Too much on my mind . . .

Moving my booth was a big deal. It was also a good deal. My revenues have doubled since the move - in part because of ever increasing CBD product sales, but also everything else ~ skin care, soap, herbals, essential oils. Putting a light above a board with all of my oils on display has certainly helped, and the location, and some advertising I've been doing.

When things sell, that is good. But I'm pretty much the manufacturing and purchasing departments, and that is not so good. I'm so far behind in the soap room that I can't even think about it. But I try to take Sundays off, truly completely OFF.

I went to church this morning, stayed for the potluck, got home and headed out to the yard to clean up after Toby, then headed for the couch and planned to call my kids. Hah! No phone. I have a watch that finds my phone and it said it was out of range. I must have left it at church, but I could have sworn I had tried to call my daughter as I left. Hmmm, guess not.

My neighbor Nancy very kindly called my number (I no longer have a home phone) so that I could stick my head in my car, then listen upstairs and in the basement - but no ringing. I hopped in the car for the church, hoping a class that was going on when I left would still be in session. It wasn't. Church was locked up tight. So I went home and sent out an email to members of the board, to see if any of them could open the church for me. Then I went to the internet, contacted AT&T, and tried to find out if they could track the phone. They could - they did - it was at an address halfway home, not at the church. I insisted I had driven straight home from church. They said they would black list it, as it must of have been stolen. No, no, not by anyone in MY church!

Then I saw a bottle of pills sitting on the counter. The address where the phone was could have been my drugstore's address. It was just a couple of numbers off.  I was sure I had picked up the scrip the day before, but given my state of mind lately, I checked the receipt. Yup, I picked up those pills at 1:13 this afternoon.

I headed to the drugstore, and there it was. Maybe I need a new home phone. Really, at my age and with the health problems I have had in the past couple of years, without a phone do I email an ambulance company?

My new car - and my other new car

I drove my Prius for nearly 200,000 miles, longest I have ever driven any car. It was very useful on the farm. I hauled hay and straw in it, during greenhouse season I could squeeze 17 flats of plants in it. More than one newborn calf took a ride in that car. I got it stuck in fields, had to pull it out of the mud more than once with the tractor. And I hauled milk to the farmers market, where the shareholders picked it up. Occasionally there was a spill. But it soldiered on.

I finally traded it in after moving to town. The guy at the garage told me gently that the car had some odor issues. Oh, really? LOL

I had done my research, and I bought a VW Jetta, diesel, SEL, which was the top of the line. I loved it. On the highway, it got 57 mpg on one trip to Rockford to visit my grandson and his family. It loved to go fast, and the faster I drove, the better the gas mileage!

I had owned it about six weeks when the news hit. VW had deliberately programmed their diesel cars so that they sensed when they were in a testing station, and emissions all met standards. Once the car was on the road, the computer sensed that they were NOT in a test station and reprogrammed the car to run like a deer and get great mileage. They were also producing between 10 and 40 times the allowable amount of nitrogen oxides. That's smog, and that's what irritates lungs.

In Indiana, where we can boast having the worst air in the nation, there are no emission tests for automobiles, of course, so I could have kept driving my car. But being a tree hugging progressive, and remembering a granddaughter with asthma when she was a baby, how could I keep the car, no matter how much I loved it? So I opted to sell my car back to VW.

The local dealer didn't have much choice on the lot for a replacement car, but there was one I fell in love with. I could have waited until I got my refund and bought a different make of car, but I had driven a dog (let's face it, you don't buy a Prius for a power trip) for six years, and my Jetta was fun to drive. So I bought a 2016 Jetta GLI, 2.0 liter engine, drove even better than the 2015 diesel! It sat in my garage, in storage, to keep the insurance down, until the VW dealer pointed out to me that if I wrecked the 2015, which I was continuing to drive, it would no longer be eligible for the buyback program, and even if I was not at fault in the event such an accident should occur, the car would be valued at book, which ain't much, thanks to VW's chicanery. So the diesel went into the garage in storage, and the new 2016 GLI came out. The VW buyback program accounted for the loss in value, and we are being compensated quite well for that difference.

My appointment to return the 2015 diesel Jetta is January 18. I will finally be able to put the new car in the garage. I never dreamed I would own two brand new cars within 15 months of one another. But as of January 18, this single person household will finally be a single car household again.

GLI waiting for its turn in the garage

Passionate Phoenix can feel it coming on . . .

