Ready to Roll

We have been working hard the last few days to get things in order before we travel south.

One task was getting our bedroom set up so we did not have to do anything with it in December.  We had purchased a new bedding set a couple of weeks ago, and today Rick moved curtain rods and hung the valances that matched the new bedspread.  We still have a bit of wall patching to do, but that can wait until we have a bit more time.  For now, we are pleased with the new look in the master bedroom.

We selected another quilt for our bed.

The simple greens and blue pattern work well in the room.

Yard work occupied almost one whole day.  The leaves are late in falling this year, so we have contracted with the service who removes our snow in the winter to come in next week to do one final "fall clean-up" of the yard.  I have taken care of cutting down all of the hostas and other plants that needed trimming before the winter, and we took a huge load of debris and leaves to the yard recycling center.  A final raking of the yard will get us set for winter. Since we saw a few lazy snowflakes drifting down on Saturday, I think our preparations are none too soon.

On a side note, the City still has not completed the construction on our road.  We suspect that they may come in on Monday or Tuesday of the coming week to blacktop the street -- if the weather is not too cold for them to do so!

Today was a day of final laundry, final dishwashing, and packing.  We are getting better at this game, and what we need to haul down south is less each year.  Actually, we want to take some bricks of good Wisconsin cheese to Florida, so those and our electronics (computers, iPad, phones) take up the bulk of our suitcases.

The temperature of the average domestic refrigerator is between 35 - 40 degrees.  Why do I mention this?  Because right now is the perfect time to open that door and to really LOOK beyond the food to see what the refrigerator holds.  Has it been a while since you washed out the inside?  Do you have mysterious things growing mold on the lower shelf?  Are the shelves themselves beginning to resemble a science experiment gone rogue?  If so, do what I did today and getting scrubbing.

The weather is cool enough that refrigerated items can be put in a plastic tub or cooler and left in the garage while you tackle the task.  Actually, this moving from house to house every six months is the best thing that happened to my refrigerator because once I empty the 'fridge, I have no excuse not to clean it.

The refrigerator is no longer in danger of the
Board of Health closing down my kitchen.

Earlier today, we transported to Lindsay all of the not-consumed refrigerator and freezer items.  Then a sink full of hot water awaited the shelves and baskets of the 'fridge.  An hour or so later, it sparkles. Now I will not be afraid to store something inside when we come home in December!

If you are a procrastinator, I will give you a half-pass.  Wash out just the refrigerator part now.  You can wait until your garage becomes nature's own deep freeze to store your frozen items while you tackle the freezer later in the year.

All that is left is a little bit of packing, and we are on our way.  We had our first hard freeze of the year on Friday evening.  That is my cue to travel south.