Catching Up From Florida To Tennessee

Wow…so much has been happening with Mike and I.  To say the least it has been a very busy spring for us.  We spent the winter at our beautiful lake house in Florida but sadly we never felt like it was home.  We decided to try and sell it and go from there.  To our surprise we sold it very quickly and then we had to hustle to get all the new furniture and all of our belongings packed up and moved and back to Tennessee.

We did our usual planning and preparing for the "big" move.  We sold the boat, sold the pool table, had numerous sales at the big flea market about an hour away, and reserved the moving truck etc.  It was a bit overwhelming and then on top of that three weeks before our closing date Mike hurt his back.  Since he did not have a doctor there he went to a chiropractor for 4 visits with no relief.  So it was bed rest and ice packs for him….and no lifting.  X-rays showed a herniated disc.  Not good.  Now the packing was left to me and we weren't sure if he could drive the moving truck.  Forget about packing the furniture.  I found a company that said they could load the truck for us.  As the time grew closer and Mike was no better I asked if they could drive our rental truck towing the trailer with the lawn mower and unload for us in Tennessee.  This is the first time that we have ever had to rely on others so much to help us…and it was extremely nerve racking.  And for the good part…we lucked out with the company we chose to help us.  I got most of our things packed up in the house and Mike was able to help with the lighter stuff.  We were able to get the truck rental the day before the moving crew was coming so we had time to wrap the furniture with the blankets.

The crew came on a saturday and loaded the truck for us.  They kept the truck overnight to give us time to get back home before them.  Mike tried to drive but his back locked up after an hour so he laid down for the remainder of the trip.  Nicole checked on the house before we got home and her and Ella picked up the sticks on the driveway for us.  Thankfully everything was OK.  Mike and I got home very late on sunday night/monday morning.  We got the house back online and went to bed, lol.

Monday late afternoon the truck arrived with all of our things and the 2 young men unloaded at the store for us.  The store saved us again.  Nicole and Ella also helped and we made sure Mike didn't lift anything.  After that we returned the rental truck, dropped the two men at a hotel and they drove back to Florida in a rental car tuesday morning.  It was a very good experience and they told us they would drive up and help us move again if we ever needed it.

That was April 4th…oh and then the real fun began…not.  That week we got Mike in to see our doctor.  While he was waiting to be seen his back locked up and he couldn't stand up.  At that point we had no choice but to call an ambulance and get him into the emergency room.  They did different tests, helped him with the pain and finally released him the next day when he could get out of bed on his own.  He was given steroid medication and was scheduled for a follow up 2 weeks later.  Back home I made him rest but the medicine was giving him energy and making him feel better(yes it was masking it all).  Anyway at the time Mike's mind was on fire with plans and ideas.  Now that he had his tools back home he wanted to do some projects.  Last summer his tools were in Florida and Mike being separated from his tools is not a good thing.  He has plans for a kitchen reno, new shipping containers, and bathroom remodel…and more.  We will see how this all works out.

We started with the easy things like my garden.  I am tired of fighting with the animals eating my garden so we decided to use a dog kennel with extra panels to give me a 10x20 garden.  But first we had to tear out my old garden.  We got the old falling down fence down:

Mike was able to scrape up the grass in my old "out front" garden area:

And then we picked up the cage panels.  We laid them on buckets as we plan to paint the bottoms with a rubber coating before we install them.  Too many of these cages rust from sitting on the ground.  We hope to prevent that:

Scraping the dirt from my old garden:

Mike doing a little work but being careful.  Of course Niki is right in the middle:)

We have been home for 2 1/2 months now and almost all of our projects have been completed.  As the weeks progress I will post what we have done and get you caught up.