Packing

We put Crabapple Farm on the market right before Christmas 2014.  Nothing happened for a long time except we would have to show it occasionally.  That meant that instead of doing school or having a nice day, we would have to clean the whole house to a polished shine and it seemed to take forever.  There towards the end we got pretty good at it.

Finally we got an offer.  It was a terrible offer.  We countered and they went silent.  About 6 weeks later they came back with another offer.  We countered again.  It went back and forth and finally we agreed on a price.  Our realtors were crooks.  I don't say that lightly.  They were willing to do anything to get their commission and cared nothing at all about whether the deal was fair or not.  The buyers missed several deadlines in their contract and we could have stepped out of the deal.  It was agonizing.  Terrible.  But in the end Mr. Bechtel helped me see that moving was the right answer.  

We had exactly 10 days to move an entire farm.  I cannot even describe how great The Spy Twins and Granny Smith were during this process.  They consistently encouraged us to sell even though they were sad and they worked like galley slaves moving and packing day and night.

Braeburn was in Alaska driving tour buses for the summer.  We packed his room.  Same with Golden Delicious, who was in Japan on her mission.  I feel bad that they were not there to say good bye officially to Crabapple Farm - but everything was such a blur and it was so horrible that it was probably a good thing they were gone.

Moving a house in 10 days is bad enough.  But what does one do with an entire shop, a whole barn, and tons of odds and ends?

In the end, we rented 5 storage units, threw tons of stuff away, gave loads and loads to DI and hauled just the basics up to the cabin in Island Park.  Also, I made a few mental notes about things I will never do again, and topping the list is that I will never have 2 tons of wheat in my basement, ever, ever again.  The boys hauled every sack out and if it hadn't have been for them, it would still be there.