The saga continues

It's another round of offer/counteroffer.  They dropped another $6000 in today's round and even more interestingly- they have offered to have a face to face to 'discuss home conditions and remedies' and 'hopefully eliminate any misunderstandings about property condition'.  Great! Bring it on!  I have no misunderstandings about the condition of the property and I would love to educate them.  V and I spent the last few hours compiling our lists.  I say lists because we have several.  First we have the 'major concerns' list including:  insulation (which we have decided that due to animal incursions into the attic we want the existing insulation removed and then replaced with new), weatherization concerns (windows, screens, sealing the mudsill, etc), re-roofing the porch, garage and barn, and, not the least: the rot issues.  We also have the 'other concerns' list- the painting, outlets, broken light fixtures and bulbs, wiring issues.  Lastly, we have the list of 'reasons we don't think it is worth $300,000.  This one includes things like the basement being finished for a business and not for domestic use, outdated kitchen and bath, drainage and erosion issues with the land and a few other things.

We've looked at other properties in this price range, one just a few weeks ago.  With all but one of the others, the houses were beautiful and 'move-in' ready but there were things with location or the land that we didn't like.  I've seen what kind of house that much money can buy here- this one isn't it.  

I'm really interested in hearing their rationalization for why they think this property is worth that much.  Now it's time for the realtors to try to set up a meeting time. Unfortunately, V has a rush editing job for his former employer and also a project coming from his brother's firm tomorrow so he's going to be busy.

We'll see what happens.  Time to put on my game face.  GRRR.

The latest

Well, they didn't accept our offer.  They sent a counteroffer of $10,000 less than their original asking price.  We're countering back by raising our offer $5000.  With the amount of work that the house needs and what it will cost us to repair it we have a definite upper limit of what we will be willing to spend.  Currently there is a $40,000 difference between our offers.  We'll see who wins this game of chicken.  Really, they own the land but we hold almost all of the cards. We can set our upper limit and tell them take it or leave it. We would be out of that land but we still have our house and the garden with Roger so we can't lose.  They will be stuck with this land and a house that is in really bad shape.  We're in the bargaining phase-  and my stomach is churning.  

I've showed you the pretty stuff about this place- here is a little of the problem areas:

This one is minor but there is lots of sloppy wiring.  Lots of sloppy work on everything.

The attic vent has been pulled out and there are critters up there.  Not sure what....

The entire length of this board looks like this off and on all along the north side of the house- it goes all the way through leaving another entrance to the attic space.  There is lots of other dry rot in the siding and windowsills/frames and the thresholds of the doors.

All this, combined with the fact that there is almost no insulation in the house (attic or walls) means that there is a lot of work and expense when/if we get this place.  I really don't see how, even with the land and outbuildings attached, that they can be asking well over $300,000 for this place.

Keep your fingers crossed.  We'll see who wins the game of offer/counteroffer.

I don't wait well...

Ok, I'm getting anxious.  Our realtor met with their realtor- I don't think they had lunch, though.  He did a fabulous job with the presentation (or at least what we saw was great).  He took lots of pictures and presented a bound portfolio of color pics with the proposal detailing the problems we have with the house and why we are offering a reduced price.  I guess he tried to sell the other realtor that this was a good offer based on what he had seen of the house and that the chances of getting someone else willing and/or able to put the work into this house that it needs, are slim to none.  

We'll have to see how it goes.  Evidently the couple who own the property had another offer in a similar price range to ours and turned it down.  What I don't know is how long ago that was.  I guess this other person had no intention of fixing up the house.  They planned to bulldoze it and build new (although that may be easier and faster than rehabing it!)  The price the owners are asking is totally outrageous considering the amount of work that needs to be done on this house.  I don't know if they think they need to get a certain price to 'get back' what they put into it or what.  Both we and our realtor (who has 40 years of experience) feels that our offer is reasonable given the condition of the house.  Personally, I would think that a second offer at about the same price would send a pretty clear message of what it's worth- or what people are willing to pay.  I'm hoping that they're more motivated to sell, even at a lower price since the house has been on the market for so long.

The other realtor was to be meeting with the owners this afternoon. We gave them until 1 pm tomorrow afternoon to make the decision to accept or not. Sigh...

In other news, I spent this lovely day working hard to get this place into condition to sell.  I spent the afternoon stripping the wallpaper from the upstairs bathroom and scrubbing the walls in preparation for painting. J14 helped a bit with the stripping part.  The wallpaper had been there since we moved in and was awful.  We've been planning to remove it for a long time and I've just been waiting for it to get warm enough to open windows while I work.  The children are off on spring break next week so I'm giving J14 the task of priming and painting tomorrow and Tuesday since the weather is supposed to be lovely- at least for the first part of the week.  I forewarned her that she'd better get used to the work. If the house sale goes through we will be working on two houses simultaneously, while in the spring rush of garden planting.  Whoosh!

More gratuitous photos

Hills and valleys!

The tops of the rises are fairly clear of trees.  I'm envisioning berries and possibly a gazebo.

View from the south end, looking at the house. Children exploring near small pool.

Kids and creeks!  J and K work on a small waterfall.

I think this is the spring fed creek. 

The rise to the rear (southeast) is lovely and flat on top, with hickory and walnut trees around the edges.

Making the offer!!!

Is this the house of the future??? The view from the southeast

It isn't much to look at and it has it's issues but we're making an offer today.  We spent about 2 and a half hours out there, walking the perimeter of the property, going over all the buildings and talking offering price.  I'm really happy with the agent we have representing us.  He evidently went out to the property earlier in the week by himself and had already made notes of lots of things. He had called the company that services the well and septic and asked about records for all those things.  

From the dining room to the kitchen.

From the drive, looking west at the barn and pole building.

The riding arena.

Ok, looking at this, maybe I don't want my garden here.  It seems really wet, even with the gravel and sand base. With the weather sunny and 50 we had more time and motivation to wander the property so I was able to scope out several other places for a garden so maybe this is out.

The house needs LOTS of work- V will have his hands full (as will I) but here is the biggest selling point:

The view from the deck to the south. Heaven!!

The kids had so much fun playing in the creeks.  There are, I think, 4 creeks that converge on the property.  Where they join there is a tiny pool where K9 discovered a little fish, which tells me that there is likely water there year round.  To me, that means that at least one of these creeks is spring fed rather than just being intermittent drainage.  

I have tons more pictures, lots of the children exploring- I'll try to post some more later.  Now, lets just hope they like our offer.

Waiting....

Tomorrow is the day.  We go for another look see- kids in tow, and make our plan for an offer on the property.  We've been having fun making plans.  V and J14 are talking about turning part of the riding arena into a mediaeval fighting ground, or an open air theatre. Me, I just want my raised bed garden spot.  But as big as it is, we would have room for both.  V has been researching how to better insulate the pole barn.  It should be fun. We've begun to come to terms with the amount of work that will be involved with this house.

I'm a bit anxious though.  Today was a crazy-busy day at work and now we're unwinding.  We got a bottle of pre-mixed zombies and have been sampling.  Maybe that's why I'm having trouble typing correctly.  While we do indulge in alcoholic beverages (I know some of you are SHOCKED! by this) we really don't drink that much.  I haven't had a zombie since my college days- Wow!

V just refilled my glass- I'd better go while I can ;)

Wacky Wednesday!

