7-10-03: Day 1 of Summer Trip

Thursday, July 10 2003

Day 1 of Summer Trip

8:25 am Depart (mileage 100698)
Rainy (pouring) and Gray

Pixabay.com / artverau

Got up @ 6 am. Fed the dogs then went outside to tend plants in the potting shed.
Checked the sunflowers, which have taken a beating in the night-after-night storms. Sunday night and Monday evening & night were extremely windy, and the tallest sunflower went over twice, stake and all. Survived because the stalk didn’t snap, just the root ball dislodged. Ended up staking the stake, then restaking/reinforcing the first stake at ground level. All 10 pepper plants were flattened so they got stakes yesterday.

David made pancakes & scrambled eggs this morning to get us off to a good start. The weather is bugging him. Glad not to be hauling the trailer, though. The rain is really pounding on us. Ironic that Seattle has been hot & dry for weeks according to the Weather Channel.

Besides preparing for the trip and his usual indoor/outdoor projects, David has been finalizing business plans. KONTOR Enterprises, LLC is legit, dba KONTOR Supply Cabinet, and we have a Federal ID #. Also, on Monday, David & [W] signed the lease on 101 Harding Way East in Galion. We have a location, “Coming Soon” signs in the window, and a startup goal of Sept. 1st! We have permission to be on-site July and August (rent-free) so we can set up and renovate as necessary.

David reported having positive, pleasant transactions with the variety of people he had to contact while making arrangements. He seems to have an optimistic view of Galion, and our chances for early business success. We’re keeping the business nature & location a surprise for Dad & Elsie until they visit in October. So, we can’t mention details to his sisters Karin & Britta when we see them on this trip.

We left this morning and will drive the 10 hours to Britta’s in New Jersey; decided against leaving yesterday & trying to camp in this weather.

10:38 am - (100832) Enter Pennsylvania. Still raining.
11:10 am – Stopped for lunch + dog potty in “Barkeyville” (Yeah! Sure! Hey!) PA
11:18 am – back on the road
1:15 pm – Rest area in “Snow Shoe” PA. We’re about half way through PA. Skies mostly just gray, on & off showers.
2:30 pm – (101055) Fuel stop near Danville, PA. Gray skies but dry. $1.46/gal; $45.13; 30.7gal
4:07 pm – (101143) Into New Jersey.

5:00 pm – Got into town & did a drive-by of Britta’s house. Since we were early (had agreed on 6-7 pm) we found a nearby park and fed & walked the dogs. Then, back down the hill into Madison to buy a bottle of wine for our hosts and round up some pooper scooper bags. Found both at “Gary’s Wine & Marketplace”! 


Went back to the house at 6:15 and met Mike in the driveway, Britta inside. Chatted, toured the house & yard, walked ½ hour with the dogs & Britta while Mike made dinner. Came back and had a nice evening of dinner, wine and conversation. Hot tea & final chat in the screened porch, then to bed. (Pav has to be carried up & down the wooden stairs)


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Journal: July Photos

July 2003 Photos

Some leftover photos from early July:

Buddha looking cool in the shade of hostas.

Blooms in July? Who knew!

The pond at twilight

Tranquil

Hollyhocks

The original "Checkers"

Aerial view of the chicken pen.

Vince lookin' handsome

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7-6-03: Wrap-Up

Sunday, July 6 2003

9:58 pm

Weekend wrap-up:

Heat. Humidity. Weeds. Getting ready for *the trip. Dodging thunderstorms. Playing with the dogs. Sweating. Getting dirty. Sat night: went to the drive-in & watched Terminator 3. 

Overall, Happy Times!

*the trip: We were going to check on my Dad's house in North Carolina (they stayed half the year in Sweden), and combine it with a visit to relatives in New Jersey & New York.  

