We are still caught up in the 'mess' of buying, packing, moving, selling - phew, I don't ever remember it being this stressful or entailed. As I type the photographer is here taking photos to get our house listed - Sam and Bailey are at the new house for the fridge delivery and internet/phone installation.

This is what we see behind our new house. I have seen up to 5 cows at once but not yesterday. So, I'm naming the cows - the red cow on the left is Guinevere, the black cow in the middle is Joan Jett, the red cow on the right is Chai Latte, the cow to the back right is Coco Loco. Probably not a good idea to name them as one day they will be gone....I'll have to pretend they have moved on to a new home rather than a freezer. They are fairly young, maybe yearlings?  I don't know.........I don't know anything much about cows but I enjoy seeing them rather than another house behind us. We're used to privacy living on 5+ acres but having this parcel with cows behind us at the new place will make the transition much easier.

Now transitioning my studio space will be more challenging - my two rooms are almost the same size but I'm losing a huge walk in storage loom. I'll just have to get more creative with my storage areas. The kitchen will also be a challenge as there aren't as many cabinets but really, do I need those graduated wedding cake pans I bought in 1986 for a cake decorating class I took............and haven't used them since. I will be re-evaluating everything once again as I unpack. And what about those two springform pans that I don't think I've ever used since I'm allergic to eggs and don't eat cheesecake.......or enough tart pans for an army, I'm sure keeping one will suffice......... 

Paring down has felt good but oh, so much work. I'm yearning for the days when I can spend all day at the loom, or get in some spinning & knitting, some sewing & quilting......it will come..........

New house

We have closed escrow on the new house closer to town, in a neighborhood, off acreage. We're almost ready to list our current house. We won't move to the new place for another few weeks. I have to admit I did have some second thoughts after we were into this purchase but after being over there without the former owner's things in it I can finally say it feels totally right. This home is going to be very comfortable and it feels good inside, nice and light and bright.  I'm still wondering where all our stuff is going to fit..........it's a tiny bit smaller than our current house but what that 3 car garage is missing is the huge storage rooms we have in our current 3 car garage. There was much donating and giving away of things we don't need this last month but I'm thinking as I unpack there will be a bit more........I've packed some things that I really question whether I need to keep storing them as I haven't even looked at them in 15 years. I can take my time unpacking and think on it........

This is the front of the house, front trees are all leafed out now. To the right side of the house is where I'll be planting some fig trees early next spring. I'm thinking I also need a gingko tree in that area. They're my favorite leaves and they do grow here so I'll have to search for a small tree this fall or next spring.

This is a view off the little back deck. There's a 5 acre parcel behind us complete with a few cows so even though we're on a city lot it feels like we still have some privacy out back rather than looking out at another privacy fence with a house behind it. If we look a bit to the right there's a view of the mountains.

You can't see them in this picture but there are 2 dwarf apple trees that are loaded with little apples. We were told there are 2 plum trees, we see some plums on one of them - I understand that plums got hit hard with cold weather in our area after flowering so that may be why we're not seeing much. There are some grape vines on the side yard, they're loaded with pinpoint little grape clusters. In front of the grapes there's an area where someone tried to put down a patch of sod, over gravel.....well, of course it didn't take. I'm thinking a raised bed strawberry patch would be perfect there. Along the fence on the other side of the yard there are lots of rose bushes totally covered with roses and tons of buds - looks like I'm going to have to learn about roses. There's a little corner where the previous owner had a garden - I'll be watching to see if it gets enough sun to determine if that's where I'll put some raised beds for veggies. If it doesn't get enough sun we can do something right along the white picket fence, it gets tons of sun.

So, right now rather than being over at the new house much we need to keep concentrating on getting this one listed and packed up. Life has been consumed for quite a while with house hunting/sorting/packing/getting a house ready to list - I'm more than ready to start nesting at the new place and get back to doing the things that I love like weaving, sewing, quilting, spinning, knitting, beading, etc, etc, etc. I don't ever remember this buying/selling process being so all time consuming in the past.