Shaz's journal

Where are you and where are you going?
shaz
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

Getting rid of comic books responsibly is way way way more work than I want to put into it. Many years ago I owned half of a comic book store. I had no interest in comics; I was involved in the business to help out a friend. When he bought me out, I accepted part of the payout in the form of old/rare comics because I wanted to leave my friend in good shape financially. Now I am stuck with the comics. I have given away the low-dollar-value ones but still have 2 short boxes worth of ones that have a higher book value. Ugh.

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Lemur
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by Lemur »

Umm...Could try listing them 1 by 1 on Ebay.

Or try to bulk sale them with a discount if all the comics are in a related brand/category.

And then list to https://www.reddit.com/r/comicswap/

Ebay makes it a bit easy. A few years ago, I sold a bunch of books this way by typing in the ISBN number and a listing would automatically be created with a picture and everything.

shaz
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

@Lemur thanks for the suggestions. I suspect ebay will end up being my best option but it is a huge nuisance because I have to look up info on each book, take photos, make a guess at grading them, etc. I might take the priciest ones to an auction house because there are a number of them that were valued at thousands of $ each 20+ years ago. Plus shipping is a pain because you have to use special packaging to ensure the corners and edges don't get damaged at all. I shouldn't be so whiney about it because it is potentially money in my pocket.

Married2aSwabian
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by Married2aSwabian »

shaz wrote:
Thu Jan 20, 2022 1:26 am
Why did you sell your farm?
We’ll, that’s a really, really good question, Shaz. Sometimes we still regret it. It was in a rural area with limited jobs in my field. The major employer that brought us there in the first place in mid 90s started moving everything to Mexico and China in early 2000s. Work from home wasn’t a thing at that time and I had yet to discover ERE or FIRE. Sometimes, I felt overwhelmed by working a full time job + keeping up the small farm. I’ve been the primary income earner for our small family, and by 2011 the economy in that area still hadn’t rebounded very well. I had a decent job, but in a different industry. When a good opportunity came along to work in Germany again for a high-tech machine builder not too far from Stuttgart, we decided to do it. We sold everything and moved to Germany in 5 weeks. Five weeks - crazy!

It did allow us to be close to DW’s family for those 2 years (her mom died in 2013), our daughter became fluent in German and I gained great experience again in automotive industry, so it was worth it.

shaz
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

@Married2aSwabian the move to Germany sounds like an exciting adventure and worthwhile in a number of different ways. In addition to the things you mentioned, I would guess making a big move in a hurry helped you understand which of your possessions are vital and which are excess baggage.

You are right that trying to maintain a farm while you are employed full-time somewhere else is difficult. I used to try to do more on our acreage but I found I had to scale back. Right now a vegetable garden seems like too much but I think once I retire I will want a large garden again. Right now I am just using composting to improve the soil because that is something I can do just when I have time and energy and ignore when I don't.

shaz
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

I picked an approximate date to retire and have a plan to get DH and I there; I have made the spreadsheet and crunched the numbers and there is every reason to think we will be fine financially. In fact, we would probably be fine if we both quit our jobs today. But even so I feel anxiety when I think about giving up my paycheck.

I have all the usual fears: what if I need to return to work and can't ever get another job as good as this one; what if something catastrophic happens and I need more money; what if out of control inflation eats my stash.

I think I need to figure out how to change my emotional relationship to money. I experienced a lot of income insecurity during some parts of my childhood and was taught that I would find myself trapped in an abusive and hopeless situation if I didn't have a secure income as an adult. So I spent my entire childhood working toward that secure income. It is hard to let go of that idea now, even though I am a grown ass woman and should be able to use rational thought.

shaz
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

I am feeling very dissatisfied at work lately. It is difficult to keep reminding myself why I am waiting until 2023 to retire.

shaz
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

January 2022 Update

Financial Overview

Mortgage (PITI) 35.8% of total expenses
Horses 13.8%
Vehicles 13.7%
Groceries 6.3%
Cats 5.2%
Utilities 4.8%
Gas 4%
Clothing 3.7%
Communications 2.7%

Debts = $102k remaining on the mortgage

Savings rate = 53.8%*
*Does not include pre-tax savings. DH and I both max out our 401(k)s and I max out my HSA contribution. DH does not have the option for an HSA.

