Spring At Last

Although there are a few isolated piles of snow left, winter is basically a done deal here. Flowers are up, trees are starting to bud and people are beginning yard clean up. With the ice storms and heavy snows, there has been much tree damage to deal with.

Although it may sound like a broken record, we are perpetually amazed by the beauty of this place. The photo above was taken at Bonny Eagle on the Saco River. One of the great things about Maine is you're never far from a lovely outdoor setting. In Michigan our experience of natural beauty often centered around lakes. And there are plenty of those in Maine too. But we've spent considerable time around the river and have come to appreciate its varying moods. It's become a priority for us to live in proximity to the Saco as we continue our search for land. Here is another picture at Hiram, also on the Saco. Hiram is located about 45 minutes northwest of us, not too far from New Hampshire. I recently did some work at this dam and was awed by the location. The actual dam is below the bridge structure. There is really not a lake as such behind this dam so it's a relatively low-impact on the land. Pretty cool.

Our search for land continues to take new and interesting turns. We've basically decided the land I mentioned in the last blog entry is not going to work for us. We discovered about 2/3 of this land is protected wetland. Another 1.5 acres is power line right-of-way. That left precious little of the 10.5 acres available to build a house on, raise food and care for animals. We looked at buying land adjacent that was owned by the same person and found that wasn't going to work either.

So Cheryl started looking in earnest for other possibilities. A search of MLS listings in the area turned up relatively little in the way of land for sale. There are plenty of houses on the market but not too much in the way of land. Cheryl being the resourceful individual she is was undaunted. She started visiting the town office, reviewing tax maps to find unoccupied land. Then she created a letter which she sent to all the absentee landowners, telling them our story and inquiring about their possible interest in selling. We received several positive replies from the letter, leading to some nice opportunities.

Of course, our finding the right land is proving no easier than choosing an area to move was. In addition to dealing with the usual issues that attend buying raw rural land, we are also seeking a place favorable to a passive solar house, zoning that is minimally restrictive, especially regarding farm animals, at least some similar-minded neighbors, minimal road & utility costs and by the way, land we enjoy being on. We are also seeking to be relatively close to the grocery store, hardware store, etc. to keep fuel costs down as oil prices bounce around. And other issues I won't bore you with. Not too tall of a list, eh?

And now for something completely different. I recently read a book by Mark Levin titled "Liberty and Tyranny - a Conservative Manifesto". Back in my 20's and 30's I would not have given something labeled conservative a second look. Later, I began referring to myself as socially liberal, fiscally conservative. But even that really didn't do it. Especially since I've moved to Maine and been immersed in the independent Yankee tradition, I found some common ground with Libertarians. Hence the title of this book held an attraction. Additionally I have regularly found common ground with conservative concerns. A quote from Abraham Lincoln on the back cover of this book is a great start.

" We declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different but incompatible things called by the same name - liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names - liberty and tyranny."

Wow. As part of our journey into living differently, I have come to see the insidiouness of government regulation. Mark Levin argues that regulation and the government that produces and enforces such is the tool of the "Statist". Levin's basic premise is the goal of government regulation is to subjugate the individual to the state. Hence the term Statist is applied to individuals who believe the State should be the source and controller of all. Generally Liberals would be tagged as "statist" although he asserts there conservatives who are also Statists.

It would be easy to write off Mr. Levin as another conspiracy theorist. But I believe there are conspiracies at work in the world. The mainstream mocks conspiracy theories in knee-jerk fashion, no matter what the political orientation of the author. I'm not exactly sure why that is. Certainly it is uncomfortable to imagine conspiracy, especially regarding the government. But conspiracies have occurred and will continue to exist. So why not at least entertain the possibility? The basic challenge I have with Mr. Levin's approach is not the idea of conspiracy by Statists. Rather it his implication that elimination of Statism will make everything whole again.

The belief in supremacy of the individual and greed-driven capitalism are also complicit in the mess we find ourselves. There is also no question we have become of nation of entitlement thinkers. This thinking cuts across all income and social strata. We are locked in endless combat about Socialism vs. Capitalism, liberal vs. conservative, individual vs. community. Much ink and talk has been expended detailing the flaws and attractions of these polar opposites. With the election of Barrack Obama, the liberals felt their time in the "wilderness" was over and it was the conservatives turn to be in the cold. Eight years ago the opposite was true. Where has this gotten us? It is inevitable in a win/lose situation, the loser does not go away but rather plots revenge. Meanwhile our society and country move closer to the brink. Without a transformation in our thinking, we are doomed. What doomed will look like is anybody's guess. But it will not be pretty.

