Eh, forget the books...

 Because I honestly do NOT have time.

Between the Just Over Broke, the Shopify shop, I'm far too freaking busy. 

Granted, I'd MUCH prefer you just shop with me on my .com site, so I can make a good living that way with selling the coffee mugs, but the Just Over Broke pays the bills right now, and well, ya know, money is money. So please take a little time every week or so to check out the webstore and see what else I have added and do some shopping with me so I can get out of the Just Over Broke. 

I've moved everything from Etsy to the Shopify site, because the way Etsy has been going, Shopify is going to be cheaper overall. Yes, I know, there's more traffic at Etsy and I have to drive my own to Shopify, but there's all these pesky stupid things Etsy has been doing over the last couple of years that make me go, hmmmm, maybe I should look into Shopify after all and go with that. So the mug designs are all going up there. Pet lovers, get your groove on with some nifty mugs and travel tumblers and water bottoles and eventually even some sippy cups when I get that far. 

No, I won't be doing other things like clothes and tote bags and phone cases and etc. Too much work for what I'd get out of it. My niche is rather limited to some, but it's a good niche. With being able to limit myself to that, instead of a "Hey, let's do every design possible" approach, it's going to be a lot of great designs a lot faster. My goal is to get to where I can advertise in various animal show programs with a business card sized ad to draw traffic. Cheap but effective. There's also online shows, and those aren't that expensive, either.

Yes, the baby quilts, candles, handmade jewelry, and my knitting patterns are all going into the Shopify shop as well. Other than the knitting patterns, the other items will eventually sell out and disappear, leaving only instant PDF downloads of the patterns and POD drinkware. Passive income that means I can relax with the business instead of slogging at the plant.

I know ... I'm not much of a writer anymore, just things went so far south with the land and cabin thanks to the spousal unit (who I'm stuck with for another year until he's off probation, then I can encourage him to leave permanently), and it all just kind of killed me inside.

So the year is nearly gone, the election's over (and we'll have a freakin' imbecilic pedophile in office apparently - yes, I voted for Trump), COVID is still running rampant, and fall is thoroughly here.

I will say it's going to be a day for weather here, though. It's basically just after sunrise here, nearly full sunrise (the joys of second shift, you don't see sunsets, you see sunrises, and sleep all day), and there's rain expected in a few hours. From the look of the sky, it's going to be a downpour, because the skies are so gray that the sunlight is barely filtering through. Not seeing any pink or other pretty sunrise colors this morning.

I'm out of here. I still have to fix and eat my dinner and get a shower in for work tonight. Also, I need to do my best not to cry over the loss of my home...again. HE keeps saying that one day, we'll get back to it. No, we won't, at least not together. If I do it again, it will be on my own, and probably, sadly, on grid. At this point, I don't know if I can do any of it again. I'm just that thoroughly defeated, even after nearly three years.

Amazon goodies August 15, 2020

 I'm going to do my best to make a list of freebies and other things on Amazon that I like on a daily basis again. Just links for you to check out. Yes, they are affiliate links. Click and buy anything, and I make a tiny bit of money to help support me and the zoo crew.

I've recently rediscovered the fun of a good romance novel. Rom-coms are a favorite right now, though I still like my historical romances. As always, links open in a new window. These are three of my favorite romance authors:

Lucy Score

Nadia Lee

and my favorite of all time,

Johanna Lindsey

For those who like murder mysteries with some recipes thrown in, may I recommend Joanne Fluke and her Hannah Swenson mysteries? All of the recipes mentioned in her books are given, and all are delightfully fun to do and generally pretty easy to make.

And now for the homesteady-type books - food, crafts, and so forth! Remember, these are all Kindle books, free at the time of posting. They may not be free when you get to them. I'm not the author so I have no control over that. All I am doing is posting them for you to look at and decide if you want them or not.

Cauliflower Rice Recipes

Crochet Christmas Ornaments

Casserole Cookbook

Homesteading Food (Box Set)

Cake Cookbook

Superfoods Beans Recipes

Copycat Recipes

American Chinese Cuisine

Hash Brown Recipes

Vegetarian Recipes

35 Chicken Breast Recipes

Everyday Vegetarian Family Cookbook

Rose Gardening how to grow roses

Grow Roses Easily

Slow Cooker Comfort Foods

Complete Dehydrator Cookbook

EVERYTHING CHOCOLATE COOKBOOK

Hydroponics

Fermentation for Beginners

50 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT HOMESTEADING

Hearty, Healthy & Delicious Mexican Recipes

Easy To Knit Slippers

Mediterranean Cooking

The Frugal Life

DOWNSIZE to FREEDOM

Hydroponics (box set)

FLOWERS

Well, I'm doing a bit better, haha

 Things are still crazy around here. I took the day off work today through calling in. Just couldn't do it today on shorter than normal sleep. Ended up sleeping until basically break time. Needed the money, but needed the rest more, for certain.

I did finally get the complete move to Shopify done with all the apps added that I really want right now. I've even got a couple discounts set up, one automatic for bigger orders and one for Halloween (Halloweenie2020 for those interested, starts September 15th and runs through Halloween). The last will be for 10% off items in the Family Clothing category, so tees and such will be a little cheaper for all you pet lovers.

Me and the zoo crew are doing well. The spousal unit is doing, just he's being his usual self and I'm still looking forward to the day I can afford to bail. I could do it now if I was willing to leave the furkids behind but that is NOT an option. He'd starve and neglect the cats (he does nothing for them now) and he'd turn Bandit mean in a heartbeat the way he is, so she'd end up having to be put down for temperment problems. NOT happening to my beautiful babies.

Work is basically ok, I still am not happy there but it's a job. Not a lot else available that pays as well, unfortunately. The COVID thing isn't helping, either. People seem to think they can pay 2000 wages in 2020 and get decent help. Not this girl. I'd rather stick with the Just Over Broke instead of taking a massive pay cut and end up someone's general dogsbody just to get out of there.

The shop is moving along. I moved literally everything, including Mom's baby quilts, my candles, and my knitting patterns, over to the Shopify shop, even though they don't exactly fit the pet lovers gifts theme/nice. It's better there than paying Etsy 20c every four months for the stuff to sit. My handmade jewelry and the women's name jewelry is slowly going up there as well. New stuff every day, whether it's my POD stuff, or my candles and jewelry, or another knitting pattern or two. I've got some that I charted out ages ago for the 12 Days of Christmas that I really need to knit up samples for so I can shoot those and get the patterns written out and up for sale, too. It turns out I've been a pretty busy designer over the years. Over 800 dishcloth patterns, lol. Not to mention the baby outfits I threw together when the kids were little, or all the afghans I threw together because I just like making the things. There's going to be a LOT of $1 knitting patterns up for sale on the site eventually. Kind of going to make it a bit of a hodgepodge, but at least it brings in a bit of money now and then and is slowly growing.

So that's the basics for now. Be sure to visit the shop regular to see what's new! Link opens in a new window.

Homestead Crafter

REALLY seriously slacking!

 Yeah, yeah, I know. Some blogger I am these last couple years. With all that's gone on, I've gotten out of the habit of writing. So I'm a lot more intermittent than I probably should be.

I'm working on a number of things right now though.

One, I'm moving completely off of Etsy into a Shopify shop. I was trying out Etsy's Pattern for my own standalone site and things looked like they were working out great, until ... 

Until I discovered that my Print On Demand suppliers delete all my Pattern-only products because Etsy doesn't count them in the API returns for "live products" to the printers. So I've moved to Shopify. It's got some nice features I like and I can have all the categories I need instead of just 20, plus subcategories. So instead of just "Women's Clothing," I can have under that, "Women's Tees and Tanks," Women's Hoodies and Sweatshirts," and so on. It's slowly coming along. Even my patterns are moving over there, and yes, Shopify has an app for being able to sell digital downloads! So that means overall, I'll keep more of my money from sales, since it also costs me nothing to list an item in my shop, unlike with Etsy.

