Out of the dark ages!

I can say now that we are officially out of the dark ages.  Last night AT&T turned on 3G in the area.

This is great news for us because the laptop connect card is our method of internet access.  It was better than dial-up but not much better.  It would peak at about 100K for downloads which isn’t that great.  Now with the joy of 3G I’ve been averaging about 1.2M down and 600K up.

Times are good!

Progress and Summertime Fun

So, our garden has finally become a source of happiness instead of worry and disappointment.  We have more straightneck and zucchini squash than we know what to do with and tons of green beans, too.  We’ve also got pumpkins starting to turn orange, four different kinds of tomatoes, jalapenos, green onions, red onions, okra, watermelons, cataloupe, two different kinds of cucumbers and some lettuce that has survived the hot weather.  Soon, I’ll be planting broccoli, cabbage, more radishes, carrots, cauliflower and brussels sprouts.  Our corn was completely decimated by the sqirrels, so we’ll try that again next year.  I don’t know what they did with the corn.  There weren’t any ears yet, but they gnawed the corn stalks off about two inches off the ground.  We started out with forty-five plants and ended up with four.  I finally tried red pepper on the corn that was left, as I heard it might work.  C said he said saw one of the squirrels running away from the corn squeaking and jumping in the air.    We haven’t seen any squirrels in the garden since, so I guess it worked.  We actually got a permit to shoot them from DNR, but they disappeared for the entire month that the permit was good for.  A few days after it expired, they came and killed it all.  Now, I’ve never shot an animal and I’m not sure I ever could, but I was so angry about the corn that I thought I might be able to.  Even A, who wants to save all the animals in the world, was using a slingshot, trying to whack the squirrel that we had chased up a tree.  I think we might have better luck next year.  We just got a beautiful black lab puppy named Diesel.  I don’t think he’ll mind chasing squirrels for us.  Also, we need a fence next year.  I had to replant green beans because the deer seem to find them irresistible and ate them down to nubby stems.

The kids are having a great summer, swimming at friends houses and playing manhunt  (a nighttime version of hide and seek) almost every night.  I feel bad for R.  There aren’t any kids in the neighborhood that are even close to her age.

In chicken news, we have finished the coop, at least until we have to insulate it this fall.  The chickens should be laying their first eggs around the beginning of August.  I can’t wait!

That’s all for now!

Yay for John Deere!

We’re getting a small tractor on Tuesday!  It will have a scoop and a backhoe and we’ll be getting a chipper a few days later.  I cannot explain my happiness.  If you’ve ever tried to clear land with a chain saw, shovel, various rakes, pruning shears and a wheelbarrow and felt like you were washing dishes with a q-tip, you know EXACTLY how I feel.   I’m turning very country bumpkin, since I now daydream of tools and sheds instead of other insignificant ways to waste our money. 

Progress, minus pictures

So, we’ve acquired more animals and still have tons of work to do.   We now have an adorable bunny named Sheila, because Rowan names everything  Sheila.  We also have five baby chicks that are about a week old.  I have come to the realization that we won’t be able to go anywhere overnight unless we have someone to take care of our chickens, which is a definite downside for me since I NEED to go places and experience different things.  Camping is especially crucial for my sanity during the nicer months, but I’ll just have to live with it.  We have so much outdoor stuff to do, hopefully I won’t think too much about wanting to do something else.

 We need big equipment to clear our garden area faster.  We’re contemplating buying a small tractor that has multiple attachments because we need a frontloader, a chipper, a backhoe, a tiller, a grader and I’m sure there are other things we need that we haven’t thought of yet.  As fun as it is to have lots of room, it’s a lot of work to clear a sixth of an acre or so…by hand.  We want to have a large garden and become more self sufficient, especially with the cost of produce so high and possible looming food shortages.  With a large garden, we can grow enough to eat fresh during the summer and fall and hopefully grow enough to freeze and can for the winter and spring.  I know this is the first year, but I have such high hopes. 

 We also need to finish the chicken coop.  We need to put the floor on and build a run.  We also need to put screens over the windows, cut out a chicken sized door, add nesting boxes (later when the chickens are ready to start laying so they don’t use them for other grody things) and roosts.  It feels like it will never be finished, but I’m sure it will.  It has to be in about two months!  One thing at a time.

 I need to figure out how to tame our wild berry bushes.  We have blackberries and wineberries intermingled in a thicket near our house, but I’m a little concerned about going out to pick in late summer because we had a copperhead in our woods last year.  If we clear around the bushes and keep a path open through the middle, maybe it won’t be so bad. 

