Ruby's Big Adventure

Summer almost over

2011-08-30T10:51:00.000-07:00

This has been a lazy summer for us. I wish I could say I haven’t posted anything because we’ve been so busy working around here. Sadly, I can‘t. We started off all “gung ho!” and quickly slowed down to a dull murmur.
No garden this year. The lasagna gardening method did not work for us. We have Bermuda grass, and it is very invasive. You really have to dig it up if you want to plant anything. Even then you have keep an eye on it. The only thing that I’ve found that will keep it at bay is shade. I think another issue we had with the lasagna method was simply time. The things I was adding just didn’t break down fast enough. I may try to keep adding composting stuff to the area and see if maybe it will work for next year. Although, I’m still not sure if I wasn’t just feeding the grass. Most likely we are just going to have to break down and rent some equipment to do it right.
I waited too late for shipping on the Arbor Day Foundation trees. So, they will be coming in the fall.
We went to the county fair twice last week, for the first time in years (Randy scored free tickets). Neither of us have particularly fond memories from our previous visits, but this was our first time going together, and we had a pretty good time. Man, I want some goats! They were too cute. Then, there were the coolest, weirdest chickens. I think it would take too much to keep chickens safe around here. Geese are pretty tough. I always think of Deb over at the Farmnatters blog when it comes to geese and chickens. I figure goats could hold their own. I think I would really enjoy having a mini-farm on our little one acre out here. It’s not gonna happen, but I can always dream…

Been a while

2011-04-07T09:58:00.000-07:00

Sorry, it’s been so long since I’ve posted anything. I’d jot stuff down, but then I’d forget to post it, and it would be outdated by the time I would think about it again. Now that the weather is getting better, things are happening around here. Here are a few things going on.

Gardening: I decided to experiment with a lasagna garden this year. It’s basically layers of stuff you would normally compost. It’s super simple. Perfect for a lazy gardener without a rototiller, like me. You can easily google it, so I’m not going to go into the details. I also recently read, over on Farmnatters’ blog, about potato cages. That looks like a great idea! It would go along with my lasagna garden too. I’m a little worried about the critters we’ve got around here. The skunks usually just go for the cat food. But, lately we’ve seen a couple of raccoons. I’d hate to have to cage/fence up my garden. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see on that one. Next on the list will be to get a few trees from the Arbor Day Foundation. Randy isn’t sure I will keep them watered. I hope to prove him wrong. I’m all about experimenting with gardening this year.

On another note : Randy and I have been talking about me going back to school. To do the program I want to do we’d have to up grade our computer system. I’d have to do it on line because none of the schools close by offer it on campus. Of course, money is always an issue, so we’ll see how this all works out.

Christmas yard decorations

2011-01-03T10:45:00.000-08:00

I finally got a chance to post the pictures of our Christmas yard decorations. It takes a while anyway because we have dial-up. But, with computer problems, there was just no way to get them posted. It's fixed now, so here they are.

Wreath on the gate made with garland from the dollar store wired to the gate.Mini wreath w/ mini bow on each fence post. I made these with garland wired to metal rings from coffee cans.
24 of those babies

Bicycle guy turned Santa. Again, dollar store stuff.
All together... More bikes for reindeer, garland reins, and a red work/trouble light for Rudolph. It's hard to see the light in this picture. It looked good at night though.

Well, that was it. It wasn't as red-neck as I was planning, but we were happy with how it turned out.

Snow & Frigid Temps

2010-11-24T17:45:00.000-08:00

It snowed about a foot a couple of days ago, followed by record breaking cold temps. It‘s a little early for that kind of weather around here. I have to admit we were not totally ready for it. The cats are all mad. (I didn’t have their outside quarters set up for snow.)

We moved all of their stuff off the porch a week or so ago after I got skunked. When I say I got skunked I mean that literally. I went to let Ruby out for her bedtime potty run, and there was a skunk on the porch, snacking on cat food about 2 feet from the door. I saw him, ran the dog off, and took one for the team. It was my fault anyway for leaving the food out that late. Those worthless cats were just sitting there watching that dang skunk eat their food! Fortunately, none of the animals got any skunk juice on them. They were all good to come inside. Un-fortunately, I had to strip down to my skiveys (sp?)in the front yard, before I could come back in. Fun times out in the country!

Well, I got the ok from Randy on my Christmas yard decorations. But, with the early snow and frigid temps, I’m not sure how it’s all going to work out.

I may be in trouble now!

2010-11-19T18:51:00.000-08:00

I spent a bunch of time this morning looking at redneck Christmas decorations. Personally, I think we qualify. At this point I was going to explain why. But, the list was long, and honestly, it was a little embarrassing.

Don’t get me wrong, if Randy lets me do what I want to for yard decorations, I will proudly post pictures for all the world to see. No matter what, it will be day time decorations. If we have anything lit up it will be very limited, due, of course to the cost of electricity. I love me some yard art! I have lots of ideas, so we'll see what happens!

It’s getting chilly around here!

2010-11-15T19:18:00.000-08:00

I guess it’s that time of year again. It’s got me starting to think of Christmas for some reason. We haven’t done anything for Christmas around here for a few years now. I sent most of my decorations and stuff to my mom when we thought we were going to have to move. So, if I really want to decorate this year, it’s going to have to be with homemade stuff from around here. We have a couple of pine trees that I might be able to snag some trimmings and pine cones from. Also, after looking at some junk and repurposing sites, I’m thinking about having a Junky/Rusty Christmas this year. We have plenty of materials. It’s just a matter of being creative. Now I’ve got to figure out how to dress up the can man. If I’m going to do something for homemade Christmas decorations, I better get started now!

October is already just about done

2010-10-30T19:22:00.000-07:00

Well, I certainly wasn't going to let it be one whole month before I posted again! The can-man is still a work in progress, but I'm going to post some pictures.

As you can see, my awesome husband wired up a light for the head(he's so cool, hee, hee). We're just working on making the legs a little longer.

We're having fun with the can-man and doing stuff inside. The weather hasn't been great. It's been windy and rainy. I'm thinking it's going to be a long,wet,cold winter. It's just a guess.

In the mean time, I'm trying to figure out how to bring in a little extra cash into the household. Randy's hours have been cut once again. I find it fascinating that there are still people out there that have expendable cash. Maybe I should put out some of my stuff. My camera isn't great, but I could go to some other vendors with samples, I suppose? Hell, I don't know.

Slowly but surely

2010-10-11T20:39:00.000-07:00

The grass was pretty tall and thick when we stated mowing. We’ve been mowing a little at a time in an effort not to burn up our little mower. Where we have mowed and raked is really turning green (w/o additional water). It’s been either rainy or windy lately, so there are still a few piles of grass out in the yard.

I’m holding off on the yard art project for the pile of Russian olive tree branches. But, we are working on a (hopefully) really cool can-man. We have so many things around here that NEED to be done. I thought it might be nice to get Randy to help me do something kind of fun for a change. Can-man’s head is presenting a bit of a challenge, but we‘ve got some good ideas. I have been collecting lots of cans in various sizes for a while now. I just couldn’t throw them in the trash. It’s nice to finally find a use for a bunch of them. There are just so many pencil holders/ lanterns a person can use. I’m a little afraid we may end up with a can people village in the yard, but that could be fun too (hee, hee). How ’bout a coffee can house?! Ok, I may be getting carried away. Oh dear, now I’ve got all kinds of ideas floating around in my head! I need more cans!!!

Work in progress

2010-09-15T17:52:00.000-07:00

Yep, we’re still trying to get some work done in the yard before it starts getting too cold. I decided to put some of the grass clippings over the spot where the van burned up. I also put some in the far corner where we’re sinking. No big deal really.
Last week, we attacked the Russian olive trees coming up in the front yard. We made a sweet mess of them! Below is a rather large pile of what we took out, and the site of my soon to be new yard art project. Hint: neighbor claims to be a carpenter.

We’ve also got a few piles of dead grass across the front yard. I bet the neighbors are starting to wonder if they weren’t happier with the view they had before we started. What’s really funny is that both of them mow their grass so short and so often that they are creating big dead spots in their yards. Then, of course, they water for hours on end. Ok, it’s not really funny. It’s actually kind of sad. I think it’s some kind of neurosis. And, it’s a huge waste of gas and water.

Grass piles, with more to come. What ever shall I do with all of that dead grass?

Anyway, I can’t wait to set up my next yard art project! It’s going to be a good one.
All this work is being done in preparation for next spring/summer. I’d really like to have a garden next year. We would also like to plant some trees out in that front area. I have found a couple of sites that offer cheap or free trees. With all the California money flowing into this area, it might add to curb appeal, when we do decide to leave. Of course, we’ll have to leave room to drag this trailer out.

There is also the option of staying after we pay off the state. If we do that, I’d still like to pull this trailer out of here. We’ve talked about rehabbing it, but I don’t see it being cost and time effective. I may be wrong? I’ll have to do some more research on that one. In the mean time…given that we have at least 3 ½ more years here, we might as well make it as pleasant as possible, for us anyway.

A few pictures

2010-08-30T09:29:00.000-07:00

Pics as promised:

Ugly Russian olive trees coming up in the middle of the yard. Those are not going to be easy to pull out.

More stupid Russian olive trees, with a nicely mowed path for Ruby. Those really tall, really green trees in the background are poplars (sp?). They grow really tall and super fast. Then, they die and fall into our backyard. What we need is a good chainsaw. It's nice wood, and we've got a big one taking up space in the backyard.

It looks all lush and kinda pretty doesn't? Well, it's actually knee high weeds growing under an over grown Russian olive tree. Oh, did I mention those babies have 2 inch long thorns on the branches? They grow fast too. But, only part of them falls. And then it keeps on growing into a big thorny mess.

Hey look, there's another one, growing right into our fence. Notice how green and lush it is at the fence line? The ground is starting to sink over there too. Hmm...? And, it is directly in front of the house across the street. Oh well, too late to do anything about it now. I think we should plant some hardy shrubs over there and not worry about it too much.

On a more pleasant note... The apple tree. It cleaned up pretty nice underneath. I didn't get a before picture. The weeds were pretty tall. Definitely in need of a trim on one side.

That's it for now. One day, I'd like to post some pretty "after" pictures. That may take a while.

It’s Starting to Cool Off

2010-08-29T18:51:00.000-07:00

It’s cooling off a little and my foot is doing a lot better. This weekend Randy and I finally got out into the yard and did some much needed work. Despite Randy’s terrible allergies, he seems to enjoy wackin’ the heck out of those tall weeds! (We really let the yard go this year.) My job is to follow behind with a rake, pile it all up, and dump it in the make shift composter/garbage cans, or use the grass clippings to fill any weird holes in the yard. It works pretty well.

With composting fresh in my mind, I finally noticed all the fallen apples under the apple tree. Duh? No wonder that tree does so well, even though we don’t do anything to it. And I mean nothing. Ok, we’ve cut a few limbs, just to get them out of the way. We don’t spray the tree, so the apples get kinda buggy. (I’m feeling pretty stupid/lazy right now.) I don’t even want to mention the other fruit trees here that Randy’s dad planted years ago, that we’ve ignored. We could have a freakin’ garden of Eden here if we did a little work. Oh yeah, and with some money. I always forget that one. (Yeah, right) The other thing that keeps me from beating myself up too much, is that more than a year ago, we were just sure that the state was going to boot us out of here.

Hey, now that things have settled down a bit, maybe, just maybe, we’ll get to some of the stuff we‘ve neglected. I’ll warn you though, we are both really good at making excuses. So, don’t get your hopes up too much.

I took some pictures today. I'll get them up tomorrow. It takes a while with dial up and I don't feel like doing it right now.

Nice and boring around here, at least for now.

2010-08-20T12:17:00.000-07:00

It’s been pretty hot, but at least there’s nothing exciting to report. I’m sick of bitching about the neighbors anyway.

I haven’t ever mentioned it before, but I used to have a hobby. A long time ago I used to make things out of polymer clay (Fimo & Sculpey). When I broke my toe, and couldn’t really do much, I started thinking about it again. So, I drug my stuff out and started messing around with it. This is dangerous for me because it gets me thinking about selling my little creations. I’m pretty sure I have a fear of success, as well as a fear of failure. (I even ran in to those fears with this blog. I freaked the first time somebody left a comment.) I still haven’t figured out what I’m going to do with the stuff I’ve been making. Maybe you’ll see it in a future post? Or, heck, I might even start an Etsy thing. Who knows?

