Our patch of earth

[Reice]

Phew, been a hectic couple of weeks. Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and will have a Happy New Year!

Granddaughter made it, both are doing wonderfully.

The hubs finally got put on set hours where he works. It's not full time, but plenty to cover expenses and give us some breathing room, thank goodness. He's still out there on days off finding other ways to earn side income on top of it though.

Had the stepson home for Christmas for 4 days. You sure really feel 840sqft when it's raining, let me tell you. Really makes me a bit nervous for the upcoming summer. He was home last summer between semesters, but it was a bigger house and he had the opposite end of the home. Now, the spare room in smack dab in the middle. May have to find me a camper for out here for him to have his own space and me to keep my sanity, haha.

As it happens, we are now on the hunt for a different fridge, ours is not working. Freezer is fine, but the fridge isn't staying cool at all. It's older, and had sit in storage a few years so it happens. Tired of tossing stuff out of the fridge that went bad, so a hunt for a new-to-us small one is on.

Not much else to report. Will need to hunt down some black eyed peas for tomorrow. Don't know if that old wives tale about not eating it being bad luck is true or not, but why tempt fate? lol

And hey, Britesea, fellow former wow player you. I started playing with my late hubby in '08 and we played until he passed in '12. Took a few years break but missed it. May sound strange, but I play now partially because I know it would make him happy.

Happy Holidays all!

 

[Britesea]

We had a lot of fun playing WoW for several years- even bought a second computer just so we could both play at the same time. He played a bear tank, and I was a shaman healer. Together we made a team that everyone else in the guild wanted to play with, lol. I think that's why we burned out-- we had people constantly asking us to go through the same old dungeons so they could get some special goody. After a while, it got old. These days, I prefer to play something like Civilization: single player, and if I need to stop to do something else, no big deal.

Your hubby is probably standing over your shoulder going "Hit him! No, ack!" lol

 

[flowerbug]

i sometimes use a bit of simple game playing to help me switch between tasks, but i'm not much into the shoot 'em up type games nearly as much as i like the more D&D like role playing games of old. or even old text adventure games.

i do like logic puzzle games.

if you have a Linux machine or a Mac you might be able run gfpoken, no idea if it works on a Windows machine. as a fun learning experience i wrote a version of it in python but it isn't set up for Windows yet completely and i don't know when i'll get back to it, but if you want to give it a try you can get it:

New Gfpoken, Ngfp, Npath, Pathological, Pyglet, And Python | Anthive

A marble game re-adapted and other projects...

www.anthive.com

other games i like one is called Pathological. yes, i do like marble games.

i also like the more hex and turn taking games where you can walk away and do something else in between turns and nothing happens. i can get interrupted at any time so it bugs me if i'm doing really well at something and then get distracted or interrupted only to turn back and find out i've been overrun or something. The Battle for Wesnoth is a huge setup with other scenarios you can get into, both single player and multiple player (but i've never done multiple player due to the being interrupted thing noted above )...

the train/transport simulation games i liked too. being a model railroader as a kid i was working on a nice sized layout when i went off to college. when Mom sold the house she had to get all that taken out and boxed up - eventually i sold it to a friend of the family and then after he passed away some of it came back to me again and i had my brother sell it off on ebay. i still daydream of building a bean shelling and sorting model railroad... there's not enough room here and i've got too many projects going to get back into something like that but it is fun to think about how i might set it up.

uh, sorry to have wandered off topic. haha... in a small house like we have here we get along ok, it is only the two of us. Mom has her space and the rest of the house and then i have my room off to the side. it would be tough if we didn't have this extra room. someone who's used to being away from home can take some time to adjust to being back. when you can live by your own rules and habits it is very easy.

 

[Mini Horses]

Well, it takes time when kids "move back" for the parents, too!! Especially when the comebacker wants change things.

Lot of issues and financials, quite often.

 

[Reice]

And here it is, update during Corona-times.


How is everyone? Are you quarantined? Or self-quarantining? Got enough to sustain things where you are?


I am happily self-quarantined. Being an introvert, this just gives me a good excuse to stay my happy butt at home. Plenty of food, have always been able to entertain myself, this is not going to be hard for me. It is a bit hard for hubby to stay at home, knew it would be. They cut his hours back a bit, but so far we are okay.

The daughter went back to work so 'Gigi' has been on babysitting duty. It's not too bad, just one day a week for now.


Still doing the glorified camping. Things will get done eventually. No more feeling like everything has to be perfect within a week, just going to roll with things. Managed to find a free fridge that works, just needs a few things. Got old toilet out. Got wood today to finish flooring in kitchen. So there are some things getting done, even though there's still a huge list to go. It will happen and will try to have more patience about it.

Not much else to report here, some garden things going in soon, glad to see some warmer weather. Stay safe everyone!!!

