Category: Life

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Market day and sky high prices

This morning I had to go grocery shopping and once again, the prices of food bummed me out. It’s getting harder and harder to feed my family and I know I’m going to have to once again tighten up the purse strings and go back to basics.

I can cook creatively, but now I’m going to dig out old recipes that my mom had used while raising us. She was a pro at cooking something great with the minimal of resources. I admire and respect her for this and a lot of other reasons.

Online there is a site that I go to, which tells what items, food and otherwise, is  found cheap during the month of June. It’s looking like meat prices are not in the cards, but berries and produce are. LOL.. there I go, I’ll fix my kids berry squash casseroles and see how that goes over. NOT!

 

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Keeping the cats out of the gardens

I have a problem keeping the cats out of my gardens and it’s starting to get super irritating, not to mention ticking me off to no end. When the kittens we have (that were drop offs) are a little bit bigger, I don’t like to do this, but I’m taking them to the humane society. I have to. Everyone drops off unwanted cats and kittens at my house and there is not a thing I can do about it since they are dropped off in the night.

I am thinking about using chicken wire and laying it over the spaces and beds that I have seeded, and then anchor it down, until I can fix the cat problem. They are using my gardens for a giant litter box, and since I don’t have cats in the house that have to have a litter box, I sure as heck am not going to have them outside ruining my gardens.

People who abandon animals, should be fined or in my opinion be arrested, but without catching them in the act there is nothing to be done. It’s so sad.

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Power needs from Generators AtoZ

While preparing for my daughter’s graduation party, I realized that we might need another generator for when the band sets up in our back lot, and so since I had heard about Generators AtoZ, I decided to check them out and find out what kind of prices they were there. I have to say that I was quite impressed by the range of generators they have and the prices. I think there is a generator for any kind of need a person my have.

We have a small generator that is sufficient to run enough power to some of the lights, the television and also refrigerator and a small chest freezer, in case we loose power, and that seems to have always been enough for us. In truth though, I have always wanted a back up generator in case something happened to our small one.

Living all these years where the winters can be long and sometimes very icy, means we loose power at least three times in the winter for durations of anywhere from a few minutes to days. A few hours is long enough for me not to have power. Looking at all the generators on this site I was told about, is making me know for sure that I want another power source other than what we have.

 

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Needing LA movers

Recently I got a long letter from my cousin Mere, who is moving back to Los Angeles and was looking for a reputable Los Angeles moving company, she told me in the letter. While reading what she had written, I received a blow by blow description of the “horrors” she had experienced, when she had used her first moving company while moving there the first time. She wrote practically a book about what happens to her belongings. After the fourth page, I was ready to go and move her myself.

My cousin did however find a LA movers finally that she seems happy with and who she seems to trust, yet she still is unsure of if she will use them. The way I figure it, if the company can give a estimate or even a quote on the price of moving belongings, and are reputable, I’d go with them. There aren’t too many out there, or at least in my area that I would trust.

It makes a difference when moving to have movers that know what they are doing and give a person peace of mind, because there is enough to worry about without worrying that something is going to happen with one’s things. When I asked Mere if she was going to use the one Los Angeles movers she had written about, she said she was now seriously thinking about it. I hope so, so I don’t get another horror story letter, once she is settled into her new place!

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Kids counting the days

My two youngest who are in high school are counting the days until school is finally out for the summer. I’m not. Officially they have four more days, but two are only half days, so to me, they will be out of school too soon. Summer Holidays…Oh Joy.

I don’t mean to sound like a mother that doesn’t want her kids around. That isn’t it. It is the boredom they will claim after they are home for a week. Heck, on weekends they tell me they are bored. What are they going to do for three months?

I would mention jobs, but I don’t see that happening. Of course, I’m not going to be a bank for them either, so it will either be work for it, or go without, as far as I’m concerned. That would cure boredom and also put some money in their pocket. 🙂

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Failed driviers test

This is the second time my daughter has taken her drivers test, and alas, failed. I feel so sorry for her. Her problem is the parking. When I am with her, she drives perfectly and only has a little bit of a problem parallel parking. When she is with her father, or with a stranger who is trying to teach her, she gets really nervous and then chokes up. AND, to make matters worse she has a really defensive nature and then gets upset when it seems someone is being demanding of her. Something that she has got to stop.

I admit that when she drives with her father, it is a horrendous experience. He is not a patient person and he tends to yell when there is no reason for doing so. In other words he is pure hell to have in a car while driving, or at a table when trying to learn homework. Actually anything that deals with teaching is not his strong point.

