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Archive for October, 2012

Forgot to Mention

October 7th, 2012 at 06:09 am

I cleaned out my purse and put all of the money that was left from the last payday into the coin jar. It was $25.63, plus one Canadian penny which went into my Canadian coin jar. I'll try to make a deposit into the CU on Monday. I have over $50 so it's time. I need to go to Trader Joe's anyway, so I can combine trips. This money is headed for the freezer fund.

Tomorrow I need to sit down and pay the bills from yesterday's paycheck. I have already written out the $1000 check to finish paying off DS's forward head posture treatment. It will be nice not to have that hanging over us anymore. I will pay that in person on Monday.

I talked to DH tonight and he has hit the $110,000 mark for the year, so that means that this was the last paycheck they will take Social Security tax out of for the rest of the year. That means an extra $700 take home pay per month until January. I will be so glad for the day when 2/3 of our take home pay isn't going to pay for new medical debt and old medical debt. Life is going to get very easy when that happens because we will be used to living on 1/3 of our income and can start to save like crazy.

Making a Duck Den On the Cheap

October 7th, 2012 at 12:44 am

When our ducks were little they went into the chicken coop right along with the chicks and hens, but as they got older they had difficulty climbing the ramp with their big webbed feet. Also, since the ducks didn't perch at night to sleep, once the chicks learned to perch the ducks ended up sleeping on the floor underneath them. Chickens poop a lot at night and this was not a happy or healthy situation for the poor ducks. They would either stay there or they would move into the nesting boxes, contamintating them.

Our first solution was to take an old desk and an old vanity cabinet from before the bathroom remodel, take off the doors, put hay in the bottom, herd the ducks into the desk half and then push the two together so that the openings were closed off.

Eventually they got too big for this and wanted more space so we expanded their den. We moved the desk to the right like so:



And the vanity went to the left like this:



We ran chicken wire along the back, stapling to one end of the desk and one end of the vanity.



We filled both the floors of the desk and the vanity with hay. Across the top of the vanity we placed one of the stripped down box springs salvaged from those awful ones that came with our mattress set and broke 3 days after the warranty was up.



At night we place the other box springs in front of the opening to the den.



We use bungy cords to hold the front box springs to the top box springs and the chicken wire to the top box springs. This seems to racoon proof it. I've seen racoon scat around it over the past two weeks but they haven't been able to get in and dine on our ducks.

We place sod and hay in the center section that is open the ground. The ducks love it and they love their new den, too.

In the winter we will use the thick cloth coverings that used to be on the box springs for extra warmth over the chicken wire. We will staple it into place and then remove it in the spring.

On the back side of the desk we cut a little hole and placed an old wire shelf over it. It is easily removable by us, but not the racoons, and we can reach in and get the eggs they lay before we let them out in the morning.



The whole contraption works perfectly for us, and we didn't have to pay out for new materials. We simply recycled what we had on hand, keeping it out of the landfill, and giving it a new purpose. It's not pretty, but it's more than functional and our ducks are delighted to have the extra space and an area open to the ground.

Grrr--Venting

October 7th, 2012 at 12:21 am

I really, really hate it when the blogs malfunction in such a way as that when you go to post your entry it tells you that their records show that you are already logged in as yourself. I'm like, no duh, and thanks for eating my entry. And then it says you're logged out, even though you just logged in before you sent in the entry, so you go to log back in and guess what? You're not logged out after all. Still, your entry has been eaten. I wish there was an autosave feature like on livejournal so you could just backtrack and get your entry back.

Can you guess what just happened to me? The first time in three weeks that I didn't copy paste because the blogs have been behaving themselves, too. Grrrr. Now off to recreate a post.

Making a Duck Den On the Cheap

October 7th, 2012 at 12:15 am

When our ducks were small they stayed in with the chickens at night, but as they grew it became harder and harder for those big webbed feet to walk up the little ramp into the chicken coop. Plus, they didn't perch at night, which meant sleeping underneath the chickens. And chickens poop a lot at night. It was obvious pretty quickly that in order to maintain a happy duck flock we'd have to do something different.

