Schmidt Homestead

Our new home in Woodburn, IL

Monday, March 19, 2007

We got the trailer leveled and anchored on Saturday. It was chilly, but we spent the whole day out there working. We're trying to move as many of the resurrection lilies as we can from the front yard. They were beautiful last year when they bloomed a sea of pink, but the new septic system is going right where they are. We spent most of Saturday digging up and transplanting lilies. I knew there were a lot of them, but there’s got to be thousands out there. I dug and planted until I thought my back might break, and we probably didn’t move a quarter of them. I brought a big box of bulbs home for neighbors who wanted them. We made some measurements in the trailer to see how things were going to fit and how we’d like to change it.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

We have a trailer!!! I’m back at the office after spending about FIVE HOURS at the property watching them move it. It was very slow moving on the soft yard, and Steve used the truck and/or tractor to pull trucks out of the mud no less than three times. We eventually resorted to using a friend’s back hoe to help move things along. They moved the semi and trailer 300-400 feet across the yard on plywood planks. They could only drive about 8’ at a time before moving the planks, so it was very time consuming. Luckily we had a beautiful day, and the trailer made it into position without any damage. While driving away from the trailer, the truck became lodged in the mud yet again, and Steve was unable to pull it out. They are currently waiting for a friend with a backhoe to come pull them out. They still have to level, block, and tie-down the trailer, so they’ll be back in a few days to finish up.

Monday, March 12, 2007

I just got a call from the trailer lady, and they’re planning to move the trailer in the morning, as long as the weather holds out – which it’s supposed to. Steve is going to take off work to ‘supervise,’ so we should have lots of pictures.

Monday, March 5, 2007

We STILL don’t have our trailer. The temperatures were good Friday and Saturday, but the wind was too high. This week looks good, so we’re hoping for Tuesday or Wednesday.

We went out to the property for a little while on Saturday. We did a little bit of cleanup and froze our tails off. It snowed some, but it wasn’t enough to accumulate.

We went to Costco yesterday and spent $350 – mostly on gardening stuff. I got a really cool wagon for hauling and dumping. It has a capacity of 1000 lbs, so I pulled Steve and Zeus around the neighborhood after we put it together. They’re pretty heavy on a hill! I used the ‘dumping’ feature on them, and Steve ended up on his butt on the sidewalk – OOPS! Today I have a truck load of stuff to drop at the property.

We've been researching what things we'd like to plant at the property, and some fruit trees are on the list - apple, peach and pear for sure. I want a cherry tree, but Steve said we have to research whether they will grow here. We hope to save some blackberries near where the trailer is going, and we already have a peach tree and a pear tree. We have a list a page long of veggies that we want to plant in the garden. I'm afraid that by the time we get moved out there, we'll have missed the prime planting time. We'll do what we can this year, and try more next year. Steve is all gung-ho to do everything right now, so I keep reminding him that we don't have to do it all this year.