest of our lives.  We have left behind a number of good friends, but we will stay in contact with them and hope to have them as visitors in years to come.

 We left Vermont on Thursday, May 3.  The skies were cloudy and the weather was cool.  We drove almost to the western edge of New York before stopping for the night.  As we drove we listened to an audio book and talked about some of our future plans.  It was amazing to leave the mountains and valleys and once again be in the "flatlands".  We both loved the beauty of Vermont, but we are South Dakotans through and through, so we see a great deal of beauty in this land.

On our second day of driving, we made a stop in Ohio because Kevin is going to be joining a shooting group and needed to purchase a specific kind of rifle.  It is one of those things that Kevin and his best friend will truly enjoy doing together.  From there we simply continued on the road listening to an audio book and chatting about our plans for the future.

We needed to pick up my car in Iowa. It had been in storage at our son's for 10 months. Although we were on a tight schedule, we decided to take a day and spend time with our son's family and then headed on to South Dakota. All 5 of our grandchildren live in the same area, but we did not think that we could give each of them enough time so this time we just went to Jon's. Jamie's family is coming for a visit the first weekend in June.



Anna is going to be 2 in July. She is a ball of fire. Loves pretty things, but also loves to be in the thick of things with her brothers. She has really grown and changed a great deal. She is a little charmer.

Bryson and Dean were in constant motion.  We had so much fun hanging out with them.  It is so exciting to see how each of them has developed their own personalities. Just one day of hanging out with them was not enough, but we had to get on the road to deal with all the moving in.  Now that we are living so much closer, we will be able to see them and our other grandchildren much more frequently.  (We will be delighted to spend time with our children and their spouses, too, but we all know grandkids trump everyone else, right?)

The final leg of our trip to South Dakota involved something that I had not done for 10 months.  I drove.  I never did not want to drive Kevin's huge red truck, and since we were in Vermont to be together, he was available to drive whenever we went anywhere.

From this point on, I will be posting on a different blog.  The Vermont adventure is done and the South Dakota one has just begun.  To read more about life on the prairie join  me on my new blog.  Needles, Fabric, Chisels, and Wood....Life is GOOD!     http://needlesfabricchiselsandwoodlifeisgood.blogspot.com/

May 11: How to Find my New Blog

New blog:  Needles, Fabric, Chisels, and Wood....Life is GOOD!

http://needlesfabricchiselsandwoodlifeisgood.blogspot.com/

I will be up and running with my new blog as of May 16th.  I decided to post one entry today just so you can go and find me.

Over the next few days I plan to share a little bit about our actual move and then switch to the new blog.  Can't keep writing about  my adventures in Vermont when I have made the move to South Dakota.

May 11: What for a Change

Give me a couple of more days and I will be back to bloging.  We are working hard to get ourselves settled.  Being in South Dakota definitely feels right.

Also, wanted to tell you that I hae finally decided on the name for my new blog.

Needles, Fabric, Chisels, and Wood…Life is GOOD!

May 2: A Last Walk About

We decided that we needed a break before tackling the last bit of packing and cleaning so we headed to our favorite walking path.  On the way we stopped to try and capture a unique view of the mountains.  They kind of look like some one was pouring somewhat runny marshmallow sauce over the tops.






Then we decided to take the walking path that actually takes us down to the river. Other days we have avoided it because one area is rather wet, but it is a wonderful experience with the water flowing around the rocks and making all kinds of calming sounds.

Just starting to bud

Standing on the path looking up river

Isn't this the coolest tree?  In October I was
watching for vultures.  Now it seems that the
huge crows love it.

We will be travelling for a few days.  I will take some photos if there is something interesting to see.  Then when we land I will do one last post before changing to my new version that will relate to living in South Dakota again after 31 years.  Let the new adventures  begin!!!

May 2: With Strong Young Helpers....

We were fortunate enough to have 4 of the strong young men from school come and help pack the truck and trailer last night.  What we thought could take hours and hours ended up taking about 2 1/2 hours including time for pizza.  Thanks, guys!

Just a few more boxes and our suitcases, and we will be on the road tomorrow.  Each time we have moved the family sang this paraphrase songs sung by Willie Nelson  "On the road again, NEW HOME!... NEW HOME!... just cant wait to get on the road again."  (one of the only country/western songs that Kevin kind of knows)

April 30: Down to the Wire

The studio is mostly boxes.  Rachel will be sewing today and then even the sewing machine and table will be packed up.  Fortunately, I have other tasks to finish so I am not dwelling on the soon to be a totally nonfunctional studio.

I am washing curtains and rugs today because it is best to have them be totally and completely dry before they go into a box for a couple of weeks.  Even the floors and windows are looking naked.  At night I will puts some of the large sheets of packing paper on them so it will not feel like a fishbowl.

The rest of this day is all about paper sorting, shredding, and filing.  I have one file envelope full of information that I will play with for the next week, but other wise, it will all be packed by the end of the night.

The last stuff to be packed will be our travel suitcases, bedding and dishes.  That happens over the next two days, but none of it will take too long.

Having made so many moves courtesy of the Navy, we have a basic system and organization to it all. -- NINE days to our new home!  So exciting!!!!

April 29: Guess what we did?

Kevin and I thought we would be going on the Ben and Jerry's factory tour quite often when company came to visit.  Alas, we had no visitors that do not live in the area. 

Today we were going to take Rachel and Max with us, but plans changed.  Still Kevin and I got one last visit in this afternoon.  Doesn't he look like one happy man?

When we stopped at the store for milk and
BBQ buns we picked up a pint of the sample
ice cream we tasted today. Cherry Garcia is
still his favorite, but this very tasty!