So will we emulate the Earth by entering into a "springtime" of new ways of being? It is time to consider "the middle way" as Buddhist's suggest. It is time to realize that we need to be informed by multiple traditions as we forge a new way of viewing the world we find ourselves in. There is no doubt we are in territory that has no map. As Einstein said, "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results." Let us stop expending energy fighting each other and seek instead how we can all survive the coming upheavals.

One Foot Ahead of the . . .

Recently I realized its been awhile since the last posting. Normally I try to post about once a month to keep the story fresh. The last posting was February 8 so I'm overdue.

Where to start? Much of February was consumed with the relative mundane - getting moved in while continuing to keep everyday life going. Of course, in this family, even the mundane seems to take on a new dimension.


We're feeling pretty well settled into the new house. As we thought, we really like living in this house and in this area. We're doing much less driving than we did at Casco. Although we don't go to Portland or Biddeford more than about once a week, doing so now is about a 30 minute trip rather than close to an hour. The grocery store, gas station and other common things of life are now just minutes away, again cutting driving and expense. The picture below is from our new living room. Much nicer than the old place in Casco. More than the practicalities though is the wonderful feel of this place.

We live about 1/4 mile uphill from the Saco River. We regularly walk the road paralleling the river bank. Like many rivers in Maine, the Saco and the land it flows through is beautiful. We've never lived in proximity to a river before. After several weeks of well-above freezing temperatures, the spring runoff is well underway. There are now rapids in the river just below the dam that were not there in winter. A hydroelectric dam is located just above the rapids. We watched today as several utility workers performed maintenance on the dam while suspended in a basket above the rushing waters. There are definitely more sunny days here than Michigan. Lack of long strings of gray days is a blessing. It doesn't snow as often as Michigan but when it does, the snow fall is substantial - often in the 12"+ range.

Since my last post, I went to Vermont for 3 weeks to startup the synchronous condenser project for an electric utility. It was a very tense time for me, mostly because I was still in a learning mode. The computer control program I wrote had a lot of mistakes that had to be corrected during the startup. Everyone involved was under a lot stress. But the $11MM project started up with only a cooling system problem on one unit. It was quite a thrill to watch the utility dispatcher in Rutland (about 30 miles away) move the 46KV crosscountry transmission line voltage up and down with our new system. Everything worked just the way it was intended. This startup was the culmination of a 2 year project to improve the transmission line across central/southern Vermont. The guy in the picture is my boss Kevin, hard at work programming.


A major focus for us over the last several weeks has been the search for land to purchase. We feel pretty confident we want to live in the Buxton area so we've been concentrating there. For those who haven't bought raw land, it is a whole new ball of wax compared to buying an existing home. If anyone is interested, we found a great book on the subject. It's called "Finding and Buying Your Place in the Country" by Les and Carol Scher. The book is an exhaustive work on country land purchase. We are looking in the 5-10 acre range with the goal to have some forest mixed with clear area for our passive solar house. Cheryl is pictured at one of the parcels we are interested in. We walked it extensively today. It is 10.5 acres across the road from a wonderful forested park on the Saco River. The land was cutover a few years ago so there are relatively few trees of size. But most of the cutover is well populated with pioneer trees of various sizes. Drainage is an area of concern. We hope the nature of the drainage situation will become evident as spring starts.

I wish I had a picture of another 5 acre parcel we looked at in the area to post. Cheryl fancied it as a fixer-upper. I have never seen such a dump! When approached from the road, view of the property was mostly blocked by a high, solid fence in severe disrepair. The trailer was ready for the torch - viewed from the outside! The yard was filled with all kinds of junk. An old 5th wheel trailer, a semi-trailer and a wide assortment of steel junk. It would be a major job just to clean it all out.

