When you're stuck, you're stuck

A few days ago, I noticed a distant pickup perched on an icy stretch of road. It's a steep road, too.

Then I noticed something else: Some poor guy was literally shoveling his way up the hill.

It was a long, steep slog for the poor guy.

Hours later, when I went out to do the evening barn chores, he was still at it.

The next day, I saw this:

He had made it a few yards higher on the slope, but that's it.

Just as I posted this blog post, I looked out the window and checked. The truck is still there. When you're stuck, you're stuck.

Black belts in frugality

For obvious reasons, the subject of frugality has been very much on our minds lately. Now that we're facing our first full week without gainful employment, I thought it might be useful to describe our belt-tightening activities.

Our black belts in frugality didn't start last week, or last month, or last year. The foundation was laid way back in 1992 when Don and I gave up our well-paying city jobs and moved to a fixer-upper on four acres in southwestern Oregon. We went from a combined income of $70K (extremely decent for the time) to zip, zero, zilch, nada. Now that was an adjustment.

But we made it work and, needless to say, learned a lot.

As a financial exercise for our current belt-tightening, I looked up some budgeting advice, much of which involved creating spreadsheets for various categories. Almost all budgeting advice includes the need to be flexible (for when life throw you lemons) and the importance of tracking one's spending

One such article had some sensible advice, including splitting income between needs (50%), wants (30%), and savings (20%). Personally I'd drop that "wants" category by quite a bit, but then we're still in the adjustment phase, not maintenance phase.

This website listed 18 budgeting categories as follows:

• Housing (rent, mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance, HOA fees)

• Transportation (payments, gas, repairs, insurance, parking fees, registration, public transportation costs, etc.)

• Food (grocery costs, restaurant meals, take-out or delivery, coffee shop stops, alcohol, work lunches)

• Utilities (propane, electricity, water, cell phones, internet, trash)

• Medical/health care (insurance, prescriptions, eyeglasses, out-of-pocket costs)

• Additional insurance (life, disability, etc.)

• Taxes (state, federal)

• Education/childcare (N/A in our case)

• Debt payments (personal loans, student loans, credit cards)

• Retirement/savings (something, hopefully, we won't touch; but nor are we likely to be able to add to it for a while)

• Household items/supplies (cleaning supplies, paper goods, home decor, small appliances)

• Personal care (hair, nail, makeup, beauty items, massages, spa treatments)

• Clothing (including shoes, accessories, purses, backpacks, work clothing)

• Entertainment (gym memberships, cable TV, movies, events, bars, hobbies/crafts, streaming services)

• Travel (airfare, car rentals, tickets, hotels, souvenirs)

• Pets (food, medication, vet visits, accessories such as toys)

• Gifts/charitable giving (charity, church, holidays, special events such as birthdays, etc.)

• Miscellaneous (could include things like bank fees, "excessive personal spending," postage, etc.)

I've said it before: If we had to lose our major income stream, it couldn't have happened at a better time in our lives. However that's because we've spent years pre-positioning ourselves in some major, major ways.

Some of those major pre-positioning tactics include:

• Living in a low cost-of-living area. Most, though not all, rural areas fall into this category.

• Purchasing our home outright when we sold our last place. This decision meant we had to limit our options to what we could afford, which means our current home is not our "dream" home, but that's okay. We're in the process of making it into our dream home, and that's what counts.

• Years of whittling down expenses. Make no mistake, this takes practice; but the results can be astounding (as the budget analysis below will show).

• Purchasing in advance things we knew we would need. During times when money is less tight, buying up things you know you'll need not only fights against inflation, but provides a cushion when income drops. We don't have to buy coffee or tea, for example, because we have plenty. We bought a rototiller last fall (a very high-ticket item for us), and now it's ours whenever we need it. Remember when I bought a few extra pairs of prescription eyeglasses? Yeah, ask me how happy I am to have those in reserve (I am absolutely blind without my glasses). We pre-purchased building materials when we could afford it, so when it comes time to build a chicken coop, finish the garden infrastructure (including fencing and drip irrigation), construct a calf pen and milking stall, etc., the out-of-pocket expenses to complete these projects should be low.

