Yesterday Stachelbeere and I drove up to where Himbeere has been living the last almost a year because Himbeere had decided he wanted to move back into the area. He actually will be living with us for a bit while he finds work and gets enough income coming in that he can move into his own place. He has a friend lined up that he will room with but he needs to get working before he can do that. So anyway, he didn't have a lot of stuff that needed to be moved but there were a few things. Some of them pretty good sized. Like his rear-projection big screen TV that he found on eBay for free a while ago.
So they brought most of his little stuff down and threw it in the car and then brought the TV down. There was a lot of debate about whether or not it was going to fit. We really wanted it in the van so that it could have the smoothest ride. If it didn't fit in the van it would have had to go in the bed of his big truck, out in the elements and bouncing around on the trailer as we drove home. Not our first choice. So we brought it out to the van, set it by the van and stewed about it a bit and then shoved it in. It was tight but it did fit. Unfortunately, it took up so much space that none of the other stuff we wanted in the van with it would fit. Oh, well.
After we had the TV loaded Himbeere decided he wanted to tackle the next item, his F150 truck. This truck doesn't run. It's been parked for months. He had put a charger on it to see if the battery would hold a charge, and it did. But the truck still has clutch issues so even if fully charged he couldn't have driven it home. Himeere had borrowed a big trailer from a friend to haul the truck home on.
The challenge was getting this big truck, that didn't run enough to just drive it onto the trailer, up onto the trailer. Fortunately, the place he's been living at has a nice hill conveniently located where we could use it to help get the truck onto the trailer. So using a friend's truck, Himbeere pulled his truck out and up the hill above the trailer. Then he carefully lined it up to the trailer. That took a couple of tries and some jockeying around to get it just right.
Once they had it in position they unhooked the truck and a bunch of them shoved it up onto the trailer. Because of the hill that wasn't as bad, as much work as it sounds. It actually didn't need a whole lot of help, in fact, at one point the bunch of them were pulling back, trying to slow it down a little as it rolled up onto the trailer (yes, there was someone inside the truck steering it along the way).
After they got the truck on the trailer they secured it down good and then it was all ready to go. We threw the rest of his stuff on, some in the back of Himeere's SUV and some in the bed of the truck, up on the trailer. Fortunately it was a clear day, a little overcast but not raining or snowing. So the stuff in the truck bed wasn't exposed to any bad weather. He had four big items to move; his truck, a bed, a dresser, and a big, over-stuffed chair. Alas, we ran out of room before the chair made it on anywhere and it got left behind. Easy come, easy go. It hadn't cost him anything so he didn't seem to mind leaving it for the others that had been boarding in the same building he's been living in these several months.
The down side to moving was that, while the trailer had followed well and done just fine on the trip up, now that it was fully loaded and much heavier, when Himeere got out on the freeway with it he found that he had to keep it under 45 mph to keep the trailer under control. That was not good news. Even after we stopped and brought the tire pressure up to where it belonged for all the trailer tires he still wasn't able to go any faster. So the trip that had taken only three hours to get there took a little over five to get back. Between going slower and not wanting to be on the freeway (and therefore taking other roads) it was a long, long drive back. But we made it and the deed is done now. And the happiest part of the whole deal is that the truck that doesn't run isn't going to be littering my driveway. He has a friend that is letting him store it at his place while he decides what he's going to do with it.
I was looking through some of our older pictures the other day, from back before digital cameras. Yes, these were old fashion prints. I was scanning a bunch of these old prints so I could use them online. These were from a time when we found a big old frog hopping around outside our back door. 
We used to occasionally find frogs in the yard but this one was one of the bigger ones. It was evening and the little kids were pretty much ready for bed. I had gone outside for something and seen the frog so I brought it in to show the kids. I thought it would be interesting to see how they would react. The only one still up and around was our little girl, Maulbeere. She was just over two years old. 
Her reaction was interesting. She didn't seem afraid of the frog at all, but did need to work up a little courage to touch it. So her Mom held the frog and let Maulbeere get familiar with it. Then, after a few minutes her Mom offered to let her hold it. She was willing to do that. And then it was soooo cool - she was holding it. "Oooooh, look what I have!" 
