Monday, February 23, 2015

Quiet day...

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My husband spent the entire weekend working on painting projects around the house. I am very thankful that his projects are done and am ever...

So much time...

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I can't believe that the last time I posted was in October. I am really sorry that I have neglected to write anything here. It feels wei...
Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Naptime...

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I have mentioned before that our neighbor gives music lessons out of his home. This is how he earns a living. Over the years we have become ...

Stocking up...

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I know there are people who don't like to prepare for anything and simply take each day as it comes. I am not that type of person and ne...

Company...

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Over the weekend we had company for a couple of days. Some friends of ours who had moved away came back into town for a visit. At first it ...

Running again...

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I stopped running several months ago because I was having pain in my ankle. I decided this week to give running a try once again because I r...
Tuesday, August 05, 2014

Music Camp

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There is just something about this summer that is leaving my children with a very bad case of cabin fever. Between the rain and the humidity...

Calling

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I am not someone who likes to talk on the phone. In fact, I despise talking on the phone. When I call I like to say what I need to say and b...
Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Planning...

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My brother-in-law stopped by for a visit over the weekend. He has not been to see us for quite a while. It was interesting to see what has b...

Ticks...

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Last week we were on spring break from cyber school. We spent just about every day doing something outside. The weather was finally warm and...
Thursday, March 13, 2014

Company...

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We are expecting company this weekend wich is a bit unusual for us. We tend to be the people who do the visiting rather than vice versa. We ...

Counting the days...

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Now that March is here it finally feels like spring might actually be coming our way. I am now in the mindset that I can actually begin coun...
Sunday, March 02, 2014

Relaxing...

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After dinner tonight I intend to sit down on the couch and relax. I may not move for several hours. I fully intend to make a nice not cup of...

Snow...

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I cannot believe how cold and snowy this winter has been. Even though we always read the Farmer's Almanac to get an idea of what winter ...

Conversation...

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I like getting to know new people. This weekend I had the perfect opportunity while away on a camping trip. I supervised our scout troop wit...

Home...

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I cannot tell you how glad I am to be home. This morning I returned from a two day camping trip with my son's scout troop. The weather w...
Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Moving truck...

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Last night I kept hearing what sounded like a moving truck being loaded. It was dark, and I couldn't really tell where the noise was com...

Bread...

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Last August my wife and I gave up eating grains. Most people don't realize just what this involves. Just about everything imaginable tha...
Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Job Market...

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It is not secret that I work in an office that strives to help people become employed or employable. I love my job and meet interesting peop...

Hunting gear...

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I have decided I am going to pursue hunting with a vengeance this year. I have been reading everything I can on the topic in order to learn ...

Simple music...

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I consider myself to be quite a fan of music. What makes me different from most people who love music is that my preferred method of listeni...

Still running...

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In early November my wife and I started a running program. It was a 9 week program that we finished around the second week of January. We ha...
Thursday, December 26, 2013

Looking back...

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This week our oldest son turned 14 years old. It seems like just yesterday that he was starting kindergarten. I was going through my closet ...

Tools galore...

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Santa definitely visited our house this year. We have spent the day cleaning up from the holiday festivities, and it has been a big job. Our...
Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Wild animals...

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My family is hooked on watching animal shows on television. It is amazing to me the things that they come up with to make a television show ...

Cans...

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I am in charge of recycling projects for my older son's scout troop. This is a huge project that our troop does throughout the year. We ...
Thursday, November 28, 2013

Gifts...

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This year we are not exchanging gifts with my wife's family. It simply seemed easier this year to just have a meal together. Typically w...

Countertops...

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The final phase of our kitchen remodel is in now in progress. Yesterday we installed our new sink. Actually the sink is not new but is a vin...
Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Christmas shopping...

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I can't believe it is the time of year once again where we have to start thinking about Christmas shopping. It always seems to sneak up ...

Kitchen Countertops...

