Mooving In

The day finally came. We moved out of our White Salmon house! We packed everything up and hired movers for the heavy lifting.

They managed to get most of our stuff in one truck load; however, they left a few heavy items for us to deal with, like the welding table. We eventually got everything out and listed the house!

Although the moving company was a tremendous help, unpacking unfortunately was not part of their job. We were left with an overwhelming mess.

We juggled a few things around with the crane to make some space.

We spent the following weeks unpacking boxes and organizing. We didn’t have homes for half the tools, so we ordered some new tool boxes.

And then we ordered more.

We still need more cabinets. We decided to use carts rather than shelves for storing items in the attic. We got a fun library cart and a lot of these plastic utility carts. I think I’ve assembled eight so far. What a great value they are! Sam is organizing them, so we’ll have one cart for electrical stuff, one for plumbing, three for Christmas, etc.

We took a break from unpacking to set up the pinball and pachinko machines.

Sam grew bored of pachinko and needed a bigger toy. He found a used CNC mill at a Portland tech company that was closing. Before we went to look at the $9K relic, Sam got some negotiation advice from a friend- “if they aren’t offended by your offer, then you didn’t go low enough.” We drove to Portland with that in mind and left with the CNC and a cart load of tools for $3K! (Sadly, they weren’t offended.)

We didn’t actually leave with the machine that day. It was a bit of a debacle to remove it from the building, as it wouldn’t fit under the sprinkler pipes (see red pipes above). We hired an expert mover, who collects similar machines himself. Boy, was he a character. His best piece of advice was to take a bin full of metal shavings with us to sprinkle around the CNC so no one would give us a hard time as to why we have it.

After a hundred more anecdotes and complaints, he removed the motor from the top and fit four skates under it (the yellow things). It was ready for transport! It was a bit teetery and nearly impossible to steer, but luckily didn’t have a long way to travel. Each turn required some rearranging of things. Hours later, as the machine was about to see daylight, it was stopped by a low hanging pipe! We had to find a low spot on the floor in addition to lowering the “adjustable” feet on the CNC. Finally, we cleared the last pipe!

By that time, a couple of recently retired 70-year-old men stopped by to observe the action. One was the previous CNC operator and gave us a brief history. The two retirees stuck around for a bit and helped with the final push. Yes, their strength was actually required to get it up the 1% sloped ramp! Once it was outside, the moving guy built a pallet under it, and we called it a day.

We had to wait another day for someone to bring a big forklift to load the CNC onto our trailer. Weighing in around 6000 lbs, the CNC was too heavy for the little forklift that was on-site. The whole move went very well considering how sketchy it seemed, and we made it back safely to our shop.

However, we ran into just as many problems trying to unload it. For starters, we got our first big rain event since springtime, and the truck got stuck in the mud. We had to unhitch the trailer and pull the truck and trailer separately with the loader. At last, the trailer made it inside the shop!

There wasn’t quite enough height on the crane to lift it over the wheel well, and it became a puzzle to rig it. Sam eventually solved the puzzle, and we craned it to its final resting place.

Fortunately, wiring the CNC took a small fraction of the transportation time. Sam had it up and running in no time!

We got a colorful cart from “Vevor” to hold the tools. I can’t say every item is a dream to assemble, but they have amazing deals on all sorts of items you didn’t realize you needed.

Buster enjoyed the month of moving the most. He tested out every size and shape box we had. He found a favorite box to sleep on and a favorite box to sit in.

He wore himself out playing in all the dunnage and ultimately retired in his new chair. Yes, it was once Sam’s, but Buster claims it first every evening when we sit down to watch TV.

Smokey on the other hand, was glad the chaos was over. He was also glad that their was one less animal he had to share the couch with.

We weren’t the only ones moving this fall. The cows finally made their way up to our shop to graze. We hadn’t seen them all summer, so the cats had never met them. Buster was instantly interested in them and occasionally got a little too close and spooked the cows.

By the end of mooving month, Smokey got comfortable enough to observe them; although, he still doesn’t consider cow-watching a fun or relaxing activity.

The cows have since left, and things have quieted down. The shop is continuing to look less cluttered, and the cats are loving the new seating arrangements.

We didn’t get any offers on the house yet, so we removed our boat and a pile of scrap metal from the driveway to improve the curb appeal. Hopefully the squirrels don’t move in.