Interesting thoughts -- we could all improve on paperwork storage in our homes. Two things I think I'm doing well that differ from the above mentioned Script, and someone else might find some ideas in my methods: Taxes. Yes, like Script, I am scrupulous about maintaining records for my taxes. About a dozen years ago I went to the office supply and bought two big boxes of BRIGHT GREEN folders (green like money). I labeled them Taxes 2000 ... Taxes 2001 ... Taxes 2002 ... Taxes 2003 ... and so on. Given my family's typical lifespan, I made enough green folders to take me to age 110 -- probably more than I'll need, but I'm ready! They're all stored in my file cabinet, taking up very little space. Now when I receive anything tax-related -- a charitable receipt, an end-of-the-year bank statement, whatever -- I have a place to file it. In April, I have a place to file a copy of my taxes, and I can go back and see previous tax years. For the rest of my life, this system is in place. Death folder. Ours is a notebook. Two identical notebooks, actually, since we have two children. Our girls are young adults now, but they've never dealt with an estate -- even if they don't open it 'til they're old, it'll be useful to them. It contains a lot of stuff: - A personal letter to the two of them - A list of our wishes about funeral and items we'd like donated to various family members or charities - A list of things they must do immediately; it starts with going to our house and taking possession of the dog, but it also includes small details like canceling our voting registration and destroying any medicines in the house. At every turn this list includes addresses and phone numbers, including the lawyer we suggest for probate, the funeral home our family's always used, and family members who should be contacted. - A copy our will; they know what's in it -- everything split between the two of them - A list of our financial assets -- bank accounts, investments, insurance, deeds/maps of real estate ... when our youngest became a legal adult, we made the two girls co-beneficiaries of every account; note that this was done before either was married, so our two kids -- not future son-in-laws -- will own these items. - A list of the bills we pay each month -- electricity, phone, even the guy who cuts our grass. - Official copies of our birth certificates, our marriage certificates, and the girls' birth certificates -- they might not be needed, but the girls won't have to scramble to find them - A flashdrive with all of the above in digital format plus photographs that might be useful in putting together the funeral Our rule: We keep two years of tax returns in the notebooks ... the reason being that someday an accountant will file our final estate tax return, and he or she will want our last two years of returns -- so every April we pull out the notebook, discard one old return and insert the newest ... so our rule is that every April we look over the notebook and update anything that's changed. For example, last year we changed bank accounts, and someday we hope to add items concerning grandchildren to the book. Our girls know that the notebooks are stored in the safe, and they know where the key to the safe is hidden, and they know it's labeled with a misleading name so that a thief wouldn't look at it twice. Last thought on this notebook: Though this project took us the better part of a year --- we kept remembering one more thing, one more thing that really should be included -- we didn't find it difficult emotionally. I suspect that if we were older and/or one of us were in poor health, it might've been different.

I just 911-funcolors! Haha, just kidding, well kinda, she is really, really good with color. Could you be talking about the colors listed on the Gallery side of this forum?

Funny; I'm shopping for a tractor right now. Our needs are probably a bit different than many with acreage. Most of our land is heavily wooded, and we'll keep it that way. My main uses for a tractor are to maintain our gravel driveway, and drag trees out of the woods as I thin them. Our church has a firewood program to help local families, and I want to thin out my woods. I'll fell the trees and drag them out in the open, and the guys will cut them up and haul them away. Win-win-win! We're currently negotiating with our neighbor to buy more road frontage from him, as we have very little. The land in question is directly in front of our house, so we'd like to own it so no one builds in front of us. We have a nice distant mountain view from our front porch, and we'd like to keep it. If we get the land, I'm going to use the tractor to turn it into a nice pasture. Right now, it's a weedy, brushy mess. I'm concentrating on getting a usable older tractor with a front end loader. I'll be getting topsoil trucked in, so need a way to move it around, and the loader will help me unload and move the heavy stuff I have a habit of dragging home. I'm getting too old to do this stuff by hand! I'm looking at diesel tractors, as gas engines develop problems when they sit for months, like mine will. Probably 40-50 hp., 30 years old or so, and under $10K, as money is still tight. I just hope I can avoid buying a 'money pit'. I'm sure I could hire out the work, but over the years, it will pay to have a tractor, and around here, it's really hard to get people to show up and do the work.

My parents dilly dallied with tomatoes and a few other things, but we always went to the farm stands rather than get produce at the grocery store. I had a few small areas in homes with not alot of success. The big shift was when hubby and I quit smoking! It was not only a get healthier thing, but something to do with our time and hands while getting over the smoking thing! Thankfully, I did some research and started slowly with just an 8x8 raised bed (this was changed to 2 3x8' beds for reachability). Gradually we added several more beds including a 4x8 asparagus bed which I miss dearly! After retiring, we moved into town. The home had 1 4x8 bed which pleased me. It ended up the previous owners used it as a construction rubble dump and it was a mess! We had that re-done and also discovered that our soil is fantastic! So now we have a 10x20 in ground area and a 4x8 bed! More than enough! I DO miss my asparagus, though!