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Being Thankful I'm not being nibbled to death by gerbils.

    With Thanksgiving on the horizon, many people have asked me what I am thankful for in the last year.  My glib replay is the title of this article.  I know it seems like I'm being a whiny little bitch right now but bear with me, it does get better.

    It's not that I have nothing to be thankful for, I'm still healthy and neither my family or anyone I know has lost a family member to COVID.   I have a roof over my head in a house that, all though dated, has good bones and is slowly but surely becoming "our" home.  All my bills are paid on time and both Sue and I have good paying jobs which we actually do enjoy and like...most days.

   

    I am just feeling stressed and pushed to the limit by circumstances that I can not control, for example this week alone I will have worked ten days straight often putting in a minimum of twelve hours a day for the majority of those days.  When I was a younger man working for an engineering firm in Charlotte, NC I would not have complained, but that job taught me many things.   Number one on that list was to never ever work yourself to death again.

    Unless of course you have a goal in mind.   When I got engaged to my second wife, a lovely woman named Teri, I put in the hours to not only give her a fairy tale wedding but to make a down payment on my first home.

    Now at 55, I find myself putting in these hours due to unforeseen debt caused by family members that got themselves into trouble.   To repair things like the Grinder Pump, to repair our car because we managed to hit not one but two deer in the span of a month.

     Other setbacks included helping my current mother-in-law pull a well that had a leaking pipe on a cold and blustery Saturday, only to have her trip and break her nose.  So we ended up spending part of that day in the hospital as well.  At least I learned how to replace a well pump.

Tipper our 22+ year old cat
  
    In addition to that we had the back window shatter in the van, issues with another car which were minor thankfully. We also had the inconvenience of unexpected vet bills, but they are family too.   All this quickly dissipated the rainy day fund that Sue and I built up over time by nearly half.  

    Our goal now is to fix that economic hole quickly, so we can get back to doing what we wish to do.  Short term pain for long term pleasure is the goal.  

    Once you have a goal in place than you have to be willing to put in the hours, you have to be willing to face the pain and yes, the frustration to meet those goals.   You work and you never break that chain.   

    The first year of our "homestead" was all about defining that goal.   Right now, we have to put off that goal for a brief time to build towards the future.   If we want to replace the kitchen and bathroom to make it more workable for Sue (who has a culinary arts degree) or turn the bathroom into a resort style hideaway then part of that will be to rebuild our contingency fund.    

    We also learned that first year that our goals were to lofty, and after working on the foundations of our homestead adventures, our goals are now more realistic.   We adjusted as we learned more.

    I'm still hoping to go solar sometime in the coming years, I'm still looking at putting in a smaller garden this year...and at least two fruit trees come spring for a few different reasons.   Start small and build up, not the other way around.   We already know it's going to be a small container garden, since their are only the two of us.

    Living here, I've learned that any sort of "vegetarian or vegan" dish that I don't make myself will most likely consist of a bowl of lettuce.     So having a small container garden makes sense.

    I'm thankful that we started this adventure.  Just let me vent about it now and again. 

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