Work

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Productive Days Are Good

I was blessed once again today with a super easy long file that meant decent income with minimal time at the keyboard. So I set Laundry as being my chore to accomplish. I’ve just gotten really behind because of the grey weather. I got it all done except some bedding by early afternoon.

Then, it was time to sort out my closet. In rebuilding my wardrobe, I’ve found myself with way more clothes than I can fit in Miranda and too many special pieces to want to winnow it all down. I have a pretty good idea of what I need at various points of the year now, so I packed up two or three tubs worth of colder weather gear and stuck it all in a grainery, leaving room in the wardrobe for summer dresses, tops, skirts, and pants. I made a list of the contents of each tub so if it winds up being a cool crappy summer like last year, I won’t have to dig far for the fleece.

My work was done by a dinnertime, so I had a quick bite to eat and then headed outside. I love these long lovely evenings! My first stop was the shed to assess the floor. To my surprise, there wasn’t nearly as much scraping left to do as I thought. I got it all done and will shop vac the next time I run extension cords that way. Next step is to find the absolute cheapest thing I can find to seal the wood, be it paint or varnish or whatever. I’m going to slap as many coats as possible on the walls and floor and call the shed usable after that. I have a plan for a workbench in one corner, shelves along one short wall, and room at the back for storing the mower and other garden implements.

Once I get the shed sorted out, I’ll be able to set up a really good laundry room. I think that will be it for Haven projects this year, unless the funds materialize to get some trenching done (ie. bring in a backhoe). If that happens, it’ll mean I’ll have what I need to get rudimentary plumbing in as well as bring power to each of the outbuildings. So needless to say, it’s not a likely event!

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Solar Powered

I never cease to be amazed by how different I feel when it’s sunny and pleasant out versus rainy or even just grey and damp. I knew this when I bought the property, of course, which is why buying property in what is supposed to be one of the sunniest and driest climates in Canada was important to me. We had a great 2013 summer and I was busy and super active, but it was all grey and rain last year and my activity level really dropped.

This summer is starting off shakily, with the odd beautiful day cut by a stretch of grey. I have been feeling utterly bla the last four or five days and thought I was coming down with a cold. But it started to clear up yesterday and it has been absolutely marvelous today. Guess what? I’m running on about six hours of sleep, absolutely all I needed and being incredibly productive!

I thought I had about 11 hours of work to do today, but it wound up being one of those files with a lot of dead air that goes very fast, so it’s going to come in at about only 6.5 hours worth of work. I started around 7:00 and then took a long break to work on my roof.

There are no pictures of the roof repair because, frankly, I don’t need anyone going YEESH. 🙂 I used a hair dryer to soften the Eternabond and it came right up.

(For the curious, I plugged an extension cord into an outlet in the kitchen, threw the cord out a window, and then threw the cord up onto the roof! I carried the hair dryer and supplies in a bag slung over my shoulder.)

I then scraped off all the Dicor and then washed with rubbing alcohol, which brought everything up. I’ve tried mineral spirits and acetone and the alcohol did the best job, even though it’s not something I’ve seen recommended for this type of project. Hmm. It really was impressive. I had little bits of Dicor that refused to come up and I just had to sprinkle them with rubbing alcohol to get them to peel off cleanly!

For the repair, I used Rust-Oleum Leak Seal in clear. I had a choice of black, grey, or clear and wish I had gone with the grey so that I could see if I missed any spots. This is a very easy product to use, similar to spray paint, and there is no mess. I applied, as directed, a fine initial layer along the entire seam, then I climbed down to have lunch.

When I came back onto the roof about an hour later, the rubber coating seemed to have seeped into the grooves and cracks of the seam, a good thing! I applied a second thicker coat (again, as per instructions), and headed back down to get more work done. I went up another hour later and applied a final coat, as I only had just enough in the can for three coats.

I’m cautiously optimistic optimistic at this point since the entire seam is covered with a thickish layer of rubber. But I believe in overkill, so I’m going to check the home stores in Assiniboia the next time I’m in town to see if they carry this product so I can do another three coats.