I'm back to working on a couple of my hobbies, which is fun again. I've missed them, but things have been so crazy, there's been no time. I'm also doing baking again, making time to make things instead of "I'll do it someday." A lot of the energy comes from work, or rather, lack of it. No, I'm not off due to COVID, I did something at work for me. I was a cutter on the lines, removing the meat off the chicken carcasses. It has been causing me arm and shoulder pain for a few months and I finally decided enough is enough. The extra $1.50 an hour wasn't worth it any more. I'll bring home around $100 a week less, but this was my first week off the lines, and for once, it's a Saturday afternoon and I don't hurt. It's pretty nice. One of the things I'm going to make this weekend is Joanna Fluke's Mystery Cookies. I found the recipe in one of her Hannah Swenson mysteries years ago. Mom made a batch because they just sounded so weird - who puts tomato soup in cookies??? Well, apparently Ms. Fluke does, and so Mom did, and they turned out great. They're like a soft ginger-spice raisin cookie when done and so yummy. I've been threatening folks to make a batch for a long time, so while I'm feeling so good, I'm making a batch tonight. Maybe chocolate chip, too.

I'm putting money back as much as I can, as fast as I can, to get out of the apartment and away from him. Don't get me wrong, folks, I do still love him dearly. But after everything he's put me through, I just can't enjoy being around him any more. So, since he won't leave, I will. And yes, I'm taking Bandit, Bouncer, and Stars with me. Last time he had Bouncer, the poor kitty nearly starved because he was so stupid over everything. Besides, he doesn't bother to help care for the zoo crew anyhow. Heck, most of the time, he doesn't bother doing much of anything around here, so I'm probably better off on my own anyhow.

At least he's working full-time, and it's days, so we don't see much of one another anymore, either. It's good, so we don't talk much or anything, so less disagreements between us. Less conflict is always good in my book, so the separating will be easier. Right now, it saves money to house share...so I can save up faster to get away.

Anyhow, time to get some more shop stuff done, and then I have to go get groceries and do laundry so I have tomorrow available for baking and fishing. Go me!

Still slacking, LMBO

I have to laugh. Things have been kind of crazy-weird around here lately, and the shop's kind of taken a bit of a back seat to everything I want and need to do. I'm getting back on track slowly, but it's a bit difficult to focus. I started losing mine a few weeks ago due to various things going on, but I'm getting back on track a little at a time, and that's a good thing.

So some of the nice things ongoing...

Work decided to start incentivizing our work. Another department has been getting incentives/bonuses for cutting weight and yield for years. Our plant boss finally decided to try it with us. Instead of telling us how important we are and how appreciated we are, only to yell at us for screwing something up, they decided to start giving us extra money if we meet certain goals. They weren't expecting it to work right off the bat. We hit the lowest level goal in the first week they did it, last week. So now they owe the department more money on our paychecks, haha. It's a three-tier bonus thing, so the better we do, the more extra money they give us.

The shop though...it's becoming so much fun. I've got the baby quilts and table runners in there, my handmade jewelry which I'm selling at clearance prices to get it out of the shop and into customer's hands, my candles which I absolutely LOVE doing, my knit dishcloth patterns, and Print On Demand for everything else. Everything else being drinkware of all kinds (mugs, camp mugs, magic mugs, black mugs, water bottles, tumblers, wine tumblers, beer steins, latte mugs, fancy coffee mugs, etc), Christmas ornaments, engraved and printed jewelry (including CUFFLINKS!), and pet products (bowls, bandanas, ID tags, beds, placemats, blankets, shirts). So there's going to be a LOT in there. I grant, the majority will probably eventually be pet products, because I can slap just about any pattern or design on those and have it look cute, but the rest are pet parent stuff and breed-specific stuff, going in the shop slowly but surely.

But for those interested in the knit patterns, as I do them, I'll post a link to their Etsy listing here and you can shop them there. They are only $1 each, and some will come in bundles that are more expensive but around half the cost of the patterns individually. For example, the numbers 0-9 will probably be a set for around $5, the alphabet will probably be a set around $10, and similar. In the meantime, here's the few I have up already.

Apple Dishcloth

Baby Feet Dishcloth

Dog Dishcloth

Three Crosses Dishcloth

I hope you enjoy them! They are so much fun to whip up into dishcloths or afghan squares, and so quick to make, too! When I have time, I can knit up 2 or 3 in a night of TV binging on Netflix. Speaking of which, it's time for a little relaxation before bed. Peace out, yo!

I'm slacking....

My only excuse is I'm busy with the shop and life in general, and keep forgetting.

Updates on various things.

HE had his January and February probation appointments, which were disappointing to him, to say the least. That he's barely looking for work at all is disappointing to me, but not good for him, as if he does not have a decent job by the 24th of this month, it's back to jail for him for a while. As he doesn't really try at all until he gets to the last coupe of weeks before appointments, is it any wonder he gets nowhere, along with the felonies he has? I love the man, but ... there's a part of me that hopes he ends up back in jail, and a part of me that hopes he gets a job and stays out. Depending on mood, his or mine, determines which way I lean.

Bandit was sick a couple weekends ago. Started out that Thursday with her just plain looking at her food bowl and sticking her nose to it, then backing off with a look that I can only describe as a human toddler going, "Just the smell makes me sick." She spent a few days drinking what water she could, and doing a lot of puking, but no eating. I tried to get with a vet, but none take payment plans but one, and that one, the person in charge of payments wasn't in until the next day. At that point, it was Monday, and she hadn't eaten anything solid for going on day 5. She was back to drinking lots of water by then, but still not eating, so I made up a horrible-smelling slurry of meat baby food (chicken), plain yogurt, baby oatmeal cereal, one raw egg, and chicken broth, all mixed together, then force fed her with an oral syringe for horses. One syringe full at a time, wait an hour to see if she kept it down, and then more. I had to call out on work that Monday because I'd been up for nearly 40 hours solid at that point. Natch, HE was no help with it. Bandit finally was sleeping some and drinking normally, plus keeping the protein/meat slurry down well, so I napped when she did. It took her a full week to start eating anything again, but within a couple days after that, this past weekend, she was back to normal.

Bouncing around, eating, drinking, puppy face washes when I get home from work, playing tug rope, chewing her bones, etc. The etc. including trying to hog the whole bed for herself. I did a lot of research at first and was worried it was about a zillion different things, but I was finally able to speak directly with the payments vet and they told me the slurry was a good idea to get liquids, semi solids, and high protein down her to get her gut working again. Bringing her in would just stress her out and she seemed past the worst of it, so likely it was just a horrible case of puppy gastroenteritis...stomach flu in common parlance. But she is well again and back to normal.

Work is about normal, just they installed some new machinery this past weekend to "help" us do our jobs better, but it is complicating things and people are getting sore hands a lot. Nobody is happy about it, but what can we do? Not a darn thing.

Only bad thing of late is my Mom. She texted me early this morning to tell me she'd been in the hospital since Saturday night. She called 911 to come get her because she didn't feel well and the emergency room diagnosed her with low potassium (which she's had before, oh joy), and a previously undiagnosed UTI which had spread to her stomach and blood. So, she's septic, and they're pouring mountains of antibiotics into her through IVs. Problem is, my daughter stays with her and is not there as she is out of town with friends closer to her job. So the animals have not been fed or watered for days that I know of, unless Brat got a ride home and took care of them. Mom doesn't know and it bothers her. So I have been working on making arrangements for her as best I can from four states away.

It broke my heart though, when Mom said, "You need to come home." Problem is, there's no job there, no place for me to stay (Brat has made Moms house a disaster zone, I think from what Mom has said over the last few years), and nobody and nothing there for me anymore but Mom. The economy isn't too good yet, and I just can't pack up and bail to go home with my responsibilities here and the furkids. When I moved down, I didn't have furkids to worry about. The only cats we had were Mom's one and Brat's two. I literally just packed everything I could into the car and hit the road. No can do that now. Plus I'm pretty sure my car wouldn't last the trip.