Whew!  I made it.  What a day!  I didn't sleep well last night so I've been up essentially since about 230 this morning.  Oh, I dozed off and on after that but not very well.  I haven't slept well in years.  I tried the medicated sleep for a while but didn't like it.

Anyway,  after a full day of work, we picked up I11 from band, ran to the soup supper, served and ate quickly and they flew to J14's concert.  That was nice...although with as tired as I was classical music about put me to sleep.  So now, here I am, unwinding.  Hopefully I'm not too keyed up to sleep.

We have an appointment with our realtor on Saturday to go through the house with a fine tooth comb and make our offer.  While we were waiting for the concert to start V and I were talking about plans: kitchen remodel (minor), basement, outbuildings and garden space.  I hope we can come up with a reasonable offer,  I would love to know one way or another soon. Partly for purely selfish reasons.   I have the most recent Gurney's catalog.  They have a special deal that when you purchase $25 you get an additional $25 worth of merchandise free.  I was eyeing the raspberry, blueberry and strawberry deals that are already buy one get one free offers and was plotting how much I could get for about $30.  Unfortunately the offer expires on the 18th.  That's one week from today.  I don't want to get too hopeful and order, only to have something fall through and have no where to put things. But on the other hand, I can get some great deals and I'd love to get things in the ground sooner than later.  I guess at worst, I could plant things at my parent's or at Roger's place and then transplant at a later time but I hate to do that.  Well, hopefully I'll know something soon.  I think we're going to give them 2 days to respond to the offer when we make it.  I do hope they're motivated to sell.

A question about apples

I've got a question.  I'm not an expert on apples.  My parents have an orchard and I've grown up around apple trees but I really don't know that much about them.   Here's the scoop:

A few weeks ago I was cutting up an apple for K (now 9) as I was cutting out the core a seed fell out.  The curious thing was that it was starting to sprout.  Since they are doing their 'growing things' unit in science at school he wanted to plant it.  I've got no problem with that.  We get an old cup, fill it with seed starting mix, popped the seed in and set under the lights downstairs.  Given that the apple had been in the fridge I wasn't sure if it would continue to grow but it did.  Now we have a lovely little apple tree in a cup- it is a few inches tall and has 4 leaves on it.  I fully realize that it will be many years until this would bear fruit but my question is this:  Do apples grow true to the parent fruit?  This was from a Braeburn (Yeah, I bought some since we were out).  K is so excited to have an apple tree but will it be Braeburn apples if it lives long enough to produce?  I guess I'll have a few years to work on this one.  Now we just need to find a place to plant it where we will be around for a few years- I know it won't last forever in it's little solo cup.

First up!

Amish Paste wins!  Followed by Cherry Roma in a close race.  India Paint eggplant in third!

Wow! who knew seed starting could be so much fun.  Some of my little seedlings are starting to pop up. Too much fun and excitement for me.  I left for work this morning- nothing-  I come home and there is a little green buddy popped up and several others beginning to show.  Isn't it amazing how quickly they grow.  I was a bit surprised by the cherry roma tomato.  It's an heirloom variety but the seed is a couple of years old.  I didn't expect it to germinate as well.  We'll see how many of them come up, though.

In house news- we're trying to work out a time to go with our realtor back out to the acreage for an extended walk through to finalize our offer.  Probably Thursday afternoon or Saturday.  

I'd do it sooner but tomorrow is a crazy day.  I11 has band until 430.  By 5 J14 and I need to be at church to serve at a soup supper and by 630 J needs to be back at the high school for her orchestra concert.  The concert is usually held on the university campus but due to flooding last year, the arts/music buildings are still out of commission. Anyway, it's going to be a long day.

Friday V has an appointment in the psych clinic that I don't want him to miss.  He seems to be holding up well from a depression standpoint, I think the excitement of the house helps and having work from his brother and other freelance jobs is good. But after the trouble we had a few years ago with his depression, I'm not taking any chances.

Thursday looks promising for us it the realtor can make it. I can most likely sneak out of work early (although I have to meet with folks from the University of Calgary from 1-2) and the kids have an early release day from school (out at 2 and 215) since they really want to come see.  

I'm getting excited.  I really, really hope this works out. Since the house is vacant, if we can come to a quick agreement on price and get all the inspections done maybe there is still time to plant some garden out there this year.  A lot of things don't go in until about Mother's day so I've got some time but the early garden may still end up at Roger's house.

Roger is a bit sad that he may be gardening alone but he's also excited about the possibilities for us.  What a good friend.  I will miss gardening with him.  We can still share seedlings since we each planted different things.

Gotta run.  I need to bake brownies for this dinner tomorrow night.

In the works

Things are moving on the home front.  We met this afternoon with a realtor who looked around our house and gave us his opinion on selling it.  He seemed to think that we should be able to get our top asking price for it and that it would sell relatively quickly, even in this economy.  Our location saves us again.  Even though we are a single family home, we are in a high density zoning area and evidently properties in this zone don't come up for sale often.  He pointed out some of the things we already knew- we need some painting and minor cosmetic repairs before we put it on the market.  He also gave us his opinion on the property we have been looking at.  He seemed to think that what we are thinking about offering is reasonable and encouraged us to make an offer soon, since more people are out looking when the weather warms up.  He also reminded us that acreages this close in don't come up often.  We're beginning to prepare our offer.  I think we want to go look again before we submit it and take the children along this time so they can see what we're getting into.  Things may be moving quickly from here on out. I'll keep you posted.

Independence Days- week 14

Another week gone by already!  Where does the time go? It seems like it's been a busy week but I don't really feel like I've accomplished much.  But then, how I feel doesn't always correspond with what I've done.  I really like the Independence Days challenge- it helps me see how much I've accomplished toward my goals. Speaking of goals- I'll have to do a post on my personal goals for the year soon.

1. Plant something- YES!!  I have 8 varieties of tomatoes, 5 varieties of peppers and eggplant down in the basement with heating cables and lights.  My little broccoli seedlings are doing well but don't seem to be growing very fast, and my hot peppers that I started early are hanging in there as well.  Roger keeps asking me if the potato sets have arrived and I keep telling him "No, it's still too early- but soon..."

2. Harvest something- Other than snacking on a few lettuce leaves while I was checking the seeds, NO.

3. Preserve something- nope

4. Store something-  25 lbs of whole wheat flour, 12 lbs of oatmeal, 5 lbs of rolled seven grain blend, half lb packages of sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds, 1 lb of wheat germ, craisins and dried apricots from the Amish bulk store.  Can you tell that I had granola bars on the brain while shopping.   Made a double batch of waffles to freeze for this week's breakfasts.

5. Manage reserves- Had a lovely creamy butternut squash soup for lunch from the last of the squash.  It didn't have a spot but was starting to wrinkle a bit at the stem end. Ate mostly from stores all week but did have several big shopping trips this weekend- once to the bulk store and once to the local grocery- there were a lot of things that we were about out of.  

6. Cook something new-  Tried my hand at fondant for K-9's birthday cake which turned out well.  Improvised my own recipe for granola bars.

7. Prep something- Not really.  J14 and I found another candle sale and picked up 2 pillar candles for the sconces in the living room since the ones there are getting low.

8. Reduce waste- The usual, plus I reused a saved gift bag for K's birthday presents.  One of K's presents was from e-bay so wasn't new.

9. Learn a new skill-  Hmmm- I looked at my knitting sitting by the couch- does that count?

10.  Community food security- Donated a bag of canned goods to the local food pantry.  I had picked them up a while ago when there was a good sale at the store and finally remembered to take them along to drop them off.

