insta- what now

Trying to get things going again. I have a few posts that just need editing.

And then there is the bit about the person that stole seed pods from my front garden. We think it might be the same person that stole flowers from my neighbors garden. He did it right in front of her!

I need to go back at some point to fix all the instagram photos. Add more text for what is happening in them.

It would be nice if google supported the Blogger app. That would have made my life a lot easier.

So many things to do.

Blue Butterfly Pea Update

So a sooner update then I expected, because only one two of the 50 seeds grew.

I am not happy. I'm not surprised either.

Right now I am going to assume that I messed up. If I get any seeds from these plants (if they even live that long...) then I will be happy.

Again the internet is torn on what is good info. Basically if they are self pollinating or not. The majority seem to think that they are and I do not have the skill to do it by hand.

On the (oooh I just heard thunder!) good side is that I think the bunny that was hopping about took the hint and skidadeled. The squirrels, unfortunately, have not. I keep seeing little holes in my pots from their digging.

Oh well.

House photos

I forgot to link my instagram CrzyArtist to this blog. Which sucks because I have started taking and posting house pics there thinking that they would show up here as well.

There might be mass photo posts because of this on the weekends while I take forever to move.

My mom says I only have a few more boxes in the basement, my room and a few bits of furniture left here. Then I have one and a half storage units left to get to my house.

Did I mention that my house is about an hour from my parents? So far we have averaged one trip each day of the weekend. One hour there and another hour back. My friend helped us do two trips one Saturday.

After I can actually live/sleep there I will be able to post pics of all the stuff/crap/jimmy hoffa. I will be having a moving company move the bits of large furniture. After I measure the stairwell because it's so tiny.

Then painting... Then more and more and more things.

I bought a house

And thing just keep getting more & more insane.

Interestingly... The bank might have been the easy bit.

I have very, very little land. So not additional barns or living fences. XD There are a few good spots that I might be able to grow some things.

And then there are the holly bushes.

I don't want to waste them, but I don't have a spot for them. I will try and bonsai some but... They are probably going to be chopped up. The only person I know that might take them is an online friend that lives far and away.

There are other bushes in the front that I might also make into bonsai... or chop up.

All the bushes get to wait until the spring before I can do anything.

I also figured out the most evil and yet... peaceful thing? I am gong to build a massive trellis and let a climbing rose try and eat it. It'll be about 5' - 4' away from my house, but there is a little nook that is just 2' - 3' deeper? My mom was a touch horrified but loves the idea.

The evil bit is that it's on the side of the house that is facing the house with kids. but since I need ever bit of my land and I hate mowing... away it will go. At least for now.

I think I'll be doing container gardens this first year. I'll be covering a pathway with them because I can't rip the pathway out like it was implied.

The massive wisteria thing will be getting an extension to grow taller. It's on the old iron cloths line bar... so it's a bit short but at least half as old as the house?

That is about the end of the practical ideas.

My non-practical idea is putting a deck on the house at about a story up. There would be no ground access. Just a door or two from the second floor. And maybe have it wrap around from the front to the back (to act as a car port thing) with a third floor deck?

yeah... That is serious $$$$$ that I will probably never have. But oh, would it give me so much space. So much space. In a few years I might try and crunch some numbers to see how 'not gonna happen' it is.

Uhmm... There was a small heating thing that was fixed. The locks are supposed to be getting updated soon and then the internet will be added.

My dad has been going up there for me because he is retired. This was very lucky. He would go fishing but it's winter and the weather is full of no.

I am... still trying to move everything. Every weekend since I found my house has been insanely busy. And crazy. I even have furniture now. It's weird.

House pics once I move in. It wont be the whole house, just the cool bits and projects. I promise.

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.

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.

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.

Looking past the crazy

Ok! I'll be blunt. There is a lot of crazy in this world.

A.

LOT.

A lot more then I ever expected and I have been on the net since 1994. Yeah. I had no idea how much was there until a few years ago when I was looking up info on foods with out high fructose corn syrup in it. I did find a nice page with a lot of stuff listed, so I thought it might have more good stuff on the site.

They were... a bit extreme about... everything. Way beyond my comfort zone.

Basically I will assume that at some point people will think the same of me. Best to get it out of the way as best I can.

Things I wont talk about here:
-religion
-political crap

I will be talking about laws involved with urban farming, tiny house movement, and complaining about my bank. The other things? I have an opinion blog and that is were I like to keep all that crap.

I will try to make sure I don't post to any extreme sites At the very least not with out a healthy and bold warning about following any links.

I'm getting ranty. Sorry.