Just curious who else is living super frugal

[mickey328]

What a great idea, Scott...now I just have to figure out how to make alpaca diapers! Once I get that figured out, you can send me a cria...or heck, I'll just pop down in the van and bring it home

 

[ScottnLydia]

OCH! I ALMOST FORGOT! You should ALWAYS have more than 1 animal on account of them being so social. A single animal won't do well at all! I've heard that they can hurt themselves trying to get out to get to a buddy. Llamas will adopt another specie, that's why they work as guard animals, I don't know about alpacas though. I'm sure that a llama and an alpaca would be fine, they speak the same lingo.

 

[ScottnLydia]

What a great idea, Scott...now I just have to figure out how to make alpaca diapers! Once I get that figured out, you can send me a cria...or heck, I'll just pop down in the van and bring it home

Mickey, we really need to talk! I have a gelded male llama, and no female. When you do the math, that adds up to no crias. I've got lambs, sure, but they are of no relation.

Sorry I can't oblige,
Your faithfull servant,
~S

 

[mickey328]

Jeez, Scott...I figured you'd get you a breeding pair of alpacas so you could pop one out for me! No?? I'm not good at math anyway...even chicken math doesn't get me cuz Big Brother says I can only have 6 Shhhh...don't tell him but I've been considering sneaking in a couple of meat birds. Only problem is that we'd have to figure out how to hide 'em cuz one neighbor is a curmudgeonly little brother of Big Brother. He about popped his top when we brought our girls home, and made sure to let us know that if he got one whiff of poo over the fence, he'd be right over to let us know! We can't even bribe him with eggs, cuz he don't eat 'em....couldn't bribe him with a nice broiler either cuz he won't eat anything but beef.

Hey...I've got a neighbor for sale...any takers???

 

[DennisK]

No, it's gravity! Quick, get the pliers and PULL!!! (pull the eyebrows and the chin hairs will pull back in) Ask Dennis, HE says it really works!

Ya, but you have to braid them when you pull them back so that they won’t fall back down! I look really silly with braids coming out of the top of my dome. I don’t know what braided eyebrows would look like, but I hope you won’t look like me!

 

[DennisK]

Jeez, Scott...I figured you'd get you a breeding pair of alpacas so you could pop one out for me! No?? I'm not good at math anyway...even chicken math doesn't get me cuz Big Brother says I can only have 6 Shhhh...don't tell him but I've been considering sneaking in a couple of meat birds. Only problem is that we'd have to figure out how to hide 'em cuz one neighbor is a curmudgeonly little brother of Big Brother. He about popped his top when we brought our girls home, and made sure to let us know that if he got one whiff of poo over the fence, he'd be right over to let us know! We can't even bribe him with eggs, cuz he don't eat 'em....couldn't bribe him with a nice broiler either cuz he won't eat anything but beef.

Hey...I've got a neighbor for sale...any takers???

Ahaa Mickey, you really need more space! People are – well, people and they become real pikers when crowded. If I walk over the crest of my hill, I can see my neighbors out in their yard – they look about ½ inch tall. We get along with them really well! Talking to any of my neighbors is quite an occasion. Of course, living away from high density populations is considered “sprawl” which is, by many, considered a very bad word. Obviously, I “sprawled”, but I don’t feel a bit guilty – as a matter of fact, when Jennifer and I sit out in our garden after the day’s work and watch the stars come out in an unpolluted sky, I feel quite pleased. I wish the same for you - and your grumpy neighbor. It seems he really needs to "sprawl"!

 

[mickey328]

Dennis, you've no IDEA how badly I want to sprawl!!! I'm scrounging around online pretty much every day looking for a little acreage away from it all. It's not feasible right now, but I'm still researching. We don't want to "farm"...we just want maybe 5 acres where we can grow what we want and have what critters we want and have our neighbors be 1/2 inch tall. I love it here but wouldn't be averse to moving anywhere if I could find a climate I could tolerate. I haven't been to much more than the central part of our country and know I couldn't stand the heat/humidity in the summer and cold/humidity in the winter. I spent about 30 years in central Canada and have more than had my fill of torrid summers and frigid winters.

The weather here is generally great...very low humidity (if it hits 40% once in a while, it feels muggy) and the winters are usually pretty mild, although it IS winter. Unfortunately, the summers are getting hotter by the year. Back in the mid 80's we had maybe 4 days in the whole summer that hit 100; it was generally in the upper 80's and you could almost set your watch by a 4 o'clock shower...it'd cloud over, rain like crazy for 10 minutes, the temp would drop and be gorgeous for the rest of the evening. We never even needed a/c but maybe 4 times a season! Nowadays 90's are the norm and we don't get our afternoon showers.

