1: DW was paid for her freelance work. I can't remember the exact dollar value, but it was substantially more than the $2,000 i mentioned last post.

2: DW received a generous cash gift from her parents for Christmas.

3: The payment for the freelance project plus the cash gift is enough to pay off our credit card, plus quite a bit left over. I made the payment on the CC last night, and it should be posted at 5:00 this afternoon.

4: We are looking for a new to us mini-van. You may have seen my thread in the forums side.

5: We will probably pay off my truck first. I'm not sure how much we'll have left for a down payment for the new to us van.

6: I'm hoping that the new payment on the mini van will be very similar to the current payment on the truck. We have to get bills paid, decide what we want to spend on the new van, etc.

Will update more later once we get a clearer picture of what's going on.

We've walked over it. Our current credit card debt is $4,361.46, at 19.99% int. It’s been building since the end of July. Right now I’m not motivated to get this turned around. I've blogged several times about the situation with our family, but as a reminder, we adopted two boys from foster care about three years ago. The older boy (A) has classic autism. The younger boy (E) has a milder form of autism, but is also affected by fetal alcohol syndrome and has cerebral palsy. To say that they are a challenge to raise puts it mildly. They are extremely difficult to raise, and we are worn out.

Of course, we've gone into credit card debt before, when the boys weren't a factor. So, maybe I’m making excuses, or passing blame. I don’t know. Our Achilles heel has always been eating out. Before we had kids, and we were both working, we were “too busy” to eat in, so we ate out. When we had only one child, and she was three, and we were getting the hang of parenting her, we still ate out. When we had two neuro-typical kids, and they were both out of the toddler age, and getting reasonably easy to parent, we ate out.
Now with four kids, the trend continues. Let me tell you about last night. I left work, and rushed the 20 miles to our home town, and met DW at the rehabilitation center to take E to physical therapy for his cerebral palsy. DW had just picked both boys up from the autism center which is in a town 20 miles in the opposite direction from where I work. E has twice weekly PT. And, last night’s session went as well as any of his sessions have ever gone. He was relatively cooperative for most of it, and we were both happy when we left.

DW had taken the other three kids to a Halloween party that was put on by the local AAUW chapter. We decided that we would try E at the party. That was a big mistake. I should have just taken him home. His alcohol affected brain does not allow him to enjoy social situations like other four year olds. He acts like an 18 month old in a four year old body. There were tables with treats and toys, and he wanted all of them. When we try to disallow his behavior he throws an absolute screaming fit. So, I carried him out, and back to my pick up, and before I went home, I spent $11 on a pizza, some bread sticks and a 20 oz. Mountain Dew.

That’s just one example of things that happen much too often. DW and I are always exhausted, her physically, and me mentally.

It wouldn't be fair if I didn't acknowledge that A’s has made vast improvements, although there are times when the autism completely overpowers him, and he regresses back to the exact behaviors as when he first came to our house. But, those times are becoming less frequent. And it seems as if E takes every single inch that A gives us.

The other side of this equation is our girls. Our wonderfully behaved, mature beyond their years, put up with much more than should be expected of them girls. We don’t buy them stuff, but we do have them involved in a lot of activities. We try to get them out of the house, so they can enjoy life. And those activities cost money, even if it is just gas for travel.
We do get respite care for our boys through our County behavioral health system. It amounts to about four hours per week. There are four people in a twenty mile radius who have gone through the training to be accepted as respite care providers, three of them are my mother, father, and sister. The other is the mother of another special needs child. Her husband is currently incarcerated for multiple DWI convictions. Respite care income seems to be an important part of her cash flow. We call her on a very last choice basis. She’s watched the boys three times in the past three months.

One of our problems with this respite care is that DW and I are too forward thinking. We are aware of the total number of hours allocated to us, and we meter them out accordingly. If the average comes out to 4.22 hours per week, that’s what we use. It has come to our attention that most other people who receive respite care, or similar services through behavioral health, use hours up with reckless abandon, then cry and scream at their case worker that they need more hours. So, we’re being much less calculating about the respite hours, and when they run out, we’ll see what happens. The bottom line, of course, is that my folks will watch the boys with our without respite payment, unless it’s January or February, when they’re in Florida.

We do have a neighbor girl who is absolutely great with the boys, and she is almost always willing to help us out, but, of course we pay for her directly. She’s not yet 18, so she’s not eligible to provide respite care.

I’ll go back to the bigger picture. We are broke. We have gone back into credit card debt. And, as much as it may sound like I’m trying to place all the blame on our current family situation, I completely recognize that we got ourselves into the same problem before any of our children were born.

19.99% int. is a high rate. At the current balance, it’s costing around $72 per month. So, the first and most obvious choice is to look for a low or no transfer cost card with a 0.0% introductory rate. In my current state of mind, I think that’s a bad idea. It will just give me another card to charge up.
DW is expecting a $2,000 freelance check sometime in the next couple of weeks, and certainly a lot of that payment can go toward debt reduction, and she’ll be getting four more of those checks during the next 12 months, so, I honestly expect that the card will be all paid off within six months. But, that doesn't change the fact that we've slipped back into the same behaviors that put us 24K in the hole five years ago.

My ability to concentrate on this subject any longer has just slipped away, so it’s time to publish. Thanks for reading.

I will add one more thought. Someone my offer the very sound advice that DW and I get some counseling. Been there, done that. And, we both found the counseling sessions to be very helpful. The nearest counselor is 20 miles away, in the same town where we take the boys for their autism center, and a couple other things. We have to line up a baby sitter for at least two hours, and really, when we have to line up a baby sitter, we'd really rather do something more fun.

