I thoroughly enjoy cooking, I am very passionate about it, to the point that going to restaurants is a bit of a challenge to me. I can’t just enjoy the meal, I have to know how it was made, and then I am thinking about what I could do to make it even better.…
Hey everyone, I have a Miss Manners type of question and would like your honest input. Here’s the situation, I am about to be going on a 9-10 hour car ride with my brother in law, he is driving me from the DFW area across Texas to my home, he is coming to stay with us to decide whether or not he would like to live out there. Here is the quandry, I know we will not be talking solidly for the whole time, I’m not much of a talker and neither is he, oh we will talk, just not the whole time. I have a MP3 player, I don’t listen to music on it, I listen to talk shows that I have downloaded, things that I’m pretty sure he would have no interest in listening to, would it be rude to pop in my earbuds and listen to my MP3 player while we are traveling? I don’t want to exclude him or make him feel like he is interrupting something if he wants to talk, at the same time, it’s a very long drive and there will be gaps of time, where there will most likely be little chit chat and I would like to catch up on some of my shows. It’s funny, I would have no problem reading a book or working in my Sudoku puzzle book, but I can’t do that while riding in a car, it makes me nauseated. So what do you think? How would you feel if you were on a long car trip and your passenger was listening to their MP3 player with headphones, would it bother you?
I suppose I’ll just play it by ear (pun intended) and see what happens, I’ll have my MP3 player ready, I have no idea how much chit chat will be going on, and if there are long pauses and it’s clear we will not be chatting, then maybe I’ll just ask if he minds if I listen with the understanding that I can turn it off any time…
Wretha
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If you want to participate in a small experiment and start on the road to improving your mind and body, before you read any more of this message, take a few minutes to write down a few goals you have (please tell me that you HAVE some goals! If not, it’s high time you did!), it can be a short list, but try to have at least 4 or 5 things on it, these can be personal, business or finance related, anything. Also write the time frame when you would like to achieve each goal, today? Tomorrow? Next week? Next month? In the next year…? Whenever…
Writing them down is important, if you choose not to write them down, and try to just remember them, the experiment may be less effective.
Now, continue reading.
A big part of survival, in any situation, has to do with your mindset, what is going through your mind? What are you thinking? Are you mentally sabotaging yourself or are you doing yourself a favor? Before you think this is sounding like new age BS, or worse, think about it, the very thoughts you are thinking, on a daily basis does have a great effect on your mind and body. Unfortunately, many of us are playing rather negative “tape loops” in our heads without even realizing it, often these are long term tape loops that you may have been playing for most of your life, for example if you find yourself exposed to someone with the flu or some other contagious malady, what are you thinking? Is it, “Wow, I’m going to get sick now…” or are you thinking, “I’m NOT going go get sick…” or “I can’t afford to get sick now…”, which one do you think will do the best and which one will do the worst for you? What if I told you that NONE of those are good thoughts? Of course you should get that the first one is the worst one, you are accepting the fact that you will get sick, the second one is just as bad, and the third one is also not good. Why you ask are 2 and 3 bad? Because they are in fact NEGATIVE, just as negative as the first one. Your brain, that wonderful organ in your head that processes each and every thought we have, and dutifully goes about making what you think into reality, in this case it computes those last 2 statements as “I’m going to get sick“ and “I can get sick“, it hears “sick” and boom, you are very likely to get sick.
How can we change this? By simply changing the statement from a negative (not, can’t, shouldn’t, couldn’t, wouldn’t…) into a POSITIVE statement (can, will, am…), like this: “I am healthy.” or “My immune system is strong.”, see how …
… that you might not know about me. I have decided to start a list of 100 things you might not know about me, the plan is to write something once a week, no promises on the frequency, but I’ll do my best. I have been thinking about this for about a week, the first thing on my list needs to be a good one, as I sit here, at my Dad’s house, watching my favorite weekend PBS shows, I have to choose this is the first on the list of 100 things. I like watching Britcoms. It’s something I have enjoyed for many years, in no particular order, here are my favorites:
Wow, I didn’t realize the list was so long until I started listing them, some of these shows air frequently on PBS, some I have only seen one season’s worth. Bob and I used to watch several Britcoms together, it was one of our weekend rituals, he tells me that he really didn’t care for most of them, but he enjoyed “our time” watching them together, that made it all the more special to me. Some of the ones he liked were Keeping Up Appearances and As Time Goes By.
Sitting here watching Britcoms is a bittersweet activity for me, we don’t get Britcoms in our new life, while it’s fun to watch them again, but it would be so much better if Bob were here, sitting next to me, enjoying all of these shows. :)
So there, that’s my first of 100 things you might not know about me, but now you do. :)
Wretha
Instead of the usual stuff from China – give a thoughtful, energy-saving gift this Chistmas…
A new book by award-winning science writer and Daily Planet host Jay Ingram explores the efforts of everyday individuals — extreme and otherwise — to reduce their carbon footprint and work toward addressing the warming of the world.…
Did you know that you can CAN butter? The really great thing about this is you don’t have to refrigerate it, even after it has been opened (as long as you use it in a reasonable amount of time). Here is the link to the wonderful blog that has detailed directions, complete with pictures on how to do this, it’s really easy!
https://greenappleorchard.blogspot.com/2008/09/bottled-butter.html
Wretha
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More questions from you and my answers.
