Time Is Flying

I can hardly believe it is almost February.....three and a half months to go. I've sold a number of pieces of furniture and seeing the bare spaces in our house helps me feel I am actually accomplishing something.

CraigsList is great for selling but I feel people don't want to pay more $200 for anything - so posting something of more value might not draw any buyers. I'm trying it, though - nothing gained, etc.

I've been in touch with World Pet Travel and they will be sending Genny down to us, as soon as we have a house to live in - so that is one more thing settled and done.

We've decided to rent a small storage locker to hold the items we will want to have with us in Costa Rica, once we have lived there for a year and are sure that is where we want to stay. I'm packing as if everything is going to be shipped there now - photos of everything, lists for Costa Rica and Canadian Customs, insurance and the future shipper. That way, when the time comes next year, everything is already done.

Our RCMP police reports have expired. Immigration in Costa Rica requires they be no more than six months old and I got them too early. No problem - we'll get them renewed, then go and see our very helpful Costa Rican Consul to have all the documents approved. We'll take everything with us to our lawyer in Costa Rica.

You Meet the Nicest People ...

I have quite a few items posted on CraigsList now (this is a great way to sell things) and today I met a wonderful lady named Lily.

Thanks to Lily, I learned an excellent axiom that is perfect for saying to husbands: "A happy wife means a happy life". Lily uses this one on her husband when she arrives home with more furniture. Men often fail to realize that we women are doing the environment a whole lot of good by reusing furniture and not tossing it in the landfills. She has some good ideas on how to refurnish the furniture to suit her own tastes.

So I am happy because quite a few pieces of furniture are no longer in our house - and our departure date suddenly seems to be looming very close (May 15 or thereabouts).

Lily, are you sure you don't want to rethink the lovely old china cabinet?

Stuff Finds Ideal Home

Our friends, Maeghan and Jim, live in the Okanagan area of British Columbia on a lovely piece of country property. What a perfect home for our gardening tools and related items. Maeghan also inherited a lot of stuff that, technically, really didn't come under the heading of "gardening".

Ah well, that's what happens when a woman isn't there to take control of what her husband is putting into his truck and I am there to dictate what is going into the truck.

Here are some pictures of Jim putting on a smiling face after we rousted him up bright and early on a Saturday morning. He had driven all the way down from the Interior to the Lower Mainland the day before. Thanks, Jim and Maeghan!

Let's Make A Deal

I told my husband if I was able to throw out a pile of my clothes that would be unsuitable for the different weather patterns we will be experiencing in Costa Rica, he could certainly part with his circa 1980's red suede jacket. It's now in my possession and will find a new home at a local charity shop.

It's A Lot of Work to Downsize

Scanning, shredding, photographing, wrapping, storing, selling, donating ..... wow, it seemed so easy collecting so much over the years but not so simple paring down. Plus, I'm doing several paintings for upcoming shows - www.dianamiskell.com - so trying to fit that in, get to the gym every day as per my usual schedule and just keep on with our life as we know it now!

My brain is in Costa Rica ..... thank goodness it is winter here, so I don't have gardening guilt. In Costa Rica, it is even quite warm during the day in the Central Valley at this time of year. Apparently, all the school kids have the month of January off - it seems to be their "summer" holiday - and Christmas was a big celebration. One thing I am looking forward to is seeing all the different festivals.

Back to reality - I'm almost finished scanning the first photo album. Still haven't had any responses to my requests for scanning slides - folks?

It's Getting Closer!

Yes, the count down has begun - we're looking at mid-May as our departure time. I've been to our local dollar store recently and found large plastic storage bags that you can suck the air out of with a vacuum cleaner. They are the right size to store my husband's grandmother's afghan quilts that she crocheted for us, plus I also have several that my grandmother made for us, and also one of my aunts. So I've been washing and drying them, stuffing them in the bags and flattening them down to a size you wouldn't believe. It's like saving cooked meat for the freezer. I have visions of using them on chilly mornings in the Central Valley.

We're not bringing much with us, mostly family things like the afghans and my mother's silverware. I went on line to see how to store silver and the information I got was to wrap the silver in tissue paper to prevent tarnishing, and then store in plastic bags. Hope that is correct because that is what I'm doing. Also I am photographing everything so we have a record for the shipping company and ourselves.

Another big project is to scan all my photo albums - ugh - we're talking decades here. And I'm still looking for a company that can scan all my slides for a reasonable price. Any ideas?