Months to planned retirement - 23

Expenses Narrative

Mortgage—This is the same every month. I also am making additional payments on the principal (which I don’t include in this category) and intend to have the mortgage paid off by the end of 2023 (earliest contemplated retirement date).

The mortgage % for this month was almost the same as last month which means overall expenses were about the same even though there were different intermittent expenses (insurance for the truck, 5 months of meds for the horse, 4 months of special food for the elderly cat). I have noticed that this is generally true - our monthly expenses are pretty constant. It seems I came up with a system for spreading out intermittent expenses without realizing I was doing it.

Horses—I bought 5 months’ worth of meds for my horse. He went on old age meds last spring. I don’t like spending the money but it is worth it to me to see him have good quality of life. I don’t have a clear exit strategy once he gets too old to ride out on trails. For now my plan is to keep him sound for riding for as long as possible.

Vehicles—It’s interesting to me that vehicles and horses cost me nearly the same amount every year. If I didn’t have horses, I wouldn’t need vehicles so in a way it is all horse expense. My main motivator when I was young was to acquire enough money to have horses and my own barn to keep them in. I bought my first horse when I was 15 and supported him by working in a stable after school and on weekends. I was VERY MOTIVATED to accumulate money until I got my first house and property with a barn where I could keep horses. After that I relaxed. Working in a show stable taught me that I didn’t want to compete in equestrian events. It’s probably a good thing, because not competing and focusing on trail riding kept the horse-related expenses down. Aside from basic feed and care, my main horse-related expense is vehicles. There’s the truck and trailer to haul the horses (and hay), and also a car for commuting from our rural home. Before we bought the rural property, we lived in a condo in town on a bus line and I only used a car on weekends to get to where I boarded my horse.

Groceries—This month was the lowest since I started tracking expenses closely. I'm not sure what we did differently. DH and I did have a conversation about wanting to cut down what we spend on groceries but didn't make any specific plans. Maybe just being more aware made it happen.

Clothing—I bought some softshell tights. I thought I needed them for outdoor activities during cold weather but now I haven’t used them as much as I thought I would. Regret sets in. DH bought a wool face mask. He battles skin cancer and covers up entirely when he does outdoor activities, so it is definitely something he is using a lot.

Other Areas for Improvement

Health and Fitness—I trained in the gym as many days as possible without driving into town on days I was not planning to be at the office anyway. It was frustrating because the gym was closed unexpectedly a couple of times. My deadlift and back squat continue to improve although nowhere near what I was doing prior to getting sick.

I rode my bicycle a few times. I hate riding in the cold so this was good for January.

I was so sick at this time last year that even being able to walk for more than a few yards without stopping to catch my breath is an improvement. I get frustrated at how weak I am and have to constantly remind myself how much better I am than this time last year. I want to push for faster improvement but I know slow but steady is much wiser.

Social—This area definitely needs improvement. Most of my social life revolves around horses and decreases during the winter at the best of times. The pandemic plus being sick reduced all of my socializing almost to 0 and I haven't made the effort to rebuild it. In an effort to be more social, we had dinner at home with some friends and visited the art museum on a free day with another friend. I felt good about both.

ERE projects—I sewed new buttons on a shirt for DH and did various other mending tasks for myself. It's nice to have that done. I put off mending because it is difficult threading the needle. DH looked online and found needles that are designed such that threading isn't a problem. He ordered some before he told me about it. Now I don't know if the mending was actually ERE as it led to unneeded purchasing.

We set up a workout space in the basement with equipment we have on hand. I hope we actually use the space.

DH helped repair my rice cooker. The rice cooker is one of the few kitchen appliances that I have retained through many moves because it is so useful. I use it nearly every day for rice, oats, quinoa, etc. The handle on the top of the lid broke off which made it very difficult to remove the lid while it was hot (hello blistered fingertips). Gluing the handle back on failed but DH found a … thing … in the garage that could be attached and works nicely.

