Fencing Ideas

I am far, far too cheep to pay for fences around the land I plan to look for. There is the whole upkeep bit as well.

Plus I'm lazy.

I did see a post about an elven spite fence. Long story short, they planted a row of fruit trees and flowers to piss off a neighbor. Useful, pretty and awesome.

I am thinking of just planing a row of poplars and willow around my property. Both plants grow very fast in my area. Poplars seem to grow any place and willows are great for wet areas. I wouldn't even need to spend money to start them because I can gather poplar seedlings at home and get willow cuttings while fishing.

They would also be good crafting supplies for me. This could save me money in the long run.

The only draw back is I consider poplars weeds because of how fast they spread. Willows have a shallow root system and rot fast. I don't know if they make good mulch but I will probably find out.

For a mid-high plant/bush I'm not sure what I would do.

I am rally leaning to letting a climbing rose grow free around the trees. Maybe in the front area I will. Then I think for the back areas I'll try to get wild grape vines going.

I might even set up a few fake bee hives to keep people away... And maybe I'll get lucky and bees will move in also.  :3

House Hunt part 3

The house I want to put a bid on.

It is old.

It has character.

It has so many churches around it my mom and I started laughing our self's silly every time we saw another church. There were seven traditional styled churches at a glance and then we kept finding smaller subtle ones.

The house is even being sold by the church.

We think it's the former pastors house. It's an 1800's house but this one has a perfect foundation and beautifully large basement. There is an odd little part but I didn't explore it because spiders. (the farm one didn't have that many spiders now that I think about it.)

There are two kitchens.

The The one upstairs is apart of an apartment. They nailed a few doors shut and had renters upsatirs at some point. This kitchen is perfect for studio work where I need a sink or oven. Ther rooms are tiny but nice.

Down stairs is perfect and not updated at all. It looks like they had used it for a historical display of some sort. The wood floors are amazing. Super high ceilings throught the house. The kitchen down stairs is awkward but I love it.

The backyard and side yards are tiny and weird and there is a shared path to the church. There is a 'garage' that I call a barn. I can't put my car in it but it works for so many other things. There needs to be a property line check because everything is so close together.

The front bushes would be the first things to go.

There are so many original things and because it was owned by a church, it's been taken very good care of. The initial investment to build it must have been insane.

This... will hopefully be the house I will be writing about.

List o' tumblr people

Ok, so I said I would do my best to link quality stuff to you all. Finding other blogs is proving to be just a tad more painful then I thought. So I am adding other sources to this.

http://systlin.tumblr.com/

Awesome person. Knowledge of an infinite amount of things. One of my side tumblr's might as well be a fan page to her because she is the main source of posts shared on it.


https://thebibliosphere.tumblr.com/

BookMom. Again, an amazing woman that is full of so much knowledge. <3 <3 <3 Tons of stories, writing and an original viral post that keeps showing up on her dash.


http://markruffalo.tumblr.com/

Yes, the Mark Ruffalo. All around good guy that is actually good.


https://ursula-vernon.tumblr.com/
and
http://tkingfisher.tumblr.com/

I have been following Ursula Vernons art & stories for years. The top link is kid friendly. The other is her more natural personal-ish blog. She is also awesome.


And... That is all I have for this round.

Star Plate Barn

I have been reading some other blog posts on star plate barns and I think I will be putting a few up. Or rather, I will be buying a few of the plates to make some and see how many others I put up after I build the first barn.

This is purely an aesthetics thing.

Moving beyond that, they will have some good and practical uses also. Mainly storage. Moving twice across the country while growing up was a good learning experience that storage is always needed. After one move from a smaller to larger house we still couldn't figure out how we had stored so much stuff in the prior one.

I know I will need the outdoor storage. Garage space has always been prime in my family and if I have barns then I can have my car in the garage. Assuming I don't end up using the garage as a work studio so I can stay in pajamas longer.

I also would like to see about adding solar panels to them. But I am not sure how far from the main house they can be before it's not worth it.

Secondary to this is if i can use one as a sudo guest house, it might be worth it to have an off the grid setup for family when they stay. Solar for light would be great and I might be able to get away with a portable thing as it would be more like a low budget cabin. But the restroom would be a problem. Plumbing is too expensive and I don't want to deal with outhouses.

Storage and space seem to be my big needs right now. So I will get at least one built.

Packing for storage

I just a few weeks ago I got another storage unit. Perhaps I should say second storage unit. I know I would eventually need a second one. I was just hoping I could cram everything into one.

Yeah, that didn't happen.

I have at least three rooms worth of stuff that I need to fit into the units. Most of this stuff is siting around loosely stacked. Not in boxes.

The short of it is, I was going to sell things online. My mom encouraged that but didn't realize that the items would be in the house until they sold. I also got some of the to sell and to keep items mixed up. So now I have a bug mess on my hands and in the basement.

