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May 19th, 2024 at 02:41 am
Both the 401K and the IRA were up substantially from the last time I checked. New amounts are below:
$153,554.59 401K
+_15,225.66 IRA
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$168,780.25 New Retirement Total
-160,553.96 Old Retirement Total
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$__8,226.29 Total Gain to Retirement
The Emergency Fund got to small deposits. One was $2.32 at the beginning of the month in interest. The other was what was left at the end of payday one for May after paying all the bills, which was $87.69, giving a grand total of $90.01.
$11,009.23 Previous EF Amount
+__,+90.01 Total Added
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$11,099.24 New EF Amount
If I'd realized ahead of time that the interest would have brought it so close to ten dollars I would have brought along 76 cents to make it an even $10 in the total. I have the coins in my coin jar. Oh, well.
So next I add the EF gain and the retirement gain to figure out the net worth gain.
$8,226.29 Retirement Gain
+_,_90.01 EF Gain
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$8,316.30 Total Gain to Net Worth
So then we calculate:
$256,316.02 Previous Net Worth
+__8,316.30 Gain to Net Worth
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$264,632.32 New Net Worth
So things are going pretty well, as you can see. I do have $100 from last payday that I do plan to add to the Emergency Fund, I just haven't gotten around to it yet, because I accidentally took it out in cash and I haven't had a chance to get back to the credit union yet. But I have time on Monday after I drop my son off for his therapy appointment, since his dad picks him up after work. The credit union is 3 blocks from the therapy office, at least for the next 2 visits.
It'll be a while before I can really start socking things to the EF and I might actually have to take some money out. The van has started to make some funny noises. Now I have $1000 saved in the car maintenance fund and I add $100 to it every month, but I don't know if that is going to be enough if this turns out to be serious. We just hit 67,000 miles, but the van is 13 years old. In fact we bought it new on June 4th, so really 13 years old. Hopefully, it turns out to be something that can be handled with the money we already have save in the car fund, though.
And hopefully whe we get the estimate for the bathroom it'll be for less than what we have saved so that if there are any overruns we have enough without dipping into the EF or having to compromise on what we want. Once all that is done, though, we can sock it to the EF and get things where I want them and possibly fund a spousal IRA for me this year. While I'd like to raise the 401K to 20%, I have no retirement savings in my own name and I don't like that. I have complete trust in my marriage, but I still want some in my own name.
I won't even get SSI in my own name, because I only worked for nine years. Which isn't true, but the farmers apparently paid us under the table when I was a kid so nothing I earned then was reported to the government. Not that I made enough to pay taxes, my best summer I only made $1500 and that was at 3 different farms following strawberries, then raspberries, then blueberries. I mean, I will get it in his name, and his would be higher than mine anyway, but that's not the point. And that's assuming there is SSI when I get there. So, yes, I want a Roth IRA in my name. Then if we fully fund it, we can raise his 401K after that.
I am hoping in July he will get a cost of living raise. They have been doing this as inflation has gone crazy for the last 3 years and this 4th year should be no different. I hope. I don't know that he would get a regular raise, because the raise he got the last time he got one was so big a leap. That was two years ago. As much as I'd like one, I just don't think they have it right now. They hired a lot of people in the last year.
But a COL would be appreciated. 2% is still $3180 before taxes, probably $2500 net a year after. $104.16 a payday. $2500 is almost our full medical deductible of $3000. So that is nothing to sneeze at. And sometimes it is 3% which is $4770, or around $4200 a year or $161.53 a payday. Nothing to sneeze at. But if there is nothing there is nothing. We will know sometime in July which is always when raises come out. The company has had high profits this year and last, but that didn't come out to much when it came to the Christmas bonus, so not really counting on it here, either. Just wanting it to have some more breathing room after saving so hard for that stupid bathroom since February of last year.
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April 30th, 2024 at 12:23 am
I did some bookkeeping today. I worked out my budget for May, which will be a tight one, but that's okay, because we have everything sorted out and should not have to make any large purchases for a few months now. But we will be paying off nearly $3K of charges we made this month. I do have the money in savings, but I prefer to cash flow it.
Then after I sorted May, I went on and revamped my budget template for the rest of the year. Sort of. For the next few months anyway. We made a decision on the bathroom fund and a couple of other funds. Since our goal for the bathroom was to save $15,000 before we started looking around for someone to fix it, we made a decisions last night.
We have already saved $12,000. We also had $1775 saved up in my new bed and frame fund and $260 in our beach vacation fund, which would have gone for a little getaway for DH and me for a couple of days since I was too sick on our anniversary to do anything. And we have $1000 in the snowblower fund, because we never bought one last year. So that is $15,010. Which is enough money for our goal. And then if it were to become necessary we have $4000 I would be willing to borrow from the Emergency Fund. So we have decided to shuffle all our envelopes around and do that.
In doing that, we can then start saving back for the bed and frame and the snowblower relatively quickly as well as putting money into the Emergency Fund. The snowblower will take two months of saving $500 each, so that will be fast and done well before winter. And we will continue to put $500 into the medical fund to start building up for next year's deductible and out of pocket max. I still hope to be able to get Invisalign braces next year, but that would be an additional $6000, if it hasn't gone up in the last 2 years, I would have to come up with, so unless MIL starts handing out money again, that may be a couple more years yet.
We now have to find someone to build the bathroom and get quotes for what we want to do. I wish we could do it ourselves. It would be so much cheaper. It's mostly just not feasible to do much these days, being old and broken. Could have done most of it when we were younger, though.
What I am concerned about is finding someone just as we are going into the height of construction season. And someone who speaks English. We are not getting into a situation again like with the roof, where only one guy speaks English, he starts the crew in the morning, leaves for the entire day, and then comes back at the end of the work day to check over the work and you can't communicate about anything all day long with the workers. My Spanish is not good enough for that, though I am working on refreshing it again. No problem with the work, but it is beyond frustrating when all of a sudden the crew is just gone mid-day and doesn't come back until morning and you don't know why.