11. Regenerate what is lost- had lunch with one of the other OTs where I work who lives down the street.  She works in a different division than I do, so I don't get to see her much.

12.  Behavior change-  working to not procrastinate.  Did the mandatory on-line training the day after we got the e-mail about it so I didn't forget.  I'm trying really hard to keep my inbox in line at work and respond promptly to emails.

Yesterday V and I went to look at another property.  It is relatively new on the market with 4.5 acres and a 3 to 4 bedroom house.  They were having an open house and we thought it would be a good opportunity to check it  out.  Let's just say that we nearly drove right on by when we got there.  The house was lovely - almost too much so- it looked like something out of a magazine with lots of busy wallpaper and 'stuff'.  Not our style at all but a nice house.  The problem was the land.  There may be 4.5 acres but the house sits on the only flat part and it appears that the rest of the land encompasses a wooded ravine.  Don't think so.  So we are back to thinking about the first one and trying to decide if it's worth the amount of work that would be required.  I need to push V to make the appointment with the realtor but I don't want to nag him.

I did manage to get lots done this weekend- the usual laundry, cooking and cleaning.  I've got the meals planned for the week but it's going to be a busy one.  We're double booked on Wednesday evening so things could get interesting.

Hope everyone has a great week.

Name change

K8 has a name change today.  He is now K9.  Although, I will always think of a dog when I type that so I may need to think of something else.  V and I had a lovely afternoon off together.  We ran errands in the morning and then spent the afternoon decorating K's cake.  It was our first attempt at sculpting a cake and covering it with rolled fondant.  It actually turned out rather well for a first attempt.  We made the cake shaped like a whale- it is a family joke from bedtime when V will often flop on top of K tickling him talking about being a wormy bed whale.  Ok, I guess you have to be there for it to be funny.  Anyway, we made a wormy whale- yes, it had gummy worms inside it as well as for the spout.

V trimming the fondant.

Here I am, presenting the finished cake to a delighted K9.

K loved it!  "It is so weirdly awesome' I think was the direct quote.  Anyway, it was a wonderful afternoon working with V, laughing and being silly while we tried to figure this out.    J14 has now demanded something equally 'awesome' for her birthday. Hmm, I have 2 months to figure that one out.

Signs of spring

The first tulip!

It was a sunny 70* here this afternoon!  What a tease! The first tulips are starting to peek out of the soil.  We completely rebedded them last fall, hoping for a more spectacular show this spring in hopes of showing the house.  I'm sure it will get cold again and things aren't completely thawed anyway but it certainly makes me want to get into the garden.  I picked up my fencing material that I'm going to be using to trellis my peas (we're planting a lot more than usual so I got new fencing), and tomorrow or Saturday I'm going to be starting my tomatoes and peppers.  I think I need to try some more hot peppers. While 3 jalapeno plants and 3 hot hungarian wax should be enough I only had one Anaheim come up (out of 6 seeds started)  We eat a lot of stuffed chilis in the summer (and winter, I freeze them halved so we can stuff them).  I had really hoped for a better germination rate for them.  I don't know if it's because these are heirloom varieties and not the hybrids I've started in the past or what but I had bad luck with the hot peppers this year.

V and I talked.  With the economic news getting bleaker and bleaker, it seems, we are still hopeful about the house.  We will still plan to meet with the realtor to see what he feels are the odds of our house selling in a reasonable amount of time.  If we can sell this place, the new place is quite doable, if they accept our offer (or a reasonable one).  Again, I'm impatient and not wanting to wait.  V has been going to call but he's been busy working.  He is, in fact, still sitting at the table working on a manuscript that he has to turn back in to the publisher tomorrow morning. So, he hasn't taken the time to call to set up an appointment.  I am trying to be patient,  I realize that, given that this house has been on the market for so long, the odds that someone else will beat us to it a this point are small- but you never know.

I have tomorrow off work since I worked last Saturday.  We've got a lot planned.  A run to the local Amish bulk store- we're OUT of oatmeal and will also pick up a few other things. A trip to Menard's to pick up another fluorescent bulb for my grow lights- and we have a cake to decorate. We're going out for dinner as a family tomorrow night for K's birthday. That should be fun, it's something we rarely do.

Now, I need to go bake a cake so it is cool enough to frost tomorrow- We're making it shaped like a whale!  (family joke)  I'll take pictures.

Weekly meal plan

Ooo, a two post day.  What will everyone think!  

I was going to post this yesterday but never got around to it.  I was tired after only getting a few hours of sleep on Sunday night and just didn't have my heart in it.

Here is the meal plan for this week- even though we're already partway into it.

Monday- Beef roast with winter veggies.  On Mondays J14 has orchestra so we don't eat until about 7 pm so I have time to do something that will take longer.

Tuesday- Beef and been burritos with homemade salsa. Ok, I'll admit, I used canned refrieds- soaking and cooking beans just didn't happen.

Wednesday- Cheese tortellini with pesto. (Veg)  Ok, another confession- I love the local store brand of frozen cheese tortellini.  It is not terribly expensive, really easy to make and quite tasty.  The pesto is from the garden.  I make it (minus the cheese and some of the olive oil) and freeze it in ice cube trays in the fall.  I pop the cubes out of the tray into a freezer bag then thaw as much as I need, add parmesan cheese and olive oil, and voila!

Thursday- Stir fry with Tofu over rice (Veg) using mostly frozen veggies.

Friday- K's choice! K8 will have a name change and become K9 on Friday.  It is our family tradition that the birthday boy or girl gets to choose what or where to eat (within reason).  K8 had initially chosen Kneip- an old family recipe of egg dumplings in broth but now he changed his mind and wants to go out to dinner at The Mill- a local restaurant- he LOVES their chicken strips.   I'm a bit hesitant to go to a restaurant/bar downtown on a Friday night but I think we'll be home long before the college bar crowd is out.

We're eating 2 vegetarian meals this week.  We generally try for at least one per week and have really tried to cut down on the amount of meat we eat at other meals as well.

Cold Feet

And not the kind you can warm with slippers...  

The recent economic down turn has gotten V worried.  He is concerned that if things continue to get worse the hospital will make more cuts.  While that is always a possibility, I do feel that they would be shooting themselves in the foot to make more cuts in staffing.  Of course, no one ever said that hospital administrators always make the best decisions.  I'm not too worried.  Our division already gave up the new staff we had been promised and are going to be cutting another .2 FTE.  That will leave us only 4.05 FTE to cover 5 inpatient units, 2 outpatient programs and outpatient cognitive evaluations.  I'm not holding my breath that we will get a raise in July like we usually do but I'm okay with that given the current situation.  I may be wrong but I really don't foresee my hours being cut.

But V is worried.  He wants to back out of making an offer on this property and just sit tight for a while longer.  I'm anxious to move on- we've been 'sitting tight' for too long.  We really need time to sit down and talk about this but I've been busy at work and we've been running in the evenings this week.  V has been working on freelance stuff.  He has a bunch of start up stuff for his brother and has a manuscript to edit for his former employer by Friday as well.

