Home Again

Back from Wellsboro after Friday to Monday helping out and boy, this wasn't any vacation.  We cleared out and cleaned out the "old" house ten miles out in the country, and helped do same to the new, in town.
It's small, but has real potential and is in a great location.  High up on a hill, it commands a view of the town below--beautiful especially at night--and has a big, fenced-in backyard and huge garage.  It's just two doors away from little J.'s school; next year, the other J. will go there, too.  As for the two little ones, their school is only about a half mile away,  as opposed to twelve or so when they lived in Middlebury Center.  The house does need work and it's small, with only one bathroom.  But it has a basement (cellar), attic (low until the middle), very large garage, and nice wrap-around porch on the side and back.
Anyway, we packed furniture, tools, and other necessities into a large open trailer, attached it to the van, and got there after the five-hour trip without incident about 8 pm. It was lovely to see the boys--such neat kids--and we collectively got a lot done at both houses over the several days we were there. 
When we arrived, we found a young woman from Nebraska visiting, while the carpet layer put in the carpet, the dogs ran in and out, and all kinds of activity went on.  We out-of-towners stayed at our usual Canyon Motel, although we didn't spend much time there.  We spent most of Saturday at the old house and were thrilled when little Tristan came out of the chicken coop with a huge egg for us.  In fact, there were dozens of eggs in the refrigerator and I intended to take some home.  I'm so darn mad that I just forgot to get them; I was going to give some to Betty, Susan, and Aline, whom I'm meeting for lunch today.  As for the chickens, they were given away, some to the landlord farmer and some animal shelter.
Got home about 4:30 yesterday and picked up my mail and papers at Susan's.  She was making a new dish--vegetarian Mexican--and invited me to dinner.  Oh, yeah, sure thing, and I went home just long enough to shower and change, then hopped over there and we had a nice meal and chat.
Now I'm back and catching up on mail, e- and snail, and newspapers.