I’ve been wanting to get my creative fix by using junk around here. Not to sell necessarily, but more to clean things up around here without throwing a bunch of stuff in the landfill. That way I could kill 2 birds with one stone. Plus, we could end up with some cute/cheap/free stuff to use around here. The broken toe really put a damper on that idea. I’m still hopeful though. As my toe heals, and the weather gets cooler, maybe I‘ll be able to get outside and get some stuff put together, or torn apart. I just love tearing things apart! It’s the putting things together that gets me into trouble (eek!).

Shoes and a little news

2010-08-11T18:34:00.000-07:00

I can finally wear shoes again! I can’t say I’m totally healed, but it’s much better. I still have to be careful.
Monday I got an official e-mail from the county about the mess behind us. I already knew he had been denied the kennel permit. The e-mail just went into detail why he was denied. And of course, our names and e-mail were mentioned in opposition. It looks like they had plenty against him without us saying anything, but the planner guy really wanted me to send something.

As suspected, we were the only people in the neighborhood who had anything to say. It was disheartening to say the least. It really makes me feel like going into isolation mode and not helping anyone around here the next time they need it. No more chit chatting on the side of the road. No more smiling and waving as they drive by. I know, it makes me as bad as them. I just don’t care any more. Randy tried to tell me, but I hoped he was exaggerating. Nope. They suck.

On the bright side, some of the meth-heads appear to be moving out. They don’t have much choice now that code enforcement has finally gotten involved. I’m sure we’re not done with this whole thing yet. So, stay tuned.

Coincidence? I don’t believe in ‘em.

2010-07-17T19:03:00.000-07:00

Previously, I mentioned the lush, high weeds growing on the road side of our fence, and why. Well, guess what happened the other day. The county came out and trimmed it all up. I wonder who called? Perhaps the across the street neighbors? Hmmm…?
I don’t care. According to Randy it looks like crap. Damn the bad luck! Now they have some hacked up dry-ass weeds to look at instead of the lush green stuff that was happily growing there. Guess which way the wind usually blows (heh, heh, heh)?

Ouch!!!

2010-07-12T18:07:00.000-07:00

No work going on here. I broke my pinky toe Thursday night. I got up in the middle of the night to go potty and kicked the crap out of a chair leg next to the bedroom door. The chair leg resembles my little toe, minus the swelling and bruising. I’m not sure if the crack I heard was the chair leg or my toe. Today, I can walk around bare footed (a little) without too much pain, putting weight on my heel and big toe. So, no outdoor work and very little inside. It’s driving me crazy! I may be admittedly lazy, but having no choice in the matter is another thing!

Summer has shown up here. It’s hot! No excitement from behind us. They are laying low for now. I am (and most likely the county) giving them until the end of the month before the next move. I’m not sure what exactly that’s going to entail.

For some reason, unknown to me, the folks across the street are avoiding us like the plague. Yeah, that’s a major concern for us right now. Although, it could just be the indigenous flora (weeds) we have allowed to grow on the street side of our fence. It’s growing like gang busters out there with no water. Hmmm…Why is that? A funny thing happened when we were digging post holes for the fence in the area that’s growing the best. We found all these round rocks covered it black stuff. Randy told me not to handle them bare handed. Long story short; apparently their leaching field for their septic tank comes this way. This used to be a truly rural area. The whole neighborhood was once owned by one family. The Weidles, and yes, they are relatives of the folks that live across the street. Randy got lots of history from his dad, who was friendly with most all the people around here. Seriously, there is not a happy little spring over there. It’s run off poop water. The plants seem to like it. Plus, there’s not much we could do about it at this point, even if we really want to. I say hey, let the guy across the street enjoy his parents’ handy work. I don’t really care all that much. It’s the furthest corner away from our place.

We’ve talked about planting some trees over there. Not fruit trees of course, but something else maybe. Right now we’ve got Russian olive trees coming up. We already have a couple of full grown Russian olive trees. Those things are a pain to deal with. They break and keep growing, creating a tangled mess. They have thorns on the branches, making them hard to trim. Then, what do you with the trimmings? Blah, blah, blah, we hate ‘em. I’ve rambled on long enough for today. I’m just sure something interesting will happen tomorrow.

Denied!

2010-07-06T19:58:00.000-07:00

Big shocker there. Today I talked my new buddy at the planning thingy. He was not a fan of the applicant. We’ll have to wait and see what happens next.

As expected, Ruby was a basket case during the fire works. I wish I could get her some drugs to calm her down. I feel so bad for her. I’ve tried different things to calm her down. Nothing seems to work. I’m just glad it’s over, for the most part. There have been a couple of leftovers, but not too bad.

Although the weather has been really nice, we haven't gotten much done in the yard. I’ve been day dreaming while looking at blogs and sites on the internet. The neighbors across the street like to keep their lawn like a golf course. They both mow every other day, sometimes every day. Then, of course, they run the sprinklers in the heat of the day. I’m thinking they aren’t aware of the concept of conservation. I’m not big on the whole perfect lawn thing. I’d much rather have other, low maintenance, and interesting things going on in the yard. I pulled up the bike eating monster. He just wasn’t working anymore. The bicycle guy is still out there though. Here are some yard art ideas that I like:

I don’t have the tub. But I do have an empty toilet and sink. It’s not a pedestal though.

I think I have the materials I need to do something similar. The question would be where
to put it? Bulbs work great here.

I may have a chair that would work for something like this. Maybe I could create a whole “green” living space? That would be fun. The only down fall on that idea would be the maintenance.

Here’s another fun idea.

I love this guy.

For now I'm going to have to be happy with circles in the lawn. Pictures to follow.

I’m baaack...

2010-07-04T17:15:00.000-07:00

I’ve neglected this blog for so long I’m not sure what to post anymore. Oh, I’ll think of something.
I’m not looking forward to tonight. Ruby “the wonder dog” turns into a vibrating idiot when she hears loud popping noises.
The only real excitement we’ve had lately is the jackass behind us tried to turn his meth-head camp into a dog kennel. Apparently the Sheriff’s Department got tired of coming out and turned him in to Code Enforcement. So, he applied for a special use permit. I’m not sure why exactly. He says the people back there are moving out and taking their dogs with them. If that’s the case, then why would he need a special permit for 3 dogs? Since the county planning department took the time to let the neighbors know about the application, and asked for any comments or objections, I thought I’d go ahead and put in my two cents. After talking to the senior planner a few times, with a bunch of questions, I decided to send an e-mail giving my thoughts on the whole thing. It was pretty short. I just felt like, given the opportunity, I should say something. Here’s what I sent:

The concern we have with the entire property being considered a dog kennel is the fences. The property described is behind our property. To our knowledge, the owner of the property only has three (3) dogs. Our back fence is not very secure. It is functional for keeping our medium sized beagle mix inside our yard, but we know it is not strong enough to keep out a larger dog. And, for that matter, especially not a small dog. On more than one occasion various dogs living on the property have gotten out and on to our property, as well as neighboring properties. The most secure fence we have on our property is the fence along the easement. That fence was built in an effort to keep the people living on the property from harassing us, leaving us without the use of the easement. We really do wish we had the funds to build a more secure fence behind us. But, we don’t.

Regardless of the dog issue, our major concern is the criminal element living on the property. Although, we have enjoyed our numerous visits with the Deputies, we would rather they not have cause to come out so often.

Our thanks to Code Enforcement, and the reporting officer for addressing this issue. There are plenty of issues here on the infamous Weidle road, but this has been a big one for a long time.

Not much, but something. I still don’t know for sure what they decided. I think I’ll call Tuesday to follow up. It should be interesting to see how this all pans out.

May already?

2010-05-11T18:24:00.000-07:00

I can’t believe it’s already May!

So, let’s see. What’s been going on around here? Not a lot. The weather has been odd this year (cooler than normal). My tendency to procrastinate has paid off, as far as gardening goes. I have my seeds and egg cartons ready, but I’m glad I didn’t sprout them yet. The wind and chilly temps would have killed anything I might have planted. The plot is not ready either. I’m thinking though, with it being almost the middle of May, I better get it in gear!

I’ve been checking out all these blogs about fixing stuff up and making junk look cute. It’s frustrating though. There’s so much to do around here, I feel guilty thinking about doing something frivolous and kinda fun. That may be the reason I have neglected the blog for so long. It’s a vicious cycle. If I do something, then I have something to write about. If I don’t do anything, then I don’t have anything interesting to report. I get tired of bitching about the neighbors and this area in general. So, I better do something. Oh, don’t worry, I’ll still bitch about the neighbors.

2010-03-25T19:09:00.000-07:00

With the weather being pretty good, I’ve been outside quite a bit. It’s just cool enough to slow down the hornets. I can wear a long sleeved t-shirt ( just in case) and still be comfortable. The spiders? Well, you just gotta keep you eyes open for those suckers. That’s what the gloves are for. They only get you when you get in their hidey holes. The hornets come after you for seemingly no reason. We’ve got a lot of bitey- stingy bugs around here. So, we keep the After bite xtra close at hand. That stuff works great. I don’t know what’s in it (don’t care). It works.

The last few days I’ve been working on uncluttering the back porch. Yes, Again. It’s just too easy to throw crap out there. Out of sight, out of mind. Well, with my renewed creative streak, I need some work space. Thus, it makes it my responsibility to clean some of that stuff up. Of course, it’s not all my fault. So, Randy is doing his part too.

I have also found a new appreciation for what I call the “truck shed.” Randy’s brother in law built a shed on the bed and sides of an old international truck. I think it would be cooler if the cab was facing the road. Well, maybe not. He did a pretty thorough job of building a big ole shed. Although, it’s not totally finished, there is a lot of room in that ugly thing. I have hated that thing in the past. But, while I have been going through all our junk, I have to find somewhere to store and organize the stuff that has potential. Of course, I don’t know for sure what the heck I’m going to do with all of it. That’s not the point. Well, I’m not entirely sure what the point is. I’ll figure that out as I go. In the mean time, the cab of the truck gives the cats a hidey hole if the neighbor’s dogs get into our yard again (another story for another day).

A big hidey ho to our buddy Billy!

Happy St. Patty's Day

2010-03-17T09:22:00.000-07:00

Spring seems to be springing around here. The sunshine has done wonders for my mood. We’ve actually been doing stuff around here! Some of it was mandatory, but we’ve still been having some fun. We had to replace the water pressure tank (well water). It turned out to be no big deal. The water pressure is much better.

I’ve gotten no response on my new yard art, via internet or neighbors. That’s cool. I know it’s not that great. Randy has obviously gotten on board with the yard art thing. As long as he doesn’t have to do anything but critique, and I’m happy, he’s ok with whatever I do. I think his theory is…”Hell, at least she’s doing something, and she‘s in a good mood when I get home. I‘m good with that.” Plus, it’s his idea to make the old water tank into a bumble bee. I’m excited about that one! He’s the master with spray paint. So, apparently he’s totally on it now. Yippee!

I think I might be finally getting into my grove with living here. I figure that the powers that be won’t let us out of here until we just suck it up and get over the idea of leaving. Sometimes it works like that. You want something so bad and it seems to be out of reach. Then, you relax, and it just comes. I don’t know if that’s going to happen, but sitting around and being miserable is no way to live. We are still working on some other stuff around here. We’ll see what happens. In the mean time, I need to start spouting some seeds!

It's official! I have lost my mind.

2010-03-04T17:24:00.000-08:00

I guess I can't make any more "white trash" comments now. The following are pictures of my latest yard art projects.

Bicycle guy jumping over the pump shed. Yep, that's an old Wal-mart ball for his head.

This the rust monster he is running from.

Close up of why the bicycle guy is happy to be getting away from the rust monster.

I had a little putting the rust monster together. Thanks kitties!

Oh, it’s on now!

