Annual Bowdoinham Christmas Parade

Well, today was an interesting day for sure. Today was the annual Bowdoinham Christmas Festival and Pony Parade. And, I had to bug bomb the house first thing this morning (due to some... or rather many ants taking up residence with me) I had already purchased a kit but this morning realized I needed a second one as I was going to do both the basement and the house. I didn't get up quite as early as planned having worked that night and not getting to bed until about 3 am. I lugged a bunch of stuff out of the house and put it in my little shed on the deck. Then I covered the counter tops, some of the furniture and a few other things with towels and blankets. Then a quick dash to the store and to get a 2nd kit. I put the things I'd need for the Christmas parade in my truck and set off the foggers in the basement and house. Now, I had to take the dogs with me for the day. This would complicate things but I figured I'd manage somehow. I had originally thought to skip riding in the parade.  I questioned the sanity of taking to a public event a young green mule that's been doing nothing for several months. But at the last minute decided to go for it. It was such a beautiful day, sunny and in the 50's. And I would not have many more opportunities to participate in this event. So I headed to Joanie's to hook up my trailer and get Lily. We were all meeting at Susie's house and I needed to be there by noon time. Just when I got to Joanie's, Linda called me to see if I wanted her to pick me and Lily up to reduce the number of trailers in Susie's yard. I jumped at the opportunity. Linda picking me up gave me a few minutes to lunge Lily to get the "kinks" out before making our public appearance. I didn't want to go out to the round pen so figured I'd just lunge her in her pasture.

And that is when the fun began. Lily spazzed right out. She tried to run off, she leaped and bucked and spun and pulled and bucked and reared. I could NOT lunge her out in the open on a line. So, off to the round pen we went. A couple of my friends told me that a large round pen is not really a good thing. They were so right! While it is effective, my round pen is big enough that you have to do too much chasing to keep the horse or mule moving as you want them to. So, Lily was not the only one that got a good workout. I worked her until she started to settle and I was about to pass out from exertion which was about the time Linda arrived to pick us up. I had planned to have all my stuff ready by the time Linda arrived but that plan had gone down the tubes. And I was questioning the sanity of this decision even harder. Though Lily had settling a bit in the round pen, I did not have her complete attention yet. I didn't want Lily to think that acting like a crazy thing would get her put back in her pasture and left alone either. I don't think that was her goal in acting crazy, I think she was just blowing off steam. Still...... As they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained so I decided to go. If Lily was was still acting up when we got to the parade, I could always just lead her, though I sure hoped it would not come to that.

As I was coming across the field from the round pen to the barn, Joanie's husband, not seeing me out there, let Franny and Talulla Belle, the two horses, out into the field. The three are not ever turned out together and they got all excited when they saw me and Lily in their field and came galloping up. I thought I might be in a bit of trouble but got close to the gate before they were to us. Talulla Belle did managed to get thought the gate with me into Lily's pasture. I scooted Lily through the barn gate and got it shut before Talulla come get though that one too. We didn't have a lot of time at this point so I just loaded Lily onto Linda's trailer, which Lily was more than happy to do thankfully, grabbed what I absolutely needed and we headed out. I had no time to dig out my Christmas decorations. I followed Linda over to Susie's with my truck since I had the dogs with me. When we got to Susie's, I put the dogs in one of her stalls. They were not impressed but there wasn't a better option. I groomed my dirty sweaty mule the best I could and quickly saddled up. Lily was quiet now and behaving fairly well. It took a few tries before she stood quietly at the mounting block. Once I was mounted I just walked her a round and she was quite good. Curious about all the strange things hanging, floating, blinking and jingling on all the other horses but she was not worried about any of it. Nor was she concerned about the two goats in the parade. So, things were looking up and I might survive this after all!

Cindy Ross on Lily (the dirty white snowflake...)