I suppose we could check with our local big hardware store and maybe Lowe's and Home Depot, too. They might have small scale construction people or handymen who do this sort of thing that they know of. I know the local one has a bulletin board you can put your advertisements up on where you tear the little phone number strips off to call.
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April 2nd, 2023 at 12:57 pm
I am going into April with a positive mindset, because nothing can be as annoying as March was. Everything broke in March except me. The microwave quit working. 2 of the jars of potatoes I canned after I came out of my episode detailed below had the bottoms fall off and make a mess all over both canners. They were 1976 jars so were old, but they've held up for a long time. I think I will have to buy new jars this year. My daughter fractured a bone in her foot, sprained both ankles, and hurt her knee and her hip in a fall when she lost her balance trying to kill a spider.
My son had a depressive spiral because the Adderall shortage means he goes 4 or 5 days every month without his medication, so withdrawal. You can only renew those meds 2 days before they run out because they are a controlled substance, but it takes a week to fill orders because the pharmacy can only get one shipment a week and it goes to whoever has it backordered first. It is screwing with a lot of people who have ADHD. So that triggered his BP disease and he went down dark for a couple weeks. And the government isn't allowing more of the medication to be made right now, because they suck and want to interfere with everything all the time.
Back to things that are broken. One of the electrical outlets quit working. And a giant tree branch from the neighbor's cedar tree broke off and fell on our swinging bench and broke the back of it. It was old and I was thinking about getting a new one or replacing the slats on the old one with something stronger, although the bathroom rebuild derailed that for this year, but still. Oh, and the plastic over the bathroom ceiling filled up with water and had a dead mouse in it, so we had to have someone come set poison out in the rafters because none of us can do it.
And we called the roofer to check for a leak and there was a loose shingle near a vent pipe, so he fixed it and put some sealing stuff around the pipe. 20 year warranties are so worth it. So just one thing after another. Hopefully the stuff put up there to keep mold from forming again works, because I hate to think the work that was done was undone by this stupid leak.
I had my first full blown manic episode in years. It lasted 3 weeks. I've had a day or two of mania here and there, but not the full on psychosis with hallucinations and delusions. I've never had it like that. I mean I've hallucinated with migraines, but that was only visual and it was just colors and auras. I've never heard voices or seen scary things. Usually I just have a ton of energy and creativity. The doctor upped my med by 100mg and I am fine now. My husband had a field day dealing with two BP people at opposite ends of the disease at the same time, poor guy.
There is one positive from March in that I hit the losing 20 pounds mark. No, actually there is two. My last glucose blood test was 100. 99 is normal, so just one point away. My doctor is really pleased with me, since I started at 139 and it has gone down so much with this diet. That really helps me say I am just going to will positivity into April.
DH and I spent a lot of time yesterday planning out the fencing for Garden 2 along with where the gate placement will go. It will have two gates, one on either side of the house. That will be the first priority, because it will have the foods most likely to be eaten by dear. The second priority will be fencing half of Garden 1 and putting in two gates there. While I would like to fence all of Garden 1, that will be a longer term project and we have cages that go over the beds there.
So we will have a big expense with buying the 2 x 4's and 4x4's needed for the fencing and a big roll of chicken wire (150 feet), which is cheaper than fencing wire. Wood prices have come down, but not as much as I would like, especially for treated lumber. Then we will need 2 gate framing kits and the 2x2's for the gate, plus wood for the frame, plus a cattle panel to cut in half to make archway's to put the frames and gate in. Plus I will need 8 more cattle panels so we can have a total of three rows of arched treillises. We have 4 already.
I've been saving a lot of money for the garden projects. I have $875 saved and once I go to Costco to get my rewards from my Costco Citi credit card, I will have an additional $898. The 34¢ will just go in the coin jar. So a total of $1773. My MIL has a check for me for $30, not sure why, but she is giving us all $30 checks, and of course every payday I add my spending money of $50 to the garden fund so it grows. I don't spend my spending money on anything. The garden is where I get most of my enjoyment in life. It's my hobby during spring, summer, and fall, so it is where my personal money goes.
If we need to we will spend the tax refund money on it, too. DH still hasn't done our taxes so I am not sure what our refund will be, just that we are getting one. We won't be able to deduct medical for 2022 as we didn't exceed the percentage needed to do so. We probably will for 2023, though. We did tithe 10% and contribute 15% to retirement, which helped lower our taxes quite a bit. This year we are doing 16% and once we are dong saving up for the bathroom repair, I'd like to up it a little more. Eventually, I want to get it to the point where we are maxing out the 401K and then using any extra money to put into Roth IRA's.
Or at least buy some solid dividend stocks. I'd like to buy more Louisiana Pacific, because the quarterly dividend has gone up consistenly in the last 2 years despite the stock market being erratic and before that it was nice and level at least. I'd like to get some other reliable dividend stocks like Coca Cola and other blue chips. I also wouldn't mind saving up a year's income in the Emergency Fund and for a vacation to Hawaii.
Of course I'm already saving up for a vacation to Hawaii. That envelope has a whopping $35 in it. My electric vehicle fund also has $35 in it. I know those are far future goals, but I am trying to put small amounts in there. When they get a big enough amount of money in them I will create sub accounts at the bank and transfer them in. I don't like keeping a lot of money in the house, except some emergency money in the ammunition safe I inherited from my dad, which has enough room for my budget binders, too, so none of my envelopes sit out.
We are going to have to buy or make a lot of tomato cages, though, since I plan on planting 30 tomato plants this year. Maybe more if I have the space. I need to can a lot of tomato sauce and I'd rather grow than buy tomatoes for it, since organic tomatoes are expensive. Since they are a dirty dozen food, I'd really rather have organic.
