Swapcycle

If you're like me, you are in a constant state of cleaning out. I figure that stuff is coming in the door all the time, stuff has got to keep going out or eventually we'll be buried in stuff. Then there's the fact that kids outgrow and outsmart stuff (clothes, toys, games, books) and our tastes change. What we thought a few years ago was so hot, is now so not. Then there are gifts that we will never use and things we bought that just sit there.

So what to do with all the stuff? The easiest thing is to take it to goodwill or a thrift store, but that seems so.... well.... unthrifty. Selling stuff on ebay can be profitable, but you do have to pay to list items even if they don't sell and it can be time consuming. There's also Craigslist and yard sales. Are you thinking, "There's got to be an easier way!" There is.

There are lots of internet swap groups out there, but I'll tell you about the one I use. It's Swapcycle. There are currently 72 member all of the country. No money is exchanged on this group. Instead, each member gets "credit" for the items they post and they can then spend that "credit" on items others post. For example, Mary has a Gamecube game that her son no longer uses, she lists it on the group for $15. Jane grabs the game and uses $15 of her credits to "pay" for the game. Mary now has $15 to use on the group. Shipping costs are to be built into the dollar amount posted. For example, if the Gamecube Game is valued at $10 and it's going to cost $5 to mail, than it would be listed for $15. Essentially, you're only out-of-pocket expense is the postage to mail the items that are grabbed from you. New and used items are welcome, as well as direct sales consultants. There are consultants in the group for Tupperware, Pampered Chef, Creative Memories, and Stampin' Up, just to name a few.

Posting items is simple. Just take photos and post them in album you create in the photo database. Then fill out a simple chart for each item with the date, your name, total value and description.

I've been a part of the group for almost a year and have gotten lots of great stuff: DVDs, books, jewelry, kitchenware and more. There aren't many rules: don't grab if you don't have credit, you must list at least one item per calendar month, and you must ship within two weeks. If you're interested in joining, click on the link above and follow the directions. I recommend signing up for the daily digest of emails, otherwise, your inbox will get inundated.

The Best Birthday Gift

A couple of months ago, I gave Sweetie some plans I'd found for building a barred owl box and told him that was what I wanted for Christmas. (I'm nothing if not practical.) Much to my surprise, he made one for my birthday.

He added the natural stick perch today and mounted it to a maple tree about 20 feet up where we can see it from the house, but far enough away that the inhabitants won't feel intruded upon. I've read that they should be up in September when owls are looking to nest, but I'm hoping for an owl that may be disenchanted with its original choice of home and is looking for a last minute upgrade. Perhaps I should place an ad: One bedroom nesting box in great location, newly built, clean, close to excellent hunting grounds, southern exposure.

Call me crazy, but now I'm going to ask for a bat house for Christmas.

Growing Older

A couple of weeks ago, I heard about a man that was found behind a Burger King, somewhere in the US, badly beaten without any ID. He was taken to a hospital where he recovered. He did need some surgery prior to regaining his vision, but it's several months later and he has no memory of his past or identity.

He said that it was a couple of weeks before he saw himself in a mirror due to the eye surgery, and he was surprised that he appeared to be in his 50s. He said he felt and thought he was in his 20s. That really has stuck in my mind, and I keep rolling it around. Imagine that for a minute... you don't have your vision and you have no idea how old you are. How old do you feel? Your eyes could not see the the fine lines, the gray hairs, the age spots and the things that aren't so perky anymore.

I've often said that I still feel 18, but as I turn 44 today, I think I should up that to 25. I know much more about life now than I did then, but if I had no memory of prior experiences, would I have the additional common sense that I've gained over the years? I expect that I would realize that my sleep habits had changed since I was young; I can't stay up until midnight partying and sleep until noon anymore. But if I couldn't remember that I did that, would I realize that was a sign of middle age?

I think that our bodies, the vessels that hold our mind, spirit and personality, betray us by prematurely aging. We feel young, but we don't look young anymore, and we can't do what we did when we were young. I think that if we didn't give a number to our ages... if we didn't celebrate our birthdays, we'd all live longer. Maybe we'd feel younger if we didn't do the math, and didn't look in mirrors.

I see that Pipsqueak put 15 candles on my cake. If I was blind AND deaf, I wouldn't believe I was THAT young.

