It's supposed to be warmer here!

We've hit a standstill in our working on the place. A week ago Southern Illinois was hit with one of the nastiest ice storms in history. I have NEVER seen ice like that. In Goreville it looked like a tornado had gone through, there were so many trees and branches down.

Of course with so many trees breaking from the ice pretty much everyone down here lost power. The first couple days we were doing OK, it would go off and then back on again. A couple times the temperature in the house would go into the low 50s but then the power would come back on. Luckily it tended to happen at night so we were plenty warm until it was time to get out from under the covers. Then on Thursday, when the bad weather was over and the ice started to melt, our power went out for good. It didn't come back on that time until Saturday night. When the temp in the house got into the 40s we decided it was time to bail. Jim and Kathy had finally got their power back but still didn't have water, but we decided to spend Friday night there. Of course in the middle of this Directv finally showed up to install the satellite. The power literally went off as the tech was pulling into the driveway. He went ahead and installed everything and just had to come back when the power came back on to activate it.

Then Ray started having trouble with a tooth and we had to find a dentist who would get him in. It meant a drive all the way to Metropolis but by then it was sunny (still cold, though). So he's been out of commission the past couple days, between the pain med and the antibiotic he's not feeling really great.

Hopefully we will be able to go back north soon to get the rest of our stuff. Pretty soon I'm just going to buy new garden tools to be able to start working outside!

Some days are best not remembered

Ray had already asked my brother John if we could borrow a trailer. John has an older 22 foot car hauler that he uses mostly for storage these days. He said no problem, just give him some notice before we needed it so he could get it cleared out.

Jim called Ray one night and said he could borrow two trailers and go with us to get our stuff. We thought this would probably be a good idea, because it would mean just one trip up and back. Even with paying for the gas for Jim's truck, it would be less because he gets much better gas mileage than the Suburban does. Little did we know what the trip had in store for us.

Half way down Ray noticed that one of the tires on Jim's trailer was flat. Luckily both trailers were double axle so it was still drivable. Ray called Jim and they decided to pull over in Arcola. Gotta love those cell phones! We needed to eat anyway. Jim asked the waitress for the name of the nearest tire place and off we went after lunch to get the tire fixed. That lost us about an hour.

We got up there too late to do the running to the banks and post office we needed to do to close out the bank accounts and post office box. We did manage to take the flat tire my car had off and get it to Farm and Fleet. The guy there said there was nothing wrong with the tire but the rim had rusted. Ray asked him what could be done and he said, I can clean it up and put new bead sealant on it. OK, fine.

The next day we got up and discovered the snow that was supposed to start falling that evening was already falling! We went to Aurora to pick up Ray's recliner that his brother Bob had recovered. It was beautiful and goes with the living room furniture wonderfully. Jim met us there and off we went back to Sandwich. Ray dropped me off to get my car, they went to the storage place and I started running around to the banks and post office. By the time I got to the storage place they had Jim's trailer half loaded. We finished loading his trailer, then I went for a coffee run while they moved that one out of the way and got the 16 footer in place. We loaded that one, tied everthing down, and headed to Shayna's house to get our stuff from there. We managed to cram everything onto the trailers and into the vehicles, and covered the trailers as best we could with tarps and tied every thing down as securely as we could. Destiny gets home from school around 3 so we did get to say goodbye to her, and took off.

The roads were HORRIBLE. Jim wanted to go the way he usually does, avoiding the interstates for the first part of the trip by going south on IL 47 to US 24 in Forest, then getting on I-57 from there. MISTAKE. 47 wasn't too bad but 24 was completely snow covered. We stopped to eat supper at a Subway at the intersection of US 24 and I-57, then got on the interstate.

It was slow going. There were times we were going less than 30 mph, on the interstate! Every time a semi would go by the trailers would shake. Finally, a semi passed Jim just as he was on a slick spot on an overpass and he lost it. Thank God there was so little traffic, he spun out but didn't hit anything but the guard rail. It dented his truck and bent the trailer somewhat but Jim is OK and the truck was drivable. Finally, around 10:30 Jim decided he's had enough and pulled over. We spent the night in a Motel 8 in Matoon.

The next day (Friday) we got up and saw it was still snowing. Luckily it stopped shortly thereafter and we got back on the road. We got home about 1pm that afternoon.

Today Ray went to take the trailers back. The 16 foot one had fallen off it's block, they picked it up and got in on his hitch but forgot to crank the stand up so it got bent. Now we have TWO trailers that we have to pay to fix or replace. Wonderful.

Making progress

The carpet is almost in. The installers were here all day yesterday and will be back today to finish. Tomorrow, then, we will be heading back north to pick up the rest of our stuff. Jim borrowed two trailers, one sixteen foot and one twelve foot. We'll pull one and Jim and Kathy will pull the other with Jim's little red pickup truck. Hopefully we will be able to get everything in the two trailers and three vehicles (I still have to bring back the Hyundai Accent, so Ray and I will have a long, lonesome trip back this time).

