Completely frivolous car purchase, Midlife crisis or - WWYD?
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Homesteading & the financial shake-up
Comments (30)To all: My zone is thusly listed because I'm right on the border between two zones and need to figure out precisely how the Ohio river and the weather pattern affectations will affect my growing here. Anyway... I grew up on a fairly large farm raising beef, but once I left home my father has sold off nearly everything, maintaining only trash land which he recently decided to try to sell. I live too far away to make owning it practical (although I may come to regret this) and my dad is too weird to deal with. However, about 1.5 years ago I purchased 10 acres outside Corydon, IN. My home is a tad close to the road for my liking, but we do what we have to. I have great interest in turning the front 2 or 3 acres into an idyllic homestead, functional, practical AND as pretty as I can make it (a rough homestead has its own charm as far as I'm concerned), but I'm going to have to figure out the best layouts AND come up with the know-how to make the most of what I've got. My long-range plans include: - A small orchard (10-20 different trees) - Some berry trellises (25-30 plants) - A small grape area (probably 12-15 plants) - Chicken coop, pheasant coop - A pretty hefty garden plot for vegetables - Strawberry bed kept separately - Garden plot for melon and pumpkin patch - Wood shed - Finnish sauna (used to heat pole barn and greenhouse) - Greenhouse ... and eventually a milk cow (I love fresh milk) and a moody pony. I also have ideas for an outdoor kitchen area for both summer cooking and canning times, to avoid heating the whole darned house, and I'm trying to come up with ideas for a live-in storm shelter, an underground pantry-cum-root cellar and the most elusive critter of all, the mythical underground, renewable resource freezer (probably based on old icehouse designs). Okay, before anyone tells me, that last one will probably REMAIN a myth, I know. I'm browsing this site for ideas and input on layouts, as well as other knowledge on various topics. Hope to make some new acquaintances, too!...See MoreNEW: Petal Pushers 'March into Spring' 08
Comments (148)Hmm, I miss a day or two, I miss a LOT here, ladies! I've been running a lot, distracted, and just plain scatterbrained. Must be spring fever (at least, I'd rather blame that than a mid-life crisis, lol!). I have most of Debbya's box ready to go - I just want to do one more thing, then send it on its way. It's been fun learning about your names and their history. My first name has NOTHING to do with my family heritage - my parents just liked it. My middle name, Marie, is for my mother, Mary. My daughter's first name is Juliana, for the medieval Christian mystic Juliana of Norwich. Her middle name is Pearl, for my grandmother, who died years ago. Our son's name is Ian (Scottish for John - his grandfather, great uncle, and uncle-in-law are all John/Jon, and his father is Sean, the Irish form of John). His middle name is Joseph, for one of my favorite men in the Bible. Oh, how we debated about Ian's name! He's our first, and my mother was pestering us mightily about what names we were considering. So, we had an ugly name contest, and kept telling her all sorts of outrageous choices. Keep in mind, our last name is RUDD. So, Dudley Bud Rudd, Elmer Rudd, Evan Rudd (think Evinrude motors), Vladimir Rudd (just because), etc. etc. AND, we couldn't use any names that started with C or K, because that would make his abbreviated name C. Rudd. CRUD. That cancelled out all sorts of names we happened to like, for both kids, lol! My favorite outdoors tool is definitely bypass pruning shears. Indoors, I have to say that I really MISS my dustbuster. It recently croaked after years of faithful service, and NOW I realize just how much I used it to clean up after the kids, birds, and cats. LOLOL about the moon story! Our son stayed up late to watch part of the eclipse, and really thought it was cool. Laurel...See MoreI Don't Want More 'Stuff'! Ever Feel This Way???
Comments (38)Lynn we are in a very similar place about our house - it's too big for us at this stage of our lives. We use most of the square footage in some way - because it's there - but could easily manage with half ! Our youngest will be graduating from college next May and HOPEFULLY will be employed and able to support himself but who knows? Our older son works for the forest service but those gov't jobs are shakey, to say the least, so we always want to have a place where they can land if needed. So.... we keep the big old house - for now. Stuff? I reached a saturation point many years ago and continually work to pare down. But it's back to that big house thing again - I'm not going to live in empty rooms so there's still far more STUFF than I actually need. When my mom died and I helped my dad move into an apartment, tons of family stuff came my way. Eleven years later when my dad died, the rest of it came to me. We've all talked about this before - the pull of family items and how hard it is to get rid of some things. But it has to be done so over the years I've pared down to the things that have the most meaning and passed the rest on in one way or another. I have dreams (nightmares?) about moving into a small home and having boxes and furniture stacked everywhere because I didn't sort and get rid of enough before moving!! Gifts? I could write a book. Christmas at my in-laws used to make me physically ill with the insane buying and giving of cr@p. It doesn't matter to me a bit how much time is put into the shopping and wrapping, or what the item is. When someone (namely my MIL) is purchasing *stuff* because of a date on a calendar and is obsessed with getting the same # of packages for each person, because that's "just what you do for Xmas" I want no part of it. We'd been married only a short time when I told my DH that I was opting out. He was totally on board. It was a sore spot with everyone in his family for many years but we held firm. We just stopped buying. Our kids would get everything they needed and some of what they wanted all through the year at a time when it made sense to get the item, not an enormous pile o' stuff, all on one day, much of it to be returned, exchanged or donated. And that returning/exchanging all fell to me, of course. A few years of that and we started just donating everything, in the boxes, tags still on. Give me a quiet day, with my family cooking together, laughing and going for a long walk...... THAT'S the gift I want....See MoreWhat would you suggest to boost economy?
