If you are a seasonal resident, you quickly learn when it is time to pack your bags and with the rain storm we had this past week, I was ready to start the suitcase/bin packing process a little earlier this year. Bin 1-clothes/shoes, Bin 2-toiletries/medications, Bin 3-sewing machine/weaving products and Bin 4-kitchen/pantry items. I will have a 5th bin full of back gadgets this year and between this stuff and all the household items I purchased for my mom’s move this fall you don’t want to see my Amazon bill for the past 3 months.
This week we are headed to a family wedding in the Dallas area and will make several additional stops in Texas to visit friends/family before heading back to Flagstaff for the winter. After 12 days on the road I know I will be looking forward to laying my head on a familiar pillow by the last weekend in October. For me, the rest of 2023 will be to lay low and take care of myself so I don’t have another back/hip flare. By the beginning of the New Year I will be 9 months post op and hoping for more healing by then; fingers crossed!
I have come up with a new plan to quickly empty the freezer before we leave which is to invite friends over for supper several times a week for the last month we are here. The menu becomes a “crap shoot” but has turned out fine as most folks are happy not to have to cook and eagerly eat what we serve them. We are hesitant to leave too much in the freezer due to past ice storms/loss of electricity and will be on the road too long to safely cart things back to Flagstaff this year. What will remain in the freezer is 4 containers of fresh tomato sauce, 8 baggies of blanched swiss chard, 3 bags of apples, 2 containers of applesauce and still a whole bunch of miscellaneous items (i.e. old rhubarb, several partial bags of frozen vegetables, a mystery eggplant mixture, chia seeds, cocktail mix, frozen bananas for banana bread, frozen berries for protein shakes and lots of ice packs). As such, our house isn’t a good place to be stranded in a blizzard.
The pantry is another story and will end in an argument about what to take and what to leave. Paul is especially squeamish this year due to the serious mouse infestation we came back to this spring. As such, we will better store or give away lots of partially used items. What remains will be store bought canned goods and lots of new jars of jelly along with some baking staples. I guess our pantry won’t feed anyone any better than the freezer if stranded at our house in a blizzard. Yes, the pest control folks have been here and we have lots of traps set both inside and out along with electric plug-in deterrents and cinnamon sticks scattered around the kitchen counters. We have plugged up some high risk entry points with steel wool and will have the neighbors check in more often this winter. The only good thing that came out of this was better spring cleaning to rid our home of nesting material and droppings although; I am still finding remnants of their occupancy as they had quite the party throughout the house. If I catch them in the act when I come back to visit mom this winter, I’ll have to join in the revelry!