The decision has been made. Hubby called and although he didn't admit that getting the box was a good idea (he would never give me the satisfaction) he said he had been thinking about using it to store the kindling. Since it has a lid on it the kindling would stay dry and it would also keep it more tidy. I think I can live with that. Although I was kinda thinking of how to make the coffin idea work ....

Ok - update. I took a little to work and myself and a couple of coworkers tried it with some trepidation = but it was fine! I don't know what was going on with the smell last night (maybe the dried mushrooms who knows) but today it was gone and smelled and tasted normal/good. I would rather have SUBLIME but I guess I;ll have to settle:) I'm not the hugest beef stew fan but its healthier than cream soups, I wanted to try it and freeze some and now I know. It was good, next time I'll tweak a little. Thanks for all the support! I'm an overthinker, panic'er do things at the last minute I shouldn't for sure

L, I can raise it for about the same price as local store bought chickens, but that's without factoring in any labor. I figure that these 30 chickens will eat 12 pounds of feed each in 8 weeks, and the hens will weigh about 6 pounds, the roosters about 8. I don't have any idea which are which at this point, but I'm figuring 50/50. Local organic feed is more expensive than the regular stuff, so I'll be paying about $12 for 50 lbs of it. I'll need 370 pounds, but I'll have to buy 400 because that's how it's bagged. $96 for feed, $74 for the chicks (with postage), it's $170.00. Being very optimistic about my yield, I'm figuring 5 lbs per hen and 7 lbs per rooster, or 180 lbs of chicken, or approximately $1 per pound. Remember, I've only factored in actual monetary cost, no time feeding, cleaning coops or doing the actual slaughter and processing. A serving is SUPPOSED to be 4 ounces, so even if you figure 50% to be skin/bones/waste, it's 50 cents a serving. Frankly, I just don't like commerically raised chicken. It doesn't taste right to me and it's shot too full of "flavor enhancer", which is just salt and water. It seems mushy. So, I'd save a lot of money if I didn't grow chickens, because I wouldn't eat it at all. Truthfully, I'd rather eat a little of something really good than a lot of something mediocre. I'd rather have one cup of good coffee than a pot of the average stuff. I'd rather eat one ounce of good dark chocolate instead of a pound of the cheap sweet chocolate and I'd much prefer to eat 4 ounces of real chicken instead of twice as much antibiotic/Benedryl/Prozac/arsenic/caffeine laden stuff. And while I'm at it, what is it about chicken wings? Here they pay 50 cents EACH for a chicken wing, which is nearly all bone and skin. Since I don't eat skin, even crispy skin, and can't eat the bones, that's 50 cents for one BITE of chicken. And wings are more expensive than boneless skinless breasts, with nearly zero waste. It's crazy, wings used to be cheap... Anyway, come to Michigan and I'll share chicken with you! Annie

I want to thank you all for replying to my post. It was very generous of you to take the time to help me with this decision. You all made some great points for me to consider. Looks like we'll be putting it on the market but I thought I would address some of the comments in your posts at this point: Play up what 'spoke' to us when we bought it issue: That's gonna be tough. I dare say I do hate EVERYTHING about this place: but I know that can't be entirely true. Mostly is though! I'll give it that it has a pretty good floor plan and a nice neighborhood. Period. Why did we buy it? Well we had a list of things we wanted the new house to have and this one had many of them, when we looked at the list on paper and put checkmarks next to it, it looked ok. i.e. 2 car att garage, 4 bedrooms, office, screen porch, playroom...Plus basically had the square footage we wanted for our family of 5, a nice quiet neighborhood, and was in the school district we were trying to get into, which was our #1 priority and could close in time (#2priority). That's about it. Nothing of the actual house itself spoke to us, other than to say" you'll need to fix this , clean that, update this, repair that"....ad nauseum. It had been neglected by previous owners and showed its wear and tear but we thought it had the bones to work with and once we put "our mark on it, it would be nice" and we'd be in a good school district. I remember saying that. We had left a lovely new house that I had drawn the plans for and needed nothing done but was in a poor school district. After the move I sunk into a very deep depression which I have been able with much effort to scratch and crawl my way out of but as a result I think I'll forever resent this hellhole since it robbed me of a couple years when I was depressed. We have done a lot of improvements and in fact it is considered by most (not me) to be quite nice. It is nice but I am too emotionally tied to hating it to ever see it as really nice. We could stay and continue working on it since there are a few mre things we'd like to do. The only thing is the more we do, though in a way it helps, in another way it just reminds me of what a mistake we made by buying it in the first place. The $30,000 lost issue: I think I was referring to the fact that the market has depreciated by that much here so I was seeing it as a loss IF we move but I agree with the point that it's actually already lost! I had never thought of it that way. Thanks for pointing that out. The can we afford to move question: I'd say that's the million dollar question. And the answer is a definite yes but with some caveats. We'll be paid off here within 9 years. Oldest will be starting college in 6 years. If we move, we'd need to go back up to a 15 year mortgage and payments would be about the same as now. Yikes, I am very frugal and paying a mortgage for an extra 6 years is a tough pill to swallow. Tougher even than the Prozac maybe! We have lots of friends who have lovely houses and 30 yr mortgages but I can't handle that, though we could have one S W E E T !!! house if I could. Not in the cards for me or my DH since I hate debt. a 15 yr mortgage again will be a little tough to take but less so than living here where I'm unhappy. And you know what they say: "If Momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!" Life is short issue: Sure is which is why we are planning on selling. It's a tough market and we're only willing to lower the price such that we can get a nicer place with a 15 yr mortgage. We won't go so low on price here that would necessitate us getting a 30 yr mortgage for any new place. That would definitely make me resent any new place such that I'd be in the same boat as now. Hopefully we'll get lucky and be able to sell with not too big a loss. So, have I mentioned that I have a lovely house to sell????? LOL