Crystal G

• Dad will be ending hyperbaric chamber treatments soon. It hasn’t fully cured him this time, but has definitely improved the ulcers. I hope whatever treatment comes next will finish it up.
• I’ve made $825 extra this month doing side work. That is mostly going towards two parts for my dads vehicles, a new pair of shoes for me, and the rest as a cushion to supplement my dad since he’s already out of money for this month. Any that I don’t use at the end of the month will go towards his debt.
• My weekends have been hellaciously busy lately. This past weekend I put in over 14 hours worth of work, plus drove down to Baltimore, PLUS went to a baby shower. I’m somewhat taking off this weekend. I have ritual in Hanover with some friends, and if side work comes in I’ll do that. But it’s father’s day weekend, I’m taking OFF.
• I realized today I’ve put on approximately 60,000 miles on my mustang since purchasing it in January 2006. I attribute that to all the trips to the Grove and some to work, because I haven’t taken it on -any- road trips.
• Our guineas are doing well, and starting to roam around. We try to pin them up at night, and keep a radio on all night to deter foxes (which we’ve lost 1 to).
• No progress on the back deck yet, I’m hoping within the month we’ll be started though.
• I did get a chance to take a look at the wood my uncle is saving to make my new bed out of. It’s gonna look very nice, and very woodsy
• I did win the brownie cook-off at work. The prize was a gift card to a new chocolate shop that opened up in town. I made cherry brownies and home made chocolate ganache, which I might post the recipe for.
• Does anyone know if you can get a record of all the cars you’ve ever had registered with the DMV, including VIN? And if so, if you’re able to track the VIN of a car once you’ve found out what the VIN is, and who the new owner is? I’ve been thinking of tracking down my dads old 1969 Roadrunner.

• Dads hyperbaric chamber treatments seem to be going well. He has to go to them 5 days a week, and it’s about a half hour/40 minute drive to and from every day. They say the color of the skin is looking a lot better, and the ulcer has gotten slightly smaller in one direction, but looks a little bigger in another direction.
• His truck is also still having troubles, which we think is the fuel pump. He’ll be getting that today on my dollar and hopefully that’ll be the end of that for now.
• As shown yesterday, a tree fell against the house. My insurance company is not open on Sunday’s so I should be receiving a call today about my claim for the porch and whatever damage there might be to the house. The thing I like about my insurance company though is how advanced their website is, as I was able to submit a claim through there. My hope is that they’ll give enough that we can build the new deck we’ve been wanting, since we can get it done on the cheap. My other hope is that my uncle, who is unemployed right now, can bid on the job. But if everything else fails, we at least got some free firewood out of the deal.
• My other hope is that we don’t have to use all of the money, if we get any, and I can put it towards something else (like dad’s debt, or the new animal pens dad wants built behind the garage).
• An ex co-worker has hooked me up with a fella I’m doing sidework for in order to bring in some extra cash. The guy seems to like me and has already said he has more work for me through June. It requires me working 11 hour days by doing more work at nights, but I’m certainly not complaining.
• I think I’m going to really smash my $0 day goal this month, as I’m already at 12 days, and last month I was at 16. I mainly contributing this to unfortunately not being able to travel as much this month, so I’m saving gas. I may still keep count in June, but I don’t know whether I’m going to be as severe about it, because even though it’s not a hard thing to do, I still feel a little deprived.
• I’ve been enjoying the blender that the sweetheart got me. I make a mean mango + apple + flax seeds smoothie for breakfast. Now I just need to send the juicer off to get fixed, since I burnt it up I guess.
• Dad and I have a TON of stuff in the garden this year. I don’t think I can remember it all. Onions, Potatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, at least 2 varieties of squash, different peppers, corn (as of this week anyway), radishes, tomatoes, and more I just have to remember it. I’m going to be doing a lot of canning this year, I’m very excited.
• One of my uncles turkey’s had some babies as well (which is not an easy thing to do, honestly), so we’re going to have more turkey’s than we originally thought. Not complaining though, as I love eating a good turkey.
• The guineas are still not quite big enough to release, but they are growing bigger every day. I’ll be glad when they can roam around and eat up all these damn ticks.

I decided to loan a friend $95 to get a discount on something that was important to him. I know he’ll pay me back as soon as he is able, and I mostly did it because I wanted some good financial karma right now. Those that give will receive, afterall.

Dad has also gotten some baby keets (Guinea fowl), so we will be having some tick eating ugly birds in a couple months. I am excited I’ve missed having them.

I checked my escrow account and saw that my taxes were paid on time, so I was able to get the $100 or so discount for paying early. I’m still going to call and confirm the tax collector that it was received just for my own peace of mind.

