mooretrees journal

Where are you and where are you going?
mooretrees
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Re: mooretrees journal

Post by mooretrees »

horsewoman wrote:
Thu Jan 27, 2022 1:48 pm

But I've learned that he gets a lot more done just by me being there and keeping him on track, offering gentle suggestions (without heat or pressure) and being useful in a general way. Do I still feel that I waste my time? To some extent, yes. There are always other things I'd rather do.

Since my "grounding presence" seems to help, I can do that. He gets easily overwhelmed (no wonder, I would too without a plan!) but I'm usually able to be the voice of reason, thereby keeping him on track. I suppose it gets lonely if one works at such a huge project alone all day - DH appreciates the company, and me showing that I think his work is important. I only need to turn off my "inner "optimizer and we get along swimmingly while working.
This really resonated with me. I can see (once again!) parallels between our menfolk. Yes, I can help DH in the same way. More as a sounding board for order of operations than providing technical advice. Without heat or pressure!!! That is really key, isn't it? I can do better. I am once again recognizing that I'm not as emotional mature as I thought I was. Such a bummer to have to change my mind about myself. But also an opportunity to actually become kinder and less wrapped up in myself.

DH and I will survive this build, of that I have no doubt. We are ten years into our relationship and this build has been the biggest challenge. We're both committed to each other and our sweet family.

Thanks all for your support!

mooretrees
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Re: mooretrees journal

Post by mooretrees »

It's been an interesting and stressful year so far.

Work:

I seriously considered quitting two weeks ago. Things with management had reached a ridiculous level of mismanagement full of threats of termination for speaking ill of said managers, lack of lab manager doing important work, I got demoted in a really stupid way, and the constant fear of getting fired that all of my coworkers felt constantly. I did number crunchy for what would happen if I quit and it wasn't as easy a decision as I felt it should be. We probably would have been fine.....but we weren't as prepared to lose this income as I feel I should have been. It was sobering.

Work has changed as one of two of the problems was fired. I was one of many people who tried to let upper management know the extent of the problems caused by both of these women. The message got through finally. I think the fact that this a small town and an independent hospital were huge factors. I actually called the president of the board and told her I was thinking of quitting. And I'm buddies with the hospitalist who is also on the board. So when the president of the board called the dr about my call and he knows me and respects me? That's a small town benefit. The other problem is seemingly going through a mental health breakdown? But, the atmosphere at work is totally different. We had something of a major bitch session with the CEO, HR and the pathologist (who really is the boss of any lab) after one of the women was fired. It was an unusual meeting. We all spoke about how stressful the situation was, how detrimental that stress was for patients and it was clear the CEO hadn't known the true situation. Anyway, the stress at work has disappeared. A byproduct of this situation is that most of the lab folk feel really close now and we're really working together well. That was unexpected.

I do not feel like I need to quit now. I am happier to stay and see what happens.

School Bus:

DH is busy constructing bedroom walls. It's looking good. Someday I'll post photos. We met with friends with land and we're cautiously optimistic that we can park the bus on their land. We will pay $200/month and also help out with whatever needs doing. They're in the early 70's and managing ten acres is getting harder. I'm going to write up a rental contract and get more details ironed out in the next month or two. We are likely parking it in a spot with power, near a small pond and in a pasture. They are really lovely to my son and believe in letting him run around and being slightly feral. I think he needs to know how to swim to be able to really wander as they have a stream and a pond, so he'll be in swim lessons soon.

The county I live in looks very likely to approve accessory dwelling units on properties like this one. The current situation means we'd be illegal and if someone complained, we'd have to leave. In the near future it looks like we could jump through some hoops and be legal. I'm not willing to wait for that so we'll take our chances.

House:
We've decided to sell our house. I've gotten pushback from loved ones about that being a bad decision. I take advice seriously from people who show deeper understanding of the situations they're talking about. Most people (including myself) don't really know much about real estate or investing. I don't have any interest in learning how to be a landlord and would like to be debt free and have access to the equity in our house.

I've begun clearing out the house. Slow progress to date but I've gotten two carloads out of the house. We've got friends that have offered to let us store stuff in their barns so we have avoided getting a storage unit. DH is adamant that he doesn't want to get rid of his tools. We'll store motorcycles in one spot, tools in another and see if we need a small storage unit for leftover random stuff. I hope not! Cleaning up the outside will go faster once it's not icy and cold.

