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Life on the Farm with Chickens

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Life has really slowed down for us.  I am spending 4-6 hours a day working on work or finding work or thinking about work, and then the rest is spent on schooling or sports with the kids.  Everyone is really happy with this move.  But we’ve also had some excitement…

History Buff with rooster
History Buff with our lone rooster – name Milo after my beloved dog.
Princess and Sea Cadet with our 25 chicks
Princess and Sea Cadet with our 25 chicks…living in our kitchen!

 

Yes, we’ve got chickens!  24 pullets and 1 rooster.  Our hosts ordered 450 new chicks for the farm and after filling their garage offered to let us care for some.  We are all thrilled!  We are learning a lot, enjoying playing with them and look forward to the day we can move them outside…three more weeks or so.

The hosts are covering all costs, we are just putting in the time.  So it’s a win-win.  The kids are literally spending hours playing with them, digging worms for their dessert and reading up on caring for them and their predators we have to be careful of.

And our hosts say that once they start laying eggs in the fall, we can help sell them at our local farmer’s market where they will take them.  Fun times all around!

Hope – Debt Update – April, 2016

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Yikes!  Ya’ll are right, I have not done a debt update in quite a while.  So I’ll make this short and sweet. The last update I found when I looked was this one from  August, 2015 Debt Update which was a couple of months before my whole world/plan blew up with the loss of my largest on-going client.

Here are my new debt numbers:

Debt NameCurrent BalanceInterest RateMin. Mo. PymtOriginal BalanceStatus
Student Loan$33,3452.875%$99$31,687IBRP effective Aug, 2015
Yukon$9820% (6 months)$104$3568Ex pays $246 mo. towards this debt
Orthodontist$????0%$230?$10,800Working on plan April, 2016
Begins Sept, 2015
Checking Account$00%--$741Paid Off - Jan 2015!
CC Intro Rate - Retail #2$03.99%--$3500Paid Off - May, 2015
Personal Loan - Car$012%--$5000Paid Off - July, 2015
Credit Card - Consumer$013.90%--$4,974Paid Off - June, 2015
Credit Card - Retail$025.99%--$2,265Refinanced - Dec, 2015
Car Loan - Accord$00%--$1,900Paid Off - Dec, 2015
Car Loan - NV$06.79%--$31,138Sold - Dec, 2015
Line of Credit$015.95%--$1,248Paid Off
Credit Card - Retail #1$00%--$413Paid Off
Property Tax$00%--$700Paid Off
TOTALS$????$433?$97,934

Just a couple of notes:

Student Loans – Needless to say, the income based repayment plan, while I am SO grateful for it, does not even cover the interest, thus the increase balance since last fall.  So this definitely needs to be on my radar as I get back on my feet.

Ex Husband’s Car Loan – You can see from the balance that both of us have been making payments on this one.  He is super motivated to get it paid off so he can get the title and do whatever.  I am super motivated to get it off my shoulders.  Hoping this one will be gone in the next month or so.  It’s still my number one goal.

Orthodontics – I have just finished negotiating with them after months of trying.  And we have reached an agreement.   So I will update the total now owed with the next update since I’m still waiting on the documentation, etc.

If you have been following the last couple of weeks, you will remember my choice to delay paying my last month’s rent in my apartment to cover the needed expenses for the month we moved.  I have not included that rent payment in my debt because it will be paid in full within the week.

So that is where I stand right now…