Lucky Robin's Personal Finance Blog

Yesterday I decided to give Swagbucks a whirl again. It has been several months since I've bothered. My only real goal with it is to earn at least 100 points a day, so I can earn $25 a month. I quit when they were having problems with the toolbar and malware, but so far so good.

I haven't gotten any surveys from Pinecone in two weeks, which is weird, because generally I get at least one a week from them, plus a couple of screeners, and there before Christmas I was getting 2 a week for a couple weeks.

I am waiting for some things to credit to ACOP and then I should be able to cash out for $10. I like ACOP, but they take forever to process stuff. It takes a minimum of 2 weeks (usually longer) for a survey to be credited to the account and then you can only cash out when you've earned $10 or more and then that takes 2 to 4 weeks to process. It does come eventually, but I have no clue why they have to take forever. This stuff should be automated.

I miss some of the older survey companies that have gone out of business, but were always reliable. Or that changed their methods so they aren't as lucrative. Oh, well. At least there are still a few.

It was 50 degrees out today. That's practically tropical for this time of year. While the sky was pretty overcast, there were patches of blue and the sun peaked through from time to time and other times was backlighting the clouds in a gorgeous fashion. It is nice to have a break from all the dripping.

I didn't make it through my planned ten days without spending money. I bought a jacket today. I was able to get it today only at 50% off both the jacket and the shipping. I've been needing a new coat. I have my parka for the really cold days, but it is too hot to wear if it is over 40 degrees. But 40 is too cold for just a sweatshirt. It is also waterproof, which is a necessity here.

My other lighter weight jacket I use when I take care of the animals, and it is a good coat for this type of weather, but it smells like barn, plus it has gotten a bit ripped up by the rabbit claws. I don't like walking around smelling like barn in public!

It is a really pretty shade of blue and it will go very well with the new purse I got for Christmas. They are both a pretty jewel tone. I love jewel tones. The deep colors look good on me. I'm not one who can wear pastels or browns, oranges, or yellows. But the deep colors of blue, green, red, burgundy, and purple and the brights like teal, lime, turquoise, hot pink, and magenta, I can do very well. So I am happy to find a coat in a good color for me.

The diet is coming along. I have lost 6 pounds so far. I had a bit of bad day a few days ago and ate some fudge my son had made. By some I mean 4 pieces. It is gone now. I made the kids eat it and take it to school. So that made my loss stand still for a couple days. If it is not in the house I won't eat it. I shouldn't have let him make it in the first place. I need to be much more further along before I can resist things like that. I'm not against a treat now and then, but I need to stay away from chocolate.

I am glad that payday will be here on Friday. It has been a long, long time since the last one. But we made it through without having to touch the EF, which is wonderful. I feel very positive about our finances right now. I hope that feeling stays with me for a long time.

Enchilada Sauce

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons chili powder
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon garlic powder
3 cups water
1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce

Instructions:

1. Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl.

2. Add water to dry mix 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring constantly until a paste is formed

3. Scoop the paste into a sauce pot and, using a whisk, add remaining water.

4. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened.

5. Add tomato sauce, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Makes 4 cups

For enchiladas you will need:

4 cups of cooked rabbit (or chicken) meat
1/2 a batch of enchilada sauce
Cheddar or Mexican blend cheese
Tortillas (10 inch)

Put a thin layer of enchilada sauce down on the bottom of a glass baking pan.

Lay out a tortilla on a dinner plate. Add 1/8 of the rabbit or chicken meat starting at one end and stopping 2 inches from the other end of the tortilla.

Spoon some enchilada sauce over the meat. Not too much or it will make the tortilla get wet.

Add cheese. Roll over once and then fold empty two inch end towards center of tortilla. Continue to roll up enchilada and place seam side down in baking pan.

Continue until you have finished rolling 7 to 8 enchiladas or whatever will fit in your baking pan.

Pour enchilada sauce over top of enchiladas.

