New York Renovator

We’ve had several sunny days in a row in Upstate New York. A miracle! 80 degrees Fahrenheit, too! People can’t remember when it was so warm in April. I can– it was 18 years ago. I was overdue, expecting my first child. It was brutal, lol.

Anyway, we’ve been taking advantage of the wonderful weather and have begun slaving away at the gardens! Leftover autumn leaves have been raked, large weeds pulled (I can’t believe they are so large already), and we’ve begun planting things. I wish I could get the veggies in the vegetable garden, but we haven’t tilled the beds for those yet.

I’m hoping next week will be the big week. I did get my grape vine in, though! I got it delivered via mail by Johnny’s Selected Seeds. I pray it does well, it costs enough! I think the hardest part will be keeping the deer away. And that will be a very difficult task…

Here’s the play by play in photos. The vine comes bareroot and was packaged quite well. I soaked it in water for a few minutes. It is recommended that the roots soak for 24 hours… but I am too impatient. Once I get going, I need to get going.

I dug the hole. This was only the beginning. The vine roots were so long that I had to dig a trench! Vine roots need a lot of space. You can’t scrunch them all up in a round hole, or the vine may die. The first year of growth is critical, so planting it correctly is important.

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I noticed that the grape vine had begun to bud. This is a poor sign in a bareroot plant because it means the plant has started to come out of its dormant state; but in a grape vine it is not a severe problem. Grape vines continue to produce buds, and are pretty hardy. So even if these buds don’t survive, more will come. Grape vines are also frost hardy (light frosts). Perfect for Upstate NY.

Here’s the finished product. I have to get more mulch and add more. It may be 80 degrees this week, but next week– who knows? Mulch will give the roots extra protection until the plant is established.

I’m looking forward to table grapes and maybe even some wine in the future!

Lady Rose at Entrecard Favorites chose this blog as her favorite of the day. I am so honored! Somebody actually likes my rants about electrical circuit panels, gardening, and dreams of teak patio furniture and Bella wood flooring! I got a nice new badge, too.

If they lived in NJ I’d hire them for sure. My house is definitely in need of some fixing up and a touch of renovating – like the cracks in the patio, the weather worn back door, but I digress, so back to the blog at hand.

Blog Description: “A blog about home life and the challenges of renovating an 1855 house in Upstate New York.”

This blog offers a ton of tips and ideas for home improvements, renovating, home gardening and most are tips that will save you money as well. The blog is well written, nicely laid out, good photos, and you’ll find a laugh or two.

Entrecard Favorites Blog is a great blog in its own right. i wonder if Lady Rose has favorited herself? It’s a great site to visit and discover other great new blogs.

Skip having the squirrels run endlessly across belts to generate your energy! And let those kids out of the basement and off those bicycle-run generators! How about your very own mini windmill! Check out the photo and very intriguing story at Off Grid Living.

I’m very much in favor of self-generating electricity. I’m going to be having one of my sons study the Tesla Coil over the summer. This ingenious invention enables the harnessing of electricity wirelessly, without a battery source (and battery manufacturers and battery manufacturing prices). Last year sometime I’d heard that Britain was starting to experiment with it more. Tesla’s discoveries are about a hundred years old, but were overridden (for some strange reason) by Edison and his businessmen cronies. You know, they could invent a battery or a light bulb that lasts much, much longer… but they won’t. Now why is this, I wonder. [inject sarcasm]

PBS has a segment about the Tesla Coil here. And there’s a lab project about it here. Interesting!

Anyway, I love the idea of generating my own electricity. But I think there are laws prohibiting it in New York State. As with everything here, ya need a license and you need to pay “fees” and “surcharges.” We’ll see. As we all move away from the corporations, I’m sure little do-it-yourself energy kits will pop up everywhere.

It’s our third sunny day in a row today! I am slowly getting my energy back after being sick for a while. I got my Reliance grape vine in the mail a few days ago, and I can’t procrastinate any longer– it MUST go in the ground today. Plus, I have to get my potatoes in soon. I’ll have a Growing Challenge update soon.

In other news, they want me to mention shower stool, but I have no idea how to fit it in. Oh wait! I just did! Well, well! Off I go to the garden now!

