Thinking outside the box (or trashcan)

(this post originally appeared on my other blog on 4/19/11, and I thought it was worth keeping around on this blog)

When we moved, we found a few more ways to save money on our monthly expenses. We have a well and a septic tank, so we are no longer paying for our water. We don't live in an HOA, so no monthly or yearly dues. And we didn't sign up for trash pickup.

Well, we did sign up for it, then realized the logistics involved and the cost and said 'forget it!' and canceled it before ever having a pickup.

There were two main problems. The first was the cost: we would be paying for two months' service what we had been paying for three months' service at our old house. The second was the logistics: we live on a narrow private lane with no turn-around space. The pickup location for the trash was by the mailboxes next to the main road, almost a quarter mile from our house.

Were we going to drag a trash can a quarter mile (with hills- the private road is not flat) each way every week? I don't think so!
Do we generate enough trash to justify the increased costs? Nope!

Because of the way we eat, we don't have a lot of packaging to throw away. Most of our trash ends up being fruit and veggie trimmings, and now that we've bought a compost barrel, we'll be composting them, which will further decrease our trash output. Before we moved we would fill a kitchen trash can every two weeks or so. That's two, maybe three bags of trash per month.

In researching our options, I discovered that the local dump will allow you to drop off 30 gallon bags of trash for a dollar a bag. That's two of my 15 gal kitchen bags. You can buy a savers card for $10 that allows you to bring 12 bags of trash, further decreasing the cost.

$1 or $2 dollars a month versus $25? That's pretty much a no-brainer. Of course, it's not quite that simple, but since the dump is on the way to LMS' co-op class, there's not extra mileage or gas involved. The only problem will be hauling the trash in our CRV. But I think I have that figured out- put the trash bags in a large rubbermaid container to prevent leakage and drop off on the way to class, not after. The smell problem should be fairly nonexistent now that we are composting and don't have to worry about rotting fruit and veggies in the trash. And we're buying a truck in a couple months, so if it's really an issue, we can throw it in the back of the truck.

It's a little unconventional, but it will save us a significant amount of money ($275 a year!), so totally worth the small amount of extra work needed.

PVC Sprinkler

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I really wanted to get one of these, but at $200, I just couldn't justify the cost. So I started looking at other options to keep cool in the heat and humidity.

I found this one, but you really need a sidewalk to ride your trike under the sprinkler, and we don't have a sidewalk. I wanted something a bit simpler than this one, but it gave me a good starting point.

A quick trip to Lowe's, some PVC pipe, connectors, and a ratcheting pipe cutter (definitely worth the $23!) later we were loaded in the car and heading home. I followed the tutorial here, but changed some of the pieces since I wasn't putting a gate on it. 15 minutes after I started, the PVC pipe was cut and I was ready to drill some holes.

 The pipes and connectors.

The ratcheting PVC cutter.

I put it all together in the house, then took off the cross pieces and hauled it outside. I then put it back together and hooked up the hose.

The unfortunate thing is that we don't have great water pressure- we have a well and I guess the pump isn't a super charged one. As a result, the water wasn't coming out all the holes.

I adjusted it several times, moved pieces around, and even removed some pieces.  

The water pressure through the sprinkler improved, but still wasn't what I was looking for.

After removing a few more pieces, this is what it looks like:

The side the hose is connected to does have more pressure, but the water is at least coming out all the holes.

Little Miss Sunshine liked it and couldn't wait to have friends over to play with it.

I'm glad I didn't glue any of the joints in place- it was easy to adjust everything to get the best water flow, and it'll be easy to take apart and store in the winter.

Is a Blendtec really worth the price?

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After the very first green smoothie, I'd have to say YES.

Our old blender, a fairly decent KitchenAid model that was only a year or two old, just couldn't manage to blend everything up really smooth.

The Blendtec effortlessly blended everything- no chunks or little bits of kale and spinach left behind. We had to do some chewing with the last few smoothies I made with the KitchenAid blender. The Blendtec is noisy, but I don't mind the trade-off. Having fully blended food is definitely worth a little extra noise.

I had heard great things about the Blendtec and its close rival the Vitamix on a lot of the food blogs I follow, but the cost really made me hesitate. I debated for *months* before finally deciding to bite the bullet and buy a Blendtec. I'm glad we finally did it!

We've used it for making green smoothies, mixing up our ice cream before putting it in the machine, mixing up salad dressing, pureeing steamed squash, and making faux-mato sauce (more on that one later...). I'm sure we'll be using it even more as we do more experimenting in the kitchen in an effort to find more recipes we like and can use.

