Sarah Jane Humke

I’m sitting here typing waiting for the obscenely quiet washing machine to finish washing the load of laundry I just put in.  If you are in a hurry and were just wondering if I am still alive I will give you the brief synopsis of what has gone down.  We all made it fine as did the vast majority of our stuff.  There, now come back when you have more time because this is going to be an apologetically lengthy post.

So, as I said above, we all made it just fine.  The most difficult part of the whole endeavor was finding the place to pick-up the pets at Gatwick.  When we walked in we could hear Weezy being whiny in her normal manner, so we knew right off the bat that she was ok.  Then one of the folks who works there came out and said that everybody was fine and were chilling in the kennels there getting some needed food and litter time.  None of them went to the bathroom in their kennels nor freaked-out excessively.  Checking them out was time consuming, they weren’t kidding when they said to schedual at least 3 hours for the process to work it’s way through, especially with 5 animals to be processed.  However, the ladies at the animal reception center were lovely and luckily the paperwork was all correct and we were soon able to take them home in our new-to-us station wagon.  We had to rearrange the luggage in the car as it was so heavy in the back that the car was having trouble getting traction!  I must give major props at this point to the Virgin Atlantic crew on both sides of the pond.  The folks in Orlando were amazingly thorough in making sure that all of our paperwork was ok and that the animals were comfortable.  They went so far as to come into the waiting area to let us know that the pets had been loaded onto the plane and show us the sheet that the pilot signed showing that he was aware that there were live animals aboard in the cargo hold.  The folks in the UK were friendly and professional as well and if anyone else needed to move their pets from the US to the UK I would highly recommend this airline. 

We drove to the house/chapel in Ivinghoe Aston through drizzle (go figure, this is England!).  The pets had a day to get used to the house.  Milo decided to hole-up in the 2nd story art nook like a sniper on a rooftop.  She didn’t come down for 24 hours and we finally had to pull her down.  After a day of exploration the animals were re-crated as our container was here.  There was a minor glitch in planning on the moving company’s end as the crew that was supposed to unload it weren’t scheduled until Monday and this was Friday.  So they found a local crew who came in and unloaded the container for us.  Those poor guys didn’t know what they were in for!  The tally of all objects weather they be boxes or furniture was 504.  Several hundred of that number were boxes of books.  It took the better part of the afternoon to unload the container and luckily we had good weather once again.  The Hubby and I were helping the moving crew to unload and move everything inside and by the end of the day we were both seriously exhausted.

The weekend was a blur of unpacking boxes and carrying things up the stairs.  Unfortunately, the rooms with the most wall space were all on the 2nd floor, thus making it so that we had to carry both bookshelves as well as an assload of books to the second story.  This has been the best workout that either one of us has ever had!  “My” room has 7 large bookcases and 1 small one in it.  Most of my yarn has gone to the 3rd floor aka the attic.  It’s the size of the entire house and has been partially finished (thank God!) with OSB floors and drywall ceilings over the insulation.  A lot of stuff has been sent up there including all of my large yarn tubs.  I’ve put some throw rugs up there and there was already a couple of carpet remnants so it feels almost homey already.  I will probably take a lamp or something up there as there are several outlets.  It is a fairly tall space, in the middle of the roof the hubby can stand-up.  There are old unfinished wooden beams dissecting the room into 3 parts.  The first part is the storage area where we keep things like extra paper towels and luggage and things like that.  The middle third is yarn mecca, with my tubs arranged nicely.  The third farthest from the ladder is where we are storing some boxes (the good boxes that we got from the bookstore) and stuff like Christmas decor and odd things that we won’t use often.  If it weren’t for this space this house would be oddly crowded given that we are gaining something like 500-600 square feet.  I will post pictures at a later time…

On Sunday I had my first driving lesson.  I didn’t kill anyone nor add any dents to the car.  After a little bit of driving it doesn’t seem like such a big deal.  However, there are 2 things that still catch me.  I am always trying to grab my seatbelt and put it on from the wrong side and the fact that now right turns are the pain in the ass rather than left turns.  However, one thing that is annoying is that we are living in a seriously beautiful area and when you are driving you cannot look around at all.  Driving here takes a lot more concentration than it does in the US.  I have yet to see a road that goes straight for more than a few blocks.  Most twist and turn for reason that made sense a few centuries ago but today are just annoying.

There seems to be a working farm at the back of the village with geese and sheep.  We moved here in what seems to be the middle of lambing season.  If it isn’t windy in the morning you can hear both the geese honking and the lambs and ewes calling to each other.  Looking to almost every direction you will see sheep dotting the hillsides.  There also seems to be quite a few horse farms in the area and almost daily we see a horse and rider clip-clop by our front window.  

I am trying to take the girls for a daily walk though the weather doesn’t always cooperate.  Everything from clear and sunny to sleet has greeted us.  Meara and Weezy are still rather unfriendly towards other dogs which is a bit of a pain in the ass since EVERYONE seems to take their dogs out for walks.  Oh, and they aren’t too friendly towards horses either which is really funny to see.  Imagine Weezy barking and growling at something that is so big that I’m not even sure that she knows to look up for it’s head!

Ok, so this is very scattered.  Hopefully I will have a regular internet connection soon.