I’m very excited for the coming months. So many possibilities

The country restaurant my dad frequents usually gets baby rabbits from us every year about this time to sell as easter bunnies. I’m not entirely supportive of the topic of easter bunnies because a lot of kids can’t handle taking care of them. But I know some do, and it’s something that’s going to happen anyway so I’d rather just educate people more.

Well someone came in this week to inform the restaurant/fruit market/orchard that they need a permit to do that, which is usually about $170. I can sorta see the usefulness of a permit, but I am not someone who likes to be bound by laws when I’m not doing anything wrong. The same goes for selling eggs, etc.

The same day PETA arrives and starts boycotting the selling of baby bunnies, saying that they are like children and should never be separated from their bunny siblings.

Give me a break. This is where I run into the fine line that I walk of being a nature-lover/animal-lover as well as a traditional farmer. Yes I love animals, yes I love nature, yes I treat both ethically, but I still kill rabbits and chickens and turkey and deer to eat them. I’m not doing it for sport, I’m not doing it unnecessarily. Get off my damn back.

I called up my Uncle Ronnie to see if he could find out how much new back tires for my dads John Deere would cost. I’m hoping to get these for him for Christmas this year and have been saving up for them. However I don’t really know how much they would be so I could be way off. He’s going to get back to me in a few days with a price and location.

I also called up my USAA account and added my dads name to that credit line of mine (up to $5500). This is the account I’ve been using to pay off his loan with as well as any other debt he has. I’m hoping this will supplement any of the crappy accounts he has opened in the past so I can get him to close those and use this as a replacement. That way I can keep better track of what he spends and he’s not suffering through those ridiculous 29.9% interest rates.

I think also using my card will kinda deter him from wanting to overspend or “abuse” this access I’ve given him. Let’s hope anyway. Trying to break him of his spending habits has been a chore and a half, but I’m getting there slowly. I did speak with him about it when I came home and he’s agreed to get rid of the Tractor Supply account and use my card instead.

I’m still trying to debate with myself on whether or not I should take over the Tractor Supply debt now or later. I may way and see if the rate goes up again in April, in which case I’ll take it over immediately. I just don’t like the idea of taking over his debt in case 1. I lose my job and am unable to pay, meaning I ruin my credit or 2. something happens to him and I’m stuck with his debt by myself.

I decided yesterday that I’m going to reduce my 401k contributions until I’m finished paying off dads debt. That’ll give me like an extra $200 or so a month and I can easily raise it back up once I’m done. I’ll probably still contribute a minimal amount, but not as much as I was. My Roth IRA contribution was already lessened once we knew we were going to have to move. Mainly because that was an after-tax contribution.

My dad and my uncle are going to raise some broiler chickens this year. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, and I think having my uncle help out will make it easier on both of us for now. I do still eventually want to have my own brood of broiler chickens here, as well as laying chickens. We are also raising some turkeys and I’ve already been taking orders for fresh turkey for the holidays.

Going to be an exciting spring this year, lots of planting to do and animals to take care of and the interest accruing debts will be gone

Dad and I have been trying to contact the construction company that owns the huge wooded lot behind us for weeks now. They’ve never called us back, I don’t know what their deal is. I’m trying to be polite and ask permission to haul dead wood out of there to cut up for firewood.

I’m going to keep trying, but in the mean time I told dad to just start pulling wood out with the tractor. Heck if anything maybe that will get their attention faster. They’re just going to develop it anyway.

Once spring hits we usually like to start preparing our wood stockpile for the next winter, in addition to our normal gardening.

Going to be a busy spring. New cords of wood, whole new garden, whole new set of pens and chickens, almost complete restart of an herb garden.

I’ve decided to take more of a financial interest in the small sales my dad does around here with selling eggs, rabbit meat, turkeys, and some pullets.

Generally my father was at a loss each month at the old place. Selling eggs and rabbit meat and such was just a way to get extra money for a hobby, that hobby being having and taking care of animals.

Personally I think he should at least break even with the cost of food vs the cost of selling eggs and meat and pullets. So that’s what I’m going to try and do. If we can get a little profit out of it, all the better, but breaking even is my goal.

Usually dad doesn’t really keep track of what goes out vs. what comes in. So this year I’m going to start calculating feed expenses vs. sales, and adjust prices accordingly. There will be more initial cost up front because we have to buy all new chickens, we have to buy material to build all new pens, and I plan to buy a nice incubator so we don’t lose so many eggs like we used to (especially peacock eggs).

We still have our rabbits, a turkey, and a female peacock left. He gave the guinea hens to my uncle, which I wasn’t too happy about, but we’ll just have to get new guinea hens. We also need to get a new male peacock. Surprisingly baby male peacocks are pretty pricey ($30-$40 each on a good day), which is precisely why I want one so I can start incubating the eggs and taking the babies to auction.

I’ll probably post more thoughts on all of this as I get more organized with them.