Piano Movers

One week from today, Alicia and her pianist Kevin Garnica are giving a recital in the barn.  The Friday night performance begins at 7pm.  Saturday afternoon at 2pm they will be doing another.  The Fair Play Arena and concert hall is the venue.

Previous years we have been able to rent a piano from Steinway in Spokane and Music City, also in Spokane.   Both companies will no longer rent to us so we decided just to move our own piano in to the barn!

Reynald spent a great deal of time researching piano moving equipment and when it was all said and done, he was about $200 over what it would cost to rent.  Now we have the equipment so the next recital we will be money ahead!

With some engineering ingenuity, with help from Crayton, very little lifting was involved and our piano now sits in the top of the barn, waiting for  this wonderful concert that will take place next weekend.

A few photos of the process:

Piano flipped up and on the moving sled.

Leaving the music room in our house.

Out on the east porch, headed down the stairs.

Safely arrived on the patio!

Moving the ramp from the stairs to the horse trailer.

Lining up to the ramp.

Up the ramp and in to the horse trailer

Made it!

Next up the stairs in the barn.

The winch that will pull the piano up the stairs.

Hooked on and up we go.  

Arrived to the top of the barn without incident!

Still need to set up chairs, but we're making progress.  

Next week Alan will come and do some mechanical work on the piano and tune it.  Kevin arrives on Thursday.  Alicia and Kevin are doing an interview on Spokane Public Radio Friday morning and then the concerts Friday night and Saturday afternoon.  I'm looking forward to the coming week!

Homegrown (mostly) Thanksgiving

We had a wonderfully warm and cozy Thanksgiving today.  Our original plan for the next few days changed.  We were going to meet my cousins Margaret and Therese and their families on the Oregon coast.  But, my new knee isn't quite up for travel.  And, sadly, Margaret and Rob's dear elderly neighbor passed away somewhat unexpectedly Tuesday morning, and Therese and Dave decided that they needed to be home with Margaret and Rob and Anthony.

So, we all changed gears, ministered to those that we needed to minister to, and despite the loss of Robbie for Margaret and Rob and Anthony, we all had a reflective and grateful day.

Holidays are challenging when dearly loved members of your family have passed.  This is deeply poignant for Margaret and Rob this year, and we are missing my dad.  But, we know that those that precede us in death, are never really very far away.  And that was especially true today.

Alicia hosted Reynald and me and my mom at her house.  Reynald did the turkey, because that's kind of his thing, but Alicia did all the rest.  She set a beautiful table and laid a feast that was colorful and scrumptious and largely from her garden!

A few images of our dinner.

When mom and dad were first married, they had this pattern for their dishes.  Over the years, many pieces had gotten broken or given away.  When Alicia was a very young girl she fell in love with this pattern and set to work collecting.  They set such a pretty table today.

Scattered around her house are decorations of fall.  My dad made this buffet a few years ago, that now sits in Alicia's dining room.  

More fall decor.

Eager to fill our plates!

The buffet table.

Turkey, mashed potatoes (from Alicia's garden) and gravy, stuffing and cranberry sauce.

Roasted carrots and parsnips from Alicia's garden and a delicious kale salad.  She harvested the kale yesterday.

And this is a delicata squash salad (squash from Alicia's garden) with goat cheese, pine nuts, and raisins.  I could have eaten this whole bowl!

We had to keep a close eye on Charlie, whose nose is table high and thought that everything smelled so good!

I haven't had much appetite since I got my new knee, but everything looked and smelled so good that I had to have a little bit of all the offerings.

It wasn't much of a struggle to clean my plate!

Butter Pecan pots de creme.  A new recipe that Alicia tried and definitely a keeper!

Medical leave

Two weeks ago today I had a total knee replacement done on my right knee.  I haven't done much during these weeks except physical therapy exercises and sleep!

The first week was really rough, week two has been better, but still not a piece of cake.  I'm confident that the coming week will show even more improvement in movement and decreased pain.

Thank you for your patience during my time off.  I have plans to get back to my blog with renewed vigor!

This is the day after surgery.  I look pretty groggy!  But who could have a better recovery buddy?

Unless perhaps it was this fellow!

I spend time on the stationary bike every day, with yet another recovery buddy!

Ice, ice and more ice!

My knee today, significantly less swelling and gaining more mobility.

Roni Jo came home for a few days last week to help with my recovery.  What a treat to have an in house physical therapist!  I will continue with therapy in Davenport under the direction of Erinn at Peak Fitness.  I really love the work that she is doing, even if it hurts a whole bunch!

Happy Halloween

Friend and neighbor, Leslie appeared at the door with this delicious and delightful Halloween surprise!  I'm always thrilled when Leslie does his shopping at Bloem Chocolates and Paperie, in Spokane.  The chocolates are divine and almost too pretty to eat!