I have 4 aluminum raised bed kits that will be shipping mid-April. So far the shipping labels have been printed for 3 of them. I really hope they aren't waiting on the fourth one befor they ship. I really wanted to get another 2, but I am not sure I will have the money for it this year with all the fencing needed. It may have to wait a year.
The deer have been a real problem already. I had two really big, pregnant does standing in one of my raised beds a couple days ago. My raised beds are two feet tall. I don't know what the heck they thought they were doing. These are probably the same ones who were bedding down in my onions last year. It was the same bed. And they are leaving scat all over the back yard. I've almost stepped in it about 5 times.
I need to put the cages back on the beds, but the stakes that held them in place have wandered off so I need to find them. I'm sure DH took them for some other project and forgot to put them back. He is really bad at putting things back where he found them or where they belong. Tape measures are his biggest issue. We have 5 tape measures and they each have a designated spot. 2 in the house and 3 in the garage. Are they ever in their spots? Nope. I had to buy my own screwdriver set and keep it in my room, because he lost most of the house set. I don't let him borrow it.
I hope to get the fencing up before the deer decide to have their babies in my yard. I don't want to freak out mother or scare them away from their fawns. It's not overgrown back there this year, though, so it is far less likely. No places to hide. And we will be taking down the apple tree, so there will be no late fall source of food, either, to attract them back. Without anything to eat, hopefully they will find another yard to bother.
We will work on more fencing throughout the summer and fall and try to get the entire area that is currently in gardens and the area that will be turning into gardens in the next year or two completely fenced off. I don't think I will be able to contribute too much more money to the project this year. I am saving up for the steer still. I have $1470 and I want to have $2500 just to be on the safe side. It will probably be closer to $2200. I need it by July. Whatever I don't need will be rolled over into the bathroom rebuild fund, which currently has $450.
I may borrow from the Emergency Fund just so we can get the walls and ceiling put up, painted, the lighting and electric turned on, the ceiling fixture picked out, the flooring put in, and the sink cabinet and sink and toilet put in. And a new door, but that can probably wait a while. We double checked with the mold guy and he said he didn't detect any mold on the door. But it is very warped so eventually it will get changed.
Doing the shower can definitely wait. I'll buy all the tile at once, though, so that if they discontinue it, I'll still have it for the shower. We changed our minds on the tile design we want, though. We found something we liked better and it was cheaper, too. I am still looking to see if I find anything I like better, since we sitll have time. DH is building the sink cabinet and we want a new sink, not to put the ugly old one that my mother picked out back on. But that is not too expensive, I've priced the one I want. I'm still trying to find a faucet that I like, though. I might just go with a kitchen faucet instead of a bathroom one, because they have a nicer selection and it will be taller for a basin sink.
Well, that about wraps it up. After not posting for a month, I wrote a book.
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February 21st, 2023 at 09:08 am
The last of the black mold has been removed from the attic and the area was all treated, so I just need to transfer $782 from the emergency fund to pay the credit card and that part of the black mold disaster is over and we can decide whether or not it is worth it to submit a claim to the insurance or not. The new policy starts April 1st and the rates went up $200, so it will not cost $1000 a year instead of $800. The year before that they were $600. Way to go Washington state insurance commissioner, looking out for the people, as always.
There has never been a claim submitted on this homeowner's insurance in all the decades my mom has had it, but we just know they will jack the premiums to kingdom come if we put in a claim. So we need to figure out if it will be worth it. So far, the costs have been close to $6000, but the insurance may not pay the $850 for the dumpster rental, so maybe $4550.
Then there will be the cost of replacing the bathroom that was torn out and they will pay the minimum they can get away with, so it will probably be the cheapest sink, cabinet, shower/tub, walls, paint, flooring, toilet, light fixture, door, water resistant drywall, etc. on the market they will reimburse, not what we will actually spend on it. We can't actually put a shower/tub combo in, because the house was built around the original one and you can't fit one through the doorway, even with the door and frame off.
So we will have to do a tile shower that runs the area the old combo was in, because the way the space is set up, you can't put in a corner shower and get into it without blocking the toilet the one way or climbing over the toilet to get into the shower the other way. It is a small bathroom. And if we put it in straight, we'd have to build a wall, making the shower area two narrow for a fiberglass one and also being right up against the toilet, which violates building codes. A tile shower will be better in keeping mold at bay anyway. I don't know if they will pay for any tile, and definitely they won't pay for the price of the tile we want, but anything towards it would be good.
Then they will want to know why we can't use the old toilet and the old sink. Which we could use the old sink, but the cabinet that held it was infected with mold, so we'd have to get a custom made cabinet which would cost more than a new sink and regular cabinet. And the toilet needed to be replaced, so we might be out on that one. But they had to cut up the shower/tub to get it out.
I'd say if they will pay $8,000 or so then it is worth it for the claim, but otherwise, probably not. There is $1000 deductible, so we are out that regardless. I am hoping to cash flow some of this. I don't want to run the emergency fund into the ground. I'd be happy to get the bathroom finished enough to have the the flooring, sink, and toilet in, and the walls painted, and then we can use it while we wait on the shower until we have the money to start working on that.
This was really not the way I wanted to start out the new year. It's not all bad, though. My son had his sinus surgery and it went way better than the doctor expected. The doctor had thought that at the most he would have a 40% tops improvement in his breathing, but he wouldn't know until he got in there.
Well, when he got in there, though, there was a lot more cartilege to work with than he thought and he was able to repair the collapse with that and barely had to use any artifical cartilege at all. They didn't even have to pack it. The doctor is confident that he should see somewhere from 90 to 100% improvement.
Tomorrow will be one week out and even though his nose is still swollen, he is breathing so much better. He can take the tape off tomorrow. We won't know if it has changed the shape of his nose or not until all the swelling goes down, but the doctor seemed to think it would just make him symmetrical again. We go back in another 3 weeks for a follow up, and since it will be his birthday we will stop at the Red Lobster on the way home for his birthday dinner. It'll be the first time I've set foot in a restuarant in...well, I can't even remember when. I need to remember to put that in the next budget.
