Oh that sounds interesting. Katie was interested in bows for a while but we never got any expensive ones. She got a kids regular bow one year...had a blast. But then lost interest sooo yea. never went on to anything more.

waits impatiently SURVIVAL!!! :P I bet it starts tonight. I remember reading somewhere that they like to start it over a weekend so most people get a chance to participate vs starting on a week day....but eh. If not thats ok too. I have this whole next week off work. Just college school work and yard work to keep me busy so lots of time for survival!

Oooh, a whole week off! That's nice!

We had Friday off, and tomorrow.

Lilys was on sale for $150 when we got it, normally $226. So not awful awful!

She's in 4H archery, IDK if I mentioned it before or not.

Yea. We always have a "mid-winter break" week-long break in February. I think you may have mentioned it before, but I probably forgot :P

Another pile completely cleared up, and a good little area (I say little but it was three pickup truck bed liners FULL) of leaves/twigs/stuff raked up.

Oh wow, that's a good BIG area! Great job!

You're kicking butt on the lawn honestly.

I just ordered $133 worth of rabbit treats and bird/squirrel food. Disaster. :P Though there were some VERY good deals on the bird and squirrel food on Chewy, and the rabbit is very picky about his treats, and they're the only ones who had them. Buy 3 get 1 free, so I just got him four of them.

Its a big yard. Still TONS AND TONS of stuff to do. Stuff to cut up, pick up, rake up...uuuuuuggggh lol Shane is here today so he's been helping (unlike grumpy butt Nathan) so we've got more done. Sounds like nice deals :) I picked up Ryans bird feeder and said to myself - THIS needs to go over to his house so HE can feed the birds. I don't want to. I don't want the expense (I can't AFFORD the expense) and the cats try to catch the birds anyway. And the birds spill so much seed, then I have weird wild weeds growing instead of grass.

I will have to go get some pictures of what I've done. It does look nicer. I feel bad for the bugs, I'm sure some are nesting in the stuff I'm raking up, but if I don't rake it up, I can't keep the fires going to burn the bigger stuff....so sorry bugs!

I've raked up the area from the root-balls to a little past where this picture ends towards the house. Lots of leaves, twigs, pinecones, etc. Phew. (I'm standing on the driveway to take the picture)

A good view of all the tiny little crap I've been raking up, haven't really touched this side other than one pile that I pretty much demolished (only some big log pieces left) The right side of the picture (dogs nose pointed that direction) those are the trees that the root balls in the other picture belong to lol

This is the same side as the second picture, closer to the house and toward the neighbor instead of the road, the logs are the stuff left from the pile I demolished.

Honestly Kat, you're kicking butt!

Yeah, it is kind of expensive. :( Thankfully, the cats don't really bother the birds, they're busy hunting the voles and mice, poor little things.. but poor little things I do NOT want in my house!

They DO love to sit INSIDE and watch the birds though, and it keeps them from wrecking my house :P

Plus, they only get fed in the winter and spring, maybe the beginning of summer. Because I don't want the big furry birds (AKA the bears!) to take off and ruin my feeders!

Yep been busy. You can also see in the third picture that I've raked that area mostly free of little crap. Unlike the middle picture lol

I would not want furry birds either ;) I don't like the wild dogs and cats that roam. They get into my garbage if I'm not careful to keep the lid on and the bags fully in the cans. I had Ryan build a frame to set the cans in even, because those wild ones would knock the cans over to get to the trash. Its annoying.

Been out gathering up greenery again, and some limbs/logs to toss on the ashes/embers and got the fire going again. Hope to do a good bit more of clean up and then its supposed to rain tomorrow, so the fire will probably go out then and I'll have to restart it if I want to burn anything else after that.

In college work - I think I have Unit 2 test in one class, and one short paragraph assignment on special needs scenario in the other, that won't take me long to do, and then Wednesday I'm meeting the parent of one of my kids, she has a baby, and said I could observe the baby for my other paper I have to do. So I'm meeting them at the park at 12 on Wed. But the third class is supposed to open the next set of assignments today, so that will give me something to work on this week. (the other two classes have nothing else new to do until March 6th and March 13th, just those three things I have to finish).

Kicking butt in school AND in life. You're seriously awesome!

Took the kids grocery shopping this morning. Want to murder everyone now. This is fine :P

Taking Lily to electronics tonight, and doing my friends of music meeting in the car in the parking lot before we leave :P

And tomorrow I'm working at the HS! Which is exciting. I went twice last week too, AND once the week before.

AND, I just checked the bank account, and our tax return is there! Which is terrific and just in time. Enough to pay the property taxes, rent a dumpster (twice), and get the parts to fix the car. PERFECT.