My home town grocery store closed last week. It's been the only grocery store in town since about 1996 or 1997.

I worked at the store when I was in high school. I started working there (gasp!) 25 years ago, when I was a Junior in High School, and worked through the summer of my Freshman year in college. I didn't work in the grocery part of the store, though. The sore also had a wholesale meat division. I worked in the meat department, and made a whole nickel per hour more than the high school aged baggers and stockers in the grocery. And, I got to walk around with blood on my white apron like a tough guy.

Anyway - The family that owned the store sold out to a grocer in the Detroit area three or four years ago. So the husband and wife who bought he store have been managing it from afar, and it's been running steadily down hill for a couple years. They finally called it quits.

There are a couple other local-ish grocery stores. One is in the town in which I work. And there are Wal-marts in each of those neighboring towns. Honestly, we were probably buying much fewer than half our groceries from the home-town store, because the prices had become so expensive, and the produce wasn't as fresh. Thus the reason they went out of business - lower quality, more expensive, and customer willingness to travel.

But, it was nice to have a store in town, where we could pick up certain items.

There have been rumors that a couple local grocers walked through the store just prior to closing. So, there may be a deal struck to buy the place some time in the future. But, for now the store sits empty, and about four dozen local people have lost their jobs.

As some of you may remember I attended and graduated from Michigan State. I met my DW at Michigan State. We fully intend on sending our girls to Michigan State. It is of course their choice, and we really won't be pushing it, but at this point that is the plan.

Nagging at the back of my mind, from time to time, is the expense of sending two girls to college. They'll overlap one year. DD1 will be a senior when DD2 is a freshman. I think I have that right, anyway.

I wen to the MSU web site, and found their tuition and fees calculator. I entered household income, family size, value of assets, and 2013 income taxes paid. The calculator computed the following for the 2014/2015 year (two semesters):

Tuition/Fees = $14,080
Room/Board = $9,204
Books/Supplies = $1,060
Other Expenses = $1,864
Total = $26,308

Estimated needs based grants = $11,080
Estimated net price = $15,128

Student loans = $6,500 (per year)
Parent loans/other sources = $8,628 per year

DD1 won't be going to college for another six years. So, this is a way out there estimate, but gives me a general idea for the time being.

Heck, I earned about $6,500 per year between working during school and summer in the early and mid '90s. I finished school about 10K in debt in 1995.

Of course we'll be working on scholarships, scholarships, and scholarships as well.

Also, Room/Board, Book/Supplies, and Other Expenses, which account for nearly half the cost can be whittled down to an extent through frugality.

Today is the last working day of the month, so it's my pay day. Always a good day.

Our summer property taxes are due Sept. 15, so I went ahead and put the check in the mail this morning, lest I forget later in the month. That's one of the few bills we do not pay electronically.

We don't have really big plans for the weekend. A friend of our family is getting married sometime later in the month. She and her fiance are in the Navy, and they are stationed in Hawaii. Yes, Hawaii. They will be home this weekend, so they are having a reception here. That's about it.

We went on an entire family vacation last week - DW and I and all four kids.

We visited the extreme NW corner of Michigan's lower peninsula, a part of our state none of us had visited before. We camped at a state park.

We had been planning this trip since June. Originally, we had planned to stay in a cabin on the site. Then, five days before our trip, plans changed.

My DW found a camper available on a local on-line selling/trading site. The seller said she was desperate to sell the camper ASAP, and that she would take any reasonable offer. DW contacted her, and it turns out that she needs to hire an attorney to settle a custody dispute with her ex. The woman also said that someone had offered her $750 for the camper, but she thought that wasn't enough.

So, DW set up an appointment to look at the camper. We discussed it, and figured we'd go as high as $900. DW stopped by the bank, and withdrew the cash. After looking at the camper, she offered $800, and showed the woman the green cash. She accepted the offer, and DW hooked up to the camper, and drove off.

It did have a leaky roof. It cost us about $45 in materials to fix that, but all in all, it worked well on our trip. It's a 1978 - 18' camper. Nothing fancy at all, but I'm sure it's probably well worth the $800, and probably quite a bit more.

We saved $100 by camping in the trailer rather than the cabin, but spent, I don't know maybe $30 or $40 more in gas to haul the trailer.

As far as our trip, we visited a waterfall, a light house, a sea lamprey research center, a calcite lime quarry, hunted for some fossils, and had fun camping. Maybe not really exciting by other's standards, but fun for us.

As far as the future of the trailer - it will be nice to have during fair week as a home base at the fair grounds. We will, of course use it for future vacations. Also it's difficult for our girls to have friends over night because of our boys with special needs. The camper will allow our girls to have friends over, and have fun and some privacy.

We were at the fair last week. It was an expensive week.

DS2 doesn't do well at the fair, and frankly, it's easiest when both of them are away. Add to that that it wasn't a summer school week, and we spent a lot on baby sitting. My mom and dad helped out with them a lot, but they understandably wanted to see their grand daughters show their animals. DS2 did show DD2's goat in the just for fun clover bud show, and he showed a chicken as well.

Our girls did very well. DD2 won her age division of showmanship with her goat (that's the part of the show where the goat is not judged for meat production, but the child is judged for how well they fit and show the animal), and DD1 won her showmanship division with the dairy heifer. DD2 placed fourth in showmanship with her hog, and DD1 took third in showmanship with her goat. That was actually a set-back with the goat. DD1 has won the competition three of the past four years, and has never taken less than second. But, her goat was particularly stubborn this year, and she has made the dairy heifer her priority all summer.