• Getting out of debt. Oh heavens, the freedom that comes with being out of debt is indescribable. This isn't something that can be accomplished easily; but if you still have a dependable income, I recommend aggressively paying off debt as fast as humanly possible. And then – this is important – don't acquire more. It's one of the reasons we transitioned to an all-cash lifestyle so many years ago; it means we don't fill up our (single) credit card with frivolous purchases.

So anyway, this is how we handle the budget categories listed above:

• Housing (rent, mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance, HOA fees). We have no mortgage, and we budget for the two bills we'll get every December: property taxes and homeowner's insurance. Our property taxes went up (no surprise), and now we pay about $1000/year. Our homeowner's insurance nearly doubled to $2000/year. Since both these bills come due in December, we have time to save up for them.

• Transportation (payments, gas, repairs, insurance, parking fees, registration, public transportation costs, etc.). We own our older (used) cars outright, so insurance is low; however we often have to pay for repairs as a result of driving beaters. Since we work from home, we probably spend about $150/month on gasoline (driving to town for church, errands, etc.). Don did mention he plans to curtail those "quick trips" to the hardware store for this or that, and instead will plan and combine such trips with other errands to avoid using gas. This means we'll be more housebound, but we're homebodies anyway, so it's no biggee.

• Food (grocery costs, restaurant meals, take-out or delivery, coffee shop stops, alcohol, work lunches). Take-out or delivery food is unheard of in our area, so that's not even on our radar. We had been in the habit over the last couple years of enjoying a restaurant meal about once a month, so that stops. We don't frequent coffee shops, have work lunches, or buy alcohol. (Once my current box of chardonnay is gone, it's gone.) Our pantry is full, as is our chest freezer, so with the exception of fresh vegetables, our food expenses are low, especially if we cut back on frivolous things. Besides, this year we'll have a garden and fresh milk from our own cow.

• Utilities (propane, electricity, water, cell phones, internet, trash). We have no water or trash costs. Our water comes from our well, and our trash is covered by our property taxes (our area doesn't have pickups, but rather centralized dumpsters). Normally our electricity bill is about $110 a month, but it spikes to almost twice that in the winter, because we use a stock-tank heater to keep the livestock water ice-free. We don't have smart phones (just one "dumb phone" for roadside emergencies), and of course we have internet service. Bottom line, there isn't a lot we can cut from our utilities.

• Medical/health care (insurance, prescriptions, eyeglasses, out-of-pocket costs). This is probably the biggest question readers have about our frugal lifestyle. How do we handle health insurance? Don is now covered by Medicare, and I'm covered by Christian Healthcare Ministries (a medical sharing business). Our monthly out-of-pocket costs for both these programs comes to about $415 for the two of us. Neither of us are on any prescription medicines, except Don's low-dosage blood pressure medication, which costs about $200/year. We thank God that we're in good health.

• Additional insurance (life, disability, etc.). We have no additional insurance.

• Taxes (state, federal). We pay quarterly taxes since we're self-employed. I'm working on our taxes at present; what we pay in quarterlies may go down since we can document a large income drop.

• Education/childcare. Not applicable in our case.

• Debt payments (personal loans, student loans, credit cards). Not applicable in our case.

• Retirement/savings. Contributions to our retirement savings is obviously taking a hit, and hopefully we'll never be in a position where we have to tap into our retirement savings.

• Household items/supplies (cleaning supplies, paper goods, home decor, small appliances). Not applicable, especially when on a budget. We have enough cleaning supplies and toilet paper to last a while, and home decor isn't even on our radar.

• Personal care (hair, nail, makeup, beauty items, massages, spa treatments). Bwahahaha. Nope.

• Clothing (including shoes, accessories, purses, backpacks, work clothing). Again, nope. We have plenty of clothes and shoes. Besides, I hate clothes.

• Entertainment (gym memberships, cable TV, movies, events, bars, hobbies/crafts, streaming services). Not applicable in our case.

