On Vacation

A wonderful sunny weekend and week to all! We’re going off on our long awaited vacation. Home to Maine for a little friends and family time and two nights/three days in Kennebunkport.

 

After A Week Of Sun

Wet and gray,
I love the these mornings.
Time seems to stop.
The dramatic dripping on the roof,
the light haze on the hills,
the muffled effect the clouds have
on the whistling
and chattering of the birds;
it all works to slow you down.

The rain cleans the air,
replacing the impurities
with comforting scents.
Outside,
the organic
and earthy smell of the soil
is bolder than everything else.
Inside,
faint hints of clean linen
and the aroma of morning coffee
lingers through the house.
It’s the perfect kind of day for reading;
your mind has been quieted
and distractions eliminated.

Drink it up,
for when the sun returns
we will all quicken our pace again.

 

The Cash Only Approach

As times are getting tougher, many of us find that it’s harder to get by, and it’s extraordinarily stressful.

People are loosing their jobs, ending up with reduced hours, less pay, and we’re all being forced to cut back. Tax season is upon us, and plenty of people who thought they were going to get a decent sized refund (including us) will see little, if anything, and many more will have to pay in extra. We’re all looking for extra cash- that overtime that use to be so easy to get, tax refunds, and all the magical cash that use to seem so abundant and available. But it’s just not there. So, because there is no extra cash, and actually less than we’re use to, what other option do we have than changing our spending habits? Easier said than done.

We all know how hard it can be to break a bad habit. Biting you nails, twirling you hair, sleeping late, whatever, we’ve all had a bad habit that we’ve tried to break. Sometimes we’re successful, other times, we’re not. And bad spending habits, we’ll, they are going to be just as hard to break. But I have adopted a policy called “cash only” that has begun to help break my bad habit. How does it work? Like this: you only spend the cash you have. Yup. That’s it. It sounds overly simple, I know, but once you try it, you’re going to realize how hard it can be.

That debit card that is soooo much easier than cash, bury it in your wallet. And that credit card that is waaaaaaay too easy to swipe and charge, hide that too. You’re going to be ignoring them both for a bit. But hold up, I’m not telling you to not use them- both a great when you’re in a bind, especially a credit card for emergency purposes. But let’s face it, you and I both started saying it was only going to be for emergencies, and over time that nice new outfit ended up on it, and that amazon order, and on and on. No more! Break free!!! So right off, we’re going to try to not spend frivolously anymore. Again, sounds easy, but once you try it, you’re going to surprise yourself and how hard you may find it.  

Now, I pay all of my bills with my checking account. Those don’t count in this approach. No, what counts is only the stuff that you buy on a weekly basis- I’m talking groceries, house necessities, meals out, laundry costs, etc. THAT is the stuff you are going to be using your cash only policy on.  So find out how much you need for all that in the week, spend an hour thinking things out, and write that amount down. Then, when you go to the bank, take that amount out of your paycheck and deposit the rest. And then, during the week, buy what you normally do, trying really hard to just go for those necessities, and once your cash runs out, you’re done. Hint: buy all your necessary items first (groceries, soap, etc.) then go for the less important stuff. Just like that. Oh, and if you find you actually end up with money left over, put it aside for the next week and take out a little less, forcing yourself to deposit more.

And that is the cash only policy. I dare you to try it. It’ll be difficult at first, but after a little while, it will become second nature. And be ready to be surprised at all the extra money you’ll end up saving.

 

Winterizing- Part Two

I cannot believe that December is already here! I’ve been really bad at keeping up with posts, oops! Well, here’s the second part of the winterizing post I told you I would put up. The pictures are good for learning step-by-step, but they are so bland- I promise a brighter picture post in the very near future!

So here begins a brief “how-to” on winterizing old drafty windows using plastic sheeting, cardboard, and a staple gun.

Step One

Step One: Measure out the size of your windows and cut your plastic to the proper size. Do not cut it to the exact size, make sure each side is about six inches bigger than it needs to be because you will be rolling the excess plastic around the cardboard.

