Monday, July 30, 2007

Bunches of Miracles
Saturday morning 9 am I dropped Dave off at the cargo van rental place and 1.5 hours later he had still not returned with the van. Back I went in search of him. The clerk said they called us two days ago to say they had no van for us (O sure) and Dave was being taken to another town to get one from that office.

11am he returns, not in a van but in an open bed F-150 truck. He explained it all to me, but the bottom line is that we got the truck for two weeks for FREE. First miracle.


A little bit Beverley Hillbillies, but fine.

OK. 11:10 my brother Cary arrives ( second miracle) to help with the loading and everything we planned of course does not fit, but most of it does. An open bed truck with mattresses exposed and clouds about to dump rain???But then the sun came out and we were fine. Not a drop of rain for the whole trip. Third miracle

We fixed Popeye in the cat carrier in the truck, I got in the fully packed car and off we went by 3pm. O um, first we had to eat something, so onto Panera, and then off we went at 4pm.


We had absolutely perfect traffic and all the boxes and beds stayed put in the truck! We were passed by a huge trailer with Pedaling for Parkinson's painted on the side. Weird? Followed by a Mercedes with the license plate God Cent. Spooky. We drove as far as Lafayette IN and stayed overnight in a nice hotel. Popeye was a prince. He has never traveled anywhere before, so we were very relieved that he didn't make a peep. Or a poop. Fourth miracle.


Sunday afternoon we drove to the house to see it again and discovered a disaster. The retaining wall was finished, or shall I say 'done for'. It had been constructed and destructed because of a mudslide. Apparently a torrential rain occured and the wall began to bulge out. Quick thinking prevented the whole thing come down on the house. The owner sawed the thing from top to bottom at the weak point and then let it fall.

Not good.
The rest of the retaining wall looks perfectly secure, so what made this part give way, I mean, besides the saw? Imagine how the seller must have felt when he realized this wall was failing!

The sales contract stipulated that the retaining wall be completed before we sign over the money. So we will have to see about this. I live by the dictum that God loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life. So I am expecting a fabulous solution to this dilemma.
Our chickens have miraculously grown from two roosters to three, plus three hens.The trinity. Another hopeful sign?

UPDATE: The owner cut the wall to conform to the curve of the hillside but had no knowledge of its toppling! He is on the phone with Dave as I write this. Strange goings on.

Now we have negotiated to have the owner provide funds for this repair and we are good to go. Only of course we are waiting for the bank to come through with the mortgage. It seems there is a delay on the written report from the appraiser. We have been approved, it is just paperwork and faxing and emails and phone calls. So much drama!

Good thing we brought our own wine.

12 comments:

  1. Wowowow! So exciting! I'm sure the retaining wall situation will be no problem. Possibly in the long run, but you got nothing but time, right?
    Terry says if you let the three eggs hatch, you'll have 9 chickens!

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  2. All of our "after purchase" needed repairs have gone well, thanks to the Home Warranty.

    Rest when you can, looks great so far, I'm happy to see you've progressed this far.

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  3. Anonymous8:24 AM

    Free truck, free chickens, free eggs (all you need is free milk and the cow)...so what's one retaining wall?? He needs to stagger it back towards the hill and leave a little gappage for the inevitable rain to get thru. A couple of French drains to direct the water away from the wall and down the driveway would help too. To keep the dirt in place when the water flows, try landscape fabric behind the railroad ties....

    teri

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  4. In our garden where the professionals built garden beds just 5 railway sleepers high (ties, you call them?) they had strong metal poles buried to twice the depth of the retaining wall and set in concrete every four foot and the sleepers were fixed to them. Half inch gaps between every sleeper to enable drainage.
    And in your situation I'd plant shrubs with good root systems to further hold back the possibility of further land subsidence.
    Nice eggs!!

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  5. And I forgot, the sleepers were screwed to each other. It need to be very strong or the roots from those trees will just break it down and that's without heavy rain.

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  6. Lot's of adventures!!!
    Lot's of excellent suggestions here on the blog comments--I just hope you are all safe and well.
    A similar thing happened to my college students (about the truck); No call; no truck! They thought they had it reserved--oh well. We did Lot's o'Trips--only across town.
    I miss you already! Love to Dave--sounds like you all have your work cut out for you--Keeps you young you know!
    Love; Anne

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  7. I had goosebumps reading about your miracles. God was with you indeed. And you have internet hookup??or did you go into town to post?? Glad you got there safely.
    Love, Wanda

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  8. Melody... "Feather on a Wire" is exactly right. My husband (who has become hooked on the your moving adventure too...hahaha) was reading over my shoulder as we opened your blog this morning and before I even got to the part about the retaining wall he said "Uh oh...they didn't install any dead men"...apparently his name for "sleepers" as Feather calls them. We have a small retaining wall here too. He installed another row of railroad ties...several feet (maybe 3 or 4) back into the hill and then as he built the retaining wall in front of it, he attached the wall to the "dead men" as it went up with cables and heavy bolts. Whenever there is pressure on that outer wall now, it transfers to that inner support that's buried by the weight of that dirt and it holds. You do need some kind of drain too...to let water flow through.

    Love the story!! You'll have to invest in an incubator now (only about $48.00) and in 31 days you'll have baby chicks!!

    Carol

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  9. Ha! I love it! You need a couple of "dead Men" buried in your wall! That's great. Your life is always an adventure, the good news is it usually has good endings! Can't wait to hear more.

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  10. Best of luck to you in this new life adventure.

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  11. Anonymous2:25 PM

    You have really moved into the boonies to have slept in a hotel while leaving your fully packed vehicles outside and find them next morning....with contents.
    Some people have lost their moving truck just leaving it to use the bathroom at a reststop.

    And the saga continues...very interesting happenings.

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  12. Anonymous7:23 PM

    Do I sense a quilt coming out of this adventure?

    Dead men in a retaining wall? A new STACKS series?

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