There were more people coming to look at the house yesterday afternoon. Vince was sitting on the porch and he called me. He told me he had sent Jeremy pictures . . the solar powered well, the greenhouse, the big front porch, the shop . . Vince was outside walking around while the people were looking at the house and just taking pictures and sending them. He said Jeremy said something like “You have everything there!” and I could tell Vince was feeling bad about leaving the place.
I told him later that I’m feeling bad because I know this was all my idea and not something he wanted to do. He assured me that it was time to leave . . as we get older, it’s harder to keep up a place like that, and he sees that we need to be closer to Chad.
It still makes me sad but as a long time reader, Susan, commented yesterday . . We lived there and worked our tails off (not exactly her words) and it it wouldn’t be human not to feel some sadness at leaving.
I had said I wouldn’t have a garden here and I won’t but I will have something growing. I planted four pieces of elephant garlic from the farmers’ market and it’s growing nicely. I doubt we’ll eat it because I stuck it in a flower bed and I know there’s been an abundant use of Roundup here. Whatever we’re going to eat will go in raised beds with new soil.
Nothing as far as building anything can happen til Vince gets here though!
Elle says
Grief and joyful memories mix up for us every time we make a change or a change is forced on us. Better to make this conscious choice than to wait until it’s forced.
You’ll plant wonderful roots in your new home and so many memories to come. Heck, you already have tons of new memories with Addy sleepovers 🙂
Hugs to you. And Vince 🙂
Helen says
Change is hard. I feel we should move…remember me telling you I was on a ladder chipping ice off the roof. My hubs has COPD and it’s getting harder for him to do things, hence I try to pick up the slack. It won’t be too many more years that things will be too much for me. He said we will find a handyman to help out when the time comes. I love our home, it’s my childhood home.
Thinking of you and Vince.
Judy Laquidara says
I can’t even imagine how hard it is to leave when you aren’t happy to be going. Even Vince realizes (I think) that this move is for the best for us at this point in our lives but he’s struggling with it and I think that’s what makes me feel bad. It would all be easier if he was excited about the move.
A dozen or more times, Vince had said “If we had waited much longer, this would have been so harder.” We don’t realize how much harder everything gets as we age.
Good luck to you . . decisions like this are so hard. It wasn’t hard for me because I wanted to do this for so long but the hard part for me is seeing Vince not so happy with this decision.
Claudia Duke says
My husband retired at the end of last July. He has never been one to do yard work, but his mother loved it. Always had a garden where they lived. Boy was I surprised when he started planting vegetables! He is using those 5 gallon paint cans (found some guy on the internet that does it) for several things and has found some kind of black bags to grow potatoes. He even took over one small spot for lettuce and spinach! I would have never believed he would enjoy it but he does. Guess he got that gene after all.
As a kid, we moved every four years when my dad would get transferred. I like to go back and look at the houses weever we are close to the towns I lived in. I even got to walk through one of the elementary schools one time. Fun to reminisce about growing up, lots of memories in each place.
Nancy B says
Because I married a farmer, our roots have been “planted” in the same place for almost 53 years. I used to think I’d love to move to a new place, now that just sounds like work! I admire both you and Vince for having the foresight to make the change before it was too hard. My husband will keep farming until he can’t, says we’ll hire help if needed (using what non-existing farm profits?) and just pretty much plans on staying put. We spend our winters having body parts replaced or fixed so we can stay active the rest of the year. But, I wanted to marry a farmer, and all in all, it’s been a wonderful ride. Glad we have 2 of our 3 kids close by. ?
The Roundup won’t keep things from growing as it only works when applied to the green part of an existing plant or grass. Whether or not you want to eat anything from soil it’s been applied to is a different question, and depends on what expert you listen to. ?
Judy Laquidara says
It isn’t that I’m concerned about Roundup killing the plants, I don’t want to eat anything that’s grown where Roundup has been used. I prefer to not use any chemicals and since I don’t know enough to know who’s right, if I can help it, Roundup is totally off limits for what we do but . . to each his own. As Vince says, at our age, does it really matter? 🙂
One thing we said in Texas . . when it gets to the point that we can no longer do what we do, we can sit in the house and still enjoy being away from people but the desire to be closer to Chad got to be more than being away from people. We could have found a place with land here but, with us getting older, we knew being closer to civilization was a better choice.