I'm also trying to eat up some of our stored food. The one cabinet in our kitchen is starting to look a little clearer.

I'm hopeful that we'll be out of this house in a few months and start experiencing bus life.

classical_Liberal
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Re: mooretrees journal

Post by classical_Liberal »

Really glad that work situation ended well for you.

mooretrees
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Re: mooretrees journal

Post by mooretrees »

BUS:
We had a pivot with the bus project. A friend proposed we move the bus to her farm and complete the bus build there. She was worried that we'd move into a half-finished bus and suffer. Also, that we'd miss out on the good house selling season. She also we suggested we find a short term rental and decouple the bus build with selling the house. As in, we move into a rental for a bit, focus on getting the house ready to sell and then move into the bus when it's actually ready. We talked with her regarding any problems that might arise and we all feel really good about the idea. Last weekend we moved the bus over to her farm, along with much of the wood for the project (flooring, ceiling, misc). The last few days have been a flurry of DH organizing tools and cleaning up his workspace. It was really incredibly disorganized. Looks miles better now.

We've talked with friends that have a basement apartment about moving into it. I think that will work out. It's a one bedroom, 600 sqft place, right above a fantastic hiking/mtn biking area. It will likely be around $600-650/month will utilities included. We toured it last night. It's a nice step down in space from our house so a good transition to bus life.

This feels like a win/win for both families. This couple is a wee bit irresponsible with their money from what I've observed. For example, he's older and retired (though he saved NOTHING for retirement) and they're paying for some of their mortgage with her retirement. They moved into this property when it was just this basement apartment and then built the regular house above it. They've been toying with the idea of doing airbnb for the apartment as it's pretty cute and a desirable vacation spot. But they haven't done it yet. So, with us moving up there we'll help get the last bits of work done to make it rental ready and help their finances. They've become, especially the husband, surrogate grandparents for our son. Also, it's about a 1000' above our current house and if we have another summer like last year, we'll enjoy some cooler days. We're going to have a friend cobble together a gravel bike for me from two mountain bikes we have lying around and I'm hoping to do some bike commuting to work. It's a tough ride home with about 700 ft in elevation gain in a short timeframe. But, I think it will accelerate me getting into shape and be fun. Might have to push uphill a few times until my pride forces me to power through it?

HOUSE:
I'm hoping we can get it together to sell the house in early May. Lots to do for that to happen, but without the bus as a distraction we can both focus on the house. Fingers crossed! Neither of us are feeling any sentimentality regarding this house. Feels good to think about being out of it soon. We've finally started the 21 step makeover in a way!

BEES:
I've purchased two nucs (miniature colonies) of bees and have started learning about working them. A doctor I'm sorta buddies with gave me four hive bodies with lids, stands and drawn out comb. Likely that doesn't mean much to folks, but it was a really generous gift. I couldn't get him to take coffee, candles or rabbit meat, he just wanted them to get used. That saved me a few hundred dollars now that I'm researching buying another complete hive. Yep, I'm trying to convince two friends that are interested in beekeeping but can't commit the time to go in on two more hives with me. I'll manage them and we'll share the costs. One friend is interested and I'm waiting to hear from the other friend.
I've also started work to create a local beekeeping group in my county. I'm having fun thinking about how to organize the first meeting. I have low expectations of making any money from honeybee products, but I can see how it could turn into a nice side income/next career.

OTHER:
I've gone gangbusters selling stuff on facebook marketplace. I tallied my total for this month: $657 for the meat rabbit operation, an old electric bike, a weird oven thing a renter left, a dog crate, an oak table and a rocking chair. I'm scanning the house for what else could go. I'm pricing stuff to sell, then if they don't sell in a day or so, I drop the price. So far, most everything has sold the same day I listed it. The only thing that didn't sell after a few days, I took to a local kids resale shop and sold it there.

shaz
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Re: mooretrees journal

Post by shaz »

The new plan sounds much less stressful and also like you could have a fun transition time. Well done.

I have an uncle who makes a fair bit of money selling honey and beeswax products from 4 or 5 hives. It might turn out to be more lucrative than you expect.

mooretrees
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Post by mooretrees »

@shaz, it is a much less stressful path! I have a lot to learn with the bees, so I'm just trying to focus on learning but I am interested to see how it shakes down in the fall. I've sold a few beeswax candles so I'm hoping it's not a crazy amount of work to clean up any wax I end up with and then be able to market my candles as hyper local!