Tara Labbe on Winnie with Andrea Labbe

Two of the Labbe's goats

Janice Hill on Little Black Feather

Linda Temple on Gus

Mary Ann Wilson on Suri

Jim and Nancy Carville

Sarah-Taylor Wieluns on Dixie

Cindy on Lily, Linda on Gus

Susie Knowles on Spark

Lily redeemed herself by being absolutely wonderful for the entire ride. There were just a couple things we passed that concerned her a bit but there were no theatrics about it. She did get a bit wound up when the two mini donkeys joined the parade for a short spell. In the end I was so glad I did bring her though I was a bit embarrassed by our lack of costume and cleanliness. When we rode by the judge for the costume contest, I told her we were indeed in costume, I told her we were dressed up as a dirty snowflake! After the parade, I got the dogs out of the stall and back into my truck. We loaded up and Linda took Lily back to Joanie's. I had a bit of time yet to kill before I could go back to the house to open it up and air it up. No one was home at Joanie's so I let the dogs out and I played with Bubba on her agility course. He had a lot of fun with that. Once back to the house, I left the dogs in the car while I went in and opened all the windows and door. Now I had two more hours to wait for the house to air out and was thankful to get such a warm day in December. So, I took the dogs for a walk out on the power line and sat for a while at the top of the hill enjoying the view and giving Zephyr a chance to rest.

Then, when it was time, I went in, shut things up, turned the power back on and started to clean up and put a load in the wash. Then, it was back to Susie's house for our annual Christmas party. It was a fun night with so much food, wine, and even a game of Jeopardy with our group slit into two teams, Team Outlaws (my team) with Barbara McGovern, Joanie Mitchell, Katie Smith, Luann Smith, Dan, Scott Labbe, Mary Ann Wilson, and Linda Temple, and Team Lawless consisting of Susie Knowles, Heather Nickerson, Kyle Smith, Mary Batt, Henry Mitchell, Nancy Hunsburger, Brian Smith, and two more whose names I'm not sure of. Jim and Nancy Carville were there too... can't remember what teams they were on....  Anyway, our team won....of course. :-D

The Move!

We did it! How life has changed in a mere 6 months! What a journey this has been from the decision to make this move to it being done. We never expected our house to sell as quickly as it did. Or to find a home we liked so soon. Everything just worked out in it's own strange ways so much faster than we anticipated and here we are, making the big move.

I'd long since come to the conclusion that we have WAY too much stuff. We had filled 4 storage units in two locations and still had things that we had been allowed to leave in the garage of the house we sold until the move. And this is after filling three 30 yard dumpsters, selling a bunch of stuff and giving away a bunch of stuff.  And in this moving process we have handled our belonging WAY too many times to this point. From the home we sold to the storage units then truck loads at a time to the trailer and then horse trailer loads  to the house...... A good friend of mine let us borrow their tractor trailer for the move. We could only use their tractor for the instate part of moving the 53' trailer  so rented one for the actual move. We started at our old house and loaded what was left in the garage. Then on to the storage unit in Litchfield. By the time that was done it was getting late. Roger MacWhinnie let us leave the rig at his place for the night. We really appreciated that as we weren't sure what to do with it. The following day we headed over to the storage units we had in Richmond. We could not get the tractor trailer in there so had to park on the side of the road and ferry everything from the storage units a pick-up truck load at a time. FUN TIMES!

 One of Roger MacWhinnie's car's.



We FILLED that 53' trailer! 2/3rds was Fred's stuff from his garage!  And I still have a few things at the home I'm renting her in Maine TOO MUCH STUFF! Once loaded, another friend let us park the trailer at their place that had room for it so we could return the tractor. We were loaded and ready to go for a closing date on the new home for Nov. 6th. That was delayed due to new laws that have gone into place starting just this past Oct concerning mortgage loans.We had nearly all the price for the house we were purchasing cash but not quite all so unfortunately, there was a bank involved.

The closing was finally set for Wednesday, Nov. 18th so we headed out on Sunday, the 14th. We rented the tractor from Ryder and Fred picked up the keys on Friday so we could pick the truck up Sunday morning. We ended up taking our dog Bubba with us. We had no idea how he would travel as we've never taken him on any long trips so prayed it would not be a disaster as he is an extremely shy and timid dog. We arrived at the rental place Sunday morning.  Fred jumped in the tractor and........ it would not start. After making some calls, Ryder sent someone to look at it. The batteries were dead and the mechanic changed them out. That caused us to get a later start then we had planned on. We put a blanket on the floor space between our seats for Bubba. He settled right in and turned out to be the best boy ever to travel with. He just quietly slept the whole time. We picked up the trailer in Bowdoin and we were on our way. Fred's brother and mother were coming to help us but were heading out a day later as we would not need their help until after the closing on Wednesday.