We had frozen pipes twice. Lucky us, we came down here in the middle of an unusual cold streak. The first time we didn't have any damage to pipes but the second time the pipe to one of the outside faucets broke and a whole section fell to the ground. Ray just capped off the pipe, we won't need that any time soon and it got us our water back. We have borrow a propane torpedo heater from Jim that worked really fast in getting the pipes thawed.

My friend Maureen, daughter Shayna and the granddaughters came down for the weekend. It was nice seeing them, but I sure enjoyed the peace and quiet again after they left! Ray got a little depressed, though, he really missed the girls. He's all gung ho now for them to move down here. I'm mixed on that. They can if they need to, of course, but I think I'm getting too old to deal with the chaos of little kids.

Heading back

We have been back at Shayna's for the past few days. We came back up here because she needed to go to court yesterday to get a permanent order of protection against her ex boyfriend. It was granted. Mike blew a gasket afterward, yelling "fucking bullshit" and slammed the doors going out of the courtroom. What an idiot, he was in handcuffs and with 2 sheriff's deputies because he was brought over from the jail. I almost laughed when the little old gray haired court bailiff went toddling over in case the strapping young deputies needed help.

I can't wait to get back. The kitchen has a new floor but still plenty of work to be done. We have running hot and cold water and a toilet that works, but need to finish the little bathroom and get started on the master bath. Ray wants to get the pump hard wired. We need to get the new carpeting in so we can get our stuff moved down there.

We went and talked to my brother John today. He has several large car hauling trailers and has said we could borrow one. We just need to call him several days before we need it so he can get the stuff out of it. He uses to store at least one of his GTOs and other parts.

We took Ray's huge recliner to his brother Bob and picked out fabric to recover it. I could live without taking that thing with us but Ray likes it, so at least I got to have it recovered so it won't be quite so ugly.

We get started

So now we had a property that we own and no one can take away from us (well, except for non payment of the $2.31 property tax). We realized when we bought it that there would be work to be done, but it was so cheap it left us with money to be able to do the work. We both put our notices in to work. Ray's last day was set for January 4 and mine for New Year's Eve (I just wanted to finish out 2007 at the clinic). January 5 we headed south.

The man we bought it from told us that he had just put a "new" pump in. It might have been a DIFFERENT pump but it has been decades since it was NEW. We connected power to the pump and watched the smoke pour out. It was fried.

Off Ray and his brother Jim go to the nearest Menard's 25 miles away to buy a new pump and while they were at it, a new tank. After much discussion they had the new stuff installed. Connected the power, and it immediately powered up and started pumping water - right onto the ground under the trailer through broken pipes. Another day of work got the pipes connected, but not until after Ray had one of the waste pipes break open on top of him. Wouldn't have been a problem except it was from the toilet we had been using and flushing with water we hauled in from Jim's house. YUK.

Finally we have running water. It's still COLD running water, though. Time to get the water heater going. Turns out the circuit marked WATER HEATER doesn't go to the water heater. Ray had to tear down the inside walls surrounding the water heater to get to it. We though we were going to have to buy a new heater but figured out that there was an unmarked 220 circuit that actually went to the water heater. It's a small one, 30 gallons, but at least we now have HOT running water! We can shower!

New year, new beginnings

It's always best to start at the beginning, I guess. However, to start at the beginning of this story would go back more years than I care to think about, so I'll start at the beginning of the end of the last chapter.

In October 2005 my husband Ray was laid off. Ray is a union carpenter. We thought he would fairly quickly get another job. Carpenters always come and go from one company to another so it was no big deal. The housing market was already starting it's downturn, though, so after 6 months on unemployment he still hadn't found another job. Then in July 2006 he finally was hired again. We thought our luck was turning upward again. Two hours into his new job, his legs went numb. He came to the clinic where I work looking absolutely terrible. I took him to Walk In Care where they immediately sent him by ambulance to the nearest ER. He ended up in ICU for several days, he had 100% blockage of one femoral artery and 95% in the other. Employers take a dim view of new employees working for 2 hours and then being off for 2 weeks, so he was again unemployed. The only other job he was able to get was a low paying night shift at a distribution warehouse. Certainly not enough to keep up with our house payments. We were able to sell the house in July 2007, just ahead of foreclosure. Because of the housing market we had to sell for far less than we liked, but still came out with enough to be able to look for property that would be paid for. We moved in with our daughter Shayna temporarily and started looking.

Ray's brother Jim lives in Southern Illinois. Jim had been after Ray for years to move down by him. We had Jim contact a realtor and set up a Saturday to look at properties. We made the 6 hour trip down the weekend after Thanksgiving. Jim mentioned that an aquaintance had a property he was trying to sell. Less land than we wanted, under an acre, but it had a 3 bedroom 2 bath mobile home and he only wanted $10,000 for it. We said sure, we'll look at it. When we got there, Jim told us the owner dropped his asking price to $8500. There was no way we could turn that down so we bought it. Easiest closing I've ever been through, the title company faxed me the paperwork, we signed it, and mailed it back to them with a cashier's check. The woman at the title company very apologetically said that after we cleaned and fixed up the place the property taxed would probably go up. No sweat, the taxes for 2007 were $2.31. It could increase by 1000% and it wouldn't be a problem.

Now we are ready to make our new beginnings