Sprinkle cheese on top, as much or as little as you want. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Serve.

If you would like to see the recipe with photos accompanying each step it is on my other blog here:

Monday:
New York steak
Green beans
Salad with bell peppers

Tuesday:
Roasted garlic chicken
Baked potatoes
Broccoli
Cole slaw with bell peppers

Wednesday:
Homemade pizza
Cole slaw

Thursday:
Enchiladas
Cole slaw

Friday:
Fried Rabbit
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Salad
Green beans

Saturday:
Beef Stew
Cole slaw
Corn

Sunday:
Pork chops
Fried Potatoes
Cole slaw
Green beans

I've lost 5 pounds so far on my diet. That's exciting. My diet bet started today. I've got all my breakfasts and lunches prepared for 4 days. It made a nice difference with not having to think about what to eat.

Email notifications for comments started working again today. I got 54! I'm pretty sure that's a good six week's worth all at once. Yikes. Hmm, I wonder if that means the side bar editing is working again, too? There is some obsolete stuff there I've been trying to take off for ages, like links to sites that no longer exist. I wonder if the ability to add photos the SA way instead of having to set up a photobucket image url has been fixed yet?

Since there were some really great ideas posted last month when I asked about go to meals, I thought I'd ask for crockpot meals this month. I am trying to increase my repertoire of these easy to make meals.

My favorite is pulled pork made with a pork butt roast, a jar of arrabiata sauce (from Trader Joe's), 4 oz can of green chiles, and a pint of canned tomatoes, drained. Cook on low for 8 hours.

So what is your favorite? It'd be great to see some that don't rely on cream of something soup or dry onion soup mix, but go ahead and post those, too, if that's your favorite.

Today is the weekly $10 deposit to savings. usually it is on Thursday, but because of the holiday it didn't transfer until today. I added it to the Emergency Fund.

$11,027.70 Beginning Balance
+____10.00 Amount Added
--------------------
$11,037.70 New Balance

Although my dietbet doesn't officially start until the 3rd, I had my starting weight approved yesterday and started eating properly and drinking extra water yesterday as well. This morning I had lost 2 pounds. So I am off to a good start.

I wanted to end the old year on a good note with a healthy day of eating and I wanted to start the new year off with it as well. It would have been easy to tell myself that I could eat whatever until the official start date, but that could have led to a lot of junk food bingeing and who wants that?

It's kind of like when you are trying to get out of debt and you see this big hill in front of you that you have to climb. You might be tempted to put off starting for a few days, get in a last hurrah of spending before you settled down and put your nose to the grindstone of paying off what you owe, but why? Why make it worse for the psychological thrill of buying a few more "extras" when you can start to get your life back today. No need to make the hill higher or the hole deeper or whatever metaphor you like. Once the mind is made up, it is better to just let the body follow.

$11,020.00 Beginning Balance
+_____7.70 Interest
--------------
$11,027.70 New Balance

This is the interest of $7.22 from C1-360 and $0.48 from CU#2.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I decided to sign up for dietbet. I did a $30 one. I figured maybe if I had some monetary skin in the game it would make it more likely to hang in there during the hardest part, the first month. Once I get my groove on, I generally do pretty well, and with having been off soda for probably a year now, this time I'll be doing it without my biggest temptation.

I am using survey money. Anything I win will go towards the DRIP thing I'll be starting up. The initial investment will go back into Dietbet for the next round. I want to lose 15 pounds this month, but I'd be happy with just making progress.

I have gained back all of the weight I lost before, plus another 15 pounds. And it is making life difficult. This time I need to make the changes permanent. I really hope I'm finally ready to do that.

In other news we lost Lemon today. She had hurt herself a few days ago and while we had been treating her injuries, she just couldn't recover. She died this afternoon. That brings our duck flock down to 4 females and one male. It is sad, but it doesn't hurt as bad as it did when Sienna died. Ducks are not affectionate by nature, and while they make me happy with their antics, they are not something I have cuddled with. It puts more space between me and the loss.

