The American Dream- or nightmare

  Well, like many other Americans out there our homestead is also a victim of the big financial corporations who buy and sell your mortgages like trading stamps. Now like so many others in our area and abroad, we find ourselves in the fight to keep what we've earned and call home.
 
  The story really starts from a beginning where we wanted this old farm home and knowingly finagled a high purchase price from my husbands uncle and aunt so they could move on with their business and other home. The reason it was over priced is that there were two liens on the property so those had to be paid off, thus adding to the homes purchase. The financial rep we had work with us was amazing! He got our loan where other companies like Quicken wouldn't return our repeated phone calls at all and we moved into our lil homestead. My husband decided to get out of his uncles Electrical business as he could see trouble ahead and didn't want the common problems contractors face: little to know work, lay-offs, traveling many miles for a small job here and there and more; so when a great opportunity came once more to him from a friend who was running a chemical plant as a Electrician/Electrical Engineer with steady hours and guaranteed OT he took it. It was a great move with awesome paid-for benefits and such, getting him as much, if not more than what he was making as a contractor.
   THEN IT HAPPENED! A new company came into the picture and decided they needed to cut the guaranteed OT and cut hours for all the maintaince crew. We struggled for months to pay bills at this point. Even though I was working full time plus at my job(which I no longer have as we were blessed with a wonderful baby girl- and my job didn't pay enough to afford daycare and the drive to and from) continuously, I too had some outrageous bills that were there as I struggled to make a home for my children from my first marriage. I started from scratch in our home, my kids needed everything and we had near to nothing for them in our new home. Not forgetting that in the divorce I was told I had to pay support to my ex- who was having his mother buy all the kids their things, do everything for him and even paying some of his bills (as my children confided in me).
  We were determined to make it so I started clipping coupons, saving where I could, growing my own veggies and budgeting to the last penny. Meanwhile some payments to bills such as our home went missed knowingly, though we reached out many times to Wells Fargo to get help we only received help with a supervisor to the representative we had assigned to our mortgage a couple times. What we received mostly were full voice-boxes when you called the rep or the supervisor, or no returned calls what so ever! During these times were highs and lows. When we start to get on the plus side and things started to look up some major thing would happen like our hot water tanks (yes, two) failed, we had a major leak in our roof with extensive damage and much, much more. Next thing you know the payments start coming back with no explanation. Our double payments come back with no explanation; that is, until I receive a certified letter from the mortgage company followed by a visit by a wonderful lady from the Sheriffs department.
  The Sheriff tells me to take the actions she had printed for me as she sees the mortgage companies name and knows first hand their ill doings, having had issues with them personally (and never being a client of them at all)! So now we contact a lawyer and shell out more money that we had not planned on and taking away from bills. Meanwhile the house is still in a sad state of disrepair and now that my husbands job has improved greatly financially, he is a manager on salary now at the company and works from 5:30 AM to 4:00 PM every week day (sometimes on weekends as well). That doesn't end there. He also comes home to answer constant calls from work, work sales reps, constant emails and a barrage of work that can only seem to be done here (with less distraction from annoying ppl).

  So here we are in limbo waiting to hear something, anything about the status of our homestead; wondering if it is worth doing repairs or even yard work if there is the slightest possibility we may not own the home we've fought so hard to have for our kids and family. This is the America we have become and there are too many others out there feeling this story too. I see it all the time. I can go to the grocery store and pass a dozen homes abandoned- sitting empty that once had families playing in the yards.

  I had to get this off my back as this monkey is big and always looming no matter what I do. Many people approach foreclosure as a silent whisper of shame that many struggle with, but for me I see the need for others to know I'm HERE. I'm the same as you. We only want to live our lives for our children and make the best of the American life we can for them.

Super Easy Baked (Slow Cooker) Chicken

Found this super easy recipe via Allrecipes.com for Baked Slow Cooker Chicken to try the other day.

The original recipe by, 'Cotton' Couch was so simple that it made me leery, however after reading the (top) reviews I learned some suggested tips. I only had cut up whole bone in chicken so that is what I used but I followed what Diane73162 did and seasoned the chicken with salt, pepper and Hungarian Paprika (original to the recipe), Granulated garlic, Poultry seasoning and Mrs. Dash. I only had 2 small sample packets of the Mrs. Dash (I've never used it before) so it was a very small amount.