2010-03-03T18:07:00.000-08:00

After perusing a few junker blogs, I think I’m getting on to it. Rust is good (a.k.a. patina). As a matter of fact, there might soon be a rust monster skulking through the front yard! I’ve known for a while about patina on antique stuff, but didn’t really think about it beyond that. I always thought rust was a bad thing. Apparently not so much. Who knew? Ok, I kinda knew. I’ve just been so busy thinking about getting out of here, and down to Texas, that I didn’t take the time to just have some fun with all this junk we have sitting around. So, I’m going to start making lemonade out of all these lemons! If the neighbors don’t like it, too damn bad. There ain’t no HOA here! We’re out in the county. If they want it all groomed and pretty, they should have moved into town. I could go on about which is worse, the meth-heads vs. the wannabes, (white trash with money), but why bother?

Still chilly, but at least the sun has been coming out more regularly.

2010-03-03T10:28:00.000-08:00

The sunshine is great for my mood. The chill is good because we can go out in the back yard and look through the junk without being ambushed by the hornets. Most of the stuff hanging around, I have put my hands on at some time, just moving it out of sight, or in an attempt to organize it. I get overwhelmed every time. I see potential in a lot of it. Thinking about that makes my head swim as well. Do I want to just have a junk sale, and let other people do what they want with whatever they find? How would I price junk? Can I fix something up and sell it? Is there a market for fixed up/repurposed junk? I see that people are doing it. But, are they making any money at it, or just doing it out of love? Anyway, you can see, lots of thoughts bounce around my head on this subject.
So, just for fun, I’m using some of that junk for my yard art projects. Yep, that’s plural. Right now I’m working on a scarecrow type guy on a bicycle jumping over the pump shed towards the soon to be garden. Maybe he’s trying to jump over it? I’m going to go with some suggestions I received, and not worry about what the neighbors think. I have too much other stuff to worry about. Plus, it’s fun for me and makes me smile. I’ve done a couple of things in the past, but I’m ready to kick it up a notch. I'll try to takes pic.s as I go.

Note: You gotta watch that country music. Some of those songs are depressing. So, I just move up and down the dial.

Still up and running

2010-02-27T18:31:00.000-08:00

Thanks to a couple of days of sunshine, no computer, no daytime tv to distract me, and listening to some country music, some things have become a little more clear to me. (I’m not real sure if it’s a good thing to give me too much thinking’ time.)
Here’s some…In this journey, Randy and I are on our own, and that’s ok. People we hardly know, and some we’ve never even met in person, are and have been better\more helpful to us than our family and friends. Hey, nobody will f*ck you over like family. Again, that’s ok. It’s good to know where you stand with the folks closest to you. No worries if you’re one of those folks reading this, we’ll still help you out when you need it…well, maybe.

Something else: I started to think that if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Boy howdy, I can’t wait ‘til it gets hot ‘round here and I start workin’ in the yard in a tube top and cut offs with half my ass hangin’ out. (It’s not that pretty anymore.) Then of course, it dawns on me…That just might undo all the good/hard work I’ve done to repair the reputation of this address in the neighborhood. And I’ll tell you what, it’s taken all six years I’ve been here, and I still feel like I have to work it every day. So, I figure it’s just me. I may be from Texas, but growin’ up in Houston, perhaps I’m just city come to country. Yeah, well, it could be something else. In our neck of the woods, we’ve got countrified vs. west coast citified and sprawl is becoming apparent. Unfortunately, this place tries to play both sides.

Ok, you can see that I’ve been listening to country music. Yeah, so what? Always forgive, but never forget. That’s what. Oh, some other stuff came to me, but I gotta save something for the next post.

Technical Difficulties

2010-02-26T16:36:00.000-08:00

We lost power on half of the house/trailer, which included the computer. Apparently it's some kind of circuit distribution thingy, too much on one side and not enough on the other. I don't know. One thing I'm pretty sure of is this shit hole is old and most likely built on a Friday.

Ok, I'm over it.

2010-02-18T18:21:00.000-08:00

I have decided to keep this blog in it's relative original state. I'll play with my creative stuff on my own for now. To be honest, the stuff I added was distracting to me. I never made any promises on what the blog was going to be about, although I feel like it was implied. Our major goal was and still is to get out of here and down to Texas. I'll just get back to that. That's really what I need to be focusing on anyway.

Reasons not to bitch too much

2010-02-15T20:51:00.000-08:00

Everything is starting to turn green around here, even things that are not supposed to. We’ve got sprouts on my back steps! I’m starting to wonder if we haven’t moved to Seattle. We’ve got moss growing all over the place! Regardless of the reason, weather has definitely been weird everywhere. Sure, we’re glad we don’t have to deal with the snow, but the rain has slowed down any work we can do around here as well.

So, what did we decide to do with our down time? We took our little poop-head (Ruby, a.k.a. Pookey) for a walk in the dessert.

This is right up the street from us. She’s in there somewhere.

Junk and more junk

2010-02-12T17:22:00.000-08:00

We’ve got more junk around here than “Carter’s got pills”, as my mother used to say. That was before my time, but it’s a lot of junk. So, I’ve been checking out blogs about people actually buying junk and fixing it up or repurposing it. Sometimes they sell it and sometimes they keep it. Anyway, it inspires me to do something with my junk. Randy won’t let me plant flowers in the old toilet in the back yard. Oh, I would just love putting that thing in the front yard full of pretty flowers. What joy it would bring me to aggravate the across the street neighbors with my kooky yard art. How I do loves me some yard art. People are always trying to kill my buzz. Don’t feel too bad for me. I’m already planning my scarecrow for the garden. I may sneak in a couple of other things too. Just don’t tell Randy.

Some stuff

2010-02-11T20:26:00.000-08:00

I'm still working on organizing the blogs I check out. Some of them can be put in more than one category. So, I guess I'll just put them in the places that have the info I want. Oh, I don't know. I have my old standbys. I haven't decided if I want to move them around or not. Does anybody care? Probably not. You can always check out whatever you want. I most likely got the link from one of the blogs you read.

The fish are fun though. I haven't played with the seasonal veggies and cooking thingies yet. Speaking of cooking... I added a vegan cooking blog/site. There is method to my madness. I've pretty much decided that it's not cost effective to raise animals for meat/dairy/eggs. I have been off meat for some time now. I am still wrestling with the eggs and dairy. The biggest issue I have is, of course, the cost of going vegan. So, here we are. Although, there are always goats, they're small and will eat weeds and just about anything else. Although, they have hooves that have to be trimmed. I'll have to look into that a little more. That could solve my dairy issue. We do love our cheese.

Winter Blahs

2010-02-10T10:36:00.000-08:00

The sun has been peeking through every once in a while. But it’s been mostly grey and rainy. The only thing green around here is the moss growing on the naked trees.

On a happy note, flocks of robins have shown up. They make me smile, and feel hopeful about spring coming. Dreams of gardening dancing in my head…
With all the crappy weather, not much has been getting done around here. I have been focusing on
A: How to make living here more pleasant. And,
B: How to get down to Texas and make that work for us.
It sounds contradictory I know, but there’s gotta be a balance in there somewhere. Right now, I’m just trying to find that balance. So, I’m making some small changes and adding a few things to the blog. I’m not ready to jump into creating a whole new blog on any specific topic at this point. Plus, for some reason, I feel like it gives me more topics to touch on.

Wow, that was some year.

2010-01-04T20:26:00.000-08:00

I for one am glad it’s over. Of course, there are a few loose ends hanging on. But, I feel like I can look ahead a little better prepared (mentally, anyway). I’ve got lots of big plans for this new year. I’m trying to keep them real. I had big plans for last year too. Most of those didn’t work out. So, this year I’m scaling down and keeping them simple.
As I was writing this, being in a good mood, I noticed 2 sheriff’s police cars parked outside my gate. Yet, another reminder of why we were trying to get out of here.
So, I was chowing on left-over pizza and stepped outside to check out what these guys were up to. I knew full well that it had something to do with the scene behind us. I moved over a little to let them see me. (Gee, I’m so helpful). The one guy on my side waved me over. I was still chewing. I went out into the middle of the yard to make sure he was waving at me. Yep, sure enough he was. I grabbed the gate key to let myself out , and let them in if need be. Oh yeah, it was raining here in our little piece of paradise. No matter. Hey, I’m here to help. Well, anyway it was an officer I had spoken to before. He was very nice, and apparently showing the new guy the ropes around here. They were looking for some chick that lived in the gypsy camp behind us. Yeh, yeh, I keep up with all the jackasses that live back there. Ok, I didn’t say that. I said I didn’t know who all was there now. They are still trying to figure out how to get back there with out a warrant. Man, I wish I could be better help, but I seriously do not want to make anymore contact than I have in the past. I’m just thankful for the preparations that we have, given the potential danger that I have made clear to any officer that will listen.

Hey, I trying here.

Been a While…

2009-12-01T20:30:00.000-08:00

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. It’s been busy around here with little, and somewhat big projects. We’re not going to be able to move anytime soon. Thus, I’m trying to make the best of our situation. We have been busy working in the kitchen. We took out the pantry, and put up shelves.
The top cabinets out! It really opens the kitchen up. No pics yet. I still want to paint the walls and the bottom cabinets. We’ve got lots of other little projects going and coming up too. I’ll get back to writng as we go. In the mean time you my get to enjoy a few of my rants and general wanderings.

Hey, I’ve got to release it somewhere!

Miles of piles

2009-10-26T18:58:00.000-07:00

I love it when a plan comes together. The last couple of days we have been busy shuffling things around the ole homestead. The garbage can is full. There is still plenty of room in the back yard for more stuff. We are making an effort to keep it as organized as we can. So, right now it doesn’t look that bad. Even though we are far from done, the front yard looks a whole lot better. I’ve been taking pictures as we go. I will most likely put a little album together. I love before and after pics, but I think it will be a while before there is a real “after” situation.
It finally dawned on me why we get the most work done in foul weather. It’s the wasps! One of the days we were outside working, it warmed up, and those suckers were buzzing around like crazy! It was so bad we had to give up and go inside for a while. We have both been nailed a few times, and it’s not fun. So, I guess you could say I’m almost looking forward to more crappy weather.
We are making progress. I still have to be conscious of my attitude.

Sunshine! Well sorta...

2009-10-23T21:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, the most sunshine was yesterday. We got a little bit today. Although, it was mostly rain. Randy was off today. So, I put him to work! I had previously moved a bunch of crap into the front yard thinking we were going to have a yard sale. Best laid plans and such. Anyway, we decided that we should give the assholes behind us something to look at (hee hee). Yep, we are going to pile that stuff up so that we don’t have to look at it, and give those meth-heads something else to steal. The other idea behind it is to block off the path in and out. Oh, it will be glorious! We are So not even done! It will essentially be a junk fence. Hah! Hell, putting all the junk in one place could help when we get the opportunity to get rid of it. I don’t know. Putting it somewhere that I don’t have to look at it is all the better as far as I’m concerned. Now, tomorrow is another day. Maybe, I can get some more work out of him! We’ll see...

Attitude Adjustment

2009-10-21T09:07:00.000-07:00

No more back and forth over here, for now anyway. I have to keep in mind that it is only five years. Plus, it’s one full acre. That's a lot of space. I guess it’s a matter of perception, perspective, and all that kind of stuff. We are going to have to be a little more creative to get the things done than we would have liked. But, we are going to stay focused on working on this place for a while. So, I‘m going to concentrate on the positives.
The big thing that works to our advantage is that you can grow just about anything here. We already have a few neglected fruit trees (2 apple, 1 plumb, and 1 sad broken down pear). I don’t know if we can bring those poor things back or not. I have a few ideas about maybe taking some cuttings off of those and planting them in better locations. The other thought is to take one of the fruits and start from there. I’m going to have to learn some more about doing that and proper organic care of the trees and fruit. The people across the street have walnut trees. I know they take time to produce, but we can get free fallen walnuts and start from them. I would really like to get some nice trees (not Russian Olive trees) in the front yard. The less lawn the better! I’m already dreaming about next year’s garden. Right now, I’m going to go outside and fill up the garbage can. Tomorrow is trash day!

Flip flop, tick tock.

2009-10-14T10:46:00.000-07:00

It’s a daily occurrence for me. Everyday, often more than once a day, I go back and forth on what I should be focusing on. There was a time when I really liked it here. We had a garden. The lawn was regularly mowed. Randy and I were working really hard on cleaning this place up, inside and out. We were both thinking that we could make a pretty good life here. Although, the estate recovery issue was always looming in our minds. After about 3 years of hard work, and hoping the state would forget about this little place, it became a real issue. I have talked about this before, so I won’t go into it again. I think at some point in this process, we just gave up on staying here and making any more improvements. Every little thing that went bad became a Huge problem. (Ok, the van burning up really was a big deal.) But, even before the van incident, I had decided that any obstacle that came in the way of us staying here was some kind of sign to get out. And hey, maybe it is/was? I just don’t know. Crappy stuff happens anywhere you live.