So my and my bestie here have hatched a plan. I need to get things organized financially to do it, seriously organized, I mean. I'll be looking for a 4-bedroom, 2 bath house with a back door near to the second bathroom and nearest two bedrooms. One of those bedrooms will stay a bedroom, the other will become a kitchenette and sitting area for Mom, and the hallway will get a door that locks on her side so she can have independence of a sort and privacy, yet still can just open a door and walk into my side to say hi or visit if she wants or needs anything.

She swears she is fine (this is about the fourth or fifth time she's been in hospital in about as many years, yeah right, she's fine) and she is NOT moving. She can't take care of the house herself anymore, and if my suspicions are correct, it's a disaster of Brat's making anyhow. She has trouble mowing the tiny yard and shoveling her short driveway, and Brat is literally no help at all if it's avoidable. She is 27 and still "at home," so in the next few years with luck and hard work, she'll have a choice of homeless or lose the freakin' zoo she was told not to accumulate to begin with and find someplace she can afford to live in. Mom's house will be sold, Mom will be moved down here (besting and her hubby have already said they'd go with to help move her and her things down here). Mom will have me and instant extra family that will love her in my bestie's family, and if something happens to her, there are two good hospitals nearby and a three good nursing homes if need be. My bestie works at one, and it's pretty decent. The residents there seem happy anyhow.

Plus being as close as I am to Branson, it means Mom and I could do shopping days to make her happy, even if all we do is get lunch somewhere and window shop like crazy. The hard part is going to be convincing her to pack up and move down, as she has been convinced for four decades that she was going to die at home, like my great-grandma did. I'm not so sure about that at this point. Mom needs help and the best way to help her is get her out of Michigan with it's horrible winters. I will always love my home state, but even I recognize the flaws there and how hard it is on an older person alone to stay there.

Granted, Mom's brother and one of her sisters are nearish to her, but they don't get together often and so nobody actually checks on Mom at all. I've wanted for a while to have her living with me, and it looks like once this mess with HIM is done with on the 24th, I'll be able to start doing something about getting it set up to where I can get Mom down here to live and be a bit more comfy, especially during the winter.

For now, I'm off to bed. I may be second shift, but my "morning" wake up call of 2PM still comes pretty darned early for me!

Been a bit!

I haven't written in a few weeks, I know. Between holidays and work being super-crazy and just a lot going on, it's been a bit insane.

The furkids are doing great. Bandit is hysterical. She loves stuffy and squeaky toys but destroys the heck out of them in no time flat, and then the house is a disaster with freaking stuffing all over the place for days. So this past week, I got her a smoked shin bone from Wally World. I don't normally like shopping there, but they carry her brand of pet food and she was out. I forgot to order some online in time, oops. She loved the thing, and when Stars and Bouncer just wanted a sniff, Bandit was quite protective of it. GRRRR. They backed off.

Of course, she antagonizes them daily, not a lot but trying to play. They lay on their backs and swat her. She knows to keep away when toe razors come out and smack her poor nose. Everybody but me is sleeping right now. It's kind of funny that they are all snoozing and here I am, pushing my way through a crap ton of stuff to do for the shop. I'm not making a ton of progress, but every inch helps.

Do please visit the PTR page and click all the links. Each click gets me a tiny bit of money to help keep things rolling around here. Most of it goes to help promote the business, so anything helps with that. Hey, free advertising, I'm all for it.

Merch By Amazon turned me down. I'll have to revisit that later and try again. I'm pretty sure I can get approved for just general selling and go from there. May have to do that and eventually go for a pro account so I can sell POD stuff from my various suppliers. One of them actually integrates with Amazon as long as you have a pro account, so that is a possibility for the future as well.

HE is still being an idiot. Can't find a job to save his butt, and gee, I wonder why? When you won't put down work history in an online app because it's too hard to copy and paste, and you put your spouse down as your only personal reference and note that it's your spouse, you aren't going to get phone calls about interviews unless someone is really, really desperate.

Business is starting to pick up a bit. I'm separating the Etsy stuff between candles, handmade jewelry and digital products on the Etsy side, and the pet lovers gifts and pet products into the Pattern side of things. The pattern site, being my own domain, is the part I'm promoting as much as I can even as I separate stuff. I'm letting Etsy do it's own thing on promoting my stuff on that side. I've actually sold a few digital things, too! A couple of graphics and a dishcloth pattern that is sort of popular - 2 sales and 3 people have it in their carts. So that's going okay to start. It will get better the more I get listed.

People at work think I'm nuts to work my business in addition to my job, but for me, it's a matter of getting the heck out of there before it kills me inside completely.

With that said, time for a nap. I'm beat to heck, I've got a new neighbor next door who's a bit bossy. He thinks he is going to tell me what I'm going to let him do in my place, he better think again. He wants to bomb all the apartments at his expense for bugs, which is fine. Except that a - my place can't be bombed because of my pets which he's all "OH, I'll just move them out for the day." and b - I'm highly sensitive to that crap and can't be around it. So, dude, 1 - no you are NOT trespassing on my place to bomb it, 2 - my pets are not getting moved out so you can invade my privacy and 3 - I'm ALLERGIC to that crap, so unless you're going to pay all my bills for a month while I recuperate in the hospital, I don't freaking think so. He's got an attitude that doesn't want to quit. I understand where he's coming from, but he is NOT going to run roughshod over me.

Q runs him to work every day because the guy doesn't have a car right now and he's my bestie's BF. The guy griped today in front of me that Q never lets him drive when they're together. I said that's because it's my car and me and Q are the only ones authorized to drive it. "Oh, I wouldn't hurt it or anything, I just want to do the driving." I literally said, "Not happening. It's my f**king car, b***h."
Boy has a LOT  to learn about not running roughshod over me, because it ain't happening.

Other than that, it's getting towards time for a bit of a nap. I feel the need for a bit more sleep.

It's chilly today!

But not too bad. Mostly wet with sprinkling rain and it's driving me nuts. HE is driving me crazy. The car broke down back on last Sunday, sort of. Didn't know quite what was wrong with it. Put a bunch of oil in but the light for low oil and the oil lamp wouldn't go off and stay there. HE had a one-day job Monday so I stayed up and took him to the meetup in town at the shop for his job, came home, and was ready for bed. But nope. Lights still on. Check the dipstick on a hot engine, as in so hot I had turned the car off less than two minutes before. Despite all the oil HE put in the day before, the dipstick was reading add oil. Oh, dear. So I called our landlord/the car lot guy I'm getting the car from and talked to him. By the time everything was said and done, I had to call out of work that night, or try to cut chicken on two hours sleep. Not happening. The car guy got me a loaner until they can come out to get mine and get it fixed. Been driving that all week. It's a nice car, but sheesh. I want mine back. Darn oil pump!

So ...

The rest of the week went pretty much as usual, but I decided early on that with all that Etsy has been pushing on us US sellers and those who sell into the US for that free shipping, and how bad my traffic has been since I opted in to see what happened, plus a review I got on a freakin' candle, I'm done. I'm moving to Shopify. I'll use their paused site plan until I can get everything moved over and edited and the rebrand done, which will take a few months, but worth it. I can leave Etsy rolling and let everything gradually expire there while I shift things. The import of my Etsy products went fine, but apparently, Etsy's export product thing doesn't work quite as well as it should, because it didn't export my SKUs, and half my products are missing completely. Really, Etsy??? The Pattern site will stay up until everything that is in Pattern only has been shifted and then it's poof, bye bye Pattern bill. With any luck, I'll have that done well before the Etsy only stuff has all expired as well.