I also did the foil balls to lift it off the bottom of the crock and filled the bottom with homemade chicken stock and coarsely chopped onion (about 1/2 of a vidalia); and I would recommend to use a whole onion as the onion was a great compliment to the chicken.

Though there was my husband, myself and our 3 year old for dinner I intentionally made the equivalent of a whole chicken so I would have left over chicken and bones to cook off for more stock; however the chicken was so tender it fell off the bone and left the bones in tiny lil  pieces parts and I just didn't want to deal with it afterwards. This recipe WILL be going into my favorites section for my dinner menus from here on out and I tell everyone to please check out this recipe for yourself. Simple, easy and yummy!

BTW, I had no way to get beautiful pictures of our chicken, falling apart and all

so I used a stock photo from this recipe. 

Enjoy

Realization that my emergency preps were flawed and here's why

While I should say that I am a self professed "prepper", it all originally came about due to a scary dream I had. After a simple nights disturbed slumber I started to realize that I needed to be prepared to handle and hopefully survive a possible disaster. Like many before me I started by researching via internet and this set me off into a journey that included some many radicals and some scholars who all had the same view (just in many different forms) all on a path to survival. 
I have participated in Facebook groups, blogs, others .com's and webinars that I am still learning from but I am in no means fully prepared for anything as this really does take more money than I have available to me at any time. I love how many others advise to have debt handled or paid off prior to any disaster, which I could only dream of (looking over my shoulder at the stack of collections notices I have), I do say i understand this and yet I don't. Honestly, I don't think at a time of civil unrest or nearly any other disaster someones going to check my credit report. I know I certainly won't! 

Now many of my friends and family does not know me as the cliche prepper, though many know of my stash. That had all started in preparation for my having my 3rd and last child, knowing I would need to leave my 20 year job in management, I had stared into the world of couponing, canning and farming. This was my start into homesteading and I never even realized this; but homesteading and prepping go hand in hand as you hear from both fronts "becoming self sustainable" to survive. Ok, really much of this was handed down through the generations of family that survived the great depression and WWII though in the 80's we scoffed at our parents; we had become the generation of excess and expendables. Now we realize by giving it new names that really what we are trying to learn and get back to was what we didn't want to hear from our parents. Yes, they were right! Yes, I'm becoming my mother!

So my Ah-ha moment was just this past Sunday when bad weather was coming through, we knew the storms could be bad as told by the news; my husband jokingly said he hoped a tornado would come take the garage (he discovered earlier that the roof is rotted on one side).  Sudenly we got the EBS alert on our phones at the same time while chatting about our day in the garage watching the rain starting again. 
I immediately grabbed my 3 year old daughter and ran into the house, only her the EBS on the TV followed by the sirens blaring outside. This is not the first time I had heard these sirens but where we live a touch down is quite rare (not impossible); this is not the first time we had rotation that made us thunder down to the basement as well. THIS WAS the first time doing so while believing I was prepared and with a toddler in tow! My basement has many problems against it as it is comprised mainly of field stone and I have water that flows through on any rainy day. This was different, as it was flowing like a river.
In this picture is what it looks like on a normal rainy day.  

I was realizing, while looking on my iPhone for the radar and realizing my charge was very low I had no way to charge it. I had grabbed my Ipad in thinking I could occupy my toddler with the kids aps on there but ended up trying to save my phone charge so I used the Ipad instead. In conversation with Prepperbabe online there were many things I had not thought of, in the event a tornado did hit my home or neighborhood and we were trapped or the ruins of our home when it was all said and done. 

 In the time of quick thinking, escape from impending danger there is very little time to grab everything and get to safety; especially while handling children, family and/or pets. I know where I needed to go and I know what the chances of certain disasters in my area given probability calculations and I know what I need to have to prepare for disasters. What I had not thought of was that I need to have many of the same items for each situation. Examples of this is your emergency binder. I knew if there was a reason I needed to bug out for any reason I had it, all important info in it and I always kept it in one spot so I could grab it. After thought was that many times in the event of a tornado you can only have minutes to seconds depending and it is unpredictable by nature; I grabbed it but after I had already gotten family downstairs. I had a crying toddler and 3 terrified and confused dogs wanting to get out of the wet basement and I had to find a way to leave them to go get what I should have already had. 
Lesson #1 have a multiple emergency binders for each situation! 