The immediate answer was that we had an old wooden student desk and an old bathroom vanity cabinet. We took those out into the poultry enclosure took off the cabinet covers and took out the drawers. In the base we put hay. At night the ducks would go into one of the open cabinet spaces and then we would push the vanity and the desk together, blocking any openings with the cabinet doors, a piece of plywood, and on old screen door.

Eventually this became too small for them as they hit maturity, so we decided to use the bad box springs we had gotten from our mattress purchase in January (they broke right after the warranty was up) to make the duck den more roomy. We opened up the desk and the vanity and turned them parallel to each other.

Looking right, the old desk:



Looking left, the old vanity from before the bathroom remodel:



Chicken wire runs along the back between the desk and the vanity. It is stapled on:



On top of the open space rests one of the srtipped down box springs:



Then at night we put the other stripped down box springs in the front opening.



We use bungy cords to hold the top box spring to the front box spring and the top box spring to the chicken wire at night, just in case of racoons. In the winter we will place a piece of plywood over the chicken wire in the back for more warmth.

Out of the back of the desk we cut a hole and then covered it with an old wire shelf. The shelf comes off and we can reach in to gather the eggs the ducks lay before we let them out in the morning.



The den is open to the ground in the center and the ducks love that. We put in strips of sod and hay. We've had this new contraption going for a couple of weeks now and they couldn't be happier with their expanded home. And I love that we recycled things on hand and didn't buy anything new to make it. And despite seening racoon scat nearby, they have not been able to get in and put our birds on the menu. Heaven help us if a racoon ever learns to work a bungy cord, though.

It's not pretty, but it works.

Extra Income

October 5th, 2012 at 10:49 pm

DH just called and it looks like he will have to work an extra week in November and an extra week in December. That will be approximately $8000 net income (possibly more depending on where they take stuff out at, could be as much as $8500, but I'm guesstimating on the low side). Actually, it might be more than that also based on when they stop taking out that one tax which usually hits some time towards the end of October. DH is going to run the numbers tonight in his withholding spreadsheet and get back to me with the real numbers.

There will be two more plane tickets he will have to buy, which will be about $650 each, and two extra hotel nights, at $100 each, so after that, we should have an extra $6000 at the least to work with that was not expected. That will be nice after having things be so tight with all these medical expenses. At least this means we don't have to come up with extra money for the four weeks off he would have normally had to take off at Christmas time. We can use that $6000 to get us through that and he will only have 3 weeks off with no pay at Christmas. God always seems to provide.

Of course he won't be coming home until Christmas Day, but oh, well. At least we'll be doing a little more than treading water. It has been such a tough year with all the unexpected medical bills. I am really looking forward to 2013 being a fresh start. It should be a good year for us. 13 is this family's lucky number. Like crazy lucky in ways we've never been able to explain. Here's hoping that continues.

Out of the Last Paycheck

October 5th, 2012 at 07:19 pm

I got a little lax about reporting the stuff I paid within the last few days and figured I should do that before writing up what is coming out of today's payday. This all came out of the last paycheck from two weeks ago. I did find out what the new monthly amount on the car insurance is now that the other car has been sold and we only have to deal with the van. It was a drop of about $26 a month.

$158.50 WMTC
__66.02 Electric old house
__59.89 Car insurance
__45.67 Old house insurance
_225.00 Medical
__39.53 DH Life insurance
__90.00 Physical therapy
__32.70 My Life insurance
_153.00 Storage
-----------
$870.31

I also saved out $500 for DS's medical which will combine with $500 out of the paycheck today to pay off the remaining $1000 owed for his forward head posture treatment, which will continue for a while, but thank goodness will be paid off. I really did not like the way it felt to have that looming over us. One more month and I can get back to using that $500 a month on debt repayment.