With Shopify, there's a ton of apps I can install as well. My POD suppliers all integrate into Shopify, making creating new products and pushing the orders through to them for fulfillment rather easy. There's also an affiliate app that I'm setting up, so people can promote my products for me and make a little money if they get me any sales. AND there's a crap ton of shopping channels where I can push my products to, so they can show up and sell THERE. Several are completely free, including the Facebook page app to shift my shop to a page on my FB business page. And everything integrates with Shopify for tracking inventory and the whole shot. So that's going to be busy-making and kind of exciting. I'll still do free shipping with the cost rolled into the product prices, but there aren't a lot of people who buy a half a dozen items at once, which is where it would hurt them. Considering that all my POD suppliers have their own shipping costs and don't include them in their pricing that pushes to the shop, I either have to have a zillion different shipping profiles set up, OR I can include shipping costs in the final price and go from there. I'm taking the easy way out.

Oh, that review? A lady ordered one of my small candle tins off Etsy. Left me two stars because she expected it to be a SHAPED candle, even though the listing is titled as a candle tin, and the word tin is in the description several times. Size is mentioned, and she complained it was "tiny." Just how big do you think a candle that's described as 7/8 x 1 1/2 inches is going to BE, lady? Those were my thoughts. She never contacted me to ask if it was shaped or anything. So I ended up locking the thing in by rebutting her in a response, and so my basically perfect Etsy stars record is shot. Guess I'll never become a top Etsy seller then, because that's nuts.

I may keep Etsy going for just digital files, but that is up in the air right now. At least those, folks can't say they didn't get their order with instant download, and I wouldn't have to do refunds because that's against Etsy policy on digital products. Overall, though, Etsy and I are done.

Got chores done today barring putting up the laundry. I'll do that later if HE wakes up from his nap. He's been napping for about four hours. I'll make dinner in a couple hours for me, HE can eat if HE wakes up for it. Considering we have to be out of the house by 8AM or just after tomorrow (well, today, actually, looking at the time) for HIS revocation hearing on HIS probation, and who knows how long that will take, I probably won't get much done today. Tomorrow night will make up for it, though, because I used my last vacation day for tomorrow, since court could go all day.

HE hasn't been doing his probation requirements for fourteen months, mostly the job and thus, not paying on his fines, so HE's liable to go away for at least six months in county, if not straight out to prison for half or more of HIS thirteen-year original sentence. Fine with me. HE has been a complete butthead for months now, and come pretty close to me calling the cops and having HIM removed for yelling at me several times. Oh, did I mention that "no inappropriate contact" with me is part of HIS probation as well? It amounts to HE can't get drunk or high, since drugs were what got HIM into this mess, and HE can't get into fights with me, either. That apparently includes yelling. Oops. I'm going to HIS hearing because one, the car is mine, even if it's a loaner, and I don't want to have to try to fetch it out of impound or somethimg, and two, I've already let the prosector's office know I'll be there if they want to ask me anything. I'm not trying to send HIM to jail or prison, HE's doing a pretty good job of that on HIS own, but I'm not going to try to help keep him out of there anymore, either. So there's that in the morning to goodness only knows when in the afternoon.

HE thinks HE is just going to get a slap on the wrist and be sent home with a chewing out by the judge. If HE had a job, probably. No job, not too likely. HE lied to HIS public defender last week, too, "Oh, yeah, I've got a part-time job!" No, HE doesn't. HE had a job for ONE DAY. That does not bode well for him.

So anyhow, for now, I'm off to cuddle Stars, and then I have to get some serious work done on the shop some more. Go me?

I (well, the farm) won an award!

How do you like that? Bountiful Farm somehow won an award of "Best of Green Forest Awards" in the Farms category. Despite the fact that right now, the "farm" itself is a stagnant idea. Huh.

This is the press release that they did up automatically for me over it. The award itself (plaque and crystal award thing) is $230!!!!

Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Bountiful Farm Receives 2019 Best of Green Forest Award

Green Forest Award Program Honors the Achievement
GREEN FOREST December 1, 2019 -- Bountiful Farm has been selected for the 2019 Best of Green Forest Award in the Farms category by the Green Forest Award Program.
Each year, the Green Forest Award Program identifies companies that we believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and our community. These exceptional companies help make the Green Forest area a great place to live, work and play.
Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2019 Green Forest Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the Green Forest Award Program and data provided by third parties.

About Green Forest Award Program

The Green Forest Award Program is an annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Green Forest area. Recognition is given to those companies that have shown the ability to use their best practices and implemented programs to generate competitive advantages and long-term value.
The Green Forest Award Program was established to recognize the best of local businesses in our community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to recognize the small business community's contributions to the U.S. economy.
SOURCE: Green Forest Award Program

CONTACT:
Green Forest Award Program
Email: PublicRelations@award-selection2019.net
URL: http://www.award-selection2019.net

New week, long last week, new page

It's sort of the start of a new week, in about fifteen minutes, lol. The whole second shift thing really throws your life off kilter on time frame for when a day starts and ends. Officially, by the time I finish typing this post, it will be a new week. Unofficially, because my Saturday hasn't really ended for me, it will not start until I go to sleep and get up tomorrow.

Last week at the Just Over Broke was long. Nearly 47 hours again. But I had an interview for a lead job in another department I would really like to get. I'm one of only two, I think, people who put in for it, and I really, really want it. It would mean a minor schedule change, in that I'd start and end earlier, and a slight pay drop back to what I was making before the pay raise, so not really any different pay wise.

The shop is coming along. Nearly 500 products right now, and looking to hit that by the time I go to bed tomorrow night. I'm adding pretty much anything I can, because who knows what people will buy? It makes me not a niche shop but a general merchandise shop, though the only things I'll be making myself being the candles and the last of my handmade jewelry and mini ornaments. The great majority of products are Print On Demand, so I don't have to fuss with making anything. The candles are a lot of fun to make and take next to no time to do, but the handmade jewelry is getting time consuming. Once that stuff is sold out, I'm done making it. It's fun, but not that much fun. I can't scale up easily with it. I CAN with candles and POD products. Especially the POD products, because I don't have to make anything, just push the orders through to the supplier, pay them for the items in question, and then let them do the work and packing and shipping. Already sold a coffee mug this last week, so progress!

As to the "new page" bit, I'm getting back into something I did years ago for extra pocket change. Paid To Read Emails. Only thing is, I'm using the cash and points from them for advertising the shop instead of cashing out now, leading to more traffic. It takes time to do things in the programs, but not a ton, and if you limit yourself to a handful of programs, you can do pretty well for yourself. Check out the page in the top bar links!

As for HIM, he has court on the 16th, and I can only hope that he goes away. He's been really cranky lately and I'm tired of it all. Unfortunately, that may end up being a slap on the wrist for him, because his P.O. found someone who needs an extra pair of hands for building fences in their business. Nobody thinks he'll last because his record this past year has not been good. The last job of packing eggs lasted four days basically, and he quit/walked out/whatever you want to call it after his back gave out on him. Like my best friend says, and she has known him longer than I have, if he can't handle packing eggs, building fences is going to have him keeling over and face planting in the dirt. We shall see.

But for now, Bandit wants to play tug rope and I'm going to have a little fun getting my arms yanked out of my sockets. Talk to you next time!

Quiet Sunday

It's the weekend before Thanksgiving, and I'm sitting here, a bit sleepy yet, working on a few things before feeding the zoo crew and then back down for a bit more sleep. Working second shift pays better, but your sleep sure gets messed up, and for whatever reason, I couldn't get sleepy till 8AM, and I've been half-awake since half-past noon. So I really need more sleep so I can get into work tomorrow. Three days on, four-day weekend, and a slightly short check next week due to the holiday. At least I'll get four days on the clock, and hopefully enough hours to make a full check, but I won't hold my breath on it.