I moved the bees from their nuc container (small plastic box) to the proper hive boxes. I fumbled around with them but eventually managed to get both colonies transferred. I was blown away by the noise of the thousands of bees. I was nervous to get stung and really distracted by the few bees who got pissed and tried to attack me. My smoker skills need to improve as I couldn't consistently produce a good amount of smoke to be effective at preventing them from getting mad. The frames teemed with bees, they were gorgeous. I can't wait to pull up a chair and just watch them. Later this month I have my first in-person training through the beekeeping course. I'll get four full days of hands on training over the next few months. I had a hard time settling down last night from my excitement.

theanimal
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Re: mooretrees journal

Post by theanimal »

DF had bees for the first time last year. She had a lot of the same apprehension as you, especially since she is allergic to every single type of bee/hornet besides honeybees :lol: . The first time she went out, she donned her protective hat and wore all kinds of bulky clothes. By the end of the season, she became comfortable enough to just go with the protective hat. I'm sure the same will happen with you! I'm looking forward to seeing how it all plays out for you, you seem to be in a good position to be the bee person in your community.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: mooretrees journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

I talked with a friend (also has chickens) and he is interested in having bees, but not really looking to take on another project. So we are going to work with him and share a few hives starting next year. I will be interested to pick your brain.

mooretrees
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Re: mooretrees journal

Post by mooretrees »

mountainFrugal wrote:
Sat Apr 02, 2022 9:55 am
I talked with a friend (also has chickens) and he is interested in having bees, but not really looking to take on another project. So we are going to work with him and share a few hives starting next year. I will be interested to pick your brain.
I'll be so much more useful to you next year, and I'd love to help. My friend has agreed to try out sharing bees at her location. I'll manage them and we'll share any honey. We talked and decided that since she wants to become the beekeeper, it made sense for her to buy the hives (boxes and any gear she wants to have) and I'll buy the nuc (bees). We know each other decently well, so both feel that any money issues are not a big concern. She is happy to know she won't be on point to care for them, and I'm excited to have another hive in a different location to accelerate my education. I figure this arrangement will only last a year and then I'll likely become her helpful mentor but not have full responsibility. We'll see.

I checked on my colonies yesterday, it's been snowing and unusually cold here and I was quietly worried about them. I almost cried with relief when I saw active bees in both hives, although they were moving slowly. I'll leave them alone until the weather improves enough that it's not really disruptive to them to lift out frames and see if I can identify the queens. I'm gathering resources/people to start a local beekeeping club and it's slowly taking shape.

House sale:
I think we're doing a decent job getting the house ready to sell. DH has organized his tools and building materials and is ready to move them once there's room at the new build site. We have cleaned out the basement, organized a guy to come and do the drywall in the basement room, have a dumpster coming tomorrow, and i have started to packing up the regular house stuff to move to the Bunker (basement apartment we're moving to).

I'm shooting for listing it the second week of May, it seems decently likely to happen. We're leaving town for a week or so around then so I hope it's listed so we can sell it asap.

mooretrees
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Re: mooretrees journal

Post by mooretrees »

Big House:
We're set to move out of our house this weekend and into the basement apartment. I'm meeting with a realtor today to talk about the process of listing the house. We've moved a few car loads of stuff up there already and might have another two loads to go until our stuff we're taking is out of the big house. I haven't rented a storage unit yet, though that might happen. I still don't know that we 'need' it yet, perhaps once the bus build is mostly finished we'll get one for tools. We're going to have to downsize our stuff again to move into the bus in a few months, but we've made crazy progress getting rid of stuff we don't need. We've also started repairing/fixing stuff too. A buddy is cobbling together a gravel bike for me from older mountain bikes we had around, hopefully that will be ready in a week or two so I can ride to work. I will have my first commute Wed of next week and might try walking. We still only have one car and our son can't get on a motorcycle yet, so it's a good push to bike/walk to work.