As far as meat production judging went - they both finished in the middle with their hogs, near the bottom with goats and dairy (the heifer was too young do do really well, but we more more concerned with the behavior of the animal for her first year). DD2's chickens finished in the top quarter among 44 pens. You really have to pay top dollar for animals to do well in hogs and goats. DD1's goat was born at home, so we're happy that she raised, showed, and sold a home-grown animal.

Prices were up this year at the sale, and both girls finished the fair with some money to save for college. Prices were up enough that I did not buy a turkey, this year. Last year I paid $125 for a turkey that we ate for Thanksgiving. This year, no turkey sold for less than $200. I did bid about five of them up, though trying to buy one.

Really, the poultry competitions are a pretty fair comparison of a child's ability to raise an animal for the fair. Take our chickens for example. We bought 25 of them six weeks ago. We took 12 of them to the fair. Three each for three of the kids, and one pen of three chickens for our 4-H club. We went in with several other families on the order, so we all started out with random chickens. Then the children have to feed and water them, keep their pens clean, and keep them safe from predators. They can't be any older than six week, you must have the paperwork that shows the date they were hatched, and each of them must weigh at least five pounds. They start off on even ground, and may the best poultry producer win.

Compare that to other species like hogs, beef, goats, sheep that are purchased several months before the fair, after the animal is weaned. The buyer (and seller) already has an idea if the animal will finish as a great, good, or mediocre fair animal, and they are priced accordingly. The grand champions in those species paid top dollar for their animals.

We've never played that game. Of course during the fair, my instinct is to always think that next year, we want to win! We'll pay whatever it takes! But, thankfully I become more sensible, because there is only one winner, and several families that did pay top dollar and did not win. And, by time March rolls around, and it's time to buy pigs for the fair again, we decide to buy the moderately priced animals, and work on showmanship skills.

It was a good week. We had a great time, and we were all exhausted yesterday. We'll recover, and do it all again next year.

As of right now, our "farm" consists of:

one dairy heifer
three pigs
six goats
twenty six broiler chickens
probably a couple dozen laying hens and associated roosters.
Two cats

They are expensive to feed. I'm embarrassed to admit how expensive.

Our county fair will end two weeks from Sunday. The three pigs, two of the goats, and twelve of the broilers will be sold at the fair. The rest of the broilers will be slaughtered shortly after that.

The dairy heifer, Poppy is on loan from my brother-in-law, so DD1 can show her at the fair. Poppy will be returned to her home farm within a few days or a week after the fair ends. Heck, we might put her in the trailer after the fair is over, and drive her straight to the farm.

And really, the breeding goats and laying hens aren't *that* expensive to feed.

Of course, we do this for our kids. Lots of parents spend lots of money sending their kids to camps, or gymnastics, or for band instruments. Or maybe I'm just trying to justify the expenses.

The major expense is the grain, but hay is not cheap, either. The hay is for the goats, and heifer. The other day I was looking through a magazine, and I saw an ad for a walk-behind hay baler. It makes round bales. I don't know how much it would cost. It looked kind of like a walk-behind lawn mower.

That got me to wondering if we should rent 10 acres from my dad, and plant some hay. But, we'd still need the hay mower, hay rake, a small tractor to pull the equipment. We could probably get a short-term lease on the tractor.

We'd probably custom hire someone to plant the seeds.

The last load of hay cost $4.50 for each bale. We usually buy enough bales each time to last 3-4 months. We're going through 2 - 2 1/2 bales per week, with the heifer and all six goats. Is $11.25 per week - at maximum usage - really worth it? Especially when you figure the expense of all the equipment, and the work to raise and harvest the crop? Probably not.

I never did make a post after our Cedar Point vacation. I'm not sure why its occurring to me now that I should do one, but I'll go with it.

We had fun. DD1 and I had a bit more fun than DW and DD2. They boys stayed home with grandparents. DD1 and I enjoy the very large roller coasters, DD2 and DW don't.

Because we stayed at the CP hotel, we had passes to enter the park an hour earlier than regular opening time. DD1 and I hit three big roller coasters all in a row. We did have to wait maybe 15-20 minutes for the giant Millennium Force.

After that we caught up with DW and DD2, and spent some time together. The day was basically spent alternating between whole family activities, and split family activities.

The park was fairly quiet for most of the day for two reasons: We picked a low traffic day, mid week in June, and there were a couple minor rain showers. After the morning shower, things quieted down a bit, but after the 4 pm rain shower, the park seemed to clear, and stayed clear.

The longest wait DD1 and I had for any coaster was about 45 min. After the 4 pm rain, we went on another three roller coasters without hardly and wait at all. We did wait in line to get in the front car for the Millennium Force the second time around.

A neat thing happened the second time we went on that coaster. When you are on these rides, there are certain spots where your picture is taken. Then, you can go through a booth, and see what you looked like on the ride, and you can even purchase a picture for something like $18.

DD1 remembered exactly where that picture was taken. So, she made sure her hands were straight up in the air, and she had a brave, and satisfied look on her face. We took a look at the picture, and she asked me if she could buy it with her own money. I told her she could, if she would like to, but I thought it was a waste of money. I told her that two weeks, or even two days later, after she had shown it to her friends, that it would seem kind of silly to her. She opted to not buy the pic (YES!). I'm glad I left it up to her, and I'm also happy with her decision.

We ended the day with more family time, and left the park at about 7:00. All in all a great vacation.

I've noticed that a majority of the regular bloggers on this site seem to be Gen Xers, or between mid thirties and late forties in age.

Has anyone else noticed that? Am I mistaken? Or, are the blogs written by Gen Xers tend to be more the ones I follow, because I, as an Gen Xer tend to more identify with their situations in life?

I can think of several examples of regular SA bloggers who are Boomers, and a couple Millennials, but it just seems like a good majority are Xers.