Oh wait, it gets better. So, when the good stuff happens, and surprisingly enough, it does. Am I supposed to take that as a sign to stick it out and try to make this a better place? Here’s another one. Maybe we should be working harder on honing our off grid skills, as well as cleaning this place up. Then, when we do decide to head out, we’ll have good working skills and the place might be worth something when we can sell it. The only problem with that one is that we have to stay here another 5 years or come into a lot of money.

And there it is, I said it… Money. I know it’s not all about money. But, it sure can make things easier. You know how it goes. “If we didn’t have to spend money on this, then we could spend it on that.” “If we didn’t have to use the money to do this, then we could spend it doing that.” “If we had not spent it on this, we could have spent on that.” And so it goes. on and on.

It all makes my head spin. Or, is that the beer?
I’m sure I’ll be writing on this topic again. Because, as I said, I flip flop on this issue everyday.

New resident?

2009-10-06T18:28:00.000-07:00

The other night while I was waiting for the one picture to load up on the blog, Ruby starts freaking out. She was sniffing and scratching at the bottom of the screen door, high pitched scream barking, the works! I was sure something was out there. We have had a problem with skunks in the past. Don’t want to let her out if one of those critters is hanging around! So, I decide to take a peek before I let her out. Good thing. It was a big ole’ raccoon! It was the biggest, healthiest looking ‘coon I’ve ever seen. I don’t know if it was a big male or a soon to be mama. It seems we got a little lazy about picking up the cat food we leave out for the neighborhood cat, Thomas. He’s the only outsider Ruby lets hang around. No problem. We’ll just pay more attention, and pull the food in the evenings. As much as I like raccoons, I know they can be trouble. It will just have to find somewhere else to get free grub. Sorry, no pics. Hopefully, I won't get another chance.

The joys of fall in eastern Washington.

2009-10-04T20:46:00.000-07:00

It seems like everyone is having weird weather in their areas. Ours isn’t too off. We had a long soaking rain yesterday. It is the first one in a long time. You might be wondering about the hole in the roof left after we took out the chimney pipe for the pellet stove? I was too embarrassed to say what we did as a temporary before. Well…We stuck an upside down bucket up through the ceiling. Don’t judge too harshly. Hey, it worked pretty good for a while. Plus, remember, Randy almost fell through the roof the last time he got up there. Anyway, we’re going to have to do something else, and soon. Of course, it leaked. But not too bad really. Don’t think I was kidding about the big blue tarp! I seriously do not want to spend any money on fixing this place up. Money would be better spent having the thing hauled off. Hell, I’d be happy with a FEMA trailer, formaldehyde and all. Open the windows, let that sh*t gas off. Then, sheetrock it. Oh, I don’t know. I’m just sayin’ …

Oh yeah, I was talking about weather. Usually when we have a front come in the wind blows like crazy. It does the same as it goes out. It’s funny like that here. I’m used to (in Houston/Austin) it getting breezy as a front comes in. Then it just kind of goes away. Today was a fun filled day of wind and little bit of a sand storm. See below.

That's not rain or fog. It's the middle of the day, very dry, and windy. After I ventured out and took this picture, my eyes were crunchy and I was chewing on grit in my teeth. Yuck! Finally, it has slowed down.

October ?!

2009-10-01T16:30:00.000-07:00

What happened? Have I been asleep this whole time? Nah. It’s starting to get chilly at night. So, we’ve been doing a few things around here to prep for the fast approaching winter. It’s boring stuff so I haven’t posted any of it. I have however, been keeping up on the blogs I read regularly, plus a few others. I have also added a some that seemed interesting to me. I’m sure I’ll add more as I find them.
Given that we will be staying here at least until the spring. Things need to be taken care of in preparation for a long cold winter. So, we’ve been doing some long needed work around here. The last few days have been spent on working on the back porch area. The wind blows right through there, so there was a lot of sweeping, spider web abatement, and general organization. The porch is also the walkway to the shop. We worked on cleaning/organizing the shop a while back. It actually has stayed in pretty good shape. Unfortunately, when we were cleaning up the shop, a lot of stuff got shoved out on to the porch area. It’s been a lot of work.
Randy has more of a hard time getting rid of some of the stuff than me. I seriously purged a bunch of my crap before I moved here, and before I even knew Randy. My mom dumped a bunch of her stuff on us when she and her husband moved into their motor home full time. So, when they got a house, I returned the favor. Now we are having to go through what’s left of the things that were left here by Randy’s parents, his sister, and worse yet, all the junk his brother in law accumulated while they lived here. And, of course, not all of the stuff my mom left got sent back. It’s not as easy as they make it look on TV. At least, not without professional help. The majority of the stuff is truly garbage. Getting rid of trash isn’t free. So we’ve been pecking away at it, little by little, one garbage can at a time.

Getting Back on Track

2009-08-17T21:16:00.000-07:00

It’s time to get back to what this blog was originally supposed to be. A chronicle of how, on a limited budget, we were going to get down to West Texas and live off grid . That budget has gotten even smaller than when we started talking about doing this and bought our land in Terlingua. While we were trying to get it together, we were also fighting the state to keep this place. The hope was that we would be able to sell it and have a small nest egg to use to start over in Texas. As it has turned out, we can keep this place by paying the state $500 a month for the next 5 years. It doesn’t sound like much, but now, more than ever, I’m ready to get out of this evil place. There is no way we could make any of that money back. The place just isn’t worth that much. We agreed to the deal because, yes, it’s cheaper than rent anywhere else. The good news is that I’m not starting from scratch as far as research goes. I have a rather large binder full of info I have collected over the past 3 or so years. When I was getting started with this blog the best information I was getting was coming from the survivalist folks. The election and politics seemed to have become a distraction for them. I had my own thoughts about that stuff and was not interested in getting in any discussions nor reading about politics. However, I am going to list some of their blogs back here on mine again.
Can I say I’m getting back to my roots? Nope! I’m a Houston girl. I never minded roughing it on the weekends, camping, sleeping on the boat in foul weather, etc. But, doing it long term is something else entirely. I can say, I’ve gotten some experience living with less. Humans are very adaptable. Damn good thing!

A couple of notes:
I called the fire chief. Nobody is coming to check it out. We can get rid of it as soon as we want.
Ruby has gotten more spoiled than normal.
Oh, and nobody is talking to me as of yet. Maybe they think I have the bird flu, or whatever the newest pandemic threat is?

2009-08-16T20:10:00.000-07:00

No new news. The burned carcass of the van is still sitting in the yard. And it stinks!!! After not hearing anything from anyone, I sent an e-mail to the fire chief Thursday. He was the only one that left contact information. I’ll call Monday. I’d like to get that thing out of my yard soon. Seriously, every time I walk anywhere close to it I can smell it. It smells like it’s still burning. I get a knot in my stomach and have to walk over just to make sure. There’s not much they can do, but I want it written up as arson, not an electrical fire. I think I’m over the initial shock, but now, when I do sleep, I’m having nightmares. I know I’ll get over it. It was just a stupid van. I just want to move on and not worry so much that something else may happen, and that it might be worse.
As I said before, we’re taking this event as yet another sign to get out of here and head south. Now it’s just a question of when? Tomorrow would not be too soon enough for me! I think we’re going to have to spend another winter here. I don’t think we can get the funds and everything else together before it starts getting really cold (snow & ice).
I’m a little concerned about Ruby with the snakes and scorpions, but I’ve heard there are classes you can go to that teach them to stay away from snakes. I’ll worry about that one later. Right now the focus needs to be getting things organized and prepared for the big move.

Ruby the Wonder Dog!

2009-08-11T16:58:00.000-07:00

Well, Ruby, with all her annoying antics earned her keep this morning. At some point last night Randy let her out. She has a habit of barking at nothing. Usually, she’ll go out for a little while. Then, when she’s ready to come back in, she’ll bang on the screen door once or twice (the lower half is metal) . This morning I awoke to frantic banging and scratching at the door. My first reaction was a groggy “What the hell?” So, I get up to let the stupid dog in. I open the door and notice an orange glow. “Is it that early/late? Wow, that is some sunrise.” It was 3:00AM. “Oh shit, fire!!!”
To better understand, the view out my front door is the pod. About 30’ directly in front /along side is the van we bought from Randy’s work about 3 months ago. It was the van that was on fire, along with the super dry grass under and around it.
I ran back to the bedroom, got Randy up, shoes and shorts on, and out we went. As I ran out to get the full view of what was going on, I saw about 5 people standing in the road watching this fire. I was grabbing the hose while they were taking turns yelling at me to get away from it. “It’s going to blow up.” Pissed, and all adrenalined up, I yelled to Randy to turn the water on and get my gun. Ok, I hope you can understand, I was seriously freaking out. How the hell does a van in the middle of the yard catch on fire? And would you shut the fuck up! After this guy yelled at me that if the fire hit a fuel line it was going to blow up in my face I nearly lost it. I remember yelling back at the guy, “One more fucking time, ‘cause you’re not looking real good right now!“ (I was pretty sure he was from the gypsy camp behind us.) Needless to say, Randy did not get my gun. They all evaporated when they saw the flashing lights coming down the street. Gee, thanks assholes. Were they just out there to view their handy work? I don’t know. I didn’t get a good look at the ass-fuck that kept running his mouth. It was still dark and I was a little busy.
I knew that the van was a lost cause. What I was really worried about was the dry grass around it spreading the fire to the pod and/or the house and my car. So, Randy had the hose putting out the burning grass and I used up 2 of our fire extinguishers. Note: Those things are about worthless. But, I guess we should buy a couple more, just in case we ever have a nice small fire to put out.

After the fire was out, I was talking to the fire chief and sheriff’s deputy about what happened and what the cause might have been. That was interesting. The fire chief says it was a short in some wiring near or in the heater coil. Ok, so here’s my problem with that theory. We haven’t driven or even started that van in over a week. I don’t know much cars and electricity. But, if there was a short seeping juice from the battery, wouldn’t the battery be dead after more than 7 days? I guess that’s my big question. The fire chief almost has me convinced, but I’m still having trouble with it. Take a look at the pictures.
After looking at everything in the daylight, I’m pretty sure someone put something either on the tire or in the tire well on the passenger side to start the fire. We’re going to pursue this one. Fucking cock suckers! Oh sure, we’re taking it as a sign to get the hell out of here. But in the mean time, those assholes better lay low. ‘Cause this bitch has had enough!!!

The distance b/w the pod and the van. It's closer than it looks.

That fire was hot and movin' fast!!! (Looks like may date & time on the camera is still messed up.)

Doesn't look like a short in the enginge compartment to me.

Good dog, Ruby!

I’m melting…, I’m melting…

2009-08-03T20:24:00.000-07:00

It’s Hot !!! Maybe not as hot here as it is elsewhere, but hot just the same. Not much is getting done around here. Randy has been working a lot of extra hours as of late. That’s good, since they had cut back his hours a while ago. As usual there has been talk about staying here or leaving. We’re both on the same page as far as getting the hell out of here. Now it’s just a matter of how and when. Shelling out an extra $500 bucks a month to pay off the DSHS lien is really putting a dent in our plans. The idea of staying here another 5 years is daunting, to say the least. At some point I said that we could do everything we wanted to here ( off grid, etc.). The thing is we’re really not far enough away from our neighbors as we would like to be. Every other day, if not every day, one of them is on their riding mower mowing their lawn. When they’re not doing that they are watering in the middle of the heat of the day. Most of the water is immediately evaporated or sprayed on the road or driveway. It’s ridiculous! This also causes the humidity to go up so much I feel like I’m back in Houston! I guess what I’m trying to say is these people are wannabe suburbanites, mixed with white trash and meth-heads, not country folks
Pardon me while I digress for a bit…
Ah, the joys of county living.
So you move into an area that you think is in the country. It takes 25 or even a little more minutes to get to the closest grocery store. Sure it seems rural enough. “ Hey, I can have chickens and/or goats. I‘m in the country now!” It seems like that. The problem is, so does every other dumb-ass in the country. “Hey, this would be a great place to cook meth without the po-lice noticing.” Living in the county isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. So, you anti-tax paying, survivor guys, what exactly are you going to do when the real bad guys come a‘callin’? At some point you’re gonna run out of bullets. Trust me our government is not your problem. It’s not great, don’t get me wrong. But, there are others that are way more armed than you, and they are begging for riots in the streets. So ya'll go 'head on... In the mean time, me and mine are hunkerin' down.