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February 7th, 2023 at 10:12 am
It's been a long several days, but we got to come back to our house on Saturday and it was so nice sleeping in our own beds again. Next time we will definitely spring for the nicer hotel with hopefully better beds, but we did not know how long we were going to have to stay away for and there isn't really any family we can stay for that is set up for more than one person and still be near DH's work, and of course the kids had doctor appointments. Thankfully, it was not too many days.
I was just grateful the city was able to put us in touch with someone so quickly. One day it was just some weird orange mildew on the ceiling and the next week there were black splotches creeping down the walls. We had to have the floors and walls completely gutted. We had been planning on replacing the toilet anyway and the shower/tub combo had to come out because we had to see if there was mold behind it. The sink, cupboard the held the sink, and the cabinet the held the mirror all had to come off, because the wood was probably infected with mold spores. We will also have to be replacing the door and frame and all the trim.
Fortunately the floor tested negative for mold spores. The floor was a little squishy around where the toilet had been from the leak we were going to replace the cracked toilet for (we had caulked it), so we will have to replace about 1 foot of floor, but so much better than it could have been. All of the studs in the walls are free of mold. They put the stuff that is supposed to keep mold from growing on it onto it. Mold remediation alone is $1500 and tear out was on top of that. We had to go half and half with Mom on it and our share is $1925, but some of that was dumpster rental, which I think was $850, but we have it for the month, so we can finish filling it up and there are a lot of things around here that can go.
Anyway, the costs are a big Ouch. That'll be quite a hit to our emergency fund, but I don't know what bigger emergency there is than getting black mold out of the house. Bad news is there is still more, but it is up in the crawl space. It is closed off from the rest of the house and it is where the roof leak was that my mom refused to believe was a roof leak for two weeks and blamed on my son's showers being too long just causing the vent to drip water, at least until the storm that caused a five gallon bucket to half fill with water in six hours. So that has quietly been growing for a couple years
That will have to get fixed next. The guy said it wasn't too bad, but since it had to be a separate job, it would be at least another $1500, plus taxes, but it can be completely taken care of by mold remediation, nothing will have to come out. It's just a flat fee of $1500 per job. Sucks, but it's not a DIY thing and we did do a quick shop around and most places were higher and the city did not recommend those and honestly, neither did a lot of the congregator websites. Most reviews and the city said the others did shoddy work and these people guarantee their work for 10 years barring further roof leaks. So for us, that will be $750 more.
It's rough when we were just starting to put money back into the Emergency Fund, but we have to do what we have to do. I am not going to use my spending money that I have been saving for a year and last year's and this year's birthday money and my Christmas present money on this. Everyone else got to spend theirs through the whole year and I have given up my stuff for other people too many times when I am saving for a goal and I am not going to give it up for this. So I am making other plans to try to cash flow some of this without taking too much from the EF. I can stop contributing to it, but I want to not pull too much. So for Feburary I will at least have that $500.
I have already made plans to purchase a beef in July so I am locked into that, so I can't change that. I have to keep putting money away for that. He is charging the same amount per pound this year as last. He put away plenty of his own hay last year so he did not have to buy any feed, so his prices have remained stable. Kill fee, cut and wrap have gone up, but I know how by how much, so I can budget that and it allows me to figure out where else in the budget I can pull from. This is from things that are primarily wants that we were finally going to get to this year.
In March I was going to save $650 towards a propane grill and put $500 for the Emergency Fund. That $1150 will go towards the bathroom. April is a three paycheck month. The plan there was $500 to go to the Emergency Fund and $2000 to go for the first family vacation since 2013 (I think). What's one more year on the vacation? *sighs* So that's $2500 more for the bathroom. So far we are $3650. In May the plan was to spend $850 on outdoor summer furniture and $500 to the Emergency Fund or $1350. Now our total is $5000. In June I would have put $500 towards the family vacation, $500 towards the Emergency Fund, and $638 towards a Snowblower. That brings us to $6638.
I think we can manage on that, but I know these things always run high. If worst comes to worst, we will get the walls and ceiling built and mudded and paid for. That will keep the house solid again. DH can do the light switch and the light and we can take off the door and frame. Then the people who screwed up the paint last time and caused part of the problem with the orange mildew and doing mold remediation incorrectly (or possibly not at all as the new people said they saw no evidence of it being done) will be coming back to repaint it for free, which will seal the room. We can pick out a light fixture and be done with that.
Our next priority will be to get the plumbing, floor tiling, toilet, sink, shower pan, and shower floor tiling done. I'm not quite sure in what order that has to go with the floor tiling and the toilet and sink plumbing, but I know the shower pan has to be installed by a plumber. We have the tile picked out for the shower walls and the tile picked out for the bathroom floor and shower floor which match and I have picked out the sink vessel I want and am narrowing down the faucet. A vessel sits on top of a cabinet instead of down inside it like a traditional sink.
DH is going to build the cabinet for the vessel to sit on, so we can have something solid instead of the easily breakable cardboard and not really wood stuff they make these things out of today. And it will have a sturdy roll out step stool in the bottom, because my son and husband use that bathroom the most and would like a taller sink to wash up in. They have some beautiful non-wood-colored stains these days if I can't find a natural wood finish I like. One of the bathrooms and the main kitchen have solid wood pine cabinets with a pine varnish already, but I'm not sure if that is the look I am going for. I don't want to do white, but I need something that will go really well with the blues and greens of the sink.
It's going to take a lot of time, but as long as we get it to where we can use the toilet and the sink, the rest can take time. There are still three other bathrooms in this house.