• Travel (airfare, car rentals, tickets, hotels, souvenirs). We travel very little, and will travel even less going forward. I haven't flown since 2019. Don and I took a couple of road trips last year, but that's not likely to happen this year. The one trip we do have budgeted this year is to drive down to southern California to visit my very elderly parents.

• Pets (food, medication, vet visits, accessories such as toys). We have a lot of dog food on hand, and of course we take Mr. Darcy to the vet when necessary. We'll also be needing some additional hay for the cows before long, which we'll purchase as needed. We are responsible for the pets and livestock under our care, and have no intention of neglecting them.

• Gifts/charitable giving (charity, church, holidays, special events such as birthdays, etc.). It was a tough decision, but we had to cut back on our charitable donations (church and other charities). We hope God understands. As for holidays and birthdays, etc., the only time we ever spend money for these events is at Christmas (and not much even then), so we'll see what this upcoming holiday is like.

• Miscellaneous (could include things like bank fees, "excessive personal spending," postage, etc.). We have no bank (or credit union, in our case) fees; "excessive personal spending" is out of the question; and we'll handle other miscellaneous expenses as they come up.

When we sat down for our "budget summit" after I got the news I was being laid off, we estimated our streamlined yearly expenses (including food, charitable giving, taxes, insurance, etc.) to be around $18K. We're confident we can bring in that amount through freelance writing, so at this point, we're optimistic we'll be able to continue.

As Don put it, our goal is to give ourselves bonus points for wherever we can cut costs. He's talking about taking me out for pizza on a Friday or Saturday night as a sort of last hurrah (we haven't been able to do this for years!), but then ... that's it. Future pizzas will be made at home.

So this explains our black belts in frugality. I welcome any thoughts on how we can cut more costs and trim our expenses even further.

It is NOT SNOWING right now

You'll be pleased to know it is NOT SNOWING right now.

After all, that's what the weather report says. I believe it, don't you? This is RAIN.

Everything you see in this photos is just an illusion. I used PhotoShop.

Good thing, too. I'd hate for it to be, y'know, winter. So repeat after me: It is NOT SNOWING.....

Gender reveal

After our Valentine's Day calf was born yesterday, I still wasn't able to determine the gender. That's because Filet was being, understandably, very protective.

This morning when I went out to feed, she immediately gathered her baby and retreated to the opposite side of the corral. Actually I didn't mind this. It meant I could clean the barn and fill the water tank without watching my back.

The baby actually navigated the deep snow with surprising dexterity.

I cleaned up the barn floor and then layered the floor mats with sawdust in hopes it would increase traction for the newborn. I noticed it slipping yesterday.

The baby followed Filet right into the barn for breakfast.

In fact, while mama ate her own breakfast, the newborn dove in for its own breakfast as well. Go for it, kiddo! Get all the colostrum you can!

I checked up on everybody midday, and saw Filet by herself out in the snow. But where was the baby?

It turns out baby was bedded down inside the barn. Smart baby.

In the evening, since all the animals were outside, I took the opportunity to clean the barn and scatter more sawdust.

Interestingly, the calf came loping over right away, curious to see me. Keeping a wary eye on Filet, I felt under its tail. A boy! Dear readers, meet Romeo.

We've marked on our calendars for ten days from now (when the testicles drop), at which point we'll band Romeo's equipment and turn him into a steer. He'll have a date with the freezer in a couple of years, but in the meantime we're enjoying having a calf again.

Our Valentine's Day surprise

For the last few days, we've had bitterly cold temperatures, with lows at zero degrees Fahrenheit. Coupled with our huge snow whomp from last week, we're definitely into winter.

We've been keeping the cows confined to the corral for a few reasons. One, there's no sense letting them out into a pasture that's sixteen inches deep in snow; two, the gates are blocked shut anyway; and three, our Angus cow Filet was due to calve at some point, and we wanted to keep her close.