If this repair doesn’t hold, I am pulling out all the stops and going up there with more Dicor, screws, and a piece of metal roofing! In fact, I have a piece of ridge cap the right length and width left. Now, wouldn’t that be a redneck solution?! But hopefully, this will work…

The roof dealt with, I came in to type some more, then did some work in the kitchen. I want to add a counter under the window on the driver’s side. I thought of doing that last year, but the money went elsewhere. I think it’ll happen this year.

So that’s all the excitement out of southern Saskatchewan today. Back to work I go since I still have about 1.5 hours left. I don’t even feel daunted by that since I expected to be glued to my computer today rather than having had the chance to knock off a few projects!

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I Did Something Really Stupid

Pulling into my driveway yesterday, my jaw dropped when I realised that not only was my gas gauge light on, but my needle was so far in the red it was in the black! I still haven’t learned to keep a close eye on the damn thing!

I had driven more than 500KM from Scobey, so I considered myself lucky to be home and also stranded since I didn’t even want to chance the 18KM drive back to Willow Bunch, which has the nearest gas station.

So late this morning, I swallowed my pride and called Caroline to ask if they had any fuel or if they could pick some up in town for me. She suggested that I instead borrow her car to go get some some since she didn’t need the car today and she didn’t know what their schedule would be this weekend. I really didn’t have time for a trip to town today, but that was an offer I knew I couldn’t refuse!

I finished up my morning’s work and then went to get the car keys. It’s a little Kia not unlike my Accent (RIP), so it was pretty familiar to drive since most of the controls are where they were on the Accent. But I had forgotten what it is to drive so low to the ground and I might have hit the gas AND brake pedals at the same time once or twice since I haven’t driven automatic in so long. 🙂

I stopped for mail before leaving town and found my Amazon cheque! It comess earlier and earlier every month! I had another cheque to deposit, so a trip to the bank was definitely needed. There was something else in my box, something that always makes me giddy with anticipation when it’s a complete surprise: a ‘you have a package’ notification. I wasn’t expecting anything so I was of course curious. It was a package from John in Santa Fe, a book about Chaco Canyon to whet my appetite for my next trip into the Southwest. That made my day!

First stop in town was the bank and thankfully the teller who knows me was available. Thankfully because a client made a cheque out to Rae rather than my legal name and I’ve been through the whole proving we’re the same person thing with this teller in the past so she didn’t even comment on the cheque being made out to the wrong name.

Then, I went to the gas station and took advantage of there being service. I told the guy to fill the jerry can in the trunk and to add $10 worth of fuel to the car. He told me I needed to open the door for the gas intake and it took me a second to remember that the mechanism was on the floor by the door in my old car, which is where it was for this car! Then, I went in and fixed myself a coffee while the guy did the dirty work.

After, I hit the grocery store since there were some really good deals in this week’s flier. It’s really nice to be in a position to stock up during sales and to have a freezer in which to put extra stuff! Shrimp was crazy cheap for this weekend only, $6 a bag for the Co-Op brand, which is decent by frozen shrimp standards. $12 blocks of Co-Op cheese were $8. The only frozen pizza I like, Dr. Oetker’s Hawaiian, were $5 instead of $8. Low alcohol beer was $6 for a case instead of $9. Etc. I spent over $70 and for once didn’t feel like I got robbed!

Then, it was time to get home because I have 15 hours of work left to do by 9:00PM tomorrow! I look forward to taking Monday off since RV Park Chez Rae has a reservation for Monday night!

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Culture Shock at the Store

I really had my mind set on going to Moose Jaw today to do a big grocery stock up trip, but I was waiting on some payments, a cheque and a PayPal transfer to be able to do so. The cheque wasn’t in today’s mail and I only initiated the PayPal transfer on Friday, so I wasn’t expecting the funds till later this week. Desperately in need of food, I decided to run to Assiniboia for a few things to tide me over.

On the way there, I had a thought about how much it costs me to drive to Assiniboia round trip, $12, never mind the time that I really didn’t have to waste this week. Why was I being such a moron about this? Just go to Moose Jaw, stick to the budget, and use the credit card. It’s not like I’d have to pay interest on the purchases since they would be paid off in days. But most importantly, I still had work to do today, but I definitely had time to go to Moose Jaw and back. The rest of the week was looking iffy.