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April 25th, 2022 at 05:17 am
Well, the freezer that was supposed to arrive in May has now been pushed off until the end of June. But they do have some of another brand with the same size coming in this week. It has a similar layout with the 21 cubic foot capacity. We went in to look at the smaller version and decided to go ahead and switch to it. So on Thursday we will be getting our new freezer.
We have been without an upright since July and I wasn't sure we would ever get one, especially in time for harvest season. We will finally be able to stock up on chicken and get a whole hog. Mostly what I want from a hog is a lot of sausage, bacon, shanks, ribs, chops, and steaks. I don't need any roasts or hams. Then if I have room I will see if I can get a fall lamb.
We are really going for food security this year, where we don't have to rely on the grocery stores as much as possible. I'm growing extra zucchini so I can freeze it and a ton of green beans, carrots, potatoes, celery, turnips, and parsnips for canning so we can have veggies through the year. We'll be buying peaches and pears for canning as well off a farm. I'll also be installing some low tunnels in the fall to keep the harvest going as long as possible. I've grown peppers and lettuce and spinach into November before this way.
I still have a lot of work to do. We'll be renting a sod cutter soon so that we can clear up some more garden space without having to do as much work getting the mat of weeds and grass out of the way. It'll make it a lot easier on everyone.
We started work on the third 22 foot long garden bed. A lot of weeding and leveling had to be done, but the bottom layer of cinder blocks has been laid to the halfway point. DH is going to try to work on it a little at a time after work. The bottom layer is always the most difficult. Once the bottom layer is in place, we put down the weed barrier, and then the next two layers go on very easily since it is just a question of putting the adhesive layer down and then putting the blocks in place. After the second layer goes down it has to dry for 24 hours and then the third layer can be put on and dry for 24 hours.
Once that is done we can work on pruning the giant rose bush down to about a foot high and put all those trimmings in the bottom of the raised bed. Then the rose bush can be transplanted to the front yard and we can dig out the weed tree that has been impossible to kill. We'll also be cutting down another tree and the wood will go in the bottom of future raised beds. It's kind a cross between hugelkutur beds and lasagna style beds, since compost and manure and hay and cardboard will go in as well, before the four way garden soil fills the top foot.
I have a woman coming next week to dig out almost all of the raspberries and in exchange she will give me a couple bags of rabbit manure, some tomato and pepper plants, and some calendula starts. I do like bartering when I can. It saves me a lot of money.
I got the rest of the onions planted. These ones are Walla Walla sweet onions. They will have to be chopped and frozen as they don't keep long like the non-sweet yellows and reds I planted a week or so ago. I up potted the tarragon, parsley and oregano in one pot, but will have to divide them up into their own pots in about a week or so if the new bed doesn't get finished. I just needed them out of the four inch pots as they were just starting to get root bound. I did locate some larger pots in the garage. The oregano will need a big one, but the parsley and tarragon should be just fine in 8 inch pots.
I've been able to do quite a bit more than I thought I would. I am getting stronger every day and a lot of the physical therapy has been designed to strengthen the muscles I need for gardening. I may never be able to do weight bearing exercise again, but I have been walking without my cane and my son and I are going to try to take an actual walk tomorrow and see how I do. One of the local parks has a flat loop to walk, I can't do hills without pain, so we would never be too far from the van if I had to go back.
Next on my agenda for the garden will be to weed out the strawberries. This will be the last year for this set of strawberries. I know what I want to get next year and will probably pre-order them in December or January. They ship at time to plant so I need to get the jump on other people to get the variety I want, which alway sells out so early. It is a much sweeter berry than the ones we currently have. I'll likely pot up what we have now next year and sell them or exchange them for plants I want.
My goal is to eventually have the entire backyard and the little side yard devoted to growing as much of our own food as possible. It's a lofty goal, and it might take five years to do it, but I know we will get there.
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April 4th, 2022 at 03:34 am
It was dry and overcast yesterday, so worked on the garden, filling a 22 foot by 3 foot raised garden bed with rotted manure and soil. I can't do any weight bearing exercise, so I was in charge of raking the dirt out after DH and DS dumped it in, plus breaking up clumps in the manure. This stuff has been composted for 3 years, so it wasn't gross or anything and anyway, I wore gloves.
So we now have two beds the same size ready to go, although one of them has 8 feet of garlic in it that I planted in November. It's come up very well and I can't believe how huge around the stem is on the elephant garlic. I will be planting onions in the rest of that bed. The per pound cost of onions has gotten ridiculous and the selection is kind of gross sometimes. I am planting mostly keeping onions, but I will plant some sweet onions to cut up and freeze. I want to do some shallots this year and of course some bunching onions.
With the bed we just finished I will be planting carrots, parsnips, turnips, and radishes. I can can all of these things, but I will just have the radishes for eating, not for canning. I don't know if I like pickled radishes or not, so I am going to try making one pint and if I do, then I will make more, but I don't think I will.
We have 1 1/4 pallets of cinderblocks left, enough to make one more raised bed of the same length, so on the next sunny or at least dry day we will be weed eating the area down to dirt and then covering it with a tarp until the next time DH can get to it to start making the next bed. I plan on growing zucchini, kohlrabi, chard, cabbage, cucucmbers, and herbs, in that bed.
I looked at the deck today and all the plastic boards are the same length and they seem to be tongue and groove. This will be great material for raised beds, plus we can reuse the support beams and posts as well. I can't see how they were attached to the supports though, there are no nails or screws, so I am wondering if they were attached on the underside. DS will have to look underneath to determine it when it is time to take the deck apart. I don't think DH is capable of crawling under there anymore.
So those beds will be built where we had the potatoes last year, which is a 16 by 20 foot area. I am planning to transfer the strawberries into one of those beds, because where they were last year led to a lot of scorching of the plants in mid-July through August when we were having temps in the 90's and when it wasn't it was in the high 80's. But it didn't kill them. Which reminds me, I have to get a couple more room air conditioners before summer.