2009-07-16T12:05:00.000-07:00

I took another little break, (well, not so little) from my blog. I just haven’t had much to say. We’re still, slowly but surely, working on our remodeling. My computer station is no longer where it was, or even as big as it was. Since we are going to be staying here longer than expected, we went ahead and bought a cheap used couch off Craig’s list. Previously, our seating amounted to Randy’s dad’s broken down recliner and the little rocker that came in the pod. We moved the entertainment center where my make-shift desk was. The new set up works a little better. Plus, it’s nice having a couch. There is still a hole in the roof/ceiling. Fortunately, there have not been any really big rainfalls. I’m really not sure how we’re going to fix it. When Randy got on the roof to pull out the stove pipe, I was inside and watched the ceiling move. So, it may end up being me up there on my belly. Who knows? If worse comes to worse, we’ve got a giant tarp that can cover front to back of the trailer. I bet that would look pretty! A bright blue tarp bungeed over the middle of the roof. Ha! Our neighbors would really love us then!

Speaking of neighbors... The one across the street is adding another metal building to his already oversized workshop. Yes, of course, we're envious. Anyway, he asked Randy to help him put up a couple of the windows. It gave us a chance to look at the structure up close. It was pretty cool. I've been looking at DIY metal buildings as a replacement for this old trailer for a while now. I'm even more excited about doing something like that after seeing this one as it goes up. I have a feeling we're going to be over there helping with the roof and siding, so it looks like we may be getting some hands on experience at constructing one of these things. It should be interesting.

Some success...

2009-06-06T16:14:00.000-07:00

The wall is gone, carpet down, and my new computer/work station set up! Don’t get me wrong, there are a few more things to do to finish it up. But, it’s getting close. No pics. My new desk is the door from the little room. The computer hook ups run through the door knob hole. It actually looks pretty nice. Ok, once I get the desk organized, I’ll take a picture. I did take a before picture. I always like before and after pictures. The hole in the roof is going to be interesting. No pics on that one at all. Maybe one day I’ll admit what we did to fix it. At this point, the less evidence the better. As long as hornets and birds aren't flying around, I'm happy. What we really should do is get an attic turbin thing to move air around. That's on the list. They're not as popular around here as they are in the south. I'm guessing because of the snow. Oh, we'll figure out something.

2009-05-28T09:26:00.000-07:00

The lawyer gave the ok to go ahead and sign the papers!
It’s been really warm here lately, but there have been some sweet, cool, breezes. So, yesterday I looked around and saw some things to be thankful for. Randy’s mom’s roses. They are going crazy! We got lazy and didn't cut them back this last winter. There is really nice ground cover under them with pretty little white flowers. I forgot to mention that I am actually growing something! In the container are some little red potatoes. If they produce even smaller ones, that’s ok with me. The foliage is nice too. So, even if they don’t produce, I’ll have a nice little plant.

The dates on the pictures are wrong. I took these yesterday. The quality isn't great because I have to reduce it so that it only takes 10 mins. to upload each one. One day I'll figure out a better way to do it. I did change the date on the camera. That got screwed up when I changed the batteries.

I just wanted to get something posted and get back in the groove. There is so much to do around here, I'm sure I'll have much more interesting things to talk about now that the leagal issues are pretty much settled.

2009-05-25T19:30:00.000-07:00

In celebration of being able to stay here, we took out a wall in the house! I call it a house. It’s really an old mobile home. The wall was between the living room and a tiny bedroom. The bedroom had become a big closet full of junk. It really increases the living space. The cats aren’t too happy though. They have lost their hidey hole. Too bad, kitties! As usual, this brilliant idea has turned out to be a bigger project than anticipated. That’s alright. We’ve got more time than money. There’s now a hole in the ceiling, and one in the floor where the pellet stove was. The stove is now against the wall, where the hallway was, awaiting a hole to be cut in the wall to vent to the outside. Randy says it will be better than pushing the air up the stove pipe. Sounds good to me.
Next…Old carpet out! We have left over carpet from when we re-carpeted the living room and our bedroom. Randy’s old boss gave it to us when they remodeled at his work. It’s kind of funky, but if it’s free it’s me! Plus, it’s heavy duty commercial stuff. Rubber backed, no pad needed.
Oh yeah, I think Randy’s dad dropped me an Indian head penny 1907 (face up). For those that don’t know, people that have passed on often drop coins. That’s what they say anyway. I found it in our pathway in the yard while I was talking to Randy on the phone. We’re going to go with the idea that it’s good luck. Hell, we can use all the good luck we can get!

Ok, I'll quit bitchin'

2009-05-23T15:18:00.000-07:00

Well, I really can't bitch too much about the weather anymore. It's been really nice the last week or so. No, I don't have the garden set up yet. Don't push me!!! We've been had our minds on other stuff, like if we're going to be able to stay here or not. To that, we got the settlement agreement from the AG's office. Randy dropped it off at the lawyer's office Thursday. Yes, it's too much, and it's going to hurt making payments, but it's a hell of a lot better than trying to set up in an RV park with a dog, 4 cats, and throwing our money down a hole. Not to mention, borrowing money from family. There have been a lot of choice conversations about how this could have been made easier, and at the price of a nice used car, but anyway... Now, we just have to give money to the state for 5 years and not think about what could have been. "Bitter much?" Yep. Don't worry, we'll get it done. And I'll keep posting updates as they come.

2009-05-14T08:57:00.000-07:00

The weather around here has been bizarre! It’s near the middle of May and it’s still getting down in the 30’s at night. It gets up in the 60’s - 70’s during the day. One might think, “that sounds really nice.” And it is really nice. However, it’s also really weird for this place. You have to remember, we live in the armpit of Washington (not the West side). They call it a steppe. Ok, most of the time they (the media, which is a joke) just boast about the sunshine, forgetting to mention the volcanic dust that sandblasts any and everything in it’s path every time the wind blows. And it blows a plenty! But, this year, we seem to be getting a lot more moisture than usual. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about our weather this year. I’m just commenting on the odd weather that seems to be hitting everywhere. I don’t know if it’s global warming, a new ice age, or just the nature of the life of a planet. In the mean time, I’ll just be thankful that it has been pretty nice over in our neck of the woods.

Now the adventure really starts.

2009-05-10T10:46:00.000-07:00

It looks like we are going to be staying here for a while longer. We should be getting paper work soon, and next month we will be making our first payment to the state. I guess it’s time to put up or shut up, and do some real work around here. To be honest I’m kind of excited about it. Now that we're going to have to make payments, anything that gets done will have to be accomplished on a shoe string budget. That’s how we’ve been doing things anyway. Plus, there’s plenty to do around here that will only cost some hard work and creativity. We'll be getting the veggie garden growing soon!

Still Just Waitin’

2009-05-04T14:13:00.000-07:00

I haven’t written lately because there just hasn’t been much to say. Everything is still up in the air as far as whether we'll be staying here much longer or not. We may find out something a little more concrete later this week. Who knows?

Spring Fever

2009-04-12T17:35:00.000-07:00

Spring is springing here in Eastern Washington state. A few days of sunshine, then a couple with chilly wind, and a light shower or two. All in all it’s been pretty nice. Although, today has been a slow soaker. I’m debating on how to do a veggie garden this year. Container vs. in ground. Things grow really well here in ground. I’ve been looking at key hole gardening too. I haven’t gotten any seeds yet. Most likely I’ll get some locally. The one year I did a garden here (in ground), I bought some 10 for a $1 seeds at the Dollar store. It was late in the season. The only problem with that was, it gets really hot here in the summer. So, I lost some stuff to the heat. The peppers did great. And the tomatoes and herbs went crazy! Now that I’m writing this down. I could do both, in ground and containers. Anyway, I’m just distracting myself from thinking about how/if we are going stay here.
On that front:
We found and faxed a copy of Randy’s dad’s will to the AG’s office. I don’t know how much that matters. She won’t be back in the office until the 20th. I also took some really ugly pictures of this place to e-mail her. It wasn’t hard to do. Since I’ve lived here (5yrs) we haven’t done much to clean this place up. What would be the point if the state was going to take it anyway? That’s how long this has been hanging over our heads. This year has been the first time we’ve ever been offered some kind of settlement. We’ll most likely take whatever they finally offer, but I figure there’s no reason not to talked them down as much as we can. It’s going to take a lot of work to get this place back to what it was when Randy’s parents were alive and living here. I’ve seen a couple of pictures, and it breaks my heart. I can only hope we get a chance to do right by them.

New developements, kind of.

2009-04-06T10:33:00.000-07:00

The lawyer we talked to a couple of weeks ago suggested that we ask the state for some kind of payment plan. We’ve tried it before, and were told that the state is not in the real estate business. But, we decided what heck! Why not try again? The worst thing that could happen is they’ll say no again. Well, she didn’t say no this time. Wonders of all wonders! She told us to send an offer. So, we did. We based it on the $15,000 they had previously offered. The reply was nope, if you’re going to make payments we want $30,000. Ok, I get that $30k seems reasonable for a house on one acre. What she does not fully understand is that this place is not worth that much money. It is a 70’s vintage trailer that is in pretty bad shape. Plus, it’s kind of a funky neighborhood. We had a realtor out here about 2 years ago and she said she might get $20K. It could take another $5,000 - $10,000 to make this place worth much more than $15,000. And then, of course, there’s the economy to consider. So, we’re mulling it over. I think we’re going have to make a counter offer. We’re only at the beginning of this stage of the game. It’s exhausting, but were still in it! We’ll see what happens next.

Is spring here yet?

2009-03-29T17:24:00.000-07:00

The sun finally came out again!(still pretty cool,40’s-50’s) It was a rainy yucky week. This has been a really long and wet winter. When it does warm up and stay warm, I think bugs are going to be a real issue this year . Randy worked on cleaning engine parts to go back on the suburban and a little yard work. I made myself busy attending to my domestic duties, including laundry, dishes, and some experimental cooking. I made a really good pizza dough. I’m trying to get over my fear of baking bread, and I thought pizza dough would be a good jumping off point. The only thing about cooking from scratch is that it creates a lot more dishes. That’s ok though, I still love to cook and trying out new recipes is fun for me.

Just a note:
Ruby’s paw seems to be getting a better.

Busy the last few days

2009-03-23T14:42:00.000-07:00

I took some time off from the blog again. Things haven’t been great lately. Lets see, the alternator crapped out on the Honda last week. Not so much of a disaster, just a pain in the butt, and another added expense. A new muffler and exhaust will be next. Randy is keeping that poor little car running with bubble gum and bailing wire. This past weekend we had to cut up a big tree limb that fell because of the wind. It just missed the ‘burb. Ruby got stung or poked on her foot between her toes and won’t leave it alone. We may have to put an E collar on her. Right now we’re just putting Neosporin on it and trying to keep her inside as much as we can. With all the little things to take care of, as well as the weird weather, it‘s been difficult to find time to work on the Suburban.

We were served the foreclosure papers a couple of weeks ago. So, I guess they really mean it this time. We visited yet another unsympathetic lawyer (a freebie). Randy is going to make some more calls and try again to wrangle something. I think we may be running out of rabbits to pull out of the hat. We shall see…

Ok, yes, I have lost my mind. Well, maybe...

2009-03-18T10:23:00.000-07:00

I have been in an odd mood lately and it seems like it is running off on this blog. So, I shut it down for one whole day. I know, big deal, right? I could have just taken a day or two off, but as I said, I was feeling kind of funky. Like every woman, I have the right to change my mind. The content has been changing and will continue to, as my focus changes. I hope you stick around to see what's going on with us.

