Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Now that we are in Moving Week, it is Non-stop Crazy Around Here

Now that we are in moving week, it’s non-stop crazy around here.  The least expensive way to move out of Alaska for us is by shipping container from Northland Services (see my previous post for details on who to contact etc).  The 20’ x 8’ x 8’ container is on wheels which puts it 4 ½ feet off the ground without an included pull out ramp.  The following picture is pretty accurate except for the fact that ours is on tractor trailer wheels off the ground about chest high. 


I was contemplating building my own ramp with excess lumber we have from projects over the past 14 years, but just on a lark I stopped buy Baileys Rent All on Old Seward Highway in Anchorage and sheepishly asked if they rented ramps and was surprised to find out they had one and it was available. 

I gave them my credit ward to hold it until the next day so I could figure out how to get a 14 foot ramp transported to Eagle River.  Today, I rented the largest pickup truck U-Haul had available and strapped the ramp down for the trip out the Glenn Highway to our home.  I worried all the way that the wind would somehow loosen the straps and the ramp would go flying into the busy traffic on the road.  At 55 mph and about a half hour later I was successfully pulling into our driveway. 

The next concern was how to attach the ramp to the opened container but with the help of my son and his good friend and to my great to my relief, it fit perfectly.  Safety chains hold it in place so no one will have come loose while wheeling boxes up into the hold. 

The pickup truck will come in handy as we need to take several loads to the landfill on Hiland Rd.  Currently, they even take old tires as part of the normal waste stream.   In addition, we have taken several loads of “hazardous waste” to the special handling facility.  They will accept 40 pound of hazardous waste per day without cost.  Our old wood left from years of projects is going to a local contractor, so we have found a place for all of our 14 years of accumulated stuff.

Most of our goods are already in boxes from weeks of preparation for moving day.  Tomorrow evening and the next morning our friends will gather to help us load and then clean.  If all goes perfectly, the container will be picked up on Thursday morning and we will sign for closing on the house on Friday morning, and then move into the RV for a few days until we hit the Alaska Highway on our way south. 

We are making serious progress toward our huge project finally being over, of course until we start unloading boxes in our new home near Boise sometime in Mid-August.