I'm in Virginia!

In spite of all evidence to the contrary, I did not drop off the edge of the earth! The last couple of weeks have really been a whirlwind. Serendipity, positive intent, good energy, an abundant and giving universe; however you slice it, my life just continues to be full! I put my house on the market on a Thursday morning and by Sunday evening it was sold for over my asking price! I had so many lookers that one couple who really wanted the house and was afraid they would lose it, made an over the asking price offer. They bought the house “as is” with no inspection and we closed on the 28th. The couple, who are from Austin, have been coming to Alpine for quite awhile and love to drive around the neighborhoods and look at houses. They had discovered my house several months ago, fell in love with it, and have been “stalking” it ever since. Whenever they are in town they cruise by and check on it. They just happened to be in town on the weekend the sign went up, drove by and couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw that it was for sale. They are now the proud owners of their favorite house and can’t believe their luck. Talk about being in the right place at the right time!

With the house taken care of, my next job was to segregate the things I wanted to take to Virginia. It wasn’t easy but I got that stuff moved into one of the storerooms, where I had a space taped off to match the 5’ x 8’ trailer I had decided to take with me. Once my “trailer square” was full, I was done! I hired some estate people to come in and liquidate everything that was left. I highly recommend them. These people are great. You leave all your things in your closets, drawers and cupboards. They pull everything out, sort it, price it, set up a little store in your house and hold the sale. In my case the first day was a full-price day, the second day was half-price and everything left was auctioned off. Emotionally, I wasn’t quite up to attending the sale but when I came by after it was over I only had to throw out a little trash and that was it. They take 1/3 of the proceeds and it was completely worth it. Not only do they do an incredible amount of work, they are able to get better prices for your things than you would be able to so the 2/3 you are left with most likely adds up to more than you would have gotten had you done it all yourself. I think going from a two-storey, three bedroom home to a 5’x8’ trailer fulfills my 2009 goal of drastically reducing the number of my possessions!

I kept changing my mind about when I wanted to leave but once the sale was over there was no reason for me to hang around. My original plan was to have my sister fly in to the nearest airport on Wednesday night, the 15th of July. I was going to bring her back to Alpine and have us pack up on Thursday and then hit the road on Friday. I ended up getting two of my friends to help me pack the trailer on Wednesday and then making the 170 mile drive to the airport, meeting my sister and staying the night. We headed out Thursday morning, making Texarkana that night. We stopped in Oxford, Mississippi, on Friday and visited with my son who is a senior at the University of Mississippi and then kept going. We spent Friday night in Jasper, Alabama, and made it to my sister’s house in Georgia on Saturday afternoon.

The left behind pug, the worms and I stayed with my sister for a couple of days and then Tuesday the 21st my 12-year old nephew and I headed north to my new home in Virginia! Pulling the trailer I was averaging about 8-10 mpg and made a lot of stops for gas! We made it to the farm in the early afternoon and met the new owner who had arrived on the weekend and had been working ever since. He showed me around, introduced me to the immediate neighbors and then headed out. The farm is lovely and the house is cute with lots of potential but was pretty filthy from being unoccupied for awhile. My nephew and I got right to work.

My sister and my other nephew showed up on Thursday. She and I kept our attention on scrubbing while the boys headed outside. They worked on raking, trimming the grass along the creek and building a bridge. They also had time to shoot their BB guns, meet a snake and a snapping turtle, hike around and generally have a good time. Nothing goes together like farms and small boys! My sister and I had a great deal less fun but got the house well on the way to being sorted out.

We did take time to go down to Andy Griffith’s hometown of Mount Airy, N.C., which was the inspiration for Mayberry, RFD. Lots of Mayberry stuff going on there and although I doubt I’ll go back, we were glad we went. We also spent some time poking around the downtown area of Galax, Virginia, the next town over from here. If you’re ever near Galax, be sure and have lunch at the Galax Smokehouse. They have delicious BBQ and according to Southern Living, the best banana pudding in the southeast! Cute shops and nice people make this a great way to while away an afternoon. I’m sure I’ll be taking all my visiting friends there!

There is lots of work ahead of me here; an enormous amount of painting, both inside and out and lots and lots of trash to haul off, for starters. There are five outbuildings crammed with mostly worthless stuff that need to be emptied out before they can be put to use. Living out in the country here means no trash pickup. For the previous owners that evidently meant not throwing anything away!

There is lots and lots of fun to be had here as well! I’ve already picked out where the garden will be and which building will become my new chicken house and which one will be the garden shed. I can’t wait to get started and I hope you’ll enjoy following along on my big adventure!