Casulties in Adulthood

I overheard some people talking the other day about how hard it must be to live pay check to pay check, wondering when the next car repair was going to put them in dire straits. These are friends of mine, and I honestly wanted to shake them. Granted, I am not quite in that shape, but close enough that if Chris or I lost our jobs, or we had a major emergency, all would not be well. There are some tense discussions when something monetarily significant comes along, and there are definitely decisions based purely on the financials.


Money is so strangely taboo, even though I think it is something we all worry about, no matter how much or little you have. Managing it is tricky, making decisions about it is tricky. Maybe if we all got together and said how we did it we could learn something... Any way, I often feel I can be blissfully child like until money comes along. I can love my job, like my house, until benefits premiums go up and we need a new toilet. Then - wham - I am an adult. And I have to make decisions.


I think that is the hardest part, the decision making; what goes on the card, what gets parcelled out, what we do with out, what takes priority. I just get so overwhelmed with that process of reordering. Chris is better at it. What for me becomes an emotional reaction, mostly fear and worry, for him is a logical puzzle that must be solved, and if he can just get all the little bits to fit...and he always does. He has fun with it, and comes to me with a "Look what I did!" smile, and everything is okay. I guess that's why we are happily married. Damn, I think that's adult, too.

Have your turned your trashheap?

In our last house, my dear, dear husband turned our compost head into a huge stick pile. Probably for the best, since after we got our mutts, it would have been more of a snack counter. In our new house, out in the country with no trash pick up, we compost almost every bit of compostable scrap. However, I have still had to teach him the finer arts of composting. Like, no, old moldy cheese is probably not a great addition. Or the bits and pieces in the drain catch....
(update: we realized that we have a composting toilet - so the drain catch bits are gettin' flushed - it's a pretty genius system, for those of you who live on 10 or more acres of land....)

(picture courtesy of ApartmentTherapy.com)

To his credit, he is the one that turned the compost pile last year. But - this pic is for you, pookie.
And, although we have quite the hearty stick-free compost pile, it is still the neighborhood doggie snack shack. Benji, a great big red dog with a white tipped tail, likes to make the neighborhood rounds when he goes on walks, gettin' all the good stuff early in the morning. And our dogs have two distinct tactics: Bella lithely wiggles her pointy noose in between the bars, while Sebastian likes to just rip off the bars in his way....I need to put up a pick of our compost box...

Signs a'Springin'

I haven't had a chance to take any pictures of all the work I did in the garden this weekend. The moment I do, I will have pictures. Pretty much, I moved mountains. Or pieces of ones. Boulders. Well, rocks. but enough to constitute a mountain. And it should drain better. Luna (the kitty) likes her little rocky perch - great for teeny tiny game hunting (or so Susan, our landvixen, says).

However - one of my favorite places is open - Walker Farm's stand. I get to drive past it every single day on Route 5 during my commute. It is fabulous. All winter, as I watched it being buried under snow storm after snow storm, until you couldn't even see the sign again, I kept wondering if it would even be there come spring time. But - it is - in all its flowering glory. They sell everything you could possibly ever want to plant. And the whole place is just gorgeous. And last year we got these heirloom tomatoes that were hands down some of the most amazing tomatoes I have eaten. Ever.

Ah, spring. It is very nice to have you back.

Welcome to our Goat-Less Abode

Well, there it is, in all the glory that living in a goat barn can be. This picture is from last May - it isn't nearly that green here yet. I mean, there is still snow in the shady places. And we have a railing now....and the storage bins are...stored. We were still moving in when we took this picture. I love that it looks so very "Hi we are in the middle of the woods and we are still not exactly sure what we were thinking, but isn't the light nice on our new teeny house?"

Living in Vermont is an experience. It has to be one of the most egalitarian states in the union. It is not uncommon to have poverty snuggled right up against ridiculous wealth. And they both have to negotiate crater-sized ruts in the dirt roads and then replace their struts when they hit one too many...in fact we are currently working on establishing the New England area as the strut-replacement capital of the nation, single-handedly padding the pockets of mechanics and strut-makers everywhere. That's one, right there. See that gizmo? They are unbelievably important when driving on washboarded roads. Who knew that I would learn about struts upon moving to here.