Maybe because we're the ones that are at a point in life where we are in the beginning/middle of saving for retirement, kid's college, have a sizeable mortgage, etc? Or maybe it's something about our generation that draws us to blog on a site like this? Or maybe I'm mistaken.

Thoughts?

I blogged, I don't know, a while back - maybe a month or six weeks ago, that we were having trouble keeping up with the expense of driving our sons to an autism clinic about 25 miles away.

DW waded through the maze of red tape, paper work, and phone calls, and finally got approved for mileage reimbursement to and from the autism clinic. We were also approved for mileage reimbursement to and from physical therapy twice per week for DS 2- that's 12 miles RT, so not such a big deal, but nice.

This is all covered through Medicaid - your tax dollars at work. Thank you.

There's a ready-made program in place for the tri-county area around metro Detroit. Those three counties comprise approximately half the population of the state. The other half of us not in the area have to work a little harder to get the benefit.

If you've been following my blog for the past year, you may remember that we're on a budget plan with our fuel oil supplier, for our home heating. The cycle runs from the beginning of July, to the end of June. Our monthly budgeted payment was $220 for the past year.

This weekend, we received the year-end statement. Our balance at the end of the cycle was -$399.22, or we had payed about $400 more over the course of the year than we had used in fuel oil. That's more than $30 per month in over payment.

BUT, our new budget amount is $250 per month, a $30 increase. So, I'm sitting here wondering why our new budgeted amount is $30 more per month, when last year we overpaid by an average of more than $30 per month.

My assumption is that the company is forecasting an increase is fuel oil prices over the next year. And, they very well might be right. However, The winter of 2013-14 was the coldest winter in about 36 years! I have a hard time believing that we will spend $720 more to heat our house this next year than we did this past year.

Clearly, I need to call our supplier, and I will. I just wanted to vent my frustration first.

I buy my term life insurance policy through my employer. When i first bought the policy about 10 years ago, I think it was for $300K or maybe even $350K. Back about 5 years ago, when we were struggling with debt, I reduced the coverage to reduce the premium. I'm not sure what I dropped it to, but I think $200K, or a bit less. When we got our debt problem under control, I didn't remember to increase coverage, until last week.

One of DW's FB friends is a recent widow. She's younger than we are, maybe early to mid 30's. Her post last week revolved around how she is in an on-line forum or group with other widows, and how she can't believe the number of widows whose husbands were not covered by life insurance prior to their death, and how their wives need to sell off property to get bills paid. DW's friend has received payment from a life insurance policy.

Even though I do have a life insurance policy, it is grossly inadequate. Even my previous 300 or 350K would be inadequate to cover my current salary, with now four children, two of whom we're planning to send to college.

The number I'm thinking is $750K. I had that number in mind, and took an on-line evaluation. It came up with (something like) $734,123.58. (seriously, $0.58?) But, we were close, so I'm leaning strongly toward $750K.

I'm not sure what it will cost. I tried to navigate my employer's HR website to increase the amount. I couldn't figure it out, so I sent an email message to HR. They are good at getting back within 24 hours. So I don't know for sure what my current coverage is - same website issue, but I'm fairly certain it's somewhere right around or just a bit less than $200k. I know it's costing me $9.95 per month. I can pull up my earnings statements from the web site, no problem.

If this group has any input about adequate coverage, I'd be happy to read any comments. Brief synopsis:

My salary is about $58K/yr.

DW does not draw a salary.

4 kids ranging in age from 4 - 11.

The eldest two kids will attend college.

I have a laughable EF.

DW is smart, and ambitious, and educated, but the preference would be that she not work until after the youngest child is 18.

Thanks for reading!

This morning, I thought this could have been a much bigger deal than it has turned out it be.

If you have been following my last couple of blog posts, you know two things: my DW took our oldest daughter to MSU last week, and the beginning if this week we were on vacation.

Normally our cleaning lady visits on Fridays from noon til 3:00. Last Thursday evening and Friday, since it was just our boys and me at the house, I knew that I wouldn't have the place ready for cleaning, so I left a message for our cleaning lady to visit on Monday or Tuesday. She did visit and cleaned one of those days. But, she left a note explaining that she would be moving out of state, and would no longer be able to clean for us.

DW and I talked about our options. She mentioned that our neighbor across the road has a cleaning service, and she is happy with the results. So, DW contacted the new cleaning lady. She'll start July 7. It was that easy.

Our previous service charged us $15 per hour, and provided all cleaning supplies, except for a vacuum. She originally provided a vacuum, but hers quit working several months ago, and she had been using ours ever since. The new service will charge us $13 per hour, but we provide all supplies.

On a side note, this most recent cleaning marked the one year anniversary of hiring our first cleaning service, and we gave her a fifty cents per hour raise, which we included in this most recent check. I'm glad I had archived hiring her in this blog, so I was able to look back and see when we had hired her. As far as that goes, I am currently archiving hiring the new service.

I know the new cleaning lady, but not extremely well. She grew up in a house about a mile down the road. We rode the bus together to school, and she is a year older than I am. Her parents no longer live there.

What could have been a long process of looking, and contacting, and interviewing, and narrowing down, and contacting references, and choosing, has turned out to not be a problem at all. I think the odds are very good that she will work out just fine.

We're at Cedar Point today. I'm an early riser, rest of the family isn't. We went to a drive thru zoo yesterday on the way here. Daw got the tickets for almost 1/3 the price on groupon ( for the zoo).

Food is very expensive here. Even outside the park. We're staying at the hotel right next to the park, so we can enter an hour early.

Here's a pic from the zoo yesterday.

We got some chicks yesterday. These are meat chickens, not layers. They are for our kid's 4-H project for the fair.

