Harvest

Lily came for a visit. Isn't she beautiful?



A lovely day on the Mississippi.

The Witless Protection Program

It only took about two weeks before we were invited to join The Witless Protection Program. It is a diverse group of artists and such that meet at noon every wed. for a potluck lunch and tea at the local gallery in Mount Carroll. The agenda is always the same. Eat, converse and be merry. All ages, all types, people who have lived here all their lives, people (us) that have lived here two weeks. It is community in the truest sense of the word.

The Tree

I didn't remember the tree. We first saw our house in early May 2006. We came back to Garfield and started the long process of fixing our house up to sell and then selling it! Sooooooooo, it had been 14 months since we had seen the house we were buying. I don't know why I didn't remember the sycamore tree, it's glorious. The one part of our house back in Washington I was regretting losing the most (no, not the shops!, the teahouse was a close second!) was the maple tree. It was just a part of me, a part of that place. So much happened in the maple tree, our kids played there, the neighbor kids too, the raccoons, the squirrels, the birds. It was the first thing I saw in the morning out the kitchen window as I was making coffee, it was often the last thing I saw at night. The tree. My new tree is also huge, full of life. It has provided wonderful shade on the deck all summer. The leaves are just beginning to turn for fall. It is a beautiful tree. I'm so happy I have a tree.

The Moving Truck

I called Jack in Ill. the night before my surgery. He said he couldn't talk at the moment because the moving truck was about to flip over on it's side! WHAT? The moving truck had just arrived several hours earlier. It had come by train across the country. Everything had a fine coating of some sort of white powder. The driver left the trailer on Washington street next to our house. About an hour after he left Jack noticed the trailer had an odd look to it. It looked like it was leaning towards the house. On closer look (it was dark) Jack saw that the jacks in the front of the trailer had gone through the street! One had fallen, of course, much deeper into the street and created the very tippy predicament of our fully loaded trailer falling over on its side! One back wheel was off the ground over two feet! Jack called 911. Being a small town this brought the usual "let's watch something" crowd. Fortunately a farmer (yes, you know we love farmers!) came by with three pieces of wood, 4x4, about 12" long. He stacked and placed them under the trailer in just the right spot. That saved the truck from tipping over! I was on the phone to the trucking company (ABF), asking them what they were going to do about this situation. They were great, they took responsibility, they sent a wrecker out from Rockford, it took about two hours to get there. At midnight the trailer was jacked up, pulled into a new spot, plywood was set under the jacks, all was secure. Jack had just about shit his pants by then. No more adventures in moving!!

Adventures in Moving

We all know how stressful moving is! Well, we really know how to make it even more stressful! Here's our moving recipe. First, load several crates loaded with hundreds of sheets of stained glass. Add on a crated church job of six windows that needs to be completed in 2008. Mix in a large diamond grinder, table saw, planer, two large work benches, boxes and boxes of tools. Add five rooms of large furniture (some antique), two leather couches. Place on top vast amounts of artwork collected over twenty years, don't forget Nane's dishes! There you have a 28 foot fully loaded trailer ready for pick-up. We had to prop up a cable wire (with our favorite ladder) in the alley for the semi to make it up. Jack, Tom and Paco took off early that morning to drive across the country, 1800 miles. Good-bye ladder. Good-bye Garfield. I headed up to Spokane for a doctor's appointment. I was facing a lumpectomy on my left girl. I only had insurance in Washington State and the problem was found two days after we closed on our house. So off they went to Illinois and I stayed behind with my good friends, Patty & kids and Karen.