Catwrangla

Cooper Shellton......I dunno, sounds more like a rooster to me!

That was my first thought when I heard about the blizzard in South Dakota and all the cattle that were killed.....beef prices through the roof. Have already noticed it a bit, but then was looking through the local grocery ad that just came out today. Stew beef or cubed steak for $4.99 a pound!! They also have chuck roast for $3.49 a pound, so IF I was wanting to get stew meat, I would buy that and cut it up. But other than chicken, ground beef is all I've been getting here too. Oh, and I noticed that my store brand light tuna is now up to 89 cents for a 5 ounce can.

I bought a new-to-me car the day after Christmas; my Trailblazer had 283,000 miles on it, and I work 55 miles from home. It had so many things that needed to be fixed, it wasn't worth putting the money into. Not to mention the gas! So now I have a 2012 Toyota Corolla. Only has 13,000 miles on it. There is a commuter bus that picks up about 30 miles from my house, and my employer provides a free-to-me bus pass. So every chance I get, I'll be on it instead of driving all the way in; will save money that way. Anyway, once I got back home from the car purchase, I pulled out my base budget spreadsheet to plug in the new payment and new insurance premium. Discovered I hadn't really accounted for the raise I got back in July, so recalculated with that as the new base. Found that even with the new payment amounts, I still have $480 monthly not allocated. But, I have no emergency fund to speak of-just been cash flowing things. Soooo....I pulled out my Dave Ramsey books, found a debt snowball spreadsheet and started plugging numbers. Figured that I'll have the $1000 baby emergency fund the end of March, and can have my 2 debts (student loan and new car purchase) paid off in March 2017! May 2018 at the latest (house I live in is up for sale, so there could be a move during that time). I turned 50 back in November, and luckily I have a pension where I work, since I don't have anything socked away for retirement! And right now I'm thinking about retiring in about 12 years. I better get a move on; I can do it by sticking to plan.

My home computer got that stupid Crypto virus, so I'm having to use my work computer. I don't have my camera program loaded on this one, and only an adminstrator can load it-and I'm not an administrator! But I can post a link to the instructions to my ornament, which has a pic. http://factorydirectcraft.com/factorydirectcraft_blog/sweeten-celebration-fun-styrofoam-ball-cupcakes/

Hopefully everyone will start receiving mine soon! I mailed everyone's but Pixie's last Wednesday, I think. Pixie, yours wasn't mailed until this past Saturday because my small post office didn't have the Customs form!! Been crazy here too, between 2 car accidents (one a deer!) within a month's time, our company's open enrollment (I work insurance) and my computer getting a virus, I'm ready for some down time. Since I don't have family to speak of to exchange presents, I've saved all the packages and are opening them right now. All so pretty. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Hmmm...I made some about the same age (and it's how I learned to knit!) but mine didn't look quite like these. I remember that I used doubled regular worsted yarn; I would use two different colors to get a tweedy effect.

Back in the 1970s, my dad was in the Air Force. The United States sold some C-130s to Saudi Arabia, and my dad was among those who had to go over there for a year to teach the Saudis how to fly and maintain the planes. Story goes that his crew was ferrying some Saudis in one of the planes when they started smelling this horrible smell. Turns out it was tea time, and the Saudis were in the cargo area (where they were seated for the flight) with a dried camel manure fire built in the middle of the floor, boiling water for their tea. Apparently they carried the dung in pouches with them so they had a ready fuel regardless of where they might be at tea time. Dad said the crew had to wear their oxygen masks for the remainder of the flight.

Is it that time again?!?!?! I mean.....

Hey if Violet says it is OK.................................. then go ahead and do it! I would just make sure you put in oxygen absorbers like she (and others) have said. Well, when I saw Violet said to do it that way, I knew it was ok!! LOL Thanks, y'all. I was thinking that doing either the seal-a-meal/vacuum or canning jar/oxygen absorber should work (and was leaning toward the jar/oxygen option, but I just couldn't find anything about it. I'll probably try to stick with the smaller containers where possible, but if not, it's good to know I won't have to lose a big container of expensive supplies just because I need a little bit. I'm just starting into what I consider long term storage-everything up to now has been regular store-bought food-and there's so much to learn!

Ok, I haven't had any luck finding an answer to my question, so I'll just ask. I've been thinking about getting some dehydrated and/or freeze-dried items to store, more to keep handy than for everyday use. Things like powdered milk, eggs, celery, etc. The best deal appears to be purchasing in the large #10 cans. Problem is, I'm single. And I would hate to open a #10 can of powdered eggs for an emergency and then have to toss the can months later because I couldn't use it up. I've recently discovered that I can get these items in #2.5 cans, but they're not carried everywhere. Would I be better off (and is it even possible?) to buy the large cans and repackage (with what?) into smaller portions? That way I have less to use up and the majority of the purchase would still be good if I did have to get rid of some that spoiled. Or should I stick with the smaller cans since they can probably package better than I can at home? If so, does anyone know the best place to purchase stuff in the #2.5 cans? And of course, if posted in the wrong area, feel free to move!

Here in TN, we do have a free program for uninsured children (2 if you count Medicaid-TennCare here) but there are income guidelines in order to be eligible. So here it is possible to have a child not eligible for the free insurance. As for seniors, if they're over 65 they should still have Medicare if they don't have group health insurance under an employer, and assuming they're not some of those few who didn't pay in enough credits and are not eligible for Medicare. I work in the benefits office of a large employer who is self-insured, so not all of the ObamaCare rules will apply to us. But we try to keep on top of it if for no other reason than to answer questions intelligently. But it's hard to keep up with when an agency can crank out thousands of pages of regulations any darn time they want to!

Oh my goodness! LOL I haven't put my tree up yet, so I must admit I've hastily opened then put them in a safe place. I kept feeling something was missing, but hadn't performed a recon on it yet. So there's still space on my tree!

I'm so sorry y'all that my ornament is so late; it's been crazy at work plus Plan A for the ornament didn't work so I had to go to Plan B. But they're done and I got them in the mail on Thursday, so they should start arriving soon. And they better arrive in good shape or I'm gonna cry! Next year I'll start making them in July and stick to something I know how to do!!

I definitely want in too! Sending my PM in a bit. Oh, and gofish, I used to work at Michaels and did the demos, so if you get stuck shoot me a PM and I'll see what I can do.

Mt Rider, sounds like you need to live in the Pacific Northwest! Along WA/OR coast to be more specific. I don't have any pics, but the leaves are starting to get some color now. The news this morning was saying not to expect a lot of color because of the drought earlier this year, but it's looking good so far!