Thursday, January 28, 2010

Opening Litany

We only bought the farm a few months ago, but there have been occurrences that deserve to be documented. We have not bought animals or purchased cheese making equipment, we have not broke ground for a new house, and we have not put up any new fences. What we have done is throw out a whole lot of stuff. For example:

Stacks of photos, boxes full of travel brochures, seemingly endless bottles, jars, jugs and tubes of soaps, ointments, shampoos and every other toiletry imaginable, a salt and pepper shaker collection, miscellaneous balls of fur and poop, pieces of rotten wood, boxes of goat and sheep medication, along with the syringes to administer them, all of the fur and feces ridden linoleum and carpet on the first floor, all of the fur and feces ridden rugs and flooring on the second floor (thrown out the window to avoid carrying them through the house), the dishwasher, the freezer, the other freezer with 80 pounds of rotten meat in it, the stove, the fridge, the two dead cats behind the fridge.

But some of it was good enough for the thrift shop:

A set of wedding china, about a dozen garbage bags of linens, a box full of shoes and boots, an upright vacuum, a drip coffee maker, several lamps.

Even more shocking, there are several things we decided to keep or at least have not yet decided to get rid of:

Assorted tools, a wood stove, a Singer sewing table, a sleigh bed, a desk, a wood stove, a chair eerily similar to one Alanna and I bought at a yard sale on Long Island, a metal ammo box complete with ammo, a copper fire extinguisher, a small antique post office window, and a hot pink flapper hat.

At this point I must confess that Alanna and I avoided the worst of the cleanup by being in France. But the pictures Normandy took made it feel as if we were there. I won't post the most graphic images, but what follows suggests the scope of the mess.

-Garth








8 comments:

  1. Congratulations. I can't wait to see the progress since our last visit.

    Elliott still talks about the tractor/sheep/goats/chickens/peacocks/lions/etc. that will populate the farm.

    Ian

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  2. Also, I'm pleased that I was able to make the first and second posts on your blog.

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  3. Yesssssssssssssss... so psyched about this blog! However, I can't believe you threw out perfectly good miscellaneous balls of fur and poop. I hope that as you gain more cheese farming experience you will be able to avoid such amateurish mistakes.

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  4. You threw away the poop? Now why would you go & do a thing like that?

    Congratulations (as I have said in person). Now, the next things I'd like to see are photos of one or both of you in the pink flapper hat.

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  5. I disagree...from first hand experience the pictures don't begin to document the scope of the mess. Dad

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  6. Super fun to be a cheerleader for this adventure!! Every time I buy cheese I think "Someday I will be buying yours..."

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  7. And Just for the record... John's barbershop quartet sang at the opening of the Baseball Hall of Fame and sat with 56 or the 64 living members of the hall of fame.Cool huh?

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  8. No, no, no, NO you didn't throw away all that good stuff did you???? I'm slightly depressed now. Really boxes of photos??? A salt and pepper shaker COLLECTION!!?? I'm mystified in why you'd do that!!! And two dead cats...I could have used the skulls!

    Anyway, what a load of work. I can only imagine. I can't wait to see it all first hand. I'd love to see Normandy's gross pictures here too, because what you are showing doesn't seem that bad. I also hope N & E get to go to France soon while someone else takes care of poop!

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