The long story is, when I got my first unit my mom wanted me to bring most of it upstairs to get ready for the next day. She wanted to do 'just one more' load of laundry. She also wanted me to leave everything as it was because she could just walk around it. While carrying that last load of laundry she tripped on the boxes and smashed her elbow.

Yeah. I have just enough angsity while getting the car pack these days that I kinda avoid taking stuff to the unit. My mom doesn't blame me but she doesn't like it. She also really doesn't like it when I tell her to GTFO while walking around my stuff.

Today I made sure she was in designated safe places only. She was very amused.

This is my meandering way of trying to explain to myself why it has taken almost three years for me to not even fill my first unit.

I have probably spent $1,000 on shelving. I know I am going to spend more. This will all be re-used in my house when I get it. But it is a lot if money. Most people don't realize that you can NOT stack boxes on top of each other forever. I stack heaviest on the bottom and if I have done my packing right with the lightest on top... I can stack four boxes high. Thats it.

Any higher and the bottom one will collapse and then the things inside will get crushed. If I was living in a more humid place I could only stack three high. when the bottom box gets wet it will collapse. With the storage shelves i don't have to worry about that.

Plastic tubs can collapse also but I find they are more expensive and not worth it.

A little secret is that I worked at a storage and moving company for about six years. There was one employee that always insisted to people that you could stack boxes up to the ten foot celing in the units. They would always be the people that would complain that their things broke. The guy never listened when told not to tell people they could do that. He would just say "well, I guess that they just didn't do it right." He was perfectly safe from getting in trouble because the owner could pay him nothing for all the other work that he did.

So! do not over stack boxes! And don't start a business and leave it hanging after buying tons of crap. I'm off to re-arrange my units. Later all.

Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service

So... Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service is a thing I have heard some good reviews of, but there were not that many to start. It seems like it has been around for a bit but it's not really 'out there'? I don't know.

The wiki page has a link to each states section/school.

For New York State it's Cornell. I love that they have a page just to direct you to all the NYS offices. It makes things much easier.

There is actually a location by my parents house. I think I will try out a class or two even though it's about 45-60 min away. Annnnd.... It also looks like the site has a few pages that there last updated in 2015. There are a few from this year, but... eh.

I'm not quite sure home much my 'local' place can do with events/classes. But I will definitely keep this in mind when I get a home in the middle of no-ware. XD

House Hunt part 2

Ok! So another house from my hunt had a drug bust going on across the street when we arrived.

I can't even begin to tell you how much my mom was NOT HAPPY about this. My agent and I were trying to covertly snoop from the attic window with little to no luck seeing anything relevant but we had fun speculating and it. I am betting it was a hydro pot farm in the basement.

But on to the house.

The house was only needing cosmetic things.

The floors were mostly stripped. Probably someone started sanding them and gave up. It would literally be a breeze to finish sanding them and then seal them. Super high ceilings. The basement was a little damp but good solid walls.

It had endless amounts of character. I loved it.

Just not were it was. If this house had been on the farm land? Pure perfection. But it wasn't.

The drug bust across the street kinda killed the neighborhood for me. It just had a lot of little things like the streets were very narrow and we think the house next door might have been abandoned. People were out and about but... It just didn't have that home feeling.

So we kept looking.

Window trimmings

I know my mom will hate this, but I plan to make my own window covers for the winter & summer months. I will try and make some nice functionally decorative ones also because extra warmth is always good.

It would be like this:
-summer thin veils to let in the breeze but to keep out the harshest sun. (separate bar)
-decorative shades to look night and add warmth as needed.(separate bar)
-winter covers made of heavy-er fabric. (to be hung on summer bar with hooks)

I know this works because I have had my bed under a window during some very cold winters.

My mom hated the loose fabric I would fold over it but she relented when I had her reach past it. So much so that she almost borrowed some fabric for some other rooms. Unfortunately the pre-existing fixtures in the other rooms didn't work for this method. Currently I close my sisters (she moved out) bedroom door to keep the cold just to that room.

I have a small addiction to remnant bins at fabric stores. I have a lot of fabric and a sewing machine that I have use a grand total of one time. I plan on changing the latter as soon as I can.

I also plan to have any and all skylights ripped out. I hate them. They do nothing by leak and let in the cold.

But back to the drawing board.

House Hunt part 1

Ok so.... I might have found a house.

One of the top houses on my list was the dream tiny farm property in a pretty quiet place. It needed two things done to it. the power cable to the house and... something else that wasn't too bad. But it's an 1800's house and it felt like it. There had been a lot of updates to it but none in atleast the last twenty years.

There is a room that I have dubbed the Red Room. It looks like it should be the wall paper in a bordello. I kid thee not.

There is a root cellar with labels going back at least as far as 1965. you have to duck down to walk around in it. there are parts of the root cellar that are made to be just the right storage humidity. There is a curing room for onions and garlic and squash. There is a second kitchen that is actually a prep room for canning with a second massive sink and an old stove to die for.