Aside from the auto deductions and the AMEX bill, which have money set aside for them, I am hoping for a no spend week starting tomorrow and going through next Tuesday. We have plenty of food, milk, and medication and toiletries in the house and no reason to spend any money on anything, so this week should be a breeze to get through. I won't have physical therapy again for 8 days, which I will have to pay, or I'd be trying to go no spend until January 9th, which is our next payday.

Today we spent $75 on rabbit feed and oats and I spent $90 on physical therapy.

The kids start back to school on Monday and normally I would buy lunch meat, but I am just going to make an extra pizza on Sunday and then they can take that for lunches. They both like cold pizza over sandwiches anyway and since I make it with lots of onions and peppers it is reasonably well balanced.

My husband taught my FIL and my mom how to butcher rabbits so they could help do it and DH could keep his injured finger out of them, so on Monday they butchered 10. These ones were a few weeks older than our norm, so it'll be close to 35 pounds of meat and about 2.5 pounds of livers. I will be working on cutting it all up tomorrow for grinding. We should get about 35 pounds of burger after the bones are taken out.

Then I will boil up the bones, pick off the remaining meat, and can the stock. I might even make up some ready made soups to can with the meat from the bones, although generally I save that for making enchiladas.

I am about ready to start cooking again, even though I'm not over this illness. My brain is starting to unfog, which is good. And since DH just left for Alaska and won't be able to help, I am glad I feel like I am capable to start at least making dinners again.

Monday:
Rabbit stew
Fresh bread
Cole slaw

Tuesday:
Chicken stir-fry
Rice

Wednesday:
Fried rabbit
Fried potatoes
Green beans

Thursday:
Roasted chicken
Baked potatoes
Broccoli

Friday:
Homemade pizza (onions, peppers, pepperoni, prosciutto)
Cole slaw

Saturday:
Sloppy Hoppies
Cole slaw

Sunday:
Meatloaf made with ground rabbit and duck eggs
Mashed potatoes
Green beans

Recently DH and I made the decision to make a small investment in new dishes. We don't have a lot of plates and bowls anymore. The kids have broken a lot of our old set over the last few years and since it has been discontinued, it is almost impossible to find. In pricing new dishes of any quality (not china, but not melamine, either), I found them to be about $7 to $8 a plate.

So instead I went on ebay to look and see what they had in the way of old dishes in good condition and I found they had some that matched the stuff my grandmother had when I was a little kid. We were able to buy 13 plates, 10 of which were in mint condition for less than we would have paid for new, and they are all usable. The small chips in the 3 plates are fixable, though I would still like to get 2 more plates that are in mint condition.

Last night I found 12 matching bowls, so we will be getting those next. They have the same pattern on the outer rim, but the picture on the bottom of the bowl is different from the one on the bottom of the plate. They complement each other nicely.

They do have matching tumblers, but they are more expensive so I don't think we will be getting those now, but it is something to keep my eye on.

These dishes make me so happy and remind me of all the time I spent with my grandmother. And the whole family really likes them, too. The best part is they are dishwasher safe because of how they were glazed. The design won't wear off like with some of the older china.

$11,010.00 Beginning Balance
+____10.00 Weekly Deposit
----------------
$11,020.00 New Balance

Potato peeler: 5
DH: 0

We spent a couple of hours in the emergency room today. DH managed to peel a chunk of flesh off his finger when he was peeling potatoes and we couldn't get the bleeding to stop. It wasn't the sort of injury they could stitch up, either. It took a long time get it to stop and even now it's still leaking a bit.

We got to spend a couple hours alone together. It was much more restful at the ER than at the in-laws house. SIL and her daughters were fighting as usual and it was particularly obnoxious, so it was nice to be able to get away from that for a while, even if it wasn't good circumstances. The ER was deserted so we got taken right back.