 The weather forecast for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday was rain, rain and more rain. I was not impressed but some things you just can't control so you just go with it.Bubba was a bit freaked out when we stopped at the first rest area and it took quite a bit of walking before he relaxed enough to do his "business". After that first stop though, he really took the rest in stride. He was cautious, but not freaked out. He was really so good about all of it. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel for supper though finding parking with the tractor trailer was not easy. We ended up in a Home Depot parking lot and hiking over to the Cracker Barrel. It was late enough so the Home Depot was closed so it gave me the chance to let Bubba out and off leash for some stick fetching time which he thoroughly enjoyed.  Fred was not at all impressed with the rental tractor and he and the tractor took a bit of time to come to an understanding with each other. He's a good driver though and got us to our first stop in Clearfield, PA safely. It was late when we got there and we soon found that finding a place to stay with room to park a tractor trailer and a dog can be difficult. We stayed at the Budget Motel. Plenty of parking, and they are pet friendly. They are in the middle of renovations so things were in a bit of disarray. Still, it was clean enough and we were tired. Our plan was to drive the rest of the way and stay the next two nights at Double M Campground that is just a mile from the house we were buying.

We slept in a bit so got a later start than Fred planned. The free breakfast offered at the hotel was less than enticing so we stopped for breakfast at a TA truck stop. As we were nearing Louisville, KY I checked in with Double M Campground and at that point realized they had a no dog policy. ACK! And it did say that right on their website but as I had not originally planned to bring Bubba, had not noticed. It had started to rain and was getting dark so Fred and I decided to just stop for the night after we got through Louisville. I called around and found a pet friendly Comfort Inn in Corydon, Indiana with room for tractor trailer parking. There was a restaurant within walking distance where we had supper. The hotel was quite nice and we had a relaxing night. The hotel offered a really good free breakfast.

The weather had cleared by morning so the last 3 hrs. of driving was uneventful and we arrived at Double M Campground in good time. Even though we could not stay there due to having Bubba with us, it was still the best place to leave the trailer. The camp owner, Heath, was so nice and he drove us over to the house so we could take a look at things and decide if we would be able to get the tractor trailer into our yard. It turned out our driveway was not going to be the issue. Because we were not going to be able to get the tractor trailer onto the road our house was on! The approach road is only 8' wide and our road is only 8' wide. There is no flare on the end of our road, no shoulders on the approach road and a drop off - deep ditch on two side with a big tree on the 3rd side. No room at all to make a swing. And a fiber optic line ran along one of the ditches. NOT good! We had to come up with a new plan.

 I called JoJo at High Knob Campground to see if she had a cabin available for the night for 4 people and a dog. High Knob is only 5 miles from the home we were buying. She did so we had a place close by to stay. Then I called my friend Anthony to see if he knew of someone in the area with a truck and/or trailer that could help us with the move as we were going to have to unload the trailer at Double M Campground and ferry everything to the house. Anthony was in Michigan when I called but told us he would head right down and be there the next day with his truck and trailer. Amy Beem's husband, who we borrowed the trailer from, was trying to line op a load of hay in Illinois for us to haul back for him and was trying to pin down when or if we could get it picked up. We absolutely wanted to do this for him but I felt horrible that I could not give any solid information as we did not know how long it would take to get the trailer unloaded since we could not get it to the house.

The woman from the bank had called and told me we needed to get the money for the house wired to the bank before the closing the next day. Something we had not even thought about. She told us she would leave the instructions for wiring the money at the bank for us. We had an appointment to do a walk through of the house at 2:00 pm but it was still early enough that we had time to go to the bank and get the wire transfer taken care of. Some banks will let you do this over the phone. But, not our bank. They had to have signatures. It took a few phone calls and a bit of time to work it out and get our bank to fax the paperwork they needed to the bank in Illinois so we could sign them and fax them back. The employees at Peoples National Bank in Ilinois were extremely nice and helpful. I think they could tell I was about to have a nervous breakdown worried that something would cause the closing to be delayed. We got it done and still managed to get back to the home by 1:30. So, we had time to wander around the property while waiting for the real estate agent to arrive.