This is when my agent really understood just how much I had been researching about all of this. It wasn't shocking but I think it made my wild selections easier to understand.

This is not the house I am putting a bid on.

I love it but there are glaring problems that will take a lot of time to fix. The walls appear to be a booby-trap of layers on layers of paint and wallpaper. There is carpet in both bathrooms and in both kitchens.

The foundation is crumbling to a point that looked worry-some.

But the yard is to die for.

I am keeping it in mind. If it was $10k or $15k less then I would jump on it. So for now it's on my list but it's not the one at the top.

And this kills me. It has every thing that I would do to it but... for now it's just on my list.

House Hunting!!

I am trying to write a post that is not just the words 'house hunting' over and over.

I can't. XD

I get to start house hunting! my agent has a day all planed out!!! I am SO EXCITED!!!!

*Happy Squee!!!*

/r/Homesteading

New thing found! /r/Homesteading FAQ is on reddit.

It's not super, super mad crazy in-depth, but it has a lot of basic information. Most importantly it has links to information. The main page for all the posts is a bit... weird.

There are good and bad. IT's reddit so... yeah.

On land and when your plans change

My whole goal is to have a nice tiny farm.

Currently, I think my tiny firm is going to be much, much smaller then I was hoping.

This is not a buyers market and most of the places that would be all the land I could possibly want? Way too far for me to commute to my job. It's a new one and I really love it. So now I am rather happy I was already making a list of things I could live without.

In order to get a house I can afford I have to let go of a dream of lots of land.

It... sounds easier then it was. I have been coming to terms with this for the last six months. I just can not afford it. I also can not live with out high speed internet and guess what? Way out in gods country the is no internet at speeds that don't bring me back to dial-up. I grew up with dial-up. I will not be doing that again.

What does this do? A lot of surprising things.

The first is that I can probably have a two story house. This was on my sacrifice list, but now not only could I have it, but I might also be able to get what is for me a move in ready house. I will be ripping up carpets and such but I could live in it.

The only new thing on my must have list is a garage. This is for my parents boat for the winter.

The hardest thing I found is that I have no idea what kind of a commute I am willing to live with. I was originally thinking of at most two hours. But that would mean possibly getting home at 8pm or later on some nights. Losing four hours of each weekday might be more then I can handle. I am still thinking about it for now.

It might be worth it if I was actually two hours closer to my sister.

So yes, my big mandatory land is now down to on that I can still feel comfortable with. This will change with the houses that I eventually get to look at because each will be different. If this was all happening 5 years ago then I would not worry about how much land I was getting because I would be selling the house after a few years as an investment. Not a flip.

But I don't want to start over again in five years. I'll be 40 by then. Personally I would rather be eating the fruit off my own trees instead of house hunting. But after this, who knows? maybe there would be another move.

But right now I just need to get my first house.

An Update full of Spite and Rage

So I am full of spite and rage. Which I posted about of my tumblr here.

Yes I am going to do this.

No, do not try this at home.

I have many reasons why I am able to do this. They are the same reasons I can't yet post about. I could also get screwed by doing this.

What I can talk about is that I now have a dead line to move out. My parents have finally planning to put the house up for sale in a few months. Since I am very obviously not moving with them, I now have the start of a dead line.

But I will say here that no, calling your bank person at 6:30 am and 7:00 am is not the way to their heart. I am hoping it'll be the way to the answers that they refuse to tell me via e-mail. Because saying yes or no when asked if I can start looking at houses and get a real estate agent is such a touchy subject.

The also refuse to give an estimate on what the final closing costs and escrow might be, but I was kinda expecting that.

So... I might have a few (Ha!) more rants showing up. But better you all learn from my bad experiences and plan your own what-would-you-do's to have just in case.

The backup plan

So, I have been slowly working on a backup plan if I can't get a house. It makes me twitchy saying that, but it has to be done.

Best case scenario?

I have a large cushion of savings. This will allow me to re-enter the First Time Home Buyers Program and try again. Which would also allow for more time to save and no weddings or multiple unexpected trips to eat it all up. It could be a good thing.

Worst case scenario?

I have money saved but I have to move with my parents and stay with them for how ever long. That is to say I would be stuck with them and if they sell their house before I can re-attempt my own hunt/purchase then I am stuck going to what ever state they might move to. I might have to get an apartment and another storage unit which would eat into my savings. I am pretty sure that if I move out of New York State that I will no longer qualify for the First Time Home Buyers Program.

That last bit is the worst.

Right now I have a few small ideas to get a little extra cash flow. Mostly I am getting my art & jewelry stuff going. I have a little writing but it isn't anywhere close to publishable yet. My first things to sell will be up on my art blog and cross-posted to tumblr. They will be sold with paypal invoices mostly because Etsy is doing weird things.

