Coffee anyone ?

[Sourland]

Spent most of the afternoon on the beagle club's books. Meeting tonight, and I had to prepare 2 months worth of treasurer's reports. It took a bunch of coffee to get it done, but there is some left for you folks.

 

[Sara Ranch]

@Baymule - of COURSE it's drip coffee!!! Best kind!!

@Alaskan - all of these challenges that make me appreciate what I DO have, like hot water for tonight's shower? The repair guy I have been calling for two days - even stopped by his shop today (no one was there) - had his buddy call me. The poor guy is in another state having an urgent heart procedure done. They think his artery is blocked. My leaks, his blockage, puts things in a different perspective. Thank goodness I am not on city water! Imagine THAT water bill.

@Sourland - too funny! Well, not fun that you have to do two months worth of reports, but funny that I have been sitting down with a pad of paper working on a budget for myself. Also trying to figure out what is a "fair" expense that my folks should pay part of if/when they move in. It can't be called rent. That offends them. They think they should live here for free, but that won't work for me either. (And no, they didn't raise me. It's pseudo family, no blood relation, just friendship over the years.)

It's overcoming the difference in the way we think and the way we handle money. I put aside money in reserves for major repair bills, replacement, insurance, taxes, etc. They don't.

I'm not saying the conversation will be like this, but it's a possibility that they could say that since I don't have an electric bill, they shouldn't have to pay anything. Same with water. The concept of having to maintain the solar, maintain the back up generators, RUN the back up generators, replace the well pump, do maintenance on the water system monthly, just isn't a part of their lives. With them here, I am going to go through 3x as much salt (water softener) and that's an extra $60 a month. The generator is probably going to run multiple times a day. Takes fuel to run the generator. I will probably have an extra $250 a month in fuel expenses. So I think they should pay something to cover the extra expenses.

Food is not a biggie. I will share what I harvest, no cost. I'll even share my coffee once in a while. It will all work out.

 

[Sourland]

@Sara Ranch, yes it will all work out, but never allow yourself to be taken advantage of in the name of friendship or love.

 

[Sourland]

A fresh pot has been brewed, and water is hot for tea.

 

[Sara Ranch]

@Sourland - agreed. Which is why I am not getting tv services for their visit in a few weeks.

My youngest son has offered to send money each month to cover half the cost of tv services for the folks. Nice of him...very nice of him...but he wants me to pay the other half. Sorry. TV services are a luxury. If you can afford it and want it, go for it. It's ok by me!

And oh what a morning!!! I thought I drank two pots of coffee...and that equals 12 cups of espresso...

Turns out that I forgot to pour the second pot of coffee into my mixing pot, so I only had one cup of coffee that is equal to six espressos! Yeah!!!

All is good...thinking of doing a few loads of laundry and updating my budget. Forgot to add in internet expenses. But that is ok. AND I learned what maintenance I need to do for my wood stove boiler and it's getting a tune up/repair job today.

 

[Alaskan]

great update everyone.

I finally got the stove pipe cleaned out. (told a kid to climb up on the roof)
so I could start up the stove...but I think.I will wait until Monday.

have to drive to the next city up today, and tomorrow and Sunday we will only be home half of the day.

 

[Sourland]

Coffee is brewed, water is hot, and this darn old tent is cold today.

 

[Mother Hen]

Well, someone forgot to bring in wood for the stove yesterday.
Thanks for the coffee. I needed it really bad.
Waiting on a cousin to show so can go get more hay.

 

[Sara Ranch]

*just a vent* propane guy came by yesterday to do a "mandatory" leak inspection. Claimed he couldn't do the leak inspection due to faulty equipment. Then he claimed I had a gas leak. Saw the bubbles myself. I had to sign a paper to say he did the inspection. I asked him to write on there that he couldn't do the inspection due to faulty equipment. He reluctantly did.

gas = propane

Repair guy came today. Tightened the valve. Said there's no leak if you tighten the valve. Then he insisted he absolutely had to do this and that AND was going to replace the valve anyway. This guy claimed he had to do a leak inspection since it wasn't done yesterday. He never came in. Told my visitor that showed up that I refused to let him in the house and had my visitor sign the form saying he did a leak inspection. (I had gone into the house to check on something. When I came back out, the repair guy was leaving. He didn't leave an invoice and he never asked to come in the house or said that he had to come in the house!)

I'm half geared up to go to battle on Monday. No reason for me to have been over charged for the propane. (I was.) No reason for me to have to pay the leak inspection fee, plus the service call fee, plus an hourly rate all for what should have been taken care of under the leak inspection fee. Now, it's fair for me to pay for the replaced part. I wasn't asked for permission to replace it - it was just done. Fine. Eventually it might have to be replaced anyways.

I hate all this BS that I have to go through just to get propane delivered!!

Can't live without the propane.

And in funny humor, my GP decided to go deer hunting. Would have brought home two deers if I had allowed them to jump the deer. Think the game warden would believe it was the dogs that did the hunting, not me??

Coffee was great. Thank you!

 

[Sourland]

@Sara Ranch , this too shall pass.