I hate taking Nathan shopping. But I also hate NOT taking him. Because I can only get what I think he wants. And then I don't get something he wanted. But if I take him all I hear is "I dunno". and he doesn't pick anything out. Ugh.

Yay! :) Mine was deposited as of tomorrow hahahah its pending in my account right now. I was going to use it to do a down payment on a mortgage in my name, but I probably should get all the repairs to the house done first I guess.... and debating if I should do a second claim for the floor along the right side of the house - I asked the insurance adjuster AND one of the contractors I had out if it might be the foundation and they both thought so, the adjuster said to get a quote and take it to the agency to see if it was covered under my policy (it should be if its the foundation). It would be a separate claim than the storm damage though....and longer to wait to get stuff fixed as well.... But to me it makes more sense to get the damages fixed BEFORE i do a mortgage in my name....

Oh yea speaking of contractors - the one that came out today said I should be getting ALL new siding, not just patched up crap, and said he can most likely get the insurance to agree. I mean, that's what I thought when I first saw the damage, was that I'd get new siding and a new roof, but then the adjuster said patches and to expect that I would not be able to color match. The contractor said color matching was one of the reasons I SHOULD be able to get new siding, in addition to the amount of damage to it. He did not give me a price quote however, as I'd told him about what the insurance said, and he said his quote would be more than the insurance claim says right now, but if I wanted to go with him, he'd talk to them and get them to change it (he did say he cannot guarantee that, but that he has done it for others and almost never has an insurance company/adjuster argue with him about it). I dislike that he didn't give me an actual quote, but I really liked his knowledge (he spent a good amount of time explaining things to me) and the fact that he believes I should get all new siding (and looking online - asked google - lol - it says it should be covered too, the whole house even if just one side has damage....so....I kind of believe him on that)

He's also done like 6-7 houses in the area that I've seen vs the 1-2 for the other company. He is more local than them as well.

Yeah, I'd think you'd get new siding too, the insurance shouldn't be paying for only patching! That'll ruin the price of the house for sure!

Right. So I think I'm going to go with him, hope for new siding (and see what he says if the insurance says NO).... Then move forward from that. He did say he could get the roof done pretty quick, but siding and windows would need to be ordered so they would be a little longer before doing that. No rush to me, honestly because my house is quite livable until it gets fixed anyway.

Well I guess rush just only because I'd like to have it DONE :P But seriously if I have to wait because he is fixing someones house to make it livable...thats fine.

[edit] 6pm Rain looks like its coming in a little early. Cloudy and wind is picking up and temp is dropping... (it was freaking 73 degrees today!!!!) supposed to rain pretty much late tonight/all morning and be done by early afternoon. Then sunny the rest of the week. So tomorrow will be a schoolwork day (unless Shanes truck gets fixed and I have to drive him to wherever...not the truck stop, its in a shop - then it will be a school/drive Shane day lol)

[edit] 1130am Well I don't think it rained very much last night. And its just barely sprinkling now. Who knows what this afternoon will be like. Did a little more yard work, did my unit 2 test. Wrote my special needs paragraph. Looked up & wrote down all the CDC milestones I need to be watching for tomorrow when I have my observation. Totally forgot to look up what the new assignments were. Ooops. Thats ok. I will do that in a bit.

Ok so I finally made it to going around and back reading and while my head is too full of work garbage, I did manage to retain a decent amount, although I'm not going to comment on it all.

Kat - I can't believe they were trying to have you total your car. I can't stand when insurance companies do that. It would make sense if you had multiple -hell, even ONE - airbag go off, b/c they're hella expensive to replace (not the part but a certified person/company) or structural damage, like to the frame and I didn't see that at all. It sounds like utter garbage and they give people these options so it's less work for them - and less payout. Even if your car IS totaled - just an example - you should still retrieve it and sell it to the bone yard b/c they'll give you more than what an insurance company will.

I bet it feels good to look at the pics you took and see how far you've come from day 1, right? At least there's progress, and it seems like there's been better progress on your house.

Getting pretty sick of these weather patterns, though. Last week we get 60's and one 70 degree day and then it drops to a normal winter temp. This week we get a couple of 60's and one over 70 degrees day? Then the bottom drops out - on the weekend, of course - back to normal temps. Of course, all those warm days include mass rain but then when the cold returns, there's always a day of high winds which is another aggravating thing. I'm still looking at the big branches in the neighbors yard across the 1 way street I live on and worried that one of those could fall on my car.
And then, yeah - estimates are always "to restore back to factory appearance/standards".
Now that you know, you can ask (IF you need to in the future) for a repair shop to repair damages enough to make it drivable. Appearances can be attended to at a later time.