A few days before my sixty-first birthday, I was croned by my dear friends.  There were about 50 women and men there, from four states, from old jobs, family, fellow drumming women, young, old - and of course the first two crones in our group - Sparkling Wisdom (who has since passed to the Summerland) and Flowering Creatix, also known as Butterfly Peggy, a woman who has a way with words.  We wanted to capture the poet in Peggy, hence her crone name Flowering Creatrix.

So there is this thing about crone names.  We don't get to pick our own; we are named by the group.  The woman being croned has to leave the circle while the group deliberates on what her name will be.

Before I left the group to their task of choosing my crone name, I read a couple of letters, one from my sister Lynn who wrote about how as a young child, I had always opened green beans to look for worms before I ate them.  She related how my mother tried to break me of it, but even if she put a cream sauce on the beans, I still broke them open in spite of the mess.  One day I found one!  Whoa!  Lynn recounted my mom saying, "Well, I'll be darned!"  It got a laugh.  And of course, having found one worm just once, the deal was sealed.

My daughter Valerie couldn't be there, but she wrote a lovely letter and said that my name should be Passionate Flower, because I am passionate about everything I do and I loved to garden.  Her suggestion was taken into consideration, but she wasn't there, so the others would have their say. My friends sent me for a walk in the woods while they took up their task.

As I left the circle, my friend Matt said, "How about Worm Seeker?"  THAT got a laugh, even from me, but fortunately the group kept working on my name while I walked until I was out of earshot.

I heard someone shouting that I should come back, that I had a new name.  I returned to the circle, stood in the middle, and learned that my crone name would be Passionate Phoenix.  They all agreed with Valerie on the Passionate part, but given that I remake my life every few years, they came up with Passionate Phoenix, which I find very appropriate!  I love my crone name, and feel comfortable calling myself Phoenix every now and then.

It is true that I have reinvented myself more than once.  Wife and mother in my early 20s, I became a single mother at 27, worked hard at whatever jobs I could get (why did I quit college?), started taking some night courses, eventually remarried, sold real estate, then fell in love with a little Victorian house and put a restaurant in it.  Next I followed my husband to Chicago where he had taken a new job.  At that point, I got serious about school and transferred my credits to the University of Illinois at Chicago and got a degree in statistics.  When my husband moved to Florida for his job, I remained in Chicago to finish my degree and decided to stay there after graduation.  The salary for my new job seemed like a lot, until I tried to live in Chicago on it.  So I started my graduate degree at the ripe old age of 55, at Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

I moved to Indiana, where the cost of living wasn't so prohibitive, and drove back to Chicago one night a week to finish my MBA at Northwestern.  At last, I was able to get a really good job as a program manager in the aerospace industry.  I was making good money.  But of course I couldn't leave well enough alone.  There were some things about the corporate world that didn't sit well with me, and when I got the opportunity to take early retirement with some pretty good benefits, I jumped at it.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I had bought a farm, designed and built a house, put up a barn to store a couple of tractors, and had moved there a couple of years before the early retirement.  On the farm full time, I got organic certification, bought a small dairy herd, put up a dairy barn and a greenhouse - yup, another reinvention of my life!  But it was hard work, and when I reached 72 and got a new knee, the work started getting to me.  I put the farm up for sale, and after a long search for a house in town, I got the farm sold and the house in town habitable at about the same time.  That was a stroke of luck!

I still have my booth at the farmers market.  I am a one-woman manufacturing department, making soap, skin care and herbals, and bottling essential oils and aroma therapy formulas.  There are no more greenhouse plants or garden produce to deal with, but I'm tired.  My 75th birthday is just around the corner and I'm beginning to feel my age.

I can feel it coming.  The Phoenix needs to rise again from the ashes.  I think I know what my next reinvention will be.  It has been gelling in my mind for several years, but I have repeatedly pushed it aside.  There were always other things to do.  But most of those take more energy than I have to expend.  I was thinking about doing cooking classes, but I did one Sunday and it took me two days to recuperate.  This other idea churning around in my mind takes less energy, and it is rearing its head more and more often.

I envision myself lying in the settling ashes of my life as it currently is, the Phoenix bowed but not dead.  My wings are moving, brushing aside those ashes and the cobwebs in my mind.  I feel it rising - another incarnation, another challenge, another reason to look with relish and purpose to the days ahead.  Soon, soon . . .

The soap room is done. Hurrah!

The soap room is FINALLY done.  The contractor promised the construction end of things would be done by August 1.  Then I could have moved things a bit at a time, bringing stuff from the farm each day I came in for market.  Good plan, bad execution.  He didn't even begin to execute the plan until I was moved in.  But it is all behind me now.

