Baby, it's almost over

Ah, so sad...
I pulled up to the Medicine Lake parking lot today, this balmy day, and our little shanty town is no more. It looked bleak, despite the sun, despite the chick-a-dees and their pleniful mating calls. There were only 8 shanty's left standing, one was being dismantled as I walked across the slushy ice. Three are in David's charge, and his back is out, so, he's waiting to find people to help him.

It was nice being on the ice alone. It was so quiet, peaceful. I listened to Pam Kay's show "Stone Soup". I ripped open walls and freed the animals, only to stuff them into large garbage bags for their trip to their new homes. It was cathartic. It felt good to clean it all up. I felt like I was cleaning up 6 weeks of a wonderful experience to make room for something new.

Marlaine came later, and we packed it all up in under 3 hours. Then we had lunch at a Thai restaurant in Plymouth. My food was pretty blah, but with three different condiments, I was able to enjoy it. We made a trip to Sharing and Caring Hands, and delivered 11 huge bags of brand new stuffed toys for the kids. The woman who accepted them said the kids will really love them. I'm so glad these animals will be loved. I'm so glad that this little thing will make some kids who may not have much to look forward to happy. I'm SO GLAD to have lightened our load!

Then we went out for coffee, and Mar sent the rest of the animals off packing. Some to her sister Char, and she'll take those to Siberia this spring, giving them to an orphanage. The others went to foreign-adoption agencies in the states, one in Maryland and one in Atlanta, I think.

Any way, it's almost over.

I have some vintage hand made stuffed toys I"m going to try and sell on craigslist. I have two huge bags of animals that we deemed not good enough for donating. These will go to ARC. And I have a stack of mail that we received while residing on the ice. I want to scan all these and post them here, on our virtual "scrapbook".

On Saturday the big-burley men, our husbands, will take it all down, flat pack it on a snowmobile trailer and take it to Marlaine's backyard, which will be it's new home. It will become a greenhouse. Not a bad life for an Art Shanty.