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Good to hear from you. Glad you are well, and making progress on the homestead. It always takes longer than expected. All is well here. Hubby and I are officially retired. He's having some difficulty getting his prescriptions and medical supplies. Still chasing our tails over that. Duck eggs on day 5 in incubator, and 13/18 showing good vascularization last night, which is really too early for a definite candling. Second bator fired up today, with plans to set chicken eggs on Sunday.

Like you, I'm an introvert, so enjoying the enforced solitude. All our needs are met, but... others who typically do not plan ahead are struggling. I hope this will be a major wake up call for them.

 

[Mini Horses]

Well -- all sounds normal there. Things rarely go as well or fast as intended. That means "you are doing ok".

My area has people handling things poorly....stores are trying to cope. Personally, I'm fine and need nothing that I don't already have. For some, daily shopping is the norm. For me, well supplied is the norm.

Soon it will be gardening time. Hope you remember to include us in your efforts. We will sure be posing -- good & bad -- with our gardens.

Don't be a stranger -- check in often.

 

[Britesea]

Self-imposed quarantine means we get more done around the house, right?

 

[Lazy Gardener]

I'm enjoying this! Gives me an excuse to stay home! I'm working on creating a healthy biome. Don't feel obliged to shower as often!

 

[Reice]

Dun, dun, dun... I spoke too soon. Got word last night hubby's place of employment is shut down. No surprise there. Not panicking. Bills are paid, a few ahead, probably a month more in the bank. We may or may not get the stimulus check (I'm not holding my breath). We could file unemployment if necessary. Hubby already has potentially 2 places calling him Monday for immediate work, construction type jobs. And, if nothing else, has years of experience working/managing grocery stores, who are probably hiring for this pandemic needed service.

I like to know my options, it helps to keep myself calm. So writing this here as a way to reinforce in my own head options so as not to panic. Here is cut and dry what our monthly bills are: electric, car insurance, internet, wow, phone, netflix. Yeah, that's pretty much it.

Electric is around $250 (omg ugh! yes, I know, horrendous. Electric heat, rural more expensive. But it's warming up a bit, hoping this goes down). It's current. Can pay April's. Worse case scenario- hope they extend payment until we have income. Worse-worse case scenario- they cut it off and we rely on generator and small folding solar panel.

Car insurance is $50 monthly for 2 vehicles. Current, can pay April's. Worse case scenario- drop it come May, we're quarantined and not going anywhere anyways.

Internet is $15 a month, paid up until June. Worse case scenario-it's turned off come July.

WoW is $15 a month paid up until June. Worse case scenario-it's turned off come July.

Phone is $10 a month for hubbys. Worse case scenario- we drop it and grab a google voice app and number since we are quarantined and on wifi anyways, until July anyways. My phone has that free TextNow app since it's a Sprint phone, so we will still have one phone that can call and text regardless of wifi.

Netflix is $9. No biggy if we drop, too many free streaming channels. Worse case- no wifi come July and we finally try out that tall outside antenna.

So around $350 a month for our bills. Not too shabby. This does not include food, you might say. Right now we have a couple months worth in the house. The chest freezer is full and there's tons of rice and beans if nothing else. We still qualify for SNAP, $165 a month, and maintain work requirements for it. I did hit the food bank, as well, which is where the stash of rice and beans and a good portion of the chest freezer came from (that last trip they went way above and beyond!!). Plus, there's still game out here. Have seed potatoes and onions about to go in to the ground and plan to get more seeds in the next day or two. Also missing is health insurance. Yeah, we have none. We don't earn enough to qualify for Obamacare subsidy/tax credit and we are lucky enough to live in a state that does not have extended medicaid, yee. We can purchase our own through the health exchange, it was just under $1,000 per month for high deductible plan. Can't afford it. We are both in good health. I can dream of a day when America decides to do universal healthcare, right? haha

Other than that it's just gas in the vehicles and household items. Gas just got cheaper and we're being restricted to driving anyways. Household items, there's enough in the home to tide us over a month or so. Will try to buy as needed or make do or get creative. Really only have to worry about toilet paper running out, haha.. that's everyone's big concern now, huh? lol Got a month's worth now. Also I've got 4 rolls of Scott single-ply as my absolute worse case scenario backup plan. Then it's leaf time baby!! Hmm.. which one would be worse? lol

Looking over the news on the stimulus check, still have no idea if we will get it or not. Some reports $1,000 for each adult, some report different amounts for income levels based off 2018 tax filing. It may be a one time thing or it may be 2 months, or monthly. Who the heck knows, this story is so all over the place. So we may or may not get anything, and if we do it may be between $600-$2000. If we get $600 once I'd be tickled pink. Anything would help. I mean, we can't see the future or how long all of this is going to last.. how long business are going to stay closed.. how long we are to remain inside. I'm actually just glad they are talking about helping people in the first place. Progress, right?

Still such a long ways to go to being fully self-sufficient. Those that are there now are probably having a lot less worry about now that most of the rest of the world. We want to be you!!!