08:47 – More packing. We got the cased long-term storage food stacked up in the basement near the garage door, ready to load. There’s more than half a ton of that: about 240 #10 cans of dry staples from the LDS Home Storage Center in cases of six cans each, another 60 #10 cans of stuff from Augason Farms, and half a dozen cases of canned meats. That’s roughly half of our total food storage. We also have the stuff upstairs in the kitchen and pantry, and a full 4′ by 2′ ceiling-high shelf unit in the basement that’s full of canned and bottled goods–vegetables, soups, spaghetti sauce, peanut butter, etc. etc. Our current total of food is something over a ton. We’ll move most or all of that on our second trip up to Sparta after we close on the house. The first trip will be the stuff we need to get by at the new house, even if it’s just camping out in the bedroom.
Meanwhile, of course, we continue to ship science kits. Sales normally start to speed up around Thanksgiving and maintain a good pace through the end of January or so. I have three kits to ship so far today.
We decided to drop our VoIP phone line and go to using cell phones exclusively. Our Verizon cell phones get five bars all over the Sparta area, including inside the new house. At this point, literally 99% of the calls we get on our VoIP land line are telemarketing robocalls. It’s just not worth keeping it.
Barbara said her days of doing yard work are over. With about 1.5 acres of yard at the new place, she said she just wants to hire someone to mow the lawn. She’ll continue gardening, but that’s it for yard work.