Rick
Thanks for your comment & question! In answer, yes, we have thought about building into the hillside, and it’s still an option, the reason we didn’t do it right away was time, it was faster to build the cabin like it is, for the future, it is something we would like to do, but it takes equipment, something we don’t have readily available to us. It could be done by hand, it would take a lot of time, and we have big (huge) rocks to contend with. We will be digging a root cellar for cold storage, hopefully this winter.
I’m glad you have had fun reading my blog, it’s been a joy living it and writing about it.
Wretha
seth said…
Hey Wretha, thanks for Q&A session.
I did have a couple of other questions in regards to Texas. Do vehicles need to have a inspection sticker? What is the sales tax(vary from county to county?) State income tax? Am getting really anxious about all that is going on and looking to get out of here asap. I bought another 5 acres not far from my other property, but this one is paid for in full, so if and when i can bug out of here i can. Thanks, Seth
Seth
Thanks for your questions. Yes you do need an inspection sticker for your car in Texas, here is the site for the info: https://www.txdps.state.tx.us/vi/Misc/faq/insp_faq.htm
If you have an older car (I can’t remember if it’s 10 years old or 20 years old) you don’t have to have the smog test, just the safety inspection, it’s cheaper and easier. Sales tax in the DFW area is 8.25%, that is the maximum you will be charged in any city, you might get lucky and find it less. https://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/local/index.html
There is no state tax in Texas. You will pay income tax (of course) and if you own property, you will have property and school tax.
Paid in full, that IS nice isn’t it! I am soooo glad our property is PID, just have to pay the taxes.
I believe that in the state of Texas, you are required to own a minimum of 5 acres in order to have a well AND septic on your property. Just something to keep in mind.
Wretha
- Hi Wretha,
- Look into Ferro cement. Basically, dig a
Here are a couple of questions from my wonderful readers, and my answers, enjoy!
I’d like to know the background story to how y’all wound up where y’all are. Where did y’all live before, how did y’all get from there to where y’all are now, and how much better is life now versus “the old life”…..
Mayberry
Thanks for your question, I’m not sure how far you want me to go back, let’s see, I do want to maintain privacy, but I can tell you some things… we used to live in the DFW area (Texas), we both pretty much lived there all of our lives. We have both been married previously (to other people obviously), I had one child, Bob had 2, they are now all grown. We met just before Y2K. When we met each other, we had no idea that the other wanted to live off-grid and everything that goes with it. I certainly wanted to but didn’t know that he did, he had his own business, plus his family was nearby and I didn’t expect that he would want to do such a thing. I had been getting “itchy” about the way the world was going and was wanting to get out of Dodge before the SHTF. One of my “secret” pleasures is listening to Coast to Coast am, many of the people who are interviewed on that show talk a lot about the year 2012 and the changes that are supposed to happen then. Good or bad, things are changing, and like many changes, it can get pretty rough before it gets better. Either way, I wanted to be in a safer place, somewhere where we can survive for longer period than we could living in the city. Little did I know that Bob also wanted to get away, not necessarily for the same reasons (he isn’t into C2C am).
Bob knew about the area where we now live since he was in his 20s, had a friend out there and spent many summers exploring the deserts and mountains of west Texas. He was a desert/mountain man in training.
I too had my training, from my early teens, I had been learning about solar cooking, canning, cooking from scratch (really from scratch, like our grandmothers did), organic gardening, surviving, all the things I would need to to survive where we are now.
About a year before we moved, Bob started making comments about wanting to move to west Texas, I didn’t think he was serious, or maybe I just didn’t take it seriously, at first… but once I realized how serious he really was, I agreed to check it out. We looked on line for quite some time to find property and had a couple of likely places lined up. We took a week off and left out for west Texas. …
Now it’s time for participation… yes, that means you! :) Of course this is strictly optional, I think it may make things more interesting around here. What do I want you to do, you ask? It’s simple, what do you want me to write about? Do you have any questions you would like for me to answer? Anything at all? Do you have any subjects that you would like me to address? Is there anything I have written about that you would like more details or clairification? I’ll do my best to answer any questions posted here.
EDIT<< I realized I said "anything at all", but this really means anything having to do with the subjects in this blog or related to things in this blog. :) You could ask about other things, I may or may not answer though.
Wretha
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Here is something interesting and educating, I found it here.
100 Items to Disappear First
1. Generators (Good ones cost dearly. Gas storage, risky. Noisy…target of thieves; maintenance etc.)
2. Water Filters/Purifiers
3. Portable Toilets
4. Seasoned Firewood. Wood takes about 6 – 12 months to become dried, for home uses.
5. Lamp Oil, Wicks, Lamps (First Choice: Buy CLEAR oil. If scarce, stockpile ANY!)
6. Coleman Fuel. Impossible to stockpile too much.
7. Guns, Ammunition, Pepper Spray, Knives, Clubs, Bats & Slingshots.
8. Hand-can openers, & hand egg beaters, whisks.
9. Honey/Syrups/white, brown sugar
10. Rice – Beans – Wheat…
Here’s something to keep you occupied while I’m away doing the grandma thing… (like you have nothing better to do…grin!)
https://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN2526865120080526?sp=true
It’s an interesting article about people living off-grid.
Wretha
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