Okies in the BYC The Original

[artsyrobin]

Quote:
I understand the insulation concerns. Our heating bills last year were over $500/month. I am not sure what they are this year, but we are trying to stay mostly in one room of the house this year (living room) and keep it the warmest with minimal heating in the rest of the house. Also using space heaters to keep the gas bill down. We don't have central heating or anything fancy. When we have guests over I just try to start baking things an hour or two before hand to also help heat the kitchen and dining rooms. Otherwise, we are keeping most of the doors closed to all of the rooms and lower heating in the bedrooms with heating blankets on the beds. From what I can tell on the bills so far it is working. We will see this next month though, when I get the bill for when we were all home these last few weeks. Unfortunately, I don't think we can add insulation to the attic until we rewire this old house. It has the very old wiring where you can see them on the beams up in the attic and seems like they would be a fire hazard if we covered them with insulation. Maybe Al has some recommendations, because I am still trying to figure that one out.

makes me really appreciate our woodstove!!!

 

[osukrazykate]

Quote:
I think so, but it is way too cold for me to go up there and double check, LOL. I know it they had something like that though, very very old ones. My DH and I have been talking about it for a long time that we will need to redo the electrical wiring in this old house. I believe it is the original wiring from whenever this house was first wired, and this house is over 100 years old so the wiring is pretty darn old.

We also want to redo all of the plumbing too someday and perhaps make it well water when we do, bcs currently we use city water and it is not good. We get a letter a few times a year about the certain levels in our water that are way too high and can cause cancer if consumed too much, funny though because then they say you do not need to worry. A good friend of ours is a biochemist who works for the company who tests the cities water and says that they over chlorinate and yes the water is dangerous to consume. So we filter the water. Plus, there is a high amount of cancer rate around this town and I have known many people from here who have died the last few years from Cancer. But the city doesn't seem to do what the company suggests to help clean up the problem and instead continues to put way too much chlorine in the water. You can even smell the chlorine when taking a shower, like an indoor chlorinated swimming pool.

It is very sad, even after studies have shown that too much chlorine can cause cancer.

 

[osukrazykate]

Quote:
I understand the insulation concerns. Our heating bills last year were over $500/month. I am not sure what they are this year, but we are trying to stay mostly in one room of the house this year (living room) and keep it the warmest with minimal heating in the rest of the house. Also using space heaters to keep the gas bill down. We don't have central heating or anything fancy. When we have guests over I just try to start baking things an hour or two before hand to also help heat the kitchen and dining rooms. Otherwise, we are keeping most of the doors closed to all of the rooms and lower heating in the bedrooms with heating blankets on the beds. From what I can tell on the bills so far it is working. We will see this next month though, when I get the bill for when we were all home these last few weeks. Unfortunately, I don't think we can add insulation to the attic until we rewire this old house. It has the very old wiring where you can see them on the beams up in the attic and seems like they would be a fire hazard if we covered them with insulation. Maybe Al has some recommendations, because I am still trying to figure that one out.

makes me really appreciate our woodstove!!!

Yes I wish we had a wood stove or even for the fireplace to be operable as a fireplace. We had a fireplace in Dallas and I really miss it! When I was growing up in WI we had wood stoves and they sure can keep the house toasty.

 

[artsyrobin]

After loosing power a few years ago for over a week from an ice storm, we never wanted to deal with depending on electric again- we kept warm for a week and cooked on a 'little buddy' propane heater...never again! once we moved out to the ol homestead, that was one of the must haves- self sufficiency is the goal..

 

[faerielady]

Quote:
I understand the insulation concerns. Our heating bills last year were over $500/month. I am not sure what they are this year, but we are trying to stay mostly in one room of the house this year (living room) and keep it the warmest with minimal heating in the rest of the house. Also using space heaters to keep the gas bill down. We don't have central heating or anything fancy. When we have guests over I just try to start baking things an hour or two before hand to also help heat the kitchen and dining rooms. Otherwise, we are keeping most of the doors closed to all of the rooms and lower heating in the bedrooms with heating blankets on the beds. From what I can tell on the bills so far it is working. We will see this next month though, when I get the bill for when we were all home these last few weeks. Unfortunately, I don't think we can add insulation to the attic until we rewire this old house. It has the very old wiring where you can see them on the beams up in the attic and seems like they would be a fire hazard if we covered them with insulation. Maybe Al has some recommendations, because I am still trying to figure that one out.

makes me really appreciate our woodstove!!!

I have nowhere to put a woodstove...

I live in about 600sq foot 2 bed/1bath house with a converted garage. The floor plan is flat stupid and there's no real space in any room because of the floor plan.

The idea is to knock down the wall/closet between my current bedroom and the living room, making it all one large living area, and re-do the garage conversion so that it's habitable (it's currently not according to the city because there is only 1 way into the conversion... the door from the living room. There's no window or door... so I'm going to take down the exterior "wall" that they put where the garage door was and put in a bay window, raise the floor off the concrete, and insulate the ceiling.

Like I said, it'll be at least 4-5 years before I can move. Might as well do as much as I can to make it comfortable/livable.

 

[nnbreeder]

Quote:
And here I thought that Eagles were protected by Federal law. LOL

 

[osukrazykate]

Quote:
jasons hand is all bandaged up

Please tell Jason we hope heals quickly and sorry to had to endure so much pain! You guys had a very traumatic day and I know it makes for very hard decisions.
sidenote:
However, you should tell Jason he should keep his hands out of puppy teeth, those are sharp teeth and they can really hurt.

 

[poultryand bees]

Quote:
I keep runner ducks (don't know about the "Indian" part) and love them, because they can't fly so can't get into the stock tanks and leave nasty presents where the llamas, horse and sheep drink. They run around in a group, so can be used to train herding dogs. They look like bowling pens running around the yard. I noticed yesterday that of the 13 runners we have, about half are drakes

, so they will be going to the next auction.

I saw some auction for eggs a week or so ago, maybe longer and started reading about them. They apparently lay more eggs than a typical chicken. And bakers like their eggs better or something for cakes and what not. So I am thinking of getting some, we have a large pond like area out behind our property (core of Engineer land) that they could have access too where a lot of other wild ducks and geese flock to. I want to build my own pond too, and was originally wanting to wait, but now I am thinking they can always go down to that other pond. It is used to gather water and then is fed into Keystone lake. What are your thoughts and observations?

Runner ducks don't need a pond, which is one reason I like them. They do like to dip their heads and sometimes their whole body in the 7 gallon rubber tub with their water, which makes it muddy on the bottom. Since they can't fly, I would be hesitant to put them somewhere that predators could easily get to them. Would any of your dogs be able to provide "shore patrol" for them to keep them safe from predators?

 

[poultryand bees]

here are some male Lady Amherst pheasants for $25 each http://oklahomacity.craigslist.org/grd/1535801558.html

or maybe, you would prefer some Texas A&M, Tuxedo, Pharoah/Tibetian quail from the same person for $5 each img/smilies/jumpy.gif" alt="jumpy" />">http://oklahomacity.craigslist.org/grd/1535800576.html

 

[bigokie37]

i gots water finally.that heater turned out to be a 50000 btu an now i think it is warmer under my trailer then in the house. i bet the kids dont forget to leave a drip going now after going without water for 3 days lol