North America

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All Macs Go To Heaven

My Macbook Air has been behaving poorly for a few weeks. Now that I have a more stable internet connection, I was finally able to run a bunch of diagnostics and confirm that my SSD (solid state drive) is failing, which is not surprising for this particular machine. In fact, it was expected and replacing my computer in late 2015 was on the books.

I have one of the first generations of Macs with a SSD and there were problems with some of the drives, as there often is with generation 1.0. This would have likely been a warranty item had it happened sooner, but this machine is four years old, so I’m out of luck. In addition to a new hard drive, I need more RAM and a new battery, so I’m looking at replacing rather than repairing at this point.

I bought my first/last brand new Mac eight years ago. Since then, I’ve played the used Mac market well and replaced my older Macs with newer ones for very little money because of the trade in value of my older units. My current Macbook Air cost me absolutely nothing and I haven’t even put any money into it. It has served me very well for two years, but it is a four year old machine, so it’s time to go to Mac heaven. And by that, I mean eBay. I should be able to get $500 or so for it by advertising it honestly for parts (in pristine condition, it’s still worth just over $1,000). Not bad for an older dying computer that was free!

Apple has made a lot of changes in that time to both hardware (mostly connectors) and software. I am getting exponentially behind and increasingly fearful of switching to the new operating system because, well, I don’t handle computer change very well. 🙂

Even so, after much thought, I’ve decided that my next Mac is going to be brand new, just to reset the clock, so to speak. I want another Macbook Air because of the battery life and slim profile, but everything I’m seeing used or refurbished only has 4GB of RAM. I made the mistake with my last brand new Mac of not being patient, buying off the shelf, and being stuck with not enough RAM within a year. My current machine has 4GB and it isn’t enough. So I might as well bite the bullet and go the custom route. Plus, by buying new, I get the full warranty and a capital expense that will help me with my taxes!

I built my dream MBA on the Apple store to get the final cost so I could figure out how much I was short and make a plan to scrape together the rest. It was surprisingly reasonable. I’m glad I’ve stepped away from the MacBook Pro. Since I’ve known this day was coming for a while, I’ve been putting a little bit aside for months and was hoping to buy just before leaving for Mexico at the end of October. (No, I wouldn’t save anything by waiting and buying in the States.)

However with two hard crashes in as many days, I don’t have the luxury of time and I need a new computer ASAP…

Because I don’t know yet just when the new job pays (there’s apparently a cheque in the mail) and with transcription being too slow right now to do much more than cover the essential bills for August, I’m loathe to empty out savings and bridge the gap with credit to buy the computer right this second. So I’m hoping my current Mac can last another 60 days or so, the amount of time it will take for the July money to fully roll in and for Apple to get the new Mac to me.

But at the rate the hard crashes are coming, I think my hand is going to be forced and that I’ll have to buy as soon as the expected cheque lands in the next 10 days or so (if it really is in the mail). Which will mean being tight for a bit, but, hey, my expenses here are low and my food stores are topped up. I can ride this out!

It wouldn’t have been so long ago that imminent computer meltdown would have been a crisis. Now, it’s just a cash flow issue thing. Things are really improving! 😀

Next problem, where do I get the darn thing shipped? Of course, Apple won’t ship to a PO box and I’ll need decent internet to set it up. I really need to make a friend in Moose Jaw! 🙂

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A Surprise At the Grocery Store

I have to say that the Assiniboia Co-Op grocery store has really improved since last fall!!! I’m not just talking about the upcoming expansion, but about what they are stocking. They have a lot more international foods, a better deli section, fresher produce, and more. I just came out of there having spent $120 and I didn’t feel that I got robbed. That’s very high praise!

When I got to the till, I asked to speak to a manager about having something brought in. A manager came by and I asked about the possibility of stocking Maseca, the only reason I was thinking of heading to Moose Jaw for a shop (and if that ain’t proof that our Co-Op is on an upward swing, I don’t know what is!). I had to explain what Maseca is and he said, “OH! Come with me!”