The basement apartment is lightly furnished, and around 600 sqft. It's a one bedroom about half a mile from a recreation area. My son already knows where the friends who are in the big house keep their homemade cookies and legos. We'll pay $600/month for the Bunker (that's the nickname of the apartment) which includes utilities. Unfortunately, we'll be paying double rent/mortgage for one, maybe two months. I am okay with that as it's really helpful to get our stuff out of here to try and sell the house. We still have outside clean up, painting and various things to do before we list it. But it's much easier to paint an empty house.....

Stuff:
I've done a pretty good job of off loading stuff responsibly (gold star to me!). I've given books to friends, little free libraries, an actual library, free piled a lot of stuff, sold stuff, composted food, and connected some stuff with friends that could have a use for it. To date we've kept all food preservation related equipment, most tools, bikes, some clothes and a few pieces of furniture. We'll leave the furniture at the Bunker when we move out as we won't need it anymore. I started the downsizing process two years ago. The urgency of having a move ahead of you is excellent motivation for getting rid of even more stuff. I keep thinking of this book that showed people from around the world with all of their possessions in front of their house. Without tools, we are starting to look like non-Americans in terms of stuff that would be piled around us in from of our house.

DS:

We went to the kindergarten round up yesterday. That is some weird shit that our son is going to school in the fall. Lots of crazy feelings about it for me. We've spent so much time together in the last two or so years, it's really difficult and lovely to imagine him going to school all day. I'm also realizing that I'm a little nervous to expose all of us to the general culture of other people. I'm sure that's unclear. I mean that I've been able to curate who he spends time with and who we're exposed to as parents. I've avoided people that I wanted to easily up until now. In the fall, that won't be possible to the same extent. Also, I'm sorta freaking out about packing lunches everyday. The lunches obviously isn't as big a deal as dealing with other parents and their kids. I'm sure we'll figure out lunches and somehow navigate other people as well. It's been nice to not have to explain our lifestyle choices too often.....

Bees:

I lost one colony to cold/starvation. The other colony is thriving. I had my first in person beekeeping class. It was great to watch a professional handle the bees, and get feedback on what to look for and how to work a hive. I cried with wonder when one of the instructors noted in passing that the queen bees usually lay eggs in a circular pattern. I don't know why that struck me so, but the more I learn about honey bees, the more amazed I am. The day after my class my son and I worked on the remaining colony. He had his bee suit on and stayed the whole time with me while I checked frames, added another hive body and removed some excess comb. He moved slowly and carefully, listened and helped as I asked and didn't seem scared at all. The bees were gentle and not agitated so everyone was happy. I found my queen, and showed DS bees walking around with pollen sacs on their back legs. I had to remove some extra comb they had made and found eggs, a great sign that the queen is healthy and productive.

I'll be picking up two more nucs early next week. One to replace my lost hive and the other to get my friend's hive set up. Potentially, each colony can produce 20 gallons of honey! Lot's of time to go before I can harvest honey. I need to spend some money getting equipment for honey but so much of it can be reused year after year. I learned about how commercial beekeepers make their money, mostly from the almond crop in CA. They also move their bees around in the region pollinating pears, cheeries, carrot seed, blueberries and melons. They get paid a flat rate for each hive to pollinate a crop. Almonds pay more than any other crop. I don't know where I'm heading with this hobby, but it sure is fun to learn so much.

Misc:

I'm in early stages of conversations with my farmer friend about starting a large scale composting business. She's crazy busy already and if this happens, it'll be next year but it's cool to think and day dream about. I'm slowly working on productive hobbies that can translate into moving away from a W-2 job. Coffee, candles, honey and compost!

shaz
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Re: mooretrees journal

Post by shaz »

It sounds like you have been very busy and I'm sure it can be overwhelming, but you are making such good progress toward your goals. Way to go!

It is fun reading about your foray into beekeeping.

theanimal
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Re: mooretrees journal

Post by theanimal »

mooretrees wrote:
Thu Apr 28, 2022 8:52 am
I'm slowly working on productive hobbies that can translate into moving away from a W-2 job. Coffee, candles, honey and compost!
That'd be quite a life! Here's hoping it works out. I think the composting idea would be a lot of fun. I've always been inspired by @Pedal2Pedal's compost business. DW and I have talked about doing something similar here. There's no compost available on a large scale and hardly any soil.

You may have already seen it but I enjoyed watching the documentary " The Pollinators" recently. They cover the state of bees (both managed and wild) in the country and follow around some of the managed hives that travel across the country from the almond fields in CA to apples in the east to berries in Michigan and then for assorted produce in the south.

mooretrees
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Re: mooretrees journal

Post by mooretrees »

@the animal, I finally watched the Pollinators, wow that was good.