This last week alone was really crazy. Everything was going nuts at the plant, to where first shift got scheduled to work yesterday just to run totes by the end of their day on Tuesday. Then management decided to cut back on our trucks for Thursday and Friday, so we could run all of them. Still over 100 totes run on Friday. It sucked. Three-day old birds, despite being kept cold and near-frozen all that time, really don't smell that great. If I pulled meat out of my fridge that smelled like that, it would be getting fed to the dog. But considering all the dip tanks the stuff goes through before processing and packing to kill off any bacteria, it's okay once we're done with it. It's just, in the meantime, that stuff is kinda WHEW.

I'm getting quite a bit done on the shop, separating the Etsy stuff from the Pattern side. Etsy will hold my candles, the embroidered stuff, beads and charms, and all the digital files. The embroidered stuff and beads and charms will slowly disappear as they sell, and will not be relisted or anything, so that the Etsy side of the business eventually will be just the candles and digital products, which are knit and crochet patterns and graphics files. The Pattern side, which is my top-level domain, will be all the pet lovers gifts and pet products like pet shirts, food bowls, pet placemats, pet beds, ID tags, and the like, plus the gifts of shirts, mugs, ornaments, and so forth for the stoopy hooman slaves to said pets.

It took me a whole maybe ten minutes on a site called Canva to rebrand the Pattern site. Poof, it's done with no agonizing. They've got a lot of templates, including for Etsy, so it was super easy to do and looks quite professional. All these people who are on various Etsy groups I'm in, grousing about their branding and how it's got to be just right and having an existential crisis over a freaking font need to go there and throw something together. Quit having kittens, brand yourself, and be done with it so you can get on with the business of running your business.

I'm also looking into getting into a bit of retail arbitrage once HE is back behind bars in a few weeks. Considering his ongoing lack of a job even now, he's probably going bye bye for a long time on the 16th. It's not that I'm happy about it, but I'm at peace with it and accept it as a quite potential fact of life. He did a lot against me personally and against our marriage in the last couple of years, and more against me and our marriage even before that. He chose to leave me and use the drugs. He chose to threaten my life while high. He has continued to choose being lazy over getting and keeping a job while on probation. So as far as I'm concerned, and his family agrees, he's choosing to go back to jail or off to prison. No skin off my nose, and likely I'll be in better shape without him. It's going to be a tough adjustment, but I'll manage.

Anyhow, retail arbitrage. What it is, is you buy something at a low price and resell it higher, for a product that you can resell either in your own storefront locally, or most commonly, on Amazon. There are a number of YouTube videos on the subject, and on various ways to work it. One of the best ways is to hit up your dollar stores and use the Amazon app to scan the barcode to see what the product is selling at on there. If you can make a reasonable profit, selling the product for at least double what you are buying it for, you buy it and then take it home and list it on Amazon for sale. It may take a little time to unload the thing, so you'll need a little space for it all, but I've watched several videos now, and it's not difficult. One fellow spent about $10 and profited about $60 for what was essentially a couple of hours of effort, including the shopping and listing. Now, personally, I'd stay away from things like lotions and powders, because they require special packaging to ship them like extra baggies and tape and things like that in case they explode in the mail, but there are a LOT of products you can get and resell for a good price. So once I'm on my own again and have the time, I'll be looking into that for a bit of extra income over and above Etsy and the Just Over Broke.

Right now, it's closing in on 2PM and my usual get up and feed the zoo crew time, so I'm off to take care of that and then deal with a bit more of a nap, before I get up and work on the shop a ton today. Be safe until next weekend!

No more microwave!

And about darn time, too. I've never been fond of the things. I grew up without one in the house, and have never really seen the need for one. Cooking should be done on a stove of some kind, not with microwaves. It just doesn't sit right with me. Besides, I like cooking and doing dishes so it's kind of fun for me. HE isn't happy about it because he absolutely LOVES the thing. I don't much like how much counter space it takes up. I refuse to replace the thing now. HE is likely going back away for a long time in four weeks anyhow due to all his messing up while on probation. Mostly it involves him not keeping a job, leaving me the sole provider for us both, and I'm not happy about that, nor is his P.O. She's really mad because the last job he had, SHE found for him and he quit it after just four days.

So the microwave ... He went to use it to heat himself some canned chili. A few seconds into the cook time, it made a loud pop, like a .22 going off. I heard it all the way back here. The microwave still lights up and all, but it's unplugged and staying that way until it gets moved out of the house. It will free up some counter space which I desperately need anyhow.

The only thing I really used it for was melting wax for candles. I can gin up a double boiler to do that from now on. Might be a bit slower, but at least I won't have to worry about things going BOOM and blowing up the kitchen. A quick and dirty double boiler can be worked up with a large saucepan and a metal mixing bowl that sits on top of it. You don't need an official double boiler. It will hold me until I get the melter doodad I want for making my full small batch stuff instead of really small (one freaking candle at a time) batches. It's $70, but worth it! If I ever get into soapmaking as well, I could get a second one for melt and pour soap base.

Work goes apace. They've made a few changes of late to things, so that helps some. A small raise on the hourly by a whole 50 cents an hour, and they've finally realized that the point system is useless as it is, because we've lost too many people to quitting and pointing out. It only took them two years to reset points to where they were at 14 instead of the current 6 and you're done. They left the roll off to 90 days to work one off or a year to wait and it falls off on it's own, instead of giving us back our 28 day rolloff, but at least now people won't point out so much and maybe we can keep some experienced workers around. They're also rolling everybody's points they have now back to zero as of Monday the 18th, so that will help a bit, too. It means I don't have to wait until January to bid on jobs off the line, but can put in for them NOW.

So I did. Tyson uses Workday to do a lot of things for the employees now, including internal applications for jobs you don't just go to HR and sign for. Ones where you HAD to put in a paper application before, now you just log in and go to careers, and search for your plant, then fill in the required questions, click apply and you're done. If you're smart like me, you save your answers to the required questions as a WordPad file, so no braining about it. Just copy and paste.

The furkids are doing great right now, despite the colder weather. The cats, of course, absolutely love the bed ...

And Bandit just wants to play tug rope ...

Me? I'm busy collecting graphics and digital papers to make pet lovers gifts and pet products for the shop. The Pattern side, the .com, will be getting a lot of pet lovers products. Everything from tees for adults, to ornaments, drinkware, and more ... and then doggie tees and bandanas and pet placemats and beds. Everything will be print on demand, which makes it super easy for me to deal with production and processing orders. I don't have to do anything other than design, list, promote, and push orders to the various POD suppliers. All while basically collecting free money.

Okay, I could easily sell a lot of graphics as well, and make easy money $1 at a time that way, but it just isn't me. I'm not really thrilled with that idea. Maybe down the road, but I love my critters, and want to make gifts for other animal lovers, from dogs and cats, to horses, rabbits, ferrets, reptiles, birds, farm animals, and so forth. So I will be busy with that as much as possible. The digital papers alone will make for really nice doggie tees and bandanas and pet beds and placemats. Once I have a good chunk of product in the shop for those, replacing what's already there, I'll post a link!

For now, I need to get some rest. It's after 6AM here, and while being on second shift means I don't usually go to bed until everyone else is up and running, I'm kinda pooped. I'll write more next weekend.

A new life, long since due

Well, I haven't posted in a long, long, time. There's been no reason.Things have been slow crazy-making in so many ways. So, instead of making this a TL;DR post, I'll make a list of what's happened as short as possible.

