I have zero photos to show for our night out with neighbors last night. We all met up at the local brewery Omni. We spent more then I would have liked at the brewery with two drinks each and a subpar- pizza. We stopped at the liquor store to pick up beer and seltzers to bring over to the neighbors. We played a new game that was odd! I don't recall the name, but you try to guess who everyone is after you play a recording on your phone where everyone's eyes are closed. We played 3 rounds and that was it. I was hoping to find a fun new game, but this was not it!
Here are my V-day decorations on our front entry table. I still have winter mixed into the decorations.
I took off my dog grooming clipper blade. First I unscrewed it and cleaned it off. Then I read the directions and that little black lever in the middle of the bottom of the blade is where it detaches and you can replace. So I did that and once again, had to clean off the blade from all the dog fur. Now at least I know how to get that blade off and switch it out fast! I ended up purchasing a new longer fur blade for $35.00. No need to use that plastic guard now to trim the fur longer. I still will use the super short blade to trim up Zoey, but now have options for a longer cut. It's about a 1/2" length of fur. I want to try it out! I wish I would have done this before trimming the dog last Friday. It would have been much easier to cut with an actual right size blade!! I might just try it out on Zoey to see how it cuts. I'm just not sure if her fur is long enough to even notice the trim with the longer blade. Her fur length is probably at 1/2"! The new blade wasn't a big investment, which is nice. I do need a better dog dryer before I offer my services to other dogs. I do need a dryer that will work quick. I've been using a regular hair dryer and it does just okay. I do need to time how long it takes to bath and dry. I picked up a bathing rubber scrub pad to make it easier to shampoo. I'll try that on Zoey and see how it all works. I'd like to get the dog grooming time down to 2 hours max for a cut and blow-dry. Is that possible?? I do need to also call around and get prices for grooming different types of dogs. I'd like to earn more then $20 an hour if I'm going to do this. I'd say my minimum would have to be $30- $35 per hour to make it profitable. I won't charge until I have more skills at grooming obviously. You have to start somewhere! I already have groomed at least 5 different types of dogs/fur, so I have a good baseline with the equipment I own. It just can't take 2 hours to cut and then another hour to bath and dry! Yikes! I have looked into cage dryers too, but those are costly and I'm not sure I feel comfortable just having that blow on a dog for a set time. I did see they put a sock over the dogs ears to make it less noisy.
What's on the agenda for this Sunday?
I'm starting to do the enamel on the 2 closet doors today. I want to make popovers for diner. Plus, do a little purging in the office? I'll have to go through all the cabinets etc, maybe move stuff out of there and find another spot for the stuff we aren't using as much!
Steve is working today to finish up a rush paint job. Good thing this came though at the right time. He has one other small paint job then has a job break due to another big paint job being pushed out till the end of February. Ugh!! We do have 2 estimates to get out today which could result in work asap? Fingers crossed it all works out and that he can just jump right away on those projects. There are also decks scheduled in April which he might be able to do sooner since its going to be near or at 50 degrees with zero snow the ground, but I think to be on the safe side of it not snowing, it will wait till April. Nice to have that all lined up for spring! It wasn't great news that this next paint project was delayed, but at least it wasn't canceled, just delayed a few weeks!
It's hard to not compare where we are with others. Seems everyone is moving to the next phase of looking at what they will do in retirement. We should have passive income from renting out our house and the cabin we will be building. Living out of a van traveling will give us this freedom. We can even work while traveling if we are camp hosts or something like that to stay for free. There is Woofing where we work in exchange for a place to say in our van. Lots of fun things I'd love to try and do for variety with all the new places we can experience. Steve will also be able to build out a van. We will100% be able to get back all the money with reselling, so it's a win/win for us on that too. He's not 100% sold on the Van idea, maybe a large SUV at first to test it out. I don't want to do that option as I'd like to be able to stand up and move around too. I know others in retirement are just thinking of buying a 2nd house somewhere. I just don't want to be tied down to one spot. I'd like to move around and see new areas. Plus, spending less on living costs would be a better option. No cable TV, only cell phones, no heat, water or electrical expenses. Just Auto insurance, gas for the vehicle, food and minimal buying with maybe paying for some places to stay. Even if we paid for Hipcamping at $35 per night that's only $1,050 per month or $500 each! I would do it right now if our house was 100% paid off and we had built the cabin. Of course we have a few more years till retirement, so plenty of time to finish paying for our mortgage and building a cabin!
2024, 2025 and then 2026 the final year of paying off our mortgage! It can't come soon enough! Of course I'll be that much older! So a few more years of feeling like we are spinning our wheels, not getting anywhere, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
I'm pretty amazed that we figured out how to be self employed all these years. I'd have a hard time going back to work for someone else and having a boss. Plus, the thought of working 40 hours a week! YIKES!! After we both were laid off with in two months of each other, my only goal was to have the kids grow up in the neighborhood and not have to move. I kept saying at least get them through High School. Considering Logan wasn't even born and Celina was 18 months old at the time. We've some how managed and now it's coming up to 24 years later this May that we've been in this house. It's the longest I've ever lived in the same house. The longest was always 10 years or less. We haven't had the need to move as this house is as big as I'd want for a family of 4. Now with Logan in college and will graduate the spring of 2025, he won't be living at home long I predict if at all. Celina and Don are almost ready to move out. She just needs to get hired on permanently, and not be under contract to feel secure in her job. We won't need this big house for just the two of us, so makes sense to rent and travel.
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