Mieke - have you ever seen those signs that say "Don't feed the [insert any wild animal here]"? lol There's a reason for those.... 😂
How has life been working in the school cafeteria? Are you guys close to the Ohio border? Just wondering b/c of the insanity that happened in East Palestine, Ohio. I know the wind direction is to the East, but I saw an article that said my city was closing off intake of any new water so it didn't affect our city water. I say BULLSHIT!
Now that's a serious disaster that FEMA doesn't want to touch and that d-bag of a transportation services person, Pete Buttigieg, has all but dismissed. (not to mention the entire presidential admin) Meanwhile people are and have been getting sick, animals and fish have died or are sick and there are clear pollutants in the creek waterbeds.

Well... Survival is finally here....

Well they weren't saying I HAD to total it, they were saying that was a way to get me funds to replace it. And it was FEMA saying that, and the repair place said if it was under insurance the insurance would likely total it....but i only have liability so insurance has nothing to do with it at all. sadly. learned my lesson on that. i think once the car is repaired/replaced I WILL get full coverage for in case this kind of crap happens again so I can get another car w/o this issue.

Progress for sure. Its a big difference from where we started after the storm. Just still sooooo much to do lol but it'll all get done.

Oh wow I had only heard a little about some water issue...had no idea it was that bad. I don't watch or listen to the news, so its mostly facebook blurbs when I see about stuff like that. :( Hopefully the measures your city took will help your area not get as affected or affected at all :(

Sorry, I didn't mean to come across saying as though you HAD to do it... I kinda went off on a little rant from experience, lol. I've been car accident prone since I started driving - either by another driver (including my mother), friend or myself - have been in a lot of accidents.

That really sucks about your septic, btw. I'm glad you haven't had any problems since that initial time and I know it's been particularly rainy (and windy) for a lot of us, this year.

I get a lot of news blurbs from Youtube. Sometimes I hate how it generates recommended stuff by what you watch - as I was watching a hurricane last year b/c my friend lives in the storm path and for awhile I got a lot of Florida news channel videos. Other times, I like how it works b/c I see things that I don't see posted on a lot of... well, the mainstream news sources. I don't watch any of it so I rely on the 'tube or reading from different sites that aggregate articles from different sources (including but far from being exclusive TO mainstream).

I'm just looking at that wood thinking of the things I could do with it.... but I don't have the equipment to process it so I can just drool over what I would like to make with it, considering how expensive wood parts are these days. (I want to do some chicken coop expansion and revision and it's going to be a little tricky with my limited funds............and limited knowledge)

Oh no. I was just trying to make sure I was clear on what I was saying. I don't do YouTube much except to listen to music videos. Drooling over the wood? You mean my bonfire piles? 😂 Yea. You are pretty creative. But you got to have the right tools to do stuff.

I imagine those thicker pieces are going to need some drying time.

Since you like to read rather than listen to a narrator, I wanted to send a link to one of my favorite stories in the "creepypasta" genre, although it's not really creepy at all. It's a short story with a really interesting psychological twist that tugs at the heartstrings. I hope you choose to read it.
A Shattered Life

I've read some absolutely fantastic stories on that subreddit.

Nah not for bonfires. You can burn green wood in bonfires. Now, to get cut up...yea some of the bigger logs might need some drying time, which is annoying because you can't move them easily. :( The pine especially needs to dry out. Ryan wants to keep the oak for his firepit (he has a small one at his place) but I am burning the pine as I go, whatever I can move. We did have some set aside, that he cut into smaller pieces that first day or so he was over here. And if I had someone using the chainsaw to cut the limbs into smaller pieces (like I've asked several times), I'd set those aside too but since no one wants to come use the chainsaw I've been throwing them into the burn pile as long limbs.

OMG I just saw I am covered in pigeons. I should have expected that, based on the crumbs at my feet yesterday...

[edit] I just read the short story you linked. Oooh ... a little creepy, not bad. and definitely heartstring tugging.

Aww I'm glad you read it. I used to share stories with my coworker because he was just too lazy to search through that subreddit himself, lol. He got addicted, since he likes creepy stories too, and would come in every day and ask what I've read lately so I could share it with him.

A lot of stories aren't creepy but range in the sci-fi type to the psychological type.

I am ok with a little creepy. I do not do horror. Especially later in the evening. Sci-fi can be good. I like futuristic/not real weird stuff sometimes. lol

I've scared myself at nights, more often than I care to admit, watching a scary horror flick or listening to a narrated story. lol Nights are the best time to watch those movies, though! :P

I know what you mean about sci-fi. Distopian and utopian type movies like The Hunger Games and Divergent aren't really my cup of tea. I like a lot of space sci-fi. (I favor Star Trek over Star Wars.)