I'd like to also plant asparagus in that bed so it can pull double duty, but I think it will have to wait for next year. The two grow well together since one has a deep root system and the other has a very shallow root system. That area gets afternoon shade so will get a break from the sun for about 4 hours before it comes back around the giant cedar tree in the neighbor's yard and gets sun for a couple more hours.
As for the other bed, I am thinking tomatoes and peppers since it will be far less shaded than the first bed.
We are putting potatoes in next to the yet to be built third cinderblock bed. It is a 22 foot by 16 foot area, so a bit more space than the other and it will get more sun. Eventually that area will get three more cinderblcok 22 x 3 foot beds, and we will just plant potatoes in raised beds in the future. We have plenty of potatoes that we planted last year that have sprouted that we will be planting, but I also got 4 new types of seed potatoes that will ship when it is time to plant, so soon.
I wanted to try some fingerlings, get more Kennebecs, a different red, and German butterballs. The last ones are supposed to do really well here and are very yellow inside, more so than Yukon golds. I couldn't get them to try last year as they were sold out. This year I was smart and ordered in December. Everything I got is supposed to be long keepers.
I am hoping with better sun placement, we will get a higher yield this year. And if I like the new varieties, that I will have enough of them to replant with next year, especially the German butterballs, because buying seed potatoes to have them shipped is expensive. And the ones available locally are not the ones I want to grow and don't even necessarily do well here.
We plan on digging out and giving away some mature raspberry plants. We have one person that eats them so we will leave a three foot area and get rid of the rest. We can put up posts and trellis green beans there. It'll only be the one row but since it is pole beans it will produce and produce. Some will be green and some will be purple.
Once the deck is torn down, we will be moving the huge climbing rose bush, that used to climb the apple tree before it was cut down, into the front yard where the deck was and dig out a weed tree, then we can build another raised bed row that is 20 x 16 feet. And if we get a stump grinder to take out the old apple tree stump at least enough so we can level the dirt, and tear down the old chicken coop, I want to get a 10 x 12 foot plexiglass green house and we can put in two beds inside it for growing sweet potatoes and tomatoes in the future.
That probably won't happen this year, but it is on the agenda, as is tearing down the rabbit shed and planting fruit trees. I want two more Italian prune plum trees, a Bing cherry tree and a Ranier cherry tree. I don't know if those ones cross fertilize or not, but there are plenty of flowering cherry trees in the neighborhood. I also want a good apple tree. Maybe Opal apples or Tsuguras. And maybe even a cold hearty nectarine and a pair of male and female cold hardy kiwis. We won't let anything get huge, we need to be able to pick them easily, so will keep them pruned to a reasonable height. And I need to get a huckleberry bush from a new supplier.
The dead, rootless sticks Tennessee Wholesale Nursery sent me last year never did anything and they refused to honor their warranty when I told them well before the year mark, and they said to just wait and see, then refused to give me my money back when I did just that. Never do business with these losers. I am getting a one gallon plant in a pot shipped to me from a reputable nursery. I would like two but since one plant is $37, I may have to wait until next year to buy a second one.
So that's the plan. It may be a three year plan or maybe a five year plan even, but we will do what we can this year, so we can grow and preserve as much food as possible and be far less dependent on the supply chain.
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July 21st, 2020 at 08:25 am
Monday was a long, long day. The garden is getting into gear and I harvested a ton of basil, my first two zucchinis, 4 cucumbers, and pulled a bunch of weeds. They never do stop. Tomorrow I need to pick strawberries, peas, and blueberries. Maybe raspberries, too. But I have to do it early, because it was 80 degrees for most of the day and it was just too hot outside.
Inside the house we are working on completely redoing our makeshift kitchen/pantry area. Already it has opened up the room so much. We have spent about six hours so far and it probably needs another two to finish the section we are doing. Then the other section will probably take another six hours and will be done.
I need to get a couple of small baskets to store all our storage bowl lids, jar lids, and measuring cups and spoons in to keep them from taking up an entire drawer. If I free up that drawer I finally have a place to store my kitchen towels and wash cloths.
I would also like to get a double decker lazy Susan for my most commonly used spices and oils. I am tired of having to go search through the less commonly used items all the time. No matter how well I organize the spice drawer, other people are always moving things around.
I saw an electric citrus juicer today on a video. It is expensive, $99, but it really would make my life so much easier. I am going to think on it. My manual citrus juicer is getting really hard for me to operate, plus it is rusting. I don't think it is the stainless steel it purports to be. I have plenty of money in my allowance folder. I just need to think on it since it is a big purchase. MIL spends that much at Christmas so maybe I'll have her get it for me if I don't want to spend that much myself.
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April 18th, 2020 at 08:09 pm
The garden is starting to really come along with the clean up and getting dirt moved. I am ready to plant one bed now and have transplanted the strawberries. There is a lot of work ahead, but I am determined to have a big garden this year. With the food supply chain being disrupted, I want to have as stable a source of fresh vegetables and fruits as possible.
I have my first garden video up of for this season if anyone wants to see it. It's only six or seven minutes long. It has a new intro, new music, and a new outro. I'd be curious what you think of those things in particular. I always go with a country theme for my garden videos.
Text is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN7WPp7-iyw and Link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN7WPp7-iyw
I will be planting snow peas this afternoon and possibly carrots, radishes, and parsnips, too. Carrots and parsnips are something that can be canned, so I'd like to do at least 2 plantings of those, one after the other. They are 60 day crops and do well in both cool and warm weather so I should be able to take a crop into the fall/winter season, since you can overwinter both in the ground, too and go out and pull as you need them.
I planted my Aerogarden 2 weeks ago with lettuce and it is doing amazing. It grew much faster than ever before. I guess it knows we need it to. Or maybe it just likes the environment of the closet where the temperature is always stable.