So, who knows until I get to talk to the bank. Once that happens I will have a followup post to this.

The Hedge of Hedges

There is this thing, its called an osage orange. To me it looks nothing like an orange. I heard it was once a food source for some find of mega fauna (see: thing, thing and moose)

they are commonly used as hedges.

i plan to do the same. Mine will not be organic at all because i will be watering and feeding them what ever commercial fertilizer makes them grow the fastest. This will be based on if i can find it on sale, because fertilizer is cheaper then building fences.

I will also be utilizing the 'living hedge' method of building this living wall/fence. Not just because of the cost comparison, but because of asethics. I think it will look really neat in the fall and winter.

I am only a little worried about what will start living in it.

I will assume birds so i will also spread native flower seeds around the hedge. Which will also help the local native bees. A small win/win.

I know it will end up being something that i set up and forget about every few years, but in this instance that might be a good thing.  

The Hunt is Closer

And the great house hunt is here!

Or it should be here... This is a qued post because I know my bank and my stress levels. My little sister will be getting married (and I'm the maid who is horrified of honor) that involved several trips to the city. A wonderful stomach flu that has a slow recovery. And did I mention that I don't trust my bank?

Yes, I will follow up with what actually happens, with out all the internal screaming that I know will be happening.

What should be happening is that The Bank will contact me that it's time to take the class! One that is supposed to teach you how to budget a house or something like that. Kinda in the vein of how having automatic transfers to a special account is supposed to mimic mortgage payments.

I don't know how many times the class meets or anything else that would be useful.

I do know that I don't feel that I have enough money saved up for the closing costs. I have an 'destash sale' planned to try an get closer to that goal. Unfortunately the wedding ate a lot more into my budget then I expected.

Once that class (or series of classes) is done? then I have to start house hunting.

That means I actually have to re-evaluate my need list. I plan on making a few 'need' lists so I can have options. I realize how strange that sounds, its more of if I sacrifice this, then these other things have to be there.

For example:
I will go with a one story house if it means I get a crap ton of land and a fishing stream. If it has a gas connection? I might sign then and there.

This is a harder method and I will be flipping through notes all the time... But it will keep me on track. Unlike my bank.

I really don't want to deal with the bank. I just want this done and over so I can start gardening.

The art of second hand

Once upon a time I thougt about selling second hand finds online. It didn't work out so I made a lot of donations. I also ended up finding a lot of neat and useful to me stuff.

I have all the dishes I could possibly want and Could probably go a month with out having to reuse the same dish. Yes I am going to weed stuff out. I have a lot of china but I also have a lot of chipped and 'other' things.

Most of the plates and glasses I got for $0.10 each.

After all that I can't really get myself to spend money of new store bought stuff unless there is either a real need or it fills a set. That doesn't mean I don't by knickknacks, but my impulse is a little bit more controllable out-side of a garage sale.

I will point out that I have been collecting things from garage sales since I was little.

Most of my very early finds were glasses, the odd one that would catch my attention. Next was canld holders, the weirder the better. Over ten years ago I found two large glass bowls while garage sale-ing with my aunt. It took almost ten years to find two more in my home state. These are one of the best finds (and I might have a custody battle with my parents for them).

This isn't to say I am not missing things that I wouldn't mind having. I just happen to have the majority of the basics, plus a few (of a ton) of fun stuff.

Pest Controle

This might be less pest control and more vengeance.

We get Japanese beetles out here. Beautiful but they decimate the garden. I have gone around with a jar of lightly soapy water and knocked the suckers into it. Then dumped that into a larger jug that I forgot on the deck in the summer sun & heat. My mom was not happy with this method.

I think this year I want to try shop vac-ing the suckers.

I can already predict my dad covering his face with his hands. My mom will probably start saying no. I think I can convince them with the satisfying sound the bugs will make as they ricochet into the dust collector.

I also have the fact that my mom used a similar method to take care of a ladybug infestation about twenty years ago.

I am almost looking forward to trying this.

Sun light and spot lights

I know this is the 80's & 90's talking, but I want to have some spot lights on my land. Fortunately I can get cheep solar lights these days. As I think about it, the led lights will probably cost more then that actual light fixture.

This is assuming that there is a feature that I want to be able to see at night. Like a nice gnarly tree. Maybe even a few angled just right to light up a porch table for an outside dinner or game night. Ooooh! A bug wall would be nice for science!

I wonder if it would help to deter deer?

Now that is an interesting idea. At the very least I would be able to spot them and chase them if needed. And by 'chase' I mean use an air zooka thing. I'll have to ask my friends if an air zooka would work...

Back to lights, I have always loved the look of a properly angled light shining into the branches of a tree. It almost has a spooky feel while keeping the worst of the shadows at bay.

Yeah, I am totally putting solar spotlights.