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We are finally getting around to finishing our kitchen remodel. It has been a long time since we started the renovation process. The last ph...
Tuesday, October 29, 2013

School projects...

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I read an interesting article in our local newspaper this week. The article was about one of our local private schools doing a school projec...

Free Apples...

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In addition to canning venison this weekend we also canned about 20 quarts of apple sauce. We were given a couple of bushels of apples by a ...

Long Weekends...

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We home school our children which affords us some leniency with their schedule. My wife tries to motivate the children to do extra work Mond...

Tired...

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This weekend my father-in-law went hunting during the senior hunt in our state. To our great surprise he bagged a deer. We received a call a...
Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Ukulele...

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My brother-in-law loves bluegrass music. He recently shared a picture of a dulcimer that he bought and is trying to use. His girlfriend als...

Harvest...

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We have a peach tree in our backyard that was planted just three short years ago. When we planted it I had serious doubts that it would live...
Saturday, August 10, 2013

Ongoing Back Pain...

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We went to visit my in-laws today for a few hours. We typically see them once or twice a week. The last time I saw my father-in-law he was g...

Primal

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I went this week for an appointment with my endocronologist. In the course of my appointment I asked the doctor about the variety of issues ...
Saturday, July 06, 2013

Rituals...

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My wife is a creature of habit. Every weekend she has a set list of things she likes to accomplish each Saturday and Sunday morning. One thi...

Out on the town...

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Going out and doing things by myself is not something I do very frequently. Besides going to work I prefer to do things with my family. Toni...
Thursday, June 27, 2013

Campfire program...

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Working at camp~

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This afternoon I am heading off to spend a couple of day at Boy Scout camp with my son. The camp is highly dependent on parent volunteers to...

So talented...

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I was just spending a bit of time online trying to catch up with some people I haven't spoke with in a while. One friend I was talking w...

Depressed doggy...

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Our oldest son has been away at camp for about 6 days. He has a miniature schnauzer named "Sammy". She loves her owner endlessly a...
Monday, June 24, 2013

Random gibberish...

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The school our children attend is sending us new computers in the next couple of weeks. Because of this we are trying to remove all the fil...

Computer problems...

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We started getting an error message on our computer today. The computer that is getting the message is less than one year old. The message i...
Sunday, June 09, 2013

Golf companions...

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Last week I had the opportunity to golf with some really nice guys. They were businessmen in our area from out of town. This was a bit of a ...

Progress...

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We spent the entire day working on our camp. Slowly but surely we are making progress on it. We have put on a new roof and gutted the interi...
Tuesday, May 21, 2013

All night...

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Almost done!

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A couple of months ago we started renovating an old camp on my in-laws property. It was in need of a new roof. It was filled ceiling to floo...
Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Photos...

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We recently discovered that a number of pictures we took of our oldest son as a baby are not in the best of shape. He was born before the ad...

Time for Myself!

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It has been a very long time since I took time for myself to pursue my own interests. I typically spend most of my time with my wife and kid...
Saturday, March 30, 2013

New neighbors...

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More work...

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We took our truck for an inspection this week and it did not pass. The shop said it needs new rear rotors, rear brakes, a front right wheel ...

Sneezing...

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I just returned from a quick trip to the store. The store was absolutely filled with Easter plants and flowers. Since that visit I cannot st...

Praying for a miracle...

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Last week a person from our community disappeared. This person was very involved with several of the programs that our children are involved...
Wednesday, March 06, 2013

Free Concert...

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Cub Scouts...

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My youngest son started Cub Scouts last fall. He has absolutely love going to each meeting. I swear they could just get together and color p...

Driving home...

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Dinner...

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Dinner is one of my wife's least favorite meals to cook. If she could she would have breakfast for dinner every night of the week.I real...
Friday, January 25, 2013

How I Relax...

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Busy...

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This has been a week for making things in our house. My wife got a notion to get a bunch of projects done inside since the weather was so na...
Sunday, January 13, 2013

Phonetic Alphabet.