We did a few other minor repairs that I can't specifically recall. Winter months are good for small indoor projects.

I patched the walls and sanded the trim and then repainted my home office with leftover paint we had in the basement. It looks much nicer now, less beat up. Our house went through some hard times before we bought it and we have slowly been fixing it up.

Financial—After I did my taxes last year, I was horrified by the amount we pay in taxes and immediately increased our 401k contributions to max. This has cut into the amount we can pay toward the mortgage. As long as there aren't too many unexpected expenses we should still be able to pay off the mortgage by the end of 2023. I have enough in my investment account to pay off the mortgage but I would rather not do it that way.

I've been helping DH move his money to options with lower fees. Annoyingly, it has involved some additional one-time fees. It is rather appalling how much money gets skimmed out of retirement accounts.

An interesting thing I learned this month is that DH doesn’t look at prices when he buys things, and never considers shipping costs. I first noticed this with a clothing item but have since observed it with other things like coffee and groceries and work on the car. He spends money and has no idea how much he has spent. I think I was probably like that before I started tracking expenses very closely but now it is disconcerting observing it in action. I’m not really sure how to get him to be more cost-aware. I have to let him do most of our necessary shopping because he seems to have a minimum threshold of shopping he HAS TO DO every week. If he doesn’t shop for our necessities such as groceries, then he will go online and order things from Amazon. His mom and sister are very much like this too. They constantly shop and then don’t know what to do with all the things they have bought so they foist them on us. Every time we see them, they insist on giving us bags of stuff. I think the family normative cues about shopping will make it very difficult to change his behavior. Plus trying to change a spouse’s behavior is always risky so I will have to proceed with care.

Reducing—I sold some books at a used book store.

We donated most of DH's ties and some extra shoes to a charity that provides business wear to needy people. At first DH thought my reducing was crazy but now he has decided he can get rid of some things.

The comic books continue to be difficult to reduce responsibly. I have made a spreadsheet and am looking up and recording useful information about each. I was hoping to avoid having to research them but it is going fairly quickly now that I am doing it. I just don't like having to think about comics. I never should have accepted my friend's proposal that I take part of the buyout in inventory. I had already gotten back my original investment plus reasonable growth and didn't care about more. I also feel a lot of regret about the handful of books that I actually bought. I used to get bored working shows and I would go on a search for a particular book just to stave off boredom.

Comic books that have a theoretical value of less than $20 per book I will try to sell very cheaply in bundles through Facebook Marketplace. Ones that have a theoretical value of $20 - $200 I will first try to sell at a local comic book store. If that doesn't work I will try eBay. I don't know yet what I will do with the higher $ ones. Maybe I just need to get over the idea that any of them are worth anything and give them all away.

Goals for Next Month
  • Identify grocery budget-busters.
  • Write out some possible daily schedules for after retirement.
  • Walk at least 4 days per week.
Our grocery bill is too high but I am not sure why. The goal for this month is to identify the expensive items and then figure out alternatives. I already cook most meals from scratch, produce is mostly in-season from local farms, and we eat very little meat. This should be interesting.

DH shared that one of his fears about retiring is that he will miss the way work structures his time. Also that it will be too easy to get in a habit of playing video games too much. So we agreed to write down some schedules for our days/weeks.

I realized that I have dropped my habit of walking every day so I will start rebuilding it. During the summer I am so busy horseback riding/paddleboarding/bike riding that the walking gets forgotten. I need to get better about resuming it in the fall.

shaz
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

I feel like I am in limbo: waiting for my retirement date, waiting to start the next phase of life, waiting to see if the cancer is gone, waiting for winter to end, waiting for my hair to grow back to a reasonable length. There's very little I can do to speed up any of those things and it is maddening. I could move up the retirement date but that would just give me more time to fret about the really scary item in the list.