Next I needed to charge my phone and I could have grabbed the charger but I did not. 

Lesson #2 Have alternative ways to charge mobile devices such as hand crank (Sony makes one), Solar hack or even multiple plug-in's available.

Then while sloshing though the water in the basement and even listening to my dogs lap it up (yes this is quite funny) I suddenly felt the urge. Awe jeez, are you kidding me? NOW?! This was my though but self inflicted as I had left my Bud Light upstairs on the kitchen counter. DANG IT! While I am sure in a disaster it wouldn't matter if I pulled trou and did my deed in the flowing water of the basement going out to the storm drain, but if there was no tornado I would not want that memory. So I chanced it and went to the bathroom upstairs! 

Lesson #3 I have buckets, I have the baby's portable folding toilet seat, I have garbage bags and I have pool noodles. I'm sure could have had a hack ready for this as well!

Lesson #4 These same buckets can be used as simple seats while waiting for an emergency to pass, yet I was sure i had no where to sleep downstairs in the very wet basement.

Lesson #5 is that (even though this is not a pic of my stock in my basement) your stock or stash needs to be safe and secure to prevent injury during extreme weather OR have a separate designated shelter area away from these items.

I had my BOB in my possession at the time and many items stocked in said basement that could sustain myself and my family all ready to go and that had made me proud. I knew ultimately that having my family survive, even if it meant loosing much of what I had would be fine with me in this type of disaster. Their lives meant more in my life than stuff in possession. 

Joking aside and knowing my prepping for any disaster will always be a work in progress, most of the time learning is experiencing.  Now it's back to work on our disaster plans and preps!

Getting ready for my shopping adventure

I want to perfect my own Comp list and have been working, when time with a 2 year old allows, on a list of everyday pricing list with my 3 main stores PLUS one major variable. For now, I've been utilizing a "Comp list" to get the best ad pricing at my local Walmart with out having to run all around to 4 different stores! It has been great so far with my first test last shopping period.

Produce	Price	Store	Ad Dates	Limit	Reg. Price	Notes
Item
Large Head Lettuce	$0.99	BiRite	10/2-10/8
3 LB Yellow Cooking Onions	$0.99	"	"
Lg Sweet Onions	.99lb	"	"
Red Onions	.99lb	"	"
Honeycrisp Onions	1.99LB	Marc's	"
Seedless cucumbers	.99lb	"	"
Cauliflower	.99 ea	Aldi	till 10/8
Non-Grocery Item Price Store Ad Dates Limit Reg. Price Notes Cascade dishwasher Action pc 16 ct. 20 ct & platnium 14 $3.49 Marc's 10/2-10/8                     Pine Sol 40-48 oz 2/$6 Kmart 10/6-10/12                     Scott 15 roll (1000 ct) or 24 xtra soft-big rolls $9.99 Kmart  "       Kleenex 3x5ct, 3x120ct, 3x160ct or 4x55ct $4.99 Kmart "                                   Grocery Item Price Store Ad Dates Limit Reg. Price Notes Pepsi  6pk 24 oz. 3/$10 Giant Egl 10/3-10/9   3.99                 Folgers 10.3 oz- 11.5 oz 2/$4 CVS 10/6-10/12       Folgers 27.6-33.9 oz ast coffee $7.00 Rite Aid 10/6-10/12                     36oz Hidden Valley Ranch $5.38 Marc's 10/2-10/8                     Crisco 6oz. Butter spray 1.99 " "                                   Pepsi 2 ltr ast products $1.00 Rite Aid 10/6-10/12                                   Campbells Chicken Noodle or Tomato soup 10.75 oz 0.88 CVS 10/6-10/12 10                                                                                                       1 gallon milk Giant Eagle Brand 2/$5 Giant Egl 10/3-10/9                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Bob Evans sausage patties/links 2.50ea Marc's 10/2-10/8       Johnsonville brats 13.5-14oz` 2.50ea Marc's "       Eckrich Kielbasa, smoked sausage 14oz. 1.99ea " "