I'm moving house on Thursday (frantic packing even now, but just about bedtime here in Europe), and was wondering how you guys approach it. We decided to get removal men in to do it, but before I did it myself + truck, sometimes with help from friends. Must be getting old, because the cost per unit backache ratio seems much more manageable now!

We've bought an old farmhouse with an 11 acre field and large stone barn about three times the size of the house. The property comes with a free horse! Converting the barn to housing is a popular option and one we might do in future, sell up & retire. Any of you guys ever done anything like this?

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'79 280SE
'87 560SEL
'83 280CE
'01 Nissan Micra
'98 VW Passat
'83 911 turbo

Move lock, stock, and barrel? Hey dude, you're talking to Americans. Its our national hobby. The longest I've ever lived in the same house and town is right now: 10 years. I'm looking forward to a child's graduation ceremony and then I'm shaking the dust off my sandals and selling this hosue to some sucker lucky buyer.

Wife and I are thinking about taking early retirement and applying for jobs teaching overseas in DoD high schools. Both of us attended them as kids and we think it would be fun to live overseas again.

Once we moved and unpacked a box labeled "Kitchenware" with kitchen trash and garbage wrapped in a plastic bag. Not present were the expected cookware, mixing bowls, dish clothes, etc.

Moving. It sucks.

B

That sounds like it could be fun (teaching), especially if you find a nice country (beach, tennis, golf - GOLF, who said that?). Are DoD schools free of discipline problems then - I take it we are talking about adults rather than children here? The reason I mention it is that my sibs are teachers and the main beef they have is with rowdy, unpleasant & disruptive kids spoiling it for the teacher and the other pupils.

re the house moving, at one point in my student days I had moved 14 times in ten years. My record now is eight years in one place.

..must get back to the cardboard boxes..where does all this parasitic junk come from?

__________________
'79 280SE
'87 560SEL
'83 280CE
'01 Nissan Micra
'98 VW Passat
'83 911 turbo

Well, I blush to tell you how long ago it was that I was in grade school, so my memories are practically unconnected with the present day. I was living as a dependent on military bases during the 1950's and 1960's, if that helps.

In my olden days, the dependent misbehavior on base was the responsibility of the service member. So if a kid screwed-up, the military parent could get called on the carpet by his C.O. That tends to put a damper on a lot of misbehavior. Also, family members had no expectation of privacy. That means constitutional protections afforded families in civilian life were not extended to folks behind the wire.

And there are some things that civilians never understood. I don't know if its still the case but a dramatic thing used to happen at 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM at every base I lived on as a kid. I'm curious how many of you know what that is (or was). In one of my first conversations, my wife and I both clicked on that as a shared moment, though we hadn't met.

But you sure make friends fast in school. Everybody is a transient. Two, maybe three years at a duty station then off you go. Military dependent schools were racially integrated long before civilian schools. There was more separation by Daddy's rank than by pigmentation. In the imperfect lense of childhood memory, I never recall racial problems in school. The military was integrated early in the '50's, I think. So I was in school after integration had already occured.

Military men (back then, there were almost no women) especially enlisted, tended to marry outside of racial groups at a much higher rate than civilians. Consequently there was a large population of mixed-race children. Becuase of frequent moves, there would be a variety of accents and second languages, too.

My wife grew-up in an Air Force family (her dad was an E-10 at retirement, worked on Minuteman guidance systems in SAC) and my dad retired O-5 Navy. The shared background made becoming friends and lovers and wedded pretty smooth.

B

PS "Parasitic junk". Ever seen the movie, "Brasil"? That junk envelopes and cocoons the unwary.

Howdy All,
I didn't go to the same school 2 years in a row until high school. And I think we lived in 3 different places during my 3 high scool years. Been here in the desert for over 20 years.

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Frank X. Morris
17 Kia Niro
08 Jeep Wrangler 4 door unlimited

I've called 23 places home.

Been at this one for 10 years

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...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

And the answer is?????

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Enough about me, how are you doing?

Revielle (or call to quarters?) and retreat tape recorded bugle blasted like an air raid siren over the whole base. While the music is played the flag is run up or brought down. Everybody stands still at attention and faces a flag. In civies you put right hand over heart. In uniform, hold a salute during the call. Cars stop. Everything stops. When the music stops, all activity resumes.

When you grow up in it, it doesn't seem strange. But golly Sgt Carter, surprise, surprise, surprise!

B

Here in Texas we just hitch the old house up to a big truck and haul that ***** off.

I helped a friend move yesterday. The woman packs, the guys drink beer and cart stuff to the truck. Then the woman gets in the truck and gives directions about how to arrange stuff. She then proceeds to ask why so many fragile boxes are stacked on top of each other which is when we point out that three quarters of the boxes are marked fragile.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

Gawd, Botnst is so f@*king old, it's unbelievable!

Five years in the same place is my current record. Currently we're right at three years out here in the country, but I think we'll be moving back into Olympia so our kids can attend a school district that's capable of passing a school levy once in a while--ours just failed for the second time in a row.

Well, I made it, but my back didn't. It wasn't lugging boxes, it was chopping wood for the G****m fire with an outsize axe! The place has an old coal+wood powered cooker/heating system..dunno, but it might have to go.

We arrived to find a bull in the garden eating the flowerbeds. I took a chance and scared it off, luckily it ran. First job: repair that field fencing.

The barn has swallows, very cute but the little f*****s are crapping over my W116, I guess I'll have to live with that.

I can see us here for some time, depending on what th ehousing market does..been growing at >15% pa last two-three years, just crazy. It means that any young people are screwed if they want a reasonable home..any of you guys know why this has happened? - it seems really undesirable, for some people at least.

__________________
'79 280SE
'87 560SEL
'83 280CE
'01 Nissan Micra
'98 VW Passat
'83 911 turbo