Big news is that our house hasn't sold yet. This whole process of selling has been illuminating. Real estate is a very fluid field. I've been stressing over the house not selling. It seemed like it was priced appropriately to my naive eyes. Another house that was the same price but 'nicer' inside sold within a day of listing. I think we'll lower the price next week and I've started thinking of turning it into two rentals if it takes too much longer to sell.

The Bunker;
We've sorta settled into the new apartment. Yesterday had a rough start as I got anxious about the house, but then we ended up walking to the trailhead nearby and hiking for two hours. The wildflowers are popping and it really turned my mood around. Then a friend came over and we did another shorter hike. We power cleaned the place and ate outside. The guys played with a bow and arrow DH got from an old neighbor and I read outside. We hardly spent time inside, and had fun goofing off outside. This is why people live in rural areas.

Our place is in the basement. It is pretty dark and has a distinct cabin feel. There is a stairwell connecting the house and apartment. They installed a door between the two places. They let us use their washing machine and as DS is still wetting the bed at night, that is a huge bonus. I couldn't decide if i should go through their front door (knocking of course) or wander up through the shared stairwell when I want to visit. When I asked them (our friends upstairs) about which door to use, they laughed and said come up through the house. This situation is really cool for us, I hope for them too. It's separate enough that we're not in each others spaces too much, but we get these quick social situations and impromptu dinners that really are lovely.

I biked to work twice last week. It's a bit more than four miles but a significant elevation gain in a short time frame. The bike to work was more stressful than the bike home as I'm really not comfortable with riding downhill on loose gravel. The gravel bike I was hoping to have is going to take some time to build so I coopted DH's touring Surly. I felt the back tire slip a few times on the really steep downhills, that was scary. I had to remind myself to breath and relax my braking hand. The ride home was fine on the road portion, but then the climb back to the apartment TOOK FOREVER. I took a bunch of breaks, and then finally ended up pushing the bike up the hill. I will absolutely get into shape if I continue biking to work. DH ordered better tires for gravel as that really is the most stressful part for me.

Stuff:
I thought I'd done a good job limiting stuff in the bunker, but nope. It's too cluttered in here and as soon as I have the energy, more purging needs to happen. We still don't have a storage unit and I'm trying to wait as long as I can before we drop (waste) that money.

Stress:
I haven't moved in six or so years and never sold a house before. Yesterday I went into a full panic about our living situation, the house, money.......I didn't calm down until we'd been hiking for an hour. The stress of selling the house, or rather, not selling the house, trying to settle into a new place, well, it all made me feel disconnected from reality. At the beginning of our hike, I kept running through my senses, trying to root myself in the present moment. Because I was spinning into my head and it wasn't good. I feel more settled now, but also like I need to keep myself doing things that will help me. Eat well, go to bed early, be outside a lot, hang with friends/DH, and accept my emotions. Before we listed the house, I'd stopped working out due to the amount of work we were doing and I also got sick. We were eating crap, just quick meals and some take out. Then we went on a huge road trip and came back to a new place with no established routines or even where we put our cups. I am back to working out, now bike commuting too, eating better and slowly settling in to our new place. I feel that I have better strategies for moving through stressful situations than I did a few years ago.

School bus:
While on our road trip we met a skoolie family. We stopped at Craters of the Moon in Idaho, a spot full of cool geology that we'd been wanting to visit for years. As we were getting ready to leave, we spotted a skoolie similar to ours. We knocked on their door and spent a lovely hour or more talking with them. They've been living in it for about six months with their five year old. The boys played together and the adults talked skoolie living. It was energizing and super cool to see their place and talk about their transition to the bus. We drove away so excited to get into our bus!

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mountainFrugal
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Re: mooretrees journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

There is a lot going on! I am really glad you got to meet some skoolie folks at a similar life stage. Bummer on the house, but the market is cooling a little for these rural towns with rising interest rates and so days on market might be trending towards average. The house that sold in days may have had acquaintances already familiar with the house (as one explanation) so hang in there.

