WA HOO FarmerChick

[FarmerChick]

hey 2bz

I bet you are stuffed. I am stuffed!

You are not kidding about the weather. I wished I had brought shorts to Moms house. But just got home and the air is turning very cold now. Very clear skies, cold air. But stars are super beautiful. Plus driving home many started to put out Christmas lights. It was a pretty drive and of course kiddo loved!


Have a great day and hope your trip comes out super fun for you!

 

[i_am2bz]

I was too stuffed for pie!! I told them to save some for us, we'll probably be back on Sunday.

Yes, it's very cold now...but I did bring shorts with me, & we did sit outside for awhile to enjoy the whether. I almost fell asleep on the couch. Should sleep well tonight, I hope! Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

 

[FarmerChick]

I hear you on the sleep! I know I won't have trouble hitting the bed tonight either!

the pie will wait for you!

 

[FarmerChick]

good morning!

good food, good times and a ton of sleep makes for a good morning!


cold outside BBBrrrr


Hubby is taking kiddo shopping today. On Black Friday-ick. He wants to hit a few stores for her to buy some presents. They will have lunch and make it a day for themselves.

I will be home working on soap and orders. Today is about catching up a bit because the last few days I slacked because of the holiday.
ah, I love slacking

I have my inside decorations sorted but today I will go to the garage and sort thru outside stuff. Not putting up as many lights this year on the front of the house. And the reason is I hate taking them down So a few tasteful light displays will be good enough this year.

I fed some pumpkins to the goats. Eh,they took a lick and walked away. My goats hate stuff. They love feed, grass, browse and hay. Corn stalks and cane stalks they love but when I start to feed any other things they never touch it. Picky picky goats. When we made molasses those goats went insane for those mashed up cane stalks. Since we stopped the lassy mill we stopped growing cane. I think this year I will put in about 1/2 acre just to feed the goats. eh why not. I have the time HAHA

off to get this day rolling. everyone have a good one!

 

[FarmerChick]

Wonderful Saturday morning.

whew, the drama on the board was rough. Drama always gets me worried, but it seems everything is settling down. I can only hope it just all gets back to somewhat normal and life moves forward in a great way for everyone!


So enough about drama--------sun shining and great day here. Outside is BBrrr cold but will get alot warmer.


Kid and I are hitting the dollar store. Need a few things. Then hit the bank, then grocery for a small group of items I need and home to do some chores.

Today is hit the garage and get outside Christmas stuff ready for the front lawn. We will put up on hubbys first day off from work.

I am not putting lights up across the front of the house. I think I am just going to arrange my pretty lawn decorations and call it enough this year. With hubbys stupid finger I don't need him on a ladder and trying to hang lights

On a side note, the Christmas tree being up early is FAB! Grandma and Nicole had a blast decorating it and that was worth putting it up early for them. But at this point it is off the list of things to do so I gotta say, wow it is done and I already feel like a big thing is lifted. Ah, to have things done is nice.



Trying an experiment. With the water heater. Going to turn it off at the breaker today in about 15 mins. Will not turn it back on til about 7 pm tonight. I am going to do this on all days I know I do not truly need hot water right away. I will do this for a month as time schedule allows. Will turn off in large block hours whenever I can. I am super curious to know if my power will drop and by HOW MUCH......so it is an experiment worth trying. Only to way to know some savings is to try it. When we camp for 7-9 days I always turn it off when we leave. So it will be intersting to see what happens in a controlled turn off thru the days.




So just enjoying this nice Sat. Nothing dramatic today and gotta hit the road soon. See ya'll later.

 

[Marianne]

I'm really interested in how the water heater experiment goes.

I was thinking about investing in one of those timers to turn ours off, then back on an hour before we got up. Then I read somewhere that you didn't save that much, but it might have been just that guy's opinion, too. Heck, there are people that hang their clothes to dry for a month, then when the bill drops by only $20, they're hollering 'that's all!? Not worth it!!'

Then there are those that know that it's first $20, then we do something else and save another $5, then another $8, etc, etc. It all adds up! When our electric bill went from $250 to $117, they quit messing with me.

 

[snapshot]

We turn on our hot water heater 2-3 times a day and that's it in the travel trailer. Propane just costs too much to have hot water when I don't need it!

 

[i_am2bz]

Yeah, FC, I'll bet you're concerned about your power usage now that Duke Energy has asked for a huge rate increase...I expect it here, too, since those jerks bought Progress Energy. They buy a competitor, have to lay off thousands of people when they consolidate operations, then have to raise rates to pay for all the serverance packages??????

Sorry. Rant over.

 

[FarmerChick]

I know right? $20 seems small, but I love that old expression-- Take care of the pennies and the dollars take care of themselves.

I am in the "everything I do saves a bit and ADDS up group" LOL


WOW that is a great drop Marianne. 250 to 117 is alot of money per month truly.


best for me was CFLs. I replaced almost all bulbs and dropped $30 the next month. I was very happy on that one.




See this is my chart from my elec. company:

see that dryer and water heater takes up huge chunk. that is something I can do something about.


The heating/ac is the other biggie. I have a propane fireplace I use in super cold winter to keep the heat pump off (cause on very cold nights it kicks onto the heat/elec strip for heating. THAT is big bucks. So we got the warm fireplace to help that (and I love the look of the fireplace in the living room lol)


So I am going to tackle this water heater. Reason I am not doing the timer (just yet) is because our schedule is erratic. Hubby works 4 on and 4 off. So shower schedule changes big time along with other things I might need hot water for at those times.


So instead of spending any money on anything.....I decided to flip the breaker to OFF on big blocks of time as my schedule allows and then just see if there is a true reduction??? Of course it does help the Christmas tree lights are on and we are getting ready to put up outside decorations LOL....so I don't know if I will truly see much or I might or XXX...heck I don't know----but I am going to try


So water heater just went off at 9:25.
Will go back on tonight around 7 pm.

Hubby is working so I will do this for the next 4 day work schedule.




I love trying to beat the electric bill. Truly I don't know why but I got this itch to go lower and lower on that bill.
One of those weird obsessions I guess.

 

[FarmerChick]

We turn on our hot water heater 2-3 times a day and that's it in the travel trailer. Propane just costs too much to have hot water when I don't need it!

Oh snapshot I hear you on that. I hate filling those tanks to go camping. You are smart and also the small heater heats up fast in our TT....so hot water does come quick when you need it. Do you have a 6 gallon hot water heater? That is what ours is and surprising with the elec. backup I can truly stretch that hot water.