It's Not Where We Start It's Where We End Up

As I was contemplating about what to title this post, wanting it to be auction based, I asked Chrissy (whose family has an auctioning business) who she suggested the above.  She pointed out that not only is it what auctioneers frequently say when starting out a bid but it applies to our situation (moving from the Northland back to the StPeter area) as well. 

It was an interesting, busy fun filled weekend.  Mother Nature was good to us considering Saturday was the only day that it did not rain, it was cool but dry.  Our friends Chrissy and Jess came up to offer emotional support and help us in anyway that they could.  Good friends are hard to come by and we cherish the ones that we have.

Jess, Chrissy and David relaxing as the bidding wars continue

We ended up with three jam packed stuffed hay wagons of 'to be sold'

As well as a full car garage

A full back garage

And items lined up and down the property

People...there were people

With cars lining one side of the road

And the other

And parked on our lower field

There were a few kids

Who soon tired out

And after 7 hours of fresh air needed some real shut eye

And hopeful bidders found lawn chairs to sit on for a few minutes prior to being sold

Our Realtors held an open house while the auction was going on

Lotsa lookers, all impressed and we have our fingers crossed.  It is nice to hear that people appreciate the work that we have put into our property.

Food was provided by Karen's Fry Bread and Cafe and it was pretty darned good

The auctioneers found interesting ways to display our wares-as Jimmy did with a blanket

Tod keep folks bidding-and a colander

The auction started at 10am with some people arriving at 7am to preview items.  I am sure that they never imagined it would last until 7pm.

It was a long day and even Gary (of Daudt Auctions ) took a bit of a break before this couch was sold off

David started out the day nervously watching his tools be sold

But by afternoon he was able to relax and yak with the auction goers

If you look at the hands in this picture you can just imagine them saying, "Yep" "Yep" and "Yep"

The big talk of the day was our brown couch that we had in the new living room.  The people that wanted it to be theirs staked their claim by sitting on it the entire day until it came time to auction it off.  One person actually complained to someone that she wanted to sit on the couch to see if it was one she wanted to bid on but no one would give up their spot.  It was a long day of sitting given the auction started at 10 and the couch went at about 4pm.

Here the hopefuls are

Number 23 not only got the coveted couch but the sleep number bed as well

And a happy bidder carting her winnings to her vehicle

The menopausal maiden

And Peeko and I

Were happy when the day was done and everything but three small items out of all of that stuff was sold.

Thanks to Chrissy and Jess, David was able to forget about the auction and celebrate his birthday on Friday with a carrot cake
 

Whose candles would not blow out

And a great breakfast

Of Jessica's Huevos Rancheros

To top it all off we took Chrissy down to see the bear who seems to have adopted the road about 2 miles from us.

He apparently showed up a couple of weeks ago

And people have been feeding him

Which is unfortunate for many reasons.  He had probably just come out of hibernation and because he is so small (perhaps 200 pounds) his mother may have just booted him from the den which means he needs to learn to fend for himself.  And he could become dependent on humans, unafraid of them and may in time have to be put down if he turns into a nuisance bear.

Or he could get hit by a car given that the minute you stop to look at him he comes right up to the window looking for food.  I did not zoom in on this picture he was that close to the Honda.

He really was fun to watch and it has been on my bucket list to get up close and personal with a bear in the wild.  I do hope this youngun learns to be the wild bear that he was intended to be.

We have appointments this week and on Sunday or Monday we plan to move to our summer spot, can't wait.

Spring?

And this is what we woke up to one morning last week.  When we went to bed there was a chance of a dusting.....well so much for a chance, we had a 5 inches of the nice heavy wet stuff.  I, of course, was worried about the weight of the snow on the slides and awnings. 

Once I got over my dismay I was able to get out and enjoy it.  It really was pretty and made for  great walk in our woods with the dogs. 

Roscoe loved it and it certainly packed tightly in his silky hair.

Since the roads weren't plowed the best it was a good time to get out and take a look....