I want to make an appointment to meet with a realtor.  A different one than who showed us the house.  We will eventually need someone to help us sell this place and we want someone who can help us negotiate on this property- who is more experienced than we are.  We know a realtor socially (he is a friend of my brother and we have chatted with him several times at my brother's parties) and I've been trying to talk V into at least going to talk with him.  Who knows- he may know of something in our price range that we haven't found.  There is another place that we've looked at on line- but it's only 3 acres and it's almost 20 miles from town and the children would be in a different school district unless we wanted to pay for them to remain in this district and provide transportation- that seems a bit much- but the house on that property was built in 1990 rather than 1951 and would be much less work to repair.  It does have a bit of the McMansion look about it- it looks like a garage with a house attached-yuck.

I'm going to try to corner V tonight after we get the children to bed.  Hopefully we can both stay awake.  I think we both slept better last night than we did the night before so we're not dragging our tails quite as much.  Sunday night both of us had too much running through our heads about house stuff.  I was cataloguing problems and V admitted that he was choosing power tools for different projects in his head (I guess that means he's willing to tackle them)

I really don't want to give up on this one.  I know that the economic times are scary but I feel that we're in a much better position than many.  

I guess I allowed myself to get my hopes up and I'm worried that it will all fall apart.

Independence Days- week 13 and other news

What a week!  Things have been flying around here!  Trips to the bank, working 6 days straight and then today, out to look at a house.  Whew!  No wonder I'm tired tonight.  It has been a challenging week in my Independence Days- but here's the run down.

1. Plant something- Not this week but I have 30 little broccoli seedlings in the basement and a few of my hot peppers have begun to sprout.  I plan to start my tomatoes next weekend so I hope my peppers finish sprouting so I can move the heating cable to the new flats.

2. Harvest something- Only a few leaves of lettuce from the container in the basement.

3. Preserve something- Nope.

4. Store something- No to this one as well. We kind of stopped buying anything until we know if housing is going to change.

5. Manage reserves- Ate mostly from stores.  Only made a trip to the store for milk, eggs and booze (We did need to celebrate after securing a loan!)

6. Cook something new- No, again.  Another boring week.  With so much going on I haven't been in the mood to try something new.  We've been sticking to old standbys.

7. Prep something- other than house hunting, nope.

8. Reduce waste- just the usual.

9. Learn a new skill- No to this one as well.

10. Work on community food security- Um, not so much

11. Regenerate what is lost- Hmm. Not sure.  

12. Behavior change- Well, things have been flying around here so the procrastination certainly isn't a problem, at least for me.  I was a bit cranky with V when I thought he was procrastinating about making appointments with the banks.

House hunting update:

V walking uphill through the meadow.  Pole building at the top, house beyond that at the crest of the hill.

From the bottom of the meadow looking north to the riding arena.

When it thaws it will be quite squishy here.

Well, we spent a while looking at the acreage this afternoon.  The land is beautiful.  A bit of it will likely be much too wet to be really useful as it is the confluence of several drainage areas from neighboring farm fields.  But there is plenty of high ground although the entire property is rather hillier than I had hoped.  

The barn is lovely.  A 3 stall 'hobby barn' with a hay loft.  The pole building is just that:  big and blue with a concrete floor.  It isn't well insulated but it does have heat.

The house, however, has 'issues'.   We spent quite a lot of time hashing it over after we got home and have decided that we are going to make an offer- but at about $50,000 less than their asking price.  The realtor said they were pretty motivated to sell (the house has been sitting vacant for about 8 months).  There is no way we will agree to the selling price- there are too many problems that need fixed and if we end up paying too much for the house we won't be able to afford any repairs (figuring finances with mortgage on the full asking price we would be pushing it to stay in the black on just my salary.)  What issues are we arguing?  Here are a few:

There is only 2-3 inches of insulation in the attic (that should be a crime in Iowa!)

Very little weatherization has been done (crappy storm windows and only 1 of the 4 exterior doors has a storm door).

There are drainage issues (no gutters or downspouts!) and the basement leaks a little.

The breather stack on the septic is nearly rusted through and would need replaced.

There are several broken windows and numerous screens that will need repaired.

There is rotted wood on some of the window sills.

There is a huge crack in the chimney (at least in the plaster covering it- we're not sure if it's structural or not).

They were evidently doing some repainting but now there are missing switch plates and outlet covers and there is some exposed wiring.

There are significant erosion problems with the driveway.

The basement will need almost totally remodeled for domestic use.  The basement had been converted into a veterinary clinic so the space has been chopped up into lots of little exam and procedure rooms- and there are more plumbing fixtures and lighting than anyone would need. 

Even though they list a refrigerator, there isn't one there- not that's an issue, we were planning to take ours with us anyway, but we're thinking of offering to overlook the missing fridge if they throw in the Cub Cadet riding mower in the garage ;)

This isn't even the entire list- we have an entire page of problems that we found.

So, do you think the list is extensive enough to knock off a bunch of money?  We are willing to go a bit higher than we're offering (we're not going to tell them that, though)  but not too much.  Fortunately, we're in a good position.  We're not out anything if they refuse to play along.  We will still have this house and I can garden with Roger.  They are the ones stuck with a house that isn't selling. I guess we'll see how motivated they really are...

Oh, and the riding arena is probably out for a garden space.  It does have some weeds growing there, but it is sand over a crushed limestone base.  We would have to bring in several truckloads of topsoil and rely on raised beds.  I'm just not sure where else I would put a garden the arena is on the largest flat space on the property excepting the house.  And there are definitely deer out there.  There is deer poo all over and the shrubs in front of the house have been nibbled down to sticks.  Of course, having the house and land vacant for so long left it wide open.

We'll see how this week unfolds... Should be interesting.

It's funny...

We have only been our to the property we are looking at 'unofficially'.  That is, we went out, poked around the outbuildings and land and peered into the windows of the house.  Based on this, we have gone to 2 different financial institutions to see about loans based only on my salary.  We were approved at both.  Although I found it interesting that the guy at the credit union this afternoon, when commenting on the percentage of my salary that would be going into the payments, stated that it would be a 'lifestyle choice' to live off what little was left.   DUH!!!  Like we hadn't already considered that before we went to ask about a loan! We're not stupid.  We have done the number crunching.  Until we can sell our current home things will be TIGHT!  Fortunately, V signed the contract with his brother's energy firm for freelance work.  He will be writing a lot of their online 'presence' for them.  Except for the fact that there are no taxes or SS taken out of it all that money will be 'gravy'.  We can survive, although quite frugally, on just my salary.  We had that discussion with the children, or at least started it, at dinner tonight.  Explaining that there are some things that will be put on hold for a while.

I do find it amusing that, 'official' sight unseen even V is planning and plotting about this place.  He was talking about taking advantage of the beautiful south facing wall of the house (faces the downslope meadow and creek) to build a greenhouse/solarium attached to the house.  Hmmm, doesn't seem that he's too opposed to this one.

We get to officially see the property on Sunday afternoon.  I work all day tomorrow so that is out.  But we are meeting with the realtor on Sunday to get a look at the inside of the house- more than through the windows.  He has assured us that he will have all the outbuildings open so we can look around inside them as well.  I also want to have time to walk a bit of the property to scope out the best places for garden and such.  I'm quite tempted to dig up the riding arena that they have built to put in my garden (it's already leveled and fenced) but I have concerns about the soil compaction.  I don't really have any experiences with this.  Any suggestions? We are not planning to get a horse so will need to convert the riding arena to something else.  It is near the creek but looks well drained.  Like I said, it is fenced which I think may be an advantage with the number of deer that I expect are out there waiting to snack on an unsuspecting garden.  With the financial crunch of the mortgage payments, I will need to get the most I can from the garden this year as we will be relying on that food rather heavily.  As I said. Any and all suggestions are welcome.  