So, all I have to do is find a place where the summers are 75 to 80 degrees with a nice light breeze, the humidity stays below 40%, there is a definite change of seasons, but none are extreme, there's enough rain to grow things without having to water EVERYTHING and we can find a nice 5 acres where nobody will bother us. Easy, right?

 

[DennisK]

Dennis, you've no IDEA how badly I want to sprawl!!! I'm scrounging around online pretty much every day looking for a little acreage away from it all. It's not feasible right now, but I'm still researching. We don't want to "farm"...we just want maybe 5 acres where we can grow what we want and have what critters we want and have our neighbors be 1/2 inch tall. I love it here but wouldn't be averse to moving anywhere if I could find a climate I could tolerate. I haven't been to much more than the central part of our country and know I couldn't stand the heat/humidity in the summer and cold/humidity in the winter. I spent about 30 years in central Canada and have more than had my fill of torrid summers and frigid winters.

The weather here is generally great...very low humidity (if it hits 40% once in a while, it feels muggy) and the winters are usually pretty mild, although it IS winter. Unfortunately, the summers are getting hotter by the year. Back in the mid 80's we had maybe 4 days in the whole summer that hit 100; it was generally in the upper 80's and you could almost set your watch by a 4 o'clock shower...it'd cloud over, rain like crazy for 10 minutes, the temp would drop and be gorgeous for the rest of the evening. We never even needed a/c but maybe 4 times a season! Nowadays 90's are the norm and we don't get our afternoon showers.

So, all I have to do is find a place where the summers are 75 to 80 degrees with a nice light breeze, the humidity stays below 40%, there is a definite change of seasons, but none are extreme, there's enough rain to grow things without having to water EVERYTHING and we can find a nice 5 acres where nobody will bother us. Easy, right?

I hope you find just exactly the right place! I was born, and raised within 100 miles of where I am now; so I am acclimated to this weather. Poor DW isn’t as she is from Kansas. It occasionally gets over 100 during the summer, but it is a dry heat. None-the-less, DW and I usually retire with the air conditioner during mid-day – a good time to catch up on our reading. During the winter, it may snow for a few days, but most of the days are sunny – which is fortunate as we are powered exclusively with solar. The only exception is the generator that I use to pump water to a holding tank. We are currently saving for a solar pump to lower into the well. Frugal living takes a lot of planning. It reminds me of planning for a siege; not of swards and battleaxes, but of currency and numbers.

 

[mickey328]

The older I get the more the heat bothers me. I can deal with real winter...I just prefer not to, LOL. But when it's hot...I just can't function! Dry is better, admittedly but past 90, wet or dry, it's just plain HOT! I try to get up early and get stuff done by noon...that's generally when we have to close up the house and turn on the a/c. The good thing about being in the foothills is that once the sun gets down behind them, the temp drops nearly 10 degrees almost immediately. Still, we weren't able to shut down the air and open the house back up till at least 8pm most nights and a few this summer we pretty much had to leave it on all night. I much prefer an open window, but I can't sleep when it's hot...it's even worse than trying to work the garden in the heat

You're right...it does take a lot of planning and a lot of effort. I'm hoping to get the research done and be able to move into the planning phase soon.

 

[jbirds2012]

Dennis, you've no IDEA how badly I want to sprawl!!! I'm scrounging around online pretty much every day looking for a little acreage away from it all. It's not feasible right now, but I'm still researching. We don't want to "farm"...we just want maybe 5 acres where we can grow what we want and have what critters we want and have our neighbors be 1/2 inch tall. I love it here but wouldn't be averse to moving anywhere if I could find a climate I could tolerate. I haven't been to much more than the central part of our country and know I couldn't stand the heat/humidity in the summer and cold/humidity in the winter. I spent about 30 years in central Canada and have more than had my fill of torrid summers and frigid winters.

The weather here is generally great...very low humidity (if it hits 40% once in a while, it feels muggy) and the winters are usually pretty mild, although it IS winter. Unfortunately, the summers are getting hotter by the year. Back in the mid 80's we had maybe 4 days in the whole summer that hit 100; it was generally in the upper 80's and you could almost set your watch by a 4 o'clock shower...it'd cloud over, rain like crazy for 10 minutes, the temp would drop and be gorgeous for the rest of the evening. We never even needed a/c but maybe 4 times a season! Nowadays 90's are the norm and we don't get our afternoon showers.

So, all I have to do is find a place where the summers are 75 to 80 degrees with a nice light breeze, the humidity stays below 40%, there is a definite change of seasons, but none are extreme, there's enough rain to grow things without having to water EVERYTHING and we can find a nice 5 acres where nobody will bother us. Easy, right?

and the skys are not cloudy all day. yes, i truly hope that you can find that property of your dreams ( so as we can move in wit cha ) but ya know, there are people in Paradise that ain't happy and we kinda like the challenge