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This evening we spent time learning how to say our ham radio call signs in the phonetic alphabet. If you are unfamiliar with ham radio and t...

First contact...

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Tonight my son made his first contact on his ham radio. He was extremely happy and nervous to be talking to someone. The one thing we realiz...
Saturday, December 29, 2012

Soft tire...

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We have had our truck for about 4 months. In that time I have noticed that the left front tire seems to perpetually be a bit soft. Luckily I...

Santa...

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Santa very was very good to me this year. I did not anticipate very much in the way of gifts this year. My wife and I typically do not buy v...
Friday, December 14, 2012

Stocking up...

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My wife is an avid bargain shopper. She also loves to keep a well stocked pantry. One thing she does is to watch for markdowns on various fo...

Tests...

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I went this week for an arginine stimulation test at a nearby "big city" hospital. The test was done there because they are suppos...

So Happy!

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The idea that I will be changing jobs in a couple of weeks has made me happier than nothing else has for a very long time. I really feel lik...

Finally!

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I interviewed for a position with another department, of the agency that I work for, about six weeks ago. I had all but given up on hearing ...
Tuesday, December 04, 2012

Once again...

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Once again it is time for us to be finishing up our Christmas shopping. Every year we sit for hours trying to decide what to buy my father f...

Finally...

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My doctor referred me for a test/procedure in early November. I have been trying since that time to get this test scheduled. For whatever re...
Thursday, November 22, 2012

Music Practice...

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Dog...

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My brother-in-law is here for a few days with his dog. His dog is a very large chocolate lab mix and is generally well behaved. The problem ...
Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Pretend Projects...

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Tonight my parents are going to stop by for a bit. We haven't seen my father in a while because he lives several hunded miles away from ...

Half our lives...

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Today my wife celebrates her forty-second birthday. This means that we have both officially been married half our lives. In June we were mar...
Saturday, November 10, 2012

Music while working...

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Weird interview...

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This week I interviewed for a position within another agency of the state that I currently work for. This would be a lateral move for me but...
Friday, November 02, 2012

Odd..

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Worthwhile...

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A couple of days ago I traveled about 80 miles to see a specialist I had been referred to. I anticipated that the visit would not be worth m...
Friday, October 12, 2012

Not a clue...

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Foraging...

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Last night we took the children out to do a bit of foraging. On the ground of the place where I work there are several chestnut trees. My ol...
Sunday, September 30, 2012

Broken...

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We arrived at my in-laws house today to do a bit of work and noticed that one of our truck lights had been broken. They recently put tar and...

To bed...

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We have reached that time of the year when it is time to put the garden to bed. We have a large garden at my in-laws and it requires quite a...
Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Acting up...

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Since we moved to our house five years ago we have had a high speed internet connection that has been trouble free until this week. For some...

Tiger Cub Scout

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Our youngest son has been anxiously awaiting the time when he would be old enough to join Cub Scouts. He has watched his older brother atten...
Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Job applications...

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I have been at my current position for about 5 years. The job that I do is very stressful but comes with a number of great benefits. Because...

Crap...

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About a year ago I started feeling really crappy. I finally went to the doctor and it turned out that I have low testosterone. This is weird...
Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Building things...

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My older son is always coming up with one plan after another to build various things. Most recently he wanted to build a catapult. You might...

Electronics...

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What is it that seems to make electronics fail for no apparent reason and often in pairs or multiples. This weekend we wanted to watch a DVD...
Friday, August 24, 2012

Tracking down information...

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My wife can find anything online. It is actually pretty amazing what she is able to track down. There was a time when her ability to find ap...

Getting there...

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I posted a few weeks ago about all the work I have been doing on my truck. The truck we bought is about ten years old and has very few miles...
Thursday, August 09, 2012

Dreams...

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Crazy Storm...

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We are in the middle of a much needed rain storm that came out of nowhere. One minute the sun is shining and the next minute the skies open ...

Growing up...

