<< Back to all Blogs
Login or Create your own free blog
Layout:
Home > Happy New Year

Happy New Year

January 1st, 2017 at 11:16 am

It is now legal to catch catfish with a pitchfork in Illinois. Anyone from Illinois care to explain your state to me? I hope everyone has a good year. I sure could use one. I would like wealth, health, and happiness from 2017. Or you know, just a good job for DH with medical benefits.

My normal ability to look on the bright side and find the silver lining has waned an awful lot this past year. Let me think of what I could come up with to be optimistic about. Hmm...well, the ducks are laying eggs again. There are 11 healthy kits in the rabbit shed. I have gotten amazingly good at knitting socks on the loom. We are still out of consumer debt. The garden is still going under the low tunnels despite several snow falls. And I have a freezer full of meat and shelves full of home canned food so we are still good on that count. We have a house over our heads. We still have over $40K in our savings account.

Hopefully we will have some bigger things to be optimistic about soon. They've started putting up more oil job listings. Some of them are slope jobs which would be ideal as that is what we are used to and my grocery budget could go back to normal. The moment DH has an income again we are going to get him enrolled in a University that will let him do everything online, so he can get his B.S. in Electrical Engineering. Right now he has an A.S. in that and a certificate in Architecture for a two year program he did in the tech school right before they turned into a college and started issuing A.S.'s instead of certificates.

We may start him doing it anyway even if he hasn't found a job by the time the unemployment runs out. So much stuff says B.S. or equal on the job experience, but they'll often choose the guy with the B.S. first even if he has no experience. DH has learned so much on his job he could have a masters degree in it, but without that piece of paper, unless they have worked with him before, he is at a disadvantage.

DH is also thinking that if he purchased the online subscription to Auto Cad that he could pick up some freelance work.

The book is coming along. I have set a goal and that is to write at least 1000 words a day on it. Since I've written 15,000 words a week when I have my groove on, I think a mere 7000 is a good goal that won't have me feeling overwhelmed in case my muse leaves the building.

We'll be dipping into the farm down payment fund. We have officially spent all but $1000 of the Emergency Fund.

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments »

13 Responses to “Happy New Year”

  1. CB in the City Says:
    January 1st, 2017 at 11:40 am 1483270828
    1483270828

    I don't know anything about this law. I assume this must be a downstate thing. Smile Can I explain my state? No.

    Hoping your DH finds employment soon. I hear you on the BS. I begged my son to just finish college (he was 6 credits short). Now he is finally seeing why it was important. Too late.

  2. creditcardfree Says:
    January 1st, 2017 at 01:44 pm 1483278270
    1483278270

    Praying for a job for your husband. Isn't AutoCad really expensive? Make sure your computer can handle the specs of AutoCad too. Does he have contacts in place that would pay for the freelance or would that be a building up process to find clients? I think it is a great idea if he can get it to take off.

  3. fern Says:
    January 1st, 2017 at 02:37 pm 1483281479
    1483281479

    I agree that the degree is highly desirable. I noticed the same thing with the bank I used to work for, and other places, where they would hire people with a masters degree who were absolutely awful at the job. But the degree paved the way and opened doors. I believe they are looking at potential for the long term, not just existing skill set.

  4. Laura S. Says:
    January 1st, 2017 at 02:52 pm 1483282348
    1483282348

    I hope your husband finds work he enjoys and that will provide the income you need soon. I think the plan to get the B.S. is a good one. As much as it shouldn't matter given his experience, it does.

  5. LuckyRobin Says:
    January 1st, 2017 at 06:28 pm 1483295314
    1483295314

    CB--Yeah, I can't explain my state either!

  6. LuckyRobin Says:
    January 1st, 2017 at 06:34 pm 1483295682
    1483295682

    CCF--If you buy the program outright, yes, it's around $5000. He would be getting the online subscription, which if you want to work in 3-D is $140 a month or if you want to work in 2-D is around $49 a month. DH works in 2-D so it wouldn't be too much of a hit. There are freelance bulletin boards where they post AutoCAD jobs. You basically pick one, enter into a contract, and do the work. He does have some contacts. They have a free month trial so he is going to make sure it works on his computer with that before committing to the subscription. It is a space hog, so he might have to delete a bunch of his Steam games for it to work right, but it should.

  7. LuckyRobin Says:
    January 1st, 2017 at 06:38 pm 1483295911
    1483295911

    Fern, yes, they are looking for potential over experience. But there are some things about his type of job that you will never learn in school and in the past whenever they have hired someone just for the higher degree, but with little experience, there is a much steeper learning curve and most of them don't last because they don't have the flexibility to think adaptively on the job. It's more a mentality of, "That's not how I learned it in school." And they get stuck in it. Very different when you work your way up and learn the systems inside and out.

  8. LuckyRobin Says:
    January 1st, 2017 at 06:39 pm 1483295964
    1483295964

    Laura S.--Thank you. Me, too.

  9. rob62521 Says:
    January 1st, 2017 at 08:22 pm 1483302132
    1483302132

    Hey, CB, don't blame downstate for that stupid law! I'm downstate and it was news to me. Seems like our so called legislators are wasting time on stupid things like this instead of getting a budget. Lucky Robin, I can't explain it. Of course we have three former governors who have been imprisoned, with one still there trying to get his sentence reduced, we haven't had a state budget, we are losing population each and every day, and our state isn't business friendly. So of course it makes "perfect" sense to use a pitchfork to catch catfish. Sheesh!

    Sure hope things improve on the job front for your husband. It sounds like you have done a great job keeping food in the pantry as well as on the table.

  10. CB in the City Says:
    January 1st, 2017 at 10:08 pm 1483308498
    1483308498

    Sorry, Rob, just kidding about the downstate thing, you know how we Chicagoans like to knock downstate! 'Cause we're perfect, of course. Smile

  11. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    January 2nd, 2017 at 12:48 am 1483318129
    1483318129

    LR - I really hope your DH finds something soon.

  12. livingalmostlarge Says:
    January 3rd, 2017 at 05:14 pm 1483463648
    1483463648

    good luck on 2017 and finding a job. I think the same thing that the degree matters. At least that's what other friends have said even if it's not even in what you are doing. They want a bachelor's. Lot of my friends fell into weird jobs but they needed at least a BS in something to get it. Like banking or finance, or hr or anything. Crazy how it's just "needed" nowadays.

  13. Thrifty Ray Says:
    January 8th, 2017 at 04:46 am 1483850774
    1483850774

    I hope 2017 is good to you and your family. Things up north are still questionable. I hope all works out for DH's job hunt!

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]