Electric out at the old house is way up because of the workmen using power tools and lights on the weekends and possibly hot water to wash up in. It amazes me that 8 days of use a month can make the bill jump by $45. And I will be so glad when we don't have to pay for storage anymore, but until the house sells and we can buy a new one, there it sits.

Oh, and I also got a bit of gas the other day, $20.53, at a station near home because I didn't want to drive across town to the Costco where it's cheaper. That should be enough to keep us good until DH is home on Wednesday and can fill up the tank and also run in to Costco proper and pick up toilet paper and vitamin D.

Preserving Prunes and Lady the Duck

October 5th, 2012 at 01:01 am

So far I have preserved a basket of Italian prunes. About half the basketful fits on one cookie sheet. I washed, pitted and halved them (no need to remove the skin) and arranged them like so:



They take about four hours to freeze solid and then you can bag them up. One cookie sheet filled two quart-sized baggies.



I tasted one to make sure I like them prepared this way. It's like eating a popsicle made out of prunes, so good. Better even than frozen blueberries or grapes. So far I have preserved 4 quarts. I think I may end up with about 8 quarts so I will need to be stingy with these throughout the winter, handing them out only when someone has a very sore throat, or the digestive issues the prunes are known for fixing. We have lots of frozen blueberries and raspberries as well as tons of jam, so I think piecing them out as needed is the best option. I really don't want to buy much in the way of fruit out of season so this will definitely help to extend what we have.

There are a bunch of windfalls on the ground, too, so I might make jam with them if there are enough. They will be well-cleaned and skinned since they are on the ground. I think I would make it a chunky jam with some good-sized pieces in it for the full effect of the fruit in this case.

DS got a hold of one of the ducks today.



This is Henry Inigo Montoya aka Lady Henry Inigo Montoya because she grew up to be a girl instead of a boy. Lady is the gentlest and friendliest of the ducks and best egg layer. She's a real sweetheart.

My First October Harvest

October 4th, 2012 at 12:20 am



Today's harvest, about 50 Italian prunes, 2 big tomatoes, a couple of little ones (including one green one that got knocked off the vine), a little cucumber that the plant died on (death by chicken), another handful of green beans, and my very first broccoli. I also got brave and cut some grown chard. I am going to saute it. It is generally treated as an ornamental around here, but it does so well I decided it was time to try cooking it myself. I have had baby chard in salads and I've eaten it in soups, but I've been ridiculous about eating it any other way.

I am going to freeze the Italian prunes. The nice lady at Throwback at Trapper Creek told me how she freezes hers and I will use that method. I just really don't feel like canning and this way I won't be adding any extra sugar.



This was part of my mother's corn harvest. She didn't take care of it at all, basically planted it and forgot it and since it didn't rain more than twice this summer, her lack of watering majorly stunted it. Yet it's a testament to her soil that it still produced some tasty kernals (we ate it for lunch) even if the ears were tiny. If it hadn't we would have just tossed it to the chickens.

This is my first year gardening in this climate since, oh, maybe 1989, other than fruit harvest, and while I gardened at the other house, we always had our first killing frost before October. The only things I ever saw there were pears and apples after September. The difference between a climate in the foothills of Mt. Baker and a maritime climate are quite wonderful to me.

I've definitely got some changes I will make next year if we are still living here, or ideas for whatever house we end up buying if we sell the old house and can buy before spring. It will be in this climate no matter where we buy, pretty much. Most of the houses on smaller lots in this town tend to have the best sun in their front yards. I have no issue with mixing vegetables in all the flowerbeds if that is my only way to do it. It is actually becoming quite common to see front yard gardens here these days. They are usually in raised beds, but they are there.

My biggest thing is to get the stuff into the ground sooner than June instead of letting it languish in pots, then putting it in the ground and hoping really hard. I knew better than this, but um...well, we all get lazy or sick or keep putting it off and these things happen. It just can't happen next year if I want to plant enough green beans for the year.