They did numb it for him and put on a vasoconstrictor (sp?) gel that helped constrict the blood vessels. Cautery would have been the best thing for it, but I guess they don't do that anymore. It's going to leave a dime-sized scar anyway. They also gave him a tetanus shot because it has been a long time since he had one.

If this had to happen, I'm glad it did before the deductible resets in January. ER visits are usually a few hundred dollars. We only saw a nurse and PA, though, no doctor, so that should help with costs.

I'm not sure how we're going to get the rabbits butchered now. I knew DH putting it off this long was going to come back and bite him in the butt. Hopefully we can get someone to come help.

I hope everyone else had a less eventful Christmas. Now my wish for the new year is to have far less crazy!

I made the most I have ever made on farm sales in a month this month.

$67.50 rabbit meat sales
+39.00 egg sales
+20.00 live rabbit sales
---------------
126.50 total farm sales

I am excited to see it doing so well. That was enough to cover a month of rabbit feed and a month of turkey feed and 1 bag of duck/chicken layer feed. That's not what I'm doing with it though. I have decided to take my farm sales money and my survey money and start investing in DRIPs.

I would like to end up with enough in drips that by the time I am 65 I can switch from reinvesting to getting the dividends paid and make enough income from it to provide about $2000 a month for retirement. I know that I'll have to add more money to it than what I can make with the farm and surveys, but I think we can manage that.

We got the van back on Thursday night. The cost to fix was a total of $2439.89. That is a big chunk of money that I definitely could have used somewhere else, but at least we had it and didn't have to touch the emergency fund. And we got to drive the loaner for a week for free. The dealership actually loaned us the minivan they use as one of their shuttles to drive customers to and from the dealership when their vehicles are being worked on.

Today is the first day it has rained hard since we got it back so it will be the first test of whether or not the roof still leaks. It hasn't in the sprinkling that has been up to now.

The starter and battery seem to be working fine, though. We're going to give the van a long run today and go down to the farm we buy our beef from. Since DH ended up getting the extra weeks we don't have to pinch like I was afraid of, so we are going to buy some beef for canning. Having canned beef is such a time saver for me and very convenient when I am sick. Beef stew is so easy to make with that on hand.

We have been going through our canned potatoes pretty fast so I am also going to go out to Safeway this weekend and use some of the gift cards to buy several pounds of organic potatoes to can. I much prefer having canned potatoes on hand since they don't sprout. Less waste that way. And they can be used for everything, mashed potatoes, fried, hash browns, casseroles, stews.

We have gotten presents bought for DH's mom and dad, DD, me, DH, and some of DS's. We still need to buy for SIL and youngest niece since DH never did get around to talking about not exchanging with them this year. We also need to get our wrapping paper out of storage and bring it home.

I am still pretty tired and sinus-y, but a lot of the virus seems to be passing. Just wish the exhaustion would go. It makes it hard to do things or be enthusiastic about the holidays.

I forgot to post my meal planning for this week, but I still did it. We made up a big batch (16 cups) of brown rice at the beginning of the week, added corn and carrots and peas, and some soy sauce and have been using it as sides. I love having a rice cooker. I'm going to post the whole thing, even though it is already Thursday, because I often go back and look at the ones I have posted before to get ideas for future weeks.

Monday--
Teriyaki flank steak
Rice
Green beans

Tuesday--
Fajitas with chicken, bell peppers, onions, cheese, whole wheat tortillas
Rice

Wednesday--
Black pepper chicken
Rice
Man du dumplings (Korean, cabbage, bean sprouts, pork, mirin)

Thursday--
BBQ Chicken Wings
Rice
Cole slaw

Friday--
Homemade pizza (rabbit sausage, onions, bell peppers)
Cole slaw

Saturday--
Sloppy Hoppies
Cole slaw

Sunday--
Fried Rabbit
Fried potatoes
Green beans

Today is the weekly deposit of $10 into savings.

$11,000.00 Beginning EF Balance
+____10.00 Deposit Amount
-------------------
$11,010.00 Ending EF Balance

Back to making baby steps for a while, but as I always say, even baby steps move you forward.