7Wannabe5
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

Best wishes on your medical news. If your husband likes to shop, you might want to ask him to deal with your comic book sales. It has been my experience that shopping and selling often fill the same "need" for many people, which might be generalized to a desire to engage in trade with other humans.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

Sending good vibes your way on remission. I was thinking that your horses need an apple or two just because. They might not know the suggestion was from the internet, but they will appreciate them all the same. :)

shaz
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

@7wannabe5 thanks for the good wishes and also the suggestion to see if DH wants to sell the comic books. Up to now, he has done most of the buying of all things and I have done most of the selling. If it turns out he likes to sell it would not only help deal with the comic books but also would nicely close the loop on much consumption.

@mountainFrugal I'm sure the horses will appreciate the treats.

shaz
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

February 2022 Update

Financial Overview

Mortgage - PITI 39.7% of total expenses
Groceries 12.9%
Cats 11.3%
Utilities 8.7%
Horses 6.4%
Communications 6.3%
Gas 6.1%
Vehicles 2.3%
Entertainment 1.5%

Debts = $98k remaining on the mortgage. Finally got it below $100k! That feels like something to celebrate.

Savings rate =69.4%*
*I added in pre-tax savings for a more accurate picture.

Months to planned retirement—22

Expenses Narrative

Mortgage—This is the same every month. I also am making additional payments on the principal (which I don’t include in this category) and intend to have the mortgage paid off by the end of 2023 (earliest contemplated retirement date).

Groceries—Resisted the urge to buy markdown chocolate the day after Valentine's Day. Replenished some of the bulk staples we keep on hand. Plan to increase stocks of staples in March due to risk that WWIII has begun.

My best source for bulk foods is in an inconvenient location. I need to figure out how to get there without a lot of extra driving or find a more convenient if also more expensive source.

Cats—Annual checkup and vaccinations. Next month it will be horses.

Other Areas for Improvement

Health and Fitness—Trained in the gym at every opportunity. Rode bicycle every day I was home and the temperature was over 50 degrees.

Had a medical scare that threw me into a high stress state but the biopsy eventually came back negative so all is good again.

I am struggling with some of the long-term effects of chemo and radiation. Ironically they are worse after I do any kind of exercise even though over time exercise should help mitigate them. It is a frustrating back and forth struggle.

I walked all but 1 day when I wussed out due to weather.

ERE projects—Finished all deferred mending, the new sewing needles are well worth the small cost to obtain them.

The garlic and green onions finally started to grow and are coming in strong.

No other projects this month; all of the indoor things are in good repair, I don’t need anything new, and it is too cold for outdoor projects.

Reducing—Sold some small kitchen items. DH has no interest in selling the comic books for me and I have failed to find motivation to walk into a comic book shop.

Financial—Successfully moved some retirement account money from an institution with very high fees to a Vanguard account. This was ridiculously difficult and took almost 2 months and hours on the phone. The timing worked out well because we liquidated equities in order to move the funds prior to the stock market declines in January and February, and will be buying back in this week.

Goals for Next Month

I am still struggling to figure out why the grocery bills are so high. $500 per month for 2 people is pretty typical for us. I should be able to get it lower.

DH and I wrote down some plans for what we will do in retirement. Next month we will write sample daily and weekly schedules.

Not sure of other goals yet.

Overall February was not a very productive month. February is generally my least favorite month of the year because too much winter and I tend to want to hide under the covers in bed. One of the reasons I want to move into a living quarters horse trailer and travel full-time with the horses is to have the option to get away from so much winter.

shaz
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

March 2022 Update

Financial Overview


Mortgage - PITI 33% of total expenses
Groceries 19.7%
Horses 7.3%
Gas 7.1%
Utilities 5.9%
Cats 5.8%
Household 4.6%
Personal Care 4.3%
Communications 2.5%


Debts = $95k remaining on the mortgage

Savings rate = 63.6%*
*Does not include my HSA.

Months to planned retirement - 21

Expenses Narrative

Mortgage—This is the same every month. I also am making additional payments on the principal (which I don’t include in this category) and intend to have the mortgage paid off by the end of 2023 (earliest contemplated retirement date).