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I just got back from sorting recycling with my son's Boy Scout troop. It is kind of funny to spend time with a bunch of twelve year old ...

One more repair...

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I have just one more repair I need to make to our truck before I consider it to be in good shape. Thus far I have replaced the airbag clocks...
Friday, August 03, 2012

Two Days Left!

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In May of this year my father-in-law was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Shortly thereafter he started 9 weeks of radiation treatments. Over...

So Fascinating...

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Our youngest son is totally and completely enthralled with Lego's. He even has been talking about them in his sleep. It fascinates us to...

A Good Guy

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My brother-in-law is one of those guys who is always there when you need him and never asks for anything in return. This week I called him t...

Getting 'Er done

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Since we bought our truck last week I have made a list of things I want to replace or fix on it. Mind you this truck is in very good shape b...
Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Wedding gifts...

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A friend of ours is getting married for the first time this weekend. We aren't going to be able to go to the wedding but have been tryin...

Barber Shop...

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I have been going to the same barber shop for over ten years. It isn't that my barber is anything special. My wife is quite convinced th...

Family reunion...

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This weekend we will be traveling to Ohio for a family reunion. I haven't seen most of my extended family in quite some time. We have be...

Still sick...

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We have been battling colds in our house for the last two weeks. I don't know why but we can't seem to shake it. Just when one of us...

Not Listening...

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My father-in-law is currently going through radiation treatment for cancer. He is dealing with some other serious health problems at the sam...

Vacation!

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I am at long last taking some vacation time! Taking time off at my office is a huge hassle. It isn't that we can't take vacation but...

New Computer!

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We have had the same laptop computer for over six years. It has slowly been showing signs of age over the last year. Every so often it shuts...

Free trial...

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We ditched cable about 3 years ago and haven't looked back. We have a Roku system and watch Netflix on it. This gives us enough programm...
Friday, June 22, 2012

Tired and weary...

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My father-in-law is going through treatment right now for prostate cancer. He is having a pretty rough time of it and has us all worried. He...

Stupid kids...

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We sent our son to an overnight camp for the first time this week. Last night we picked him and asked him how things went... he replied the ...
Sunday, June 10, 2012

Romantic gifts...

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Tonight I am going to go out and do a bit of shopping by myself. In a couple of weeks we will celebrate 21 years of marriage. I need to find...

Restful...

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My mother took our children for a couple days. It has been awesome to have quiet time in our house. Our children have only been away from us...
Friday, June 01, 2012

Sale shopping...

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My parent's have always been fairly reserved when it comes to spending money. They have never wanted to money because they have always b...

Done and done and done...

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This season I have built and complete three gardens! It has been a ton of work but I feel it is entirely worth it. We extended the garden in...
Thursday, May 17, 2012

Hobbies...

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Nearing completion...

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Last fall we started a very big gardening project. This consisted of clearing a plot of land at my in-laws house and creating a garden from ...
Sunday, May 13, 2012

Declining health.

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Yesterday my in-laws stopped by for a few hours. My father-in-law doesn't visit very often because his health has not been very good lat...

My Gift...

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Today I will be finishing my Mother's Day gift to my wife. We started putting in a large garden at my in-laws property last fall. The la...
Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Last bottle.

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Ham radio license.

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For the last couple of months my older son and I have been studying to take the test to obtain our ham radio licenses. I went into the proce...

Diagnosis.

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Friday.

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This week cannot pass by soon enough for my taste. I know it is only Tuesday but I seriously need for Friday to get here. Yesterday my wife ...
Sunday, April 22, 2012

Outdoor room...

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We are toying with idea of creating an outdoor room in our backyard. Our gardens are finally finished and we are able to focus on other area...

Organizing...

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When the weather sucks like it does today I like to make use of my time by organizing. I know this sounds goofy but I like and organized hom...

Glasses.

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Two days ago we took our youngest son for his first eye exam. Over the last few months we have noticed that he seems to be working really ha...

Blustery...