I will plan to take my camera on Sunday and may post pictures if we decide we want to make an offer.  If we make a decision that this is the place we already plan to offer them less than their asking price since we have noticed some issues that will need to be addressed either by them fixing them or by price reduction.    

I am so excited by all of this.  I am really hopeful but I'm trying not to make too many plans in my head in case things don't work out.  But it's hard...

They like me- they really like me!

The appointment at the bank went well.  We have, in our hot little hands, a pre-approval letter for the loan.  I have a call into the real estate agent and am just waiting for a call back.  It was late by the time we made it home so I didn't get a message to him until after 4 this afternoon.  Tomorrow we meet with a loan officer from the credit union so we'll see who will give us the better deal.

J14 is freaking out a bit and to be perfectly honest, so am I.  Things seem to be moving really quickly and while this is something I've been wanting for a long time it's kind of scary that it's actually happening.

In less fun news, we had a meeting with our boss today.  It turns out that we are being asked to cut our budget by $17,000.  Unfortunately, the only thing we really have to cut is staff.  We were essentially given the option of getting rid of our PRN person who helps us out one day a week (she has a full time job as a college professor but is moonlighting with us to keep up her clinical skills) or each of us take one unpaid day per month.  We opted to get rid of our PRN person, as much as we love her, we're all looking at self preservation.  Of the 5 of us permanent employees, 2 are full time (myself and another young lady married to a farmer and they just purchased land), 2 women with small children both working part time (one 80% and one 60% with 8 month old twins) and our final therapist is going through phased retirement and she only has 2 years left before she's gone.  None of us were financially willing to take unpaid leave.  This whole economic situation sucks.  I'm just happy that we may be getting our place in spite of V not working right now.  Having a bit of land will give me a sense of security in uncertain times.  I just hope it all works out.

Here's the scoop

We have appointments!  I expressed my frustration this afternoon (Ok, I'll confess- maybe I got a bit snippy) when V reported that he hadn't been able to reach anyone at the credit union.  We were having a slow day at work (a total rarity!!) so I had him pick me up half an hour early- since I generally work through my lunch break I took my break at the end of the day.  He still had his paycheck to cash so we went down to the bank, cashed his check and asked about making an appointment with a loan officer.  We have an appointment for tomorrow afternoon at 3.  With that success under our belt V decided that we may as well drive over to the credit union and talk to someone in person.  It turns out that their receptionist was out and we were directed to the teller line for all questions.  While we were in line conversing about the possibility of being able to make an appointment we were approached by a man who turned out to be the branch manager as well as vice president of the entire credit union.  He took us back to his office, got our information, got on his computer and made an appointment for us Friday at 430.  So we can see who will give us the better deal- if anyone will give us a loan at all based solely on my salary.  He seemed impressed when we told him that we don't have a mortgage on our current home, saying that gives us some leverage.  I'm thinking that if we get good news from tomorrow's appointment I'm going to give the realtor a call tomorrow after the appointment.  Things are moving.  EEEK!!

Frustration

I'm normally a pretty patient person but things are starting to get to me.  It may have something to do with my need for a sense of control as much as impatience though.  Here's the deal:  Considering that things have been busy at work and V isn't working much (only a little freelancing and he's at home for that) I handed off to him the task of setting up an appointment with the credit union to see about a loan.  Friday he put it off since he was working on a manuscript- Ok, I'm  impatient to get the ball rolling on this, but I can go along with this.  Monday, rather than just call, he sent an email to the credit union.  As of tonight he still has had no reply from them.  What crappy customer service!  I can't imagine that the loan officers there are that busy.  

He also mentioned this morning that he was going to stop by the bank where we have our checking accounts today since he still has a paycheck from his last freelance job to cash.  Did he do that- NO!  He doesn't seem as excited or anxious about this as I am.  I have this fear that we will get approved for a loan only to find that someone else has made an offer on the house.  Several times over the last year I have talked him into looking at a house only to find that it had just been sold.  

I keep telling myself that he can do this, that I don't need to jump in and take over but it's hard.  He assured me that if he didn't hear from the credit union by tomorrow noon that he would call.  But I wanted it today!  whine, whine, whine...

Taking care of business

I've been a bit preoccupied recently- not to mention really busy.  There is a bit of blog business that I'm behind on.  First, Sara at Mama Craft tagged me with the Happiness meme.

For this meme, you are to list 6 random things that make you happy.

1. Climbing into a warm bed on a cold night.

2. The smell of freshly dug dirt (can you tell I'm jonesing for the garden)

3. Saturday movie night with all 5 of us snuggling/crowding onto the couch together, eating locally grown popcorn.

4. Getting packages in the mail.

5. Cooking with my children.

6. Curling up with a good book, hot chocolate and a warm blanket.

I'm not sure how to pass this on but if you want to participate go for it!  It was fun to think about what makes me happy.

In other business, I got an award!  Edain from English, Pagan and in Canada gave me this award:

Thanks Edain!

This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his/her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values every day.

The rules to follow are:

1. Accept the award, post it on your blog, together with the name of the person that has granted the award and his or her blog link.

2. Pass the award to another (up to) 15 blogs that are worthy of the acknowledgement.  Remember to contact each of them to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Wow!  I think all of you are excellent at transmitting your values every day!  But there are a few that I think stand out.

Robbyn at The Back Forty

Joyce at tallgrassworship

Zan Asha at Wild at Heart Farm

I'm sure there are others who deserve this.  I so hate to make calls on these things.

Thanks to Sara and Edain for brightening my day!

Independence Days- week 12

Another week gone by.  I'm 12 weeks into my participation in the Independence Days challenge.  Things are beginning to pick up with spring approaching.  I'm hopeful for the future but we'll see what the next week brings.

This week:

1. Plant something- YES!!  Yesterday I planted broccoli and 3 varieties of hot peppers under the lights downstairs. As an experiment I used toilet tissue tubes (cut in half) for pots for starting my seeds.  The cardboard tubes should disintegrate when the seedlings are planted either into larger pots or into the ground.  We'll see how it works.  So far so good.  They are actually about the same size as a little peat pot and were essentially free.  

2. Harvest something- Had lettuce from under the lights for salads last night.  I'm going to have to find somewhere else for it to live in a few weeks as I need my space under the lights for tomatoes.  Maybe by that time it will warm up enough that I can out it outside, at least during the days.

3.  Preserve something- No

4. Store something- picked up unbleached flour on sale for an extra. Purchased 20 lbs of chicken hindquarters at 49 cents a pound.  Froze most of it and made stock from some to be used this week.  Also got a pack of red hots (heart shaped ones) on discount after Valentine's day.

5. Manage reserves- Ate almost entirely from stores this week.  Only had to pick up a few things from the store for next week's menu plan.

6. Cook something new- um, no. Nothing new- we've been pretty boring lately.

7. Prep something- other than house hunting- Nope.

8. Reduce waste- recycled, composted and used cloth bags as usual.  Used empty toilet tissue roles as 'peat' pots for seed starting- we'll see how it goes.

9. Learn a new skill- Hmmm- worked a little on knitting but not much else.

10. Work on community food security- helped cook and serve at a pancake breakfast this morning that was a benefit for our local crisis center.  We raised $500 directly and I think there will be about an additional $150 in matching funds available.  Not bad for a morning of serving pancakes.

