Misu says: Is nowhere safe anymore?  Oh to be so blissfully unaware of what’s about to happen.  Though she has her suspicions.

One thing I can’t complain about–bushels of homegrown tomatoes and peppers.  Somehow by accident I got that right.  Fortunately we have neighbors to give our surplus to!

Here are some shots of the place after mowing, and some flowers, including (annuals) sunflowers, portulaca, and purslane.  It’s looking mighty sellable.  Sooner would be good.

Between weeding, packing, cleaning, and planning, there’s barely a moment edgewise, but the garden just keeps performing as usual.  Some of the mammoth sunflowers in the “3 sisters” are blooming, as well as the ornamental ones in the cutting garden.  It seems many late-summer/fall flowers, like asters, bloomed unusually early this year, and continue to.  Is it climate change, or are they just anxious to see us off?

Did I mention tomatoes?!  And not just tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and beans, but I even managed to grow  some Asian eggplant.  It’s a miracle.  As is the striking difference power-washing the house made.  Not to mention weeding.  It looks like an actual, like-new house.  Here are samples:

Co-Captain’s Log Stardate 07202021: The work is proceeding at warp 8.5.  So far no wormholes or vortices.

E has set up most of the new accounts and payments at the other end, while coordinating the exit strategy at this end.  It’s a tricky fine line.  At the moment, she’s busy aiming power blasts of water at the house to remove decades of buildup.  It’s looking almost like a new house.

Meanwhile, I’ve been working my way around the house doing major garden cleanup.  I finished the herb and herb annex beds, and the difference is like night and day.  It actually looks like an herb garden again.  I’m also continuing to pack up the house.  We’re almost there.

Lots happening as usual in the garden.  Do you think the tomatoes and peppers did well this year?  Location and conditions make all the difference.  The timing was serendipitous as well.  We got to enjoy a successful crop of veggies and flowers before we leave.

This is how nice our neighbors are–not only did they volunteer their larger vehicle to take some of our furniture and other items to Goodwill, they insisted on dropping them off themselves without our help.  Now that’s neighborly.

The move is proceeding full steam ahead.  It’s complicated coordinating all the business and expenses at both ends, while packing up the house and cleaning up the property, but it’s coming along.  Now if the house does indeed sell quickly, as all indicators predict, we’ll be OK.

The garden, meanwhile, just moves along at its usual pace, and helps me stay calmer.  I know too soon it will be in our rearview, so I’m enjoying it while I can.  I fought the good gardener fight.

As if to reward me, I finally was able to grow eggplants almost by accident (ping tung long Asian variety is shown).  Also this mystery melon/squash thingie came up on its own.  Tomatoes and peppers are going bananas.  I have loads of delphiniums, sunflowers, and many others in the cutting garden.  Amazingly, the poppies in the CA garden are still blooming.  There are new wildflowers showing up in the “prairie” each day, as well as in the veg garden turned flower meadow.  It’s a fitting finale.

The calmest of us all is Misu, pictured testing out her new travel crate/bed.

It’s nice having good neighbors, however briefly we got to know them.  It’s nice to have friends to give functional items to, who can definitely use them.  They’ve really helped us out with aspects of our move, as well.  We have lots in common, too.  We are grateful, and wish them all the best.

Today, in preparation for pulling up stakes, I put some literal stakes down to clearly mark all my little trees.  Now they look like proper, intentional trees for someone to notice and hopefully keep.  Likewise, I’m working my way around the yard, cleaning up the landscape to make it more appealing and worth preserving.  One can hope.

I mean, how can you not love all these beautiful plantings?  Once I weed and mulch it all, it will look almost, well, if not professional, at least somewhat planned and maintained.  Then I’ll let it all go and wish it the best.  It was a good experiment while it lasted.  I’m glad I got the chance to learn about many native plants new to me, and create a more wildlife-friendly environment.

It’s kind of sad and ironic that, due to the pandemic, we’re only now finally getting to know our next-door neighbors now that we’re moving.  We all like each other and wish we didn’t have to leave them like this, not knowing who or what might move in here, just when they were feeling more confident and secure about the situation.

Yesterday we had them over to look at give-away items (happily they could use much of it) and give them the garden tour.  We offered to pay them to mow while we’re away and before the place is sold, and to help themselves to veggies and flowers, and they graciously accepted.  We had a wonderful time talking at the kitchen table, and getting to see inside their place (my first time).  We invited them to come stay with us in Ohio, and they promised they would.  They’re one thing about TN I’ll miss (other than having my son here).

Here are a few of the latest bloomers.  I’m glad we got to enjoy them before we go.  Maybe the next owners and our neighbors will get to talking, and a seed will be planted in their mind to hold off bulldozing until all the flowers and trees have a chance to strut their stuff.

Blessedly (is that a word?), it rained a lot!  All my trees and plants are relieved, as am I not to have to water.  Too much else to do.  Here are some wet early morning scenes, including Nigella, Celosia, Tithonia, Delphinium, Zinnias, and…lots of tomatoes!

In just a day or two we went from slow old tortoise plodding along in the garden to high speed hare racing to the finish.  But of course the proverbial tortoise, doing all the boring, methodical things behind the scenes, wins the race.  I guess that award should go to E, who has been planning, arranging, and laboring for months.  I get the booby prize.  Kudos to Misu, who supervised the whole project.

We now have signed and paid the lease ahead for the Ohio house, starting Aug.1, not to mention signing up for utilities, booking rental vehicles ahead for the move, and all the other things too numerous to name.  That is, while still paying our mortgage/expenses here until we sell this house, hopefully some time in the next couple of months.  That’s how tight and scarce things are due to the pandemic–you’re fortunate if you can secure any  affordable rentals ahead, on top of current obligations.

E is finishing off the interior/exterior repairs and refurbishing, while I’m expediting my sorting, packing, and garden cleanup, in preparation for staging and showing.  I guess you could say we’ve started the countdown.

Needless to say, the transition to high-speed train is a bit hair-raising and stress-inducing, and is taking its toll, but we’re keeping focused on the end goal and the whole point of this exercise.  As Seven of Nine and Tuvok would sum it up, TN is no longer relevant or logical for us.  Paradoxically, moving back to Ohio is moving forward.  Better to cut our losses sooner than later, and reprioritize while we still can.

On that hairball note, here are the latest garden findings, including Mexican red hat (Ratibida), some butterfly milkweed seedpods, an unripe passionfruit, lots of wildflowers with pollinators, and the usual zinnia/etc. suspects.

You could say I had a good excuse for not posting yesterday–we signed a lease online for a house in Ohio.  The process was stressful, but the worst is over.  We’ve secured a decent place to move to.

It will cost almost twice as much as our mortgage payments, but we were fortunate to even find a rental right now, the way real estate is so hard to come by, so we grabbed it.

As soon as we finish the final repairs, gutter installation, and cleanup, we’ll put this house on the market, and watch the vultures swoop in, as all indications predict they will in this current market.  Meanwhile, we’ll be commuting between TN and OH to finalize everything and schlep belongings to our new place.

Needless to say, I have very mixed feelings about this expedited move, but it’s necessary and logical, and will give us an adequate base of operations while we take care of business in Ohio for the next couple of years.

Aptly, new flowers, including blazing red Tithonia (Mexican sunflower), and assorted delicate pastels of Delphinium/larkspur, are putting on more of a show each day for us, and hopefully for the future owners.  It’s a fitting grand finale to our time in TN.  The veggies are following suit, coming to fruition in a big way.  This is just the tip of the harvest.