Owner: The TinkleTimes URL:http://www.tinkletimes.com Join Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 07:41:16 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: Jim and CJ Tinkle fulltime in their 39 foot 5th wheel, towed with "Tiny", a Class 8 semi converted for use as a private hauler. Site statistics:Click here
White stuff! 2008-03-04 09:27:16 Click for larger viewWow, check out this snow! This is a terrible picture, I took it through the window early this morning while it was still fairly dark out, but this much snow in this area is a real treat. Or maybe not, depends on who you ask! We probably had 6 inches total fall, but it’s been melting as it comes down, the ground is warm, saturated from all the recent rain, and it’s pretty warm outside period. The trees are budded out already.Jim will likely make it to work around lunchtime. They don’t plow the roads out here, and while I’m sure he could have driven in it just fine, why chance it? The rest of the guys staying in the campground for the outage at the nuke plant did go in early this morning, but I personally have ne Read more:White
, stuff
It's like fate... 2008-03-02 10:47:07 Keeps putting obstacles in our way… Jim and I really do wonder if it just isn’t meant for us to buy a house here. We placed our offer, which while it was $20k less than asking price, was also exactly what the sellers paid for the home 6 months ago when they bought it.. and it was overpriced then.They’ve neglected it the heck out of it, it’s worth less now. However, after writing our offer, Jim and I went back out the property and spent more time looking around the land. Then we headed back to the RV, ran the dogs for a bit, and went back in for pizza. While eating, our realtor called and said that another offer had been presented. Now go figure… the place hasn’t had an offer in 6 months, and the day we place ours, another on
Conform? Me? Ain't happening 2008-03-01 04:33:45 I got quite a chuckle reading “Who do you want to be?” over on Judy’s blog yesterday. She talks about her dream of owning a small acreage, chickens and a goat, and gardening… and why it’ll never happen.I remember growing up out in the sticks in the Missouri Ozarks, barely able to wait until I was old enough so I could head off for the big shiny city. And I did just that… and my oh my did I ever hate it! I dreamed for years about having a little farm, while I was away. But I came from “city folk” so the road to having a farm was a long one, filled with learning the hard way.My parents were born and raised in Chicago (where I also sprouted) and moved the family to the Ozarks when I was 8 years old. We still ju
Ahead of myself again 2008-02-29 10:59:35 I’m researching appliances, since we sold all of ours and will have to replace them. I’ve already pretty much decided on our washer and dryer, unless of course someone convinces me otherwise… they will be the Bosch Nexxt 800 series. I prefer a front loader (although my last one was the absolute pits, a Maytag Neptune). I had the joy of using a Miele in Germany when I lived there; it belonged to my landlady who kindly shared. However… getting one serviced around here would probably be pretty tough. The only reason I would choose the 800 series over the 500 series is because it offers a comforter cycle. For you front load machine owners… you probably know where I’m coming from. This cycle allows much more water than typical. The average front loader won Read more:myself
Dumb, and dumber 2008-02-28 07:07:32 That would be me… and me again. For 3 1/2 years, we’ve lived in this same RV. For all that time, I’ve washed dishes the same way… from the left sink to the dish drainer in the right sink. I’ve cleaned those sinks numerous times. Yesterday, while cleaning them yet again, I found myself scrubbing the right side in amazement… as it suddenly dawned on me that it was much larger than the left side! How could this possibly have escaped my attention for 3 long years… during all the countless times I’ve grumbled under my breath as I struggled to wash a large skillet or my Dutch oven, banging into the sides, twisting the pan every which way trying to get it all clean? I put the dish drainer back in th
Oh where, or where has my dream house gone, or where, or where can it be? 2008-02-27 06:33:21 I’m playing the waiting game. (Ha, what’s new?) The house Jim and I were scheduled to see for the 2nd time this Saturday went under contract yesterday. Or I should say, it’s being negotiated on. We’re waiting to see if the contract is accepted. If so… back to square one.I really think fate is trying to tell us something here, and of course I’m half ready to chalk it up and start building on our land in Missouri instead… but that would leave us in the RV 90% of the time.This morning I ordered our Excalibur dehydrator, as planned. It was on the list for last week but the kid’s computer took precedence.I’m beginning to have serious space issues. If we didn’t have the motorcycle trailer, I’d h
Things that make me smile 2008-02-25 17:35:03 I’ve been doing some shopping lately… it may not seem like we’re ever going to find a place to live, but I haven’t given up hope yet, and have been pacifying myself with goodies here and there.This is the wonderful dish drainer I splurged on. I absolutely flipped over it.I wash my dishes as I use them, so I never have a large amount. I can’t stand to have dishes rinse and stacked by the sink… gotta clean them up as I use them.I think I posted those ceramic crocks last week that I found for onions, garlic and potatoes.I also bought this cookbook holder… I miss my cookbooks. I have stack and stacks of them, I love to sit down and flip through them with a cup of coffee, especially bread books.Both these items came from NapaStyleThey
Maybe... just maybe 2008-02-24 03:35:29 Every time I come across a house that peaks my interest, I can’t sleep. I just can’t stop tossing ideas around in my head. Very frustrating! I dragged poor, sick Jim out yesterday to do a drive by preview of the home on 10 acres I’m scheduled to see on Monday. OH MY GAWD!I’m not going to moan again about all the trash here… I’m not. Okay maybe just a little. But really… it’s just heartbreaking. Granted, I’ll admit we’re looking for a bargain. But even when we TRIPLE the asking price range… it’s the same thing, over and over again.A few weeks ago, we’d gone to an open house. I mentioned the place on here, as I could live with it, but Jim didn’t much care for
Waaaayyy too pink 2008-02-22 06:00:42 I’ll get off my duff and do something about the appearance of the blog soon, it’s simply way too pink and “fluffy” looking for me. As a matter of fact, I’m avoiding blogging because it scares me when I load the page up! Jim has managed to catch the flu, so I suppose I’m next in line. The day before yesterday, I put a whole chicken with some garlic, onions, celery and carrots in the pressure cooker until it fell apart, skimmed off the fat (the dogs loved that) and made him a pot of chicken soup.I figure it will all be gone just about the time I get sick, and I’ll get stuck with packets of Lipton soup. Isn’t’ that the way it always goes? Meanwhile, I’ve been nibbling on the corned beef I smoked the other day,
Chris' fabulous soup recipe! 2008-02-19 11:58:23 Chris was kind enough to agree to sharing her wonderful soup recipe with everyone, so here it is!