Comments (49)Outsourced businesses must come home or be banned from our country, lose their citizenship and any assests they have here. They are traitors in my book. Develop our own resources, become a self-sufficient country, relying on no other country for anything. Send all non-citizens back where they came from and lock the doors/borders. Charity begins at home....quit helping all other countries and start taking care of our own people. Stop immediately all these "salaries and benefits for life" that ex-presidents and congressmen and their families if they die get. Our working class of people sure don't get that. Quit spending on frivolous things likes museums. Build roads, factories, new power sources. $30 tax per carton of ciggies proposed? Oh sure, penalize the smokers but let the drunks and druggies continue to kill. I agree with term limits of 2 or 4 yrs. for all congressmen and senators. Do away with the party system as we know it....everyone run as an independent. The government needs to stop enacting all these laws to "protect us"...we managed just fine years ago without them. Stop products "made in China, made in Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc. from entering our country including food products. Stop companies from buying out other companies and stealing the retirement funds....See More
jsk
25 days agolyfia
25 days agolyfia
24 days agolast modified: 24 days agoLatest update - I have a deposit on a White one. Should be picking it up on Friday if nothing changes. I'm paying MSRP - which I expected to, however I hate car shopping. Apparently this dealer adds some package with tint, some kind of clear wrap on hood/door edges, and some other exterior/interior protection which I did not want for $3495. They tried to give me $1K off that and I was going to just skip and go elsewhere. White is a lot easier to find. Thankfully they took it completely off so back to MSRP. As part of trying to sell me on this package they said it is already on the vehicle. So we'll see if it bothers me or not when I see it on Friday.
pics the dealer sent.
About the only thing I'm not fond of is the exhaust tips being chrome, but I'll likely get some high temp paint and paint them. Haven't fully decided on that yet as I'd need to make sure to cover everything as they are welded on. But certainly would be easier to do before I have to clean them as well.
fnmroberts
24 days ago@lyfia - WOW, you’ll love it. Equipped with LT2, Z51 AND the front lift? Black exhaust tips are available aftermarket but really, chrome is easily wiped clean. Periidically Mass metal polish to touch them up. Will you highway drive it? If YES, and the dealer removed what was installed, get the front end wrapped - stone chips are especially apparent on white Corvettes. I’d Ceramic Coat the entire car too.
Personally I like the chrome exhaust.
lyfia thanked fnmrobertslyfia
24 days agolast modified: 24 days agoThank you everyone! So far I'm excited, but I'm sure once I hand the check over I might have some heart palpitations/breathing problems. ;) I might look into the wrap part if it doesn't have it since most of my driving is Highway, but I'm sure I'd be spending less taking it to be done. Although my current white vehicle and the long line of white ones before it haven't had any issues with it being visible. Now if they could only have something to protect the windshield. That I would gladly spend the money on to protect. All our vehicles have broken windshields and I'm not willing to spend money to replace it unless I have to because of visibility as it will be broken again in no time.
I think it is a lot of work to replace the exhaust tips since they are welded so if I do anything paint will likely be it. I've seen some doing that and it looks good. Yours look really good, but they are also all together and not breaking up the black in the same way.
Here's a snippet of the sticker. Not many options except for Z51/2LT/front lift and I could have done without the GT2 seats as I thought the stock ones were more comfortable for my bottom, but most have that added so very hard to find the front lift without the seats.
lyfia
24 days agolast modified: 24 days ago
Faron79
24 days agoDamn!
I got me some "Catching up to the Jones's" to do!!!
Lyfia-That's an important group of options to have! I LOVE it!!
ACS-Composites has some very good quality Grill-guards for the front & side air-intakes.
I did go to Exotics-Racing in LV a few years ago, & got to toodle around in my baby....
So.....YES!!!
Go to a track & learn some REAL DRIVING. I only dared get up to 105mph on the straight. But now you've got a rear-engine horse like this one!
When I see curved roads now......my grip on the wheel tightens-up.....I start thinkin' how close I can shave the corners......SNAP OUT OF IT Faron!!!!
lyfia thanked Faron79fnmroberts
23 days agolyfia
11 days agolast modified: 11 days agoHi, I did pick up my new wheels a little more than a week now and it has already amassed more than 500 miles even with a super busy work week. Had to spend the weekend cleaning out the garage so I could fit two vehicles in there. Boy did we have a lot of stuff in there that’s just been sitting for years taking up valuable parking space. Facebook market place worked out great for giving it all away since we are not on a street where you can just put it out on the curb. Here’s a few pics of my new ”Lady friend."
lyfia
11 days ago
dedtired