So anyway, we should have edible lettuce in four weeks and if I plant the radishes today, about the same on that. Can't wait to start eating homegrown salads again.
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December 14th, 2019 at 07:32 am
I'll do a grocery rundown probably tomorrow after we've been to Costco, but there was a great sale at Fred Meyer today on Afrin. $4.99 a bottle. It is usually $10.99, so at this price we really stocked up. I got 10 bottles. We go through this stuff fast around here, due to allergies and colds. I know you aren't supposed to use it consistently, but my son and I are addicted to breathing so we do. None of the prescription nasal sprays work for us. Now we have a bit of a stockpile at a fantastic price.
I used some of my allowance money that I have been saving to order a tenor ocarina and a music book. I really like my bass one, and am progressing quickly, but it is a little too big for my hands, so I will probably pass that on to DH. I tried one of my son's tenor ones and it fits my hands a lot better. Although I am getting one that is less traditionally shaped, also, because it will be easier on my hands. It is shaped sort of like a spear head. It was modeled on the Adegan crystal (which I don't care about) and is hot pink. It's very pretty. This is what it looks and sounds like if you are curious about my latest musical obsession: Text is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6_uZ9b6qFQ and Link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6_uZ9b6qFQ and my current one looks and sounds like this minus the triforce symbol: Text is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4RUyqASPKM and Link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4RUyqASPKM
I was also tempted to get the 6 hole one that is shaped like a Tardis but it is in G Major, and all the song books are written in C Major. I may still get it for my birthday in February, just because I'm a Whovian from way back, but as a collector's thing more than a music thing. Although you can play Doomsday on it, so I might just learn to play that if it doesn't break my heart and that song easily does. Smashes it to bits and washes away the pieces with my tears.
Anyway the one I did buy and the 30 lesson music book cost a total of $87. Free shipping as they are having that until the 15th. I have $63 left of Christmas money, but I may just put it in my allowance folder and save it. I'm saving up for a new computer. Not hard or anything, just so that when this one goes I can replace it immediately. I reckon I probably have about a year left on it, assuming I don't spill anything on it. The DVD drive doesn't work and hasn't for about a year, which is annoying since I like to watch DVD's on my computer better than on a TV. And the mouse pad thing has been on the fritz for about 18 months so I use a regular mouse with my laptop.
I seriously think I may get a desktop this time. They seem to last a lot longer and the keyboards hold up to the amount of typing I do much better. I can't even count how many laptops I have worn the keys out on. Never had that happen on a desktop keyboard. I do like the convenience of a laptop, though. We'll see. I have quite some time yet to figure it out.
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December 11th, 2019 at 03:28 am
Well, I'm learning a new instrument. My son talked me into buying a bass ocarina. It is a plastic one, not a ceramic one, because lighter is easier on the rheumatoid arthritis. An ocarina is a type of flute. It's shaped like a sweet potato though. If you play any of the Zelda games you've seen one. I have some experience with a regular flute and a one octave wooden flute and have messed around with the Tonette which is a one octave song flute as well.
It's also treble clef which is the same as the violin, strum stick, and the right hand on the piano and organ. Aside from the bass clef for piano and organ's left hand, I also know the alto clef for the viola. But treble is easiest to pick up a new instrument in.
I've done 4 lessons so far and can play a half dozen songs. I find it funny that no matter what instrument I have learned over the years they always start with Mary Had a Little Lamb and Hot Cross Buns. I've also mastered Ode to Joy (also early in every instrument), Frere Jaques, Long Long Ago, Jingle Bells, Gently Row, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and a couple others that I can't play at tempo yet, but can muddle through. Today will be my fifth day practicing and Brahm's Lullaby is in that lesson, so grown up music is coming.
When I do my new lesson, I always do all the songs from the previous lessons first and some of the fingering exercises. It helps to cement stuff in even as I move on to new lessons. I've found it is the best way for me to learn. I kind of do immersion when learning a new instrument.
One of the things that really helps me with this time of year and fighting seasonal depression is keeping my mind active and being challenged by something. That's why I tend to work on playing music or learning French more in the winter and early spring. I also take 5000 IU of vitamin D and use a happy light.
I started taking Moringa about ten days ago and it has made a huge difference with my RA symptoms. I also seem to be sleeping better, my skin is clearing up, and I have less muscle soreness from my fibromyalgia. It's not gone, but it is there. I am waking up feeling like I slept, which is really nice. I still tire out very easily and have to pace myself, but the enervating exhaustion is gone most days. I'm feeling better than I have in a long while. They tout it as a miracle tree, and I don't know about that, but it does help along with the Embrel and the Hydroxychloroquine.
And I've felt up to making meals a lot more often, too. Which helps with the food budget a lot. Tonight we are having herb baked chicken. Spice Islands has this Garlic Herb Seasoning that comes in a big container from Costco and it is our new go to seasoning.
I don't even miss Lawry's anymore or Paprika that much, which used to be our go to seasoning before my daughter had to quit using any spice that was hot (as opposed to warming like coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg). This stuff has been fantastic on chicken, beef, and salmon. I haven't tried it yet on pork or lamb or other types of seafood, but I can't imagine it won't be good. I've been looking for a long time to find an all purpose seasoning so this makes me very happy. It's the little things in life, you know?
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November 25th, 2018 at 02:05 am
DH has made a couple of household purchases this week. He spent $20 on a cast iron heating duct cover for the bathroom floor. The heating duct in the bathroom is really close to the toilet and sometimes gets stepped on. It is really poorly placed and it should have been moved when the remodel was done a few years ago, but they didn't do it.
We have broken the last two plastic covers in a relatively short amount of time. This one is solid. You can literally stand on top of it with no issue whatsoever. Not that we will on purpose, but the fact that we can without it breaking is wonderful.