Hydroponics experiment

So there isn't a lot I can experiment with before I have my own house. My orchid in water is doing really good. The blossoms fell more from me smacking the crap out of it while cleaning then environment. A plus.

My new experiment? Mini Hydroponics.

I have gold fish and since they are little poop machines, I figured there wouldn't be too much harm in having a natural filter to help lower the nitrogen and nitrates in the water. I want a planted tank... But a few trips and they decided that the plants were tastier then the feeding cubes. Nosy little things.

I just now put a small rooted cutting of a philodendron. One of the common varieties. Not sure which as long ago it was in a flower basket that was gifted to my grandmothers wake. It is insanely hardy and stubborn.

The little cutting will be joined by a bulb of some kind. Probably a generic one that you find in the little glass things that arn't supposed to get very big. I will also get to learn how to deal with bulbs over the winter. Yeay?

On the real plus side, if I can get this to work, stepping it up to a real pond system shouldn't be too much worse.

A Rose to eat the house

I am... So very looking forward to a rooted rose cutting I might be able to buy. I just need to wait a month and a half or so until they grow roots.

I'm not worried at all because the person selling them is awesome!

Soon... XD

*EDIT*
Once I get the rose I will post more about what variety it might be and such. I just don't want to bombard the people with the roses just yet. Thank you.

Internet and a House in gods country

So... I use the internet. A lot. Not just for this blog but for fun and to sell art. It is a thing that i need to have access to. This is another not-so-small problem with my house hunt.

Because i want a good deal of land, i have no idea if the area would have cable or better internet. This might actually make or break a house. This is a need.

The only exception would be the perfect house on the perfect land that was way under budget. That would be the only reason i would happily go without internet. So i will probably have to make sacrifices on house, location, size or price.

To think i just found a site that made it look like i had more options then i knew. I don't think any of them mentioned internet. One or two had tvs on so they might have cable because i hadn't seen any satilight dishes.

This... This is a pain.  

Air circulation to fight allergies

Seriously, air circulation to fight allergies will help.

This is why I am so interested in getting little solar powered fans all over my house. I'm finding some reviews of the pre-made stuff doesn't live up to my needs. and some of the instructions for a DIY is a lot out of my league.

If I can get the right set up, Oh how wonderful it would be!

I have dust & mold & pollen allergies (to name a few) and I found that having my window open, even in winter, let me breath better. This revelation didn't happen easy, only after my window crank broke and I found I needed a fan. I had to add plants to get the lack of humidity fixed enught to sleep, byt my fish tanks helped the most. While I didn't drop an absurd amount of cash on a humidifier, it might have been easier. (The prices seem to have started to come down...)

Once I have my own house I will have plants every place and a much larger fish tank. Yet all that natural humidity dosen't do me any good if its just sitting in one spot.

Thus the hunt for fans that won't add to my electric bill.

Some day I would love to be off the grid 100%. Doing it myself with a newly purchased old house? Nope. I couldn't make the instant change even if it was a fully off the grid house that I started with. I'm just too needy for electricity right now.

Dream Land

Yes, dream land. The house is important but so is the land it is on.

Needs:
-as large as possible
-a Barn
-water of some kind
-working driveway
-???

Wants:
-River
-Barns
-Pond
-Established orchard
-raised flower beds
-sewer connection
-???
-???
-???
-???
-???

Ok, so my list needs a lot more work. I have... some time left?

Meep.

Another test

Because the first set of posts had the image that there was a new post... but not the link.

You know, that tiny little thing that lets people actually read what the update is?

Time to see if this is fixed now.

*UPDATe*

It worked! yeay!

. . . I should probably be responsable and put links on the other posts on twitter... but not today.

Cover crops

If I am going to start with a lazy first and second year farm/garden I will have to start with some cover crops to kill off the weeds. The most important part is that is must die in the winter. If not, then it just becomes another weed.

The first problem is figuring out what zone my possible house will be in.

I... am looking at the whole of NYS right now for a potential home. I have no problems looking for a new job when the time to move hits. And while my family wants me as close to NYC as possible, I would prefer closer to Sarratoga. Or, ya know, were ever my dream house is.

Oats for wet ground and oats for the bees. There is mention of oilseed radishes also. And since Clover is a traditional thing, I'll probably have that as well.

Oh yeah, and sunflowers.

If I recall, most of New York was in zone 7. But I heard something a few years (in 2012) ago about the zones being changed or expanded? After looking at this map I am way wrong. NYS is a mix of 6-4. Well crap.

Yeah, I have a lot of research to do.

A small thing

So, incase anyone was wondering... I will not be buying anything buy a certain green with yellow trim company. I have seen to many cheep and crappy products to be comfortable buying them.

Recently I have found verified stories that were even worse.

So, no. That company will not be anything I buy.