Step Two

Step Two: Grab the cardboard that you are using and cut it to the size of your windows. To do this, cut the cardboard in the location that you are going to be stapling it in, and fold/rip to size. Make it only slightly smaller on the ends to allow room for the other pieces of cardboard that will be framing in your window.

Step Three

Step Three: We decided to staple the plastic inside the window frame because of the awkward shape and molding of the windows, but you can just as easily staple around the outside of the window if you prefer. So take your first piece of cardboard (we started with the bottom) and roll it a few times in the plastic. Then take this and staple it into position. *Note: Staple size does matter! We made the mistake of using staples that are not long enough and have already seen the cardboard being ripped out with the wind and will need to replace them. Try a 1/2 to 3/4 inch staple with this.* You will have some excess plastic on the edges. You can trim these before rolling in the sides.

Step Four

Step Four: Do the same again with the side opposite that you just did- for us it was the top. Make sure that you do not roll the plastic too tightly on the cardboard, or you will find that you might tug up too hard, ripping out the bottom. Allow a little room to breath in the plastic- a little loose will be fine. Again, trim the edges.

Step Five

Step Five: Next, do your third side just like the other two. All this rolling will have you ready to make wraps or burritos for lunch!

Step Six

Step Six: Roll your last side, staple it in and you’re done. One window done, many more to go I’m sure.

For such an inexpensive and easy project (although time consuming and tedious) it helps quite a lot when it comes to preventing the loss of heat in your home. The staples for the staple gun are a couple bucks for a pack, cardboard was free, and the big roll of plastic was under $20. All this did ten windows, and we still have some plastic left over for next year. The plastic we bought is a little more heavy duty than you might want, and does a good job of preventing us from seeing too much of what’s going on outside. But you can get your plastic at different thicknesses, depending on your situation. They go all the way from thin see-through kits that use double-sided tape and a hairdryer, to the heavy duty do it yourself stuff that we bought. Although we would like to be able to see outside a little better, we’d much rather have this heavier plastic for our situation.

 

Six Random Things About Me

I have been tagged by artbystrongheart for a Six Random Things post. Since I’ve never posted anything too personal, I think it might be a good idea.

The rules are:
Link to the person or persons who tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write six random things about yourself.
Tag up to six people at the end of your post and link to them.
Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

SIX RANDOM THINGS ABOUT ME:

1.) I think way too much. That’s right. I have the hardest time in the world keeping my mind quiet. If I’m doing one thing, I’m always thinking about another. If I’m trying to sleep, a dozen things pop into my head and keep rotating with new thoughts. I find it a blessing and a curse. It keeps my mind from getting bored, but it’s the falling asleep at night thing that bothers me. I’ve had to come up with creative stories in my mind, and follow them, evolving them every night in order to fall asleep. Luckily it helps a lot.

2.) I’d much rather have a bowl of leftovers (homemade soup being my favorite) for breakfast than any other breakfast item out there. It’s strange, I know. But I contribute it to a number of things. The biggest is that I recently found out that my grandmother is the same way. She’d rather have a sandwich or something for breakfast than cereal or anything breakfast like. Makes sense that it would be an odd trait passed on. Another is that I don’t like to waste anything. So when there’s only enough left over for one bowl, I can’t bare seeing it sit in the fridge, never to be eaten. It keeps me warmer, happier, and fuller longer- a good thing when I only get to eat lunch around 1:30- 2:00 most days.

3.) I am a firm believer in karma, positive thinking, and jynxing yourself. I see all the time people get just rewards for their actions in life. I see differences in how people think, act, and what happens to them based on their outlook on life. That’s why I always say some positive words, even in the darkest of hours. I see people say negative things (“I’ll never get this”, “I can’t”, “It wont happen for me”, etc.) and all of it comes true. Then I say “I can”, “I will”, etc. and it does. Your outlook on life is everything. And jynxing, well, after I said “We’ve almost paid off the credit cards!” and “We’re good for winter, nothing’s going to keep us cold now” I apparently forgot to knock on wood, because, well, it came back and bit me hard. Now there’s a grand of each of our credit cards from things happening all at once, and we have two new winter cold issues to address. *sigh*

4.) I’m not a huge fan of talking on the phone. I like talking in person, I like letters, instant messaging, email, everything, but the phone just always seems a little awkward for me.