11.  Regenerate what is lost- It's been a slow week.  Since I was sick for half the week with respiratory crud I wasn't feeling as ambitious as usual.

12.  Behavior change- I'm working on not procrastinating.  I need to sit down with V tonight before bed and work out a timeline for meeting with the bank. We need to make sure we have all the documentation we need before we go.

House hunting update-  We went out yesterday and peered in the windows and poked around the outbuildings a bit.  Of course, everything is locked up, but we took mental notes of issues that we can either ask to have fixed or ask for a price reduction.  Also today I was curious so I looked up information on the county website about that parcel of land.  It turns out that the county has it recorded as only 5.74 acres rather than the 7 that it is advertised.  Something to investigate and challenge the price on if it's accurate.  I've been making a list of the minor repairs and things that will need to be done to this place to get it ready to sell.  

J14 has also been bitten by the acreage bug now, and has become almost as obsessed as I have been with plotting and planning, even though there are NO definite plans.  I got (very late last week) the Gurney's seed catalog and have been looking wistfully at new varieties of raspberries, blueberries and such that I don't have room for here- dreaming of lots more space- envisioning that lovely meadow sloping down to the creek brimming with berries and wildflowers- maybe even a bee hive.  

Need to get those financial documents in place.  V has a manuscript to hand in tomorrow morning and has a conference call Tuesday about his new freelance job.  Things are moving but I'm impatient.

No new developments

Not much new to report here.  I was too busy at work today to have time to contact the local credit union for an appointment time.  V had a freelance job he was working on today and even though I tried to prod him, he didn't make an appointment either- although he did take time to play with the online mortgage calculators.  The one at the credit union says we don't qualify for a loan as large as we want.  Of course, they don't take into consideration any assets and we have our house that we plan to put on the market or rent when we're out.  I don't think our chances of selling this place are good while we're in it.

We have accounts at both a local bank and at the credit union.  We got both our last house loan and our car loan through the credit union since they tended to offer better deals.  We'll have to see. Both are offering about the same interest rates, but from what I've seen on line, the bank may actually be more willing to work with us.  Last time the credit union immediately sold our loan to a large holding company anyway.  

We were talking about house and finances over dinner.  The biggest concern now seems to be having enough money to make modifications to the house (one of my first priorities is a wood stove). It seems we, at least, have moved beyond the worry that we can make the payments to figuring out how we can still have the extras. I just hope the bank will see it our way.

I DO so hope this can work out.  This is something I have been dreaming about for years.  I really hate this economic chaos that has interfered with our dream.  Things would be so much easier if V still had his job.  The work with his brother won't bring in much and he doesn't have a signed agreement yet so we can't really count it.  So we're hoping to secure this loan with just my income.  (Sigh)  We did it before.  V wasn't working when we bought this place so I know it can be done.  The stakes are just a bit higher now, and I feel more of a sense of urgency.

I hate to be negative but I feel a real need to have some land and the ability to support ourselves should things get really bad.  If it turns out that V can't find a job we can still feed ourselves, at least.

Well, now I'm just getting depressing....  

I will be planting my broccoli seeds tomorrow.  I can't wait to get my hands in the dirt, even if it's only under the lights.

Thinking it over

We've been talking over finances and moving again.  We may have found somewhere.  Better house than the last one.  This one is a 4 bedroom on 7 acres.  I think I have V talked into going to the bank to see if we can get a loan based on just my salary.  Payments would be doable if we can get the loan.  

In good news for him he will be doing some freelancing work for his brother's energy firm that should pay $500 a month.  Hurrah!

Independence Days- week 11

Busy, busy weekend, and it's not even the busy time of the year yet.  I'm trying to get caught up on things that need done before it warms up outside.  Yesterday was pretty much a bust for getting anything accomplished.  It seemed like we were at church all day- which we kind of were.  J14 played her violin and was the assistant minister (she sang the liturgy) at the 8am service and then we were the hosts for the youth/family Valentines party which was from 12-2.  It didn't help that I was coming down with a cold and was exhausted and sick by the time we got home.  I still feel like I have a pillow wrapped around my head but I haven't let it slow me down today.  I've got my bread rising, waffles made, more laundry done and have been working on sorting through my fabric stash and sewing room mess since I need to use the table for seed starting in a few weeks.

I normally do my IDC updates on Sundays but I was so tired last night I couldn't think straight and was in bed by 9:30.  But here goes for the last week:

1. Plant something- No, but I did get new light fixtures and  bulbs for grow lights, cleaned off the table in the sewing room and picked up more seed starting soil mix since I'm planning to start my broccoli next weekend.

2. Harvest something- a bit of lettuce but nothing more.

3. Preserve something- No.

4. Store something- picked up 2 extra bags of sugar since there was a decent sale at the store.

5. Manage reserves- Made more spiced apples for oatmeal from apple slices from the freezer.  

6. Cook something new- Nope, this has been a fairly boring week in the food department, lots of old standbys.

7. Prep something- Not really.

8. Reduce waste- recycled, composted and used cloth bags at the store, as usual- nothing new on this front.

9. Learn a new skill- Nothing new this week.

10. Work on community food security- Made chili for a meal at our local homeless shelter.

11. Regenerate what is lost- Hmm- can't think of anything for this week.  It's been a busy week and I've just tried to get through.  

12. Behavior change- I've been working on not procrastinating. I did manage to get my student's mid-term evaluation done last week and got lots done this weekend.  

While it's not really a category for IDC I thought I'd throw this out there since it directly relates- I did spend some time looking for land again this weekend.  There is a place not far from town- actually only about a mile and a half from the garden that is available.  7 acres of land and a house- unfortunately the house is VERY odd looking (looks like a couple of trailers attached to a garage), is only 2 bedroom and the basement isn't finished. Of greater concern is the proximity of the river- with last year's flooding that is something we are definitely looking at.  This property did not flood last year (a 500 year flood) so it should be good.  I've been trying to talk V into at least going to look- What they're asking is about what we could probably get for our house.  If we could live in weirdness for a few years we could build a house that has everything we want- including the fireplace in the kitchen that we could cook in (with bread oven).  We'll see... 

Hope I can get it all done

I'm taking a break to have some online fun.  Today is one of those crazy-busy days that I hate.  I just hope I can get it all done.

Here's the list:

1. Laundry -a never ending thing at our house.  Luckily, V did a couple of loads yesterday so I don't have as much to do today.

2. Grocery shopping- I've got lots of extras on my list since we have several things going on at church tomorrow that I volunteered for- see numbers 3 and 4 below.

3. Making chili- We are serving a meal at the homeless shelter so I need to make a double batch of chili to take for that.

4. Cut up veggies for a veg and dip platter for the youth Valentine's party tomorrow afternoon.  I am also supposed to supply drinks. I'm planning apple juice but I'm sure I'll also be expected to bring some HFCS laced soda along as well.  (sigh)

5. Shopping for clothes for boys for my nephew's wedding.  I'm guessing that jeans and t-shirts are right out for that one, so they'll each need a new pair of pants and a nice shirt. I still need some work pants since I didn't have much luck at the thrift store last time I went.  I'm actually thinking of buying new (gasp) but the one store that I have a store credit card has a deal where you are randomly assigned a discount (15, 20 or 30%) and I got a 30!!! so I may actually be making a shopping trip to a 'real' department store this weekend.

