Eight, seven…

The countdown is on. The work on the property here is (probably) over for this season. The latest addition is totally decorative. Last fall, when LeRoy and our neighbor put up the privacy fence between our properties and put the panels up with every other one facing our place, we decided that those would be a perfect place for artwork. We’ve picked up metal artwork at garage sales, much cheaper than buying in Mexico or at a local store. I wanted subtle colors, mostly earth tones with a few brighter spots here and there. This week, LeRoy helped a friend with a project and we came home with the final piece for the wall. It was very rusty, so he used rust converter on it and finished it off with a coat of polyurethane.

The property next door really is getting a house! The current owners are young retirees who have a woodcarving concession at fairs and craft events, so they were gone last week when the old trailer was removed. Imagine their surprise when they came back and found that the contractors were as good as their word and the old trailer was gone! Still, the date they had been given for arrival of their new double wide was the first week of April at the earliest, so we thought we would have to wait until next fall to see it. Friday morning at 7:30, LeRoy yelled from the kitchen “The house is here!” By dinner time that evening, the second half was backed in and wouldn’t you know it, the owners had gone to pick up hamburgers so it was another surprise. The parts will be put together and the unit set and hooked up sometime soon, but I know they are glad that it is here.

Today after church we had a chili cookoff. Anyone who has been around us long probably knows that LeRoy has won prizes at several cookoffs, including a third prize here last year, I think. “Papa’s chili” includes several colors of bell peppers and corn, alternatively known as Stoplight Chili or Chili con Corny. Last year, the local judges disapproved of corn in chili, so this year the recipe wasn’t even pulled out. It was “What’s in the pantry?” chili. I’m sure it could never be duplicated, but it won first prize! No trophy, but there was a monetary prize. Nice going, babe!

The list of things to be accomplished by me before we leave is complete. I finished my knitting project on Friday! Now there is a much larger list of things that must be packed up. I’ve been working toward emptying the freezer and cooking everything I can so I won’t have so much that I have to give away. Since we don’t leave utilities on here, we can’t leave things in the refrigerator. Condiments are the biggest thing that will have to be refrigerated going home. We’re using up leftovers, the stuff our friend Bob Ward called “used food” and I won’t be cooking a lot between now and a week from today when we leave. In the past, we’ve always had an RV here so we didn’t have to worry about an ice chest. I consulted a friend who travels back to Kansas every spring and she told me what pantry staples she leaves successfully through the summer, so that will be a little less to pack. We’ve been amassing a pile of things all winter to take back and leave in Wichita. I’m hoping packing up won’t be quite as labor intensive as it was last fall. Eventually, we may get to where all we take are our clothes but we’re not there yet.

We plan to take our time and visit friends along our homeward trip, so I can’t give a specific date but it won’t be long. See you all on the road!