ODO: 346,683
Farm day 1: We are armed with vehicle extraction tools; hedge trimmer, shovel, clippers, and a few other things to attack the blackberries that are holding everything hostage. We battle them back to expose a 70 series Ford Bronco, Big Ugly, and a Suzuki Samurai. With the help of Blue Jeep and its winch, we drag them from their plant based confines. The Samurai gets secured to the small trailer, our first haul back to southern Oregon. We give the house a once over, checking all the vents, attics, and crawl spaces for hidden treasures. Then we start our first of many four hour drives we will complete this week.
Farm day 2: On our way north, we stop for some treats at Heaven On Earth, our favorite bakery. Today we bring the big trailer. It takes us a couple of hours to get Big Ugly and the Red Bronco loaded on the trailer. KoKo manages the winch because she refuses to get in and steer the vehicles (both are full of bugs and spiderwebs, and moss, and other things). Once we’re loaded, we unhook the trailer so we can run up to our storage unit, about an hour north of the farm, to drop off our treasures from yesterday. On our way back to the farm, we stop off for some quick family time. At 7:30pm we get the trailer hooked back up, and start our second haul south. We arrive very late. Three vehicles down, three to go.
Farm day 3: Today we have reinforcements! Friends are bringing an additional truck to pull the other trailer, and help us finish up today. A locksmith meets us to unlock The Dodge. We need a key to be able to steer it, and no one knows where the original key ended up. Some sketchy maneuvers get the Black Bronco out of the bushes and onto a trailer. We also collect some stray spare parts. The final vehicle to load is Blue Jeep. It’s only 5pm, early enough to get back at a not terrible time. Maybe even early enough to have a bit of an evening with our friends. This is probably the last time Berne will see the farm he grew up on.
We did it. We moved off the farm. Now we can start to relax, and recover. Sort of. Since we have a full unplanned day off, we take advantage of it. We gather our friends, and they gather a couple friends, and we all head to the rive for an afternoon BBQ. There is a fire in the area, so there is lots of smoke, but we still have a great time. There is chicken, and lots of sides. The dog swims her little heart out. The evening ends in the Moose Hall, where we sing karaoke and dance until they make us leave. Around 11pm.
Everyone sleeps late. We are exhausted. And hungover. There is just enough time for a morning hang, and some mediocre breakfast before we hit the airport. We arrive with four minutes to spare before the checked baggage closes. One of the two security x-ray machines is broken, so they have to run almost every bag multiple times. The line is long. Once we touch down in SFO, we head our separate ways. Berne is heading straight for the office, while KoKo is heading for a tradeshow in L.A. for a couple of days. This is the first time we have been apart for more than a few hours since mid-COVID. It’s just two nights, we can do this.
And now, we work.
