Long overdue.
Visit. Get yourself a website. Or refer someone.
You *know* you want to.
Category Archives: General
Papayas
Just about two years ago, Chris brought home a couple of papayas from a grocery stroe in the twin cities. The giant one (pictured in the linked post) was a Meridol papaya. He also brought home a solo papaya. I planted the seeds, and soon had a couple dozen small papaya plants. 15 of them overwintered in 2006/2007… and four survived. Two of each variety — though I don’t know which are which.
I still have the four surviving papaya trees. As you can see, two of them are doing quite well! The two pictured above stand nearly five feet tall now, and I’m searching for new pots for the summer, when they will move outside.
The other two… well, they are going through some tough times. First, Kallie decided to break the top off of one of them:
That prompted a papaya tree move into their own secluded room. The one she broke off started to branch off, you can see the new growth. I’m hoping this one makes it… it’s going to be a funny looking tree if it does!
And then, I ignored the papayas for too long. The fourth one became infested with bugs (spider mites?), and was full of web-like strings. I cleaned it off, and used a spray bottle to try and blast away what looked like eggs. Unfortunately, the leaves weren’t strong enough for my puny spray bottle, and it lost most of them:
This poor guy doesn’t have much new growth. I’m worried about it. I’ve been diligently checking it for bugs and spraying it every day. It’s still green, and according to the “Papaya Experts” it may still have a chance. But this is what the 11 that didn’t make it looked like before their final days.
We can’t wait for summer! (If we move, I have no idea how I’m going to transport these guys…. BUT if we move, we’re building an attached greenhouse, so my tropical plant obsession can continue.)
So, this is life.
“Skittles” layered CP soap. It doesn’t have anything to do with anything, except that it’s pretty darn cool and took me a long time to make. Note the custom soap stamp too… it doesn’t show up too well in photos, but it’s still neat.
My website business is almost full-time. This is a good thing, considering my charge per hour. But a lot of it isn’t billable time (more clients, more work = more “office-type stuff”)… on the other hand, I just filed my taxes, and I learned that the business is doing quite well for itself. If it wasn’t for the Apple iBook Pro that I bought in January last year, I would have *owed* money on my personal taxes this year. Wow.
So, it seems like it’s time for me to meet with an accountant and see if I can continue filing on Schedule C or if I need to file business taxes separately from now on. That’s going to be a fun learning project, and may involve making myself an “employee” and setting up payroll. Whoopee!
And this is where the food co-op (doesn’t) fit in. I really love my job at the food co-op, and if it was really “part-time” I’d probably be OK with it. But with my website business growing so much, I’m not putting enough time into the co-op as I should… and when I do put in enough time, I wear myself out. Blech.
Chris and I have been looking at moving/land possibilities. We found a place near Princeton that was affordable, but unfortunately the house on the property isn’t livable. I talked to a Realtor, and told him what we were looking for. We’ve lowered our expectations a bit – thinking more like 10 acres – but up-and-moving to a different part of the state would require both of us quitting our jobs (well, besides my business)… and I don’t know if we’d be able to afford *anything* with land closer to the Twin Cities than we are now.
Ugh. We’ll see. Right now, I have to make my bread dough into buns for dinner, and then drink another beer.
Give Me Land, Lots of Land…
Preferably under starry skies.
We went to visit Finlayson, MN last weekend. Chris’s dad owns a chunk of land up there, and suggested we build a house on it. It’s only 1 1/2 hours from the Twin Cities area (our families), which cuts the driving time we have now in half.
Unfortunately, it’s not going to work out. It is a nice wooded area, but the towns just aren’t right. I can’t see my business thriving – even existing – in any of the surrounding towns, and I don’t think Chris could find a suitable job in the area.
So, back to the drawing board. But still making progress. I had a Realtor visit my house today, and I was quite surprised at what he told me! His estimated selling price – as is – was MUCH higher than I had anticipated. Seems we’ve done well with the house (this is a good thing). And this gives us a nice down payment on something new!
There are a lot of things that need to be done before we can sell though: the windows still need trim (inside and out), the 60-amp fuse box needs to be updated, the basement door needs to be replaced (thanks dogs!)… but he said that he wouldn’t bother with expensive siding, and even leaving it as-is or painting would be just fine. (A new paint job won’t last long because of its current condition, but he said, “Out of sight, out of mind. Just mention the house will need to be painted more frequently than some other houses.” Hmm.. kind of sneaky/scammy, but I bet the next owners would just put siding up anyway. (I’ve been wanting to for a few years now!)
So, the plan now is to look for towns that will suit us. Then, call up real estate offices in a few towns and tell them what we’re looking for. We’ve been talking so much about building our “dream home”… but I think (Chris may disagree!) that we should just find a chunk of land we’re satisfied with that has a crappy run-down house on it. Then, either gut/renovate the thing piece by piece or slowly build a new home on the same property as we can afford it. I guess the idea of new-house-this-year won’t come to fruition, but I really hope new-land-by-next-year will. We deserve it, and so do the dogs.
Before we move, I need to make my website business full-time. It’s getting there… Iceberg Hosting is averaging a new client every week – which is excellent. But we can expand… If you’re reading this and know of anyone who needs a website, please send them my way!
. . . In completely unrelated and incredibly exciting news, I am going to be an aunt either tonight or tomorrow morning!
Vegan Pizza
Yum. I just wanted to post a picture of my dinner last night. Fairly giant pizza, and I accidentally at most of it.
Weekend.
Ahh, the weekend. The co-op schedule is full but unfortunately weekends rarely mean time off, at least recently. I have a stack of website work to do… but fortunately I don’t get calls or e-mails from clients over the weekend, so it’s not too stressful.
I hope to make a few batches of bar soap this weekend as well. I ordered a bunch of essential oils that I’m hoping to test out. I had time last night to make this batch of Lemongrass and Cassia. Colored with annatto seeds (top, cassia), black oxide (stripe), and blue and green ultramarines (bottom, lemongrass). Smells pretty nice. The lemongrass inspired Chris to make a thai curry after I finished pouring it.
We had plans to travel this weekend… to check out a big chunk of land in the Hinckley area, actually. Unfortunately, highs this weekend are in the negative digits – not good weather for walking around an empty piece of land. So we delayed the trip; hopefully the first weekend in February we’ll be able to check it out. It’s an amazing opportunity, with the potential of (some day) near 40 acres, and maybe opporutnity to acquire even more eventually.
Still a far-off possibility though. I’m most anxious about moving my business across the state. A move like this would require a “real office” in town though, which I’m incredibly excited about!