Watch The Trees Dance

The wind is really picking up.  Listening to it howl outside prompted me to get another short video shot.  It's only 40 minutes until the front of the hurricane force winds hit us (according to weather.com

After watching the trees sway so vigorously, it makes me wonder ...Where have the birds and squirrels are hunkered down

Hurricane Sandy First Power Outage For Us

Well we had our first power outage  it lasted about 20 Minutes and already the kids were complaining.  I would say play a game they would say we don't want to.  Play with the dogs ...No that's boring etc...

It's going to be a long couple of days when the power goes out for good.  You would think they would be use to it by now with not having cable and all.  Though I did let them play extra video games today because when the power goes out they will not be able to.

If all else fails and they can't pick something to do.  I'll make them help me clean house till they stop complaining how boring Board Games are and start entertaining themselves!

Hurricane Sandy Continues

Well the wind is picking up and you can here the gusts shaking the windows.  Almost every hour the fire station sirens go off and I find myself hoping its nothing serious...I guess it probably is or why would they call the fire station.


What should be Fall's beauty is being ripped from the trees to litter the ground

As the storm picks up, these bright dressings from the trees will soon clog the storm drains.  The streets will fill with water and then so will my basement.

If I'm lucky the power will stay on and I can vacuum and dump the water into the basement sink.  Lets face it though they are predicting the power not only to go out but to be out for a good long while.  In this case I will have to haul buckets of water up the stairs and dump them into the kitchen sink since the basement drain doesn't work with out it's electric pump to push the water up.

Hurricane Sandy Continued

According to the Weather Channel the worst won't get to us until 6 P.M.  It is suppose to last until Midnight.  Right now we have tropical storm strength winds which looks like this:

Kind of scary to think its going to get worse!

Hurricane Sandy Update

Right now we have some gusty wind and light rain from Hurricane Sandy.  So far not enough to cause the basement to flood.  Knock On Wood!!

Hurricane Sandy Hoarding?

Right now The Hurricane has me feeling like a hoarder.  All the stuff I brought up from the basement to keep it high and dry is stuck in every nook and cranny.  I guess this is a good opportunity to remove the clutter my house.

Fixed my Blogs

Hi all you may have noticed the last couple days my new posts have been showing up but when you click on it you go to a sight called Ping Blogspot.  Some how the scammer of this sight managed to get a code into my software.  The malicious code has been removed and now you can once again access my sight.

 If you have a blogger blog and are having this problem look for this line in your code
  It will be in the body of the code and have ping blogspot in it

The First Drops

Well I was outside with the dogs ..getting them one more vigorous playtime before the storm hits.  As I sat there watching them play tug of war with a fleece rope, I felt a spattering of water on my arm...  Just a little and probably not the first to have fallen but the first I noticed.  Given the size of the monster baring down upon us its an inconsequential amount the first drops of many many to come.

But there sitting on the back steps with gusts of wind blowing my hair .. I wonder to myself ...Have I done everything I can do to get ready?

I've done all the laundry, the dishes, cleaned everything off the floor in the basement and cleared a path to the sink so I can dump the shop vac.  I've moved the dehumidifiers up onto a counter top so they stay high and dry.  I've fill the camping jugs with water, and filled many many freezer bags with more water.  If the power goes out it will preserve the food a little longer and if necessary give us more water.

I've cleaned up and tied down everything in the back yard.  Moved our little car to higher ground and put our truck at the highest point of our driveway facing forward so that if we have to drive through the flooded street we don't have to back up first.  The first aid kit has been checked and everything that can be charged has been charged including some solar lanterns  which will give us 8 hours of light without killing any batteries.

If I'm lucky the storm drains will stay clear and will drain as they are suppose to but I don't think I'll have that kind of luck.  Since its Fall all those leaves are just waiting to fall into the road and get washed right into the drain.  I got a feeling it's going to be a long night tonight and an even longer day tomorrow.

The Down Side Of No Cable

Well as I have been battening down the hatches I have come upon the down side of no cable.  Hard to get updates on the bad weather.  I have been checking the internet as often as possible but its alot easier to have the TV on and listen to it while you do everything else.  What I'm picking up with the antenna is very disjointed and hard to follow.

If I owned the house I could put up a roof top antenna which is suppose to get better reception but I don't so I can't.  I'll just have to keep listening to the radio which I hate to do.  Normally I listen to Pandora a free music service with NO foul mouthed DJ  spewing whatever filth they feel like spewing.  I was in the car the other day and had the radio on and the DJ's were talking about how some people go over board with their dogs.  But nothing like this one lady.  Sooo I listened on ....MY mistake!  I will not tell you what they said ..you can probably Google it but I like to keep things family friendly around here.  Needless to say it was an after Midnight conversation that was on at 7 O' Clock in the morning with my 15 year old daughter in the back going EWWWWW Mom why would she do that.

Anyway I got off topic ...sometimes Cable TV does have it's advantages!

Reality Check

To say I have big dreams is probably an understatement!  Some time  my ideas so over reach my financial reality its not even funny.  For Example :  The Source Mall right down the street from us is up for sale.  OH the things I could do with that mall just the way it is no need to demolish it.  I could bring it back to life and fill every store in the place.  But who has 100 million laying around they are not using.  Like I said Big Big Ideas.

Well the other day I was flipping through an old magazine my hubby bought called The New Pioneer.  Its for people who want to be self reliant.

Well hiding in its pages was an ad that I hadn't notice the first few hundred times I had flipped through.  It was a for sale ad in Florida.  The property for sale was The Woodland Springs Wildlife Refuge.  Wondering if it was still available I pulled up the web page and there it was still for sale.  As I viewed the property it literally brought tears to my eyes.  Wouldn't that be the most marvelous place for my hubby to retire to once he got out of the military.  The peace and quiet would be wonderful.  Now how would I afford the 1. 6 million they were asking for it.