I started working at a guitar repair shop every Monday and have been doing it for several weeks. Scott is the owner and is he ever an easy-going, nice guy. He also attended the Galloup School in Big Rapids, about 10 years before I did. He is helping me learn the in's and out's of guitar repair. I also work with a guy named Tom who has been doing repair for about 8 years. He is a 50-something self-described hippy from New Hampshire. He also has a property management business which caters to rich people's places along Maine's coast. He is ramping down this business so he can do what he loves which is repair guitars. The shop is named Acoustic Artisans and is actually a partnership between Scott Conely (guitars) and Jon Cooper (violins). They are located in a multi-story old brick building in downtown Portland. In addition to luthiery, the building also hosts people rehearsing for music performances, people giving music lessons and visual artists. It is a wonderful center of artists and artisans, spontaneously interacting. Impromto jams also break out from time to time. The day goes very quickly when I am working at the shop. I wish I could do it more than once a week but it is unpaid since I'm in learning mode right now. So once a week is all I can afford for now.

Follow this link to Acoustic Artisans. http://www.acousticartisans.com/

While I work 4 days a week, Cheryl is the prime architect of getting us to the next phase of life. When she is not searching for land, she is busy learning about growing and preserving food, buying stuff we need for our new living situation, learning about permaculture, saving us money by lowering the grocery bill, generally keeping the wheels on and most importantly, working with Jayne. Cheryl is the spark plug of our family. We are infinitely grateful for her and her work.

Jayne continues working to adjust to her life here. This move hasn't been as hard on her as it might be for someone in high school. But she misses the social scene from her church group. Today she screwed up her courage and went to meet a couple of fellow home-schooling girls near Biddeford. Cheryl and I are hoping this will go well so she can start feeling more connected here. It's always hard to move and leave friends and family. It's harder yet when you don't have any friends in your new home. But it is all part of the process and good experience for her and us.

Here's Jayne shoveling at the Casco place on moving day.

Are we there yet?

We've been in our new house for 1 week. Although a minor move compared to relocating the household from Michigan to Maine, be not deluded about the effort for even a small household. We rented a 16ft. moving van and did the work ourselves. It took us two days to accomplish the main part of the move. By the end of the second day, we were exhausted! You know how when you get so tired you feel stupid? That was how I felt. Why is it the work of moving is so easily underestimated? It might be the same reason as when we face other difficult situations in life - if we consciously grasped the enormity at the time of decision making, we wouldn't do it.

The pictures are taken at the new place except for the moving van shot. The first photo is a view out the back. The kitchen features a gallery of windows that take in an open field and beyond that, a distant view of the White Mountains. The next pic is the view down our road. It's a quiet, low traffic road that leads down to the Saco River. Cheryl is at work, setting up yet another kitchen. Making a kitchen truly functional in a new house is probably the most challenging job of all. Cheryl has a special gift for kitchen optimization which is being put to great use on our journey.

At any rate, we have most of the boxes unpacked and stuff arranged. We are definitely enjoying the new place. Although it is not perfect, we have relieved the major problems that plagued us at the previous place in Casco. Moving and the numerous tertiary upheavals that go with it is certainly stressful. But we had reached a breaking point in Casco and it was time to go.

One of the things we learned in Casco is size and room arrangement with a teenager in your life is much more critical. In Casco, we were living in about 700 sq. ft. More importantly, there was basically no where for anyone to retreat to. We came to understand that space is one of the keys in maintaining relative harmony when living with a teenager. We now have about 1100 sq. ft. which includes sufficiently isolated spaces for everyone to be in. The rats are no longer going nuts in their too-small cage!

Another aspect of our journey has been communications. In our previous life, we had one computer on a dial-up connection to the Internet. We made extensive use of email on that one computer but that was about it for modern communications. We are also basic cellphone-less, furthering our Luddite-ness.

Fast forward to Maine. When we moved onto the horse farm, we found the owner had high speed Internet, cable TV and Internet telephone. We cut the cable TV cord years ago due to ever-rising cable bills. But there were compelling reasons to give cable a second look. High speed Internet allowed us to have three computers on line at once, made possible Internet commercial-free radio and video viewing. Downloads were a snap and Jayne even found old Star Trek episodes to watch for free. We also found that long distance telephone costs went away with an Internet phone. In Maine that's particularly important since virtually all calls are long distance. Internet phones have the downside of not being as reliable as land lines. But we live near people we can call on in an emergency so that's not too big of a negative. I've also had to learn about setting up and maintaining an Ethernet network and router to make all this happen. Way different than the more simple life in Michigan! But the benefits have definitely been worth it. It's opened a whole new world for all of us. Flexibility and the middle way are at work again in our lives :-)

Tomorrow it's back to Vermont for what I hope will be the last week of the Kendall Farm electric utility project startup. It's been a stressful 3 week startup but the end is in sight.