I am quitting for the day, just need to take a little time off, but tomorrow morning I can hit the ground running - everything in place, all labeled.  At the farm, things were strung out all over - in the barn, in the spare bedroom, in the furnace room, in the family room, and in what I called the soap room, but it was only a small portion of it.

So here it is.  I'm sure with use I am going to move things around, but for now, everything has been unpacked, and every drawer and door has been labeled so I don't lose track of things.  I am really looking forward to working in this area, and it will be nice to have the office right around the corner for making labels and placing orders.

There are still some big boxes of lotion jars, but I have enough moved to totes in the soap room so that getting to them is a twice a year exercise. The rest are hiding behind a screen.

Here are the pics.

Hutch from Salvation Army put to good use!

Need a little room for cleaning supplies, the rest are lotion containers.

Work area.  Raw material behind doors and under sink, plus some jars.

Finished soap, bulk ingredients, production records and more.

Old buffet top holds enough molds for a batch of soap.  :)

Bread rack works great for curing soap.  One batch just fits on one tray.

Big, BIG boxes from barn hiding behind the screen.

Heading for the last roundup - YEE HAW!!!

Lowe's loaded the wrong tool shed when Joe went to pick it up yesterday and we didn't discover it until we couldn't fit some shelving into it.  Talk about disappointment!  I was so looking forward to getting stuff out of the basement and garage so that I could get my walk-out basement organized - soap room and storage in one side, office and workout equipment on the other.  And when the dust settles, I should be able to park my car in the garage.  Wow, what a concept - a car in the garage!!

Lowe's did a great job at making things right - they brought out the correct (and bigger) shed, took down the wrong one and constructed the right one.  Joe and one of his crew came out this morning and moved things into the new shed - the shelving, plus a lot of big equipment that I rarely use but didn't want to get rid of.

Yup, I'm heading for the last roundup!  Market today, then a pedicure - a total indulgence for me.  Friday, I will be hard at it all day.  That soap room that was supposed to be done on August 1 will finally be ready for some serious manufacturing!

Here are a few of the "before" pics.  Friday night, I will have a new set showing the finished product.  :)

Yes, this was clear once, but . . .

No place to put the new totes for soap supplies

This is the worst of it!

Or maybe this is!!

Or this?

Just what everybody needs in a work room - power washer and compressor!

New shed

Look at all that room!

Garage has been filling back up!

What do I do with this?

I can see a little bare floor here.  :)

This is the pathway to my office.  Ugh!

The new shed is organized!  Now to fill those shelves.  Yup, heading for the last roundup!!

I was so excited . . .

Today Joe Brammer, my contractor extraordinaire, was picking up my new storage shed from Lowe's.  I measured carefully, and it would fit neatly under my deck, just outside the walkout door from my basement.  And best of all, it would hold some shelving that is now in the garage and is preventing me from using the garage for my car. (I can get the car in the garage, but I can't open the car door once I am in there!)

Joe and his helper were going to put it together, put the shelving in, and then move the generator, the air compressor, the wheelbarrow and the power washer in there, giving me a whole lot more room in the garage and the soap room.

When they were done, Joe said, "That shelving won't fit.  Not even close!"

I said, "Impossible!  I measured it carefully."

He then told me the long side was 48", interior.  I said the interior is 6' x 4.33', long side should be 72".  He insisted it wasn't.  I dug out the specs, the guys came in the house and read them, then we wrote down the model number and took it outside to the box the panels came in.  Wrong shed.

To say I am disappointed is to say the least.  In addition, the guys had to wait 50 minutes at Lowe's to get loaded - something that should have taken 10 minutes.  And of course I paid two guys to work an hour each to level the site, put up the building and position it.

I called Lowe's.  They are saying they will make it right.  We will see.  Stay tuned.

The tour - when is a house a home?

Finally, it looks pretty good around here.  Still lots to do, and I am not even going to THINK about the lower level until next week.  It looked like a real home yesterday!  One of my granddaughters told me it definitely had the "Susie touch."  And everyone loved my kitchen.

The whole family was here except for my granddaughter-in-law Bethany who was in CA with her family, and Kate, my oldest granddaughter.  She sent me a bouquet (see it in middle of table, last two pics), and said it would remind us that she was with us in spirit.  And she was.  

So here is the tour.  My new home.  :)

My Grandma Wolff's music cabinet

Landing at top of stairs

Reading area in master bedroom

Mom's gateleg table - it seats 12, really!

China cabinet and buffets

Entrance

Living room, by sliding door to deck

Sound system - nothing hooked up yet through.