Then today he picked up a box of screws and spent $12. He needed it to assemble the desk he and DS are building. DH got two gorgeous desk top pieces about a year ago free from a store that was at the end of a close out sale and just wanted to get rid of them. They had been trying to sell them for $5 the week before, but there had been no takers.
So they built legs for it and DS sanded them and stained them a really pretty dark blue that will match the curtains and bed spread in the room. They will finish the assembly today and put it in his room. The only thing it won't have yet is a pull out keyboard drawer. DS will be purchasing that and attaching it once he has saved up the money for it. We paid for the wood to make the legs, the stain, and the screws. I told DS that if he wanted the drawer he had to pony up the money himself.
The great thing about this is they were able to cut the legs to the exact right height for DS to work comfortably at it. Sometimes when you are tall the desks are way too short. As for the other desk top, DH put it on top of an old high sewing table he'd inherited years ago for his own desk. It looks great and gives him much more surface area. He didn't even need to attach it so many out on that one at all. Not bad for free.
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September 20th, 2018 at 04:06 am
Mom's surgery went well, though she is in quite a bit of pain. I saw her yesterday afterwards, but she called and told me not to come today. I had not planned to go until after dinner, and by then she was just too tired and hurting and wanted to just sleep. So I will go up and see her tomorrow unless she it too tired and sore again. She's supposed to come home on Friday, so hopefully the pain will be manageable by then. She doesn't want to take Oxycodone because of hallucinations or Hydrocodone because it makes her feel unclear in the head. We'll see what she ends up actually coming home with.
The grocery ads came in the mail today so I started a preliminary grocery list. It is not a good sales week except for meat. They have whole chickens on for $1.49/lb, top round roast for $2.99/lb, wild cod for $6.49/lb and sirloin steaks for $5/lb. So that means I will likely go to Costco and TJ's for veggies.
I usually throw a whole chicken in the Instant Pot twice a week to make broth and then my daughter eats the meat as chicken is about all she can stomach. I use some of it, but mostly she is living on that chicken plus white rice and broth all week. It's bland enough for her to keep it down. I make the rice with some of the broth, too, so it has some flavor.
I hope to find a flank steak on mark down as I'd like to teach my son how to make beef teriyaki this coming week. Failing that, Costco should have one decently priced.
DS and I are doing Home Economics. Part of that is he is reading the Dave Ramsey books, but another part is cooking. The first Unit in my cooking course (designed by me) is Wok This Way and is teaching him to make all the different stir-fries. So far he has learned Black Pepper Chicken, Chicken and Broccoli, Chinese Pepper Steak, and Garlic Chicken and Green Beans. On the agenda is the Beef Teriyaki, but I'd also like to do Mandarin Chicken and Mongolian Beef and what is basically Almond Fried Chicken without the almonds. We don't like almonds, but we like the crispy chicken and the Chinese brown gravy. We sprinkle sesame seeds on top instead.
We will also do a baking unit (doughnuts, bread, rolls, pie, cinnamon rolls, English muffins, lemon poppy seed muffins, cornbread, brownies, cake, cookies, croissants, biscuits), a pressure cooking unit (mostly Instant Pot), a casserole unit, a meat and potatoes style unit, a Mexican unit, and an Italian unit (pizza, penne, spaghetti, ravioli, tortellini). Some things will overlap, like Enchilada casserole or baked penne casserole which each could be classified in two groups.
We do about two lessons a week right now and I build it into the meal plan. It feels good to know he will know his way around the kitchen and we are really enjoying the time together and I appreciate having the help in cutting up the foods and cleaning up. I also like knowing he will know how to make better than restaurant quality food for much less money than restaurant prices. Having a second major cook in the house will be great, too, on the days when I don't feel like cooking or my hands hurt too much. DH can make a few things, but his repertoire is limited. DS is going to be able to rule the kitchen when I am done with him!
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February 20th, 2017 at 06:07 am
My new project is teaching myself to crochet. I can do the chain stitch (which is easy and I've known how to do since I was a kid) and the crochet stitch so far. It took me a good five hours to get the crochet stitch down. I kept crocheting and unraveling and starting over again. I think I've got it fairly well, so now I have to learn a new stitch.
I got bored with loom knitting and someone in my family kept posting cool crochet projects, so I thought it was time to try again. It's a great thing to do while I'm listening to my internet Bible study. Job is a little hard to get through (although it feels very relevant), so it helps to have something to occupy my hands while I listen. But I digress. I want to eventually make some blankets and then move on to cute toys.
My husband's project is that he is finally building the canning shelves out of all those high quality pallets we scored earlier this fall. He put the prototype shelf together today and tomorrow he (with some help from me) will put together the first unit. The bookcases we are using now are only 3 jars deep and 7 jars wide, so 21 quart jars per shelf.
The new cases will be 5 jars deep and 6 jars wide, so 30 pint jars per shelf. There are five shelves on the old cases, and this will have quite a few more shelves, so I ought to be able to fit a lot more jars on them.
It will also have the shelves spaced so they are the height of the jars, plus one inch. No wasted space. When our living space is so limited as it is, this will make a big difference. And they will have a lip on each shelf to keep the jars in place if there is an earthquake. I am excited to see this finally come to fruition.
Most of the wood in it will be free. We have to buy four 2 x 4's per unit (people don't give away good 2 x 4's) and DH bought a two pound box of screws for $20. We bought the first four 2 x 4's, so that was $10. We are hoping to only put about $15 worth into each set of cases. Since we have a steady supply of pallets, this might be something DH can put together for other people as well and sell them. It would be a nice side income stream if it panned out. We'll have to see how long it takes to put one together and also how long it takes to disassemble all the pallets before deciding on a price.
He can also build spice shelves and regular bookcases, too. You can't find solid wood bookcases for less than $150. Just plywood and press wood with veneers on them. So if we priced them right, they'd probably sell decently. We'll have to see, though. Right now, I want my cases and my spice rack that can hold my gazillion jars of spices.
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