They came in as a bulk order, for several 4-H families. We ordered 25, and received 26. The hatchery sends an extra chick for every 25 ordered, to insure against death loss during shipment. For all the times we've ordered chicks via mail, I don't think we've ever lost one during shipment.

I picked them up last evening after work from the family that placed the order. When I got home, DD2 is still young enough that she was wooed by the cuteness. DD1 was all business, getting them acclimated to their new home.

Brand new chicks require 90 degree F heat. So, even though it was 84 outside when they arrived, we turned on the heat lamp. The temp did drop down to about 68 last night, and sure enough, when I went out to the barn this morning to check on them, they were all huddled under the heat lamp.

It's six weeks before fair, and that's the maximum age for a "pen" of chickens. Each pen consists of three chickens. DD1, DD2, and DS1 will each take a pen to the fair. The goal is to match them as closely as possible in size and weight within the pen.

Also, DW and I started our own 4-H club about a year ago. 4-H clubs and FFA chapters can also take animals to the fair, and show and sell them as a fundraiser. Our 4-H club will also take a pen of chickens to the fair. Three kids plus one club times three chickens per pen equals 12 chickens needed. The 25 ordered plus one extra will help assure that we can get closely sized pens, plus buffer against any death loss/crippled chickens in six weeks.

Plus grandparents, aunts and uncles are usually good to pick up the extras that don't fit in our freezer.

The 25 (26) chicks cost $48.75. We'll probably have $15-$20 into each chicken before it's all said and done. Each pen is likely to sell for $100-$150.

4-H Exploration Days is an opportunity for young 4-H members, at least age 11, to explore the campus at Michigan State University for three days each summer. Participants enroll themselves in either one long educational session, or two shorter educational sessions. Of course, participants also walk around campus, ride the bus around campus, and fool around with their friends.

Explorations Days is really a big recruitment tool. It worked on me, even though I only attended once. I think DW attended three or four times. We were there at the same time in probably 1986 or 1987, but our paths didn't cross.

DD1 is attending Exploration Days for her first time beginning tomorrow. She is super, super excited. She's been saving money for most of the past year, and has $40 saved. It may or may not all get spent there.

DW will be attending as a chaperon. DD2 will spend some time with a favorite aunt, and I will stay home with the boys. I'll only be taking two days off from work, as the boys are in school tomorrow, but not Thursday or Friday.

This will be a good opportunity for DD1 to learn about saving and spending money. I remember the year I went, I bought an MSU hat for $11. My dad was beside himself about that. It was white corduroy, with green lettering, and impossible to keep clean. I learned something about impulse buying. That's why we're letting DD1 manage her own funds. Better to learn now, than later.

With my Discover Card. And I'd say it's almost as annoying being on the "good boy" list as it is being on the "bad boy" list. Almost, but not quite.

It seems as if the mailings are weekly now. "You are a preferred customer. You are eligible for a... home equity line of credit, or a consolidation loan, or an increase in your credit limit... This week's had something to do with student loans (I didn't open it), which I do not have, and do not need.

So, that's what I get for having a single credit card, and paying the balance off every single month. Offers for more credit.

Part of my job is to establish corn and soybean plots across a four county area in Michigan. I have one full-time employee, and hire one part-time assistant for 7-9 weeks in the spring. I also need some sporadic part-time help in the fall during harvest.

My current assistant, we'll call him Chuck, is about the same age as I am. He is finishing his third season with me. When I interviewed him a bit more than two years ago, he seemed like a good fit, and he has turned out to be a great employee. The good part, and bad part, is that he is otherwise unemployed.

He does some work for a neighbor farmer of his, and he picks up other odd jobs during the year. His wife is fully employed, and, as it turns out, they live in a family house, and apparently have no mortgage.

When I interviewed him in 2012, I promised nothing more than two months that spring. When he came back last year, he did, in an off-handed way, mention that it would be great if I had more work for him. I agreed that it would be great to keep him on, but I just didn't have the budget for it.

This year, he has made similar comments twice. And, I've replied with similar comments. Although, I did come up with an extra job that needed to be done, that either I nor my full-time employee could have done, but I guess I was feeling generous.

It looks as if he'll be finished next Tuesday, then I'll have to lay him off. Again, all he is ever promised is a couple of months each spring, but I do feel bad about having to lay him off again.

Four seasons ago, I had another assistant. He worked with us for one season, because he got a full-time job in between seasons. So that meant that I had to post the job, conduct interviews, and train Chuck. And, lay him off every June.

DW took DS2 to his physiatrist yesterday. I didn't even know what a physiatrist was until we took him there about two years ago for his first appointment. A physiatrist is a doctor that specialized in physical medicine, rehabilitation, and pain medicine. DS2 has cerebral palsy, and is tight in the legs (and arms) and has been wearing braces on his legs for the past 11 months.

The Dr. doesn't think that the braces are doing their job, and he has recommended that DS2 get botox injections in his knees (3 shots each knee 4 times per year). He has an appointment set for June 7.

A really quick Google search tells me that this course of treatment is not without controversy. We've got about 2 1/2 weeks to do a bit more serious reading up on the subject.

Besides loosening his leg muscles, and helping him walk better, the Dr. said that a benefit will be pain reduction. Probably DS2 has had pain in his legs for so long that he literally doesn't know what it's like to be pain free. That should help with his behavior, too.

From a practical standpoint, one of us will have to drive DS2 about 85 miles to the Dr. office four times a year on a Saturday (the Dr. does this treatment only on Saturdays).

We do get mileage reimbursements from the Children's Special Health Care program through our local Health Department - again because DS2 was adopted through foster care. That helps.