In answer to this posting's title, no we are not there yet. But we feel that, like a spiral, we are closing in ever-more tightly on the ultimate goal. My personal hope is we make one more move onto the place we are actually going to live. But I'm realistic enough to realize there is no way to know what lies around the next turn. Even this far into the journey.

The Next Leg

Two significant events in our life are underway. First, my work life. The photo at left was taken last week at Bondville, VT. The barn-like structure houses electrical utility equipment we are in the process of commissioning. For the electrical types in the audience, the equipment is called a "synchronous condenser". The purpose of an "SC" is to improve transmission line efficiency and reliability. This $11 million job is my first major project with Casco Systems and my first real venture into the electric power/utility world so there's some definite tension! We will spend the majority of the next two weeks testing and gradually bringing the machines online. As you can see from the photo, this is beautiful country. It's in the heart of southwest Vermont ski country. I'm not a skier and there isn't the time anyway. But it's still a nice place to be. There also looks to be some nice opportunities to take in live music in the area. I should have time during the evening for some of that.

Ah, the title for this posting . . . Well we are embarking on the next leg of our journey in Maine. This coming Friday, we will be moving to a new home. After careful evaluation, we determined the farm-sitting situation we are in is not meshing well with our needs. Basically it has been absorbing too much of our time and energy. The situation has an instability that drains mental energy in worrying about future problems. We are also too cramped for the mixture of personalities in our house.

So we found a 200+ year old colonial house for rent about an hour south of here. In the future I will post pictures. Suffice to say it is larger, and more importantly, there is no farm & horse responsibility with it. It is located in area of mixed woodlands and fields, on a rise near the Saco River. The landlords live across the road and are very nice people. Although old, this house is very well maintained and will not present the maintenance problems we've encountered here.

A few months ago we were focused on an area about 2 hours northeast of here. But we revised our search to the area we ultimately settled on because we've determined it is probably a better fit. We've met a wonderful couple who live in the area that we share a common vision with. The new location is also considerably closer to Portland which will benefit Jayne. Living in our new rental house will give us the opportunity to really check out this area. Since the house is close to our new friends, we will also have ready opportunity to spend time with them. And we can easily scout the area for land to buy.

I included a couple horse care pictures to close out our time at Carousel Horse Farm. The first one is of Sadie eating grain. She's wearing a blanket to help fend off the cold. The second pic is of Cheryl practicing the ancient art of "hay heaving". Twice a day we toss 1-1/2 bales into the paddock, spread over 7 piles. The hay has to be spread around so that horses don't fight (much!) over eating it. Although horses are a fair amount of work, we feel a definite spiritual connection and will miss them.

Who knows what will happen next on this journey? It sure seems like we are positioned for some cool things. We are really excited about the next leg!

Over and out from Tranquility Base.

Christmas and beyond

Christmas 2008 has come and gone. This is the first year we've been "on our own". We decided it was too far and cost too much to return to Michigan for Christmas. So we had a very modest celebration with our little family unit, right here in Casco. One aspect we definitely enjoyed was the lack of travel on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Not only did we stay home for celebration, we traveled about a 1/2 mile to the village church for the 11pm service. It was all very relaxing.

In the month since my last post, much has happened. First, we had a big ice storm on December 13. We were very fortunate since the power was off for only about 6 hours and the ice only about 1/2" thick. There were many others in New England, especially Massachusetts and New Hampshire, that were without power for a week or more. The total was in excess of 500,00 people in the dark at one point. Western MA had much more ice build-up and tree damage. Even so, there were many white pines damaged here. The day after the storm it was eerie outside - very quiet, punctuated by the gunshot sounds of branches letting go under the ice load.

About a week after this storm, we received a major snowfall. It snowed all night with an accumulation of about 12". We had much more around the house to dig through in the morning since the snow from the roof slid off and piled up. Doing our morning feeding the of the horses was much more challenging since we had to dig out and break trail out to the paddock. But we managed. It it doesn't kill you, it will make you stronger!