He brought me to the ‘Mexican’ food aisle and pointed to something on the very bottom shelf. “We only JUST brought this in this week. We have a couple of Mexican customers who asked for it.”

No, not Maseca, but one of their competitors:

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I already knew that it’s kind of a Coke/Pepsi thing, with strong sides in favour of one or the other, but essentially an equivalent product.

He said that he could try to bring in Maseca for me, but it’d be a few weeks. I told him no, that I was pretty sure this would do. So he said, “Well, I’ll give you a discount for being so open minded.”

I thought I might get 50 cents off or something. The bag was $7.99 and he rang it up at… $4.99!!! He made my day!

So now, my deep freeze is absolutely loaded with good stuff after this shop. I managed to catch a two for one plus additional discount on the pork loin chops I love and they had these pre-sauced single portions of salmon for just $2.99 instead of $6.99 (and an equivalent portion of non-sauced salmon was about $5.99), so I loaded up on those. I also got enough frozen pizza (bought six for $2o) that I separated into portions to get me through till I leave. I also got ground beef (my first time since adolescence buying some) as well as ground pork to make burgers!

I came home with another goodie from an unexpected source. I went to the Salvation Army to look for organizational stuff for my shed (struck out), but as I came out the clerk said to help myself to ask much bread as I wanted, pointing to a bin.

They frequently have free food, so I wasn’t surprised to get an offer for some. I’ve come home from the Salvation Army with canned soups on more than one occasions. I think they’re leftovers from the food bank, which they run. Anyway, there were mountains — literally dozens — of still pillowy soft not even past date bread, all from the Co-Op! White, whole wheat, raisin, cheese, olive, quite a variety!

Now, I’m avoiding bread (except, you know, the odd bit of pizza… *g*), but I thought a loaf of cheese bread would be really good for burgers, so I grabbed it. It was marked $5. I would never pay that for a loaf of bread!

The clerk assured me that it would not be greedy of me to leave with a dozen loaves… Yeah. That’s the last thing I need, a freezer full of bread! I was very happy with the one. 🙂

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Another Labour Saving Device For the Kitchen

Last summer, after receiving a huge pile of zucchini from my neighbour Caroline, I needed to find a non-chocolate cake way of using it all up. I decided to try using it as a substitute for pasta and succeeded beyond my wildest expectations. I am almost embarrassed to admit how much zucchini I eat in an average week now. In Mexico, I used chayote as a substitute. Zucchini is pretty much a free food and has loads of fiber and vitamin A since I keep the skin on.

Making the ‘noodles’ was very labour intensive. I would use a vegetable peeler to cut strips lengthwise and then scissors to further divide the strips lengthwise, with the end result being zucchini pieces about the size of a fettuccine noodle. I like to prep four zucchinis at one time as that gives me three meals and making the noodles took me about 30 minutes.

I really wanted a mandoline, which would greatly reduce my zucchini prep time. My mother has had one as long as I can remember and I know how versatile they can be. You should see her shred a cabbage with one! So I’ve actually wanted a mandoline for years, but couldn’t justify the $50ish price point for a good one, not even when I’m churning out industrial-sized loads of zucchini noodles.

So imagine my delight when I decided to do just one last tour of the thrift store last week and found this:

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It’s a mini mandoline with all the attachments! The box was sealed with lots of tape and marked just $2, so I bought it without checking out the contents. Those of you on Facebook know that when I finally opened the box, I found $7.50 in it, as well as $0.10 worth of Canadian Tire money!!!!!!!!!!

This mandoline comes from Regal, a catalogue company like Avon. My friend Donna is a Regal rep, so I’ve seen some of their products and know that they are good quality. In fact, she got me a nut chopper from them several years ago that is still working very well despite all the paces I’ve put it through. So I knew that I’d scored a mandoline that was going to serve me very well for a long time. I should add that it has clearly never been used!!!