5.) I’m a very happy person. I love my life. Sure there’s good days and bad days, things I don’t like or that upset me, but all and all, I’m happy with my life and wouldn’t trade it for anything.

6.) I can wiggle my ears, roll my eyes back in my head, curl my tongue in two directions, and even curl it to look like a three leafed clover. Oh, and I think I can almost dislocate my hip.

 

So, TAG, habitsofamouse , you’re it.

 

Winterizing- Part One

With October coming to a close after tomorrow, the cold weather has quickly begun to swoop in. We’ve had out first two episodes of snow flurries and the nights are becoming bitter. It’s time to start the yearly tradition of bundling and buttoning up.

We started the process last weekend with the easier and “free” winterizing chores. We started by replacing the thin cotton sheets on our bed with our thick flannel ones and but another blanket on it. Right away, this made the bedroom a much happier place and I would highly recommend investing in a good set of flannel sheets- and I do mean a good set. It can be a little costly, but if you buy the cheapest set you can find, cheap is what you’ll get and they wont last nearly as long as you’d think.

Next the screen on the storm door was removed and replaced by a thick pane of glass. I was shocked at how much it reduced (almost eliminated) the drafts that typically ooze in around our door. Absolutely fantastic. I bet this will help a lot this winter!

And then the swapping of the clothes. Out came the tubs of winter clothes and my husband and I took turns emptying out our dresser drawers of our shorts, t-shirts, and everything warm weather and then filling them back up again with sweaters, pants, and long-sleeved shirts. Piece of advice: try to plan this when you are in the mood to toss things out! Together, my husband and I filled a garbage bag of summer and winter clothes that we no longer wore or no longer fit. All good stuff, rested assured, and it will all make its way to our local second hand store this weekend. There’s nothing more rewarding than thinning and simplifying your wardrobe!

And lastly, we brought out our small electric space heater. It doesn’t sound like much, but these little things make a big difference when the cold begins to come in. The huge thing left on our winterizing to-do list is putting plastic over our old, rattling, drafty windows. This year we’re going to try a different technique- instead of buying the kits with the thin plastic and double-sided tape, we’re going to buy thicker plastic, and use strips of cardboard and a staple gun to aim for a better result. Our problem last year was that because the windows are so drafty (I don’t think drafty even begins to describe them) that every time there was a storm with moderate winds, it would blow the plastic out-the double sided tape wasn’t strong enough. So my father told me how he does it, and we’re going to give that a try.

When it’s going to happen, I’m not entirely sure. I would love to start this weekend, but it all depends on how much cash we have left over from this weekend- a tiny grocery list, but we have a moderate sized list of our “buy every 2 months” house necessities (toilet paper, soap, shampoo, otc medicine, etc.) that we’ve got to purchase this weekend. So if we can afford to buy a roll of plastic (we have the staple gun & staples, and I have all the cardboard I could ever need from a cardboard dumpster at work) this weekend, then maybe it’ll be started then. If not, it’ll be on the list for next weekend. Either way, I’ll put up a nice photo post on the process when it is done.

Until then, Happy Halloween!

 

Pumpkins: More Than Just Carving

After years of wondering where that can of pumpkin pie filling came from, I finally figured it out- real pumpkins! I know, it’s a strange concept, but it’s true! I had been wondering all September why someone would grow pumpkins and not eat them, and just needed to know what they tasted like. Obviously, the raw pumpkin smell that’s released while carving, bringing you back to childhood nights of Halloween, is nothing like that taste of pumpkin pie. So what the heck does it taste like?! My friends, I have seen the way of the pumpkin and am here to share my discovery of the overpowering sweet that is roasted pumpkin flesh.

