Big Brood

Back in action

gander — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 04:06:08 +0000

Welcome back. Sorry we’ve been out for quite a while now. I’m going to start posting again and I hope we can reconnect.

I will give you many updates soon, and information about my new experiments.

Here are a couple of hints:

I’ve been out of the country.
I’ve taken up a new hobby.
I’m working to make our house more efficient.

See you soon!

The beginnings of an abundant harvest (I hope)

magoose — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 03:11:12 +0000

The last few days have been busy ones. I have canned 8 pints of strawberry jam and 6 pints of strawberry rhubbarb jam . Last night I steamed and froze 3 gallons of spinach. Three gallons of spinach sounds like a lot until you steam it and measure it out into 4 pint sized bags! I didn’t mind because it was all free (from my grandma’s garden). She even washed it for me before she delivered it! I planted a whole packet of spinach and have nothing to show for it. I wasn’t surprised, the same thing happened last year. It apparently doesn’t like my soil. I have a good crop of lettuce ready to pick though.

Rechargeable Batteries, Money and Environment Savers?

gander — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 03:59:42 +0000

If you’re like us and concerned with your budget as well as helping to keep our environment cleaner, you might wonder whether rechargeable batteries are a good option and whether they last long enough to offset their higher costs. Read on to find out more.

(more…)

Now you know why I haven’t been posting…

magoose — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 03:25:35 +0000

I have been feeling rather nauseated and tired. The first trimester yucks are here in full swing.

Hopefully I will get a photo of our garden up this week. I can’t say it is weed free but I am keeping up fairly well. My favorite weed strategy is putting newspaper topped with grass clippings between all the rows (something I picked up from my mom). It really keeps nasty weeds at bay and cuts my weed pulling/hoeing work in half.

Brood equation update

gander — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:32:12 +0000

Brood = Brood + 1

(If you don’t understand, I advise you to ask your local computer geek. )

Credit Card Rewards Rip-Offs

gander — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:49:32 +0000

I enjoyed this article on CNN money covering how credit card rewards aren’t always so rewarding. It also gives some tips on how to use rewards cards to really benefit.

While this list is a nice overview, I really enjoy reading about how Free Money Finance uses his cash-back reward cards to earn money for spending money he would have spent anyway.

As the Money article mentions, be careful with these techniques. If you have the discipline, then go for it but as the article states some are tempted to charge more just to earn rewards. Be disciplined!

We haven’t tried these techniques much. We do have a GM rewards card that will likely never get redeemed since I don’t think we’ll be buying any more brand new cards. We’re just starting to get our finances in order and gaining the discipline to spend only what we have. Once I feel more confident that we can do this consistently, we’ll start to move to cash-back rewards cards. It’s hard to turn down free money!

Alternative Fuels: Algae Fueled Car

gander — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:52:21 +0000

While the current financial prospects of algae-diesel fueled cars aren’t all that great, this is an interesting story involving a Chicago school where the kids developed the algae-based biofuel as a part of their curriculum. I get the impression from the story that school is NOT one of your private schools.

With a yield of 30 times per acre over soy, it sounds like it might be a future viable alternative fuel.

What Causes Gas Prices

gander — Sat, 24 May 2008 13:57:52 +0000

Finally, someone has explained how our gas prices get set. Unfortunately, it doesn’t give me much hope for future gas prices. However, I’m glad to see that at least part of it is due to speculation which means that we may at some point at least see the price level off if not go down.

You know you’re a mom of a…

magoose — Tue, 13 May 2008 02:50:44 +0000

5 1/2 year old boy when you find a rather LARGE rock (a good 3 inches across!) in the bottom of the washer after you empty out all the wet clothes! I won’t go into why I missed it when putting the laundry into the washer

Look what we found!

magoose — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:43:05 +0000

We found this cardinal nest in our back yard last week. The mama has been sitting on the eggs for at least 8 days. We hope we will see babies in the next couple of weeks. We noticed the ever watchful papa singing to mama this a.m. in a nearby tree!