Next stage of survival mode

I have been in various stages of a daily/weekly life of planning/survival mode for 

 the last 6 yrs now

I am a very good planner, scheduler and survivalist of life

financially. 

I know how to allocate money on what so that we are set up.

I figured out as we went along

how to use to our advantage each time things changed

like when the insurance changed 

to use it to our advantage to order again..

this gave us a stock of 6-8 months ahead for when the insurance ran out completely

Prioritize what to buy for food an dry goods so as to not run out

when the money ran out.

But this is the current stage of survivalist 
the first stages began years ago by paying off everything we owned

It was tough at times but I am glad we did it... now especially.

The two year mark of DH's job ending has come an gone last week.

It is a very frightening place to be financially 

 unemployment ended a while ago

Moving to RI for 7 months changed my source of income and I can't say that I miss it!

Having to give up doing a multitude of different professions part time for work 

gave me the break to learn to say NO and realize I was really not enjoying what I was doing.

What to do....what to do....

and something that will transition to Alaska with us.

start back up the wallpaper/painting business?

start again consulting for restaruants, businesses again?

start preliminary designing of everything from houses, decks, restaurant kitchens again? 

not even going near the working on computers again!

not going near nursing or the medical field again either!

Art! creating and working in various mediums!

Jewelry! my passion

I love photography but that is not gonna bring in money.

Making jewelry does and I love it.

Enough of this....we have are currently "pot jobbing" as some would say and loving it so far.

Helping with spring clean up of a 148 acre apple orchard.

Fabulous...

out doors in the spring air, moving all the apple tree limbs to another field to be burned.

Dan spotted this guy on his way into the orchard on morning.

Dan had a few days work before the owner asked if I would join them. 

the apple orchard

the best part of this job aside from being outdoors in a beautiful setting 

is

playing with the owners dogs!

We have to take time to play with them.

three are the owners and then she goes and gets 2 others for a 

group play time!

from left to right

Gordie, Homer, Ida and Gillie

 Olive out front with the frisbee!

she is deaf so had to learn a couple hand commands to

play with this one.

Farm barns next door

will take the camera tomorrow and see what I can find to 

shoot!

while waiting.......

well now....house is on the market...has been shown....we wait

it has been 2 years since hubby's company closed!

wow... 

he worked 12 hour shifts so I was/am not use to him being home

Damn...my break-in-trial run for when he retires!

And I have to tell you it has and is going well! 

I am still amazed after 34+ year how much we enjoy being with each other 24/7!!

So lately as we have to leave the house for it to be shown and for him to apply for work we both are taking time for photography!

Our latest trip was 18 miles down the road to a Botanical garden 

Tired of snow, brown dead looking scenes so the Botanical Gardens were wonderful...

here's a virtual garden tour for all you flower lovers..

too bad I can't insert the pungent dirt smell and hot humid climate for ya!

Enjoy!

Click any photo to enlarge for better viewing! 

As I have not had much work I spend quite a bit of time in the office 

I spend a lot of time as usual applying online for Dan for jobs.

I have noticed we have a fishercat living out back in the woods....

I nicknamed him "slinky" 'cuz of the way he moves thru the woods

then I watch daily these two chipmonks

run, run, run back and forth

they are quite the busy creatures..

but I did manage to capture a shot or two of one of them

OMG! has it been this long since updating???

Oh my! Time flies when your having fun....

not sure if it has been fun or not yet

We have managed to finish all the renovations in the house!

yayyyyy!

The house went on the market Feb 4!

A last minute decision to renovate the second bathroom set the time frame back for us

I am glad we did that renovation

I will post photos of the renovations at the end of this blog

I have managed to get out an photograph despite several nasty snowstorms

figures the year we want to sell the house is the worst winter in quite a few years. 

 We have been snow plow jocks quite a bit lately and the snow banks are very high

next step if we get more snow is to use a bucket tractor/loader

 

 In 32 yrs we never checked how much mileage we plowed each storm

so we checked with the trip meter

a light storm of 10-12 inches is about 4.3 miles!

love looking at iced trees but not the damage it does to them

our back yard about a week and a half ago

Snow flurries yesterday so we headed up to Summerset VT

this is a national forest area owned by the Electric Co

we could not go all the way into the lake area as we did not take the Jeep

 

 Wind turbines on Searsburg Mt. VT

 Even in the surrounding areas here it is very very sparsely populated partly due to the fact that this area also housed not long ago a Nuclear Power Plant

 I spotted this fellow just off the road

Hoosic Tunnel...a snowmobiler was hit by a train on the other side of this long thru the mountain tunnel...he lived but what a time getting him out...

no place to land a helicopter

the train that hit him had to back out, pick up rescuers and take them out to the injured sledder...he's hurt bad but will live.

the tressel just on the other side of the tunnel and road

long way down to the river

an it is a Federal offense in this state to walk the tracks or photograph trains

due to the nuclear power plants in the area 

and

what the trains transport

I am surprised I have not been arrested for trespassing! hahaha

Lots of ice formations on these mountains

just beautiful

the color blue reminds me of the Alaskan glacier ice so much

We spent the whole day riding through many tiny towns

many have dates on the few houses and places dating back to the 1700's

this is Zoar Gap and one set of rapids

this place has become a meca for white water rafters/kayakers

an yes they shoot the rapids in the winter! 

saw several vehicles with white water kayaks but no one in the river to photograph

Just had to take the pictures of the Indian statue buried up to his chin in snow!

I was going to crop it and tell you he was 7 feet tall but decided not to!

An for the second time in 2 weeks we got to see the deer herd

there are about 10 deer all together and this is their only open water in 

this area to drink

 

they are way down in a ravine

the first time we saw them a week ago Dan brought the Jeep to a skidding sideways stop

not that he tried to but it is a mountain road and always has a couple inches of slushy/frozen snow on it

As I got out it spooked the deer but I did mangage a few shots then too.

this time 

we were headed uphill so I got out an walked back so as not to spook the deer.

they still didn't like me being way up on the road taking their picture

the poor things are having a real tough winter with how deep the snow is

This is not far from our home

Waubin Farm fields
the winter snow falls has been so great the several farms have had their barns collapse killing some of the livestock.

 

Here are the photos of our renovated home

OMG! a friend gave us a photo of the house that was taken a couple years after we bought it..

you talk about a country shack looking house!...

what a difference the way it looks now

 

Can't wait for someone else to own this home and we are on our way to building a new home in Alaska!