Veghead

2009-03-14T22:06:00.000-07:00

Ok, here are a few reasons why I have vegetarian sites here on my blog. Sure, you could call me one of those tree huggin’ GD-do gooders, whatever. Look, they do not test for mad cow in this country we all love. You want to get rid of the federal government? Well then, you’re an idiot. It needs some work, but if things were left to state and local governments, we’d be in even bigger trouble. The beef industry is one of many heavy handed lobbies that have been getting whatever they want for years. The rain forests have been decimated due to the demand for your cheese burger. Now a days they put beef in everything. It’s hard to find any kind of sausage without beef in it. Even pepperoni has beef in it. Oh, wait a minute, I forgot to mention that these same rain forests are being destroyed to grow soy to feed the cows. Ok, so now we are subsidizing farmers to grow soy and corn to feed cows? But I digress…

How about another thing for all you survival folks (that are still reading my blog) out there to think about when it comes to shootin‘ you‘re dinner… You may want to save yer bullets for the bad guys, whom ever they might be. Look, if it gets that bad, the last thing you need to do is waste your amo on some pathetic hungry animal. My suggestion would be to learn how to grow your own veggies and protect them from those attack bunnies, deer, and other rouge hungry animals looking for free and easy food, without shooting them. It’s only a suggestion. But, as Randy’s dad always said “There’s nothin’ more treacherous than a white man, son.” And this was from a blond haired blued eyed southern gentleman. Take it however you want. I just thought it was an interesting statement. Don't worry there's more to come...

A few new additions

2009-03-13T20:05:00.000-07:00

I have added a few new blogs and links here. There is method to my madness. Mainly, it gets me to the things I’m interested in quickly. If you would like to peruse them, I’m sure you’d be welcomed. I especially like the field lab blog, as it has a bunch of info on living and building off grid.
I have taken off a significant number of survival blogs. The reason for that would be the politics I don’t agree with. The ones that are still there are because I don’t have a fundamental problem with their political views. I hope you didn’t get your feelings hurt if you got knocked off. I even took off some farm blogs because I don’t eat meat. There may be a few on here still, but I can’t handle a kid talking about eating parts off of a pig (or whatever) they named. It’s just icky. There will be another post on that subject soon. If you’re going to read my blog, you should have a better idea about what I’m about. I don't eat warm blooded animals, I think Bush is a war criminal, I beleive in god, and I think all organized religions are some sort of cult. there's more, but it's getting late...

A little sunshine always helps

2009-03-09T11:45:00.001-07:00

We have had alternating rain and sunshine here the past few days. I’m glad because the on the sunny days it warms up a little. They have cut Randy’s hours back some at work. That’s no big surprise. Right now, I think everyone one is just glad to have a job. So, with Randy’s shorter hours and the better weather he’s had time to get back to work on the suburban. The weather getting better is also good for selling stuff and maybe (if I can work up the gumption) a yard sale. Yeah, we’ll see about that one. I’m not good at dickering back and forth on prices. I guess you’re suppose to mark them high and come down to what you really want. There’s a delicate balance though. If you mark them too high, they won’t even bother. Oh, I guess it doesn’t really matter. It's all got to go anyway. I guess I'll be working on that for the next few weeks.

Yipee! I'm back on line!

2009-03-06T15:46:00.000-08:00

We've been going through hell and back on this computer crap. There may even come a time when we just let it all go. But, for now, I'm glad we've gotten it under control.

Ok, here are some of the updates:

We, as well as, some of the heirs have been served the papers for foreclosure. (It will take some time, and we're still looking at our options.)
The heads are on the suburban, but we still have to put everything else on. (Hopefully, with the weather getting better that won't take too long.)
We've gotten a lot of rain and some sunshine, so the bulbs are starting to sprout. (Hey, at lease we'll get some flowers soon.)

I sincerely appreciate the suggestions I got regarding our situation. We'll see what happens with that. In the mean time, you just have to keep on keepin' on.

To stay or not to stay?

2009-02-24T17:49:00.000-08:00

This is a question I ask myself and Randy often. I guess it should be to try to stay or not. I talked to someone at the AG's office the other day. It looks like we may still have options. I don't know, and I damn sure know the lawyers we've talked to don't know. So, once again we're left hangin' in the breeze without a clue. What it really seems to come down to is money. We don't have much. This place isn't worth much. There is a signifcant amount of back taxes that we have just been keeping up with to keep the county from kicking us out. The reason behind that is, why pay them up if the state is only going to take the place? This is important because in the case of a sale of the property by the state, the county taxes gets paid first out of any money from a sale. Oh, and that doesn't include any court costs. What I'm trying to say is, they should take whatever we can offer them. If they don't, it will most likely be auctioned off for next to nothing, and they will end up in the negative.

I do understand that states are mandated by the federal government to come up with a medicaid recovery plan. It is, however, up to the states in how they go about it. With that being said... This is a well known welfare state. I have to ask myself something here. Do other people who find themselves in need of help from the state or federal government ever have to pay anything back? I guess old dying people and their families don't count. We're not talking about some rich jackass, or greedy kids here. We are just trying to keep what we've made our home. Randy and don't have kids. Hell, in this state we'd be doing better if we did, especially if we weren't married. I see it here all the time.

I've said it before, we could do everything we want to do here. We could live off grid here. We could do the rain catchment (even snow) here. It's only one acre, but we could grow more than enough veggies here. Hell, I bet I could talk our neighbor down the road into traiding us veggies for chicken eggs. I don't really know, but with things going the way they are, it's likely.

So, here we are. There are plenty of reasons why I don't want to stay here. I don't really feel like going into that. I will say, they are a plenty.

So, I ask, should we try to stay or should we go? Randy has lived here off and on for a lot of years. He also has a love/hate relationship with this place. I just don't know.

Finally!

2009-02-19T10:25:00.000-08:00

We finally got the computer back. It took them a week and a half to fix it. Needless to say, we won't be using these people again if we have any problems in the future.

Randy's half brother received paperwork from the AG reguarding the forclosure of the property we live on. Why we didn't get anything, I don't know. We just live here. I'm guessing it's so we won't take it to a lawyer. Or, they thought maybe he had some money to give them. Wrong. Maybe we'll call and try to find out what the hell is going on.

Anyway, I'm glad to have the computer back. I'll think of something interesting to write about later.

Computer woes

2009-02-04T17:49:00.000-08:00

I'm writing on the laptop today. The big computer must have gotten a hold of the worm going around. I don't know. I'm getting a DLL error code. I still need to make some calls, and perhaps, take it somewhere.

In the mean time, I'm busy driving Randy crazy with mood swings of anger, depression and drunken silliness. Under the circumstances, I think it's appropriate. If he doesn't kick me out before the state does, I'll call it good. Otherwise, things are just about the same around here.
This is just a short post, as I need to go bug Randy some more. He's in my kitchen again!

Fasten Your Seatbelts...

2009-01-29T13:04:00.000-08:00

Ok, here we go. I got an e-mail from the AG's office this morning. They are starting foreclosure proceedings against us and the other heirs. I don't really know what all that entails, or how long it's going to take.

What I'm curious about is, where are all these people that are getting kicked out of their houses going to go? Are there going to be huge tent cities living outside of thousands of empty houses? Maybe those survivalist guys are right about the FEMA camps. The houses won't be distroyed, but no one will be able to afford to live in them. There are lots of people being layed off. So, they can't pay their morgages. Then, they lose the house. Let's pretend there were jobs to be had. Ever try getting a job without an address? This is a very slippery slope. In our case, it's not an unpaid morgage. ( This place was paid off a long time ago.) In our situation it's the state wanting money back for Randy's mom's care. I've gone into this before. Anyway, we have this travel trailer (a.k.a. the escape pod). So, I guess we'll be the ones with the fancy tent? Where we're going to put this thing is a whole different matter. Sure, we've got the land in Texas. I have to ask though, just how in the hell we are supposed to get it there? Oh, I know what it will take, money. We could stay here while Randy still has a job. But then we'd have to pay for a spot in an RV park with utilities, water, and sewage. We might as well move into an apartment if we were to go that route. Either way, there would be no way to get ahead enough to get to our land in Texas. Yet another slippery slope. And to think, this all could have been avoided. I've gone into the reason behind that before. I'd rather not do it again. There's a special place in hell for some folks. Hmmm, looks like I can still get mad. Maybe it's the sunshine. Too bad I won't be able to get that garden started. Apparently, now I have other things to worry about.

The Adventure Continues...

2009-01-27T21:40:00.000-08:00

We’ve had computer troubles for the last few days. Windows crapped out. The system recovery seems to have fixed it, this time. Fortunately, I had paid the on-line bills and even filed our taxes. We will be getting a little back. Most, if not all, will likely go to the vehicles. I really think we'll be moving this year. The woman from the AG's office called Randy's half sister before the computer went down. That poor old woman doesn't have any money to give them either. So, as it gets warmer we will be able to get a little more prepared for what's coming. The sun came out for about a day and a half, but I'm still in kind of a funk. It may just be the stress. I'm having trouble even getting mad anymore. That's worrisome to me. Well, that's it for now.

Birthday, another year gone by

2009-01-22T13:06:00.000-08:00

I had a birthday a few days ago. Not a big one, 38. It got me thinking though. In the last year so much has happened. And yet, it seems like it’s stayed pretty much the same. This time last year we didn’t have a clue how long we were going to be able to stay here. That hasn’t changed. We came close, but no dice. I suppose we are more prepared for whatever may come now than we were a year ago. There’s always something else to do or worry about though.

I’ve decided to go ahead and plant a garden this year. I didn’t last year because I was just sure we were going to get booted out of here. Who knows what’s going to happen this year? If I plant and we have to leave, oh well. If I don’t plant, we may end up going hungry or get sick from whatever the next pathogen/toxin that hit’s the produce market. So, I think it will be worth the effort to plant.

Our last payment on our West Texas land is February. I’m looking forward to getting that little peace of mind. We’ve been working on this project for more than 2 years. Now it’s just a matter of dragging our butts down there and getting started on a little homestead. I see a lot more work in our future.

Here's a question

2009-01-16T23:32:00.000-08:00

For any and all-
Anybody know what kind of lawyer you would go to about squatters rights ? Randy's been here long enough, but I'm not sure what kind of lawyer to go to.

Frugal living

2009-01-16T22:20:00.000-08:00

Living frugal has become sort of a game for us. This week I made up a batch of lentil and veggie soup. It was a small batch, because that can get old quick. But, I did stretch it out an extra couple of days by changing it up a bit with canned tomatoes and a few spices. I've been reading that one needs to rotate their food storage. I've gotta tell you, we live off that stuff. We try to make it fun and a learning opportunity. I like cooking anyway, so it is especially fun for me. Randy remembers a little bit about how his mom cooked, so he is a great helper. We have a freezer right now, so I buy a lot of frozen veggies. I haven't jumped into canning yet. I still want to make bread. The only thing slowing me down is our tumultuous situation with this property. To seed or not to seed, that is the question...

Back on Topic

2009-01-13T18:30:00.000-08:00

I seem to have let myself get distracted from my original goal for this blog. The latest toxins in food, as well as Randy’s conversation with the woman at the state yesterday, have brought me back to reality. It’s looking like the only way you can get safe food is if you grow it yourself. I could run on about that, but I won’t. The woman at the state was, as usual, soo helpful. She told Randy that they now want twice the money they did before. And, she is still about to file the papers. I could go on about this bitch too, but, to maintain what is left of my sanity, I won’t. All that being said, it’s time to start looking/moving forward and focusing on the plan.

I have compiled a rather large binder of ideas, as well as things that people have done and are writing about on their blogs. Many thanks to all of those that have and continue to share what has worked for them and what has not. I also take a look at the links and blog lists that are posted on those blogs. Every little tid-bit of info that I can get and apply to our situation helps. This information has become invaluable to me in our efforts to move forward!

I’m still working on getting all of our ducks in a row. The most urgent issue we have, right now, is getting the tow vehicle back in running order. That’s going to take as much or more time and effort as it did in taking it apart. I’ll keep updating as things progress.

2009-01-08T16:26:00.000-08:00

I get so tired of people bitching and moaning about the nanny state. “ I don’t want to pay taxes.” “ Why is the government always telling me what to do and what not to do, and telling me it’s for my own good.” “ I know what‘s good for me.” “I want to do whatever I want.” “ I wish they would just leave me alone.” Good God! It sometimes sounds like an insolent child. There are lots of reasons they are seemingly always telling you what to do. The main one is that people obviously Do Not know what’s best for them. Why do you think there are laws telling you to wear a seatbelt in the car, a helmet on a motorcycle, etc.? It’s not just because they are trying to keep your dumbass alive so you can keep paying their salaries. It’s because when someone doesn’t wear the seatbelt, helmet, or whatever, and manages to only end up with a traumatic brain injury, we all end up paying for their care for the rest of their lives. There are lots of other laws that may seem ridiculous. But people are stupid, and Darwin doesn‘t always take care of it. I know Uncle Sam doesn’t always know best.