I tried to use my checking account to pay for an order on Amazon because I didn't want to use a credit card. I've done this before with no problems and there is plenty of money in the account. But they won't accept it. I wonder if it is some kind of fraud protection since it is Christmas time? I don't know, because there was no information as to why.

So I ended up using the card and will just send that amount to AMEX, but I don't like having to take that extra step, when I should have been done with it in one step. I am starting to think that these companies are going to force us to use credit cards no matter what.

The Christmas Bonus came in the mail yesterday. We weren't expecting it until the 19th. It was the same as last year, gross, but less net as they took out some for 401K and 25% for taxes, which they do for all bonuses no matter how big or how small. Gubmint has to catch those super bonuses after all from those tax evading CEO's, by going after everyone who gets them right off the top. We'll get most of it back when we file our income taxes, though.

I am tentatively setting aside $1000 for DH's bachelor's program, and $1000 to the Emergency Fund. I'm not going to decide on the rest of it until I know for sure the exact dollar amount on the van repair. I'd like to set aside more for the bachelor's program. Ideally I'd like to have enough for two classes that he could take back to back. He does one at a time. And then we'd have the income tax return to pay for the next couple classes by the time he'd finished the first two.

$10,000.00 Beginning EF Balance
+_1,000.00 Amount Added
-------------
$11,000.00 New EF Balance

No, not really. But DH and DS flew to Portland today. They should be back home in a couple of hours. DH needed 500 miles to attain gold status on his frequent flyer program and did a companion fare for DS who would have lost his miles if he hadn't flown this year.

Gold status is pretty important to DH since he flies every 2 weeks and it frequently gives him upgrades to first class which makes everything so much easier when you are 6 foot 3 and broad shouldered. He also gets free digiplayers and headphones, better food, and if he wanted, free alcohol.

It didn't cost too much and they get to spend a father/son day. It's a clear day today so the view from the plane window should be pretty great.

They'll have a meal out in the Portland airport so will likely spend about $30 there and then parking for the day is $12. All in all, about $500 for DH to maintain his status and get his perks. Since one upgrade to first class would be about $1000, and he generally gets them 12 times a year for free with his gold status, that is a bargain.

Sold a NZ red doe kit today with DQs, so at a discount. $20. A pedigreed red that was at the SOP would go for $30. This one had a white spot on her face so was not show quality. I gave my son his third of $6.66 and my 2/3 of $13.34 goes into the feed money jar.

The ducks are only producing 2 to 3 eggs a day this week. Makes it easier to keep up with them, but I hope they are still laying in January as I have a lady who wants to get some hatching eggs then. Our four chickens are giving us 4 a day, so we still have enough for sales.

Today is payday and I was able to achieve my goal of getting the EF to $10K by the end of the year. Exactly $10K.

$9676.22 Beginning Balance
+_323.78 Amount Added
---------------
10,000.00 Ending Balance

My goal for 2015 is $15K, with a mini-goal of $12K.

Between what I saved for December/January bills and today's paycheck we have $6067.22. $2100 to $2500 will go for the car. $1000 to Mom's loan. $225 to the chiropractor. The early January bills it will need to cover will be $500 or so. That leaves us with $1842.22 to cover Christmas and anything else between now and the next paycheck on January 9th. And we have $200 in grocery store gift cards. We should get by on that just fine.

The Christmas Bonus comes on the 19th or thereabouts. We have no idea of how much it is going to be and it will be mostly relegated to the EF and DH's bachelor's program.

The important thing is that despite the curve ball of the car repair, we won't have to touch the Emergency Fund to cover anything. I am so happy about that.

Well, it is going to cost around $2100 to fix the leaky roof of the van. I will never buy a vehicle with a moon roof or sun roof ever again. I didn't care one way or the other about having them. We almost never even use the things. If we lived in a better climate I wouldn't worry about it, but since it rains here 8 to 9 months out of the year almost every day, this isn't something we can ignore or we'll end up with a mold problem.

