Our weekend cleaning started off with a bang.  Of course, the object of this push is to get the house ready to put on the market this week.  On Friday, during 4H, my sister Rosalie had a free hour.  She whisked Patsy’s room into shape during that time!  Then, when Patsy got home from school, I went through the items Auntie had set aside and Patsy chose to keep or discard them.

Another 4H mom washed windows while waiting for her daughter to finish sewing, others swept and tidied. After they left, Ja’Ana and I washed down one of the bathrooms with TSP so it could dry by Saturday.  Then, I baked some desserts with Patsy. I also made a salad with the lentils and brown rice.

On Saturday morning, my sister showed up again.  She finished up Patsy’s room, helped Ja’Ana get hers the rest of the way done, and vacuumed and washed windows in all 3 girls’ rooms.  She then proceeded to clean their carpets, a job I wasn’t sure would get done yesterday.  My daughter Abbie had to work yesterday morning, but came and helped her auntie finish those jobs in the afternoon.

7 men and young adults showed up.  The pressure washed the house on the outside and the roof.  They mowed the huge lawn, cleaned the gutters, built a huge fire and burned a lot of trash, carried boxes and bins to the basement, touched up the basement paint from last weekend, touched up the paint in the downstairs bathroom (the one we washed), painted a stair railing, changed lightbulbs in high places on ladders, and worked on the shop.

I set Ja’Ana to making another salad, because they ate the other one up.  This time, she used some cooked quinoa, a can of beans, the rest of the brown rice (the lentils were gone), and the rest of the ingredients it called for.

We served turkey, salad, a pan of pinto beans I had cooked with peppers with cheese to sprinkle on top, desserts, soda from 2 litre bottles, and carrots and celery with dip.  There is still turkey left for today, but the rest is history.

A friend came and took the last little pig away.  He was going to keep it with his pigs and raise it a little more, but his pigs were not pleased to see it and were cruel to it, as pigs often are.  So, with Rob’s permission, he sold it to a farmer he knew and brought Rob the money.  At this point, we just needed it gone.  The other pigs are sold, and ours will be ready to pick up soon from the butcher.

Rob did get a little bit done in the shop, but most of the work was outside.   He had quite a few rocks he had collected over time, and was able to share them with a couple of the young men who had an interest in having them–so lots of rocks were hauled away as well. One of the young men has an interest in dahlias, so we let him dig up the bulbs from the flowerbeds.

My aunt came to get Ja’Ana and brought 2 orchids and a pot of basil. She gave them to me so that we wouldn’t have to constantly get fresh flowers for the mantle–orchids will last. The basis is for the kitchen.  As was suggested by a reader comment, my daughter is bringing some limes and lemons over today to put in a bowl.

Today, we are the service project of a small church.  We hope that the weather will enable them to spread bark dust and that the rest of the house will be finished.  We have a few other family and friends coming over as well, especially this afternoon.  We are so grateful for all the help we have received from everyone.  Although Rob and I have been working for over 2 months, every day we can, we would never have finished so soon without all of this help.  It has been a blessing to us.