My decision made, I still made two stops in Assiniboia. The first was to fill up my five-gallon water jugs, which cost me almost $8. I miss my at home delivery for about 80 cents per five-gallon jug! But I do get the next one free… I made this stop in the morning for two reasons. 1) If the water machine was broken, I’d be able to get water in Moose Jaw and 2) I knew I’d be too tired to stop on the way home.

Last year, I was transferring the heavy jugs to a dispenser and actually did that in Mexico just for the exercise, but I treated myself to something on the way home that is crazy expensive, of poor quality, and hard to find here here and the complete opposite in Mexico:

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Next stop in Assiniboia was the Co-Op gas station for a coffee, which was really an excuse to get change for the parking metre in downtown Moose Jaw (can’t believe I thought of that!). The coffee at the gas station is actually quite good and they have hazelnut creamer, so it’s a nice road trip treat.

The trip to Moose Jaw was uneventful, just a scenic hour of rolling hills. Oh, I love this landscape!

First stop in Moose Jaw won’t come as a surprise, DK Sushi! The food was as good as ever and since the last few days have been extremely lean food wise, I didn’t worry too much about my waistline and ordered whatever I wanted within reason. 🙂 DK Sushi in Moose Jaw is in my top five of best sushi restaurants in the whole of the US and Canada, and I think I’ve been to enough sushi restaurants in the US and Canada for that statement to have some weight. 🙂 How lucky I am that they are the nearest sushi restaurant to me… even if they are 3 hours away round trip!

Then, it was time to spend beaucoup bucks. I’d like to share with you how I plan for big shopping runs like these. I use an app on my iPhone called Our Groceries. I have been using this app since I had an iPod Touch (six years) and can’t believe it’s still free. There are ads, but they’re not intrusive and you don’t see them if data is turned off.

I use the app to keep track of everything I need to buy regardless of if it’s to be bought in Assiniboia or Moose Jaw. I have a list for each store and categories that are not list (store) specific. When I lived in Yukon and was doing supply runs for my friends, I would use the categories to keep my friends sorted within each store. But now, I use the categories for things like produce, household, and meat.

Here are some screen shots of the app. First, the main screen, where you see my lists, which are by store. The numbers represent the number of items I need to buy at that store. As you can see, I didn’t get everything on my lists today!

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Inside each list is everything I want to buy at that store, sorted by categories:

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As you can see, I didn’t do too well with dairy and meat. A tub of yoghurt that is 2CAD in Mexico was 7CAD here (SAME BRAND)…

My first stop of the day was M&M Meat Shops to get chicken breasts. That was the most important thing on my list and would determine how much I had left to spend in the other stores. Chicken breasts wound up being $6 off per box, so I got four boxes, essentially getting a box free!

As I shop, I just tap on the items I’ve added to my shopping cart and they get removed from my lists and saved for the next time I want to build a list. But what if a store doesn’t have what I need?

I organized my shopping by likely least to most expensive. So after M&M, I went to Dollar Tree (yes, there’s a Dollar Tree in Moose Jaw!). There, I was able to get household things like freezer bags, plastic wrap, and bleach, for very cheap compared to even Walmart. But there were a few things I couldn’t find. What I would then do is tap the little (i) next to the item to bring up this screen:

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That would then let me select another list for this item. So what I didn’t find at Dollar Tree got moved to my second to next stop’s list, Walmart.

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Some stores don’t categorize things the same way, so I can also change the category of an item:

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What a great app! I would be lost without it when I have to do big shops like these. I just build my lists as I think of items. Over the years, my list of items in the app has grown and I rarely have to type out the entire name of an item before it pops up.

After Dollar Tree, I went next door to Bulk Barn, the most wonderful store on the planet. There, I could buy just as much as I wanted of everything from brown rice to nuts to flours (kamut and multigrain today) and spices. Instead of spending several dollars each for containers of cumin, tumeric, basil, garlic powder, and more, I could spend 30 cents or 80 cents or 50 cents on just the quantity I need to get me through the summer. I normally spend a lot on nuts in this store, but I was on a tight budget, so I restrained myself. I was pleased to be able to buy almond butter and tahini in bulk, too, for much cheaper than I pay through mail order.