My Half Marathon Training Plan

Yesterday I woke up at 6:30 am, planning on going for a run. Planning to, until I heard the rain and looked outside and saw it was still dark out. There are some very quiet neighborhoods nearby that I can run in, but I have to run on a narrow road with no shoulders to get there, and visibility isn't that great, so I'm kind of worried about cars seeing me, especially if it's still dark and it's raining.

So instead of going for a run, I put in an exercise dvd and did a 20 minute workout.

Last night I rethought my half marathon training plan. I had planned on running in the mornings before Mr M heads off to work, but since it's only September and the mornings are already getting darker, I don't think that's going to be a good solution for a fall/winter training plan. Summer, yes. Winter, no.

There's 14 1/2 weeks till the half and I found a 9 week half marathon training plan on RunnersWorld.com, so I have 5 1/2 weeks to build my mileage base before starting the training plan. While my original early morning training plan is out, I think my new one should work.

Monday through Thursday mornings we do schoolwork, with extra activities Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday afternoons (we leave right after lunch each day). No activities Wednesday afternoons and Friday is reserved for fieldtrips and other fun stuff.

The training plan calls for 4 days of running with 3 days of rest each week. After looking over the schedule, I figured out a schedule that should (hopefully) work.

Monday

get up early and run on the treadmill (looking on craigslist now) before Mr M leaves for the day

do schoolwork as planned before lunch

Tuesday

get up early and do an exercise dvd before Mr M leaves for the day

do schoolwork as planned before lunch

run around with the kids at soccer practice in the evening

Wednesday

first thing in the morning after Mr M leaves go for a run with LMS in the stroller

come back and do schoolwork, continuing after lunch if needed

Thursday

get up early and do an exercise dvd before Mr M leaves for the day

do schoolwork as planned before lunch

run around with the kids at soccer practice in the evening

Friday

first thing in the morning after Mr M leaves go for a run with LMS in the stroller

then do fieldtrip activities

Saturday

first thing in the morning go for a run without LMS

come back and run around with the kids at soccer

Sunday

rest day

If I'm having an off week, I can skip the dvd workouts and get a little more sleep, and my training plan won't be disrupted. Soccer ends the middle of October, just before the 9 week training plan starts, which will lighten the training load a little. In the meantime, the soccer really is a great workout- playing keepaway with the kids gives some good sprinting opportunities.

It does change the school schedule a little (specifically on Wednesdays), which I had hoped to avoid, but I couldn't figure out any other way to fit the training in.

And here's another reason to change the schedule:
Mr M was leaving for Scouts this evening when he saw a bear (the same one as before?) walking through the trees in our yard. If that bear has decided to hang around the area I'd rather not make his/her acquaitance while on my own.

I especially have no desire to have a run-in with a bear in the early hours of the morning. I carry pepper spray, but I don't carry bear spray. Maybe I should....

What we eat when we invite friends over

We invited the neighbors over for dinner the other day. They're a cute young couple with a one year old daughter that LMS really likes (and would really like to play with, though she's too young to understand that concept yet). These days it's definitely easier to host a meal than to worry about going somewhere else to eat.

So what was on the menu?
Aidells chicken and apple sausages

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Grilled chicken, marinated in faux-mato sauce (more on the faux-mato sauce later)
Grilled mixed veggies (onion, mushroom, zucchini, yellow squash, broccoli, carrot)
Faux-tatoes (pureed squash)
Real mashed potatoes just in case the squash wasn't well received (and because Mr M really wanted some)
Fruit salad (blueberries, strawberries, kiwi)
Green salad (LMS put this dressing on it)

and for dessert we had homemade peach ice cream, using this recipe.

We ended up with more food than we needed, but we tend to operate on the "rather have too much food, than too little" mind set, especially when we're having company over. We had a good time and all the food was enjoyed, even the squash :)

Rehabbed buffet

 This another of my craigslist finds. $40 or $50 I think? I bought it last winter but never got around to refinishing it before we moved.

I'm pretty sure it had been refinished at some point in the past- the gold paint was on top of some other bubbled finish, and the whole thing had definitely seen better days.

But I thought it had potential, so I sanded it down, sprayed it with Krylon spray primer (which is bumpy, so be prepared to do more sanding- not something I was expecting), then painted it white. I finished with a light gray wash and some distressing, and it looks so much better!

The trim looks so much nicer without the gold paint.

I have a place to put some decor,

we have a piece of furniture on a previously empty wall,

and LMS has a place to store the toys that she insists on hauling upstairs instead of leaving downstairs in the toy room. I think it's time to clean it out already...

