Leaving Pennsylvania part 1

Folks have asked how our house packing and move went. Well, it was an extended tiring period. I’ve written about the first phase of our experience below:

As you already know God has answered our prayers and brought a buyer for our house. We closed on Friday January 30th. That was nine days ago but the process was exhausting and only now we feel like we’ve recovered. This will probably be report #1 on how things went.
First, Sharon and I are very thankful for the incredible work Eric and Katie did to help us move. Katie and Sharon went to Pennsylvania just after the first of the year to start packing things. Katie had finished a temporary work job so she had January free. The two of them went from attic to basement going through things packing what we needed to bring to Georgia. Other stuff went into the trash or into a “moving sale” pile. Eric drove up to Chattanooga on Thursday January 15 and the next day we left town to meet up with Sharon and Kate at the Millers. After a most pleasant weekend with grandchildren we drove to Reamstown Monday January 19. On Tuesday we had a trash dumpster delivered, moved furniture out and into the living room and dining room, and started clearing out the barn. It snowed 4 inches Wednesday morning. After shoveling snow we worked on preparing for a ‘moving sale’ to be held Friday and Saturday. The plan was to sell or dispose of furniture and other useful items that we did not need or could not move to Georgia. By Friday our dining room and living room was transformed into an indoor moving sale display. Even though we advertised in the local paper we didn’t have very many patrons on Friday and then on Saturday it snowed another 2-3 inches! Still we did sell some furniture on Saturday along with other things. We had hoped to sell more but God did send us some folks who helped us immensely. A man came by and said he recycled all kinds of metal. We showed him the stuff we had discarded in the dumpster and other objects. He took a lot of stuff that day and in the following week. A friend came by and picked up some kerosene I couldn’t use and a bunch of old paint I had no time to dispose. Another fellow came by who was into repairing and fixing clocks. I showed him my collection and told him I’d call him on Monday with an assortment of clocks he could get cheap. He brought six from me. On Tuesday we picked up a 26 foot truck which I quickly discovered Eric was much better driving than me. We loaded it up that very afternoon with furniture and stuff to recycle and take to the re-use-it stores.
Early mornings, late nights, working indoors and out, and with a bad cold the house was slowly becoming bare. It is Tuesday night, the kitchen cannot support cooking meals anymore, and we are sleeping on mattresses resting on the floors. The weather outside is snowy and never above freezing. Three days left to have everything out of the house, the truck packed, and a final house cleaning. Oh, I’m also still trying to pack up tools and other things still in the basement. How will we get this all done in two days?
Part two to come.