6. Trip to find new light fixture- In checking out my seed starting lights I discovered that one no longer works at all and one has one side that the ballast is out so it only lights one bulb.  It's the fixture, not the bulbs- I checked.

7. Making waffles for the week.  Definitely NOT the recipe I tried last weekend since J14 and I were the only ones who liked them.

8. Romantic dinner for 5??  Well, we have to feed the children too.  We decided that this isn't the year to go out for dinner, even though it would be nice to get away.  I think we're having sauteed chicken breast in a blood orange and cream sauce, maybe some broccoli and baked potatoes.  

Well, I'm going to do some blog reading and then back to the grindstone.  Laundry beckons...

Favorite comic

I have a few on-line comics that I enjoy on a regular basis.  One is Bunny.  A lovely, quirky comic that is sometimes strange and sometimes very, very funny.  Another favorite is Something Positive, which can be anything but...  It has a very sarcastic, adult, non-politically correct view on life- but sometimes, after having to be politically correct all day, it hits the spot.  The artist, R.K. Milholland drew a special panel in honor of the season:

Enjoy!

I'm terribly confused

AARGH! My head is spinning! I can't sort it all out!!!

OK, enough panic...  One of my nephews is getting married the end of March and we are all trying to work out travel and hotel plans for the wedding.  He is getting married in Champaign, IL, about 6 hours from here.  My brother, the world traveler and proud papa, booked 6 hotel rooms way back last August to get a really good rate.  He and his family are using 3 rooms which leaves 3 rooms available.  My parents will be in one and we are trying to figure out the most economical way to share out the remaining rooms.  There are 2 queen beds in each, I think V and I and the boys will get one room and one of my sisters, her husband and 2 children in another.  Here's the catch.  This means we don't have room for J14 unless she bunks with my parents (no offense intended, but my parents snore like a herd of chainsaws!).  We had planned for her to sleep in a room with her female cousins.  We thought we had it all worked out then found that both nieces' fiances are coming along as well as the nephew we didn't think would show.  Now we have 17 people and 3 rooms.  NOT going to work!!  I can't get anyone to make definite statements and I've been getting confusing messages from my Mom who seems to think that we can get more rooms at the discount rate.  I talked to my brother tonight- that isn't possible.  And of course, it is a pricy place so reserving rooms at full price will break our budget. But we would all like to be together at one hotel.

I'm getting ready to pull out my hair.

Is anyone else's family this disorganized???  You would think that in this day of instantaneous communication that we could figure this one out.  SIGH

A bit of philosophy

I was cleaning off my desk at work this morning and stumbled across this in a file of group topics in progress.  It struck a chord with me when I first saw it and it still does.  I thought I'd share.

The Paradox of Our Age

We have bigger houses but smaller families; more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgement; more experts, but more problems; more medicines, but less healthiness.  We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.

We built more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication.

We have become long on quantity, but short on quality.

These are the times of fast foods but slow digestion;

Tall man but short character; 

Steep profits but shallow relationships.

It's a time when there is much in the window, but nothing in the room.

-the 14th Dalai Lama

Of birds and bad moods

V saw quite a sight in the backyard today.  We had a visitor.  We're not sure if it is a Cooper's hawk or a Sharp Shinned hawk.  It was large, about the size of a good sized crow and has more of a cap than a hood so it makes me think that it is a Cooper's.  He shot video of it eating it's little birdy snack but blogger is having issues with me uploading video tonight.  At least I got the photos up.

Hawk lunch

Isn't it beautiful?

I'm sorry I missed it.  We have had hawks visit the backyard before.  I think it's because we have feeders for the songbirds and the hawks are attracted to their version of a 'bird feeder'.

Thanks to all who commented on my last post. I have been feeling more and more uneasy for the past few days.  I had a dream last night that we got our utility bill and it was $732.  I'm glad it was just a dream.  I do worry that things will get much worse before they get better but I hate to be alarmist.  V wants to sit tight where we are and just ride things out.  I'm more of the opinion that we sell this house and find our acreage.  Of course, right now there isn't one out there that we're interested in.  I'm hoping to talk V into at least going to talk to a realtor to see if we can get some guidance on what's available.  Of course, I'm not sure that I would trust a realtor to actually work in our best interest.

J14 is also in a funk tonight.  Her boyfriend broke up with her this morning.  It sounds like he was giving her mixed messages but he wants to try to concentrate on his schoolwork more and evidently she is a distraction.  She is very down.  SIGH.

One last, lighter note. This is a photo of a gift from Roger last year.  It always makes me smile!

My garden stake.

These days I need all I can get to make me feel better.  I hope I can shake this funk soon.  The weather is warming up (although the bottom is supposed to fall out again tomorrow) so maybe that will help.

Should I be worried?

Ok, there is a lot of rumbling out there about TEOTWAWKI.  I don't know where I fall.  I really don't think things will get THAT bad but I'm sure they will get worse before they get better.  After hearing the president's first press conference, I'm not any more hopeful that things will get better quickly, either.

I've been giving some thought to our long term plans here.  Last fall, we were actively looking for an acreage out of town so we could be more self sufficient.  Those plans were instantly put on hold when V lost his job.  With little or no job prospects out there, we have to be realistic that we will be relying only on my income.  Now, don't get me wrong, I make a decent wage and we have always had our healthcare through me so we're doing well there.  We don't have a mortgage so the only outstanding debt is the car payment.  I have enough set aside that I could pay it off in one fell swoop but I was saving that money for our down payment on somewhere new.   If worse come to worst, we can stay here, fairly financially secure.  We still have access to our garden at Roger's house since we don't have much yard here.  Things stay status quo and we don't get any closer (or farther) from our dream.

The other option is that we put this house on the market and hope it sells, then take that money and put it toward a new place.  That would be ideal, if the timing worked out well.  I would hate to have our house sell out from under us with nowhere to land.  Conversely, I would hate to lock in on a new place just to have this house sit on the market for forever.  We do live close enough to campus that I do think it would probably sell fairly quickly, or we could rent it if necessary, but that doesn't help the cash flow and I'm not sure we could swing a mortgage payment as well as all the other bills. 

I guess, if things get really bad we could up stakes and move down with my parents and take over the family farm. But that is definitely a plan of total last resort.

I'm just musing over the possibilities.  I definitely like the second scenario the best but it also concerns me the most.  This whole economic mess really sucks right now.  I'm feeling cranky and uneasy for some reason tonight.  Tomorrow will be better... writing out some of the options helps me clarify.  Any feedback is appreciated.

Independence Days- week 10

What a week.  It seemed to fly by!  Even after having had a three day weekend I can't believe it's already time to go back to work tomorrow. Today wasn't as warm as it has been but was still above freezing so the snow and ice continue to melt. We still have snow in the yard and behind the house in the driveway and alley.  It's supposed to rain tomorrow, hopefully it won't flood since the ground is still frozen.

I'm itching for spring... getting more and more impatient. Only a few weeks until I can start planting little seeds, first the broccoli.  I have high hopes for the garden this year.  I hope I can keep up with my goals.  I do think that the Independence Days Challenge will help keep me on track.  Here goes the update for this week:

1. Plant something- Nope, but getting closer and closer.  I've got all my seeds organized and ready to go.  

2. Harvest something- A little bit of lettuce from the planter in the basement but, Hey, it's February!!

3. Preserve something- I don't think so.

4. Store something- Found a reasonable deal on craisins so stocked up on a few.  They'll make a nice addition to granola bars.  Made more waffles for breakfasts for the week so that's short term storage.