Filet is what had me worried. Since she's a former range cow, she's not crazy about being in the barn, even though it offers abundant shelter and that's where the feed box is. She'll eat, then retreat back outside. During the last cold snap, I'd feed the cows in the morning and tell her, "Don't have a calf." I'd feed the cows in the evening and tell her, "Don't have a calf." I prayed, literally prayed, she would not have a calf during the cold snap. Temps that low will kill newborns.

Today – Valentine's Day – was significantly warmer, with a low of 18F. And it snowed the blessed day long – prettily but relentlessly. When I went out to feed the cows in the morning, Filet was giving low moos and acting agitated – and her udder was bagged up.

I came back into the house and told Don, "I"m 99% sure Filet is in labor."

I made it a point to trudge through the snow and check on her about every hour and a half. Later in the morning, I was amused to see Mignon, her yearling calf, avidly nursing. I haven't seen Mignon nurse for months. Evidently she smelled milk!

The temperature rose until it hit about 31F by noon. Around 2:30 pm, I went to check, and she had just – and I mean just – dropped the baby. Even better, she actually came into the barn for this! I was thrilled.

Maggie (our Jersey) was intensely curious about the new arrival, of course, and to her credit, Filet wasn't overly aggressive about it. I, however, stayed well away. I've seen bovine maternal hormones in action many times. Nope.

When I got there, the calf wasn't yet on its feet. It flopped around a few times, but the barn mats were slippery and it couldn't get much by way of footing.

Splat!

Filet is an experienced mother. I have no idea how many calves she's had, but I'm guessing at least four and probably more. The baby was in good hands.

I had to dip in and out of this scene because this is my last weekend working my online job, so I was somewhat tied to the computer. But it was hard to stay away from a new baby!

I went out to check on things before dusk to clean the barn (if I could) and feed everyone. The baby was on its feet and Filet had moved it outside ... which was probably better for its footing, to be honest.

I took the opportunity to clean the barn, keeping a very wary eye on Filet. She bellowed and lunged at one point, and I didn't argue – I ducked back behind the gate. Mostly it was just bluster, but not all of it. Filet is a big cow and I wasn't taking chances.

I mean, c'mon ... would you mess around with this mama?

The baby wandered in and out of the barn, greeting its new herd mates.

Mignon, the calf's big sister, seemed calm and interested in the newborn.

When I left them for the evening, the calf was juuuuust on the verge of finding the faucet. A belly-ful of warm colostrum, and the calf will be just fine in the snow, especially since we're actually on a warming trend.

I'm about 80% certain the baby is a girl, but obviously I wasn't going to peek under its tail to confirm. However on the assumption that's correct, what shall we call our Valentine's Day calf?

A day in the life of a freelance writer

"Well," I said on Monday afternoon, crossing my arms and turning in my desk chair to face Don. "I think I've had a reasonably productive day as a freelance writer."

The context of this comment came on the heels of getting laid off from my online day job last Friday. Rather than seeking another online position or an in-person job in the closest town, Don and I decided to throw ourselves full-time into freelance writing.

"You should write about that," he joked back. "A day in the life of a freelance writer."

I thought that was a good idea, so here goes.

I'm an early riser, so I was up by 4:30 am. I started a fire in the wood cookstove and boiled water for tea. I made sure there was enough water left in the kettle, which I kept on the wood cookstove, for Don's coffee later on.

By 5 am I was on the computer, working on my daily half-chapter for my latest category romance novel. This daily word count will allow me to complete the manuscript within a month. I drank my first cup of tea during this process.

Don was up by 6:30 am, so I poured his coffee, then kitted up in coat and mud boots to wade through the snow toward the barn: Cleaning up, feeding the cows, topping off their water. I was back in around 7 am, at which point I made myself another cup of tea, let the parrot out of her cage for some cage-free time, and caught up on the morning news. (The parrot likes to sit on my hand for about 90 minutes each morning, so I can't get any writing done during that time. It's my "read the news" time instead.)

Don and I had an appointment in the morning with our mechanic to get a repair job done on one of the vehicles. We drove into town, dropped off the vehicle, and on the way home we hammered out some story pitches for Backwoods Home Magazine/Self-Reliance, which Don wrote down while I drove.