 I think we now have enough firewood for the entire next winter.  The oaks we cut down were huge and we’re still not done cutting them into rounds and stacking them to be split later.  Some rounds are so large that we can’t lift them.  It will be nice to not pay for wood next fall.  We should save several hundred over the next year.  AND now that the trees are down, we have HD TV and we have plenty of sunny space on the roof for solar panels when we’re ready for them.  I would love to be self sufficient when it comes to electrity and it will make us completely self sufficient when it comes to our water, because even though we have a well, we have an electric pump to bring the water to the house.  We may even be able to create a set up for heating our hot water with the sun.  So many possibilities!

 When I remember how to do it (actually, find the directions John gave me for how to do it), I’ll add some pics of the clearing that’s going on and the chicks and bunny.  For now, I’ll leave it to your imagination.

Erin, I’m sorry I doubted the hawks and chickens….

Link:

http://www.local6.com/news/15719528/detail.html?1

Hawk Flies Off With Family’s Pet At Doggie Day Care

OVIEDO, Fla. — A family’s 3-pound Papillon dog was snatched, carried off by a large hawk after it was let outside at a doggie day care business, according to a manager.

Nine words women use…

Nine words women use…

1) Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are Right and you need to shut up.

2) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

3) Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.

4) Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don’t Do It!

5) Loud Sigh: This is not actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to #3 for the meaning of nothing.)

6) That’s Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That’s okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

7) Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or faint. Just say You’re welcome.

Whatever: Is a woman’s way of saying F@!K YOU!

9) Don’t worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking ‘What’s Wrong?’ For the woman’s response refer to #3.

Fire!

We had a chimney fire and didn’t really know it.  When John was gone, I had a good fire going, but I heard lots of crackling in the stove pipe, which really freaked me out.  I had a chimney sweep come out and inspect and clean the chimney and he said there was a hole in the terra cotta tiles that line the flue so large that he could shove his arm through it!  He seemed to think it had happened before I thought it did.  I feel like we’re lucky that our house didn’t burn down.   Now, I have a really hard time going to sleep.  I check the chimney from all different angles, which is really not pleasant since I have to go outside and it’s been below freezing for a few days. 

It should be safe.  The chimney sweep installed a new stainless steel liner  and repaired the crown of our chimney, which was cracked.  He said that rain could get inside the chimney alongside the flue and cause more condensation, therefore more creosote buildup.  What a nightmare! 

 Our insurance covers this sort of thing, but we have a $1000 deductible.  We already paid for it, so we’ll get $400 or so back from the insurance company.  I guess some is better than none.  We were going to use that money to cut down some oaks by our house that are keeping us from getting HD TV and growing a large garden this spring.  I guess we’ll just have to save up again.

 I really shouldn’t complain.  It  really could have been much worse.

NRA Pistol Instructor Training

Well I am currently sitting in a hotel room waiting for tomorrow morning. In the morning I will be getting up and going to more training.

Tomorrow will be the first day of three for the NRA Certified Pistol Instructor training. In this class I will go through Basic Pistol, Pistol First Steps, Personal Protection in the Home and the BIT (Basic Instructor Training).

The first day will be consumed by the BIT. The BIT is to teach me how to teach others. Then the other two days will be learning the material for those classes. I’m nervous, but excited. I’ve been looking forward to this now for many months and it’s finally happening. Once this is done then I have to save money and schedule the training for the Rifle, Shotgun and RSO (Range Safety Officer) trainings. Then I will have all three firearms disciplines completed and be an official RSO.

Rural Internet

If you’re considering moving to the country and you enjoy the internet then investigate very hard the options that are available to you.

I’m currently stuck in a situation where the only thing available to
me is cellular.

I’m currently using a cell modem from AT&T (formerlly cingular).  This solution usually runs at about 100k.
This makes it better than dial up, but not by much.

Here’s the options:

•  DSL  – Not available.  Probably never
• Cable  – Not available.  Probably never
• Cell  – GSM (slow) available
• Sprint EVDO  –  Available half a mile from my house, but no signal at my house
• Verizon EVDO — Not available
• Satellite  –  I have too many trees for installation.  So, I have to cut down trees.

Of these I’m hoping that Sprint will hurry up with their deployments and get EVDO spread out further.
I would even put a tower up in my yard if they would just do it!  The satellite option isn’t the greatest.
It’s the only option that I have any control over.  I cut down trees and I can get satellite internet.  But
there’s a host of issues and lots and lots of complaints about satellite internet.

So, now I’m just waiting and hoping for something, someday.

It snowed today!

I love it when it snows. It’s so beautiful in the woods. So, enjoy some of my joy. And just because he’s cute, here’s some Skittles cuteness.