Recent content by Athene

I drove a Bonneville for years that I never, ever should have sold! Lesson learned. I'd get a 90s Taurus all over again. It seats six (at least in theory), parts are very easy to find, and it gets decent (~22 mpg) mileage. Much easier to work on than a Toyota, too. (At least for my shade...

Depending on where you live, you may be able to get free dial up through the library, schools, or university. Dial up service, if you have to pay for it, runs about $7/mo through a third party (not the landline phone company). DSL is anywhere from $20-$40/mo. Cable is usually about $40/mo...

I'm in Michigan, so sort of in between NC and IO. We have a long history of small farmers here, especially where I'm at (the U.P.) We are the secondmost agriculturally diverse state in the union, after California. You don't get that distinction from monocrop agribusiness. That said, there...

I think - not certain, but I THINK- that it's less about profit and more about commerce, at least, from the insurance point of view. In my state, there is no minimum acreage required to get the ag use tax assessment. So thanks for the reminder, and I'll be looking into that very soon, but I am...

One guy I talked to said if it was less than 500 acres, it could be considered homeowner's if there were no farming activities. I said the front half was hayfield and would have to be mowed. He said if we made ANY money, it would be considered country estate. That's not even getting into...

I'm trying to price this and it's getting scary. At our current house, we pay $35/mo, and at the place we are looking at buying, it's more like $100/mo because it's no longer "homeowners" but "country estate" insurance. Are we getting raked over the coals here?

Thank you. It's reassuring that dial up works for paying bills. If I can pay bills, text with Google Voice, and read Wikipedia to answer the kiddos endless stream of questions, I'll be fine. :) I will investigate Cricket and TMobile, but I doubt they are up here. Sprint *just* got here this...

DSL won't be available there for at least another 18 months. :(

DH and I (fingers crossed!) are trying buy a house that is well outside the area for cable, DSL, and the university network. As best I can figure, we have these options- please tell me if you know of one I've forgotten. 1. Going without internet at home. My thought is that we could set up...

Oh, wow about the mice. I would suggest getting a Maine Coon or adopt a pregnant kitty from a shelter. Make sure she has claws. She'll teach the babies how to hunt. If you keep a female kitten, all the better- I've seen the Mother/Daughter Killing Team dynamic play out with three different...

I really, really wanted to buy a Laundry Pod last year. At the time, the best price I could find on them was $100, so I think $70 is a damn good price. In fact, I have a dear friend in college in a wee studio apartment, and this is cheap enough that I think I may buy it for her for her...

In my endless quest to render everything storebought either optional or obsolete, I've been reading about using crabapples for jam making, rather than pectin. Does anyone do this? Have you had success?