DW and I participated in back-to-back IEP meetings for our two boys on Wednesday. If you have special needs children, or have close friends or relatives with special needs children, you probably know that IEP stands for Individual Education Planning.

We had IEPs in March, and we asked for some special evaluations for each son. For DS2, we asked that he be evaluated for occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech therapy. He has Cerebral Palsy and hearing loss.

So, this IEP was the school's opportunity to present their findings, and discuss the changes to the IEPs that were set in March. DS2 was granted one-on-one speech therapy and consulting physical therapy, and maintains consulting occupational therapy, as he had before.

For DS1, we requested an educational diagnosis of autism. Three MDs and two psychologists have diagnosed DS1 with autism. I'll point out that a medical autism diagnosis is different than an educational diagnosis. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, children with an educational diagnosis of autism are eligible for specific educational accommodations and supports at school. That can also be read as "children with an educational diagnosis of autism are more expensive for the school."

What I think happened in the early '90s, after the ADA was passed was that (some) doctors would willy nilly hand out diagnoses of autism so that children could receive services from schools. Schools became overwhelmed, and provisions were made so that the diagnosis (for services provided by schools) had to be made by a team of education professionals. For example, the team that evaluated DS1 was made up of: the school psychologist, the school social worker, and the school speech pathologist.

I'll also add that we had DS1 evaluated by the school two years ago, just after he began attending there. At that time, he was evaluated to have "autism like tendencies", but he was one check mark away (on the sheet of autism markers used for evaluation) from having an educational diagnosis.

Interestingly, after this new evaluation was complete, he was again one check mark away from having an educational diagnosis, but the check mark was in a different spot on the sheet. That is, an item that was not checked two years ago was checked this time, and an item that was checked two years ago was not checked this time.

DW received the results of the evaluation the day before the IEP (less than 24 hours). We knew we had a challenge ahead of us, and we began brainstorming ideas. What we came up with was to invite DW’s sister to advocate for us. DW is the youngest of eight children. The sister we invited is her oldest sister, and she is about 19 years older than DW. She is very strong willed, and can be a great advocate, or a terrible adversary. And, her background is in Human Services.

I’ll leave out most of the details of the meeting. What I will say is that IEPs are typically scheduled for 45 minutes to an hour. Our second IEP lasted nearly two hours. Sister-in-law did a great job advocating for us, but DW didn’t do so bad herself. I even made an impassioned point, while slamming my fist down on the table, which is uncharacteristic for me. The education team excused themselves for five minutes, and came back, and granted us the educational diagnosis.

DS1 now has an educational diagnosis of autism. Let me also add that DS1’s classroom teacher (who was strongly advocating against an educational diagnosis) does an absolutely great job with him in the classroom. But, he will now be getting more intensive services from the school.

A secondary, but important reason for the diagnosis is that families who have children with an educational autism diagnosis are eligible for a $200 per month stipend from the state. DS1 (and DS2) both started at an autism therapy clinic in March. The clinic is about 20 miles away, and DW drives them there four times a week. That $200 per month will be helpful to offset the cost of driving them to the clinic.

DS2 also has a medical diagnosis of autism, but his diagnosis is not “classic autism” like DS1’s is. His diagnosis is “Pervasive Developmental Disorder – not otherwise specified”, which would not meet the criteria for an educational autism diagnosis, but it does meet the criteria for treatment at the autism clinic.

To start this post correctly, I need to go back to February, at some point just prior to DD2's birthday. It seems that my sister-in-law (DW's sister) was at a hardware store, kids in tow, and she remembered that she needed to get something for my daughter's birthday (keep in mind that from my and DW's standpoint, she didn't *need* to buy anything for our daughter) she was apparently rushed for time, or something, and chose to buy a bird feeder and premium sunflower seed at the hardware store. It ended up being a nice gift that DD2 appreciated.

Fast forward to a week ago Saturday. DD2 and I filled up her bird feeder, and put it out in the spot of her choosing (with a bit of parental guidance). DW put out a thistle feeder, and some grape jelly for the oriels. I can't name all the birds (DW is more the bird watcher than I am), but we have lots of finches, and oriels, and many others. Just last Thursday they ate down 3/4 of a full feeder in that one day. Our original package of super premium sunflower seed is empty, as of yesterday. One week plus one day from when it was opened.

The birds have been fun to watch, and the kids have really enjoyed it. We've never had so many birds like this before. DW and I have fed birds practically every year since we've been married. But, we've never bought the really expensive bird seed, always the cheap stuff with millet filler, that the birds clearly do not like. This is an obvious case of "you get what you pay for."

Which gets me to the point of my post - we could go broke feeding these birds. The first bag was (I think) 10 pounds. I'm sure we could buy a bigger bag that would last a longer time, like 40 pounds for $20. And maybe, because there isn't much other food out in nature for them right now, they will slow down a little bit, but still, this could get expensive if we want to do it right.

I guess you could say that if bird feeding is my current biggest financial concern, thing are going pretty smoothly for us right now.

We went to my home-town FFA banquet yesterday afternoon - DW, DD1, DS1, and me. My folks had DD2 and DS2.

When I was in high school, there was no FFA. The agriculture teacher retired my freshman year, and the FFA chapter was on its last leg by then, and when the agriculture teacher retired, he was not replaced.

DW, on the other hand was very active in FFA, and she held a state office her freshman year of college.

The local chapter started up again three years ago. Both DW and I have been supportive of their activities. In fact, we were awarded a certificate of appreciation at the banquet yesterday.