* - I did lose the cabin and land just before Christmas that year. Ended up in a tiny motel room/cabin thing for a while with just Stars. All the other cats but Bouncer were killed by the folks he and the dope ho were staying with. Lucky to have saved these two.
* - She got him hooked on meth, then when his job went somewhat south because of being suspended for drug use, they split up and he came back to me, addicted. Stupidly, I took him back.
* - By that time, I'd found a small, 1-bedroom, on-grid apartment where I could have Stars and Bouncer without issues. Still there over a year later. Not the greatest but it's a solid roof over my head and only a few miles from work.
* - Three months after he moved back with me, he got so high on a batch of meth that I highly suspect was mixed with PCP or something similar, he ended up threatening to kill me when I told him to get out. Yes, I got the cops involved and he was arrested and charged with terroristic threatening, simple possession, and drug paraphernalia possession.
* - Getting him through court took forever. I had a no contact order going at that point so I could get myself together and he could get clean, the hard way. Turns out, he took almost two weeks to purge in jail, and they nearly sent him to the hospital's jail ward because of all the issues. But clean he got. Finally got released last year in early October for three years probation, but nobody could take him in but me. He has to stay with relative or friend in the state, and I'm basically IT. So they amended the no contact to no inappropriate contact and dropped the TT to a misdemeanor. He pled out and so came home.
* - Then the fun begins. He's somewhat who he used to be, but changed so much. He's been home just over a year, and there's no hope. He's lost four jobs. I got him the first one. He lasted two days. A temp service found him the next two, which he screwed up by calling in all the time. The last, his probation officer got him and he walked on that one after four days and never went back. He's on no rehire at Tysons and the last one, which both would have been good for him.
* - So, Mr. Lazy But I Don't Wanna Go Back To Jail got his probation revoked and had court on that back on the 4th of this month. It got continued to December 16th because the public defender argued, predictably, that there's NOOOOOO reason he should have his probation revoked. I am given to understand that once the actual hearing is done next month, he will likely end up with at least six months in jail if not going straight to prison for his full sentence.
* - Either way, divorce will happen once he's locked up and I've got the money together. It will destroy what's left of him, but staying with him will destroy me. I'm NOT going down with his ship.

On a brighter note, I'm doing okay in the apartment. I slept on a camp cot for about six weeks after he was picked up, all the way from when I moved in. Finally got things organized and my head straight enough that I went to the local rent to own/pawn place and got a bed. They delivered a few days later. So there was now comfy sleep! Took me forever and a day to pay it off, seems like, but I did and it's mine and I still love it. HE, on the other hand, seems to think a queen-sized sheet isn't big enough for a queen-sized bed. All because he tosses all night and pulls it off his side. So of course, I am to blame for that, because if I'd gotten a king-sized sheet, it would stay on better. It would stay on better if he'd not kept pulling the sheet keepers off and letting the dog chew them up.

Oh, did I say dog? Yes, I have a doggo, too. My bestie, Kat, bred her and gave Bandit to me. Kat is a huge blessing, along with her family. I have been through so much, but they were there for me for everything and still are. Her dog Pepper got pregnant by her other dog, Diesel. Pepper had to be rehomed because the entire litter ended up with some sort of inherited skin condition. Bandit was no exception. She ended up looking pretty mangy and had a horrible case of pyoderma before HE would admit there was anything wrong.

So thank goodness for grain-free kibble. I did some research and a raw or grain-free diet was recommended. She's on Pure Natural kibble and wet food, and everything she gets, I read the ingredient list or she doesn't get it. Turns out they have cat food too but I have to order that from Amazon. At least for Bandy Butt I can get it at WalMart. It's taken about four months of the stuff, but Bandit has completely cleared up the pyoderma and the majority of her fur has completely grown back. She's about forty pounds of pure muscle and love pibble puppy. Yep, she is a pit bull, purebred blue nose, no papers. Beautiful conformation, too. Too bad about no papers and the skin condition, as I could easily breed her when she's older and sell the puppies. But nope, with the skin issue alone, she's getting fixed ASAP after the vet will let me. For some reason, around here, they don't want to spay or neuter till a year or older. She's more than big enough, and I want it done before she ever gets a chance to come into heat.

Like most Pitties, the only things vicious on her are her tail (wag, wag, thump!!!), her breath (forget the Milk-Bone, she needs the whole factory!), and her farts (she farts and it makes the local skunks go PEEEEE-YOOOOOO!). She's a love, loves playing tug and fetch, and actually doesn't bark much. She also is a great squeaky toy killer. So far, in the last month, three of them have had their squeaky guts ripped out. She crates beautifully for when I can't be home to supervise her because she has chewed a couple of biggish holes in the hallway drywall. Ooops. Going to have to fix that eventually.

I will be homesteading again, somehow, some way, eventually. Not where I was, as someone else bought the place, which makes me want to cry some days so much, but someplace with no memories of him or us, where I can do what I want the way I want without any interference.

I've still got the Etsy shop going, and I'm constantly working on that. I'm not doing jewelry now except through Print On Demand, and what I had is either getting taken apart and sold as components or being made into miniature Christmas ornaments. I did sell at the local farmer's market this summer and did pretty well overall for the weekends I could make it. Between some Saturdays where I had to work, some where weather was horrible, and others where HE was being a jerk and wouldn't drive me after I'd worked all night Friday...I missed about half, but still made out good. I did every one of them on literally no sleep. Come home after Friday work, make and eat some dinner, load up, go set up, and sell till noon. Errands on the way back, and unload and sleep for several hours. It was exhausting but so much fun.

If he does go to jail or prison in a few weeks (37 days and counting to court), I've got a few ideas for the winter that I want to try to get done.

One is get his stuff sorted out and either disposed of or sold or packed away. He's got stuff he never uses that's in good shape I'll sell. The man has five pairs of sneakers and never wears them. Ditto a zillion t-shirts. He wears maybe a dozen. Things are going to get streamlined seriously, and his things that he uses frequently NOW will be put in totes for him for whenever. Everything else of his will go away.

Another is to keep building the shop so it can make me a nice income to supplement or replace the plant. It's a good job, but I'm so tired of the cold and misery there. I go through every day literally counting the hours until I clock out and come "home" to the apartment and the furkids.

And finally, to get a shelving unit, some small lumber, some chicken wire, latches, hinges, grow lights, and seedling flats. I want to build a small seedling grow setup in here but I have to keep the cats and the dog out of things, so it will get enclosed in chicken wire with a handmade door of sorts that latches so I can get at things without the critters getting in all the time and messing with stuff. The plants can be sold next year at market that way.

For now, I'm off to do more on the shop, watch a little TV, and figure out my dinner. I rarely cook anymore, because it's just me who cares and if he does eat, I get no compliments, so why bother? There's a lot of nights we "batch it" because of that. So for me tonight it's likely microwave meatloaf just to fill the belly.

NOTE - Links in the blog ARE monetized Amazon links. Thanks for your support!

A final post

It's been a grand run, but it's over. Due to circumstances beyond my control, mainly my husband having a midlife crisis and leaving me for a much younger woman, and leaving me/us nearly $3000 behind on the land and cabin payments, I will be losing my homestead in another few weeks to a couple of months at most.

I'll miss the place. It's been happy for the most part. I had so many plans and hopes and dreams that will now never come to fruition. It's kind of sad but kind of a relief also. Most likely, I will end up in a small house or apartment on-grid (ugh), as I simply can not get things going again by myself and keep them up. Most if not all of the cats will have to be rehomed, which really breaks my heart.

My trust in people has been shattered, my dignity and self-respect are pretty bruised, but I will come out on top. He's taken everything from me to where I have nothing to lose but a few things like the gennie and internet, which will be a minor inconvenience rather than a major headache. I'm at rock bottom and all I can do is claw my way back up.

Divorce is in the works down the road. He refuses to reconcile thinking I want him to be a sycophant to me. What I want is my husband to BE my husband and the head of the household like he used to be and hasn't been in a long time. I'm tired of doing it all, being it all. He doesn't believe me, and that smarts.

So thanks for all the memories. It's been loads of fun and I can't imagine having missed the ride for the world. Good luck to my fellow homesteaders on their places. May all your homesteading dreams come true.

Tears and regrets - EXTREMELY personal

I don't even know how to begin to say this. There are no words to describe what is going on. Well, there are words, I just don't quite know how to put them together coherently to explain it all.

