Closing Time!

I can't be the only one who loves Semisonic, right? Well, this isn't about Semisonic's hit; we're closing on the house!

It's official: December 1st we will be closing on the house!

Living Room

We have a lot of work to do though. Part of the living room floor needs to be rebuilt.

Love the wallpaper!

The kitchen has no oven... and most of the floor needs to be rebuilt.

Paneling!

And the second bedroom's carpet has hideous orange mystery stains.

All said and done, we're estimating about $7,000 worth of work including all the electric issues. I'll post more pictures once we close on the house.

For the first weekend I'll likely camp out in front of the wood burning stove without electricity. We currently live in a house without heat (or insulation, or windows and doors that seal), so I think spending a night in a sleeping bad by a hot stove will be pleasant by comparison.

The first box has been packed and the storage unit is have empty. It's really happening!

A Happy Opportunity

We may have found our new house!

I know that I'm very lucky. My grandfather has offered to let me borrow against my inheritance for a particular property. Why bother with the bank at all? Well, my inheritance doesn't go very far with the recovering housing market.

This house though, is very economical and within the inheritance amount. The bank won't even lend to us with how cheap the property is.

Here's the good: It's on two acres (my preferred size), it has two complete hook-ups, which means we can live on one hook-up while we build our other house, it has a huge single wide trailer currently on it can be made livable fairly easily, the kitchen is huge, and the lot is relatively clear of cactus.

Here's the bad: The floor needs to be rebuilt in half of the kitchen, along one wall in the living room and in the spare bathroom. Additionally, there's a whole in the ceiling (but the roof looks fine), it needs a new cooler, the kitchen has no counter space (but is big enough to build an island), the carpet in the second bedroom needs to go, the property needs to be fenced and...oh yeah, there's no electricity.

Okay, well, there's electricity to the box, but the electricity from the box to the house has been cut because it wasn't up to code.

So we have an electric inspection in a few days. We're going to get an estimate on the repairs involved and then hopefully next week we'll be ready to make an offer!

I'm so excited. I've been looking at houses for so long (3 years!), I just keep anticipating getting a call from my realtor that someone has bought it our from under us. That shouldn't happen though, because she has the only copy of the keys. Still, in the back of my mind, I'm worried about someone buying it sight unseen.

Pictures will be posted if we decide to put in an offer!

Swales

I have a bit of really dedicating to research. When I get in the mood to learn about something, I really commit.

Today on a local Facebook gardening group, someone posted a video which linked to a cool page about "greening the desert". Basically, at one point, huge swales were built in the Sonoran desert (where I live!) and one of them has become an oasis.

Being who I am, I went in to hard core research mode. I found the coolest swale guide! It even includes a list of saline tolerant plants!

As you can probably tell, this is a big deal to me. Living in the desert is hard. Growing in the desert is hard. Raising livestock in the desert is pretty impractical, to be completely honest.

We have a few problems that are unique to living in the desert, besides just the lack of rain. We get about 10 inches of rain a year. Let that sink in. Now, getting so little rain means 1. our soil is very salty and 2. our dirt is hard packed and water just runs off (erosion!) without really absorbing and redepositing in our water table.

So what's a swale? Well, the easiest way I can explain it is: A swale is a trench (filled with organic matter) with a berm (full of plants of varying root depths) beside it. The swale is supposed to help catch water and allow it to seep in to the water table and prevent run off and the berm with plants helps to prevent erosion as the water sinks down. Trees are planted nearby to help prevent evaporation while the water is still filtering into the ground. The swale helps water the plants that grow along the berm (further inhibiting erosion by helping to establish strong root systems) as well as helping water the trees. Beyond this, it helps create a fertile area for plants to grow and improves the local water table. This is all great. Modern agriculture is rough on the land, but by creating swales and  by planting  in the berms, perhaps it can help the desert thrive? 

So I did more research. Swales are actually pretty highly recommended regardless of annual rainfall, but swales in the desert need to be built differently because we do not have steady rain year around, but instead intermittent flash flooding over about 3 months.

I've reached out to a few local homesteading groups in the hopes that some have first hand experience. As we're hoping to find a property with a well (or install one after the fact), it'll be really important to manage our water table efficiently. I can't think of anything worse than running out of water in the desert.

So When are You Having Kids?

I get asked a lot about babies. Maybe it's because I'm in my twenties, maybe it's because I'm a woman and feminism hasn't really gotten that far, maybe it's because I'm engaged to a man who already has a kid, or maybe it's because I'm engaged at 21.

It surprises a lot of people to find out that I'm engaged already. I know that I'm really young to be getting married, which is why I'm not getting married right away. From the time I got engaged (and we set a tentative date) to the time we plan to get married is almost two and a half years. This really confuses people, and I think it has to do with babies.

Anytime I tell someone I'm engaged, I frequently get a "Are you getting married young because you want a big family?" type question. When I tell them no, I'm not planning on breeding (and I do use the word breeding,) it's too often followed up with the a "Why are you getting married?" type question. This kills me.

I think a big part of why people are shocked to find out I'm waiting so long to get married is because of this baby based assumption of wanting a big family. My fiancé's son will be almost 4 by the time we get married (and who knows how old he'll be once custody is figured out). People like to remind me that if I got married sooner, our kids would be closer in age to their brother.  Even after I've told them I don't want kids.