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Just when we think spring is finally here the weather seems to throw us a curve ball. We have had warm weather for most of the week but the ...
Monday, April 02, 2012

Geocaching...

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Now that spring is here we are able to once again enjoy in one of our favorite family hobbies. During warm and sunny weather we love to go g...

Reskilling...

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You might have guessed by my posts that we are keenly interested in homesteading. It seems as if there is always some new skill that we want...

Big news...

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We live in a very small town and it doesn't take much to make something newsworthy in our town. The big news right now is the plan by th...

Helpless.

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Have you ever known someone who wanted to be helpless at everything? We are in a situation where we frequently have to interact with a famil...

How do they manage?

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Some friends of ours recently became the parents of twins. They already had two children prior to the birth of the twins. Their older childr...

Meetup...

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Have you ever wanted to meet people with similar interests who live in your area? I read about Meetup and thought that it would be a really ...

Meeting the neighbors...

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Free wood...

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In our area of the country many people heat their homes with wood. Buying wood can be a pricey thing if you need a great deal of it. Right n...
Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Learning to golf...

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For some reason my older son has suddenly taken an interest in golf. He is almost thirteen and has never shown an interest in any sport. Las...

Sneezy...

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Spring is always a fun time in our house. All of the members of my family suffer from seasonal allergies. Usually we have another month or s...
Saturday, March 10, 2012

Healthy...

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We have been eating a Paleo diet for over four months. In that time my wife has lost over 20 pounds and looks great. It is so nice not to ha...

Grrr....

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My wife has been trying since November to get her students loans with Sallie Mae placed under their income based repayment program. Each tim...
Thursday, March 01, 2012

Wish list ...

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Our office has several fund raisers during the year to buy equipment we might want or need above and beyond what is supplied by our employer...

Nearing completion...

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My big winter project is almost done. My wife requested that I help he in remodeling the kitchen to make it more functional for our needs. O...
Saturday, February 25, 2012

Simple living...

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Over the past couple of years we have dramatically simplified our lives. We no longer have cable television service and have gotten rid of m...

Camping in the snow...

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This weekend my son's Boy Scout troop went on a camping trip. Because I am fairly active in his troop I went along to help with the kids...
Friday, February 17, 2012

Simple gifts...

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This year we celebrated Valentine's Day in a very low key manner. My wife took me to the hardware store and asked me to pick out somethi...

Seeing the difference...

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We have been eating a Paleo diet for almost 4 months. The difference this has made in how both my wife and I feel is incredible. No longer a...
Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Tax return...

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Today we filed our federal tax return. It is a relief to have them done. Typically we wait until the last minute to file because it seems so...

First badge...

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My son has been working on a number of merit badges for Boy Scouts over the course of the year. The thing is that he is working on so many t...
Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Kids and Politics...

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Our son is trying to decide on a topic for a research paper he has been assigned to write. The topic he proposed this morning was to researc...

Blending and more blending...

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I don't take much interest in kitchen gadgets but my wife loves them. She doesn't buy them for the sake of buying them and researche...
Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Living it up...

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 A few weeks ago I reconnected with my best friend from high school. It has been about 10 years since we last spent any time together. At th...

Lab work...

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I haven't really been feeling that great for quite a while. I have been passing this off as simply a reaction to all the stress I am und...
Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Different experiences...

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Our youngest son has never known a day in his life where his mother left home to go to a job. It is interesting to observe his view of what ...

Protein and more protein...

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There was a time when I thought I would never say that I had eaten too much meat or protein. After a month of Paleo/Primal eating I can hone...

Technology classes.

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Our oldest son is in the gifted program at his cyber school. As part of being in this program he is eligible to take several different cours...

Homemade Christmas gifts...

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This year I am aiming to give the important people in my life useful gifts rather than the latest trendy item. My older son and I have desig...
Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Vacation time...

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One thing I am thankful for this holiday weekend is time away from work. I am looking forward to an exceptionally long holiday weekend and i...