After lunch, Don pushed some snow around with the tractor while I started sending pitches to various editors. I launched seven pitches at Lehman's (I write for their blog). My contact liked the ideas and said she has her content meeting tomorrow and will get back to me.

I received an unrelated email from the editor at Grit, so I took the opportunity to ask for the editorial calendars for both Grit and Mother Earth News so I could pitch accordingly. She wrote back a very nice email (and cc'd the MEN editor as well), saying she will like whatever I write, so just send some pitches. Poor ladies, I sent back no fewer than 18 ideas. It was late in the afternoon when I sent them, so I didn't expect to hear back for a day or two at least.

Meanwhile, Don started researching a new magazine to query regarding some of the interesting sights we saw on our last short trip to Montana we took in September. He also rough-finished a previously requested article for Backwoods Home Magazine which he hopes to finalize and submit within a day or two.

In the late afternoon, I went out to clean the barn, top off the cows' water tank, and feed them. We've been giving them a little extra food to help retain body heat, since we have bitterly cold temps moving in.

On Tuesday morning, after barn chores were finished, we helped Older Daughter box up her massive order of tankards for shipment. We walked the dog, then both sat down at our computers again. Don finished his Backwoods Home article and sent it to me for review. I threw in a load of laundry and began editing the article.

In the late morning, we requested a phone consultation with our Backwoods Home editor and told her about the job loss and our interest in pitching more stories. Normally this could be covered in an email, but we had a couple of unusual ideas to talk over with her, easier done on the phone.

After lunch, we finalized our list of about 25 pitches and sent it in to Backwoods Home. While Don worked on splitting some firewood, I started my half-chapter fiction writing for the day.

In the late afternoon, after barn chores and walking the dog, Don worked on some tax stuff (we have our appointment next week) while I edited and finalized the article he sent me earlier.

Once the various editors decide which pitches to accept, they'll assign due dates and (in some cases) word counts. We will calendar the due dates – we're rather obsessed with never missing a deadline – and start working on whatever article is due first.

If these pitches pay off – and we're reasonably confident most of them will – we should have a nice steady freelance income for the next couple of years, solely from the magazine writing. This doesn't include anything earned from the fiction side of things.

So yeah, that's a day in the life of a freelance writer. A lot of hustling, but a lot of freedom too. And it's all because I got laid off from my day job.

The overworked tankard-maker

Older Daughter has been slamming through the first of several massive tankard orders from her customers. We're talking anywhere from 300 to 500+ pieces per order.

This particular production run was somewhere on the order of 190 pieces.

Needless to say, she's been burning a lot of midnight oil to meet her deadlines.

So when a friend of hers put together a cartoon meme titled "The Overworked Tankard-Maker," she cracked up.

This is her.

Very accurate. And it gave Older Daughter some much-needed levity during a very busy time.

Super Bowl Sunday (yawn)

True story.

Back in 1989 when Don and I were dating, we were both living in Davis, California, an extraordinarily flat college town where there were far more bicycles than cars. Seriously, everyone rode bikes, and the whole town was designed around that concept, which was actually very cool. (This was back in the 80s. I don't know what it's like these days.)

One day in early February, I rode my bike a few blocks away to where Don was living. The streets were extra quiet because it was Super Bowl Sunday and everyone was inside watching the game.

When I arrived, Don was out on his front lawn, his bike upended in front of him, working on the chain. For some reason, this surprised me.

"Why aren't you inside watching the game?" I asked. "It's Super Bowl Sunday."

"Well..." He shrugged. "I'm just not that into football."

I distinctly remember looking at him and thinking, "Hmmm. This is someone I could get serious about..."

A year later, we were married. The rest is history.

The reason I tell this story is just this morning, Super Bowl Sunday, we woke up and were drinking our morning tea/coffee and reading the news online. I saw something football-related, so I turned to him and asked, "Is today Super Bowl Sunday?"

"No idea," he replied. He checked online and confirmed it was.

Happy sigh. That's one of the reasons we've experienced nearly 35 years of marital bliss so far.

