Goodbye Fun House

The last month has been a blur.  I finished up one job, started another seasonal one, road-tripped to a wedding, built a chicken coop, got married, and moved my whole life.  Life is still far from organized and settled, and we have a HUGE job ahead of us as far as the unpacking goes. 

But the end of June brought an end to my 5-year relationship with the Fun House.  The Fun House was the name that my family gave to the house that I lived in for the last 5 years, 3 of which involved my sister and then Shawn.  Yes, it was a fun house.  We had many adventures there, and even though the house itself left much to be desired, the atmosphere and the awesome backyard were worth the occasional troubles that we faced. 

Here are some of the things that the Fun House taught me:
* Gardening is therapy.  I can't live without it.
* Chickens are sweet, and do a great job of taking care of weeds.
* Fruit trees are fun, even funner if you make booze from them.
* Native trees and shurbs=native birds galore!
* Hardwood floors are AMAZING.
* Yard work is a lot of work, but worth the effort.
* Plants grow to be very big.  Spiky plants grow too.  No more spiky plants.
* Not moving for 5 years means accumulating lots of junk.

Since the last month has been so hectic, I've had little to no time to think about the fact that I would be giving up the place I called home for 5 years.  This is actually the first time that I've spent more than 5 minutes examining my feelings about it.  Today, we drove by the place and there was a huge U-Haul out front and the new people were already moving in.  There was a moment where I felt violated and jealous and protective, but I think I'm ok.  Our new place is pretty great, and we're making it even greater each day, so that has helped my emotional transition.

Even though we had a month to move, there were still some things that I had to leave behind:
* 2 Sunchoke plants
* A shit-ton of chicken crap compost. (We took some, but not enough.)
* 4 potato plants
* The garden plot with Mabel's ashes

Thinking about these makes me the most sad.  But there were lots things that we made sure to take, many of them thanks to my dad who made a last heroic effort to save:
* The raspberry plants (with ripening raspberries!)
* The vine maple tree that is now happily resting in the shade at our new place.
* Some chicken crap compost
* The garlic I planted last fall
* Firewood
* A rhubarb plant

Heck, the Fun House has been a pivotal character in this whole story of my life that I call a blog.  I wonder how its absence will effect this?

Goodbye wild flowers, goodbye sunflowers.

Goodbye Mabel, goodbye apple tree, goodbye weird garden ornaments.

Goodbye ferns, goodbye chicken run, goodbye pear tree.

 So goodbye Fun House, may the next people enjoy you as much as we did.