I also will have some diatomaceous earth on hand to deal with the slugs and I absolutely will not listen to my mother about using straw mulch. All that was in the rains of spring was perfect slug habitat and they decimated my cauliflower crop to the point that I didn't get to harvest any of it.

I need to keep my seeds in one location so that I am not frantically searching for them a month or two later when I am ready to plant them. I swear I lost my packets of green bean seeds no less than five times (bought more twice) and ended up planting starts instead, which is why I don't have any to preserve this year as they were close to sold out when I got the ones I have and so I only have had enough for about 2 meals a week.

So basically, the last week of April and the first week of May, I need to be organized, not get sick, and not get lazy. And also hope for a somewhat cooler, but still hot, July.

Medical Out and Other Rambles

October 2nd, 2012 at 01:39 am

I paid out $225 for medical today and forgot to get a receipt. I will get one tomorrow as I need it for the HSA. DS got his x-ray today and we will have the results tomorrow, so it's not an extra trip to get the receipt. If all goes as the doctor suspects his forward neck posture will have been corrected almost completely.

I also picked up two self-adhesive Ace-type bandages for my daughter at $3.99 each, plus tax. Lost my receipt to the wind and don't want to do the math, but approximatly $9 for that. It's not tax deductible anyway, so I don't need the receipt, but just like to keep things exact in my records. I'll do the math later.

I made a payment to AMEX online yesterday of $500.

I put $10.26 into the coin jar this week. I got a rebate check from my insurance company's safe driver thingy for $19.83. All of that will make it's way into the freezer fund.

The lady who works on my leg cancelled on me again today. She rescheduled for tomorrow. I really hope she can make it this time. It has been 3.5 weeks now and it is starting to affect the way I walk. I know she was hurt, but she has managed to see some patients, and I've been cancelled on four or five times now. I can't put off this treatment much longer. I will need to see someone else soon, or I'll be back to walking with a cane or worse, a walker. I really don't want to leave her, but loyalty only goes so far and I can't cripple myself over it.

I set up the October budget spreadsheet and have everything on track for the month.

Homeschooling is still going along pretty well, though I have had one or two days where I just wish I could bundle DS off to school and have someone else deal with him for seven hours. When DH comes home for his two weeks off shift I think I am going to just take a few hours and go to the library and sit in a chair and read and just be away. Or the park if it's not too cold. Somewhere free. I just need some serious "me" time. I'd go to Barnes and Noble, but they took out the couches and comfy chairs. It's no longer inviting. Did they do that in all of them or just our local ones?

I used to love to go to B&N and look through their cookbooks. I would buy one book, but with me a cookbook has to be thoroughly gone through for me to know I would make the recipes and being able to sit in a comfy chair and go through them carefully and gently until I found a good one. It was a nice ritual. I don't really buy books from them now that I can't do that. I won't just buy one and hope it'll have recipes I can use.

I'd like to find some animal husbandry books, particularly on rabbits, but I'm not going to buy anything I can't take the time to comfortably look through first and know it will meet my needs. Because of my leg I can't just stand there for a half an hour looking either. Take away the little things and you take away my desire to shop there, pure and simple.

Meal Planning

October 1st, 2012 at 07:43 pm

The pot roast did not go in at the right time yesterday so we ended up just eating leftover homemade pizza and leftover homemade chicken noodle soup. That bumps the pot roast to tonight.

Monday--
Pot roast
Baked potatoes
Green beans
Prunes

Tuesday--
Picnic ham
Kohlrabi
Drop biscuits with homemade jam of choice

Wednesday--
Baked potato soup
Cole slaw
Frozen berry smoothie

Thursday--
Chicken Stir-fry with lots of veggies
Pears

Friday--
Homemade pizza with homemade sausage, ham, bell peppers, onions, and pepperoni
Cole slaw

Saturday--
Pork chops
Fried potatoes
Green beans
Pear sauce

Sunday--
Leftovers (and if no leftovers, pancakes and ham)


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