Well, that didn't take long....

A couple of days ago, I posted about how we're going to gradually start monetizing this blog. The reason? We were bracing ourselves to lose one of our larger income streams, and therefore we were looking for ways to bring in supplemental revenue.

Well, it all went down faster than we thought. On Friday, we learned I was being laid off from my online job. Grunt. This fills me with mixed emotions. On one hand, I very much like my coworkers, and will miss working with them. On the other hand, the hours were long and I won't miss getting up at 4:30 am to start work by 5 am.

As with anyone facing a layoff, Don and I staggered around in shock for a few hours after we got the news. Last night we held a budget summit during which we mapped out our monthly and yearly expenses, and identified where we can cut back. Discretionary spending, of course, is being severely curtailed until further notice.

We recognize we're wildly fortunate, for a number of reasons:

• We have no mortgage. We own our home outright.

• Our living expenses are very low. After decades of frugality, we have black belts in frugality. That experience is coming in handy right now.

• We have other income streams, albeit not as large or as stable as the one we just lost.

So our task right now is to adjust our expenses to our reduced income, while simultaneously working to increase that income. We are SO used to his. We've done it many times before. It's not a hardship, it's a challenge.

In a way, I'm looking forward to my last day of work. It will allow me to devote more time to writing, which is how I'm hoping to ramp up our revenue. I'll be approaching the various editors I've worked with over the years and pitching additional material. Don and I will also be querying about new publishing opportunities to see if we can broaden our writing credits.

So while a door is closing, some windows are opening. It's just another adventure.

Snow whomp + power outage

If I've been silent for the last couple of days, it's because we finally got our power back on. It went out late Tuesday night after we got a snow whomp. It looks like winter arrived at last.

I mean, seriously. While the rest of the country already had their snow whomps, we were mild and snow-free. Sure, we had some chilly temps, but otherwise bare ground.

All that changed this past week. At first it was just a soft and picturesque snowfall of a couple inches.

The cows didn't seem overly fazed.

Most of the snow melted off over the next couple of days. And then, overnight, WHOMP.

Unsurprisingly, we lost power during this blitz. Out here, the power grid goes down for seemingly any reason: a heavy snowfall, a wind, a Tuesday. We knew this was likely to happen and had everything prepped just in case.

The cows were a little more fazed by this snowfall. We decided to keep them in the corral for immediate access to shelter. Filet, our stand-offish formerly-range-cow Angus, is due to calve sometime in the next month (probably less), and we don't want to be chasing down a new baby in deep snow on the far side of the pasture.

I took a yardstick into the yard and measured how much snow fell overnight.

Twelve and a half inches of new snow, and we've gotten more since.

It almost came over the tops of my boots.

The effect was very pretty...

...especially after the clouds cleared and it turned into a strikingly sunny day.

The snowfall was an opportunity for every man in the neighborhood to climb onto whatever equipment he had available, and work to clear the road. I counted at least six different neighbors on six different pieces of equipment, not counting Don's efforts.

I kept the bird feeder filled, since I knew the feathered ones would have a hard time finding food under such conditions.

The quail had to literally break trails in the snow.

Since Older Daughter's side of the house isn't heated during power outages, she let Frumpkin (her cat) into the main part of the house (making sure Lihn the parrot was safely in her cage, of course). Frumpkin was fascinated by the activity at the bird feeder. Cat TV.

Toward dusk, we took Mr. Darcy for his afternoon walk and noted a large herd of elk, at least 25 animals, spread across a neighbor's field.

We lit the oil lamps and settled in for an evening of reading. Frumpkin was perched on Older Daughter's lap, looking quite pleased with himself.

The power stayed off for forty-eight hours, through clear sunny days and very dark nights.

Don used the back blade on the tractor to plow the lower driveway.

Frumpkin stayed in the main part of the house, looking very cute...

...while Darcy looked very worried. "That cat isn't supposed to BE here."

The power came back on early Friday morning and life got back to normal. And the elk? Well, they went strolling by right below the house. Gorgeous.