Gorgeous-even more so since it lasted one day only

And out in front of the truck she dashed

And hid in the brush along side the road

The next day when the dogs and I walked in our woods we found that the bear have come out of their den.  This was a momma and cub, not the big boy that we had last year although he is probably around as well.

And the auction prep continues.  As of today we have one large flatbed trailer full, the small side garge packed and organized, the lean to behind the garage is cleaned out and ready to, the heated room is all packed up, the part where the cars are supposed to be is organized and full of boxes and the back workroom is almost a wrap!  My goodness we have more stuff than we thought!

David even spent some time getting his fishing stuff organized-some in the motorhome and the rest on the auction trailer

Today would had been Momma's 83rd birthday, a day that she shared with Cousin Shelly's Dan.  Happy birthday Dan Garmen.

Here we are the two of us bathing beauties in the ocean at mom and MaryEtta's favorite vacation spot, Isla Mujereus MX.  I miss her everyday but oh do David and I have great memories.  We relive them often.   Love you tons Mom-you were the granny that I aspire to be.

A SleepOver And Auction Prep Begins

Before heading north we spent a week at 'the farm'.  The farm, as we call it, will be our summer spot once we get it all set.  The perfect motorhome spot needs to be found, cleared and leveled.  We need to win the lottery, or sell the house, to get electricity put in and we want to tap into the natural spring so that we can have water....then life will be good.  Until then, when there, we will live off the grid (the water in our tanks, our generator and the inverter).

Our Minnesota girls spent a night with us, both girls at the same time for the first time.  They are so easy to have but it does tire a grandpa and grandma out.
A few hours at the Tremendous Tree House Park was in order


Where Julia once again demonstrated her gymnastic skills.  It took quite a bit of convincing on her part to have grandma go to the top so that she could climb up on her own and I could take a picture of her making the climb

Julia and Shelby just having fun

Even though it wasn't yet Easter, since we were not able to be with the girls on the day, we had an Easter egg hunt early.  Not only did the girls have fun but the dogs enjoyed it as well.  Both girls love the dogs and both girls want a dog....hint hint...

Shelby says if you don't get us a dog I am gonna drive this big home of Grandma and Grandpa's

That afternoon Grandpa spotted a female turkey and pointed it out to the girls.  The next morning Julia said, "Grandpa there is a turkey"  And yes it was a nice big Tom.

Grandpa told the girls that this was a boy turkey, Julia wondered where the baby turkeys were...I'm thinking oh no here we go....Grandpa told her that they hadn't had their babies yet.... Julia - they have to make their nests first right grandpa.  My first thought was phew we got out of that one and my second thought was where oh where does she get this stuff!  How does a three year old know that turkeys-well birds- need to make nests!

All good things do come to an end and here we are back in the northland getting ready for the auction.  The link will take you to the auctioneers website.  Once there go the the upper left side of the page and click on Saturday May 5th which should bring you to our auction bill.

The auction bill

Thus far I find myself going through the household items.  We decided that we did just fine all winter with what he have in the motorhome and they really have been only a few things that I have brought in from the house....however I have yet to start on my fabric (oh do I have fabric), and yarn (oh do I have yarn) and patterns (oh do I have patterns) etc etc.  It will be no easy task to try and smoosh what I think I cannot live without into the small space that I have designated for it all.
How do I even begin to go through all of this.  It may  not look like much but it is floor to ceiling 'stuff' and I have a few more bins full as well as a ton of shit in the motorhome home that I did  not touch this past winter....oh my....

To my amazement David is finding it easy to part with most of what is in his workshop and garage however there is just so much of it all over that it is overwhelming to try and organize it in 'auction' fashion.  

Can you feel his dismay just by looking at the photos

We would like it to be just done and over...and of course that includes the sale of our house as well.  Wishful thinking is allowed :)
The weather is awful here today so we took a break in the auction prep and went to Bemidji - neither of us will miss having to drive 45 to 60 miles just to get to a nice sized town.  Anyway on the way back the eagles were out...sharing
This guy was sitting in the ditch on a log which would had been the queen of all photo captures but it was not to be.  Here he is as he flew away

This pair were just down our road

And so, since I purchased containers for fabric and such, I best get back to smooshing stuff in them.