By the time I came out of Bulk Barn, I had already spent a third of my budget for the day. On to Walmart, which is just a normal one in Moose Jaw, not a Super Center with a big grocery section. I got paper goods, found Rustoleum rubber coating for my roof (all appendages crossed), and got a bunch of canned goods.

Next stop was Super Store. I usually like to buy my groceries at Safeway, but after hearing so many people tell me how much more expensive they are than Super Store, I decided to try that first. I really don’t like Super Store, finding it overwhelming and the selection in some areas lacking, but grocery prices in Canada keep going up and I really need to start paying attention to my pennies at the grocery store.

My Super Store experience started off shakily since the produce quality and selection was dismal. There were no Brussels sprouts and the onions were worse than the ones in Assiniboia were last year (and that’s saying something). I almost abandoned my cart in the ‘Mexican’ aisle full of Old Paso crap, but persevered for a bit and was rewarded with an increasingly full cart as I started to be able to cross things off my list.

I only had about $130 left to spend at this point, so I tallied everything up as I put it in my cart, switching between the Our Groceries and calculator app on my phone. I stuck to my list, second guessed every decision, and skimped on meat and dairy to come in at $143. Whew. This was in no way a ‘stock up’ cart. I’ll need a top up on a lot of things quickly. But at least the pantry basics of vinegars, oils, sauces, and condiments were in the cart as well as enough dairy and meat (in combination with the M&M chicken) to last me a while. There really isn’t anything I can use to cook up a storm and make up a huge batch of anything. I’m going to watch the Co-Op fliers and get missing items, like ground bison, there. I actually found things at Super Store that are cheaper at the Co-Op. Co-Op does do sales very well and now that I have all my basics, I can look forward to a ‘ten for ten’ sale to get some really good deals on certain things.

My favourite bit of Super Store was their ethnic foods aisle. Tucked into a corner was a proper supply of true Mexican foods, including, almost out of sight, bags of Maseca corn flour for making tortillas! I was so pleased when I found this! The bag was about $5.50 and will make a lot of tortillas, a much better deal than the $5 bags of tortillas I was buying last year!

Next to the Mexican groceries was a Middle Eastern shelf with everything from za’atar to tahini to stuffed grape leaves and more. I was very impressed!

All that said, I won’t be going to Super Store again except to get specific items. I didn’t find their prices that much better than Safeway, their selection was much smaller, they didn’t have good deals on meat, and their produce was dismal. But at least I didn’t come out of there feeling that I got robbed (too badly) or that I had wasted my time.

It was getting really late when I came out of Super Store and I had spent my budget, so I postponed the trip to Canadian Tire and the visit to Safeway for more produce (I did find frozen Brussels sprouts at Super Store, which will tide me over). I stopped at McDonald’s for a black iced coffee, the one thing that is way cheaper in Canada than in the US (1.30CAD here for a medium versus about 2.50CAD for a small in the US!).

The drive home was lovely and I made one last stop in Assiniboia. I hadn’t had any luck at Dollar Tree or Walmart in finding containers for my spices, so I decided to try our dollar store, which is huge. I found suitable containers there at a good price, so the stop was worth my time.

I got in around 6:00 and spent a bit of time unloading and putting things away. I had plugged in the freezer before leaving, so I stashed some things in there even though it’s rather silly to pay the power to run it with so little inside it. I need to get cooking!

As a final note, I was really grateful for my iPhone today. It’s not only Monday, but the first of the month, so I got several client emails today about invoicing and availability, all of which I was able to respond to promptly thanks to the Mail app on my phone. A summer project will be to set up the ‘FileMaker Go’ app on my phone so that I can consult my invoices while out of the office. A client wanted to cut me a cheque today, but I couldn’t send her the invoice right away. She said she could send the cheque without the invoice if I could give her the invoice number, which I didn’t have. I made my best guess about the number, but when I got home, I realised I was two numbers off and gave her the number for an invoice I made for another client. Thankfully, that other invoice hadn’t been sent yet, so I was able to switch the two around. I’m starting to wish I had a PA to handle this kind of stuff for me. 🙂

That’s it for today. It’s been a very long one and I have heaps of work to do tomorrow and in the next few days. Whew!

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Settling In

I’m slowly getting back into my at home routine. Most of my neighbours have been by to welcome me back. It’s nice to know I was thought about in my absence!