I'm glad I finally got it finished! 

It does kind of blend into the gray wall, but we'll be repainting the walls to a light gray-blue, which will contrast nicely with the buffet.

Do-it-yourself moving

(this post originally appeared on my other blog on 3/5/10, and I thought it was worth keeping around on this blog)

A week from today we'll be loading up all our stuff for the trip across the country. With this move, we'll have moved 6 times in the 8 1/2 years we've been married. We've also had our stuff in storage on 4 different occasions.

So I thought that today I'd talk about some of the things we've done, and what we've learned.

Our first move was across the street and down several blocks, about a year after we got married. Since it was so close, we loaded my Jeep and my sister's pickup truck and made a couple trips till everything was moved.

Our next move was an out-of-state move when we went to language school the first time. For this move, we rented a Budget truck and drove it ourselves. Since housing wasn't available right away, we put our things in storage for a couple weeks. When a house came available, we rented a U-Haul and transferred everything.

Our third move was back to where we'd been living before language school. Mr. M was finishing some training in another state, and I had stayed behind while I finished my classes. Once I was done, I didn't want to stay there by myself, so I loaded what I could in the car and moved back. We had to have orders in order to have the move paid for by the military, so we put everything else in storage. This was our only move that was done by professionals- they came and packed everything up, stored it for 3 1/2 months till Mr. M was done with his training, then shipped it to where I was living, where they unloaded it. One glass jar was broken and our ironing board got lost, but I'm not complaining- my parents always had massive amounts of breakage/theft/etc with their 'professional' moves.

Our fourth move was back to language school, and we used a Budget truck again. Once again, we put our stuff in storage for about a month while we waited for a house to become available. When it did become available, we used a Budget truck to transfer everything.

Our most recent move was here, where our families are. We loaded everything into a U-Haul truck and drove it here, where we unloaded most of our stuff into a storage unit in town. We eventually used my parents' truck and trailer to move everything to a shipping container in their back yard.

Our upcoming move will be made using ABF to ship our stuff. We're using their ReloCube option, but we have to take our stuff to the ABF terminal to load them, so we'll have to load everything into a U-Haul truck and haul it into the city (a hassle, but way cheaper than all the other options, so still worth it). ABF will ship our stuff and store it for a week or so till we can move into our house, at which time they'll deliver the cubes to our house and pick them up once we've unloaded them.

Some things we've learned:

1. U-Haul will match other companies' posted prices for the same trip/services. If you go to Budget's site (they've been the cheapest option for our past moves) and get a quote, then call U-Haul, they'll confirm the quote and then match it. I didn't learn this till our second move back to language school, after I had already rented the Budget truck, unfortunately. Budget and Penske trucks are higher off the ground, with a higher center of gravity, which makes them feel less stable. When you're driving a big truck over the mountains or in windy conditions, this could be an issue. I like the U-Haul trucks because they have lower beds and a lower center of gravity, which makes for a more stable ride.
2. If you don't want to drive a truck, there are other options: PODS, ABF, etc. I called PODS for a quote, but they were going to charge almost twice as much as what ABF quoted me. ABF actually has two options: fill a semi trailer (and pay by the linear foot) or use their ReloCubes. For our move, the ReloCubes are cheaper to use, but I imagine that could change based on where you're moving to and from. The trailers are not as secure- you don't get to lock it; but you do get to put your own locks on the cubes, so no one else can get into them- much safer.
3. When you're storing things, call around for rates and deals. Both times we stored things for a short time while we waited for a house to open up we used Public Storage. They had a deal where the first month was $1 plus some administrative fees. Since we were out before the first month was up, I think we paid a total of $20 each time. Way cheaper than the $200-300 regular monthly rate (it was an expensive area). I've frequently seen half off the first month's rent and other deals, so call around to see what you can find. Make sure you read the fine print to make sure they don't require a minimum stay- Public Storage didn't.
4. We didn't have a Public Storage option when we moved here, so we used a local no-name company. I didn't like how much we were paying each month, so I started researching other options. I ended up renting a shipping container from Mobile Mini for half what I'd been paying the storage unit company. Mobile Mini does charge delivery and pick up fees up front, but when you average that across the length of time we used the container, it's still way less than what we were paying for the storage unit. I think for how long we've had it, the fees were only $15-20 a month. Plus, there was the added convenience of having our things in our back yard.
5. Look around before buying boxes: I've bought them online from Uline, and I've bought them from moving companies and even Home Depot. Buying them online only works if you're buying enough to make the shipping charges worth it. For smaller amounts of boxes, check out moving/storage companies and hardware stores. You can also get boxes for free from stores like WalMart- just ask for them. I like having just 2 different sizes of boxes (I'm OCD like that), so I do pay for boxes. It makes it easier to load the truck or stack in storage.

