Still alive!

On Thursday, 9/30, 8 men in two trucks made quick work of emptying our house. It took them only an hour and a half to load and slightly longer to unload. The condo had reserved an elevator for their use so that worked well. Everything came through in good shape.
Now it is Tues. evening and we have the kitchen and both bedrooms quite settled. We've also made some progress in the rest of the area. The number of boxes left is dwindling. That's a good thing because space is filling.
We took time off yesterday to close on our house which had a couple of minor wrinkles. Susan, one of the buyers, had an expired drivers license. According to the terms of the Patriot Act buyers must have a valid id and an expired drivers license doesn't qualify. We felt sorry for her. They had closed on the house they sold in the morning, loaded their stuff, were closing on ours and then moving in all on the same day. She had to go get her license renewed to finish signing the papers.
Before we got home we were called back because a typo was found in on the deed. Susan uses her maiden name plus her husbands name but doesn't hyphenate it. The deed had it with a hyphen so the document had to be retyped and resigned.
We decided that we had done our grief work because all we felt at closing was elation. We couldn't have picked a better couple to buy our house. He, like Joanne, is a Concordia grad. They have a three year old boy, Gavin. So, for the first time, there will be a child living in the house.
I'll likely post more regularly now. I have some downtown stories to tell.

Many thanks for all the expressions of support, concern and well wishes. We feel blessed by your concern.

Hard to keep up!

Moving is a lot of work! How's that for stating the obvious? Almost everything is packed. On Thursday, 9/30 5 men and 2 trucks are scheduled to appear at our house at 7:30am to schlep our stuff to the condo. We console ourselves that unpacking will be easier. At least we'll be on the downhill side.
Our contractor assures us the condo will be ready for occupancy in the next day or two. That means the all new floors, kitchen cabinets and counter tops, all new appliances, new shower, new vanities in the bathrooms, all woodwork, walk in closet with built ins, new opening from kitchen to great room, door closed off to den, new shelving, and everything painted will be complete. All than in just over 30 days! Yes...it did need some work. :)
We took this weekend off and are in Chicago where we got to babysit last night when Mai-Evy's
parents went out.

Grassland

Three years ago I was able to enroll some of my land into the Federal Conservation Reserve Program. Native grasses; Big Blue Stem, Switch grass and Side Oats Gamma were planted. The subsequent years have been very wet and idea for starting grass plantings. Now the Big Blue Stem is taller than I am. The Switch Grass is about 4 feet tall and the Side Oats Gamma about 3 feet.

In addition to soil preservation it makes wonderful wildlife cover. Many varieties of birds and mammals use it. There are also many butterflies and especially Monarchs who use the Milkweed for their larva.

It is one this land that I plant 6 acres of corn each year for winter food plots for wildlife. The last two years I sprayed much of the corn with Roundup which has given good control of the thistles. Therefore, I did not have to spray it this year because the other weeds do not spread on the wind like thistle seeds do. I cultivated it twice which was sufficient for the corn but left many weeds. With the abundant rainfall, at least double the average, the corn has grown well and so have the weeds. Any self respecting farmer would be ashamed to have such a field. But I'm delighted because my goal is wildlife cover. The corn and weed mixture; fox tail, wild sunflowers, rag weed, pig weed, etc., make wonderful habitat full of food that will feed the critters all winter.

In addition to the corn I also planted six acres of trees. They, too, have benefited from the abundant moisture and are growing rapidly. The varieties were chosen to provide winter cover and food for wildlife.

I'll enclose some pictures of the prairie grass.

Learnings

Ah so many details around moving. I thought that changing addresses online would be sooooooo easy! Wrong. It turns out that it is much easier to do by snail mail than online. The online process requires a password and much more rigmarole.
The house passed inspection with three small things to correct. Therefore we are still on schedule with plans to move on September 30, and close on this house on Oct. 4. Our contractor tells us the condo updates will be done on time.
I had pack almost two thirds of our stuff to stage our house. So I decided to pack the rest and only hire movers. Now I'm almost done packing, however, there are problems with that. During a hot spell I packed all our cold weather clothes forgetting that September can be cold. We had tickets to Prairie Home Companion at the State Fair on a cold evening. God show!

Offer accepted!

A few moments ago we accepted an offer on our house so, pending all the stuff like inspection and closing, it's sold! A young family with a three year old came to our open house a week ago Sunday and then came back twice with their realtor. Yesterday, while we were in SDak they made an offer. We responded tonight with a counter, they countered, we countered and they accepted.
I've had a persistent hunch that it would sell at the right time. They asked for a Oct. 4, closing which is perfect for us. We plan to move to the condo on Sept. 29 and don't have to make a mortgage payment on it until Oct. 1. As soon as the inspection is complete we can "live" in our house again.
The house was on the market about six weeks which is shorter than the average 90 days in this area. The hardest part about leaving? It's leaving our neighbors. However, we will get so see them via the book club.

That's done!

Effective yesterday we are the proud owners of two home mortgages. Yes, we signed the papers for the 15th floor condo in downtown Minneapolis (corner of Washington & 2nd Ave S.) You can find our building online under "Crossings". After signing we made our first trip via the underground parking garage. There are not many steps between the parking place and our unit though a several story elevator ride.

Our contractor starts work on the updates on Monday. Updates include all new; woodwork, flooring, kitchen, plus painting, bathroom updating, construction of a walk-in closet off the master bedroom and a few other things. She tells us it will all be done in 30 days. Therefore, we are making plans to move in the last week of September.

Slow reading.

"In an era when people consume words like fast food and flit from Web site to the next, a slow reading movement is starting to catch on. Two old strategies are being renewed: reading aloud and memorization, to help students truly "taste" the words. Lindsay Waters, executive humanities editor at Harvard University Press, called for a "revolution in reading" in 2007. "Instead of rushing by works so fast that we don't even muss up our hair, we should tarry, attend to the sensuousness of reading, allow ourselves to enter the experience of words," he wrote. The slow reading movement is calling for a closer connection between information and readers, said John Miedema, who published SLOW READING in 2009. (AP) Quoted in the July 27, 2010 CHRISTIAN CENTURY p. 9.
I'm not about to start memorizing because it is clearly not my gift. However, I've had a reading experience lately that makes me think that there is something to this idea of slow reading. Here's what happened.
About a year ago Joanne and gathered our neighbors and began a book club. It's been a grand experience. One of the saddest parts of our impending move is leaving these neighbors. But, I digress.
I read several of the chosen books weeks before our discussion. To refresh my memory for our club meeting I went back and reread the books. Seldom, if ever, have a read a book twice within a few months. I discovered that, while I remembered the main facets of the book, I had quickly forgotten much of the detail. Reading it a second time was almost as enjoyable as the first.
It certainly is significant that they were all very good books; OUT STEALING HORSES, THE BOOK THIEF, THE LATE HOME COMER and now I'm rereading HALF BROKE HORSES. Perhaps I should make a practice of reading the book club selections twice; early and late. Does that qualify as "slow reading?" What would happen if I read a book three times?