The Saga of the Trees

Currently at my parents I have four trees that i need to dig up. Three are Japanese split leaf maples and the other is a trident maple. Originally i had gotten them to turn them into bonsai. This plan has fallen soundly into the 'not happening for a long time' list.

I planted them out side because they needed to bulk up their trunks. This is a normal bonsai technique. Unfortunately i don't have the same dedication to learning the art anymore. More so because i tend to slowly kill them once they are in smaller pots. There are only so many times you can over water & forget to water them before they keel over.

For the four that I am moving, over the years that they have been growing outside and they have become wonderful. The Japanese maples are leggy but will look great in the yard. The longer branches are still bendable enough to train into flowing shapes that will be too large for bonsai. Cutting them back at this point would not make make for good bonsai material.

The trident maple is a bit of a different story. It is ugly but it might work as a bonsai. I had to cut it back because it was looking like it would eat the house. (hint: don't plant small saplings near houses. They will grow big & eat the house.) It was a pretty drastic cut that got me thinking that it could look nice as a bonsai. Maybe.

This is all with out looking to see how any of the roots are doing.

I figure the best test will be when i dig them up in the 'spring'. I will have to bare root them because ground dirt doesn't work in pots. So they will be switched to potting soil for the next year or so. I will also add... That white light rocky-stuff to the mix to help with drainage. It will also keep the very large pots light enough to move around until i can plant them again.

This is going to be a very big project.

The second worst problem will be getting as much of their roots as possible. The shock of the transplant will be worse if they have no roots.

The very worst problem is how close to the house they are. I really, really hope they didn't do anything to the foundation.

For the bonsai the roots are best when they spread out and then down. Large tap roots get chopped off early on. I think i did that and spread the roots but that leaves the last... Five or more years for the roots to do what ever they want. Which knowing my luck would be right into the hosta growing with them.

I would take the hosta too but they do *not* do well in pots at all.

This will take a whole day to do. Mostly due to the logistics of were they are currently growing. Oh, sprinklers... I need to do more research.

Here is hopping i can get them up and into pots before they start to open their buds.  

The hidden evil of Closing Costs

It just kills me to see all of the emphasis put on the down payment. All the top articles in my searches are all about the big down payment. Blah this and blah that. Yes, a down payment will be a big chunk of cash.

Closing Costs are worse.

Closing costs are the devil in the detail of the realty world. No one likes to talk about them. Instead they seem to like springing an extra $20,000+ bill on you. Yes, it is mentioned when you go to get pre-approved, but it's mostly glossed over. Because who dosen't have that extra $20,000+ laying around for house hunting? On top of the fabled 20% down payment?

Doesn't everybody? *crickets chirp in the background*

Yes, people will talk about seller concessions. The TV shows certainly do, almost all of their house hunters seem to get sellers to cover 100% of the closing costs. That sellers will always pay closing costs! Blah, blah, blah!

This is, of course, a very big lie.

See, in New York Start sellers can only pay a max of 6% for closing costs. No more and probably less because even that small 6% can be a lot depending on the price of the house you want.

Think of it this way, 6% of $100,000 is $6,000. So that would be the max amount you could ask them to pay. Assuming 20% down payment, that would knock a $26,000 closing cash cost down to $20,000. If the math works out like that, which chances are it wont.

My goal is to save up as much as possible. I was originally also going to pull $5,000 from my 401k (but now thougs people are flipping around their own rules for what I can & can't take.) to bring my total cash on hand up to $12,000. Add in the $7,500 from the program grant and I will have $19,500.

But!!!

The bank wont do the mortgage unless you have 6-ish months worth of potential mortgage payments saved in the bank. That number gets taken away from what you are bring to this, not from the grant. This is why all the math is very, very muddy and no one wants to put their name on anything in case its wrong.

You really have to assume that you will be wheeling and dealing during the closing processes. This is one of the main reasons you want a great realtor and bank on your side.

In my case I am going to have to find the holy grail of realtors.

Personally I am going to try and find one with a lot of sales with the first time home buyer programs and a lot of experience on top of that. I do not want to be someones first foray into the world of realty. I also need to see about selling some things to bring my cash pool up. All's work in house hunting.

So you want an orchid

First and foremost, if this is you have never had an orchid before do not waste money on expensive ones. They are not good for beginners because they will need an established setup for humidity and can have wildly different light needs.

That said, I have abused orchids for a long time.

The best starter orchids are the super discount ones from the big box garden stores. They have dropped their flowers and look like crap. The bigger ones can be found for about $3 average and some of the tiny ones as low as $1. Most of them will turn out to be white but if you look in the base of the plant you might see a withered and dried flower and might be able to find a different colored one.

With these abused orchids they will have very wrinkly and wilty leafes. Which is fine because it means it was under watered. New leaves that grow in will not be like that unless you are doing something wrong.