One Last Float Before The Trip Back To Pop

The day before we headed out for home we took an all day float down the river with our Canadian friends Mark and Colleen.  Our first trip was just the two of us with one kayak slowly losing air and thank goodness only a few hours on the river.  This trip found the kayaks in perfect shape, a gorgeous day, a 6 hour float with a lunch stop at the RoadRunner floating bar.
Looks pretty relaxing right?

So much so that Mark took a bit of a snooze. 

And then the next day we packed up and took off after saying goodbye to new found friends.  We fully intend on taking a trip to Canada this summer...soon.

Our trip back was the first real trip in the motorhome and the first few miles were interesting.  The first curve that we went around the refrigerator door flew open and out came water bottles that rolled all over the floor.  I got out of my comfortable chair to put it all back in and then remembered to lock the fridge.  Around the next corner and all of the pictures slid off of the counter onto the floor, the next corner the dog's water bowl flew across the floor spilling all over...but hey, we didn't hit anyone or get hit by someone!  That particular road is pretty darned bumpy and full of twists and turns...that's my story and I am sticking to it.  The remainder of the three day trek was uneventful and very very comfortable.

On our second night we pulled into the Walmart parking lot in Worthington.  When David went in to make sure that it was alright for us to spend the night he was told that not only was it OK but that two years ago Sandra Bullock and Jessie James stayed there for a night! 
Yep, in this very lot

We got back on Monday, pulled into the Mystic Lake RV park and off to the hospital to see Pop.  It seems his health was declining rapidly which was why we decided to head back early.  He was pretty confused but most of the time we found ourselves talking to the Pop from years ago.  He was cracking jokes and laughing at himself most of the visit.  It felt damned good to have those few hours...damned good.  However.....in one week his lung capacity had gone from an 80% functioning level down to 20%, his lungs were absolutely dieing on him and the docs were totally perplexed.  The closest to an explanation they could come to was a medication that Pop had been prescribed a few years back.  One of the side affects is just what happened to Pop...the lungs fill up with fibroids that slowly kill the lungs.  The doc on duty felt that Pop owed it to  himself to have a biopsy of his lungs done to rule out this medication and see if perhaps anything could help stop the process.  To do that he would be transferred to Abbott.  We decided to give it a try even though we were unsure if Pop really was comprehending what was going to happen.  David and I planned on being at Abbott the next day for support and to help keep him comfortable.
That morning at 2am my  phone rang.  I was not able to get to it in time but it was from dad who left a message.  "Bobbi this is dad, I gotta go I gotta catch my plane" and he hung up.  Then his aide called me just to let me know that he was having a horrible night, pretty agitated, confused etc etc.  At 4am the doc called to say that he was considering sedating him, something they had not done due to the functioning of his lungs, and would I come in to sit with him.  It seems that sedating him would certainly help him be more comfortable but would do nothing for his lung capacity, would in fact be detrimental to lungs that were already dieing.  As I sat there with my dad I did everything I could to keep busy so as not to think about what was really going on...nope I didn't want to think about it.  He was pretty heavily sedated and when the morphine started wearing off he began pulling at his oxygen mask and IV's so they had to just keep him calmly full of morphine.  I think at that point he may have known that I was there although he did not open his eyes the entire time.  I told the doc to forget the transfer, I wasn't going to put dad through that for something that was unlikely to help his situation.  At 11 Lenny, Kelly and David came and with the doc and a palliative care person we made the decision to turn  off all monitors, stop all treatment and just make him comfortable until nature took it's course.  At 3pm, with the palliative care person and the wonderful nurse we did just that.  At 3:45 as Pop took his last breath I looked out the window and there was a prop plane (the kind he would had dealt with in the air force) flying by the window.  He was right, he had a plane to catch and it seems that he caught it.  Damn that was one hard afternoon...damned hard.  It's still a bit surreal to think that he is gone.  This coming Monday we will have a celebration of life in his honor at the Nicollet Funeral Home with a lunch served at Rapid Rick's.  I am sharing some pictures of Dad in his honor here.....