We've been actively looking at land to purchase and also potential communities to join. We've generally been pre-qualifying the land via the Internet to cut down on driving. We did visit a couple locations around Belfast. One location was 14 acres of mostly wooded property with a stream (brook out here) running through it. The owner had done site preparation including installation of septic and built a shed. He suffered a chronic injury in an auto accident and so was giving up his dream to build. We really like the land but felt too much of it was unusable for growing food. It was basically a hunter's paradise. The price - $44,000. Our ideal at this point is something in the 15-20 acres, partially wooded with the balance available for agriculture. We also seek land with an excellent southern exposure to maximize passive solar heating of our house. We are looking for sufficient forest that we can get some building material from and firewood. Carefully managed, a forest can provide both for years.

Cheryl recently came across a new community being formed near Belfast. They have 70 acres of mixed forest and open ground, 3 tractors, a chicken house and various other farm-type facilities already existing. They are referring to this new community as a libertarian village. Some of the folks on my mailing list may freak out when they read the word "libertarian". Granted, people calling themselves libertarians have been known to take some extreme views. But, take a look at what Wikepdia has to say about libertarian. You'll find libertarian to encompass a rather wide spectrum of views. The basics are indivdual liberty, limited government, reliance on civil institutions and free markets to promote social order and ecomonic prosperity. Interestingly enough, these tenets were known as "liberalism" in the 19th century. The modern version of liberalism has adopted a "statist" approach, bringing big government into the picture. Fascinating how political/philosophical terms we think are sacrosanct and we beat each up for subscribing to are actually much more fluid over time.

At any rate, Cheryl and I find ourselves having commonality with these basic precepts. We are not fiscally conservative and socially liberal although we have used these descriptions. The terms liberal and conservative are mental straightjackets that neither fit us nor the times we live in. Fighting over which "ism" one belongs in is nothing but fiddling while Rome burns. We are attracted to the idea of individual liberty and personal responsibility on all issues at all times. We are coming to see the government as a problem, not the solution. This is not to say government does not have legitimate functions. But there is no Big Daddy and we cannot abdicate our responsibility and authority in search of one. It is up to us as the people to be part of the solution.

So we will give the libertarian village a serious look as we have all others. We also attended a meeting by a group in Portland, also seeking to form a village. The basis for this village is a model used by over 300 villages in Russia. The model is contained in a series of books by Vladamire Megre. These books reveal the life wisdom of a woman named Anastasia. It is probably fair to say Anastasia is a mystic although there is much more to say. We listened to a presentation by a man named Peter who spoke of the village he is part of creating in Lithuania. He is on a tour of North America, promoting this village concept. The group in Maine is looking to purchase substantial land (350-1000+ acres). The concept is each member would own a 2.5 acre portion, with the rest held in common. Although initially attractive, we felt the cost to get in and the amount/type of limitations made this not a good choice for us. Still, the Lithuanian group is accomplishing much such as squeezing their own oil to make biodiesel, raising and selling food to fund the community, etc.

Well, my fingers are getting tired. As always, we have much to be thankful for on this journey. It is difficult on a number of fronts but we are happy to be active in seeking our dream. Thanks for the supportive, wonderful comments from our friends and family! It really helps us keep going.

Dazed and Confused

I included these two pictures of the most recent hydro site I'm working on. The site is called "Deer Rips" which is comprised of two generating stations, one on each side of the river. The powerhouse shown in the picture is Androscoggin #3. The pictures have no connection to the title. I just threw them in because I like posting current photos.

Back to my theme . . . our family just viewed the movie "Zeitgeist". The best description I can think of is a docu-drama" about world history and the future. Suitably vague I realize but you really have to watch it. You could summarize the message as there is a small group of very powerful people who are driving toward the goal of one world government. The means of doing so is elaborate deception and manipulation of the people. Not a new idea, I know.

Now, before you start giving me the fish eye and wondering if Oliver Stone broke into my house, let me say I am as skeptical as anyone. Most people love conspiracy theories, at least to watch on TV or read about. I'm not one of them, probably because of my natural cynicism and "just the facts" way of looking at events. But I found the evidence rather compelling and downright sobering. If anyone has ever watched the 1976 movie "Network", you are familiar with the idea of mass public manipulation. Think about this - how DO you know what the truth is? The media? The concept of an "objective" news source is mid-20th century invention. Prior to that newspapers were rather open about political affiliation. It's not difficult at all for me to imagine all the media as having an agenda, especially when you consider the concentration of media ownership in the hands of a few powerful people.