One way to practice on really loose riding substrate is to ride progressively faster into a sand volley ball court. Your wheels are sure to slide out, but you can practice staying loose and let the bike snake through for increasingly longer distances. If you tense up (natural thing to do) you will not make it as far. If you are loose, hovering just out of the saddle and looking ahead 15 feet to the edge of the court your momentum will keep you moving forward. By focusing on a points out in front of you instead of just below you, your visual system will have a more stable point of reference to lock onto and help your contact points on the bike to over-correct less.

mooretrees
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Re: mooretrees journal

Post by mooretrees »

mountainFrugal wrote:
Tue May 24, 2022 11:02 am
If you are loose, hovering just out of the saddle and looking ahead 15 feet to the edge of the court your momentum will keep you moving forward. By focusing on a points out in front of you instead of just below you, your visual system will have a more stable point of reference to lock onto and help your contact points on the bike to over-correct less.
looseness is key and hard to remember in the moment. But, I am aware of it and I think focusing further ahead is probably key to not freak out.

Now where to find a sand volleyball court???

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Re: mooretrees journal

Post by AxelHeyst »

mooretrees wrote:
Tue May 24, 2022 7:27 pm
looseness is key and hard to remember in the moment. But, I am aware of it and I think focusing further ahead is probably key to not freak out.
This isn't terrible *life* advice, imo .. :D

mooretrees
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Post by mooretrees »

Ha ha, too right AH.

Got an offer for the house, 35 k below listing price. That's a far cry from the bidding wars I was secretly hoping for! We might make a counter offer but we're not accepting this offer. We have to decide how long to let the house be on the market before we choose a different path. I am still not that interested in renting, but I will pursue it if it looks like there isn't interest in our place. One of the reasons I didn't want to rent is that I'd still need my job. But work is good now, so I'll be staying there even if we sell the house.

mooretrees
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Post by mooretrees »

House:
We lowered the price on the house 10k. It seemed to generate showings, but no offers yet. If I avoid thinking about it, I'm okay, but I can ruminate too much and spike my anxiety. I think I'll contact a local rental agency and start investigating that avenue. I want to make a rational decision about the house, and that should include researching renting it for a year or two. Selling our house won't change our financial reality a huge amount, we'll likely have a nice cushion of $50k, but won't retire because of it. So, renting the house could be a nice way to generate some income, especially if we bite the bullet and spend some money and turn it into two rentals.

Health:
I've been continuing to bike to work two days a week. DH put on better gravel tires and that made such a huge difference. I'm not as scared biking down the hill now. I think of @MountainFrugal's advice to breath and look 15 ft ahead every time I ride. So helpful! My return trip is still hard and slow. I am starting to see some slight increase in muscle definition in my quads so that's cool. Both DH and I are more active since moving to this woodsy location. It's so easy to just pop out and go for a short trail run/hike/bike ride. I'm tracking health and fitness activities and they're stacking up.
I'm taking a break from coffee. It's been a regular habit/obsession for twenty plus years now. This spring coffee started making my stomach hurt and it became too painful to ignore. I tapered off for two days and had a few days of headaches and general low level stupidity before it cleared up. I'm drinking loose black tea and it is nice. I'm not swearing off coffee forever, but that discomfort was not worth drinking it.

Bunker:
We're getting a routine to living here. DH wrapped up his mushroom growing operation and moved it out of the living room. That opened up a lot of space and makes it feel more open and less cluttered. We've gotten rid of only one bag of stuff since we moved in so I need to keep working on that.

Money:
I don't write about money all that much in this journal and rarely post numbers. I've been part time at work for over a year and it's been wonderful. However, it does feel like we're treading water with money and savings. I pulled money out of our HSA as we're close to depleting our savings with two rents and this and that, my worry about money was creeping up. I feel a little embarrassed to say that in this community, but I also know that this is temporary. With the bus in the near future, that treading water should change. We'll have rent be the lowest in ten years at $200/month and we should be able to easily save more than half my income. I might actually start posting money numbers at that point!
I have a big work project coming up so I'll actually be working a little bit more than normal which I'm cool with. I got a cost of living raise that was higher than normal, so my income is higher now too. Last year my income was about $1000 below the amount to be taxed at 10%, but that seems unlikely to happen again this year.