We had good weather on Tuesday and most of Wednesday, so I took care of outdoor chores, including most of the laundry, mowing the lawn, and nearly finishing the emptying of the truck. I got my exercise on Wednesday going back and forth to C&C’s every couple of hours to let out the dog and spend time with him and the cats. The dog’s dinner is a bit ‘complicated’, so Caroline had me over Tuesday night to show me how to put it together and I ended up being invited to stay for dinner!

It started to rain on Wednesday night and was cold last night. I set the furnace for 55F (after running it before bed to make sure it was working) and it kicked on around 4:00 this morning. I also ran my mattress pad warmer on low all night, so I was cozy.

Thankfully, we’re climbing out of this as we march into June. If we get a normal summer, this should be it for nasty weather. *all appendages crossed*

I’ve discovered that my roof is leaking worse than ever and have committed to a major assault of it this summer. Both Dicor and Eternabond have utterly failed me, so it’s time to look at household solutions. The big problem is that all the products recommended to me are not available locally, which explains in part why this project is going on so long.

At this point, I really don’t care about structural damage to the overhang (ie. weakened wood and delamination) because I’m not planning on moving Miranda again. Remember that she has an aluminum frame construction, so leaks get contained. I know the walls and roof are weak, but they’re fine for just sitting here. Once I know the roof is thoroughly sealed, I want to do some cosmetic work in the loft again to mask the water damage, but I don’t plan to take anything apart.

Work is picking up and May should end with enough money in the receivables for me to just scrape through June without dipping into savings. This includes a large amount of money outstanding from May that I only managed without in May thanks to everyone’s hospitality (I would have been sleeping in the truck in sub-zero weather otherwise!). It was an unexpected situation since both of those clients have always been reliable. One forgot to drop the cheque in the mail and the other nearly got stiffed by her client and only just managed to make them produce payment. In fact, that payment dropped into my PayPal as I was writing this! Yay!

The big personal project right now is putting together my grocery list for when I go to Moose Jaw next week. One of the unexpected realities of ‘maintaining two homes’ is that I have to start my pantry over each time I move from one to the other. I can’t keep food in Miranda over the winter and don’t want to have to ask C&C to store too much and I can’t store anything in Mexico because of the humid climate.

So I’m finding myself having to start over in both countries with condiments, spices, and other foods that normally don’t get replaced regularly. I brought some food to and from Mexico and it was a huge pain making sure nothing spilled. A lot of what I brought down in the fall got spoiled sitting in a hot truck for days on end. So I don’t plan on bringing much down this fall, unless I end up just doing the trip in a week.

I bought a freezer last summer, so my plan is to go to Moose Jaw and buy as much as I can to fill up the freezer and then do a little topping up in Assiniboia or Willow Bunch each week for fresh produce. Part of the shopping will involve cooking up tons of food over a couple of days so that I really don’t need to think about food for the rest of the summer. I don’t have any lucrative contracts lined up, so it will mean very long hours to make the money I need. Being able to just go to the grainery and pull a meatloaf or whatever out of the freezer at the end of a long day will be a blessing.

I wish I had a bigger budget for this shop (I think I can just squeeze in $400, maybe $500 if the exchange rate remains favourable, which really won’t go far), but if I put it off for July, a month will have passed and it really won’t be worth the effort. I really don’t want to do another substantial shop in Assiniboia either. That $80 really didn’t go far at all and I’m already wishing I could go back to town and buy more food for the weekend!

Another thing I dealt with this week was contacting SaskHealth to let them know I’m back so they can issue me a new health card. An email from them just dropped into my inbox informing me that the chance has been satisfactorily processed. I haven’t found anything on their site that says I can’t ask for an extension every year, so I’m going to try again in the fall. If I succeed, I can leave in October again and go spend some time in Utah before going to Mexico. Otherwise, I’ll have to leave in November and make a run for the borders.

So that’s all the big news out of Haven this week. 🙂 Now, I’m off to work. I did a full day yesterday and it should be full days from here on in… I keep telling myself that every dollar I make is about 12 pesos right now and 12 pesos goes waaaaaaay further than a dollar so I better hang on to my dollars and spend them as pesos! 😀