5. Manage reserves- Ate almost entirely from stores this week.  I found an acorn squash with  spot on it so it will have to be used this week.

6. Cook something new- I made granola bars this week.  I thought they were a bit sweet but the children LOVE them.  I'll need to tweak the recipe a bit until I get it the way I like it.  At the rate we've been going through oatmeal I'm going to have to make another run to the Amish bulk food store soon.  Usually our fall purchase last longer than this.

7. Prep something- Not really.  We're pretty status quo for the moment.  I'm not sure if this counts as prep but my Mom offered me some old canning jars. I'll have to see what they look like next time we're down at the farm.

8. Reduce waste-  Composted, recycled and used cloth bags as usual.  Shopped at a local thrift store for 'new' clothes.

9. Learn a new skill- Didn't get around to knitting at all this week. Having  our friend Mike in town really threw off my usual schedule this week.  Did learn how to make granola bars but I'm not sure that is a skill.  This isn't a new skill for me but will be for J14.  We went to a local fabric store this afternoon since they were having a pattern sale (patterns that are usually $15.95  or more were all $1.99) We picked up a few patterns and some fabric.  She will start out with a project of flannel drawstring PJ pants.  She has been saying that she wants to learn to sew her own clothes so this is a good start.

10.  Work on community food security-  Signed up at church to provide a double batch of chili to serve at the local homeless shelter next weekend.

11. Regenerate what is lost- Had a great discussion with my parents yesterday about gardening and canning. I want to see if my Mom will teach me how to make pickles this summer.  I tried it once years ago and they were awful!  My Mom makes fantastic pickles of all sorts and I would like to learn at the hands of a master.  I remember helping as a child, but back then, I really didn't care. Now, I wish I had paid more attention.   I would like someday get my hands on one or more of the pickling crocks that have been in the family for forever, maybe I'm just being mercenary but I don't think that's entirely it.

12. Behavior change- I've been better this week about setting priorities and sticking to them.  Since the weather has warmed up, I'm going to start walking to work again.  I've been spoiled by having V drive me when it was really cold here.

Not a bad week.  We'll see what this week holds in store.  I can't wait until I can get out into the garden to really see what I can do.  

A day at the farm

Today was my father's birthday.  Happy Birthday Dad!!!  So we made the 70 minute drive down to the farm to have lunch, visit for the afternoon and wish him well.

Here's the birthday boy!  83 years young!

It was a lovely day.  I'm not sure how warm it got here, but at the farm, it was a sunny, pleasant 68 degrees.  Warm enough for shirt sleeves.  The boys spent time outside, being boys:

Boys in the mud

Of course, they found the biggest puddle they could find and played in it.  If I had been smart, I would have brought along a change of clothes for them.  As it was, my Mom gave I11 a dry pair of socks to wear home.  The boys were sailing corn husk boats and then sinking them with rocks.

V and J14 also had a grand time outside.  My parents cut a large tree in the yard late last fall and some of it still remains. Mostly the brush and the logs too large to split.  Since they had been at Kum Do earlier in the morning they decided to practice their moves.  Of course, they were a bit more Errol Flynn than Korean stylized fighting:

Father daughter bonding??

But they had fun fencing on a log.  We took my parents some of our beef as well on this trip.  All Mom had asked for was soup bones.  I couldn't see only giving them bones so I included some ground beef and a small roast.

All in all, a good, relaxing day at the farm.  No pressure.  We talked gardening and I found out from my Mom that she may have some old canning jars in storage that I can have.  I'll have to check it out next time we're down there.  I'm always up for more jars, especially since we're working to have 50% of our food home produced or locally grown.

Well, it's movie night here and I need to make the popcorn.

OK, I'm a hypocrite

Wow, what a busy day.  I got almost everything on my list accomplished.  I didn't manage poop patrol. It warmed up faster than I expected and by the time I made it outside it had thawed too much.  So I'll try again tomorrow morning when it's colder.  

I got three loads of laundry washed and hung on the lines in the basement, tried a recipe for granola bars, had some quality time with my sweetie, had a discussion about finances, made enchilada casserole for dinner, and went shopping.  

That's where I feel like a hypocrite.  Essentially right after having a discussion about finances and the need to control spending, I went out and spent money.  Yeah, it wasn't that much.  A few groceries (and more rum!), a pair of pants for work and a pair of jeans from the thrift store for $4 each and some new socks (my old socks were many years old and have reached the end of their lives- they're not even darnable anymore.  I had 3 catastrophic failures this week!).  But  I also got this:

Sorry for the bad photography

The thrift store we went to is run by the local Mennonite community and they a section of fair trade and other items from the MCC.  I succumbed to my desire for 'stuff' and got another cookbook.  It is one that has been on my list since I learned of it.  I have 2 other cookbooks by the MCC.  I already have the More With Less Cookbook and Extending the Table.  This is their most recent one: Simply in Season.  It is a celebration of local, seasonal food.  They have the recipes divided up by season.  While I feel a bit guilty, this is also something that I will use as we depend more on our own food and try to eat more seasonally.  But then, to make me feel better, we got a credit card bill today.  It was for less than $11...  OK.  We'll be fine.

In more humorous news:  The dog enjoyed having both V and I home for the day and was quite relaxed:

Sleeping puppy

He sacked out on the couch this afternoon after making himself quite comfortable. For a dog that was skinny and in bad shape when we rescued him, he has come a long way.  

As have we all.

Budget woes

I have Friday off since I worked last weekend.  I have lots of things on my to do list. Here are a few:

Laundry- I washed only enough on Sunday to get us through the week so I have LOTS to do.

Poop Patrol- The snow pack is melting in the backyard and has revealed too many presents deposited by the dog. EEW!!  We had enough snow often enough that it was out of sight, out of mind for a while- but no more.

BUDGET REVIEW!!!  I have a checking account account, V has an account and we have a joint account.  Yeah, I know- kind of crazy but this is a result of our marriage woes of a few years ago.  My lawyer advised me to have my own account and keep all my money separate.  (OOSH! I'm glad we're through all that mess)  But it has worked for us.  My paycheck is directly deposited into my account, V and I both feed money into the joint account and most bills are paid from that. I do most of the grocery shopping, pay the boy's tuition for their before/after school program, pay lunch money to schools, etc.  The problem is that last month $250 more went OUT of my account than IN.  While there is a cushion so this wasn't a problem, this is something that can't continue.  I realize that last month was exceptional in lots of ways.  We had bigger credit card bills than usual due to Christmas (we always pay in full every month), we purchased our side of beef and it was incredibly cold, leading to a gas/electric bill of $307!!!  But still!  V and I need to sit down and run through things so we can both get on the same page here.  I don't anticipate it being difficult, just annoying.

But, with things looking the way they are, we can't afford to keep hemorrhaging money every month.  I do need a few things from the store.  I need at least one new pair of pants for work since one of my favorite pair got ripped yesterday and I need to look "professional" (yes, we have a dress code).  I  also need to get something to use for trellising my peas when I plant them in a few weeks.  I'm going to look in the local thrift stores for pants and will keep an eye out for trellis material.  I'm hoping for something on Craigslist.

But at least it is supposed to be warm this weekend.  Highs into the 40s!! Time to break out the swimsuit.