Ocie, the agent, arrived right on time and we got to see inside our house for the first time. It was with huge relief that I truly like it. The home has been well cared for and was very clean. There were some things that were left behind but not a lot. Phew! From the house, we drove over to High Knob Campground, and dropped our stuff off in the "apartment". From there we headed out to Shawneetown to get something for supper. There wasn't a whole lot there but we did managed to find an ice cream stand that also served other food. It was a warm night so we wandered around the small town while waiting for our order to be ready and then sat in the truck to eat. We went back to the campground, Leigh and Pat arrived soon after. We were not at all prepared for the night. Though we had an entire household of belonging with us, we didn't have any bedding that we could get to. JoJo gave us some spare blankets and pillows and we managed. We had a clean dry place to sleep and that was all that really mattered in the end. A strong storm rolled though that night but by morning, it was clearing off.

 We packed up and headed to Harrisburg to get breakfast. Then we went to the bank for the closing. Everything went well and soon we were the proud new ownesr of a home in the Shawnee National Forest of Illinois. From the bank we went to the grocery store and then back to the house. We were so happy that the power had been turned on as scheduled but disappointed that we had no water. It was still early though so I wasn't too worried. We put away the groceries and soon Anthony arrived. We headed over to Double M and the move began. We got 3 trailer loads moved before it got dark and we had to quit. We still did not have water so I called the water company. They assured me that someone would be there "any minute" to turn on the water.  Amy and I were still texting back and forth trying to firm up plans to pick up the hay for the return trip.

We all went to the Red Onion in Equality for supper. Anthony had to work the next day so he took Leigh's car home and left his truck and trailer with us. When we got back, we still did not have water. I was not happy about that. Fred brought over some jugs of water from Double M and we made due for the night. We got our bed set up and it was beyond wonderful to sleep in my own bed again! Leigh set up a cot in a spare room and Fred's mom had the futon in the living room. Pat was so much help with getting the kitchen stuff unpacked and put away. That was about all we'd get done this trip but it was a start. Thursday morning I called the water company again. I was told their records were showing the water had been turned on. I assured her we had no water so she said they would send someone to check on it. And someone did come. It turned out the man hadn't seen any record of the water having ever been turned off at the home so he had assumed it was already on. In any case, he got it turned on. Fred and Leigh brought over a trailer load while I was getting things worked out with the water company. I went back with them for the next load, and the next.....4 loads that day and it was done! After a short break, we headed to Anthony's house to return his truck and trailer and get Leigh's car. He lives about 1 1/2 hrs. north of our new home. We got the plans for picking up the hay firmed up so all was good.  We stopped for supper somewhere along the way to Anthony's. We visited for a little while with Anthony and Cathy then headed back. And I got the joy of spending the 2nd night in my own bed. I don't know what we would have done without Anthony's help.

Friday morning, we borrowed Leigh's car and went to High Knob Camp to pay our bill there, then went to the Junction post office to let them know to start delivering to our address, then over to Equality to Shawnee Communications to fill out the paperwork to get internet service. Leigh and Pat headed out as soon as we got back. We settled up with Heath at Double M Campground then Fred and I headed out to pick up the hay. We had no trouble getting there. The motor on their hay elevator broke down just after they started loading so it took a bit longer to get loaded then planned but had it loaded by 4:00 pm.  

They left JUST enough space among the hay bales to squeeze my suitcase in. And I mean JUST enough space. It didn't make sense to drive back to our house for just one more night so we decided to just head home after picking up the hay. We stopped supper in Terre Haute, Indiana. Then when Fred was ready I called around and found a pet friendly hotel and we stopped for the night at the Quality Inn in Greenfield, Indiana. Bubba was really getting into this traveling routine. He really enjoyed all the walking in the strange new places so many new sights and smells. The hotel had a very nice free breakfast and we hit the road early the next morning. We spent the last night once again at the Budge Inn in Clearfield, PA. There is a Sapp Bros. truck stop close by and we walked over there for supper. They had a wonderful buffet. We had a quiet and relaxing night. We went back over to the truck stop for breakfast. Then it was the last long haul back to Maine. Though it was getting late by the time we reached Maine, we decided to push on to Amy's house to drop off the trailer. It would add another 3 hrs. to our trip for that day but we didn't want to have to figure out where to park the trailer for the night. As we were heading back to Topsham from Amy's house, it was spitting snow. Nothing that caused any problems with driving but not a welcome sight either.