This always leads to my favorite conversation of "But what will you do without kids?"

What will I do without kids? Anything I want!

Literally, anything I want. If I want to be irresponsible and quit my job without notice, get drunk on a Tuesday morning, and then fly to Hawaii and live there until I'm broke, I can.

Alternatively, if I want to start my own business, take the trip of a lifetime, switch careers because I'm miserable, or retire young, I can do that too, and without any guilt.

Don't get me wrong, those people who want children should by all means have as many children as they can afford to raise! This isn't about me thinking all women should be sterilized or that parents are throwing their lives away when they have kids. That's not it at all. I know there are people who dream of having to children, and who live for them. They aren't wasting their lives by having kids, they're living out their dream! That's awesome. Everyone should live for their dreams.

My dream just doesn't involve children. It doesn't involve pregnancy weight, morning sickness, alcohol abstinence, poopy diapers, tantrums, or stepping on legos. That all sounds awful.

On the other hand, I also don't dream of those "magical" moments, like when my kid learns to walk, develops a personality, when I teach them how to do things from tying shoe laces to driving, seeing him or her graduate and start a life for themselves. I won't experience any of those great moments, and that's fine. They also all sounds awful, to be honest.

You know what I'm going to do instead of have kids? Have a house that is as clean or as dirty as I want it to be (with the exception of when John's son is over). I'm going to have a farm, and sell crafts, and file taxes, and work really hard but not know quite where my income is coming from for most of the year. I'm going to take a vacation as often as I can, anywhere I want. I'm going to work as long as I want to, but I'm going to retire as early as I want to and can afford it. I'm going to get married and I'm going to build a life with my wonderful husband (and his son).

Why should I need to have kids of my own to validate my life?

Credit Improvement!

John's credit score is now only 20 points from letting us qualify for a loan! All it took was a month of purchasing (about 50% of his credit limit) and paying of 95% of that amount.

Why only pay off 95%? Well, we were advised that we shouldn't pay the whole thing off because it may not have been recorded as having been used. From what we were told, credit is only recorded once a month. If the bill is paid off and then not used during the time of recording, it's as if the card was never used.

We also learned that you aren't supposed to use 50% of your credit limit. It's better to use 30%-35%.

Either way, we're pleased with the progress. Due to work schedules, we won't be able to move in January, but we may at least qualify for our loan by then.

Spicy Lentil and Black Bean Soup

Although our weather is just now dipping in to the 80s, I felt it was soup season yesterday. It was rainy and it was a chilly morning. This is a hearty and filling soup that has the perfect amount of spiciness. It tastes even better reheated!

I started with a recipe from Cook like a Champion. The recipe I borrowed was Lentil and Black Bean with Andouille Sausage (see link). It sounded great! There were just a few problems:
1. I don't know what Andouille Sausage is.
2. I don't like celery.
3. I've never seen smoked spices
4. This didn't have the Mexican flare that most of my cooking does.

Growing up in the southern Arizona, my mouth was taught to prefer Mexican food over all else. So, here's my version:
1.5 tblsp Olive Oil
1 pound Spicy Herb Sausage (from my sister's pigs)
3/4 of a large White Onion, chopped
10 Mini Sweet Peppers, chopped
2 heaping tsps Minced Garlic (I buy mine in a jar, if using fresh use 2 cloves)
2 tsp. Paprika
1 can Diced Tomatoes and Habaneros (juice and all)
1 cup Dried Lentils
4 cups Beef Broth 
2 cup water
1 can Black Beans (juice and all)
1 can Sweet Corn (drained)
1/2 cup jarred Green Chilies
Seasoning Salt and Pepper to taste

In large pot or dutch oven, heat olive oil. Brown sausage. Once browned, remove sausage with slotted spoon, leaving juices and grease in pot. Set sausage aside. Add peppers and onions. Sautee until onions become translucent. Add in garlic and paprika, stir for a minute or so, mixing spices in with veggies. 

Dump in tomatoes and habaneros. Add lentils and 3 cups of broth and 2 cup of water. Bring to a boil. Stir occasionally. Add drained corn. Leave on med-high heat (continue periodic stirring) until  lentils are tender - about 20 minutes. Remove from heat.

While lentil mixture cools, add 1/2 of the black beans,  1 cup of broth, and the green chilies to a blender. Pulse a few times. Once pot mixture is no longer hot, put 1/3-1/2 of mixture in to blender. Pulse until mixed but not liquefied. Add blender mix back to pot. Put pot back on heat, add remainder of black beans and sausage. Heat until warm and serve.

I like mine with sour cream and cheese!

Marginal Improvements?

You know why scientists do double blind studies? So they can be objective, of course. So they can't "think" they see the changes they want in the test group. I don't have that benefit. I think that I'm having improvement in my cavities.

Before

After

My gums look healthier! I'm not sure what that red spot is in the center, but it seems to be fading. It's hard to tell in the picture, but I did have some dark spots along the gum line. They're fading!

Before. Lots of inflammation along the eye tooth.

After: Less inflammation. If you look closely there's still a dark line along the gum line.

Cavities aren't quite gone yet, but definitely healthier gums, which I think is a great start.