We have been unpacking boxes at a hectic pace.  Kay is much more organized and systematic, taking her time and finding places for things while I am unpacking and consolidating in rooms.  And it should be the other way around as I am a firm believer in “moving things only once.”  As packing paper, bubble wrap, and empty boxes mount, we accumulate a load and then take the paper and boxes to the recycling center.  In the period covered by this entry, we made 5 trips!
On May 4-6, we traveled to Five Lakes Outing Club near Hughes, Arkansas, as guests of Ed and Linda Richmond for what has become an annual reunion of participants of the Quetico Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, smallmouth fishing trip.  In addition to Kay and me, John and Sandy Simank and Dave and Joann Teffetellar were guests.  We had a super good time, enjoying friends, fishing, and fabulous food.  Of all the years we’ve attended this gathering, this one may have been my favorite.
Being close to Memphis, we arranged to visit with Jenny, Brian, and Harper, never wanting to miss an opportunity to spend time with our grandkids.  After an early dinner, we met at Shelby Farms and enjoyed watching Harper play at one of the very nice playgrounds.  Despite being a little under the weather, she was quite gregarious, and going “ninety miles an hour.”



Back at home, we continued unpacking for a couple of days, and then spent Saturday and Sunday morning in Maumelle, babysitting Ridge and Acker while their parents enjoyed a night out.  Ridge and I played lots of games, and spent some time doing chalk art on the driveway (he directed, I did the drawing).  He really likes trains, and we created a long train with lots of cars.  Acker is beginning to develop her little personality, and we enticed several grins from her.  Plans were to go to the Clinton Presidential Library for Mother’s Day lunch for Kay, but she developed a severe stomach disorder, and we left fairly early Sunday morning to return home.


Finally, back home again, well, and recuperated, we essentially completed unpacking.  Several things are “missing” and we obviously either misplaced them or didn’t bring them with us.  But, things are coming together, and it’s beginning to look more like a home than an house.  As for the house, the irrigation system was installed this past week, and the propane has been turned on.  Hopefully, next week will see completion as the generator will be activated and the the dock and walkway constructed.  One of the most frustrating things we did the last few days was hang a large mirror in the great room.  Though we measured twice, the wall anchors were slightly off, and removing them left significant holes in the wall.  The patching, sanding, smoothing, and painting took 4 days, but the error was undetectable, and using different hangers, the mirror got hung.  We have been spending money like crazy furnishing and decorating the house, but still “need” a few more rugs, wall hangings, and pieces of furniture.  Today, Saturday, we drove to Hot Springs to purchase a few small items and new tires for the Honda.  Among the items purchases were bird feeder hangers made to fit our wrought iron deck railing.  We installed those, Kay made hummingbird nectar water, and we hung hummingbird feeders, and were rewarded within a few minutes with our first hummingbird.  Life is good.

At the time it seemed like a good idea, i.e. selling everything and starting over.

A combination of circumstances set us to thinking that perhaps living in Norfork, Arkansas, wasn’t such a good idea.  First, several weather extremes in a short period of time—an ice storm and two unprecedented floods on the river—revealed just how vulnerable we were in terms of security, reliability of electrical power, and ingress and egress.  Next, commercial development entered our little piece of heaven, forever disrupting the privacy our subdivision was supposed to allow.  And then, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission began tinkering with the river, changing it from a world class wading river to a more readily navigable waterway via channelization.  Cancer struck in 2010, and the isolation was conspicuous as few friends or family visited or assisted; of course, we did not seek help, but expected otherwise as we, especially Kay, had done so much for so many of our “friends”.  Perhaps that was the last straw, because after that, my desire to live there, and concern for Kay’s isolation in the event something happened to me, stirred significant feelings of discontent.  And, my brother’s death in late 2011 gave rise to a sense of urgency for “living” never before experienced.

Each year, as we traveled to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas for winter, we would extol the virtues of moving to and living in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas, where Kay has many friends, the golf is great, and many small lakes provide almost unlimited warmwater fishing opportunities, and it is closer to two of our three kids.  And then, when we arrived back to our house and 4 acres in Norfork in the spring, we would take a deep breath and recognize how blessed we were with our little piece of heaven on earth.  In fact, on our return trip in 2013, we made a conscious decision to remain in Norfork the remainder of our useful lives, bought new furniture, and made further “improvements” to the property.  But, the urge to resettle did not go away, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission continued “tinkering” with the Norfork River, and just a few short months later, on our trip to the Rio Grande Valley in early November, we made what seemed like our 4th decision to put the Norfork house on the market.  Through the winter, our desire to relocate became even stronger, and we did indeed put the house on the market when we returned in the Spring of 2014.  Not only did we sell the house and extra lot, we sold furniture, furnishings, and the lake pontoon boat, keeping only our clothes and a few personal things.  And then, unable to find an already built house that suited us, we contracted to have a house built while we were in Texas for the winter. 

 We packed our few remaining belongings, moved them to storage in Hot Springs Village, and left for the Rio Grande Valley,

After a long, cool, wet winter in the Rio Grande Valley (13 days of full sunshine), we arrived back in Hot Springs Village in mid-March, awaiting completion of the new house. And, the rest of the story will follow in future blog entries.