Colorado Bound

Wow, it's been half a year since I posted.  I suppose when life gets topsy-turvy posting gets put aside.  I didn't have a computer that had internet.  I certainly wasn't going to try to type stuff on my cell phone nor was I going to use the library computers to post on my blog.  But now I have a computer/tablet that has a real keyboard, plus I have internet access.  So it's about time I get back into my blogging world.

Instead of work going through the layoffs in August as they originally stated, they did it in July.  And they gave us less than 24 hours notice that the process was going to happen.  I didn't know whether I would be laid off or not.  I was going to be told the next day. I had some very pressing work tasks that I wanted to finish, and thinking that the deadline was still weeks away, was able to relax and have lots of fun on my honeymoon.  But here it was, my first day back, I was preparing to leave work for the last time, maybe.  I spent that entire day cleaning out my office.  I walked home at lunch and drove the car back.  I then made a couple of trips from the office to home, taking all my books, office supplies (only mine, not what belonged to work), and everything else that was in my cubbie. 

I still had it in the back of my mind that they would possibly keep me.  After all, when this thing started, my boss said that of the 9 people in our group probably two would lose their jobs.  Everyone in my office joked that because I didn't care if I got laid off or stayed I'd probably end up staying. They were wrong.  At 8:30 in the morning I got the phone call at home that my position was terminated and they didn't want to put me into any other positions. (Two kept their jobs, two moved positions, five were laid off.)  Since I was living in company housing I was told that I could stay for up to three months if I wanted. Since school was going to start in a month we only stayed two weeks.  I figured that the kids should start off the school year at their new school.

Girl surprised me and asked if she could go live with her mom.  If it's ok with her mom, then yes.  Drug Daughter (DD) has been off of drugs for over a year and she was interested in having Girl live with her.  OK.  But Girl can't boomerang this.  The deal is she must stay the entire school year, although I'm the one legally responsible for Girl and if things aren't working out I would take her back.  We put her on a plane with one very large suitcase.  She is now in the American Redoubt and doing very well. 

Boy is still with me.  He wants nothing to do with DD.  I don't blame him, as he wants stability and can't be assured of that with her.  He's also lived with me for about 11 of his 14 years.  This is home.  He is enjoying his new school and has made new friends.  He's also getting along well with Step-parent, even though SP expects a lot more out of him than I did.  That's really a good thing.

So here we are in beautiful, cold (-6 this morning) Colorado.  It's quite a change from the beautiful, not cold Great Central Valley of California.  Our house is not yet complete.  Instead of some of it being ready by November, nothing is ready.  We were living in our little trailer, and not killing each other in the process. Yeah for us! That worked until the weather turned cold.  I put my foot down and said no.  Three in a 19 foot trailer (that's fully extended) is not going to work.  It's really a trailer for one. The shower is also the closet, so you have to take all the food and clothes out before you shower.  Max offered to let us come to his house and shower.  That would work but I needed a more permanent solution. 

Another friend of ours had a little guest house (not little, 2 bedroom, 2 bath) that we could use.  It's got wood stove  plus wall heaters in each bedroom.  We've been in it for three months.  We have 1 1/2 more, then they need their guest house back.  Our house will not be done by then.  We are also building a little bunkhouse.  It probably won't be done by then either.  We will be back into the trailer but I will have a better exterior set up (for food and other items).  The bunkhouse isn't allowed to have a wood stove, and although it can be heated with a couple little room heaters, the county won't sign it off for moving in until the main heat system in the main house is done.  That's because the heating system is interconnected between the main house, bunk house, and greenhouse.

We've been working on the heating system for the past two months.  The heating system company said that their price to install this main portion was $17,000.  We decided to do the install ourselves.  While it is taking several months rather than the week that they would have taken,  that's a lot of money to save! 

So how was the move?  Most of my stuff got moved by the moving van in May.  We still had to move the truck and utility trailer full of stuff.  We looked like the Beverly Hillbillies.  Three cats, dog, goat, food buckets, and several 55 gallon barrels filled with yard tools (why didn't I put them into the moving van???)  The trip was very eventful.  The main freeway had been closed for 4 hours but had opened to one lane when we hit the slowdown area about ten miles from the closure.  We had a full tank of gas but hungry bellies.  We ate granola bars and snack foods.  We saw the mile long line to get off the freeway at the one and only gas station.  No doubt the gas station ran out of gas but people didn't know that.  It took us about 10 hours to make it to Vegas, which is normally a 7 hour drive.  Unfortunately, by the time we got there it was very late (can't see us driving down the strip with a goat in the back) so we filled with gas, got some more food, and kept driving.  Then it started pouring.  A river of mud went across the freeway.  We drove through it.  We ended up stopping somewhere in Utah, pulling over on the side of the road around 3:00 in the morning.  We slept sitting up.  In the morning, we drove into some small town and I insisted on real food for breakfast.  The sun was shining and we stopped at an I-Hop.  Best breakfast ever! 

The second day of the trip went well.  At least until the last few hours.  It started to pour again.  But we made it to the house.  We were able to pull the trailer into the barn and get the truck covered too.  It was late so it was time for bed. 

In the morning I made a little pen for the goat.  She was also happy to get out and walk around after having been in the back of the trailer in the pouring rain for a couple of days.  She ended up getting sick but I was able to cure her with some shots of penicillin.

Some of the food buckets lids blew off in the wind and rain and ruined what was in those buckets.  Some other buckets ended up getting water in them (cracked lids) but I didn't realize it until quite a while later, when the buckets started to smell!  All in all, we made it to Colorado.