If the leafs are yellow it's a goner. If only the bottom most leaves are yellow then it still has life in it. Especially if the discount rack is out side because a lot of them were grown in greenhouses and are not used to full sun. Dark-ish to vibrant green is what you want to look for.

You also want to look at the roots. There are two types of roots. One type is in the potting soil (green to white) and the other is the artsy looking root that grows out of the pot (silvery green). If the root look black and moldy ditch it.

If there is still a flower stem on it that isn't dried up, I would jut leave it on for now. You might get lucky and get a bloom off of it. But chances are it'll eventually die off.

Now comes an interesting choice for you.

While you can either leave it in the same pot that it came in, it's been out side and probably has fungus gnats living in it if it was over watered repeatedly. There is a chance that even if you re-pot it and change the bark or sphagnum moss that you will over water it and the bugs can still show up.

Or... You can re-pot it in just water.

I just started playing with this method. For the cheep durable orchids from the big box stores I thinks this (so far) a great beginner method. Contrary to what all the video and articles say about it.

For the container I prefer clear glass. This lets me see the water level. A thick walled glass vase with a big opening is great. I have one in a vase that looks like an upside-down cone. It's very think walled because this will help prevent the glass from breaking if the roots adhere to it. The opening has to be big because you want to be able to remove the plant from it if the roots grow too big. Or if the flower spike grow into the container you can easily take it out to adjust it.

You need to get the orchid out of the pot and take all the potting medium off the roots. You have to be careful because the roots can adhere to the sides of the pot. You want to try and leave as many roots on the plant as possible. They will also attach to the potting medium. Water helps.

Once that the roots are clean, before you ad the water, you tuck up the roots under it and place it in the vase. The leafs should keep it from falling into the container and will let the roots dangle.

Then you fill it about halfway up the roots with water.

You don't want to fill it all the way because that will drown the plant. But too little and it will dry out. This will take watching the orchid and seeing how it reacts. Learning how to make it happy will pay off because they will seem to keep their flowers longer.

Why do I really like this method?

My first orchid had flowers when I bought it. After they dropped it took almost two years for it to put out another set because I hid it in a bad spot in my room. Then a year or two later it put out a massive flower spike after I moved it to the floor of my parents kitchen were it got a ton of sunlight.

It was happy right up until fungus gnats moved in.

My patents had started to 'help me' water it. And by help I mean I poured rotting water out of on container. The planting medium rotted and gnats started living in it and their larva was eating the roots. It was the stuff of nightmares when I saw the wiggling surface at night.

To get rid of the bugs you have to throw away all the potting medium and wash the roots with water i the sink. There is a spray you can get but it can water proof the roots... My large one had almost no roots left and I had to move it back to my room. Bye bye flowers.

I also switched everything to a very fast-drying pot setup. It was too fast and they died from drying out too many times. There is a limit to the stress you can put them through but so far the water method has worked for my test orchid. This summer I will be watching the big box stores to add more to the mix. So... Time will tell.

Oh Zillow

Oh... I have such a love hate relationship with this site.

Mine you, the site is fantastic. I just can't buy any of it right now.

I have a few that soundly hit everything on my list. A few I have seen come on and off the market over the last few years, so I always get excited again.

I do this to my self.

It's a great way to see what I want, as I always tell myself... The pangs of want are strong. Even in my small price range. Now, if I really want to suffer I just have to increase my price range by 10-20k more (which is soundly out of my range) and then the pangs are more... solid.

But in my wallet.

I'm going to try and not look again until I can actually make a purchase. So, 5-6 months. Yeah... We will see about that.

As for how I am limiting my price rage? I am going by the max I might have for closing costs. Which includes the down payment. Right now it is laughably low. about 12k. In theory I should be able to save another 5-6k which could bring it closer to my goal of 20k.

If I could actually sit my butt down and make &sell artwork and jewelry I might be able to bring that up a lot more. But I have a few kinks in that department that is holding it off. Namely taxes and how the heck do I pay social security? After I get some supplies in I will start to crank out the art& jewelry so I will be ready to sell.

I have so much to do. Definitely going to try and stay off of zillow for a bit.

Another Blog: The Walden Effect

Alright! So, The Walden Effect is a great blog.

I can't wax poetic about them because I don't have the words, but they are so very, very good. I started at the very beginning and it took me about two months to read up to the current posts. I will point out that it was Nov/Dec '16 and there was lots of family traveling and holidays.

There were also work nights that I would stay up to about two am reading.

The writing is fantastic and the experiences that I learned from... I can safely take farm animals that are not pets off my list. Very, very off my list.

There is just so much information. So much that she has written books! This is definitely a blog to get you into how the whole homesteading thing works.

On Bonsai

So, I used to work on bonsai for a hobby. This was a very passive thing. Living at home made my work space very limited. While i have probably killed one or two with forgetting to water them, the majority have died from being over watered.

