Boxes. They are everywhere in our house. Post-it notes mark the final deistination; ship, store and ’boutique’ (the donation spot at our offices).
On Saturday Tim finished packing our crate and screwed it shut hours before he flew to Australia and on to the Solomon Islands. He built the crate in our second garage (an extra garage in our backyard) and placed it on a small trailer we have. He intended to pull it the 2 miles to our center before he left. But we found out that a truck could come pick up the crate if we could find a way to get the crate on the truck.
Last week we were driving home and noticed inside our neighbor’s yard, what looked to be a forklift. Next time I saw the neighbor, I asked about it. Sure enough it is forklift and he was happy to help us out. He said, ‘I have no idea why I brought the forklift home from the shop.’ I think I know why…
The cut off for this shipment was May 1st so today I scheduled the truck to come. Some colleagues wanted some boxes shipped too, so this became the shipment that grew and grew. Aaron and his two kids brought their boxes to our house and helped me finish up my last packing. I made a last minute trip to Lowes and Walmart just this morning for a few last hard-to-find-in-the-Solomons items.
We stacked up the boxes and cargo by sending family unit and measured the piles. The cost of the shipment is based on cubic space so we will have to sort all that out later. The truck came, the forklift rolled out of the neighbors and we filled the truck. First the boxes went in and last of all the crate. It had to be taken out of the second garage, through the first garage and out to the street where it was loaded in the truck. There was a bit of sweating, but in the end, the job was done! Yeah.
The next stop was the shipping office where the boxes and other cargo was put on pallets and covered in black plastic. We then marked all the pallets with the destination address. From here the cargo will be trucked to Houston where the shipper will put it with other cargo headed to the west coast by train or truck.
From the west coast of the USA it will ship to Singapore. It will then be put on a ship headed to the Pacific and we will see when it arrives in the Solomons. The shipping office is predicting an arrival of June 26th. We think that is doubtful, but time will tell.
Now the ‘to ship’ piles have gone, we are mostly down to things that we will store or take with us in our suitcases. The house is looking more empty as we push toward our time of departure.
