Today we took a load of items to Jerry and Georgiana (Bruce’s brother and sister-in-law) to store at their farm until we return. Fortunately we were able to get it all on Bruce’s 18 foot trailer so I did not have to pull a trailer behind my Explorer on the 3 hour drive. Bruce’s youngest brother helped him load the trailer last night with our kayak trailer (which was loaded with 2 of our kayaks), his Kubota lawn tractor, generator and several other big items. That way Bruce could pull it all behind his truck instead of me having to pull the kayak trailer. The truck will be vacationing at the farm until we return.
This was the last step in getting rid of or arranging storage for items. His youngest brother is keeping the big air compressor and some tools until we return. His brother’s kids also talked him into taking some outdoor Christmas decorations off our hands. Another younger brother took the Ford tractor with accessories and the log splitter. We are getting too old to split wood, if we need it in our new home we will buy it already split. Tractor is around 30 years old but still going strong. We decided to get rid of the tractor and if we need one in our new home will will buy a new one that is automatic so I can drive it. Apparently I am the only one in my family that does not know how to drive a standard.
A couple of Bruce’s nephews also helped in taking items. One came out to get our tandem kayak and left with it and our eight foot long kayaks along with the racks for the top of the vehicle for carrying the kayaks. We kept our 12 and 14 foot kayaks as they are our favorites. We had thought about taking them with us on the journey but would have needed to transport them on top of the Explorer and we did not want to deal with the hassle of loading and unloading them, we are spoiled with our kayak trailer which is easy to load. We will just rent kayaks as we need them. Another nephew took some of our outdoor furniture and gardening items plus all of our outdoor cookers and pots. He would have gotten the wood burning stove from our back deck but his mother said she wanted it so we told him to take it up with his mother.
While all my family lives in Florida, I did manage to get my younger sister and her husband to take some items while they were visiting in March. She is also babysitting plants for me until we return. Bruce’s sister also is keeping plants for me. Plants were one of the hardest parts of deciding to sell our home. I had lots of flowers I had collected through the years from various relatives and hate to leave them behind.
Our daughter is keeping one of our Explorers while we are gone, that gives her a back up in case of emergency and means we did not have to worry about storing it.