what are your summer plans?

[sdlee]

with gas pricese what they are or what they will be what is everyones summer vacation plans? In my family and in my house hold we have decided to go no where!!!

but then again we live in one of the United States Best kept secrets as far as vacation lands go.

If any of you are planning to go through The Black Hills/Mount Rushmore or even making us your stay be sure to let me know. Im down for meeting any of you.

 

[tolivac]

So far going to stay in Greenville.Want to go to the RC area,but costs on the airlines to get there are high-and of course the high gas prices discourage me to go there-and I have other freinds there.as well as my Dad.

 

[oldhouseman]

No travel plans here.

With the economy in a tailspin I'm staying home. I still have a good bit of work to do on the house (rebuild shutters, reglaze windows, start on the upstairs rooms restoration, etc). I have started replacing the grass in the backyard with gardens and plan on removing as much lawn as possible. I have planted over 30 tomato plants, okra, squash, potato, 5 kinds of pepper, carrots, herbs and that's not counting my small kitchen garden. I want to plant an olive tree and some figs this year and clear some space for apple and peach trees.

I plan on doing some canning and soap making. A local carpenter is doing some repair work on a neighbors plantation and has dicovered a huge honey bee nest. They are going to collect the bees and move them and I get the bees wax, about 50 lbs. so it looks like time for some candle making as well.

My partner has several 18th century ladderback chairs he wanted me to weave the seats in so that will take up a few hours in the evenings over the summer. By fall I hope to have put away a good harvest for winter. And, as always, there is a list of books for summer reading. I'm sure my partner will have several projects in mind as well for me that he has yet to tell me about. I usually find out about them over Sunday dinner when guests are present.

Given the state of gas prices and the economy we are preparing for possible harder times ahead. Exxon will get as little of my money as possible. I am expecting gas to be much higher by the end of the summer. Entertaining at home will be the order of the season and the door is always open for visitors.

 

[joeekaitis]

Keep saving money for the trip to Tahoe in October.

http://www.stayintahoe.com/lake_tahoe_rentals/drilldown.cfm?rentid=314

 

[petek]

My only plan is the Vac convention in N.Canton OH this August all being well. Thankfully it's about a 4 hrs drive because I'm pretty much through with flying anywhere these days.

 

[frigilux]

This will be the first time since 1982 I won't be going to Seattle for a couple of weeks during the summer. I have to replace 18 sections of privacy fencing and the roof is getting reshingled, so I'm going nowhere. I'll be lucky to get to Minneapolis a few times, even!

 

[tlee618]

Pete, I am so glad to hear that you are planning on coming to the vacuum convention. I think it is going to be one our very best. Can't wait to meet you. Terry

 

[runematic]

I'm taking my first real vacation since 2002. My brother & I and a couple of friends are heading to Alaska the 1st week of June. We rented a 30ft RV for 2 weeks. Gas is going to suck (both literally & figuratively). We've been planning this for almost a year & it's finally almost here. I'm looking forward to some relaxation & some good salmon & halibut fishing.

As an aside, I haven't found the economy to be too bad in my neck of the woods. We're up more than 35% compared to last year. I didn't believe in the stimulus checks, but I gotta tell you, the first week they started to be direct deposited, we were busy as heck. I had a lot of people say they were using the money to buy another appliance. Now if we could just keep the local school board from jacking our real estate taxes another 15% things would be nicer.

 

[iheartmaytag]

I'm not doing anything this summer.
I am so broke. I was going to say something about how poor am I but it was in bad taste

 

[oldhouseman]

Such comments

are not in bad taste during times like this iheartmaytag.

My partner and I are making plans just in case things get really bad. Hense the large vegetable garden and returning back to the tradional home crafts. I can make bath soap cheaper than I can buy it. That's because I come from a farming background in Appalachia and grew up being very self sufficient.

Crime is way up around my neck of the woods. The crimes are related to hard economic times. Shoplifting in the grocery store for example. I watched a mother get busted at Publix. She was stealing baby food. Wrong I know, she should have gone to local charities. A desperate act to feed her child.

I asked several colleagues about their plans. No travel plans at all for any of them. And all due to gas prices and economic issues.

 

[iheartmaytag]

Thanks Oldhouseman

I just got a notice from my homeowners insurance that they are doubbling my rates because I had a claim last year and because I have a collection on my credit report.

I asked them to look at the reason I had a collection was because they didn't pay the medical bills in a timely fashion when I had a car wreck that wasn't my fault.

So now I am looking for a new insurance carrier, after 30 years with American Family. A**holes, I had to sue them to get them do do the right thing when the drunk hit me in '04 and now this.

I do a lot of baking, and was shocked that Crisco is $5.99 a can in Dillon's last night. Bread is up to $3.15, and it cost me $60 to fill my Jeep.

WARNING BAD TASTE REMARK
I'm so poor if I didn't wake up with wood, I wouldn't have anything to play with.

 

[oldhouseman]

At least

you have a morning hobby to start the day with iheartmaytag.

Speaking of baking, do you have any good bread recipes? I want to figure out a way to make it more economical to make bread at home rather than buy it.