Lowest Prices of the Season

That tag line doesn't mean much. The prices are the lowest until... well... next week. As the season passes and merchandise languishes on the shelves and racks, prices drop. It doesn't matter what season it is; it's the way retail works. When the season is over, anything remaining goes on clearance racks.

You've got to hunt for these racks sometimes. Stores would rather have you buy the things that just showed up in the store with higher prices, so they'll tuck their clearance racks in a little corner in the back. It's for the same reason that milk is at the back of the grocery store; the retailers are hoping you'll be lured by something else on the way there. I say, put the blinders on and run.

I see all the major department stores (JC Penney, Kohl's, Macy's, K-mart) rolling out their print and television ads promising the lowest prices of the season, and they probably are this week. If you don't really need something now, wait. You'll see the same ad next week, and the week after that, and the week after that, ad nauseum.

Never Enough

Thanks to blogging, there are days that I feel lazy and unproductive. It's not because my butt is making a dent in the couch all day while I type, point and click. (I have cut back... really, I have.) It's just that I read about everything everybody else has been doing and I feel like a slacker. Maybe it's because I'm reading the collective goings-on of about eight people and somehow I feel like I should have done all that, too. Oh, someone is knitting a scarf; I should have knit today. She made bread; I love making bread. There are women out there walking their dogs, cleaning their furnace, planning luncheons for all their neighbors, trying new recipes and more. It's all very humbling. So, what did I do today?

• made breakfast, which included fresh squeezed orange juice
• took a call from Pipsqueak's teacher re: next Friday's harvest party
• folded two baskets of laundry
• washed two loads of laundry and hung it out to dry even though it was cold
• put half of the window screens away
• put butcher's wax on the mahogany dining table
• polished the silver candle holders and put in fresh candles
• talked to my sister in law about her cancer treatment
• talked with another parent to plan next the school's harvest party
• made lunch
• went to the salon for Sydney's and my hair cuts
• cleaned up half the vegetable garden
• visited my mother
• made supper (a new recipe) and cleaned up after supper

It may look like a lot, but since there is more that I should have done and wanted to do, somehow it doesn't seem like enough. It'll never be enough.

SNOW!!!!

It was snowing here this morning... not accumulating... just floating around in the sky like we were in a giant snow globe. Pipsqueak was wild with excitement which included breaking into song... a made-up-on-the-fly song called (you guessed it), "Snow!"

It wasn't snowing down in the village which is about 500 feet lower in altitude than we are. (We're at about 1100 feet above sea level.) I heard on local weather that some towns north of here are getting accumulating snow. The weatherman brought a snowball into the station. Jay Peak is reporting 2 inches.

It's hard to get a photograph of falling snow, but if you look at Pipsqueak's pants or the dark pines in the background, you can see it a bit. Does she look cold? It was 34 degrees this morning, but we're tough Vermonters; we don't need no stinkin' jackets. (Well, not for a two minute photo shoot.)

4th Annual Hornets' Nest Harvest

Since Pipsqueak was two years old, we've hunted down abandoned hornets' nests after the first hard frost and the bare trees reveal them. We keep our eyes open in the summer, too, but they are hard to spot in the leaves. The particular football shaped ones we look for are from white-face or bald-face hornets. They aren't really hornets at all, but are from the yellow jacket family. I'll call them hornets for simplicity. The nests often hang from tree branches over the road, because those little buggers like to buzz up the roads just like we do.

Pipsqueak spotted this one on Saturday, about two miles from our house. She loves collecting them because they're very popular show-and-tell items.

We got on the tractor and chugged down the road. Pipsqueak operated the tractor controls to raise Sweetie in the air in the bucket until he could reach the nest and cut it down. (I was unofficial documentarian.)

We'll keep it in the shed for while to make sure it's completely abandoned. A couple of lazy hornets emerged after we got it home. There could be eggs inside the nest that will hatch into larvae, but without adults to feed them they will die. We don't feel guilty about this because the nest is abandoned in the fall anyway, and a new one is built in the spring. Any unhatched offspring would die anyway at this point. This nest is about one foot tall. That's a lot of hornet spit.

This link gives information on safely harvesting your own hornets' nest.