Just a note on the new lead law. Sure, I’m sorry that some people will be financially affected. Personally, I think this country has enough problems without people buying products that will make our future generation stupider, by poisoning them with heavy metals. Maybe, we should start taking some real responsibility. It’s embarrassing how ignorant the people in this country can be.

Oh, and for those that don’t know, there hasn’t been lead in pencils since the 1500’s. Now, the one’s coming from different countries may have lead based paint on the outside. Who knows?

Weird

2009-01-05T19:19:00.000-08:00

Ok, that's just weird. My blog list is working now. What the hell?

Posting just 'cause

2009-01-05T18:23:00.000-08:00

I'm posting just because I feel like it. I don't really have too much to say.
I find the map thingy I installed pretty interesting. My blog list isn't working right. I don't know why. Everyone else's seems to be working. I'll work on it later, I suppose.
Oh yeah, it snowed last night, yippee! I think I may be getting cabin fever again. This place is driving me crazy! I wish my mom would have helped us buy it, so we could sell it and move to Texas with a little grubstake to get started. Anyway, didn't happen. I'm just ready to get somewhere warm!

2009-01-01T21:29:00.000-08:00

Randy worked today and I wasn’t feeling so great. Not because of partying the night before. It was a girl thing. Maybe that explains my previous post. Don’t get me wrong. I meant it. It’s a worrisome group.
Anyway, one of my resolutions for the past 10 plus years has been to learn and be fluent in Spanish. I’m from Texas and have always felt like I needed to learn it. So, I took 2 years in high school and then a semester in college. At that point it was like taking an English class. Thus, I can read Spanish better than speak it. I speak Spanish almost as good as Peggy Hill (King of The Hill). In my efforts in this endeavor, I’ve been watching Spanish television shows. It’s sad but true. It’s always been an aggravation that when I worked for the state (Texas) that I couldn’t get one of those bilingual jobs. Here it’s worse. Apparently you need only to speak Spanish and not so much the English. Oh, and by the way, our new minimum wage has gone up to somewhere qround $8.55. Yeah, those immigrants are doing the work we Americans don’t want to do. At least in Texas you had to be fluent in both. It seems my mood has not changed much. Maybe in the next couple of days it will improve. We'll see...don't take any bets yet. With things going the way they are it's hard to imagine anyone's moods getting better.

Food for thought

2008-12-30T22:10:00.000-08:00

I’ve done a little research folks. I’ve been looking at survival sites for a couple of years now. What I have found interesting is the propensity for the favor of the Mormon sites. Oh sure, they are great for food storage advice. People need to understand that there is a reason behind that. It is not because they are just smart, good natured, and think it’s a good idea. It’s manly because they are just sure they are going to be the majority of people left after the apocalypse, or whatever you want to call it. Geeks, think Borg…
This is not a good thing. Look it up. Unless you want to assimilate, you may be right in keeping and stock piling your guns. And you thought the Government was after you...

2008-12-29T19:20:00.000-08:00

Sunshine and some rain!
The sun has finally come out and is trying to melt the snow. Yea!
Christmas is over. It’s time to get back to thinking about what’s ahead. I find myself in a bit of a conundrum. I want to get serious about collecting and stock piling food, but I also have this constant nagging thought in my head. We are going to have to move sometime in the near future. Everyday I check the mail expecting there to be a letter giving us some number of days to get out of here. I’ve described our situation before and I’m not going to get into it again. Anyway, we’re going to be moving. I don’t know if it will be the big move to Texas, or if we’ll just move to a local RV park. Either way, we are not going to want to haul a bunch of extra stuff. I guess I just answered my own question. Bummer.
Now, I’m thinking we should focus efforts (and $) on the pod and the tow vehicle. Here’s what I think we’re looking at in that area.
First and foremost , put the suburban back together.
Tires for both
2 new batteries for the pod
Check and fill propane tanks
I need to sell some stuff to lighten the load as well as create another influx of cash for the move and the afore mentioned expenses. I really don’t care for trying to sell stuff on E-Bay, just haven‘t had much luck. Craig’s list isn’t much fun around here either. People in our area don’t want to pay anything for your crap, but want a butt load for theirs. I guess I’ll just have to change my attitude, and be as hard nosed as they are. Maybe, just maybe people are getting in the mood to buy used stuff. We’ll see. I’ve considered selling stuff on a new blog. I’m still working on that idea. Any suggestions on that idea would be great. Put them in the comments or send me an e-mail.

Merry Chiristmas

2008-12-25T08:25:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! We made it!
I cooked a turkey last night. I don't normally eat meat, but Randy got a free turkey last week at the company Christmas party. It was my second time cooking a turkey. I'm telling you the only was to do it is in one of those cooking bags. I even made giblet gravy. It was my first time on that one. There are only two of us, so we've got left overs to last us a couple of weeks. Anyway, that was about all of our excitement yesterday, other than a little more snow.

Oh yeah, Randy's friend down in Hood River, WA gave Randy some brilliant advice. He suggested that maybe we should start stock piling food. Hmm... No, that just sounds crazy! I'm kidding. Randy let him know we had already started doing that. We need to keep stocking up though. I've been whittling away on the beans, rice, and a few other things. On that note, we really need to get appropriate storage containers. I've looked around a little locally with not much luck. Dog and cat food containers don't really excite me. I guess I'll have to get some on line.

Well, have a good Christmas!

Oh great, more snow...

2008-12-21T18:39:00.000-08:00

Ok, we don’t have it as bad as Busted. However, we were without water today. Randy went back to work this morning. So, I had to wait for him to get home and help me figure out where the frozen spot was. He took off from work a little early and we found it. He had a pretty good idea of where it might be. Long, wet, dirty story short, we can flush the toilet, and I can wash dishes and clothes! We’ve got a pretty good supply of drinking water, Three 5 gallon jugs. Anyway, time to take my wet shoes off and change my socks. My feet are wet and cold!

2008-12-20T20:09:00.000-08:00

Cabin Fever!
It has been just too damn cold to do anything outside. So much for getting the heads back in the truck. I've been writing stuff for this blog, but I didn't put it out there and now it's out dated. Maybe I should just write here, and post like everybody else seems to. Anyway, I wish I could say that we've been working on the truck. Although, I can say that we found a good use for the snow...

2008-12-15T10:59:00.000-08:00

Holy crap! We got snow! yippee…?
And it’s friggin’ cold! Down in the teens during the day, single digits at night! It’s about the same as Busted knuckles. Romeo, our native Texan cat, is pissed! He likes to be outside and this weather is just not working for him. So, he’s in and out, and that’s not working for Randy and me. The other cats are smart enough to stay inside and only go out if necessary. We’ve got Thomas, the neighborhood cat, set up pretty sweet. He’s got an old couch cushion, w/ a heating pad, and an outside chair cushion on top of that. We also rigged up a little shelter for him with an old foldable lawn chair. It must be the best digs in the neighborhood, because he was in it all day. (He won’t come in the house and we don’t have a garage.) Warm, dry, shelter from the snow, and free food, now that’s surviving in style! Spoiled bastard (relatively).

This is Thomas yesterday afternoon. He bailed when it got dark. He must have another spot more secure with a wind block.

The Befores

2008-12-07T10:32:00.000-08:00

This is the living area before.

The dinette before.

As you can see, by taking all of it out we gained quite a bit of space. We, however, lost most of our storage space. You might think that's bad. But, with more storage space comes more stuff, and more weight. I've mentioned weight before. It's a big deal. We also did not need the extra sleeping space. The little doors that open up from the outside can now be used as cat doors. We will most likely get a cage or something that they can open up to. That way the cats can go outside somewhat safely if we have to stop somewhere for a while(ie: an rv park). That plan is still in the idea stage. The openings are too small for the dog much less humans. So, no worry there. It will also be pretty easy to seal them up if we want to later.

The suburban heads are in the shop. We should get them back next week, and get started putting Humpty Dumpty back together again. Just one more exciting part of the adventure!

2008-12-06T18:03:00.000-08:00

I know I promised pictures of the pod renovation some time ago (Oct.?). I kept waiting because I wanted to make everything perfect. I decided that was a dumb idea. I'm always changing stuff around, so I decided to just take some pics and post them.

This is the new pseudo couch with most of what is left of our christmas stuff.

Dining/sitting area with foldable table. That's a little heater on the floor.

Here with the half fold.

If you look real close you might see the pvc pipe curtain rods. We haven't fixed that yet. You get the idea though, that we were going for light weight. This is also stuff we can take out later when a cabin or something gets built. The table folds up all the way, but I figured that was enough of the dining area. The chairs were on sale(closeout), plus another 50% off for a little damage. They came out cheaper, lighter, more comfy,and nicer than foldable chairs we had looked at. The cushions were an Overstock.com puchase. Set of four for less than the cost two. So we've extra in case of spills. We didn't do so great on the couch thingy(double papazan sp?). But, we couldn't find anything light weight enough in a reasonble price range. Color was also a challenge for us, and limited our choices. I'll bring in some pillows or something to pull it all together, eventually. But, for now, that's what we've got. If it didn't take forever to upload pictures from our crappy dial up, I'd post before and afters. The befores are somewhere on a previous post. Check 'em out.

Productive day?

2008-12-01T20:22:00.000-08:00

Wanna know what I did today? Sure you do. We’re all voyeurs in our own little ways. That’s why we blog, and that’s why we read blogs. That being said…(not necessary, I know.)
My day started off productive. I once again started with the second bedroom full of crap. It is mainly full of stuff to be sold and packing materials. Ahh, the best laid plans and such. It’s much easier to buy on the internet than sell. So anyway, I found myself gleaning through the cluster of crap, throwing out what wasn’t even worth giving away. I don’t really know how it manage to stay in there the first few times I went through it. Then I find yet another batch of video tapes I have to go through. Oh joy of joys. I get to watch Randy’s brother in law’s attempts at catching nature spirits on video tape. Hey now, I have no problem with nature spirits, fairies and the like. What I have a problem with is watching his videos of a whole bunch of nothing. Ok, I could go on and on about that, but I’m not. I also got the joy of watching more than one video my mother left with us of her husband singing country songs, via karaoke. Everybody wants to be superstar in one way or the other. Ya’ll know as well as I do, most of the real superstars are the ones we don’t hear about. So, there's still stuff I’ve got to go through. Most of it really is junk. I’ll figure out what to do with the rest.

Don’t judge me too harshly.

2008-11-30T19:25:00.000-08:00

We joined the sheeple Friday, for some adventures in shopping. Randy had never done it before, and I thought he should experience it at least once (heh, heh, heh). We got up at 4:30 am and made it to our first store around 5:20. It opened at 5:00. We left the house with a plan. There were about 3 things we were looking for. Shopko was our first stop. This store is usually dead. Not Friday! It was packed! The check out lines snaked around to almost the back of the store. The stuff we were looking for was gone and the other things we might get (socks, t-shirts…) weren’t worth waiting in the lines. We had an hour to kill before the next store opened, so we stopped to get some breakfast. The next store was Office Max. No door busters there. Everything they had was also available on-line at the same price. So, it was much calmer. Remember, we were really just doing this for fun. (Seriously sick people, we are.) Since we were done, we checked out Target. Again looking for t-shirts and socks. It was slim pickins by the time we got there, and again not worth standing in the lines. The main thing that I noticed was that the prices really weren’t that great. Even the clearance stuff was only 50% off. Target has better sales throughout the year. I remember times when these sales were much better, with huge discounts. It was pretty disappointing. I kept threatening Randy with heading over to the mall, but that was just asking to much. Anyway, a fun time was had by all. And because we got up so early, we got a few things done around the house when we got home.