So I'm feeling more confused than ever about the state and future of the world. On a spiritual retreat I attended, we referred to it as "liminal space" - threshold. In my little corner of it, I'm grappling with a challenging teenager, where and in what do I want to live, what kind of people do I want to live near, how to navigate the financial system, etc, etc, etc. I told my wife yesterday that every direction seems uphill right now. And there is an urgency to virtually everything. We really feel the need to find a place and begin building our future now.

We've come to the place where it appears we have to strike out on our own rather than join a community. Find and buy land, build a house and establish food production. All with the goal of little or no debt and most of it within a short time frame. We have found people we would like to live near and work with. That helps some but this is still a scary, daunting prospect.

No post would be complete without a horse report. We had a week of temperatures in the teens every night. The water trough froze over with a 2" thick ice cover. Time for the trough heater but then the horses wouldn't drink. They were getting shocked! Turns out the heater was putting 80V on the water. New heater time. The horses are developing nice shaggy winter coats. We're now feeding them hay two times a day. They've gotten much more aggressive at eating time. I had to show the male the riding crop the other day to settle him down.

We went out today to feed them with a snow/rain mix pelting us. Although the temperature is in the high 30's versus last week's 19, it was still pretty miserable. Thankfully unlike the horses, we didn't have to stand around in it all day. Fortunately I just finished fixing the horse shed yesterday so they have a decent shelter.

All these experiences are helping toughen us for the future . . .

Winter's Coming

Much more than SW Michiganders, Mainers are keenly aware of the coming of winter. The leaves are mostly down as we enter November. Snow has already fallen in the New Hampshire White Mountains which we can see from here. Winter preparation in the form of getting plenty of firewood under cover, servicing furnaces, doing exterior home repairs and winterizing, vehicle prepartion, etc. are well underway around here. It's a topic that's never far from conversation. In our case we live in an old farm house that is FAR from well insulated and sealed up. I installed some insulation board on the unheated portion of the basement ceiling this week to help as well as put up a large tarp as a wind block.

The house is heated by oil which is EXPENSIVE. When we moved here it over $4 per gallon. The owner has a contract that caps the price per gallon and spreads out the monthly cost. Even so we are paying $480 per month. Despite this it is still cheaper to live here than rent and pay utilities. We have never been so keenly aware of the cost to keep warm as we are now. We keep the thermostat turned down at night and close the door to the kitchen (coldest room in the house) to keep a lid on things. More than ever we understand the need to live in a highly energy efficient home. Thankfully we will be some day soon!

I've started getting some amplifier repair business for Black Crow Workshop in Maine. A great guitar player I met at a local jam gave me a couple of amps to work on. The Fender Super pictured was gently abused by someone who replaced the power transformer. In the process they bypassed the tube rectifier but left it in place. My customer thought he had a tube rectifier when all the tube was doing was heating the cabinet! I replaced the transformer and restored the amp to its 1963 glory. I also repaired a Dr. Z amp that beer had victimized. The beer spilled into the amp, shorting out an output tube. Fortunately the damage was limited to a tube socket and power resistor and was easily fixed.

When I'm not working on amp repair, the same desk serves as my engineering office. I'm starting to get more settled into my job with a local engineering firm. It's a big change to be working 98% from home, especially in such a small home. I've been struggling to concentrate with the daily whirlwind going on around me. And it is really easy for other family members to forget I'm at work and interrupt me. For awhile I tried to handle the interruptions and then go back to work. But quality programming can't co-exist with multiple interruptions. So I've had to bolt the door and turn on music. Things are much better now but I'm sure the adaptation will be ongoing. And if there's an emergency such as a horse in the road I'll still be called on!

This picture is of a neighbor's yard. They moved out yesterday, heading for Kentucky. Since they only had a trailer and minivan with lots of kids in it, not everything fit. They held a yard sale and also sold or gave away the larger stuff. After the first trailer loading, they test-drove and found the trailer unstable above 35mph. So they had to eliminate some more stuff. Here's what's left. They determined what they couldn't live without and the rest went to the thrift shop. We felt put to shame in our efforts to slim down prior to moving here! Note - they managed all this in a little over a week's time!!