The worst thing is, I'm not sure which is more saddening - that my marriage has completely fallen apart, or that I no longer care enough to even try to summon the energy to fight for it any more.

Long story short, a few years ago, he had a fling with my then best friend. He did eventually break it off, after a few months and a lot of fighting, and we did everything that was recommended to repair things and save our relationship.

Fast forward to now, three-and-a-half years later.

We don't touch if we don't have to, don't talk if we can ignore each other, and mostly snip and snipe at one another over every little tiny thing we can. It's not healthy. Add in that he's found himself a girlfriend from work, and he's visiting her almost every night on the way home (if it's even home to him any longer), coming back for food, sleep, and clean clothes, and it's just at the end. All over but for the crying.

The discussions have already begun as to who will get what. The sorting out and separating of things has started and it doesn't really hurt that much, if at all.

He is willing to stay until at least May so that bills can get to the point of being completely caught up and a few things paid off (his truck, the gennie, stuff like that, which the gennie would make for a huge financial burden to me), and then he'll go on his merry way with her.

I honestly do want him to be happy, and it's obvious lately that he's not happy with me. He's happy here, in the cabin, but he's not happy being in it with me, so he'll leave. This has been my dream for 30 years, and he just bought into it in the last few years, so he won't make me lose it.

He has offered to help with maintenance and repairs, and to cut wood for me so I will have wood for the wood stove once it is in, and thus can avoid the kero heater any longer at that point.

Thankfully, my paycheck will cover just about everything, and my child support check will help with the rest, along with whatever sales I get. I've been doing better lately, so I can just hope that things keep getting better with the Etsy shop, and that by the time he's gone, I can use that to replace his paycheck and do even better.

At least with any luck, I can keep Bountiful Farm going and eventually make it what I dream of it being.

With all this, a whole new chapter opens in my life, right around the time next year that I hit my half-century mark. I've spent most of my adult life alone, I just never thought that the senior years would hit with me alone again.

We used to be so happy together, but my then best friend instigating things a few years ago to destroy my marriage over some imagined slight (by then, she had seriously started acting like psycho witch from the back of beyond as it was), well ... it just tore things apart to the point that we never really quite got all the pieces picked up and back together again.

I want him happy, and apparently, that isn't with me.

My heart breaks and there's a lot of regret that things are falling apart ... wondering if I'd done this or that or tried harder or whatever, if we would still be talking calmly about who gets what and studiously avoiding fighting over anything. I don't think anything could have saved our marriage, but it sure would have been nice if something did.

I have a sink!!!

An hones-to-goodness kitchen sink!

Ok, so it's not a sink in the traditional sense of things. Quentin and I had both been focusing a lot on the word "sink" and scouring the aisles at Home Depot for one we liked that was affordable and would fit into our kitchen well. No dice at all unless we wanted to spend nearly $100 just for the sink!

Then he watched a tiny house video tour on YouBoob and called me up to his computer to show me part of it. That enterprising fellow had taken a stainless steel mixing bowl from Wally World and added plumbing to it and made a sink of the thing! Why not, said we, do similar here? It would only give us one sink and I really wanted two if possible, but a single sink would allow us to dump liquids without going outside in bad or cold weather, including the shower totes when we are done with them, and my dirty dishwater as I could still use my dishpans for the washing up. Honestly, I prefer the dishpans ... don't ask me why, because I really couldn't tell you!

So, we went to Wal-Mart a couple of weeks ago on our usual Thursday night after work grocery run, and got the sink (an 8-quart stainless steel bowl), and most of the plumbing supplies. He got the drain the next day in town at the hardware store, as the only ones Wally World had were the bathroom pop up type and that's not what we wanted. He already had the pipe glue and silicone at the house. So ...

Him playing with his early birthday present/Sweetest Day gift of a saws-all. He's wanted one for a while, but until now, we didn't get him one. He thought he might need it for the sink project but he was able to use his jigsaw instead.

One eight-quart stainless steel mixing bowl - $12

One plumbing repair kit - $20. The drain cost about $5.

Cutting the hole in the bottom of the bowl. He drilled a small hole first so he could get the tin snips started and then got busy chopping out the hole. How did he know it would be the right size? He took the gasket and drew around the inside of it with a marker on the bottom of the bowl so he'd know where to cut.

And the hole is made! One stainless steel mixing bowl sink in the making!

Screwing the drain in.

Putting silicone all around it to keep it from leaking. Mind, since the bottom of the bowl isn't slanted a bit like a regular sink, the drain sits above the bottom of the bowl a tiny bit, which leaves a little standing water in the sink when it's used. Who cares, it dries up pretty quick.

Fitting more of the drain together to be able to add the pipework.

More silicone sealant. He never does this kind of thing halfway.

One finished sink bowl!

Now he's cutting the hole in the door that became my kitchen cupboard for the sink to sit in.

And it fits perfectly!

More silicone on the counter where the sink meets the wood, and the plumbing is assembled. As it's greywater, it just runs straight out to the ground, but we put in the p-trap for keeping cold air from rising up the pipe into the house. It also makes it kind of hard for things like mice to try to get into the house through the drain when there's water sitting in the p-trap.

So now I have a sink! Next project is our woodstove! I love our kero heater, but as we cannot leave it running all the time while we are at work (it would run out of kero before we got done and home), well ... it is getting a bit chilly at night now that it's late fall, and so the day this post goes up, he went shopping and brought home the stove board for the woodstove to sit on when we get it. It looks like gray flagstones, and is pretty.

For me, it's now off to work on the shop some more. I have a need to get a LOT of Christmas stuff in the shop in the next month and sell as much as I can. Too many bills still to get caught up from the debacle of the last year!

Fall onset

Fall is closing in here on the homestead, and the land is starting to go to sleep for the winter. Hasn't stopped my black and yellow garden spiders on the porch (named Thelma and Louise) from spinning webs and putting up egg cases and just generally doing their spider thing of keeping the flies and other pests down on the porch. Who needs those nasty fly strips when you have the girls?

As for the shop, it is ready for all the way through to Thanksgiving, and I am prepping for Christmas.

Etsy has done a huge favor to sellers by expanding categories from 15 to 20 we can use, so that means when I get far enough to need to be putting in the various types of decor (home, holiday, garden, and party), I'll have enough categories plus a couple left over.

I'm beat though. It's been a rough few weeks and I want a short nap before I have to pull together for the Just Over Broke that currently does most of the bill paying around here. Too many 9 1/2 hour shifts and six days last week just are killing the heck out of me.

But that is why I keep working on the shop. One day, it will be enough income to replace the Just Over Broke and I can quit. One step at a time, one sale a time, it gets me closer and closer to getting out of there. Go, me!

Shower update and a few other things

Well, it's been a bit insane again ... when is it NOT here? I sometimes think that when I can finally quit the plant, life is going to be boring, and then I laugh. BORING? With ten cats, and eventually adding other livestock, all the plants and trees and things for food and extra produce sales, the shop, and all the housework? BORING? You've got to be kidding me.

So, what's been going on lately?

I keep having minor depressive episodes and crying jags, because this last year has been such a struggle and it's not over quite yet. It's coming up fast on a year since I nearly lost Quentin to that awful pneumonia bout, and I can't help but think how much further along we would be if not for that. Seems like the last year, things have kind of just stagnated.

But then I look at the shop, which is essentially two of them. Thanks to Etsy allowing things in Pattern earlier this year that you can't sell on Etsy itself, I can add all kinds of things over time to the Pattern side. Currently, it's my jewelry and Mom's stuff. The Etsy shop itself is being limited to beads, charms, and Mom's stuff, with the likelihood later on down the road of adding party supplies/decor. At this point, I'm all about whatever sells to make a profit. That means in Pattern, adding other things for ladies gifts, including bath bombs, soaps, holiday decor (I can get my wholesale hands on a TON of Christmas ornaments, and since I loooove Christmas ....), spa gift sets, and possibly even things like cosmetic sets and fragrances, so a gal or her man can get inexpensive but lovely gifts for her(self).