Groceries—I found a good source for bulk organic foods so stocked up. We also stocked up on some basics at Costco. Groceries should be less expensive for the next few months.

Cats and Horses—We are getting the added expenses due to aging animals (senior/special needs food and medications) down about as low as I think it will be for the remainder of their lives. There will be some month-to-month variability because I am trying to stock up when I see sales. Aging pets are expensive. I wasn’t thinking about retirement 15 - 20 years ago when I adopted most of the animals.

Utilities—Our TTM energy usage has been dropping. I’m not sure if it is due to a warmer winter or the various changes we made to better insulate various things and eliminate vampires. Or something else I haven’t considered.

Personal Care—My hair is growing back in curly. I have no idea how to make it look tidy and professional. In desperation I bought some products for curly hair, but the reality is that my hair is going through an awkward growing-in stage and no products can fix that and I need to stop turning to consumer solutions. Stoicism and patience are my only real allies in this.

Other Areas for Improvement

Health and Fitness—The gym at work was closed all month. I haven’t been good about using the workout space we set up in the basement at home. I don’t find the basement to be inviting. DH has been really good about using it every day that he works from home so clearly I am just being whiney about it.

A side effect of the gym at work being closed is that I see no reason to be at the office instead of working from home. Commuting 2 days per week was acceptable when it meant I got to use the gym on those days but no gym, no value in commuting.

The snow and ice are clearing up so I have been able to do more riding at a trot. Posting a trot is more work than it looks like and I have had to build back up to it.

ERE projects—This isn’t exactly a project but I figured out how to use flat sheets instead of a fitted sheet as the bottom sheet on our bed. This let me replace a worn-out fitted sheet with one of the extra flat sheets that has accumulated over years of wearing through the bottom sheets faster.

The garlic and green onions are growing nicely indoors. I haven’t harvested any yet.

Goals for Next Month

I feel like most of our gains are small incremental ones at this point and am having difficulty setting specific goals.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

Are there off the horse exercises to get in shape for horse riding? In my fairly limited experience riding I always came away with delayed onset muscle soreness ~48 hours after a trail ride. It was usually from over compensating poor form with otherwise underused stabilizer muscles. HORSE-fit instead of CROSS-fit? ;)

shaz
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

There are exercises you can do to sort of prepare but nothing is quite the same. I do ride year round because even though I might be willing to painfully beat myself into shape, I'm not willing to do that to my horse.

It's interesting that strength and conditioning for equestrian sports is almost unknown. I had some coaches from the US Equestrian Team ask me about it and I could find very few published studies that are specific to equestrian sports. I had to point them to general s&c knowledge base.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

Sounds like an interesting retirement project to design such a program. It is an interesting problem because you might have physical fatigue on the human side that translates to poorer/less subtle touchpoint communication with the horse depending on riding style. This also depends on the temperament of the horse and training for how well they take to subtle cues of thigh pressure and other touch points (reigns, heels, etc.). I would think that if the human spent the time training (on or off the horse) to be as consistent as possible without fatiguing and not giving mixed signals it would lead to better overall riding communication.

shaz
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

What, are you trying to sabotage my retirement?

You are right that better off-horse s&c from the human should lead to better on-horse outcomes, and also should reduce the risk of injury. Of course the same holds true for pretty much any sport. There's lots of off-bike training you could do to improve your cycling performance. The difference is that a large amount of research has been done as to the best s&c training for cycling and almost none has been done for equestrian sports. Trying to do that research wouldn't be a retirement project so much as a second, more difficult and less-rewarding career.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

Fair enough. You do you of course!

shaz
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Re: Shaz's journal

Post by shaz »

I'm late with this update due to getting too involved in a project at work. I'm such a sucker for an interesting puzzle.

