Garage sale

Our big garage sale happened on Saturday. It was a success - we sold about 2/3 of what we had set out. We had quite a few people show up, and probably would have had more if not for the road construction. I think only one person left without buying something. It was so nice having the sale in the barn -- we set up all our stuff way ahead of time so on the morning of the sale all we had to do was open the door. The weather cooperated too, with temps in the upper 70's.

Now we have to make two piles of what is left. One to toss, one to give to Goodwill. We will end up keeping a few things that we can store, like an old dresser and a bookcase.

We will have another sale next year, after we sell the house.

I got my stitches out today. The foot continues to do well. I got reminded to not put any more weight than 30 lbs on the foot, or the screws might come out of alignment.

Broken foot

I have broken a bone in my foot. I tripped going down a step at home, fell and twisted my ankle. The ankle is fine, but my 5th metararsal bone is broken. Right now it is splinted - next week I will have surgery to insert two screws into the bone to help it heal faster.

I am on crutches -- and not very good at using them! I have seen people go pretty fast on crutches, and boy do I admire them now. I feel very clumsy and unsure -- Doug follows me around in case I lose balance. The crutches have spooked most of the dogs - I think they are afraid I might fall on them.

We are feeling lucky that it didn't happen when we are out traveling in the 5th wheel. This is one time that I am glad we are not full timers yet. I don't think I could navigate the steps going in and out of the trailer.

This experience makes me appreciate things that we all take for granted. Makes me appreciate my helpful husband too!

Rain

I awoke to the sound of raindrops this morning - wonderful after so many parched days. I think this makes an inch of rain for the week; probably an inch for the past couple of months. The dogs didn't want to go out in the rain. Now if they saw a bunny in the yard, they'd charge right out there.

When we are living in the RV, we'll have to walk the dogs all the time. Not a bad thing -- it will be good for us. We have rainsuits from when we were doing lots of lure coursing and had to be out in the field in all kinds of weather. Rainsuits are much more practical than umbrellas when walking dogs!

Getting ready for fulltiming

Well we have made the big decision to sell the house and acreage and go fulltiming in our 5th wheel. We've been thinking about this for a long time, so it feels good to finally start taking action.
The first thing we need to do is get rid of some of the accumulation of "stuff" we have amassed over 27 years of living together. So we are getting ready to have a huge garage sale. It will be held in our barn - first we had to clear out the barn. We have already sold quite a bit. All of the equipment I used for teaching dog classes is sold - mats, ring gates, etc. So now we are organizing the things we need to sell. It is great to have the space in the barn - we can lay out everything ahead of time and just open the door on sale day.
At first it was hard to part with anything. Why is it that sometimes our material things seem to own us, rather than the other way around? And why did we ever get some of this in the first place? Now that we are deciding what we really need, and what we can do without, I feel a lightness of spirit.