The main products will still be jewelry, much of it handmade by me. I get a kick out of taking beads and charms and making something pretty from them. So that's that.

The plant has changed the attendance policy from 14 points (absences) and fired to six, and a one-year rolloff instead of 28-days-perfect-attendance worked off. You can bet people are quitting right and left as they find other jobs in other small manufactories around here. The company made a huge mistake with that. There is now talk of making it six days a week mandatory, and while it's just a rumor, the LAST rumor was the attendance policy change, and those of us there know what happened with THAT. Christ on a crouton.

So I'm working hard on the shops (officially one, as it's all managed with Etsy's seller admin, but technically two since I have so much stuff divided up), and hope and pray for better times ahead. Meanwhile, we are taking all the overtime and paying off or paying down everything we owe, fixing things in the cabin to be completed, and etc.

Shower update ...

We had to take the shower head on a hose off and put a regular small shower head on the end of the pipe. The long hose pulled too much water too fast and so it was a bust. The smaller, regular shower head doesn't get a full flow like it would under regular running water pressure, but the spigot allows us to control the flow and we get good pressure with a solid dribble that does the job. The water also stays hot longer and it's awesome to get a hot shower instead of a tepid one every weekend, and not have to hold a hose or make it a Navy shower to get the water to last for us both. He just turns off the spigot when he's done and then I turn it on for mine. Yeah, he goes first all the time ... he uses less water than I do and that way, I can just enjoy the heck out of it and run out what's left, which is usually at least half. We both get really clean and happy now, too! The shower bucket is AWESOME.

If you are going to be off-grid without running water for a while, a shower bucket is going to have to go on your must-have list at the top for a bit of "normal" convenience! It's WORTH the work, and it's inexpensive - it cost us about $50 all told for the parts, and took about an hour or so to put together. You will need a power drill and a spade bit for the hole in the side of the bucket for the pipe, but that's about it for power tools. The drill also comes in handy for the pilot hole for the heavy-duty hook to hang the double pulley on. A bit of metal pipe of some kind works wonders to crank that puppy into the hole, too. Simple physics involving a lever (the pipe) gets that hook seated in the hole really fast.

With that, it's 240AM here, and I have to finish up the last of the dishes and make some supper. Talk to you all soon!

Catching up and new shower

It's been a rather long year, almost.

This time last year, we had no idea things would be the way they are. So what happened, that I didn't want to talk about a few months back? What's kept me from blogging this year?

I'll make a long story as short as I can.

Last year, on the week before Halloween, Quentin got sick. Originally, he was diagnosed with severe gastroenteritis (stomach flu is what most folks call it). It wasn't. A week later, he was barely eating anything, had lost seven pounds, and looked like a walking cadaver. He's skinny enough anyhow that he doesn't have much body fat, so losing that weight made his eyes sink into his head.

At his week after checkup, his BP was only 80/60. The doctor that day, on Halloween, the day after his birthday, said we needed to shove him across the street to the ER. He didn't want to go. The doctor looked at him and said something I will never forget, "Dude, you're septic."

Three little words that told me my husband was dying in front of my eyes. So off we went to the ER, and his records had been shot over there already. Two bags of IV fluid and three different antibiotics through the IV were going inside of five minutes. TWO nurses. That alone told me this was bad.

He was in such awful shape, they brought the portable x-ray to his ER bay, because they didn't think he could stand up for a chest x-ray. Sometime later, the ER doctor was talking possibly shipping him to Branson for an infectious disease specialist there to handle things. He decided against it, but put hubby in the hospital for an overnight. The idea was to see if they could get things under some control that could be handled at home. If it didn't work, there would be surgery. Thankfully, it worked.

Diagnosis: right lower lung pneumonia, and  abscesses in both lower lungs. All were about 1 inch across. He was on sick leave for six weeks, with two antibiotics totaling 1300mg a DAY for the whole time. Then he got back to work, and got accused of something he didn't do from well before he got sick, and got fired.

In July, he was able to hire back to the plant. In the meantime, we nearly lost the house and land, and are still struggling to get back to our feet on everything. The doctor bills are going to collections, and we really don't care. I'm sending people snarky letters and trying to put them off until at least mid-January, when we'll be more sturdy on our feet, financially. Things are slowly but surely ticking along to get where we wanted to be a year ago. We saved the land and cabin, but it's been rough, and as I said, we are still struggling. We survived last winter with just the kero heater in the cabin and it not fully insulated, while he was home sick the whole time.

Thanks to how the plant fired him, he couldn't find steady work, which didn't help with the whole situation, and led to nearly losing it all as well. So you can understand why I haven't wanted to write. It was all just too painful, especially when you add in that the stress caused my BP to go sky-high, I ended up with three trips to the ER from work (two in an ambulance as it was so high I was on the verge of stroking out or having a heart attack), and me on two BP meds now. Just so much fun.

Maybe by spring, we will finally be caught up on everything, and paying off all the bills, and a small loan a friend gave us early this year to help us get through it all. I was so grateful to get the land guy and cabin people somewhat off our backs with that. It was still a huge struggle and continues to be, but we are slowly making it.

Altogether, there's about $9300 in hospital bills to be figured out how to pay them. It's going to be a long haul.

But we are also making a point of slowly but surely putting a little each week to fixing things up how we want. No more "We'll get to it eventually." Last year scared us both, and we are making a point of putting a bit out each week to piece by inch our way to getting things done. One piece of paneling, one tree, one piece of stovepipe, or one whatever a week, it's getting done.

So the project last weekend (we didn't schedule any for this weekend, we were just too pooped from the work week) was a shower bucket for us instead of constantly using shower bags, which wear out in a few months. I got the idea a while back from another homesteading blog I read where they did similar. So I'm going to spend the rest of this post telling you about our shower bucket!

 This is the supplies we got, in the bucket. We got a bit more CPVC pipe than required, in case of mistakes. It's pulleys, thread sealer tape, pipe, attachments, and pipe glue.

The stuff all laid out. We changed the one pulley for a double pulley later on.

Drilling the hole in the side of the bucket to screw the end of the pipe into for the drain.

Putting pieces into the hole.

The end of the pipe screwed into the side of the bucket.

Outside of the drain.

Checking for leaks on the porch.

On the top left, you can see the drain from the Aquatainer we brought out to fill the bucket. It made that so much easier. We used a couple of gallons to make sure there would be no leaks under pressure.

The rope and pulley on the handle, and the full pipe is done. The little bit of blue at the end of the pipe you can see is a spigot so we can control the flow.

Adding the hot water!!

Watching for leaks. Nope, not a drop. Unlike the shower bag.

The double pulley and 2x4 he put in to hold it. There's a big hook there for the pulley, so we can just take it all down when done and keep the cats from playing with the pulley. The pipe is part of the frame from the Ozark Trails shower cabana we use for the "bathroom."

Adding some cold water, the hot water was HOT! The hose is from the pipe to the handheld shower head. We had to take that off in the long run as it wouldn't let us control the flow properly. It was sure nice when we got it right though, even if it was a stream and not a sprinkle, since I could just stand under it and not have to hold a hose!

The finished setup of the pipe with the 45 degree elbow to point the water flow onto us. Works awesome!

When we tried it with the hose, we had to put the showerhead in the bucket for hoisting, because it pulled down too much. Here, the bucket is starting to go up in the air. The pulleys made it easy.

The finished shower bucket on the shower shelf that had previously been used for the shower bag. Push the shower cabana back in place in front of it, and the pipe goes right through the back window into the cabana and the water flows onto us. It was AWESOME. (Did I mention that already? Heehee.)

Next project after finishing tires on the truck as they are trying to have babies, is to start on the wood stove!