March 30, 2010 - Spring Break Huh??

Beings the lovely Mema works for the School District we get two Holidays together each year. The first being Spring Break and the second being Christmas. There is no Summer Holiday as she works for Summer School as well. This Spring Break it was decided that it would be a fantastic opportunity to sort out the MESS that her childhood home had become over the last five years that her father had been a widower. He became a bit of a hoarder and the three floors of the home suffered. We ordered a 20 yard dumpster delivered and soon filled every inch of the container, the last items tossed on to hold the load down were the five mattresses and box springs from the bedrooms in the home. We would start working at 07:30 and drag ourselves to bed around 10:30 or 11:00 every night. Our youngest son and his wife Jill came two of the days and really worked hard pushing Mema and I in the right direction when they noticed us getting overwhelmed with the memories and piles of things to go through. Little Taeya who was born with her fathers sense of comic relief would interject funny little comments and songs that would keep us all light hearted. It was hard to say goodbye to them when they would leave and head back to Portland leaving Mema and I to continue sifting through the memories. But sift we did and by the Saturday end of Spring Break we headed back to Menagerie Manor, arriving home at just after midnight. I don't know who was happier to be home, the dogs or the two of us. After loading all the boxes of things Mema and I could not part with into the back of the garage we stumbled into bed and slept better then we had slept all week, both rising early next mourning with unbelievable pains in our backs, legs and arms from all the work of the last six days. But it is all done and ready for the Estate sale we will have later in the summer.
Menagerie Manor is not an easy place to leave and go off on Holiday without a care. We had one neighbor come over in the AM and open the curtains and feed the animals=
Two ancient Tortoises - Ruby and Elmo
One very large aquarium of tropical fishes
Mema's Canary - Ray
The King of Felines - Maxwell
Then out to the Garden----
Mema's Ladies (Chickens)- Hazel, Tillie, Ella, GiGi and Tammy
My Aviary full of Parakeets
Feed my big collection of Koi in the pond
Water all the pots in the Greenhouse.
Then in the PM a good friend from further up Mt. Tabor came over and closed the house up and checked to make sure everyone had water and food to last the night, and then she would water all my seed trays in the Greenhouse again as they dry out so fast.
And last but not least our two dogs Betty the Pembroke Corgi and Sophie the Minnie wire Dachshund which we take with everywhere we go