Candid Quips

Just a bit envious….

Candidly yours~ — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 15:55:33 +0000

I am not someone who tends to get envious of what other people have or get to do. I will admit here and now that I am just the slightest bit envious of a couple of our friends. They are a wonderful couple and an important part of our lives. Despite the fact that we live different lifestyles we always find a common ground that keeps our friendship alive. One common interest we all share is a love of traveling.

We don’t get to engage in this nearly as much as they do. Our typical vacation involves traveling somewhere with our camper and getting close to nature. They are not campers and tend to venture off to luxurious locations.

They recently returned from a family vacation to North Carolina and cannot stop talking about it. The Outer Banks is one of their favorite vacation destinations and they try to go at least once a year. I have heard in great detail about how “they LOVE the Outer Banks”. They have stayed in Southern Shores and in Duck and say that both places are very quiet and peaceful. I can almost imagine the sand and dunes all over just based on their vivid descriptions of the beautiful beaches!

It really does sound like the perfect family vacation spot. I love that they describe the area as nothing like vacation spots such as Myrtle Beach or Ocean City which don’t appeal to me at all. The Outer Banks has no board walks, but lots of wildlife and lighthouses which is right up my alley. It sounds like a great place to take our older son because the Wright brothers flew their first plane there in Kitty Hawk. Our friends visited the field where they first took off. Our older son has this burning desire to learn to fly and this sound like an ideal place for him.

We were told that if we ever go to the Outer Banks to be sure to visit Corolla because it is an amazing part of the island. Apparently it has a great lighthouse that allows you to see the entire Island from the top of it. From the sound of it anyone who is looking for a quiet, yet entertaining beach vacation should check out the Outer Banks.

Considering that our big vacation this year was setting up our pop-up camper in the middle of the woods for a week you can understand why I am a wee bit envious. I would love to be able to surprise my family with a vacation that doesn’t involve worrying about a bear attack, fighting off mosquitoes, and smelling like smoke constantly. I can just imagine the family relaxing by the pool or soaking in the hot tub.

How great would it be to wake up to the sound of the ocean instead of the sound of woodpecker pounding on the roof of our camper? I love camping but everyone deserve a luxurious vacation once in their life. We have yet to take a trip that doesn’t involve roughing it in the wild. It would truly be wonderful to not worry about whether we have enough firewood for the week and instead simply relax. I have to think that one day I might be able to fondly recall the balmy, cool breeze coming off the ocean as I sit doing absolutely nothing.

Sustainability…

Candidly yours~ — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 14:33:52 +0000

My project for today is to finish building our chicken coop. Yes, that is what I am building. Next week we are traveling to pick up 3-4 newly hatched chicks that we have ordered. My wife has been itching to get a couple of chickens for as long as I can remember. We finally came to an agreement about this idea and reasons that would justify the expense and time involved in raising chickens. We also think this will be a good experience for out children.

There are a few other projects that we will be finishing up this month including putting in a couple more raised garden beds and getting in our fall plantings.

My wine should be finished this month and ready for bottling.

Our final canning push will be to put away around 48 quarts of applesauce.

The potatoes will be ready for digging as well.

I am on the fence about digging our Jerusalem Artichokes or to wait until next spring.

The second crop of carrots we planted look like they might be ready at the end of the month.

The beans we left on the plants at the community garden need to be picked and dried.

We have half a grass fed cow coming to put in the freezer as well as half a hog and a few free range chickens.

I have 4 watermelons still on the vine that I am crossing my fingers about. They got planted late and summer is running out.

We are set to receive two peach trees for our backyard as well as a grape vine and a couple raspberry bushes.

My mushroom logs will need to be soak in order to urge the mushroom spore we put in last spring to start fruiting.

Our worm bin needs cleaned out and the compost put in the garden and a new bin started. I also need to move then into the garage or porch for the winter.

Let’s see… I think that covers a good amount of what is on the agenda for this month. Do you think I have enough to keep me busy?

A hoarder?

Candidly yours~ — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:18:12 +0000

Two months ago this lady moved in across the street. At first everything seemed fine with her but that has slowly changed. As time has progressed she has managed to not only fill up her apartment with stuff but also two of the porches attached to the house. Some of the stuff she has is still in boxes but a great deal of it is just sitting out exposed to the elements. This stuff is an usual assortment of stuff and is clearly not things she needs in her apartment. For example she has a few doors sitting leaning up against the shrubbery. The mailman cannot walk onto the porch to deliver the mail because there is not a clear path. Today a moving van pulled up and she start unloading even more stuff. I am half expecting her to fill the remaining porch with industrial equipment because there is no rhyme or reason to what she seems to own. I have seen her walking through town trash picking and think this is where a great deal of her stuff comes from. My suspicion is that she is a hoarder and that this isn’t going to be a good thing for the people who have to live in close proximity to her. Thankfully, we are across the street and not right next door.

What do you do?

