hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[hqueen13]

Thanks FEM.
It's more Mom drama is what it is. Everybody else is fine, she's just crazy and thinks she needs to be involved in everything that anybody does.
My friend DR gave me a recommendation for a lyme treatment that is herbal based, so I'm going to look into that and see what I can learn.
We found out that the BF can take a loan against his company's 401k plan, up to 100% of the amount. That's just about exactly what he needs to be able to get his private pilot's license. The other good news is that he's due for a raise in the next month or so, and so hopefully the raise will off set the payments to the 401k loan. THAT would be a huge help if it works out that way! We also got the bill for the car insurance, which isn't due until the middle of October and we've got about $200 more than we need in that fund right now, and of course a month an a half until it's due. $200 is exactly what the BF needs to sign up for the ground school.
I also got a text from A yesterday, she told W about our discussion about the fact that the BF needs a headset for flying that costs $1200, and an ipad, and W checked at his work and he can get a headset for him for a fraction of the cost (dang near FREE), so it's mostly just the ipad that we have to figure out right now. I was floored, and ecstatic. Now I just have to figure out how to keep the BF from buying either one of those things with the loan money before his birthday in November... No clue how I'm going to do that, but hopefully I can work it out. I'm hoping his ground school takes longer than he thinks it will so that he won't be ready to get those other two things for a while, or his raise takes longer to kick in so that he won't have the loan yet... either way, it's going to be interesting trying to keep him from buying those things!
Had a good call with my business coach the other day. We talked about putting together a program that will be 3 months long and focus on working with energy for pet owners. We have a good start, and now I need to put together a framework for how it will run, and then I think the next step will be working on promoting it. I certainly need the extra income to make sure I can pay for whatever Storm needs for his lyme stuff!

 

[hqueen13]

Hi @Icu4dzs Long time no chat! Glad to see you're still around! Awesome on milking for 3 years, that's a long time. I can't believe you're still up there in SDAK! Glad you haven't blown away yet!
I'm not down by Gunpowder anymore, actually, up closer to APG now (yay boomy noises all day), we bought our own little property up here 3 years ago in Dec, it's got room for the horse, but I haven't been able to get the funds together to set it all up yet. That costs more than I anticipated, and the house is a 1960's that needs updating. Thankfully it's got good bones, but everything else has needed an update, so that's slowed progress on things we've wanted to do. Good to hear from you!!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Wow - as usual - lots going on. Sure hope you get the money that is owed to you and that you can find a great place for Storm!

 

[FarmerJamie]

Holy cow...lots in flight

 

[hqueen13]

Yeah, no real updates at the moment, everything is still pretty much the same.
We did manage to get all of the wood split and stacked that we had, so that's a good thing. Only part of that will be ready right away, but hopefully enough will be ready for this winter that we won't have to go hunting for more. There is a standing dead tree that needs to come down, now that the wood is split and out of the way the BF can do that, probably with the help of our neighbor. He said it's leaning in the right direction, so that's good. It makes me nervous to think about them doing that themselves, but they are experienced enough that they will do fine. Then we'll have to clean up all the slash and then get it cut and split. It should be fine to burn this year, it's been dead for several years. If we can bring that down then we should have plenty for this year, and hopefully into next year.
Like I said, not much else to report. Just trying to decide if/which project to do next. Things have sort of stalled out a little bit, and we are both feeling a little frustrated with not being able to have clear direction, but that's ok. I'm sure it will all settle out eventually.
Still need to clean up the garden, the tomatoes are still hanging on, not that they are producing much that's worth eating, but they're still green. That will probably change this coming week since the highs are only going to be in the low 60's for the most part. No official lows below 40 yet, but I'm sure that's coming.
I bought hardware to redo the roll up shades in the windows, and replace them with a thermal shade, now I just need to figure out the rod and how that will work. I'm hoping I can deconstruct the old ones and use that rod, but I'm not sure yet. I need to get to work on that, though, so that I can have them ready for the cold weather, too.
Lots to do, it's finding the time and motivation to do it!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Glad you've got the wood supply figured out for winter. That's got to be satisfying.

 

[hqueen13]

YES! It's very satisfying, FEM! That makes me feel so much better. The BF seems to think it's enough, I'm not totally sure, but then again there's more wood at his dad's house that he has to go get. W was over this weekend working on the table that they still haven't finished, and he was really amazed at how much wood we have, and the BF was like wait until we split everything over at dad's... I'm ready for them to get that done so that we can bring it home and get that stacked, too (where, I have NO clue, but we'll have it!).
Not a whole lot going on. TW is probably staying out of town until the end of the week, which is extra money, so that's good. With the other things that I have on the burner for this month that puts me pretty close to having November's bills funded, so that's a good thing. Still working on getting my new program launched for the other part of my business, and trying to get Storm moved somewhere else so that I can stop paying board, but it's all in the works.
Speaking of the barn, TM had told me that we were switching back to the winter schedule again, so the horses will be in over night. I'm glad that she was able to wait longer this year, and I figured it was coming eventually. She had originally told me I could keep my days since there was no way I would be able to do the barn chores on Friday morning while working on the veggie farm, too. Then RW and I were texting about some things and realized that I can't keep Wed morning because she has Wed evening, and that would mean both of us were doing the same chores, and that doesn't work. We brought it up to TM, and she was like, oh, sorry. So that meant I had my choice of Thursday or Tuesday. I can't do Thurs since our office meetings are on Thursday mornings. So that leaves Tues, which means I'm at the barn Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday mornings. I told TM that there was no way I could put enough hay out for Storm to keep him covered from Tuesday through Saturday, so she agreed to help. I'd rather she not, but then again, I'd rather not heave to deal with hay in that manner at all.
I texted RO to see if he wanted a lesson this week, but he hasn't texted back. Once I figure that out, I'll see if he talked to SO and then if they say no, then I'll go talk to another friend of mine. She's a lot further away, but at this point I don't care. I need a better place for him and I need to stop paying board and having to work.
I still need to wrap things up with SH, I have not written the letter yet, so I guess that needs to be a priority this week. Not excited about that, but I guess at this point I've pretty much lose the relationship (at least until something is resolved) so it can't get much worse than it is.
I think we're going to use some of the funds that we've been sitting on and replace the basement door and the kitchen door. They both have glass windows in the top part, and they are just a single pane of glass, which is not good for insulation at all. I'd like to get the kind of door that has the blind in it so that I don't have to attach blinds to the door, but we'll see what's available and the cost. I think the doors themselves shouldn't cost much more than $300ish or so each, but we'll have to see what the options are. The BF and I were talking and there are about a dozen different things on the list that need to be done to help make improve the thermal regulation in the house, and none of them alone will make a bit difference, but each one will add up. It probably won't be a big dramatic difference to replace each one of them by themselves, but they are all important to do eventually. So we'll just keep doing what we can whenever we can. Doing the doors won't take up all of the money that we have set aside, so we'll still have more funds when we get the tax returns this year, too.
That's the scoop from around here. Just trying to get all the fall stuff done before it gets cold again.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Really hope you can find a great place for Storm. It'll be nice when that stress is off your plate. You're moving along on all the house stuff and you're right that all the little changes will add up to big help!

 

[Icu4dzs]

You might just appreciate that commute around 5 NOVEMBER

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Wow - talk with the boss was kinda ... an eye opener? Really hope it works out that you can get the training and get transitioned on to the new system. That would be a nice bump to the salary that you deserve!

Hope you can get Storm moved!