April 2022 Update

FINANCIAL OVERVIEW

Mortgage - PITI 31% of total expenses
Horses 13%
Vehicles 13%
Groceries 11%
Gas 7%
Utilities 6%
Communications 5%
Home Improvement 3%
Cats 1%
Eating Out 0%

Debts =$92k remaining on the mortgage

Savings rate = 64%

Months to planned retirement - 20

EXPENSES NARRATIVE

Mortgage—This is the same every month. I also am making additional payments on the principal (which I don’t include in this category) and intend to have the mortgage paid off by the end of 2023 (earliest contemplated retirement date).

Healthcare—I don’t track most healthcare expenses because they are too enmeshed with health insurance and employment. The expenses will be completely different once I am no longer employed, regardless of my health status at that time.

Horses—This should be the 2nd most expensive horse month of the year because we did annual vaccinations and dental work. The most expensive (barring health emergencies) will be when we buy hay for the year. Unfortunately, just like with the cats (and me?), as the horses age they need more expensive feed and supplements to stay healthy. I really need to retire so I can move to somewhere with better pasture. If I look at whether my money goes to the things that are important to me, I am fine with the horse-related expenses being such a high percentage of overall expenses. On the other hand, I would like to spend a lot less on vehicles and gas.

Utilities—Utilities are still too high but our energy usage is down about 30% since 2018 when I started tracking it. It looks like our efforts have had some effect.

OTHER AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT

Health and Fitness—The gym at the office reopened so I have resumed lifting weights 2 days per week. I just can't motivate myself to do any serious lifting at home. I gained a pound during the gym closure which is especially ominous given I certainly also lost muscle mass.

I have been doing a lot of mental health work trying to resolve some of my family issues that I previously dealt with by fleeing. One of the skills I am trying to develop is the ability to say to myself, "Oh that is just a story that person tells about the world. That doesn't have to be my story." This forum has helped me be more conscious of how many unquestioned assumptions I have carried from my childhood. My overwhelming memory of my childhood is of being stressed and scared all the time so learning to resist dysfunctional family patterns is important if I must have more contact with my family.

Reducing—Unloaded the first batch of comic books. Yay!

I keep thinking I have found new homes for all of our excess stuff and then I find little pockets of it that I don’t even see. Are these things invisible? No. Do they need to go away? Yes. Onward with the reducing.

Reducing sentimental items is going to become a pressing issue soon. I have bicycles that were custom built for me in the 1980s. I traveled around the world with them and put in countless hours on them (which actually I could count because training diaries) and even though I haven’t ridden them in years I can’t bring myself to get rid of them. They will never fit anyone else the way they fit me because they were built to my exact dimensions.

ERE projects—Started making flatbread and hummus - both are much yummier than store bought. I have been shifting to keeping a larger supply of a smaller variety of staples on hand and garbanzo beans, flour, olive oil, and lemon juice are some of the staples.

Replaced a bathroom sink and faucets because the circa-1984 originals had rusted through and were leaking. Thought about ERE and decided not to replace the perfectly functional if dated flooring while I was ripping things out of the bathroom although the temptation was great. I tried to get the new water lines from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore but nothing there was labeled well enough for me to feel confident about getting the right size so I gave up and got them from the big box store instead. I did get a piece of board the right size for repairing a fence while I was at the ReStore.

The green onions and garlic are growing nicely.

I have been mending all sorts of things using the fancy needles. Now I am considering minor alterations on a dress.

I started spreading the compost that was cooking over the winter and have found that it didn't break down as well as I expected. I think it was too dry and also I forgot to include horse manure. I will make more of an effort to ensure there is enough moisture in the pile going forward. In happier news, the horse manure pile composted quite nicely over the winter and is ready for spreading on the pasture.

GOALS FOR NEXT MONTH
  • Gym session 2x per week.
  • Begin making one more food that we normally buy prepared.
  • Expand my garden and start growing some culinary herbs.
  • Donate to the ReStore 3 boxes of tiles that the previous owners of our house left behind. I have been hanging on to them just in case we might want them if we add a bathroom in the basement but I need to just let go and know that if I do need tiles later I can always go to the ReStore and get some at very little cost.

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