Woodland Springs Wildlife Refuge

My mind was running around for days wondering what other bills I could cut to save up for such a jewel.  Then my brain finally had a reality check the stopped my dreaming and no it wasn't the 1.6 million though that is still a toughy.  It was my kids!  Not that this wouldn't be a splendid place for them to finish growing up but what about the schools???  One of the things we do before we move to a new base it check out the schools to see which town has the best school within commuting distance.  When you move alot you want to make sure the schools can meet your children's needs.  Well it turns out that Quincy Florida, where my kids would go to school if we moved there, only got a 4 out of 10 on Great Schools and didn't even rate on Newsday's list.  Given the general needs of both my children there is no way I could see moving them to a school that can't meet both of their needs. 

I do hope this beautiful property goes to someone who appreciates the land for what it has to offer and not some developer who will bulldoze its splendor to the ground.  Good Luck Woodland Springs! 

Multi-Use Monday

Hello All  

It is in the nature of all cheapskates, frugalista, penny pincher, close-fisted misers, and thrifty people of the world know that one of the best ways to save money .. (and the environmentalists who want to save the world) is to find a way to use what you have to solve your many needs.  Dont run out and buying a single use item which wastes money, clutters up your life, and uses up our ever shrinking resources! Instead lets find items that has many uses. Just close your wallet and get creative.  Lets get started shall we...

I'm going to post a Monday Top 10 List of everyday an everyday item used in different ways.  Now many of these items may have lots more then 10 ways to be reused but I'm just going with ten ways I use them to keep it short useful and easy to remember.

Lets start with an Item found in everyone's kitchen ...Good Old Fashion Salt.  Its not just good for seasoning your food it has many other uses.
Here are some ways I use Salt around the house:

1. Soak Your Feet:
         After a long day on my feet nothing feels better then a nice foot soak.  If you have a foot bath then go ahead and use it I just use my bath tub ...It makes clean up easier.  Just take 1/4 cup Salt and 1/4 cup Baking soda and fill the bottom of the tub with very warm water.  Mix well and Soak for 15 minutes.  have your favorite read available to pass the time.  When done just dry off and drain the tub.

2.  Cheap Air Freshener:
      I love this one.  I can't stand the chemical smell of commercial air freshers, they give me a headache.  So I use this idea instead.  I got it from a friend years ago.  Take an Orange and cut it in half, scoop out the guts and give them to the kids for breakfast.  Fill the peel with salt and place it in the room you want freshened.

3.  Chill Wine Quickly:
      When the hubby calls and says chill a bottle of wine I just stick the bottle in a bucket of ice and sprinkle on a half a cup of salt.  Add a little water and let set for 10 - 15 min.  Just like in an ice cream maker the salt helps keep the ice extra cold and speeds up the chilling process.

4.  Put out Grease Fires:
     I always keep the salt close to the stove so if I get a grease flare up I can smother it with salt.

5. Clean up Oven Spills:
  If your food bubbling food overflows onto the floor of the oven just sprinkle some salt on top of it.  When it cools you should be able to wipe it right up.   

6.  Sooth a Sore Throat:  

Dissolve salt in water and gargle to ease your throat pain.

7.  Scouring Away Grime: 

     Salt makes an excellent scouring powder and helps with deodorizing as well.   I use to use it on our bath tub when I had to put the turtle in there to clean the tank so I wouldn't have to worry about harmful chemicals that would make Rex ill.

8.  Clean Sink Drains:

Pour salt mixed with hot water down the kitchen sink regularly to deodorize and keep grease from building up.

9.  Better Peaks From Your Egg Whites:

Add a tiny pinch of salt when beating egg whites or whipping cream for quicker, higher peaks.

10.  Relieve Stings, Bites, and Poison Ivy:

Stung by a bee? Immediately wet the sting and cover with salt. It will lessen the pain and reduce the swelling. Of course, if you are allergic to bee stings, you should get immediate medical attention.

For relief from the itching of mosquito and chigger bites, soak the area in salt water.

When poison ivy erupts, relieve the itching by soaking in hot salt water.

Day Off Declutterathon

Today is my day off.  I feel like I haven't had one in a while even when I have the day off there is always something to do.  Like today for instance... with all the running around I've been doing I haven't had the chance to give the house a good cleaning.  Yes I've been able to do all the dishes laundry etc... the things you need to keep going, but the vacuuming, dog poo clean up (sorry neighbors) dusting, sorting through the junk mail (yes I know I should do it every time it comes in)  all the other things necessary to make your home comfy gets pushed to the side.

There goes my day off as I wade through the massive piles of "extra" chores that have to be done.

Well I've come up with a plan to help manage the chores that get left behind.  I'm bring back the chore jar only this time it will be populated with all the mini chores that add up to my lost day off.  Today as I"m going around the house I will write down each little chore to add to the chore jar.  I plan on breaking up any big chore into little chores ...trying for 5 to 10 minutes each chore.  Then during the week between running to work, dog walks, and children after school activities, when I have those little moments that aren't  long enough to tackle big jobs the kids and I will grab a little chore and get it done.

So hopefully I can get my days off back and do more
interesting things on the weekend.

We got this book when we moved to Long Island and haven't done a single one.

I would really like to do some of them before we leave next year. So getting the house clean before my days off is necessary to free up the time to get hiking.  Hopefully I'll be able to share some beautiful pictures with you all next week.

How about you my readers?  How do you find extra time in your schedule to get the things done that you need to do?