Good luck on home owners insurance. A world all it's own. I couldn't get any insurance on mine at all because it is so old (Federal period, late 1790's). I ended up going to Lloyds of London. They laughed when I told them the reason I couldn't get insurance in the States. Not cheap though.

The local gov. is doing home tax accessments this year. I expect a big raise in property taxes.

I used to do portrait painting as a side line and may go back to it for extra income. I had a few art shows in Atlanta but dropped the hobby when the house restoration started. I'm giving serious consideration to picking up any extra business I can to bring in the bucks (there's a country song in that line I do believe).

I gassed up the truck at lunch today -$98.47! I wish we could errect a guillotine as a warning to politicians and oil company execs.

 

[iheartmaytag]

Bread Recipes

I don't know how much cheaper with the cost of flour, which went from $4.59 for a 25lb bag to $7.89 for the same bag. I like Hudson Cream flour. Then there is the cost of yeast, I go to Sam's and get the 2-1lb bags for $3.49 much more economical than the little packets.

I do all of this in the KitchenAid mixer.

2 cups warm water
1 tsp salt
5 tsp yeast or 2 pks
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 egg
7-8 cups white flour (if using whole wheat flour you will want to monitor your moisture and flour as it can tend to get dry).

Place first six ingredients in your bowl and wisk together. (What I ususally do is leave out the oil at first this way you can tell if your yeast is going to froth--if you don't have a froth the yeast won't rise.)

After these are wisked together add about 5-6 cups flour and process with dough hook until it pulls from the sides of the bowl and forms a ball, continue to kneed for about four minuts. Stop and let dough rest for about five minutes and then kneed with machine for another 2 minutes or so.

At this point your dough should be tacky but not sticky. This will depend on your relative humidity and the humidity of your flour. Sprinkle flour on your work area and hand kneed the flour for another couple of minutes until it is damp but not sticky. It is better to add your flour slowly and dry it than to try to make it moist again.

Grease your mixing bowl, then form your dough in a smooth ball. Cover with a damp dish towel, or plastic wrap. Let dough sit in a warm area until it doubles about 45 minutes to an hour.

Slightly press the dough down to expell the air. You aren't wanting to work the gasses out of the dough just punch them down a bit and redistribute them.

Let rise again. After the second rise which will take about half the time as the first, you can split this batch into your baking pans. This amount will make about 24 rolls or two loafs.

Bake at 350 until done, about 45 minutes for loafs.
about 20-25 minutes for rolls.

You can also make this up the night before when expecting guest and allow the bread to rise the first time in the frit. When you take it out punch it down and let it sit at room temp to rise the second time. This usually makes a dryer bread in my opinion because it sits more before baking.

I hope I didn't leave anything out, good luck.

 

[perc-o-prince]

if we could just keep the local school board from jacking ou

Don't wanna hijack the thread, but a quick comment on the above...

We have a little thing called Proposition 2 1/2. If the town wants a tax increase of more than 2.5% for something, it has to go to a public override vote. Neighboring towns like Ashland, Framingham, and more have been sportin' a lot of signage like, "Vote No on 2 1/2. Enough is Enough," and, "No More Overrides!" We didn't have a prop 2 1/2 override to vote on this time, or I'da put out a big lit NO sign!!!

Chuck

 

[perc-o-prince]

And, as far as I know, our time will be spent here doing a lot of the things we've wanted to do for the last 5 or so years, but didn't do because we weren't sure of what was happening with the house.

Chuck

 

[iheartmaytag]

perc-o-prince

We have a bond issue coming up to. It will raise the taxes on a $100,000 home by about $45. Add that to my insurance increase and I am about at breaking point!!!!!!!

Sorry for the hijacks :-0

 

[sikiguya]

Property Taxes & summer plans

Property Taxes
When we lived in central IL we lived in a ranch that we bought for $100,000 and sold for $125,000. The taxes on that house were between $1800-2000, this was back in 1996-2001. We then moved to the Chicago suburbs and bought a house for $213,500. Taxes were $4000 and when we left there in 2005, they were up to $6400. Then, we bought a house that was $384,000. Taxes were $8400 and when we sold last year, they were $9500. Now that we moved to Wisconsin, we had people telling us to watch out for Property Taxes. We bought a house for $380,000 on one acre and our taxes are only $6500.

We are planning to fly to Phoenix to stay with family for 2 weeks. We got good prices on airfare from Milwaukee, $218 R/T plus taxes/fees. I think that they reason we got the good deal is that we were open to flying on any day and time. It got pricy when I was trying to price out specific days and times.

We are also driving to The Dells for a week in August but that's only 2 hours from us (if that). Hubby has a VW diesel that is getting about 48 MPG so we won't use much gas to get there either. Luckily it is a fully paid trip form his work so that makes it even better!

 

[westyslantfront]

I will be staying in Tucson, Az and enjoying the warm desert climate.

Ross

 

[washabear]

I don't like summer very much, so I usually don't make summer vacation plans. I might like to go to the beach for a few days (about a 3-hour drive), but other than that, no plans.