Sitting with a cup of coffee. (coffee lovers)

[perchie.girl]

Quote: Grants are usually specific to a project though aren't they?
For, equipment or hiring work?

Not his.... they are dependant on how many units he takes and his grades.... He actually got a part time job working some data sets for one of the teachers.... that was paid by the Grants the Doctors were getting. As long as he isn't making any money over a certain amount per year he gets these grants...

Check into it... The financial Aid counselors do all the leg work.... So talk to the college your son my be going to. The financial aid people are very knowledgeable...

Plus My son had no clue as to what kind of grants would be possible so he filled out ALL of the forms on line.... The first grant didnt come through till he had started his first full semester.... They do take a while to percolate through the system.

And when I went to ITT Tech to get my associates degree when I was 48 years old. I was working at ARCO making minimum wage thirty hours per week. I qualified for a CAL Grant which is one offered by California.... That along with a couple of others payed a full HALF of my college. I only had to borrow the other half.

Student loans are offered at a very very low intrest rate.... and you have to start paying them immediately.... not after you get out of college. My loan ran me a hundred dollars a month. It was 13,000 so the interest was pretty low.

So dont panic.... just roll up your sleves... Talk to the college financial aid department... even the community colleges have them because many people finsh their General education at Community college in order to transfer to a four year college.

My son earned his Assoicates of Science degree at community college.... Decided on a major and relized he was missing two classes to transfer over to SDSU.... So he took one that summer and went to San Diego STate and talked to the department head for Astronomy and told him his predicament. It seems the head of the department was also the Councelor for entry into the degree program. He told Dean he would allow him to take the one class on the next semester at SDSU... No problem

It seems the teachers have alot of leeway with "requirements' as long as they get done somewhere.... LOL.

That was the professor that evenutally hired him to do data crunching on some observations. Last summer.

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

My oldest got a lot of little grants and scholarships - a good high school advisor will have books, lists, and websites full of them for you to look through. They always have a separate application and usually an essay but they add up! $1000 here, $400 there and so on. And some are once and some are renewable year by year if you are making good progress.

@Alaskan - still plowing snow here and fussing with my tractor. 4wd with big new tires (rear loaded) and a front end loader. Problem was that the dump hydraulics didn't work in the cold. Guy said there was condensation in a tube and short of finding a trailer and towing it 75 miles to be repaired I could pour a jug of hot water over it. That works like a charm. It starts right up even in 0 degrees and after it warms up for 5 minutes i drive it down as close to the house as i can get and run in for a jug of hot water. Problem now is I keep getting stuck in the snow... I have a long dirt driveway with little hills and I try carefully scraping it backward (without digging holes in the frozen drive) or carefully scooping and pushing it forward. After several hours I got about half the drive in good shape but the deeper drifting snow keeps mucking out the lower part... So I'm going to try snow chains on the front tires and weights for the back. But I am a little worried that it will be harder to rock out of a snow drift if it is any heavier... I was doing OK until we got 15 inches in one day. I drive over it with my big F150 truck and that helps to pack it down some.

Suggestions would be most welcome!

And boots - any idea for the warmest most waterproof but not too heavy boots for a hard working new farmer from the city?

if it were here I would say muck boots the kind you use for cleaning muddy corrals... they have a god tred and some of them come wool lined.... Oh and they are water proof all the way up the ankle

deb

 

[Alaskan]

well yes, sadly, though the weights will make it less likely that you get stuck, when you DO get stuck, depending on how you are stuck, yes it could make it harder to get unstuck.

If you are mostly only getting a little stuck, where rocking gets you out, then the weight will help, and make things easier.

As to boots:

best traction, good if I am moving :North Face

warmest: ugly 'bunny boots' or 'mukluk' style. I like Baffin and Sorel. Most boots are rated to how cold you can wear them. Remember, the coldness rating is if you are running like crazy when wearing them. So, you want boots rated to WAY LOWER than your coldest temperatures if you will be mostly sitting/standing/driving the tractor.

 

[chickwhispers]

Good question......

No, we never have hanged out the carpet. No kidding.... still that same carpet.

It is best to not ever thing about it, I try to never sit down on it.... just nasty. (not that you can smell any 'remnants' it is just the thought)

When I went to college I thought that the kids that had taken one year or more off between high school and college did better. They were more likely to see college as an IMPORTANT opportunity instead of a time to be away from parents and.... uh..... do bad stuff.

Most of the 'slightly older' people had taken a year to save up money, or go into the military to get them to pay, or had started in the job world, and saw that having a degree would make them lots more money later.

Anyway, with that said... I kinda hope that my boys follow the 'plan' that I have for them; which is to stay at home for the first year or two, and go to the local community college to get some of the basic classes out of the way, then go somewhere that is better/more competitive.

Sounds like a good plan!

@chickwhispers - your beautiful blondes are my only chickens who are laying now in this cold season

Thank you for letting me know. I wondered how they were doing for you! My 2 are laying as well!

My oldest got a lot of little grants and scholarships - a good high school advisor will have books, lists, and websites full of them for you to look through. They always have a separate application and usually an essay but they add up! $1000 here, $400 there and so on. And some are once and some are renewable year by year if you are making good progress.