If you're doing a do-it-yourself move, research the options and see what will work for you and your situation. What are you willing/not willing to do? How much stuff do you have? Are you ok driving a big truck? I drove UPS trucks one summer in college, so I don't have a problem with it, but I've also reached the point where I just don't want to deal with it on a 3 or 4 day trip. What is your budget? How far are you moving? How much time do you have? Do you have friends to help you load the truck, or are you doing it yourself?

Figure out what's important to you, make your decision from there, and enjoy the adventure of moving to a new place.

Have you picked up any money-saving tips for moving?

9/17/11- edited to add:
We've now moved seven times in 9 1/2 years of marriage. This last time was when we bought our house and moved about 6 or 7 miles away from our rental. Several friends helped me empty the cupboards and closets and we hauled most of the small stuff in our vehicles (small SUVs and minivans) before the actual moving day, when I rented a UHaul truck and some guys from church helped me load all the big stuff up. Unfortunately, we have more crap than I thought we had, despite getting rid of a lot of stuff through craigslist, so we had to make a second trip with the UHaul truck. It wasn't a huge deal since we moved just down the road, it just took longer than I thought it should have.

What I learned this time? Never underestimate how much stuff you have- inevitably you have more than you think you do :)

Fall Soccer

Soccer has started again. It's a different schedule this fall because the season's been shortened since the fields are closing in October for re-seeding. So we practice Tuesdays and Thursdays and have games on Saturdays. Adding in that one extra evening a week really makes the week feel more hectic, so I'm really glad it's only for a month.

I'm not sure how many soccer pictures I'll get this season. I somehow ended up getting sucked in to be an assistant coach to LMS' team. Never mind that I haven't played since I was their age...

Luckily I've watched "Bend It Like Beckham" a few times and there's a scene where one of the dads is trying to explain the rules of the game to his wife, so I have at least an idea of how the game's supposed to go :)

Despite being a bit fuzzy on some of the rules, I am enjoying myself, and I'm getting a good workout, running up and down the field with the kids. They're actually playing games and starting to get the hang of things, which is fun to watch.

Where was I that morning 10 years ago?

(a few days late on this post)

Mr M and I had gotten married two and a half weeks earlier, we were getting settled into our first apartment together, and we'd been back in school for a week and a half.

I was working as a research assistant in an animal nutrition lab on campus and had just sat down at my computer in the lab I shared with a couple grad students when one walked in and asked me if I'd heard the news. I hadn't heard anything, so he told me a plane had crashed into a building in New York City. We then walked to the next building over and found a lecture room that had a tv feed and watched on the wall-sized screen as the second plane crashed into the towers. We all just stood there, shocked that this could be happening, here. Things like that don't happen in America, they happen other places. Eventually the professor who used that room decided he should get down to business so those of us who weren't actually in his class had to leave.

I don't remember much of the rest of the day, though I must have worked and gone to class, but I do remember calling Mr M to tell him what had happened. He was still at home and hadn't heard anything. Because we'd just gotten married we were still figuring out our apartment and our budget. We lived in a tiny apartment at the back of a house that apparently had no antenna as we couldn't pull in even local tv stations. We weren't sure we could afford cable, so while we had a tv, we only used it to watch movies. It wasn't till several months later that we got cable, and by then there wasn't the constant coverage. We ended up being in a bit of a media vacuum during those first few chaotic months, but we've definitely been involved in the results (Mr M's deployments, for one) and have seen how it's changed the world we live in.

I can't help but think that it's a blessing not to have even more of those images stuck in my head.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I finally got around to updating my blog template and header, which I hadn't touched for almost a year. I kind of got on a roll and added pages and moved things around to fit within those pages. I then moved some posts over from my other blog, which I'm shutting down. It was just too much of a hassle to keep two up and running, so I'm consolidating. It's still a work in progress, so things will continue to change for the next little while, but already I'm loving the new look!

Below are links to the projects I moved over from the other blog. I've shown a picture or two of most of them here in the past, but now the whole post has been moved over here.

Quick and easy kid's bathrobe

Bicycle shed platform

Awesome toy storage

My awesome new desk

My Goodwill lamp

Coffee table re-do

Inside the craft cabinet

My new craft cabinet is finally finished

Coffee table sneak peak

Cabinet sneak peak

Purple ruffled wall

Embroidery hoop wall art

Name banner in LMS' room

LMS' room: Decorated on a budget

Refurbished ottoman

Red chair re-do

Toy drawers

Homemade Travelmate

I was going to include a thumbnail with each link, but I haven't quite figured out how to do that yet. Once I do I'll update this post with them.