All the pieces fit into a neat little box:

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There are all sorts of attachments for doing different things like juicing, grating, shredding, and more:

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Using the device was intuitive. My only complaint is that the handle bit with prongs to stick into the food doesn’t really hold the zucchini that well. I would just hold the zucchini until I had a nub left and then use the handle. It took me only about five minutes to turn my four zucchinis into little coins:

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I could probably use the peeler attachment to make the noodles I can twirl around on a fork, but I thought these would be a nice change.

Next step, salt them very generously, add a weight (plate plus a couple of tins), and let the water drain out of them for several hours. Then, rinse, weight again for a bit, then toss in a hot pan with lots of garlic!

I am going to get a lot of use out of my new gadget and can’t wait to use it on all that lovely Mexican produce that shows up right at my door!

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Spreading Out

Now that I have to usable outbuildings, my living space has grown from 125 square feet (plus exterior storage compartments, plus loft, plus cab), to that plus about an additional 500 square feet of floor space (never mind the potential of going vertical), plus yard space.

I’ve always done a pretty good job of not keeping Miranda too over stuffed, but I’ll confess that it’s nice to be able to spread out a bit. I’m storing excess cold weather clothing in the cabin and anything related to home maintenance has been moved to the shed, which has really freed up my office overhead cabinets.

I’m also actually doing things in the buildings, especially the cabin. It’s nice to get up in the morning and ‘go to the gym.’ After work, it’s lovely to go spend an hour on the swing in the yard and listen to the birds. Laundry is so much more pleasant now that all that’s involved is bringing the garden hose from the fresh water intake on the RV to the cabin instead of having to move piles of stuff out of the way.

While I didn’t like living in RV parks for a lot of reasons, one thing I missed about them was having facilities to go to. That’s a common theme among tiny home dwellers. If you study their stories, very few tiny home dwellers spend as much time in their homes as I do. Many work away from it, have a city at their feet to use as a living room, and/or work outdoors on their property, so they pretty much only use their space for sleeping. I wouldn’t say that I’ve been getting claustrophobic living in Miranda, but since there is nothing within a reasonable distance of Haven, it’s really nice to be able to get a change of scenery once in a while.

I’ve been asked why I’m building my homestead this way with a series of outbuildings and a main house instead of just bringing in a single prefab home. I really don’t have a logical answer for that other than the fact that the proportions of a regular home are too large for me. Building piecemeal the way that I do, I can have things be right-sized for me. Also, this is how things are done in farm country. Everyone out here except folks living in towns has a main house and multiple outbuildings that go beyond a simple shed. My situation is only peculiar because my main house is an RV.

I really do think I’ve found the compromise that I didn’t believe was possible, a way to reconcile my two very different yearnings for both an exciting nomadic life and a mundane sedentary one. I can’t have it all at one time, but I can have it all. I’ve got my cozy domestic summers in Canada and my urban winters in Mexico, with a bit of exploring in between. I really wouldn’t be surprised if a few years down the road, after exploring Mexico as thoroughly as I have Canada, that I buy property in the heart of a city the size of Mazatlán and then spend my retirement years going between these two extremes. Time will tell. 🙂

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Taking It Easy

It’s quiet at Haven today. I’m just enjoying my space and taking a breather. I went to the thrift store in Willow Bunch this morning to drop off some donations and hoped to find a dresser or other item for starting on the shed organization project. But I came home with some puzzles and magazines, a sign from the universe that it’s okay to actually take a day off once in a while!

I came in and spent some time on the swing reading and then my neighbour from last night pulled up in his truck with “something for [my] gym.” It’s a Gazelle exerciser!

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Before the comments start, yes, I know that the Gazelle isn’t much of a workout. But it is perfect for my off treadmill days as it will still stretch out the muscles and get me moving without there being any impact on my knees. I am very happy to give this piece of equipment a good home!

Now, to find some weights!