2008-11-24T19:52:00.000-08:00

We got the other head off Saturday. Randy is going to take them in tomorrow. We're not in that big a hurry. We just need to get it done before it gets too icy. Only one busted knuckle. And that was on the first day. It should be good and calloused by the time we put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
Meanwhile...
We cleaned up in the shop. I got sick of reading doom and gloom, and political crap, and added some gardening, cooking, and lighter blogs to my list of reading. I still read some of the ones I removed. I just make it harder on myself to get them. We''ll see what happens next...

Yippee!

2008-11-21T17:55:00.000-08:00

One side off! It was a bitch. Next is the other side. I'm sure it will be just as much fun. Then, Randy goes back to work! He'll take the heads to be reconditioned next week. And then, we get to put it all back together! Oh wait, after that, we get to put the sway control and weight distribution crap on the trailer. If we're lucky it will be freezing f*cking cold with sleet and wind by then.
Sorry for my foul mood. I pretty tired.

2008-11-20T22:33:00.000-08:00

As I had mentioned, Randy has been off the last few days. We actually started on getting the heads off the Suburban. This is not a job for the faint of heart. I had no idea what a serious pain in the ass this was going to be. I’ve taken my usual position as tool runner (I’m even getting better at it), medic, etc. This time however, I decided to bag and tag bolts and removed parts. I’ve also been writing down each step on a legal pad. I’m hoping this will make it faster and easier to put this jigsaw back together again. I’ve been taking a few pictures as well. And, of course, I’m going to share…

I don't know if you can see it in this picture, but there is this black carbon sludge in the oil galley. (I know it's there twice. I couldn't figure out how to get the small one off without starting over.)

And now for the money shot...

I'm also resident photographer, so no pics of me.

One Hell of a day!

2008-11-11T17:52:00.000-08:00

It just keeps getting better and better. I didn’t mention why exactly I didn’t care for the nosey neighbors. I will now. This morning the meter reader was down the street on her way to our house. I put Ruby on a leash, opened the gate, and walked her out side the fence on the edge of the road. She likes to smell all the smells outside of her yard. Plus, we’d be out of the meter reader’s way. Seemed like a good idea at time. Before I could do anything, the neighbor’s two dogs (lab mix & ridgeback mix) were on top of us. Although I had seen them out earlier, I also heard the neighbor whistle to call them back. I didn‘t see them when we went out to wait for the meter reader. So, I thought it would be fine. Apparently, they had been following her while she made her rounds. Anyway, there I am in the damn street spinning around with Ruby on a leash and these two big fucking dogs growling and biting at her. During this fiasco, I’m forced to stick my hand in the middle and let Ruby off the leash so she could at least run away. I did, and she did exactly what I thought she would and ran back into her yard. These two pathetic dogs didn’t care about Ruby anymore. All they wanted was her out of the way so they could have the human’s attention all to themselves. So, as calmly as I could, I walked the two dogs back to their home and close the gate, which had been left wide open. One might ask why I didn’t knock on the door and speak to the neighbor about the dogs being out once again. There are two reasons for that. Number one, I didn’t want to go to jail for beating the shit out of the stupid, pill popping, pathological liar, bitch. The other? That’s how we ended up with Ruby in the first place. Ruby’s story is an interesting one. I should tell it sometime. This whole little street has many interesting stories. I fondly refer to this area as the “Hell mouth.” Yes, I got that from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but it seems fitting.
Note: Although, the ridgeback did get purchase on her back end, Ruby is fine. Maybe a little bruised on the behind and ego, but no broken skin.

If that wasn’t enough, it was really windy today. The tarp came loose on the house side. So, I say to hell with it. I’m not going to waste another one of Randy’s days off to jack with a stupid tarp. Randy is going to be off next week. We’ll just hope for decent weather. I guess plan C is to just get the damn thing (heads off)done, so we can be ready to get the hell out of the hell mouth!

Plan B

2008-11-10T08:42:00.000-08:00

It's a crappy picture because the truck was in the way. We haven't moved it under the tarp yet. We've had a pretty good rain, and it went pretty well. No real wind yet. It's actually not a tarp. It's some leftover construction stuff that goes on the walls when they build houses. (from Randy's former life) He knows what it's really called, but he's at work right now. (I wish I had remembered we had it before we bought the big tarp.) It's got a bear leaning on a house. So, it's cute and obnoxious. I've gotten to where I enjoy annoying the neighbors. It's really not as obnoxious as the big blue one. And, you can't see the bears from the road, but the nosey next door neighbors can! Plus, it blocks their view. Now we can work without as much of an audience and with some protection from rain and snow. The hard part is going to be getting Randy out there to get the heads off. He just loves working on cars. I don't blame him. He'll be glad though, when it starts getting icy on the roads.

2008-11-07T19:22:00.000-08:00

On to plan B… The day after we put the big tarp up we had a light rain test that barely passed. The wind test did not go well. The tarp was just too big to pull and secure tight enough. So, we took it back down. We’ll use it for something else. That was a lot of work just to get some pictures of our cats. We’ve had nothing but rain or wind since. Winter around here is pretty yucky. Never fear! We’ve got another plan! We better get something done quick, because the really bad weather is coming. I’m hoping to get to it the next couple of days. Randy will be off. I’ll get the pics up as soon as we get plan B done.

2008-11-02T09:45:00.000-08:00

One last inspection by the "big dog" Ruby.

Good enough. Bring in the truck.

That's it? I liked it better on the ground.

Now, I know it's not much, but it works for now. That is, as long as it doesn't rain too hard. We had a little rain last night. It's definitely not going to hold snow. We may work on it a little more. The thing to remember is that it's just temporary. If we don't damage it too much, I'd like to be able to use it for shade over the escape pod when it gets warm again. Anyway, Randy's going to have to take some more time off so we can get the heads off and take them in to be worked on. I don't quite get it yet. I'm sure I will when he starts on it. I'm just the tool runner, light holder, and resident medic on these jobs.

2008-11-01T21:27:00.000-07:00

If you remember, one of our goals was to do the heads on the Suburban. So, Randy took off a couple of days, giving him a four day weekend. Sure, that would have given us enough time to get that done. However, there was some prep work to be done beforehand. In our part of Washington winter time mainly gives us rain, wind, and a little snow. So, we needed some sheltered area to do some work. Not an easy task on a small budget. The inspectors showed up while we were trying to figure out our plan of action with this huge tarp.

They did a very thorough inspection. So much so, they had to send one in and look for the lost crew member.

Don't worry! I got her!

Geeze! These guys worry way too much! Looks good to me. Carry on.

We did it!

2008-10-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

We voted! Ok, it's not that exciting. Wanna know who we voted for??? Too bad. I'm not telling. I'll sure be glad when this whole thing is over and done with. I've always been told that you don't discuss politics or religion in polite society. It makes sense to me. You're not going to convince someone to change their mind on either one, in most cases. I can see how it's fun for some folks. It can be an entertaining brain exercise. Anyway, it's over for us. We did our part and voted.
Now it's time to move on. What's next for us? I don't know. I'll figure something out. There's plenty to do around here. I suppose I should pick something of the list and get to it!

Well, I'll be!!!

2008-10-24T11:34:00.000-07:00

Isn't that somethin'! It's working as good as new now. Thanks for the mojo Busted!

Nerves!!!

2008-10-22T14:42:00.000-07:00

This is really getting on my nerves. The stupid "update template" button doesn't come up. So, I still have no layout tab. I can change some stuff, but now I have to refer to my written list of blogs I read, and then type them in to get to them. I don't know what they were thinking. If you're going to make an upgrade for everyone, make it workable for everyone! It's not just me. I'm seeing the same question asked on the help forums with no real answer. The only band aid I've seen is some complicated computer language thing that you have to copy and paste somewhere. I picked this "blogger" thing because it seemed easy and user friendly. It's starting to look like I'm going to have to start over with a whole new blog. I've tested it. It looks user friendly enough. I just didn't want to have to start all over again. I'm still hoping, but hope hasn't been my friend lately.

Success!!!

2008-10-18T12:58:00.000-07:00

The Honda is up and running again! It was the igniter. A little cheaper fix than a new computer.

Oh, that was after being awakened at 8:00 am by the police rousting some jackass behind us, banging on doors and such. We also had a lovely encounter with our neighbors across the street while Randy was working on the car. They were playing with a pump pellet gun. And joy of joys, right down their driveway in our direction. Man, I love this place! So, I say to hell with it. We'll sell our stuff for a few bucks, save our pennies, and get the hell out of Dodge. That's really been the plan all along. We fought the good fight. We didn't know the state was going to come down to $15,000. If we did, we would have done things a little differently. The real shame is that my mom and her husband chose not to help us get a little head start. That's alright, we'll keep on keeping on. That's what survival is all about.

2008-10-15T10:20:00.000-07:00

The problems I'm running into with making changes on the blog are on Blogger's side. They wanted me to upgrade. Then I lost the layout button and all of my links and blog list. I'm still working on it. I don't do computer language, so I may just have to wait on them to fix it.

Under construction

2008-10-14T11:45:00.000-07:00

I'm working on some changes on the blog.

FYI

2008-10-06T19:22:00.000-07:00

To avoid finding yourself or someone you care about in the situation that Randy and I are in there are some things you should know and share with your loved ones. There is a federal mandate that states that every state has to have an estate recovery program. Just google “Medicaid estate recovery”. It’s a scary thing. It does not matter if there is a will or not. You could lose your inheritance, or your loved one could lose what you have willed to them. I know this is in the case of one having to go on Medicaid, but you never know what could happen. There are a few exceptions, but not many. Below is a snipit of something I found on an AARP website.
Protections in Medicaid Estate Recovery: Findings, Promising Practices, and Model Notices
Research Report
Erica F. Wood, American Bar Association
Ellen M. Klem, ABA Commission on Law and Aging
May 2007
“Estate recovery has been federally mandated since 1993 when Congress required states to recoup the costs of LTC and other related Medicaid services from recipients’ homes and bank accounts. This makes Medicaid for institutionalized and older people very different from most federal benefit programs. Requiring low-income Medicaid beneficiaries to reimburse the government for services received often stuns surviving spouses and family members of deceased Medicaid recipients.”
It will most likely cost the state more money to foreclose on this place than it’s worth. All I’m saying is do some research and be prepared. We haven’t given up yet. We’re just working on plan C now.
Because I came into this scene late in the game, one day I’ll let Randy tell the whole story.

Crunch time

2008-10-05T16:30:00.000-07:00

It seems like everybody is feeling the crunch right now, in some form or another. It’s times like these that you find out who‘s with you and whose against you. Some of that has gotten straightened out for me these last couple of weeks. We got a breath away from saving Randy’s mom and dad’s place last week. Randy wrangled a hell of a deal with the AG’s office. A lot of options/promises were passed back and worth across the table between Randy and me and my mom and her husband. What it came down to was her husband wanted to buy it outright and give us the privilege of living here to clean up and take care of the place like share croppers. Well, my momma didn’t raise no fool! I suppose folks the likes of Randy and I don’t deserve a little place of their own. I even mentioned putting it in just mine and her names and leave the men (and their egos) out of it. The response was a firm insistence that it be put in their names. If she ok’ed this, it was most likely because she had thrown her hands up. She didn’t want this place. She said as much on more than one occasion. It was just too sweet a deal for her husband to allow anyone else to have, when he could just take it all for himself. Greed is an ugly thing. My mother is by no stretch of the imagination a greedy person. I know who was behind this cluster f*ck, as do the ones watching. She went above and beyond to not come between her husband and his kids. And now he’s created a riff between my mom and me that I don’t know if we can ever recover from. In the end, I may have been the one to cut the ties, but enough was enough. With his influence, it was a long time coming. At my mother’s request, I have tolerated his bullsh*t for over 12 years. This was just the straw.
The whole thing makes me sick. All I can do is remind him that karma is a bitch.

2008-09-28T09:54:00.000-07:00

Just another little update. A settlement agreement was offered and paper work sent to us. The lawyer is looking it over and doing some research on the logistics. How and if we're going to be able to pay it is still up in the air. We've got until October 15 to send proof of availability of funds. Stress around here is pretty thick.

Randy got the katalytic converter on the Honda. No test run yet. He said he's got to loosen a couple of bolts on some springs (?). I didn't help on this one. Not much room under there, and not much I could have done anyway.

That's it for now. Maybe I'll have some news on Monday. Until then, I'll be reading Mayberry's (keep it simple...) blog. Even if I may not always agree with 100% of what he says, he still cracks me up. His rants are the best!