DD1 will be in 7th grade next year. That's old enough to be an FFA member. Although our local chapter doesn't yet have 7th graders involved, only grades 9-12. But DW has talked with the chapter adviser, and she (and several of the active members) have begun a recruiting effort, and next year there will be a Jr. High chapter. So, DD1 will be an inaugural member of the local FFA Jr. chapter.

Yesterday's banquet was an opportunity for the chapter to thank (and feed) supporters and parents, award member achievement, announce new chapter officers, and raise funds. The funds are used to send student members to state and national conventions, contests throughout the school year, and other chapter activities, like the annual banquet.

DW and I contributed to the fund raising activities. We bid on three items in the silent auction - and we won two of them. One of the items we won was a chicken waterer, which we needed anyway. The value of the waterer is about $35, and we got it for $30. We also won a grilling utensil kit for $30, but honestly we had hoped that someone would out-bid us on that. That may be my dad's Father's Day gift.

There was also a live auction, including a labor auction. For the labor auction, students - in groups of two or three - offer themselves to bidders for four hours of labor.

We were interested in some laborers to help us build some fencing for DD1's herd of goats.

The three biggest, strongest boys in the chapter put themselves together as one "labor package". We also know one of the boys. He is a senior, he is from a farm, and he knows how to build fence. We bid on, and won their labor for $300.

Now all we need to do is buy the fencing materials, plan out the fencing, probably rent a post hole digger, and arrange a suitable time.

It's nice to be able to support a worthy cause that we believe in. Heck, we were going to have to pay someone to help us put up the fencing. No, we probably wouldn't have spent $25/hr. But, again, it was a worthy cause that we believe in.

I also figure that DD1 will be in the chapter next year, and at least part of those funds will go toward her activities.

I'm not the world's most handy guy. And that's putting it mildly.

Our downstairs bathroom toilet was leaking from the bottom. The wax ring needed to be replaced. I talked to a guy that I work with who I know used to do work for a plumber. He told me that changing the wax ring was really very simple. I asked him if he would be willing to come over to my place, and help me out, and he said sure.

I did some investigating on my own, and found out it really is simple. And, our toilet is only about four years old, so the bolts aren't corroded. So, this morning before work I removed the toilet, and removed the old wax ring, and went into town to buy a new one.

The directions on the wax ring say that it needs to be 70 degrees to flow, and seal properly. I left the wax ring at home, with the thermostat set at 70 degrees, and plan to replace it this afternoon when I get home. The wax ring cost $2.11.

My parents both retired almost two years ago. They have a fairly large house (~1,800 sq. ft.), and a fairly large lawn to maintain (~1 acre). Since retirement, they have spent Jan. and Feb. in Florida, and have had to pay to heat the fairly large house.

They decided to put their house on the market. They listed with a Realtor last December, before they left for Florida.

They agreed to an offer to buy their house last Friday. The couple that will be buying is Amish. Mr. Buyer has a bad back, and can no longer milk cows with his father. He hopes to start a furniture business at their new home. He'd also like to grow some vegetables for sale. He's in negotiations with the neighboring land owner to buy or rent some of the adjoining farm land.

My folks will be putting up a manufactured house just to the west of our maple woods. They have been living about 0.2 miles from us, and will be moving to about 0.1 miles away. I sure am glad DW gets along with my mom.

I think that by the time they get the house moved and assembled, plus new drive way, plus new septic, well, electric hook-up, lawn establishment, etc. they will be about even money, with a smaller house.

They are selling my childhood house. I guess there is some emotional attachment there for me, but I'm not feeling it yet. Maybe, when I drive buy and see other people living there. But I'm sure that will fade quickly. All in all, my folks are happy, so I am happy for them.

My pickup's odometer hit 100K this morning. Of course when I bought it a year ago December, it had 78K miles. DW's van just hit 150K a week or so ago. My hope is still to keep the van at least as long as it takes to pay off the truck. I hope to have the truck paid off September or October, or maybe even November 2015.

Remember when I posted the picture of the goats a few weeks ago? And one of the goats was much smaller than the other? That smaller goat has continued to have health problems, including now a torn ligament in one of her hind legs. She won't make a good fair goat now, or a good breeding goat either. She'll be a pet. I'm guessing that mother goat stepped on her foot. We've separated the young goats from their mother now.

So, DD2 needs a fair goat now. Because of the very harsh winter, a lot of the goats born in Jan. and Feb. were lost, so there is an actual goat shortage now. At least a shortage of meat goats of suitable age for the fair. DW did some calling around, and found a wether (castrated male) goat to buy. The owner is asking $50, which is cheap. The problem is, it's a dairy breed, not the meat breed we've always used.

DD2 is happy, which is all that really matters. She won't be in the run for champion, but she wouldn't have been even if the other goat would have been healthy enough for the fair.

Today is the last day of the month - pay day for me.

I'm not ashamed to admit that DW and I claim WIC benefits. We are eligible for WIC benefits because we adopted two children from foster care. Because WIC expires when a child reaches age five, we currently have benefits for one child.

We generally shop at one of about five grocery stores in three towns. Two of the stores are Wal Mart, and the other three are smaller stores.

At two of the smaller stores, the employees are generally very polite and discreet when it comes to using the WIC card. One of the stores in particular is very discreet and polite to patrons utlizing WIC. (I'll freely admit that DW used the card more frequently than I do, she probably uses it two or three times for every one time I use it, so this information is from her).

But on Saturday, I brought our three youngest kids into town for DD2's soccer game. I needed to pick up a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk before heading back home. I stopped at our local, home town grocery store. The one that is not at all polite or discreet when it come to using WIC.

As it is near the end of the month, I was not sure how many items we had remaining on our WIC card. So, before I started shopping, I asked the clerk to check our remaining benefits.