The long over-due, super-long post about our 5 week roadtrip

First we went to a family reunion in Cascade, Idaho.

We camped by a beautiful lake. These pictures were taken while standing next to our trailer. Awesome view!

We went ice skating. LMS seems to have forgotten everything she learned in the class she took last winter, and Mr M has only been ice skating once before, so they appreciated the stacks of buckets.

There was also some golfing, some salmon fishing, some playing in the lake, lots of time with family, and a freak wind/rain storm that moved in very quickly off the lake and drenched us all and snapped quite a few tent poles.

Then we went to a family reunion in Bear Lake, Utah

We hiked to a windcave. The hike ended up being a lot longer and steeper than any of us anticipated (like most of the hikes my family takes), but it was very pretty up at the cave.

We also hiked (surprisingly this was actually a pretty easy hike and not too long) to an alpine lake. There was supposed to be a waterfall, but despite being the middle of July it was completely frozen over. Some of the boys had fun climbing up and then sliding/slipping down the iced-over waterfall.

Mr M helped the girl cousins have a water balloon fight (too cute!).

We spent the day at the lake. The water level was really high, so the water's edge was marshy with dead plants that are usually far from the water. Kinda gross, but what can you do? We did some canoeing and rented a boat with a "water wienie" and had lots of fun playing in the water.

The girl cousins. They're all fairly close in age and it was so fun to watch them play together. They even got to have some sleepovers where there was lots of laughing and giggling.
Until it got too late and we separated them :)

After that, we drove to the Grand Canyon, Arizona.

LMS did a unit on the Grand Canyon in our co-op, so we figured it was a good time to actually go there, since we don't know when we'll  get out that way again.

The pictures just don't do justice to the colors of the rocks, or how deep the canyon is.

Desert View Watchtower- cool building with great view of the canyon.
 

LMS with her first Junior Ranger badge. Such a great program! She learned a lot (so did we) and it helped keep her entertained and forestalled the "I'm bored"s.

Then we drove north to Zion National Park, Utah.

I only took a couple pictures because I've been twice already and you can only take so many pictures of rocks, regardless of how tall and cool they are. This was Mr M and LMS' first visit.

When we left Zion NP on the way to Moab, we drove through the tunnel. It's about a mile long and was built in the 20s, so it's narrow and short and has no electrical lighting. Instead, there's windows cut out periodically to let light and air in. Pretty cool.

Then we drove to Moab, where we visited Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.

We saw quite a few arches, including Double Arch.

 

At the trailhead to Delicate Arch is this old log cabin. We've been reading Little House on the Prairie to LMS and we mentioned that Laura and her family lived in a house similar to this one. After that, this cabin was dubbed "Laura's house".

(As in, "I want to go back to Laura's house!")

There's also some petrogylphs near the trailhead to Delicate Arch.
 

The first day we hiked to a lookout point where you can see the backside of Delicate Arch about a mile or so away.

 

A day or so later we went back and did the actual hike to Delicate Arch. It was quite windy (hence the crazy hair) and a storm was blowing in so we didn't stick around too long at the top before heading back down.
 

It really is quite impressive.

 

We found a rafting company that allows small children, and LMS was just tall enough and just heavy enough to be able to go on a half day river trip. It was lots of fun and LMS really enjoyed hanging out in the water next to the raft as we floated down the river.

LMS showing off her Junior Ranger badges from the four national parks we went to: Grand Canyon, Zion, Arches, and Canyonlands.

We then visited with family and friends, Mr M went to drill, we visited more family and picked up elk meat from the elk Mr M shot at Christmas and the toys left at my parents' when we moved out.

Getting ready to head home.

It was a long trip, but a lot of fun, and a great way to spend time together as a family since Mr M had just returned home. We really enjoyed using the trailer and look forward to taking many more trips with it.

Birthday ice cream

I had stopped baking by the time my birthday rolled around at the end of June, but I did make some ice cream- coconut ice cream topped with blueberries. I used the recipe I found here but I left out the chocolate. Even without the chocolate, it was pretty yummy.

However, LMS is still upset by the fact that I didn't have cake for my birthday. She has brought it up multiple times, and is quite concerned that I didn't have a birthday cake. Too cute!

Fun pic from swimming lessons

My very favorite photo of Little Miss Sunshine at swimming lessons.

I can't believe I managed to get this shot!