 

Apples Up The Wa-zoo

September has come and gone, without a post from me. I apologize, but it was beautiful. The summer’s rain had finally stopped and every day was warm and sunny. We took every minute we could to enjoy it, spending time with friends and family, taking plenty of long walks, enjoying the festivities of the Rutland and Fryburg Fair, and picking plenty of wonderful local apples. I’m up to my ears in apples, and every time I finish up my half bushel, I find myself going to get more. Surprisingly, I’m not sick of them yet! I don’t think I ever could. And so, wonderful, beautiful, delicious apples are the topic of this long awaited post.

First, the orchard. Wellwood Orchards is right down the road from us- the same place we picked our strawberries this summer. It’s a huge place that really blooms in autumn. They sell their apples that you can pick yourself, pies, cider, home items, and of course apple cider donuts. They also sell tons of pumpkins- large carving and small pie/sugar ones- and all kinds of squash. All three times we’ve been up there, rain or shine, it’s been packed. It makes me very happy to see all those people up there, supporting one of their local growers and reducing their ecological footprint by buying produce that doesn’t travel thousands of miles before ending in their bellies. My husband had never been apple picking before, and he really enjoyed himself. Really, I think what pleased him the most was that the tree branches, under their heavy load, bent down to his level, where he didn’t have to work very hard to pick them.

So what do you do with all those apples you end up with? Well, you can eat them as is, you can cook with them, bake with them, mash them, smash them, dry them, and the list goes on and on. I like cooking them with squash, adding a natural sweetness to them. I’ll be sure to do some of that soon. I’ve made a couple batches of apple crisp that haven’t lasted long enough to think about saving, and should probably make another this weekend when my in laws come down to visit. Today I tried making a pie, surprisingly the first double-crusted pie I’ve ever made, as a surprise for my husband when he gets home from work. It looks beautiful, and hopefully it tastes good too! I don’t see why not, I trust my old plaid Better Homes and Garden Cookbook all the way. I just wonder about the crust. I didn’t use my mother’s tried and true crust that I typically use, but tried my father-in-laws, as request from my husband.

But my most favorite way to enjoy apples is in the form of homemade applesauce. As a side dish to a meal, it’s super, but a cup full of that for a snack is even better. I remember my grandmother making it when I was a kid, and the first time I tried it, I was hooked. Every fall, like clockwork, there would end up being a Tupperware dish full of it in my fridge. No one ate it like I did. My sister isn’t an apple person, my mom was always too busy to stop for a snack, and my step-father wasn’t much on anything sweet. So it was always all mine. What a pleasure it was. Even when I went to college, when I came home on fall break, she’d always have two batches for me- one to enjoy that weekend I was home, and the other to take back with me to school. It was borderline sacred to me during those four years, pushing every last bottle of beer out of my dorm mini-fridge just to make room for it. Ha!

With something so special, so sacred, so reminiscent of fall, it only makes sense that I had to learn to make it myself. I tried last year, and it came out great, but I had to borrow my grandmother’s chinois set to make it, and was only able to use it once. This year, I was going to make sure that would be different. It was time to start a tradition of my own, so I bought a chinois set of my own, and a couple batches later, I can’t imagine not making it this time of year, and neither can my husband who asks for it every week!

And so, what better place to share the enjoyment of making homemade “pink” applesauce than here? If you’re interested, follow the link below for a simple and photo packed process of making my Thurston-Violette-Giroux applesauce.

 

A Lightbulb Goes On

Oh sweet Deities, I do not know how time has past so quickly! The summer is quickly coming to a close, and I feel like I don’t know where the days have gone. It’s probably due to all the rain this summer, making it seem like there were less enjoyable days- which there really were. The kids in the area started school again yesterday, daylength has gotten noticibly shorter, and there’s talk everywhere about early apples being ready- and it’s not quite September. And the Vermont State Fair in Rutland starts this weekend. Wow. But I use these all as reminders to enjoy every beautifully warm day we get.

