Financial things they are a'changin'.

This post is mostly about money, because we've spent the last few weeks focusing on streamlining our finances.  In February I began working as a substitute at a nearby preschool.  I was meant to sub only until a permanent position opened up; it opened up the same week that the director was no longer allowed to hire, because her family had to move to the Northeast somewhere.  The new director gave the position to someone else last week, so I'm trying to decide where I'm heading next. I'm still subbing there, since it's very close to home and I know the children, but hope to find something else as well.

In the meantime, we added my income since February to our tax refund and paid off the remainder of our car loan as a celebration of our 12th anniversary.  For one month, according to the Dave Ramsey plan, we are debt free!!  Next month, unfortunately, The Government begins collecting on my school loans.  Ah, well... at least a small taste of freedom will be motivational.

We also discovered Virgin Mobile, which is (so far) doing well for us.  We switched from Sprint's $80 bill for two phones with only talk, and joined Virgin Mobile's cheap plans with everything (mine is $25 for 300 talk minutes and unlimited everything else, Lanse chose the $40 for 400(?) minutes).  I figured out how to run Skype on it, saving me a load of minutes, since most of the people I talk to regularly have Skype as well.  We used my most recent paycheck on buying the smart phones. 

The last couple of days have been spent installing spiffy apps and texting like mad.  (Still waiting to see if my text to Scotland made it.)  We also drove to church using the GPS app, just for fun.  So far my favorite apps are "Loot" budgeting software with additional add-on, and "Out of Milk", a shopping list/pantry organizer app with bar code scanner.  If you ever doubted that I was a nerd, there's proof.  I also have a Bible app with three translations on the phone and a plethora of more available through the web.  And yes, I have Angry Birds.  Sigh.

Next I'm hoping to find a media - DVD and books - cataloger that uses a bar code scanner.  Should be fun! 

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The garden today

And we have foliage! So far I'm very happy with the garden, except that it ended up being too small.  The previous post showed where I planted everything, and it turned out that the nasturtium were not a trailing variety and I missed some thinning of the marigolds, so the carrots weren't getting any sun.  So I moved some of each today in hopes that the carrots will fare better.  We have blossoms on the tomatoes, and I've seen a bumblebee this year so hopefully they'll be fertilized. Last year we got blossoms and no tomatoes, so we'll see what happens.  I may end up having to go out there with a paintbrush, but I'm hoping not.

Our wonderful neighbor Maggie brought me cherry tomatoes, and I have six cherry trees that need to go in the ground around the back yard, but for the moment I moved the one that has the most cherries on it into the garden house so maybe we'll be able to eat them.  Kristianna and Charlie helped me taste test the first strawberries last week, so now I just have to fight the slugs.  Nasty critters.  So after adding the small 'matos and the raspberry (bottom left inside), the garden house is very full.  Some blueberries have dropped the flowers and started becoming berries, so that should be tasty soon!

The mint has totally taken off and filled the pot; I'm not a fan of mint tea, so I need to figure out what else I can do with it.  If only I had a lime tree, I'd be set for doctoring up my mojitos. The thyme and basil have started coming up but aren't tall enough yet to taste them. Soon, I hope. And the only other change to the drawing in the last post was that the corner edemame pot became miniature sunflowers instead, and they're coming up nicely. The edemame is also coming up well, though it's being eaten by a voracious insect of some kind.  I need to find my pepper spray.  The green bean and green onion seeds from last year appear to be completely dead, but at least I have onions from last year becoming enormous, and beans are cheap if I decide I need them.  I'm also contemplating a leaf or romaine lettuce, but I'll only plant that if I get my watering system working, since they need to be well watered. 

Last week I got the watering system all set up and got all the spray nozzles on the tubing at the right places, and then realized I forgot to flush the line.  Clogged line = clogged nozzles, and I only have exactly as many as I need, so I went back to pull them off again... and the warm rubber tubing had snuggled in nicely.  When it's not so wet out (we've had a lot of rain) I'll have to go back out with a pliers and get it all finished.

Well, I was going to leave you with two more pix, but Blogger's having a fit. I guess you'll have to wait!

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Dipping into the bucket list

I am so proud of my husband, who is steadily knocking things off his bucket list. Last week Triple Ace Games released the new game, Wonderland No More, for which my husband is a co-author.  I am so amazingly proud of him!  The game is a role playing game based on Alice in Wonderland, but set in the future after Alice has come and gone.  Thanks to Kevin and Jordan, the other co-authors, for including my dearest in this great creation.

Here he is at an impromptu book signing at Dragonsnack Games:

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Garden Extravaganza

One fabulous thing about living in the south is that we can start gardening so much earlier than everywhere else.  There's an online garden thing called ezgarden that had a free 15 days (after that we pay) but it looks interesting. You tell it your planting zone (I'm in 8A), what kind of plants you want and how many servings per week on it, do layout on your garden space, and then it calculates a schedule and tells you what to do when on a calendar.  For my needs, it had me starting seedlings the first week of January, so that tells you something.

Last year's (and years before that) problem was that we'd grow things and the local critters would gnaw on them before we got a chance to harvest. Last year we only got a total of three tomatoes that we could eat... and that was with three whole plants! So this year - faced with boredom, great weather, a pile of scrap lumber, and angst - I built a structure and covered it in bird netting to keep out the critters.  It is 4 feet deep by 7 1/2 feet wide by 4 feet tall, just great for me. I can reach the top, and Lanse can fit okay enough crouching to still be able to run out and grab something for me later on.  Today I put the final nail in the door, attached the hinges with my me-sized power screwdriver, and voila!  It is finished!

Here's a layout of what I've got in seedlings and somewhere in the mail. I need to make one more trip to the dirt store for some organic soil, and when that's in place I can finish setting up the watering system I bought last fall and never finished.  It's a vacation timer system, but I intend to use it when I'm home to help combat the extreme summer heat. As soon as the plumbing is set, I can get the seedlings in the ground, as most of them are about to outgrow their toilet paper tubes.

I'm so excited!  This year hopefully we'll get to eat a lot more of our own homegrown produce.*

* Yes, I realize that lilacs aren't food, but the fauna thinks it is because it's still small, so I'm keeping it in here as long as it'll fit.

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