Well Hell

Look who is now riding a bike? Mr. Tucker. I realized he was close yesterday so we loaded up the kids today and went to the park, got about 1/2 way around the track and I felt he was ready, so we put the peddles back on the small bike and let him go. Oh good gravy. BUT he finally got it and took off. Finished that lap and stopped at the van for a water break. And that is when Buddy took Tucker down. I put this crying kid on the bike and told him to go.

I know I could have easily been called mean mom, but he wasn't thinking about the peddling he was thinking about the pain and off he went. Nearly around the track. Oh look Tuck you can ride a bike. So back to the van and we put him on Cole's bike and off he takes. He does have an issue with starting and stopping. But after dinner we ran up the road and worked on that. His first breaking he landed in a bush. Had to fish him out and I put a crying kid back on his bike and told him to go! He now gets a bike of his own. 

Tell ya Cole is right behind them. Another day or two and I may have three bike riders?

Welcome a new family member. I want to do sauerkraut and I wanted to get a crock, so we ran south to a place that sells a lot of canning stuff. This was half price compared to Amazon. It will be the first of many. But I didn't plant that much cabbage so this is just a starter. Work on it and see how we like it and go from there. If we like it, then lets go cabbage crazy next year.  I just wanted a 2 gallon, hubby talked me into a 3 gallon. who I'm I to say no? See if we can add a 5 gallon next year. Go from there. I'm super excited. 

Speaking of hubby, probably won't be a weekly update this week. Work isn't paying him his sick leave. So right now our check is laugh-able. Of course there is an email now and a phone call tomorrow. Hoping tomorrow to have an answer and a pay date! But this is why I don't allow him to take days off. It's a fight to get paid. He gets sick leave but good luck using it and collecting on it. If he is sick he goes to work if his back is hurting he is going to work. It shouldn't be like that. But crap if there is something to fix, this would be it. If you get sick leave allow people to use it without jumping through 15 billion hoops!

Weekly Update & Mortgage Challenge

YES! I know it's been a few weeks. I'm trying. But that massive garden I have is demanding all of my time right now. The boys are out giving it some time every morning, moving it forward. Making great strides.  Should be harvesting turnips later this week.

Boys goofing off!

Bunches of Oranges on the orange tree. Exciting.

This marshmallow. OH this marshmallow, we got it rolled into the goat pen, then my awesome husband tried to lift it without me. To turn it upright. Well you try lifting 200 plus pounds, it didn't go well. He throw out his back so bad he thought he was dying. Just dying. I tried to calm him down, but nope he was dying. Wanted me to call 911, he was dying. So I called 911 and they came and took him away, I finally found someone to watch the kids so I could go and sit for hours on end in the ER. No x-ray nothing you just pulled it really good. Two rounds of hard drugs and 4 very long hours we were headed home. Doctor telling him he wasn't dying. Just too much pain for your body at the time.

I got the joy of dealing with everything. Had to go and pick up the kids, run by his work because now he gets a week off. I was so burnt out after getting home, but no had to water, and do everything. Tell ya after two days he was done and ready to go back to work. He is now back at work and doing just fine.

Then I have this turkey. Well all my kids are turkeys. So I got in a mood a few weeks ago. Here Ethan is nearly 11 and doesn't know how to ride a bike yet. Mostly our fault, we live on a dirt road, we never have any money for a bike. So for three weeks I saved up and we got Cole a brand new bike. Figured Ethan and Tucker could learn on that then they can get a bigger bike. So we got a bike and training wheels and off we went. Well except the training wheels didn't fit. So we returned them. And in me thinking there has to be a better way. I was on You Tube and let me just say OMG. 

So you take off the peddles and you let them get balance, once they have balance and are keeping their legs up, you put the peddles back on and let them go. So this morning we took off the peddles and went up to the park. For a good hour the boys were walking their bikes around the park (we had a small old bike, Cole's new bike, and a borrowed bike), Ethan finally got it and took off. So after dinner, we put the peddles on the bike and off he went. In under two hours that child was riding a bike. So we moved him up to Cole's bike because it's bigger then the tiny old bike we had and started him on. He took off on Cole's bike. 

So after some more practice on that he can get his own bike. Now Tucker has the smaller bike, it's his turn, he thinks he will be riding by the end of the week. Forcing mommy to find money for two new bikes before our camping trip. But it was so exciting to see him out riding. Can not believe it was that easy for him to learn. He did not want to come in tonight, just all over the place. Although he is sore in the behind area....Two hours on a bike will do that.

On the money front, we seem to be doing ok. I've been cutting back on food and a lot of no's and saving money. Which is how we got a bike. Found out about Mortgage Recasting. Basically you send them a large sum of money, and a fee and ask for a recasting. And they shake up your loan and you get a smaller payment, but your rate and loan time stays the same. Been thinking on that. If I were to put the 132 aside for the next 18 months and send them that and ask we could drop our monthly payment by a lot. But I don't think we qualify because we normally go FHA, I am not sure we did that last time, we streamlined, but did we streamlined FHA? And would it remove PMI? On the flip side I like seeing the house amount drop every week. We are now under 118k which is exciting. Currently 117,971.00 We are thinking on the recasting and may call with our questions.

Weekly Update & Mortgage Challenge

And it has been a week! First off Mr. Vader, the BIG dog has left. His momma came and got him. Boy has he missed her. She came over to tell me she was going to pick him up later. He sat at that front door waiting for her.

And this little one has missed him something awful! Very depressed over loosing his brother. Although I didn't realize how big Vader was until he was gone. The house feels so empty, I don't have a big dog under foot. Just everything so quiet.

We got the hydroponics set up this week. These are just test tubes. We are in the midst of building an A-Frame that will house the tubes. But until then they are on saw horses. I have lettuce in one and strawberries in another.

Pretty.

I'm testing a cucumber in a bucket. I saw someone do cucumbers on You Tube, BUT the guy had nine plants in one hole. HELLO. You can't put nine in one hole and expect it to work well. I have one in this hole. We will see what happens?

Trying lettuce in a tub. I plan on doing tubs in the green house over the winter. So we will see?

So much going on this week. My mother is retiring. Oh yeah. She says she plans on spending more time down here. Oh Lord help me! 

Max the goat is really sick. It's like one of his stomach's has stopped working. It's the oddest thing. Hay will go down and come up, but not go down again it gets stuck. Mind you this goat hates me, so it was something when he wanted in the house so I brought him in and gave him some grain, and realized something just isn't right. So we got the joy of pining him down and removing everything. Oh after that he felt great. Ate some grain and back out. But he won't eat hay and he lightly grazes. So I bring him out once a day and fed him grain. He may be grain fed for the rest of his life. He is nine so he is getting up there in years. We will just see how things go. At least he stopped running from me and is letting me treat him or he would have passed on by now. 

Spent the week planting, planting and more planting. Have 181 tomato plants in the ground. Yeah, went a wee bit over board again? All the beds are just full. I still have 7 flats left in the green house. 3 are just tomatoes. No idea what to do if they get tall enough to plant? I have a lot of fine tune planting to do now. 

On the Mortgage front. Went from 118,634 to 118,235.62 had an issue with our numbers. Finally got them in order. Made no sense as nothing was off, but something was just off. So it took me a few extra days to pay the mortgage. Had to be sure the money would be there.