I’ve been looking at window tinting film recently. We have a unique situation around the Mecomber homestead (you regular readers already know this): we are surrounded by asphalt! My home and property is on the edge of a commercially-zoned section of town. We have a business to the south (with asphalt driveway and parking lot), a business to the east (with asphalt driveway and parking lot), and a church to the north (with a huge asphalt parking lot). Our house used to be the parsonage to the church next door, so behind our house is a huge asphalt driveway and parking lot, too.

It is great for the kids, because they have plenty of room to ride their bikes. But in the summer it is blazing hot out there. I have concocted a clothesline system (200 feet long!) where my wet laundry dries in less than an hour. Having so much hot asphalt is great for laundry (and for my garden), but in the house it is unbearable. I hate having to hang heavy drapes over the windows, because I love daylight so much, but it is the only way I can control the sun blasting its heat into the house. So, installing window tint is something I’ve been considering for quite some time. I have to get new windows installed first, of course!

My grandmother had window tint installed in her house; she had a professional do it and it cost them a pretty penny . But I have come to discover that home window tint can be just another do-it-yourself project, and can save you more than half the cost. Yay! I saw this how-to video at SnapTint.com. (Check out the music, lol!) They look good– they offer tint kits for vehicles, too, and have a lifetime performance warranty and promise to never turn purple, fade, bubble, or peel.

Window tinting can save your home from the sun’s glare in the summer (and in winter). Ninety-nine percent of the sun’s UV rays are blocked by SnapTint window film, and reduces 70% of the sun’s glare. This means lower energy bills for air conditioning and running fans. And every housekeeper knows the destructive qualities of sunlight on her drapes, carpets, and furniture (and laminate flooring) if the beams are allowed to blast in. The cool thing is that window tint is no longer the boring old gray film that grandma had. I have seen some beautiful styles– architectural, floral, and mirror tints, too. There’s one called Japanese Maple. Isn’t it lovely? It would be perfect in a bedroom or study; it has a wonderful calming effect. It will also help make our bedroom windows (which are floor-to-ceiling windows) much more private. Kids have this knack of leaving the curtains open, and we are right in town. :S

I think window tinting is another way of making your home energy efficient. Companies like SnapTint are making things like this easy for the do-it-yourselfer. How about you? Do you see the benefits of window tint? Would you do it yourself?

One of my favorite frugal blogs is Common Sense With Money. The writer– a certified public accountant turned mom– is incredible with numbers, organization, and knowledge. I don’t understand half of what she says, lol, but I am learning!

She has a very interesting post up today, looking at a new study that says that more money seems to lead to more happiness.

More than 34 years ago a economic study published argued that making more money didn’t lead to more happiness but instead led to upgraded wants. In other words, if when you made $45K a year you yearned for a Toyota, now that you make $75K that Toyota is not enough for you and instead now you want a Lexus. Earning more money only reset the bar on the things you wanted.

That was 34 years ago. A new study has been published and the writers are basically saying that indeed more money seems to lead to more happiness. People around the world have been polled and it seems that people who live in wealthier countries are more likely to say that they are satisfied with life. The study particularly finds that in the United States, households that earned more than 250K a year are more likely to say that are “very happy” (90% likelier).

I’ve always been doubtful of “studies” proving anything, so I don’t give them much of a glance when I read them. The post went on to say that money- and lack thereof- is usually tied to a complicated mix of other components wherein we calculate “happiness.” For example, in a war zone, constant societal upheaval, famine, diseases, and other such things can make you unhappy, no matter how much money you have. Money is merely a perception, I think. The power of money is what you make it. You can make bananas to be the new measure of riches. If you have tons of bananas, you’d be rich. And supposedly, happy.

I don’t think it’s money that makes you happy. I did a post about the Amish people recently. They have their problems, but they are, pound for pound, happier than the average American with five televisions and three SUVs.

I think what makes a person “happy” in Western countries, and particularly in America, is opportunity. Money is a result of our abounding opportunities in this country. I’ve heard about the “American Dream” for decades now. It has morphed over the years. Today, the “American Dream” is owning a house, having a job, sending your kids to college, having enough money, etc. It was not interpreted in such a way in the past. In the past, the “American Dream” meant the world was open to you– opportunity! No longer were you locked into serfdom or a caste or inherent poverty. You could be a “self-made” man, from rags to riches. That used to be called the “American Dream.” Like so many things today, the definition of the “American Dream” is now determined by how much stuff you have or can get. Our culture is viciously materialistic. A materialistic  lifestyle does not make you happy.