I’m going to take my daughter out the the farm and put her on one of the tractors and also have her drive one of the farm trucks. They are all sticks. It is how I learned how to drive when I was 9 yrs. old. If you can drive farm equipment, you can drive anything, is my motto. She and I will have her passing her driving test in no time.

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Picking out Graduation Announcements

With my youngest daughter’s graduation around coming on fast, (we have three more weeks) it’s time to address her graduation announcements. It seems like yesterday that I was sending her off to school for her first day, on the bus. I even remember what she wore that day. I get a bit “mom type” sentimental when it comes to things like preparing her now for graduation from high school, and soon she will be going off to collage. I’m going to really miss her a great deal when she leaves for school.

My daughter doesn’t want a big graduation party, which actually doesn’t surprise me much, since she never has liked a lot of pomp and circumstance, as it is. She’s is a social person, but on the same note, she doesn’t like a lot of fuss being made. We have decided to have a small get together with the family and a few close friends that she wanted to invite. I personally wish she’d like a big party, since graduation is a awesome accomplishment and also a step toward even bigger and better things in a person’s life.

The announcements we ordered are so personalized and fitting for my daughter that when her graduation photo is put inside, it is like we actually chose the announcements according to her various outfits worn in her pictures. Which actually we didn’t, yet they came out perfectly. My daughter is happy with them, the price was right and I’m happy about that. It will help with money matters, since we also plan on giving her the gift of money and the title to a truck she has wanted for a long time. It won’t surprise me if she finds a way to attach her announcement to her dashboard. This is saying something about how well they turned out.

 

 

 

 

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Sad and long day

It’s been a long and rather sad day. My daughter found out one of the family dogs has cancer, and it’s hitting home pretty hard, as I had the daughter of this dog and she died last fall of the same type of cancer. The vet said that they are going to make China, my daughters dog, comfortable and give her something for infection.

This day seemed to drag on and on while waiting for news from my daughter about her pet, which actually along with her other dogs, is a family member. I know how it feels, since I have lost quite a few of my beloved fur friends in my time, and also the pets the kids all grew up with.

China and her mate Tyson, have been in the family for nearly 14 years, so the vet figured their age in dog years is about 100. She’s led a really good and fun filled life. I am so used to dog and house sitting for my daughter when they go on vacations or leave with the kids for the weekends, so I’m going to miss  China when she passes on. Tyson will be lost also. It’s sad, but a fact of life, and all I can do is be there for them all after their pet is gone, like I always have been.

 

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Musical kids

My sons are very musically inclined. It seems they have teamed up with my friend and blogging buddy Lindsay’s sons to form not one, but two bands. Her sons are nearly the same age as mine, and actually that is how we started being friends. We met through our kids since they all were and are interested in the same things. It was sort of uncanny at first, but now we are both used to.

Today was sort of a blessing for me, for awhile anyway, but my poor friend is about to experience the wonders of music through a whole complete drum set. 🙂 Oh the joys of kids swapping musical instruments.

I think now in this house at least, we are down to 11 various kinds and makes of guitars, a flute, a mandolin, a dulcimer, an electric piano and I know there are a few I’m missing, but you all get the idea. I feel sort of sorry for Linds, but I’m sure there will be another drum set in the house, and I’m going to want to do some home improvement and get the room they play in, sound proofed. It will help a lot with to save the family’s hearing and relaxation.

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Saving money by rain harvesting

Talking to a lot of farmers that live in my area, and I know personally, have been telling me about rain harvesting. I personally think it is an awesome idea. We pay a water bill here now, when before the township decided to pipe “city” water in, we had well water. I am a firm believer in having a well, and also I make sure my cistern is clean and it always fills up with water from the rain. I used to depend on it for my gardens.

Rain water barrels, I’ve decided will be one of the ways I’m going to start collecting rain water.  Sometimes, thinking about it and what is now in the atmosphere, it’s kind of scary what I’d be using, but memories of my Papa washing my hair in rain water, since he had harvested rain, won over thinking about what might be in my rain water. Besides, it serves at totally useful survival tips.

I have a feeling, like the farmers I’ve talked to, that we are going to be in for some rough dry weather around mid summer. This makes watering the livestock really costly. Plus with a large family and using so much water now, I’m going to start looking for rain barrels for sale, and get quite a few of them. Better to be safe than sorry. It would give me peace of mind to be able to have water if needed. I’m still remembering also, how soft and silky my hair was after washing and rinsing in rain water that was harvested!