She took the card, and started tapping in some information through the register, and then said very loudly "Oh this is a WIC card, not a Bridge card" in Michigan a bridge card is a regular food stamp card, and the two cards look almost identical. She printed out my information, and handed me the slip, and I thanked her. She then told me, very loudly again, that the store now has an entire aisle dedicated to WIC items. I thanked her, and went about my shopping.

We had two gallons of WIC milk remaining for the month. No bread. So, I picked up the two gallons of milk, and a brand of bread that is not WIC eligible, and headed back to the check out, back to my friend that had helped me out in the beginning.

She rang the items up, I swiped the WIC card, and had the two bucks in my hand to pay for the bread. She said, loudly again, "I didn't think that bread would go through, you can go back and get a different kind". I tried to help her understand that we had already used our bread allocation for the month, and that I would be paying cash for this loaf. I'm still not sure if she quite understood me. I just handed her the two bucks, collected my change, and left the store.

Our boys are also on Medicaid. We witness all sorts of shabby treatment through the Medicaid system as well. Again, DW gets the majority of that shabby treatment.

I'll just say that DW and I have now witnessed first hand a lot of the world surrounding the safety net that is in place for poor Americans. I'm glad it's there for those who need it. And, yes, I know that it is abused by some people.

I'll also say that from a "treating recipients with dignity" stand point, things are probably much better than they were 20, or 30, or 40 years ago. But, I think there is still a lot of room for improvement.

I've blogged a couple of times about our cleaning woman, Robin. She started with us last June, and we've been happy with her. She hasn't yet missed a single session, and we're happy with her results.

I've been thinking that we should probably give her a raise at the point of her one-year anniversary.

My employer granted me a 2% raise last October. So, I figured that Robin could maybe get the same raise as I did. That made sense to me.

We pay Robin $15 per hour for three hour cleaning sessions every other week. I know that some of you have mentioned that that is very cheap. Keep in mind that we found Robin through a posting at our local grocery store, and that she advertised herself for $15/hr. And, we also live in a very rural low COL area.

I digress.

When I did my first calculation of $45 (the amount paid for one session) time 1.02, I came up with $45.90. That seemed insulting - a raise of 90 cents per session. Maybe I should be insulted by my own 2% raise - but I know that a lot of people have had their pay cut or have received no raises at all over the past five or so years.

I digress again.

The figure for Robin that I'm working with now is a fifty cent per hour, or $1.50 per session raise. That's a 3.3% raise, and seems much more reasonable. I've not yet talked with DW about this. I'll see what she thinks, of course, before we make any changes.

I blogged a few months ago about the baby goats we were expecting. A set of twins was born on Feb. 14. DD1, the owner, named the doeling Valentine, and the buckling Hiccups. Fortunately, Feb. 14 was warm, at least as compared to the rest of that month, and they were born without problems.

The problem occurred almost two weeks later. The momma doe rejected the young doeling. She wouldn't let her nurse.

So, we bought a bag of goat colostrum replacer (I don't remember how much it cost, but probably around $7 or $8), which lasted 4 or 5 days, and a bucket of goat milk replacer that cost $23, and lasted about a month, and then we found a recipe for making our own, which included non-fat dry milk, whipping cream and a raw egg.

We bottle fed her as many as four or five times a day in the beginning, three or four times a day for the bulk of the time, and just two times a day before weaning. Valentine is on grain and hay now.

Part of the reason that the doeling was rejected was that she was a runt. So, she did start out smaller than her brother. But, this picture is evidence that real goat's milk, straight from the mother is an important part of growing a strong, healthy goat. This picture is almost two weeks old now.

DD1 wants to be a veterinarian, and has been taking a vet assistant's class once per week for the past 4 or 5 weeks. The class is geared for adults, but we know the instructor, and she said that DD1 would do fine.

Part of the class is to job shadow the instructor at the vet clinic where she works. DD1's job shadow was yesterday. It sounds as if she got quite an experience. I think she said that she viewed a total of three surgeries, including at least on spaying, and - get this - an amputation.

A man had dropped his refrigerator on his dog's leg, and the leg had to be removed. DD1 watched all of it. The staff did provide a chair if DD1 began feeling faint. And, she did use it once. But, the staff said that they were surprised that she didn't run out. She's 11.

She was very satisfied and excited with the experience. She still wants to be a vet.

Our boys attend a special need elementary school. The school held its "Spring Fest" last night. It's basically a variety show where each class puts on a song or skit, depending on age. Both boys are in the same pre-school class. For the most part, they followed along with the moves as directed. Special needs or not, 4 and 5 year old kids follow along with moves to varying degrees.

DS1 will be in kindergarten at that school next year, so I was particularly interested in watching that class's performance. It was interesting to see what type of "level" he may be in a year.

DD1 will be getting her pigs for fair tomorrow. She'll be spending $25 per pig more than last year, or $175 per pig. I know that sounds like a lot, and it is a lot. But, she should do well at the fair with high quality pigs.

We'll buy three pigs. DD1 will show the two that match best (similar weight/body structure). We'll either have the other one slaughtered for our freezer, or sell on the open market. That depends on how much of last year's pork we have left over. We'll probably put it in the freezer, and share some with family.

OR DD2 will be old enough to show a pig at the fair, but she has no interest. She did have interest a couple months ago, but she has lost interest. Neither DW nor I want to pressure her at all.

Tagging day is in May. On tagging day, youth can bring up to three pigs to the fair grounds to get tagged. They can take two of them to the fair. "Tagging" is a way to prevent cheating. If by May, DD2 has changed her mind, DD1 will pick the two pigs that match best for herself, and DD2 can have the third.

I bet that's more than you wanted to know about fair pigs!