Len and Kel's wedding

 One of the better ever pics of him

 Len's graduation party

 I love this one

 Dad's the young fella on the left at my cousin Pat's wedding.  I guess he sang at that wedding.  I had not a clue that he could sing!

Dad, Uncle Jim, Dad's brother Bill and my Aunt Veronica

 

 Behind the bar at our house by Nicollet

Although the whole plane thing is a strange thing, I choose to see it as a sign that everything was going to be OK for him and it helped me feel much better at that moment.  How strange is it that he leaves me that voice mail and as he goes-a plane flies by the window...a sign I tell ya a sign....

Dad was admitted to St Francis Hospital in Shakope where he received exemplary care as did we, his family.  From the volunteer at the front door up to the docs....they all have a smile, take their time with you, are pleasant ad just heads above any other hospital that I have ever been in contact with, and there have been quite a few.  When I was in Pop's room just he and I (and he was sedated) his nurse, a nurse who was not his nurse, the doc, aides etc...stopped in every 5-10 minutes to not only check on him but to make sure that I was OK, and that level of care and concern continued.  I cannot say enough about St Francis.  They are not in a rush, you are more than a number..they are just absolutely fabulous!  Prior to there he had been in St Gertruds which is a rehab facility connected to the hospital and it too has the same kind of care and concern.  Everyone so be treated so well as we all were! 

A Quick Trip

It was a quick trip back to MN but well worth it.  Not only did we get Pop's apartment cleaned and organized- with belongings ready to get rid of or move (thanks a ton my very good friend Mary for helping me), but we (well Kelly) found him his new digs AND I got to spend some much needed time with my MN girls.

Pop is currently in a rehabilitation facility in Shokope working on getting some strength back so that he can move into his new aparmtnet.  It seems that pop had not been sleeping for a few days/nights and finally went into the hospital.  Their assessment was that he was filling up with fluid (congestive heart failure) and that he should probably not go back to non assisted apartment living.  Len and Kelly transfered him to St Agusta in Shakope where he is currently.  He is having some short term memory problems and they are having trouble keeping his O2 levels up-hence he is now on oxygen all of the time.  His new digs is a brand new assisted living facility in Jordan.  His apartment is a studio with a kitchenette (no stove or oven), lots of storage and a very nice accesable bathroom.  He was very pleased (as were we all) when we visited.  Included are three meals a day as well as any other assistance that he will need when he is well enough to move.

The weather was almost as nice in MN when I was there as it was for David back in AZ.  The girls and I spent time outdoors, I of course with my camera.  At one point Julia looked at me and said, "You took a lot of pictures Grandma".  Yeah I guess I did and so indulge me.....

Lots of time spent on the swing set and it was nice to get the entire family in one picture.  Julia kept saying, "Grandma we are all down here, my whole family".  

The sky was perfect for this shot.  Grandma on the ground shooting up as Julia swings overhead.

The girls playing cooperatively.  Shelby enjoying

As Julia happily pumps away

My little Shelby Marie

Julia our gymnast posing after a successful climb up the rocks

Two sisters

Sharing a spring day...and with that look on Shelby's face how long do you think it will be before she takes over at the wheel?

When you have two girls and a mommy who is busy cleaning up the kitchen, daddy was in charge of pre-bed duties including blow drying Julia's hair...I never thought I would see the day.

And then it was time for grandma to fly back to grandpa and the boys with a promise to Julia for a sleepover in our new camper.

So Maki's, as I said...beware as we will be joining you on a river float one day.  Yep we ordered a pair of inflatable kayaks and had to try them for a short float to make sure our vessels were sound.

This was taken before David had to pull over to add air to his kayak...yep it had a leak in it.  Is anyone surprised?  Nah I thought not.

Even with the leaks it was a nice float, relaxing with some great views

A parasail-er overhead

With time to stop for an Odules

We are sending our faulty boat back and have ordered a replacement.  Hoping it gets here in time for a day long trip down the river with the Maki's and a picnic lunch :)

Happy spring my Minnesota friends.