Candidly yours~ — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:04:00 +0000

I tend to be someone who is accepting of all different types of people. I do not believe that we all have to think or act alike and that is what makes the world a great place. We have this family that keeps trying to be a part of our lives on a constant and almost overwhelming basis. Typically we would want to widen our circle of friends but I just don’t feel that way about these people. I have tried everything to convey in a subtle way that we just can’t get behind there line of thinking and whatnot. I thought that because they are so closed minded that they would be turned off by the differences in our thinking and would back off. This doesn’t seem to have any impact on them whatsoever. Short of being point blank and blunt with them I don’t know what to do other than ignore the perpetual emails and invitations. I can’t sit and listen to endless complaints about the government and how evil the world is. I don’t want to leave my child for a play date when they tell me about spanking and “smacking” their children. I have always considered tact to be a strong point of mine but it is running dangerously close to running out when it comes to interacting with these people.

Big dreams…

Candidly yours~ — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:34:10 +0000

Anyone who has children knows that parenting can be tough. You want to support your children in their endeavors and be there cheering them on but sometimes it is just so hard. Our older son is always hatching a plan to make or sell something. When he was little we would listen to his plans and tell him what good ideas he had even though they didn’t always make sense. As he has gotten older he continues to come up with ideas that just don’t always make sense and it is becoming increasingly hard not to tell him that his ideas aren’t good ones. For example today he wanted to try to go door to door selling sea shells to people. I tried to explain to him that there was no way I was going to let him go door to door selling anything. The poor child didn’t understand why we weren’t supportive of his business venture. I explained that it wasn’t the sea shells but the idea of him going from house to house that didn’t appeal to us. We finally detailed to him that it wouldn’t have mattered if had loose diamonds, magazines, or electric can openers because children going from house to house just wasn’t safe. I believe he finally understood that part of the discussion but didn’t understand why he then couldn’t have a sea shell stand in the yard. Some days I feel like the bad guy all day long.

Not the same woman..

Candidly yours~ — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:24:12 +0000

This weekend I was having a conversation with my mother about some of the things we have been working on around the house. Something she said about my wife struck me as funny because she said that my wife “is not the same woman” that I married almost 20 years ago. Usually when you hear this term it evokes negative connotations. When I think of my wife as not being the same woman nothing but positive things come to mind. She is no longer a woman who strives after a high powered career and things. Our lives have indeed taken a 180 degree turn from where we once were about 10 years ago. I wouldn’t change a thing because I love the woman she is today. Yes, there are days where I wonder if we really need a chicken coop and another raised garden bed. In hindsight I usually see that the things she is asking for or wants me to build are things that are part of a bigger picture she has for our lives. We are striving towards a simpler and more self-sufficient life that offers significantly more fulfillment that anything else we have ever endeavored to do.

Cleaning up.

Candidly yours~ — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:29:34 +0000

This weekend we spent a fair amount of time cleaning out our garage and attic. I love having a clean house where I can quickly and easily locate the things I am looking for. It drives me crazy to go in the attic looking for a file or something only to have to move boxes of vintage t shirts, blankets, and keepsakes to find what I need. Having a clean garage just makes life so much simpler I can actually find my tools and have place to put them down now that all of the junk that was taking up space is now gone. We could have had a garage sale but it is so much simpler to just haul it all off to the thrift store and be done with it. Sitting in my yard all weekend hoping that someone might buy my junk just feels like time that could be better spent.

Why so fast?

Candidly yours~ — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:25:29 +0000

We live on the corner of a dead end street. The entire length of the street spans maybe 300 feet. At the end of the street there is a family with older children that are in college. For some reason everyone that visits these kids feels the need to drive as fast as humanly possible up and down the street. I fail to understand the reasoning behind this. It isn’t like you can get anywhere really fast or need to. Tonight my older son was almost hit while trying to ride his bike in the road by one of these visitors. Thankfully he wasn’t but you can be sure my heart skipped a beat. I am now ordering a sign for our yard to remind these young drivers to take it more slowly. I doubt it will have any impact but at least I can hope that it might clue at least one of them to the fact that young children do live here and to be more aware.

On a mission…

Candidly yours~ — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:12:51 +0000

We have a couple of friends who recently bought their first home. They are investing a great deal of time and effort to remodel this older home. I an envious of their enthusiasm because they are both actually working second jobs to pay for their various projects. If it were me I would just buy some cheap laminate flooring and forgo the second job. They however feel differently and want everything to be the top of the line. For some reason they think that spending more means a better quality product which doesn’t necessarily hold true for everything. We would love to remodel our house but have decided that this is something we are going to put off until the children are older. I don’t want to spend my days worrying about juice spilled on my wood floors and marks on the wall. I want to enjoy my children here and now. Nice things will hold up better later on down the road.

Chicken tractor…

Candidly yours~ — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:04:58 +0000

I have yet another project that I will be building in the coming weeks. When I first heard the term I thought it was a little silly because it is called a “chicken tractor”. I just envision a chicken driving a tractor. It is not this but rather a type of chicken coop that is portable to enable you to move it about the yard. We recently found out that keeping chickens is legal within the limits of our city and we intend to now pursue raising about 4 of them. They are set to arrive at the end of October which gives me a couple of months to get the tractor built. My wife is pretty specific on how it needs to looks to keep our neighbors happy. I personally don’t care how it looks as long as it is clean and doesn’t stink. I also expect to see some eggs from these chickens given all the work they are requiring me to do for them!