The whole point of buying a new car was so we could avoid expensive repairs for a good seven to ten years. I won't go for that logic ever again. This thing is only 3.5 years old. The whole point of buying a Toyota was that it had the reputation of being solid and not having major issues (well, that and good resale value). We plan to drive this vehicle for many years, drive it into the ground actually, but I think next time we'll be going back to Ford (used, of course). Never had a problem with them. Lesson learned.

$9666.22 Beginning Balance
+__10.00 Weekly Deposit
------------------
$9676.22 New Balance

Yesterday I got my $78 check in the mail from Pinecone. We also got the $50 Safeway gift card for Christmas from DH's work. DH came home last night. He will be here for 22 days. It is nice having him home again.

***

Change of plans on the Christmas bonus. I was hoping to put half of it into the 401K, but apparently the only choices there actually are is to contribute the percentage you normally contribute from each paycheck, or put all of it in. I didn't want to jack up the percentage because it would then interfere with the next paycheck, too.

Since we don't know how much the van is going to cost to fix, I guess it is just as well. I will try to put half of it into the Emergency Fund instead. As long as there is enough to start DH's bachelor's program, I don't forsee that being too much of a problem.

***

This morning DH had the car towed to the dealership and they are dealing with both the fact that it won't start and the fact that it is leaking water into the seat belt well every time it rains, resulting in a soaked driver's side seat belt. There might be a leak in the moon roof, but they were able to rule out a defective door seal.

We will know more tomorrow, but it is $99 to diagnose what is wrong with the starter (or whatever) and $99 to diagnose the leak, so we are already $200 into this before anything is actually fixed. Oh, and it cost $70 to tow it the 3 miles to the dealership, but I think we will get that reimbursed from our insurance. I believe we have towing on it. We used to. Might have stopped that when we got AAA, though. I didn't want to do another AAA call, because that is for emergencies (even if they do take forever) and we only get so many service calls per year.

***

I have made the decision not to keep one of Sienna's kits. One of the does has a white spot on her face (as does one of the bucks, and Sienna had a white spot on her shoulder) and this is a genetic flaw. The other one doesn't but with 2 kits showing up with it, I don't want to take that chance as it is a disqualification for show. We wouldn't be able to sell any of her kits as show quality. The other doe kit is very jumpy, too. We didn't start working with them young enough for them not to be skittish, because of course we never expected to lose Sienna.

Cinnabun has had a personality change anyway, since we moved her into Sienna's cage. She is now being pretty sweet, so between her and Firefly, I have enough female reds. I had briefly considered keeping a red buck kit, but again, that white spot could turn up and also if I raise another red buck kit, I don't want him to be related to Wildfire. I want more diversity than that.

I miss Sienna, but keeping one of her kits won't bring her back and won't strengthen my lines, so I am trying to be practical.

***

I have someone who has expressed interest in buying duck eggs for hatching. Hopefully she will get back to me soon because it will take a few days to collect them. Hatching eggs cannot be washed or refrigerated and have to be treated differently than normally collected eggs. And they can only be kept for 7 days before going into the incubator. After that viability plummets.

***

Not much else going on. The kids will go on a field trip on Friday. They will pack a lunch, but will also need money for dinner. DH and I will go coat shopping while they are gone, so there are a few expenses coming up.

We will have to wait until the current spate of aggressive wind storms are over before butchering rabbits. Bad weather freaks them out and we try to keep the experience as calm as possible for them so they are not stressed. We have 18 to do over the next 3 weeks and then we will be done butchering again until June. It'll be nice to put that chore away for several months. It'll also be nice to have another 45 pounds of meat in the freezer.