@Alaskan - still plowing snow here and fussing with my tractor. 4wd with big new tires (rear loaded) and a front end loader. Problem was that the dump hydraulics didn't work in the cold. Guy said there was condensation in a tube and short of finding a trailer and towing it 75 miles to be repaired I could pour a jug of hot water over it. That works like a charm. It starts right up even in 0 degrees and after it warms up for 5 minutes i drive it down as close to the house as i can get and run in for a jug of hot water. Problem now is I keep getting stuck in the snow... I have a long dirt driveway with little hills and I try carefully scraping it backward (without digging holes in the frozen drive) or carefully scooping and pushing it forward. After several hours I got about half the drive in good shape but the deeper drifting snow keeps mucking out the lower part... So I'm going to try snow chains on the front tires and weights for the back. But I am a little worried that it will be harder to rock out of a snow drift if it is any heavier... I was doing OK until we got 15 inches in one day. I drive over it with my big F150 truck and that helps to pack it down some.

Suggestions would be most welcome!

And boots - any idea for the warmest most waterproof but not too heavy boots for a hard working new farmer from the city?

They have those newer boots out with the Neoprene ontop and the bottom lined with it for warmth. The same stuff scuba suits are made of and can and botlle coozys.

 

[chickwhispers]

Night All.

 

[Alaskan]

the warmest boots come in two layers, an inner boot and then the outer boot.

And you really don't need that much waterproofing when it is super cold and snowy.....

But I am talking a hefty WARM boot, like this:

or

and the inner boot thing comes with it, but you can buy replacement ones if they wear out:

 

[Alaskan]

ah! I finally found the Baffin ad blurb:

Over the years Baffin has created a line of industry-leading footwear that performs in extreme conditions for an ever-growing list of loyal users and activities, including snowmobiling, ice-fishing, hunting, mushing and working in industries like construction, oil, mining, forestry, and outdoor winter recreation. Because of this, Baffin has become the leader in footwear for all your cold weather needs.

In the early 90’s Baffin realized that if they combined their leading molding technology with a foam-based inner boot system, they could create a new hybrid style of high performance footwear. Since then Baffin has developed new materials and combined them in new innovative combinations. A good example is the unrivalled 8-layer combination of materials that are used in the boots that are rated for -100ºC (-148ºF).


Now THAT kind of boot is the kind of boot that you can stand around motionless, outside, when it is ultra freezing, and you STILL have all of your toes when you get back inside.

 

[vehve]

The better half has a pair of muck boots, but also a winter model that's similar and made by another manufacturer, can't remember the name. They've been really warm. For standing still, a good trick is to bring a piece of polystyrene or some other foam insulator and stand on that, it will keep you a lot warmer since you're insulated from the cold ground.

 

[Puddin Fluff]

well yes, sadly, though the weights will make it less likely that you get stuck, when you DO get stuck, depending on how you are stuck, yes it could make it harder to get unstuck.

If you are mostly only getting a little stuck, where rocking gets you out, then the weight will help, and make things easier.

As to boots:

best traction, good if I am moving :North Face

warmest: ugly 'bunny boots' or 'mukluk' style. I like Baffin and Sorel. Most boots are rated to how cold you can wear them. Remember, the coldness rating is if you are running like crazy when wearing them. So, you want boots rated to WAY LOWER than your coldest temperatures if you will be mostly sitting/standing/driving the tractor.

I will vouch for Sorels. I bought my pair when I lived in Anchorage in '92. I still have them. No breakdown on them at all. We have lived all over with the military and of course here in the southern states I may only pull them out a couple times a year so they don't get a lot of wear but the materials still look good and they are warm, they are the two part kind.

 

[vehve]

I haven't tried Sorels myself, but they seem pretty good. For me, I see two different working conditions in winter that I think require a slightly different approach. I'm either moving, or then I'm mainly standing still, and don't need something that fits the foot as well.

If I need to move, I like to wear some sort of combat boot or hiking boot resembling footwear, Gore Tex isn't a must, but I prefer it, since it makes the shoes more versatile. Right now, for that, I've got a pair of Alpina Trapper RJ Browns. They're completely leather on the outside, so they're easy to take care of (proper maintenance is key for keeping up water proofing in shoes). So far I've used them in -20C without feeling cold, and I think they'll be fine in much colder weather too. But I've also used them in +20C, and they breathe well enough to not make my feet sweaty then either.

If I'm mainly in the same spot, like working in the yard, I prefer rubber boots. Getting a pair that's a few sizes too large opens up the possibility of layering wool socks on your feet. One or two pairs of wool socks, with a pair of tennis socks on top is pretty nice. Sweat will wick through the wool, and be absorbed in the tennis socks, so you can just change those when they start getting a bit moist. During my time in the military we used to change the outer tennis socks every few hours, and then the wool sock a couple of times per day. That way you've got dry and warm feet all the time. I think that's pretty nice.

Of course, the same sock trick can be used in hiking boots too, but I prefer getting those with a better fit, so I don't really do that.