Overall, the day to day of life is good. Taking care of a much smaller home and much reduced possessions is starting to feel more manageable. I've historically been pretty blase about taking care of my things. Now, after spending so much time getting rid of stuff and paring down to things I like or need, I feel more energy to actually take care of stuff.

mooretrees
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Re: mooretrees journal

Post by mooretrees »

House is pending. We got another low offer, countered 10k higher and they accepted. It's a cash buyer which should make things easier if everything in the inspection is good. Closing date is July 11. I am cautiously happy.

It took a few days after the counter offer was accepted to start feeling the deep relief of getting rid of this house. I don't know how things will play out for us in the future with owning another brick and mortar place, but for now I'm really relishing the freedom I'm starting to sense is right around the corner. I'm one step closer to moving away from the middle class debt ridden dream. This all was cemented when I popped over to visit a friend and heard her talking about taking two days to fill nail holes on the outside of their house before they painted. I never wanted to do any of the maintenance or improvement of the house, but was always aware that it was there. And now I realize that was a low level stress on me. One I'm happy to shed.

Bus:

DH is back at it! It's been a long time away from the bus with prepping the house, some travels, and an achy back. He's still getting organized as it's a brand new work zone and we'd filled the bus with much of the flooring, ceiling and other misc wood that will be used. The recent crazy rains have shown more spots that aren't water tight, so once a series of dry days come, he'll be up on the roof trying to fix that. We're scaling back what we 'need' to live in as we want to be in the bus by late August. The master bedroom is 95% finished and a rudimentary kitchen is complete. I want a bathroom, flooring and a water tight ceiling with insulation. I don't think the bus is too far from that, but it does mean that our kiddo might be sleeping with us for a bit.

My latest daydream with the bus is that we take off with it to San Diego (take two as this last Jan didn't work out) for six weeks and revel in the warm weather by getting beach time, biking and possibly a side trip to Mexico? I'm enjoying this day dream. With school in the mix now, I'm not sure how that will go, but I'm okay with pulling him out of school in theory right now.

mooretrees
Posts: 762
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2019 1:21 pm

Re: mooretrees journal

Post by mooretrees »

House:
Cash buyer withdrew their offer after the inspection, they got spooked about some foundation issues. A different buyer jumped in and isn't concerned with the foundation stuff. He wanted a sewer scope which looked good. Only issues that could derail the sale at this point are the appraisal and his financing. I think he's preapproved for financing and I hope to hear about the appraisal today. We'll be selling it for $205 and likely to see a profit between $50-60 k. We'll finally be at the so called starting line for ERE! Closing date is July 29. If it all works out we'll have paid double rent for three months. I will decide if it was worth it when the money is in the bank, which of course will be a moot point.

Health:
Started interviewing therapists. There's some stuff I don't write about in this journal that I really want someone to help me with. I'm nervous about doing therapy again, but it's a good nervous. I want to work on stuff and haven't been able to on my own. Hopefully I'll find a good person. Physically, I'm doing well. I've doubled my reps of kettlebell swings up to two hundred a session. Biking and running are going well, and my legs are getting stronger and more muscular.

Our local bike shops sponsor Monday night short track mtn bike races. They have a strider bike category. We've gone twice and DS has fun riding and then playing in the woods while the adults/adolescents race. DH raced last week too. He did two races, first one had two laps and the second had four laps. He was beat, but happy. It's a fantastic environment, chill and fun. DS is making progress on his pedal bike and I can see him eventually becoming a mtn biker. He hasn't displayed any native competitiveness and didn't care that he won his first race and lost the second week. Probably he takes after his dad as I can be a little competitive.

Transportation:
DH and I played around with using some of the sale of house money to get a hybrid car. I won't have a car loan again, and once we move to the school bus, my commute to work will be around 16 miles one way. It's mostly flat on a busy road, so while the weather is good, I'll bike one day a week. My friend was badgering her husband to start carpooling with me once we live near each other so that could be an option. The last option is getting my motorcycle endorsement. I definitely want to do that this summer. We have the motorcycle and all the gear I need and a dream to ride to Alaska. I'm the weak link in that daydream, so I need to start getting ready for that trip. I am nervous about learning to ride, but think it will eventually be awesome. As far as buying an hybrid to replace our aging car, well, it doesn't feel great to think about dropping $20k on a car when we could do a better job using the motorcycles and eventual side car. So, we'll pursue that option and see how it goes for us. DH has dreams of building a side car, but I'm tired of his building projects, so I'm going to push to buy a side car.

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