Hi, everyone!
Since Halloween, there’s been lots of moving going on! The day after Halloween, Uncle Steven and Aunt Kara’s household goods from the Netherlands were delivered to their new house! There were thirteen big wooden crates and it took a moving van two trips to the warehouse to bring them all! Uncle Steven had a list of what was in each numbered box. As the movers carried each box in, Uncle Steven told them what room to put it in. Aunt Kara put up signs on the walls to tell the movers which room was whose! Thomas’ skeleton friend had already moved in, but Uncle Steven and Aunt Kara and James and Thomas slept one more night at Grandma and Grandpa’s before moving in themselves.
On Friday, Grandma and I made a recipe of overnight rise sticky buns to take to the new house so Uncle Steven’s family could have freshly baked breakfast on Saturday and Sunday mornings. There were still boxes to unpack in the kitchen, but James’ and Thomas’ beds were made and ready for them to spend the night. I liked that their favorite blankets were folded on their pillows, waiting for them!
Back at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, there were leaves to move! Grandma and Grandpa hauled leaves from the back yard to make my first leaf pile of the year! Then, on Saturday, we had to move Grandma’s kitchen equipment and baking ingredients into Nancy-san’s truck for the election day bake sale at church! Moose-san and Tilly came over to help!
Last Monday and Tuesday were the baking days for the election day sale! On Monday, I saw lots of my bake sale friends! Everybody started off making dough. When the first batches of dough had risen enough to shape, most people went to work shaping goodies to bake. Joe-san came when it was time to start the ovens. Uncle Steven came, too! The first items out of the oven were tea rings, and the very first one broke a little bit. Grandma declared it was a “burnt offering” and everybody had a piece!
After lunch, I made sure that the three grain bread was braided just right. Sean-san has been making the chocolate bread for years, so he didn’t need any reminding from me! James came to bake with his daddy after school, and some of my other baking friends showed up later. By 10 p.m. the ovens were off and we had lots of breads and rolls ready to sell on Tuesday!
Grandma got me up really early on Tuesday to go vote with her and head back to church to bake some more. My scone-making buddy Ann-san was already there! She said I could have a taste of the apple pie that was baked as a sample for buyers to see! Then Grandma and I had a nice surprise! Harlan-san came to visit and buy cinnamon rolls, and Taylor-san came along and brought her baby Abelina to meet Grandma! Abelina is Grandma’s first great semi-grandchild! The last batch of dough was made before lunchtime and the last cinnamon roll came out of the oven around 3 p.m!
On Wednesday, I helped Grandma air the baking pans before they were moved back into their storage container. Then Grandma and Grandpa moved a lot more leaves in Fairport! My expanded leaf pile stretched all the way across the front yard! Most of the big trees have shed their leaves, but the younger trees are still holding on!
On Thursday, it was moving day for the dock sections out at the bay! Uncle Steven came out to help Grandpa! First we launched the aluminum row boat, so Uncle Steven could stand in it to loosen the dock section legs from the mud. Then the decking for each section was carried into the boathouse. After that, each support section was stacked outside. When that job was done, Grandma and Grandpa moved leaves off the lawn at the bay, too!
Friday morning, Thomas came over for a visit! He has a new ninja costume! Grandma made a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies for him as we had some snow falling outside.
Yesterday, Uncle David drove down from Ottawa in a rental truck to pick up his piano. Grandma and Grandpa have had Uncle David’s piano in their living room since Uncle David’s family moved to Japan. Now that they’re closer, they’re taking it back! I played the piano one more time to say goodbye, then I helped Grandma pack up the photos we’ve had on the wall of that piano being moved by crane when it was in San Francisco.
The piano movers came this morning to get the piano onto David’s rental truck. Grandpa remembered how the piano was moved in, so we cleared the same path for the piano to leave! The movers knew just what to do! First, they disconnected the pedals from the piano, then they took off the piano lid and the hinge hardware. Uncle David brought lots of moving blankets with him from Ottawa, so the piano could be padded before it was moved.
After one of the piano legs was taken off, the movers tipped the piano over onto a support board and put a dolly under it. Tipping the piano and keeping it upright on the dolly took all six movers!
Thomas and Uncle Steven came over to watch the piano being moved, but they arrived just about a minute too late to see the movers push it up the ramp into Uncle David’s rental van! There were still piano parts to move, including the lid and the fallboard and music stand. Everything had to be padded and securely tied to the sides of the truck so it wouldn’t move around on the trip back to Ottawa! The west end of the living room looks very empty now!
Before he left town, Uncle David stopped at Uncle Steven’s new house to see all the renovations. Everything in the kitchen is put away now! Uncle Steven showed off the pantry and Thomas showed off the Lego Lounge! Next week, Uncle David will get to show off his new house to Uncle Steven’s family when we all go for a visit!
Grandma just got a text from Uncle David that he and the piano have arrived in Ottawa safe and sound. Tomorrow morning, the Ottawa piano movers will take the piano off the truck and move it into Uncle David’s house!
Love,
Lion-san
You all had a lot of moving going on! That space does look really empty. Getting the dock all in looked like a lot of work. Right after the bake sale too. And moving all those leaves both at Fairport and Sodus. Wow! Then the piano got moved. That’s a lot of work. Hopefully you can rest up for a while.