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7-3-03: Hindsight

Thursday, July 3 2003

9:52 pm

-- No eggs today – probably the heat

-- David dropped off the lease proposal & spoke to [W] (the building owner) today. Things seem to be moving along for “Kontor Enterprises, LLC” dba *“KONTOR Supply Cabinet”!  Sept. first is still the launch date, with August as move-in period.

Inside our new space. Previous tenants left the place a mess.

Front windows looking out onto Main Street.

Nice corner location at main intersection in town.

We would only be leasing the bottom section of the building...

...and the creepy basement.

-- Hot & sunny today, @ 90 deg, but a slight breeze and some clouds helped. Worked inside on the computer most of the afternoon on the KONTOR logo, LH and signage ideas. The basement is almost too cool but makes for a nice retreat.

-- Combed out Sam & Beanie’s mane & tail this morning. Beanie was so pesky while I was trying to do Sam that I head-butted her a few times. Finally pushed her outside & shut the door after making sure Sam wouldn’t get upset.

-- Pav is a bed hog…

*KONTOR Supply Cabinet: This is the name we came up with for our office supply business. (In hindsight, a terrible choice which did us no favors) Our reasoning: 'Kontor' means 'office' in Swedish; people keep their office supplies in 'supply cabinets'; a unique name would stand out and be remembered. (Honestly, we talked this over a lot and it made SO much sense at the time.) 

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7-02-03: Tour of the Gardens

Wednesday, July 2 2003

9:48 pm
Me & the dogs are on the bed watching my “show” (OLTL) and David is in the shower. I had to take one, too, because the humidity had sweat pouring – okay, trickling – off of me when I was in the field garden, after 8:00 pm. Planted row #4 of corn, right on schedule. Watered a few things and pulled some weeds.

Just after 8:30 saw David in the agility field with a couple of people. He called me over and I met [T] & her daughter, neighbors that live in the house next to [M] & [W]. They are involved in 4H and have 2 dogs into agility. They saw our equipment from the road while on a walk. We had a nice chat, and found out they’d like to have David build some agility equipment. Talked about doing that in exchange for the daughter to “pet-sit” if we go away for a couple days now and then.  We’ll see how it works out.

Earlier today [R] & [H] putted over on their ATV, and *took tours of the misc. gardens. They have offered to water and watch over the plants while we’re gone on our trip July 9-19. [R] is very knowledgeable about plants, and especially helpful when it comes to identifying weeds vs. flowers. Turns out I’ve got some work to do in the backyard flower garden… 

Also found out some interesting tidbits about our property in general, especially that a road used to run through it, and that we have a Bartlett pear tree.

@ noon, Took the trailer to Mt. Gilead to get licensed, but got the runaround re: the title.

After returning from the trip to Mt Gilead with the trailer, David filled it with water & did some maintenance. Then we backed it into the storage shed, powered up, hit the slide-out, and I vacuumed & started cleaning the cupboards. We took a break together, and that’s when we started talking about taking the trip without the trailer because of all the nights we had planned at other people’s homes.

It was the first time I’ve seen David in such a state of “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that”. Anyhoo, now the plan is to go with just the truck, and bring the tent for the one or two nights we’ll be on the road. Pretty funny that we just changed the plan.

--  The bugs, mostly flies, were annoying today. The horses seem really bothered. Think we’ll buy some fly repellant for Sam & Beanie.

--  Pav has gas and is smelly here next to me on the bed. What else is new.

--  The dogs did really well meeting [R] & [H], and [T] & her daughter.

--  The other day David saw “that damn chipmunk” leap from the pole, up and into the birdfeeder, where he sat munching happily. We took pictures.

--  Called Dad & talked to him briefly about our trip, which I forgot to mention yesterday.

--  It’s 11:00 pm now, time for the evening news.

*took tours of the misc. gardens: In hindsight, crazy idea to get [R] all the way out to the field garden. They were both in their 80's, and she had so much trouble walking in general. [H] went and fetched her cane while I mindlessly led her down the hill and across the bridge and out into the field. What a goofball!

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