Progress

Well it has been an emotional couple of weeks.  We have been moving stuff to a storage unit in town to hold sales from and it has not stopped raining.  So, no sales yet.  We are planning sales for this weekend and hopefully the rain will stay away.  We thought we were not going to be able to bring our SUV, so I spent half a day trying to decided how to deal with that only to find out we can bring it and the bank told us the wrong information.  WHEW!!!! Then we found a temporary place to live in town that was nice and affordable  and lost it because we had not found a home for our big dog and they would not take the dog. We need to move to town to save up as much as we can for the next 3 months till we leave. 
Today, the best day yet!!!!  We sold the chickens, the chicken coop, the greenhouse, riding lawn mower and found the best home ever for Bear.  Our prayers have been answered.  I needed to learn a little serenity.  Now we still need to find a place in town to live.  I have faith we will find that place, we still have about 3 weeks.  Hawaii still has not posted the microchip/blood test results for the other dog, so we have not purchased our plane tickets yet.  We did get the results from our vet and he passed.  I have been checking ticket prices each week and they have gone down this week, so I was glad I did not purchase them last week.  Maybe they will go down again next week. 
Bear will be staying with our neighbors, they have always loved him and can give him a really good home.  We are so thankful.  It has been very hard to make the decision to give him up.
We have started to box up stuff to mail to Hawaii and so far so good.  I received an email from an employer in Hawaii and they want to hire me when we get there.  I would be doing exactly the same work I do here.  Mike also got a job offer doing the same thing he does here.  One less worry,  I just hope we get some time to play when we get there.
All is right with the world. We are very thankful!

Moving sale!

Well, we had the 1st moving sale on Sat the 25th. (I am not fond of hagglers) Sold allot of stuff, but still have so much more to go.  We have to get a storage unit in town and hold the sales from there. 

We got a phone call from a very nice lady who would like to adopt Bear.  She adopts older dogs mainly big dogs.  She lives on 67 acres and has a pond and river on her property, the dogs live inside and have nice beds and lots of love and treats.  She currently has 3 Burmese mountain dogs and 2 other dogs.  We are so thankful for her.  She will meet Bear today.

I finally got the airline info for travelling with a dog to Hawaii worked out.  We will fly out of LA to Honolulu, go to quarantine get Murphy released and then on to Kona.  This is the most affordable and easiest way to bring your pet to Hawaii.  We will purchase our tickets this weekend for Oct. 27th.
I have made arrangements at Steamboat Campground for a camper cabin for 2 1/2 months to live in till we go.  We will be out of our house on Aug. 15th. Can't wait!!  What a grand adventure!!!

Planning

Now the fun starts, what to take, what to get rid of, schools, housing, dogs, vehicles, clothing, insurance, and more? 
Let's start with what to take.  At first we were going to take all our household items.  Now we are only taking what can be shipped through the USPS.  Why did we need all this stuff???  We are selling and donating everything.  I will definitely think hard from now on before I buy something.  We decided to only take one vehicle and the Envoy won.  A good 4wheel drive SUV.  It does really well up here, so there should be no problem in HI.  Housing is easy, we are planning to be out of our house by Sept. 1 and move into something very cheap in town, (Steamboat Springs) for the last month.  That will  be an adventure by itself.  Housing in HI is very reasonable compared to here.  So, when we are looking a houses they seem cheap to us.  We are planning to live in the town of Kona, until Keegan graduates high school.  It will be nice to be close to all the activities that he is involved in.  The high school there is a great school, it has more options available than the school here.  So, we are happy with that! 
Clothing, It is hard to part with all my sweaters and fleece.  I know in my mind I will not need them, but when you have lived in cold for so long, it just feels strange not to have them.  I am sure I will get over this. 
Dogs, that has been difficult.  We have 2 dogs a 9 year old Newphie, and a 2 year old Jack Russell.  We have had many long conversations with the vet about the Newphie, and it came down to what decision could we live with.  She said that this move would most likely kill him.  He is to old and he is a snowdog. His name is Bear and we call him The Bearrug.  he is a very good dog. So we made the decision to find him a new loving home, so he can enjoy his senior years. We have had several offers from friends.  We are looking for a companion situation for him. The Jack Russell, Murphy will go. 
We are having round 1 moving sale this weekend.  It is hard living up here, because we are 25 miles from town and people don't want to come this far for garage sale.   We may have to move everything to a storage unit in town and have the garage sales from there.  I hope not!!!!
We are very excited to move to Hawaii.  I will blog again soon!  Sorry if this is boring, I am new to blogging.

This is Keegan and Bear

Jackie

Decisions, Decisions

It was three years in the making, but we finally came to the decision of the Big Island, Hawaii.  In those three years we thought about and researched many many places, from North Carolina to Texas to Wisconsin to Florida.  It's kinda funny too, but each place we started to research and think seriously about moving to, they would suddenly get a very strong dose of winter weather.  I guess if you live in these places it's not very funny, but I do sincerely apologize for sending a dose of "Clarctic" weather your way.  The good news is, so far nothing major has happened on the Big Island since our decision, and I will point out that we made our decision after the tsunami came from the Japan quake. 

The real reason we decided on Hawaii: 
Because it's paradise.

Yes that's one reason, but there is more.

 We figured since the summers in Florida consisted of 100 degrees plus 100% humidity, there would be no way we could put up with that much extreme heat coming from somewhere that has the opposite in extreme cold.  I mean, when it gets to 85 degrees here, with hardly any humidity, we are HOT!!  And the way the weather patterns are going this year, we'll be lucky if we see any days over 70 this summer.  Wisconsin's out because the winters there can just as nasty as here.  Texas is too hot and muggy, plus there's tornadoes.  North Carolina, well, that's on the east coast.  If you need more explanation than that, let me know, and I'll be happy to oblige. 

Hawaii has a nice temperate climate, it's 85 degrees in the summers, and 70 degrees in the winters, and on the Big Island, if you want to cool down even more, you just have to start climbing up one of the volcanoes, we could even see snow again if we wanted to (not).

So now the decision has been made.  The next phase involves tons of research, and the beginning of saving a whole lot of money.  Our journey continues.....

A Little Background

Path to the wood shed

 This blog is an active journal as my family and I embark on a journey to move to paradise.  Some people might say that we already live in paradise, but they love lots of snow and ski everyday.  We don't.  Don't get me wrong; we used to.  We live in a little dot on the map called Clark, Colorado, about 20 miles north of Steamboat Springs, CO, an area we affectionately call the "Clarctic Circle".  My wife, Jackie, has been here about 30 years, I have been here about 20, and our son, Keegan, who was born here.  Now a teenager. After so many years of 9 months (yes, NINE) out of the year of winter, we have all agreed it is time for a change.

 

Yes, that says 40 below.



The pictures on the left and below represent the two main reasons why we are ready for a change: snow and cold. 



No, we can't see out our windows.



  



I will be using this blog to document why we chose Hawaii, why we didn't choose somewhere else, and to basically try to keep track of the huge task that is ahead of us.  I welcome any comments that may be helpful or useful.