One Hundred Dollars a Month

“The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.” ~ Oprah Winfrey 

My goals for 2018

Goal #1 – Write Like No One is Reading.

“Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.” ~  Barbara Kingsolver

Goal #2 – Slow Down

This dog. She has 2 gears, FULL SPEED AHEAD or snooze. Without a doubt, Miss Lucy Puggle is the queen of “slowing down.” I love her.

Goal #3 – Shop Small

A week or two ago I had been burning wood in the fireplace one evening and then turned down the damper and went up to bed. When we came down the next morning the house smelled a wee bit smokey. The weather warmed, and then we weren’t using the wood stove for a few days but the smoke smell still lingered in the room. So I called and made an appointment for the chimney sweep guy to come out.

We knew when we bought the house, the wood stove placement wasn’t exactly up to code because the home inspector had mentioned the stove didn’t have an 18″ clearance on the sides and that the trim work posed a fire hazard. He also mentioned we may want to hire a chimney expert to come out and take a look to make sure everything was installed properly. Which we didn’t do.

We paid for a home inspection, septic inspection, water inspection, radon inspection and something else but I can’t remember what it was now. So basically, we were already shelling out a bunch of money to inspect what we thought were the important areas and well you know, the wood stove looked fine and I’m sure it works grand and we weren’t worried about it.

That smokey smell? It was a chimney fire. See all that oozing black stuff coming down off the brick and the flexible pipe thing? That’s creosote and yada yada yada, the chimney sweep guy says; “There shouldn’t be a flexible pipe thing there, it should be solid and to install one of those will be around $3,000 mam, and this wood stove should not be in this room. You’ll need to move it to another room {the kitchen} if you want wood heat in this house and for it to be up to code and not have to worry about burning the house down.” 

And all I can do is shake my head because seriously, what can we do? Even if we would have known about the flexible pipe thing and the wood stove being installed improperly {no wonder it looked like it was barely used!} we would have bought this house anyway. It would not have been a deal breaker. And we had every opportunity to get it inspected. And no, I’m almost certain the people we bought the house from wouldn’t have given us another knock off the price for pointing this out.

When you buy a house, it’s yours. Older homes are going to have issues. And really, we’ve been here two months now, and if this is the only big “unknown” problem we have, we’re good. We love it here, and to be totally honest, having a wood stove in the centrally located large kitchen/dining area makes way more sense for heating our entire house during the colder winter months because of the layout of the home.

So now the plan is to sell the red wood stove, buy a larger matte black one {probably a JOTUL} and have it installed by fall. Down the road, I know this will save us money, but life, it’s just one big adventure and you just have to take things in stride.

Goal # 4 – Have a Designated Meal Prep Day FAIL

I threw in the towel early on this one. Meal prep, and cooking in mass quantities is just not for my family at this stage in our lives.

Goal #5 – Install a Vegetable Garden

She needed WIDE OPEN SPACES….. 🙂 🙂 🙂

Future corn patch? I’m on it. The goal is to have this area cleared {by hand} by the end of the month and planted with corn {and a few winter squash} on June 1st.

Goal #6 – Clear Land for a Chicken Coop and Future Raised Garden Bed Area 

If I have to tag along and look at one more tractor without coming home with one…. I am going to lose my mind. The HH is on a mission to find a machine that does everything. Blows snow, chips wood, digs giant holes, lifts heavy stuff and who knows what else. This whole tractor thing, it’s a big deal to him {I could care less, I just want whatever he decides on to get stuff done}. Tractor shopping for me is equivalent to my husband looking at wool samples for hours on end. It kind of makes me want to scream.

This is his “big ticket” man hobby item for like, the next 10-15-20 years. We all need a hobby, preferably one that is productive {bonus points if it saves or makes you money}, and I guess when you live in the country, tractors are what men buy.

Goal #7 – Grow 500 Pounds of Vegetables

The lettuce is up yee-haw! We’ve got it growing in flower pots and in the garden this year. Only time will tell if Mr. Peter Rabbit or Thanksgiving and Christmas {our resident wild turkeys} are interested in it.

Goal #8 – Hook 100 Rugs

This week I’ve been working on hooked flowers but last week I added a bunch of new goodies to my Etsy shop and now I only have 57 rugs to hook until I can check this goal off my list for the year.

Goal #9 – Make a Set of Dolls

I plan to make a set {or two} of primitive dolls later this year after the garden has been put to bed.

Goal #10 – Make a Sampler, Frame it and Hang it on the Wall Done!

On the wall!

Goal #11 – Visit 22 Bakeries

The HH and I are headed to Wiscasset this week to check out a new bakery. Last week I stopped by King Arthur Flour and Cafe.

Goal #12 – Start a Collection

One Hundred Dollars a Month reader Linda from Upstate New York sent me a beautiful antique wooden butter mold and some Greek sweet red squash seeds to kick off my collection. Thank you Linda!! I have it on the hutch in the sitting room and it looks magnificent.

It looks like a carved olive branch, don’t you think?

Goal #13 – Read {or listen to} 26 Books

I finished Angela’s Ashes and am now listening to ‘Tis on overdrive as I work on my hooked rugs in the evenings.

Goal #14 – Try 12 New Canning Recipes

The lilacs are in bloom and I am looking forward to trying out Susan’s Lilac Jelly recipe this week.

Goal #15 – Secret {for now} Holiday Project

My lips are sealed on this one but I only have 4 weeks to go before my “big ticket” item arrives and I can get started {practicing} on my big winter holiday project.

How about YOU? Did you set any goals for 2018? How are they coming along?

~Mavis

Read About My 2018 Goals HERE.