Summer’s here & so are we still!

Monday & Tuesday broke heat records & you could cut the humidity with a knife. I’ve threatened to head north, or west, or anywhere without this darn humidity for the last decade. There’s just something about breaking out in a sweat simply by walking outside the door that disgusts me greatly. I can think of better ways of working up a sweat — & just breathing while doing nothing more than standing outside is definitely not one of them!

At 90+ degrees getting farm gates & tractor implements loaded onto the flatbed trailer to take to the auction barn, I started wondering why I ever wanted to live in the country on 4.25 acres of woods where we have lots of room to ‘accumulate’ all this stuff — all of what we might need someday stuff, lots of work keeping it maintained, & lots of equipment to do the maintaining. Sheesh, I’m so ready to break that bad habit.

I’ve even thought I might have made a good pioneer traveling around in a covered wagon with a minimum of stuff to survive with. Does it really take this many decades to figure out what you want to do, what’s important, & how you want to live your life?  Or, probably it’s just that adults go thru stages much like children, just slower.  I initially wanted to live in the country to be more self-sufficient. I hung on every word published in Mother Earth News during the 80s, raised chickens for years (& enjoyed the eggs), but never got around to doing much of a garden or canning. Now it’s just simpler to be happy with less.

Thankfully, today is rainy from a nice cold front coming by. The weekend — our auction — should be very pleasant in the upper 60s. We still have large items to get loaded & taken to the auction barn. We worked long & hard for over a week & just flat ran out of steam yesterday. It was too hot to have much energy, even inside with the A/C on, but we both needed a good rest.

I’ve extended the electric & water cut off dates by a week, so next week we’ll be taking stuff to the Salvation Army, the library, my girlfriend’s house in Springfield (delayed that trip twice already), recycling scrap metal, & still taking stuff to Jeff’s daughter’s house for one hellacious yard sale. Whatever doesn’t sell, gets donated or thrown away. And then there’s still some mods & organizing to do on the Casita & the pickup before heading out. Oh, & then there’s some final cleaning up of the house. Why is it you can only have any two of time, money, or energy at any given time — never all three simultaneously???

We’re still undecided where to go when we pull out of the driveway for the last time. Probably to my parents to drop off the final items we can’t part with, don’t have room for, or won’t need for awhile. We’re both SO ready to sit in the shade next to a fishing spot getting bored as we figure out what to do next.