Monday:
Baked salmon
Green beans
Corn

Tuesday:
Bacon cheeseburgers
Fried potatoes
Salad

Wednesday:
Roast chicken
Baked potatoes
Cole slaw

Thursday:
Fried Rabbit
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Green beans

Friday:
BBQ chicken wings
Fried potatoes
Applesauce
Salad

Saturday:
Meatloaf
Green Beans
Oranges

Sunday:
Rabbit stew

I've got a few things on the agenda for 2015 that I'd like to achieve. I'm not going to put sell the house on this list, because that is basically out of my hands, though I sure do hope it happens.

Our first priority is to contribute to the 401K. DH has started this process, and half the Christmas bonus will go into it, and after that 1% of income. We hope to raise it higher, but I have to see how it messes with our bottom line. With no raises in 4 years and more and more being taken out in medical each year, I'm not sure how much we can put in there without being squeezed tight. It should only be taking $125 a month out pretax.

Our second priority is to fund DH's Bachelors program. The sooner he gets through that, the sooner he can apply for jobs that will move him up in the company and give him a shot at higher wages.

Our third goal is to get the Emergency Fund to $15K, which would be our minimum 3 month's expenses. It would be super tight there for 3 months but it would be survivable. $18K is more like comfortable, but baby steps. There is a dedicated $1720 a year that goes to this with the weekly $10 deposits and the monthly $100 deposits. I'd have to come up with $3280 from elsewhere, like coin jar money, refund checks, and surveys or any overtime DH manages to swing.

Farm Goals I'd like to meet in 2015--

Raise ducklings for sale if our girls set any nests. I don't have an incubator and it is not in the budget for 2015, so it is either nature's way or not at all.

If George is mature enough, let Gina set on eggs and raise some turkey poults, some for sale and some for our own meat. This may take another year, but some heritage breed male turkeys do mature enough to fertilize their first year. If not we will buy and raise 3 poults for our holiday and a few chicks with them for meat birds.

Double the size of our organic garden and start it earlier in the year.

Purchase 2 dozen canning jars each month during the next year to increase my supply.

Sell some rabbit breeding stock and increase egg sales.

There are, of course, other things I'd like to accomplish, but with limited funds, I felt like I should stick with what seems to be reasonable.

I've been thinking a lot about what I've accomplished this year and what I want to accomplish next year. The last couple of years have been pretty big for us in paying down debt and this year was, too.

Milestones hit in 2014:

--Paying off the Mortgage

--Hitting the halfway mark on paying off the loan to Mom

--Paying down the van loan far enough that we owe less on it than it is worth

--Hitting $10K on the Emergency Fund. It wasn't there for long, but it was there, and it will be again by the end of this year so I count that as a win.

We have also made great strides towards becoming self-sufficient, though we still have a long way to go. What happened this year:

--Expanding the farm to four types of livestock as well as building the housing for those animals

--Butchering chickens, turkeys, and ducks for our own consumption (joining the rabbits we have been doing previously), so we almost never have to purchase meat (just the occasional beef and pork)

Joining a Bartering and Sales group within the local farm community, within which I have been able to sell rabbit breeding stock, rabbit livers for dog food, duck eggs, and barter for raw goat's milk cheddar and chevre, natural homemade salves, and beef

Found a processing facility that is WSDA approved AND nearby so if we want to move into meat sales next year, we can

Grew a marginally successful organic garden that netted 80 pounds of potatoes, 20 pounds of tomatoes, 8 quarts of green beans, 2 quarts of yellow beans, excessive amounts of lettuce, kale, and leeks, 15 bunches of green onions, enough parsley (still drying) for a year, 12 heads of broccoli, 5 heads of cauliflower, 1 pound of chard 1 dozen kohlrabi, 10 pounds of cucumbers, 30 pounds of zucchini, 35 pounds of sweet meat squash, 5 gallons of blueberries, 10 quarts of raspberries, 3 gallons of blackberries, enough apples for 80 pints of applesauce and 22 quarts of pie apples, and 10 pounds of Italian plums. This provided nicely for us and our animals.

All in all, the year has been a lot more successful than it has felt at times. I think we can be very happy with what we have accomplished.