All in all, everything went well. There were certainly a few glitches but that is to be expected. I am just grateful that we got everything done we really needed to get done. The closing went well, and we got ourselves, our dog, and the truck and trailer there and back safe and sound and we now own a lovely little home in the Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois.

Round Pen Work

I got over to see Lily today. I lunged her in the round pen. She was a very good girl and seemed to enjoy doing something.  I took some pictures after we were done and she was enjoying a good roll.

Lily spotted a hunter in the next field over and stopped in mid roll and just laid there in this weird position watching him. 

To Busy To Ride

My Lily White......  has been getting an unwanted vacation over the past few weeks. Well, unwanted on my part anyway.  She may be enjoying it. She is alone here at the farm as Marie is out on a lease for the winter and my boarder moved her horse to another stable due to my impending move. Lily's been wonderful about being alone though. No fuss at all, not bothering the fences. Just chilling out and I think enjoying no competition for anything. Though she is more happy to see me now then she was before. We are in full force packing mode here now. Everything is going forward with the sale of our house just fine. The buyer signed off on the inspection other than we have to shock our well. Which we are in the process of doing right now. The closing was scheduled for Oct. 1st but the buyer is having a survey done and that won't start until the beginning of next week. The surveyor said he would not be able to get it done by Oct. 1st but should have it done by the following week. So, we are shooting for a closing date of Oct. 15th.

We have put in an offer that has been accepted on a home in Southern Illinois. It is in the Shawnee National Forest. We would have liked a bit more acreage but as expected, due to our lack of being independently wealthy, we had to make a few compromises to get as much as we could of what we wanted in a price range we could afford.

I have been searching the real estate ad's for where we want to move quite obsessively and also have an agent there looking as well.  I've been determined to find a place with direct trail access. I am not going to move 1/2 way across the country to a place with over 1200 miles of trails and end up living where I have to trailer out all the time to go riding. Well, finding an affordable trail side property has been a bit of a challenge in the area of Shawnee I want to be in. Trail side property seems to be like lake front property here. More expensive if it has direct rail access. We found a few that we looked at when we were there in June that were in our price range but the houses either needed a lot of work or they didn't have a barn etc. And the price didn't leave us money to do any work on the place or build a barn of garage if needed.

A group of us went down the Shawnee in June to pick up a mule I had purchased and also so Fred and I could check out some property's. There were a couple we liked but really only one with direct trail access. It had a fabulous barn and workshop but the house wasn't much to get excited about. Our friend Anthony took us to look at a place that was for sale by owner the morning we left. We could not get into it as we could not get in contact with the owner  who had died 3 weeks prior, so  wasn't answering his phone...... Anyway, after walking the property, we jumped back into Amy's truck and it would not start. We ended up spending hours and hours hanging around while the guys worked on Amy's truck. We liked the property that we had come to look at. The building was the question. Nice big metal barn but the "home" is an apartment built into the barn. I'm told it's nice and I have no trouble living in a house in the barn. Fred was less excited about it.  BUT, enough about that place as it's not THE place....

In our time hanging around, I noticed the place right next to it was also for sale by owner. I kept thinking what a nice looking place it was and walked up by it and just figured it was out of our price range. We were later told that it had sold so I didn't think about it again. A few weeks ago I was searching homes on line and low and behold but I see this place on the market. I contacted my agent and the sale fell through and it's up for sale again. !!!! I'm excited as it turns out it is within our price range. We know what the property looks like and I know it has very close trail access. It has a new 30x40 metal barn/garage. The house is a manufactured home but looks good. 15 years old. I contacted Anthony and asked if he and Cathy would be willing to go look at it for us. He said yes and got in touch with my agent and went down last Saturday. He and Cathy said the place is very clean and well maintained and thought we would really like it. So, we put in an offer and it has been accepted. We have a tentative closing date of Oct. 30th on this home. 

The house is just 1.1 miles from a nice equestrian campground. There are 3 trail heads right from there and a 4th close by. The campground is open year round and....... has a restaurant! 

Pictures of the outside of the house in Illinois. We will add on to the left side of the garage to put stalls in.

Pictures of the Kitchen/Dining/Living room. The home has an open floor plan. 3 Bedroom and 2 full baths. Not excited about all the carpeting but that can be changed after we're settled in.