I know I’m not the only one to notice the outrageous food costs these days. I was listening to a guest host on the Rush Limbaugh Show who stated that the food crisis and energy crisis are government-induced. I believe it. The real question is WHY. I try to avoid news headlines because they are too sensationalist (meant to manipulate) and sometimes just too darn scary when I have enough to worry about around here. I made the mistake of checking headlines today and nearly blew a gasket when I saw this: Feds To Collect DNA From Every Person They Arrest. Um… there is something called the Fourth Amendment in this country that prohibits them from doing this. I hope we Americans bite back.

But about food costs. It is more on my mind because it is gardening time. I want to be planting things that will last through the winter. In particular, potatoes. Some folks are saying potatoes will be the new commodity, because they grow so well, they are plenteous, and they keep well. Plus, no stupid politician has any plans to use it to make fuel or bullets or money out of it. Yet.

How about you? What are you doing about food costs? Are you cutting back on your eating? Are you planning for a larger garden? And do you think things will get better any time soon?

I don’t think things will get better. But we can do well if we adapt. I’ve talked a lot about the excessive lifestyles that we live. It is too excessive now. We can become more self-sufficient, by growing our own food, getting smaller vehicles where possible, by getting rid of gadgets, and living more frugally all around. Leave a comment or two. I;d like to know what you think.

The thought of spring projects makes me weary right now. There are just multitudes of piddly little things to do. Here’s one of them. It’s our clothesline, which bore the brunt of the heavy snow and the snowplow over the winter. Ugh. We’ll have to drill a new hole through the asphalt, again. Because our property used to be a parsonage connected to a church, we have a huge parking lot behind the house. It gets blazing hot in the summer. We concocted a long clothesline over the asphalt. On sunny days, our clothes dry in less than an hour– they literally bake on the blacktop! But drilling the holes through the asphalt to allow for the post was exhausting. Right now, I just wanna lay on the couch and play with the PS2…

I heard about this new website through Kim Komando, Floorplanner.com. It’s a site that helps you develop floor plans. Or, if you just want to rearrange the furniture, it’ll help you do that, too. It’s really fun! It’s the best little floor planner I’ve ever tried. You can drag and drop, etc., and it looks like they have all sorts of furniture options, and more– even a spiral staircase! Hmm, now if I can just figure out where to put the hdmi cables and stuff…

The registration is free for personal use, but requires an email (don’t they all?). The website privacy policy says it will not spam you without your permission, lol! I’ve signed up for a bunch of new websites and networks, and my email address has been spammed. I don’t care, because I didn’t use my personal email. I don’t think this site will intentionally spam you, but it helps to be aware of such things these days.

Well, the grimy, sweaty days of plaster removal and gardening in the hot sun are almost upon us. Since having my fourth child, my skin is extremely sensitive. Working with plaster and fiberglass insulation is really tough on my skin. I’ve tried to be keen for finding the best acne treatment around, but haven’t found the perfect thing yet. Going along with my vinegar theme of late, I’d read that apple cider vinegar helps acne. Is this true? Has anyone tried it? I suppose it would make a great antiseptic, but it would dry out the skin. Wouldn’t that make it worse, then? This article says it’s best to drink it! Ugh. I’m trying to go as natural as I can. What do you use when you need to super-clean your skin?

My grape vine, a Reliance stock, came in the mail today. I am still waiting on my seed potatoes. I am disgruntled with Johnny’s Selected Seeds about that. I’d ordered everything online, and the potatoes I ordered especially because they were in stock. I got a phone call two weeks later, informing me that the potatoes I ordered were out of stock. Oooook. So the girl and I haggled through the potatoes choices, and I ordered another kind, with the assurance that these were in stock. Two months later, I got my package. No potatoes. Just a little note, saying that they were out of stock. Huh?! I have been trying to call the company for weeks. Their telephone number is not toll-free (they are across the country from me) and i am put on hold for ten minutes before a recording tells me that I have a long wait. Grrrrrrrrrr! So I still have no potatoes. If you’re going to sell potatoes, why tell the customer that they are in stock the day of the order but not the day of the shipment?!