My parents assisted with the over watering because they would peek into my room to 'help'. Many words were spoken when i found that out.

I have four ginkgo that look like awkward teenaged seedlings even though three are about 4-5 years old. The fourth is 5-7ish.

I have eight ficus. They are five different kinds with the other three being cuttings.
-one i won in a contest and is very picky and will drop leaves when it feels like it should be offended.
-another i got from a big box store and it has weird round leaves.
-i have a very tiny and abused one that is still kicking from when i started this about ten years ago.
-then there are the cuttings. One cutting is from a few years ago and the others from a few months ago.
-the problem child is one whose roots rotted. After copping the old roots off it would not grow back when put in water. It was weird. When they did grow i put it in damp soil but it seems to have given up. Several years ago i had to do the same thing but it had grown new roots in the water in a few weeks.

I do enjoy poking around with them. They are all in 'bonsai soil' which is pea sized rocks. It works very well for the large trees but with the small ones i had to switch some of them to potting soil because they are drying up far to fast this time. I will switch them back a year after they look stable.

And to think i wasn't going to keep up with the bonsai thing again.  

For the old Blogging days

It's weird to be saying this, but I miss the old or early days of blogging.

Once upon a time it used to be really easy to find active blogs. Everyone was blogging. Everyone was talking about it and talking about people they know that were doing it. It was relitivly easy to find new blogs or people that knew of blogs.

I am finding out that it's not really like that any more.

I had seen this with webcomics a few years before blogs started to bite the dirt. Tumblr (of which I have and link posts to) probably helped to kill it also,

Personally I will keep this going because its a good thing to have for other people. It's also good for me.

As I find them I will post about them. It won't be fast because I like to read the whole archive to know who I'm talking about. I have one so far that I think you will all enjoy once I finish the post.

Here is to the next golden age of blogging.

All the time yet not enough

When I started with the First Time Home Buyer things... It seemed like I had so much time to do nothing but sit around and wait. Ten months seems like a very long time. The person at the bank I am working with further encouraged this thinking by saying when all was said and done I would only have six months to find & close on a house.

I will never say that my bank person was a good bank person. Never.

As I am writing this, I think that I will get in touch with a realty person. I think that they might have a much better hand on what and when I will need things. Plus they might be better able to answer some burning questions...

Such as:
-How often to first time home buyers get sellers concessions?
-Are there location limitations with in NYS?
-WTF are the time limits?
-Farm land, I can haz?
-Why did I do this to myself?

Just a basic run of the mill list of questions.

Oh who am I kidding? I'm going to be a gibbering mess when I finally get to talk to someone that knows how this all really works. 

First Time Home Buyers thing

Oh do I have a horror story for you. In fact, I am still living it because it's not over & has just barely begun. I live in New York State. So I contacted the local bank that had the highest recommendations. Things should have been easy. A lot of it was easy.

The hard part was my person at the bank didn't ask if I had any businesses.

They did ask if I was employed, but that doesn't cover if you own a business. Most micro business don't make money. Mine sure doesn't right now.

The road block here was that in April of 2016 they, the government, changed the rules for what you have to do differently if you own a business. They now require a professional accountant prepared Profit & loss statement for the prior year and the current year.

My bank person was very hands off and did not answer any of my questions but would only say that they would be taking care of things and to do the complete opposite of the information that they copy&pasted into the e-mails to me.

After a very calm but angry letter that I sent I finally got real answers that they thought I needed. I would have to resubmit some paperwork because they had expired after the month that the person had been trying to push my application through. That person insisted that another would send me what I needed and it ended up being them.

When I finally received my acceptance note so I could make my new account, it was on a holiday weekend and followed by a sudden trip the next. Why didn't I know that there was a 15 day limit to getting it set up? Because it hadn't been in the body of the email. it was tacked into the certificate itself.

Let me tell you, I have left panicky voicemails in my life. None as bad as this. My mom's friend's cousen worked at the same bank. I called her and then two days latter I stopped by because I hadn't heard anything from her. It was the last day to set it up. I found out the phones were messing up and she set everything up asap for me and was so very helpful. And mortified because she hadn't gotten back to me. She also asks if I have take the home owners class-thing yet. I said no.

So, after that near fiasco... I didn't hear anything for a bit. I shoot an e-mail to the original person that is suposed to be 'helping' an e-mail asking when I can take the class. They seemed put off that I would ask so soon because that happens 'later'. Considering the time crunch this person implied, that I only have two years total from the start of the prosses to the last minuet, to close on the house... Ten months that are taken to saving only with a 'few months' for setting up the closing paperwork...

Yes I am worried. Some people have had other problems with this bank. I just know that I will be writing some kind of letter about this person. God help me if they manage to screw this up and I don't get a house. I would flip out... and then write angry letters.

I will say, that for the grant of $7,500 it is almost worht the run around. Almost. I will be posting updates as I find out about them.