No, I’m just wrangling my kids, a salamander, home repairs, and trying to get out of the rut. When my husband is home (which he was for almost a month) he depresses the hell out of me and what I’d like to accomplish with a blog, any kind of work, etc. Not real supportive and figures it’s a waste of time. I just don’t bother to do anything blog related when he’s home during the day or if he’s here at night.
Now that warm weather is here I’m anxious to explore and travel this great state of Wyoming. Soon I’ll do vlogs as well as pictures. My son will be out of school at the end of the month to free us up to traveling. We plan to tent camp as much as possible. Casper Mountain campsites are not yet open – a lot of snow still, and where there isn’t snow it’s mud and lakes.
We are fishing but again the weather has been weird and I don’t like fishing when it gets too windy because I have to stop whining so loud because my kids are whining a little more than me. 
Trying to eat our way through the elk and antelope. Husband is *fingers crossed* to get tags and success for filling them (aka permit in a good hunting area and killing it on the first trip out). Trying to come up with enough recipes to fill a smallish wild game recipe book for the fall.
I’m doing some home repairs but it’s slow going. I’m a wreck from digging through junk and old memories. Husband brought all of my boxes after I begged and pleaded that I’d take them from the 10 feet he’d bring them through the house. I’ve been going through them to trash old papers (not important stuff), repack some things to better organize and declutter as much as possible. Husband seems to have gotten more charitable towards me having a hutch for my crystal and a hutch for my knick-knacks. I plan to get those 2 pieces of furniture at estate sales this year.
My Husband is excited to get a Man-Cave. We concluded to convert the old garage that was converted to a daycare/living space back to a garage. It would cost us more money to convert it to the same level as the rest of the house vs. busting out the window and putting a garage door in. Plus I mentioned how much it cost to heat the space which really limits us. In the meantime I’ve been doing clearance work and we’ll move his heavy as hell made of cheap fake wood in there. I’m not sure why Husband needs a desk, he never uses a desk just the laptop on his lap and doesn’t do any work at home. Whatever, “Man-Cave” it is. As I’m the electrical guru in our house I’m going to rethread the land line and cable through the wall from the common shared wall of the living room and garage so that there is feed to his desk. After 7 years the living room of the house will be used as a living room again. I’m tired of living like I live in a trailer house – my freezer doesn’t need to be in the living room that used to be a garage because I have junk piled and a dog kennel in my actual living room with the front door.
As it is, I’ve rearranged my son’s room to remove hiding spots because he’s recently become a 5-finger bandit. Sent my Husband a photo of it and he likes it so much he’d like if for his room. ??? Guess it’s what he’d like if he was an almost 4 year old boy. Big Boy did say he’d like a room painted blue. My Husband thinks Big Boy has a ton of toys but in reality he doesn’t – yes, more than some kids but much less than a lot of children whose rooms I’ve seen. What really distorts the picture of how much you have is clutter and poor organization. Now that Big Boy’s belonging are better organized (his rock collection in window sill, dino figures on the top of his bookcase, books in a bookcase) his toys all fit in a small 3 drawer bedstand that I’ve had since I was 8 years old. I am planning on adding a shelf in his closet to hold the bed linens and a mini shelf to hold his shoes. I’ve lowered his closet rod so that he can reach his shirts. All his other clothing (undies/socks, pants, pj’s) are folded in a medium 3 drawer in his closet. Real closet doors to complete.
Haven’t started on Baby’s room yet, but hope to have some things going. I’ve got a tv to remove as the picture tube (or whatever they call it) was affected by some magnetic issue. The top the of the screen has rainbow lined snow at the top but still a great 2nd tv for when Husband is watching a scary movie or one the kids aren’t wanting to watch (okay, like I want to see Rambo any more than he wants to see The Notebook). Plus the remote took a dive into an empty bathtub breaking the circuit board. TV is not universal remote capable. I’ll do the same for her, but she has 2 of those dressers in her closet as the guest bed is also in her room. Last week I took one side of her crib away and she’s sleeping in it like a toddler bed. She was ready for this move but isn’t quite up to sleeping in a twin bed yet. By the way, my son has forever wanted to sleep in the queen size guest bed (formerly my Mom’s bed) but now he’s digging his claws into keeping the twin bed in his room instead of moving up to the queen. So Baby gets the queen. I’d like to put some shelves up for her but it may be premature as she doesn’t have a collection of anything yet.
Husband and I don’t have much to do to our room. I’d like to add another shelf and some side shelving because the closet extends beyond the closet doorway. Then I can go ahead and hidehole things that are not for children to see or touch…like my jewelry box.
Of course last November I started to tear into our bathroom walls. One, to get rid of drywall that was molding and rotting to pieces from water damage. Two, to jump start my husband into saving money for a bathroom remodel. We got that sink but everything else has stalled. You gotta do it in bursts sometimes when the money just isn’t there – bills first, and putting towards rainy day savings, second, of course.
The last few weeks Husband has been riding me hard about staying in the house until it’s paid off. Instead of selling in 2016 and buying a property by 2019, he wants to accelerate the payments we’ll have freed up to pay off the 1st mortgage. My fear is that he’ll rediscover his new found luxury of buying more things with loans and getting lazy when work gets slow. He’s done both in the past 5 years which causes a lot of marital friction. Pushing this dream of moving to the country where I can have some chickens and I guess, the gentleman’s farm hobby, will not happen. I want to live in a non residential zoned area where we aren’t restricted by the number of dogs or cats we own (total of 3 dogs or/and cats). Which would mean my strawbale house will not occur until he’s retired. By then, he’ll find another excuse like “we’re too old, let’s just stay here”.
It frustrates me because he says those things and then changes his mind again. I’ve got us on a budget and we’re sticking with it pretty well. It bodes well that we’ll stay on course to be debt free of all but 1st mortgage by 2016 still. From there we can re-evaluate what we want. The kids would be kindergarten and elementary school aged and can also voice what they’d like. I suppose I should say I’m concerned my dreams of a strawbale home won’t come true – which is part of the factors involved I moved to Wyoming – but there are 4 more years.
I had the opportunity for Husband to participate in a strawbale workshop at a local garden nursery that was building a landscape wall. Signed up for it, but after Husband said “yea” that morning I ended up going to it. I’ve enjoyed the hands-on experience I’ve gained and yes, once the YouTube video is complete, I’ll share a link. The project is slow going – it was supposed to be a one-day workshop that looks to extend 6 one-day weeks. It was not as well prepared for the workshop as I’d have liked. The class consisted of 4 of us, and the wall is 5 feet tall and about 40 feet long with 1 corner, 2 entrances. An ambitious project and supplies were underestimated. It initially being offered as a 1-day, 4 hour workshop, I’d assumed it was a couple of bales for each of us, with supplies to use. The owner of the business wants a landscape wall and we’re the “labor” which isn’t a bad thing, but I think the owner may have also underestimated the undertaking. It’s a live and learn type of process I will admit, so it takes shape slowly through the learning curve. Such as, the owner wanted to do a lime plaster but didn’t have any of the materials needed nor a source to obtain the materials from. I have some contacts in the strawbale field that I am confident will help us get supplied. It’s very exciting to be involved in the project and I look forward to sharing it with you.
Here’s a sneak:
Wyomingstorygirl Builds