With everything that’s been in my head lately, I’ve been painstakingly trying to pick just one action that I can economically and environmentally improve upon. I’ve already done as much as I can about heat, I recycle a LOT, and water consumption, well, at the risk of sounding ignorant and insensitive about the issue, I don’t care about it. That’s right, I probably “waste” a lot of water, but up here, we really do not have to worry about supply! And, for heaven sake, I work at a water testing laboratory, can you imagine how much we “waste” there? Trust me, water use is not a concern to me at this point in time. Water rant aside, I still wanted to find something. Food was high up on the list, but I’m still trying to work that out slowly- a sudden drastic change can be impossibly hard and expensive. And then it came to me. Electicity- what better way to reduce my electric consumption (and don’t forget, my bill) than to change my old regular lightbulbs with those new fangle-dangled energy efficient ones?

You know what I’m talking about, those funky looking compact fluorescent light bulbs that are energy star approved? Those funny things that never seem to fit into normal lighting fixtures so you get frustrated and throw them out- oh but you can’t throw them out, because they have mercury in them and should really be recycled- but it’s hard to find a recycling center that will take them. Can you hear the frustration and skepticism in my writing? I had tried them a number of years ago, and never found the right place for them. So, like a horrible environmentalism, I’ve shoved them out of my mind. That is, until recently.

I had discovered that they are now offering them in new styles- ones that will actually fit into regular light fixtures and look normal. And, after talking to a good friend (thanks Tasha) it sounds like they are actually pretty decent. And, even though my electric bill is quite low, they are suppose to use 75% less energy than a regular bulb. That’s quite a reduction, worth atleast a couple bucks saved a month, right? Besides, I’ll deal with the recycling of them when they die in a few YEARS.

So I’m going to try them. I’ll start with only one or two, but I’ve made a list of all the lights in our place, so I can make sure all are accounted for. Then, if all works out, and I replace all of them, we’ll see if it makes any difference in the electric bill. Here we go!

 

Winter Heating Oil

After looking into our moderately fattened savings account (thank you tax refund checks and willpower) we decided to bite the bullet and purchase our heating oil for this upcoming winter. We thought about it for awhile, wondering if the cost was going to come down any more, and actually held off another month until we bought it last week. Out final decision was made when we realized that even if the price does drop a little more, the savings would not be substantial enough to balance out the stress of waiting. Besides, it’s never going to be priced anywhere close to last season and we’re pretty sure it will only start to go up again as summer comes to a close and autumn starts creeping in. Besides, getting it out of the way now leaves us feeling more secure and allows us to focus on other expenses.

As seen in my earlier entries, last winter was survived rather comfortably on less than 100 gallons of fuel oil, supplemented with occasional uses of a small electric space heater. So, with 100 gallons being the minimum purchase for delivery, we bought just that again this year. And you know the really sad part? Despite the fact that we purchased exactly the same amount as last year, it cost us almost $200 more than last year! That’s right, last year was something like $265 for 100 gallons and this year was $460. It was after writing the check that all the headlines of “Food or Fuel” this winter finally hit me. For families that get a couple of tank fill-ups a year, that’s over $1000 every delivery if they have a typical 250 gallon tank! I couldn’t imagine doing that. On a side note, my little sister just moved into an apartment where she’s going to have to pay for her own heat (oil) and she a) never has had to pay a bill other than rent b) constantly got into trouble in high school for cranking our thermostat past 75 c) is more than likely still in the habit of making her place tropical and d) is moderately irresponsible when it comes to anything money and energy related.

We had a related surprise Monday afternoon when we returned home after a weekend visit to Maine. Our landlord was here fixing what he could of our rotted out door frame- which was like that all winter, leaving us with a breezy situation. What a relief! AND he had bought us a new heavy duty storm door! It closes and seals tighter than our actual door, and I can see this being a beautiful thing come winter. If only he would replace all of our 50 year old windows that have gaps large enough to squeeze your pinky finger in! But I have to say, even one improvement is a blessing. Oh, and he took a brush hog to that jungle of weeds behind the apartment. Although I was starting to like all the flowers, it looks so much better, will cut down on the bugs around here, and is a huge help in preparing it for our garden next spring.