CD, and see that stack of vinyl?  Some real gems there.

1913 Behning, has moved with me 15 times!!

Living room

Living room, with view to deck and river

See, I told you!  Seats 12 easily.

Dinner is history, having coffee, tea and dessert

Sometimes you have to know when to stop.

I am pretty much exhausted.  This morning I got up and started moving things around, putting more stuff away, hauling things to the garage.  I'm moving slow and I ache from head to toe.

I've decided the basement will just simply be off limits.  I do not have the time or energy to deal with it.  I would rather not be numb with fatigue on Thanksgiving Day, and I've decided this moving thing just has to stop.  From here on, it is do what I have to do to get the dining room set up and the kitchen in good enough shape to make dinner.  Moving tasks can resume next week - or maybe I will spend the week reading and taking baths.  Sounds like a pretty good plan to me right now.

Enough.

That's it.

I quit.

Period.

Things are moving along nicely.

My objective is to have every box opened by the time I hit the bed Sunday night.  I just might make it!  And if I don't, some of the things will have to wait.

Today I attacked the living room.  I do believe it was the worst, dusty, full of boxes, all of my stereo equipment just sitting there, and some overflow of things I'm not sure what to do with at this point.

Yesterday I finally picked out my closet system.  I thought it was a little pricey, but my daughter says no, not for that kind of closet.  She thought it sounded very reasonable. So I have rods for dresses, double rods for blouses and skirts, shelves for sweaters and shoes.  The guys spent most of the day on it.  They were very proud of their handiwork, and they should be, as they came up with some great suggestions.  I was able to return one system, and Joe picked up some boards for top shelves - a good place for hats and scarves.  I also got two cubes - 3 x 3.  One is put together and fits perfectly under the closet window, will hold nine pairs of shoes or whatever.  The other will be put together tomorrow to go against a wall in the living room - perfect for CDs and movies.

Now to get some type of shelving for the stereo, receiver, turntable (yup, I still have a stash of 33's) and all of the other sound system components.  My son will be disappointed if it isn't accessible on Thanksgiving Day.  We always play Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians singing Christmas carols after we are done with dessert. 

A few days ago, I despaired of getting it all done, but today it's looking better.  Here are some pics.  Still good, bad and ugly, but even the ugly bits aren't as ugly as they were a few days ago.

Boxes and papers awaiting pickup from the packing company

Cabinet installed on wall above the throne

Tomorrow morning I will start unpacking the wardrobe boxes - ALL FIVE OF THEM!

New closet installation - still empty but not for long.

All this room!  I love it!!!

I call this my Island of Peace - everything in order.  :)

This was solid boxes this morning.  Only two left to unpack.

China cabinet is full.  That is my great grandmother's Limoges china on the second shelf.

Pictures displayed on top of piano.  So nice to see them again!

The good, the bad and the ugly . . .

I'm having trouble dealing with trying to work in the mess.  Still a lot of boxes to unpack and it is stuff that I really don't have a home for.  I am going to have to make a few more trips to Goodwill, and our church bazaar said they will welcome some of it - but not that damned TV!!  I am almost happy when I find something broken, because throwing it in the trash is easier than finding a place to put it.  I definitely downsized!

I have tried to make room for my soap operation, finally found a place last night to lay out my molds - it will work really well - then got together all of the equipment and supplies needed.  Lye has gone missing, but I have enough lye to make three quarters of a batch of soap, so that will be it. More lye ordered, might be here by Friday.

Soap molds ready to fill - GOOD, very good indeed!

 I spent a good bit of time cleaning and clearing.  It helps to have some organization here and there, even if it means carrying stuff to another place where I will have to deal with it later.  I don't have time to put everything in its final home.  Later.

Here are some pictures of the chaos I am living in, as well as some showing the progress I've been making.  My mood is surprisingly good.  My mantra now is, "This too shall pass."

A few weeks ago - fall colors, view of mansion across river - GOOD

My first selfie with big camera - organizing list for Purple Porch baking - GOOD

Can it be?  A clean counter, sparkling canisters - GOOD

This morning's snow - GOOD (and beautiful)

Bread dough ready to be cut and formed into six baguettes - GOOD

Grain mill ready to grind grain for whole wheat bread - GOOD

Soap room counter - at least it's visible, let's call this GOOD

What a mess - BAD, except for my little Ayn Chee

Soap room, still a long way to go - UGLY

One little island of sanity among boxes, tolerable but BAD

Living room, which I am tacking tonight.  UGLY, except for my precious Natasha Marie.