Tomato Rice Soup (like Campbell’s never dreamed of) In heavy sauce pot: oil as needed 1 clove garlic, minced 1 onion chopped 1 carrot, finely chopped Sauté until onion is golden. Add: 2 T whole wheat flour 3/4 cup raw rice Stir and sauté until rice is toasty Add: 1 qt tomatoes (chop and mash with spoon) 2 tsp salt lots of pepper 1 T sugar 1 tsp basil Cook until the rice is soft. Have ready and add to abov Read more:Chris
We have power! 2008-03-10 15:24:39 Power was restored late yesterday afternoon, woohoo! This morning I took the old generator in and dropped it off for repairs, ran to the store, and today I'm busy getting caught up on laundry, smoking a corned beef, (our smoker is electric), and I bathed the schnauzer, trimmed his nails and shaved him… he's busy sulking.Jim and I didn't like the house on 20 acres we went to see on Saturday. Actually we did like the house, but not the kitchen. In fact that had to be the worst kitchen I've ever seen (layout wise). We spent the weekend looking at the floor plan trying to figure out a way to remodel it, but with the funky roofline we decided it was going to be more hassle and expense than it was worth. Imagine thatJ.I think that what we want isn't available here, or comes on the market v Read more:power
Slammed! 2008-03-08 14:12:44 If the River Valley was surprised by last weeks unexpected foot of snow, it must have totally blown these folks away when Mother Nature dropped another foot on us… and then some!Jim and I have been without power since Thursday. We’re still without power actually, and will likely be that way for another couple of days. We were determined to tough it out even after our generator refused (again!) to start and stay running. After all, we figured we could heat the RV with propane by leaving the oven on and the door open, and of course the hot water heater and refrigerator work on both propane or electric… but even with using the oven for heat instead of the furnace, our batteries were toast by this morning, and without batteries, the hot water heater won̵
Happy Birthday to me! 2008-03-13 17:07:15 Click for larger viewWrap a big bow around that baby and happy birthday to me! Nope, it’s not my birthday yet, but when we close on this house it will be. I haven’t let a peep out the last few days about this house, as I was afraid I’d jinx it, with the luck we’ve been having!This has been on the market since November. It was one of the first ones our agent wanted to show us, but we ruled it out because Jim found the outside to be ugly, and it’s only on 5 acres.So yes, we compromised a whole bunch on the land, but even with just 5 acres Click for larger viewwe can still have a big garden, small orchard, bees and chickens… and it’s only for 4 or 5 years. I told Jim, I think once we landscape it (none there now, it’s ugl Read more:Happy
, Birthday
, Happy Birthday
Housing update 2008-03-16 05:51:52 Jim and I met with the realtor and the house inspector yesterday, so I was able to both measure and take more pictures of the house, which I’ve posted here. I’m hoping I don’t jinx us by posting pictures like I did with the first house we “thought” we were buying!Click for larger view Click for larger viewClick for larger viewClick for larger viewActually the first place never made it to the “under contract” stage, so we should be set. Jim and I did a bit of furniture Click for larger viewshopping yesterday. We have always figured it’ll take us forever to find furniture, as the current selections never seem to be what you want when you actually need the furniture, but we were incredibly lucky yesterday! Read more:Housing
Appliances 2008-03-18 07:13:53 I did get our appliances ordered yesterday. I went with the KitchenAid Architect® Series II counter depth model, and the Bosch Nexxt 800 series washer and dryer. Am I boring everyone yet?I have to say I’m not overly thrilled with the appearance of the Bosch units over the Whirlpool Duets, I find the shiny chrome to be very tacky looking, but I believe them to be the superior unit. I did not order the stands, as I prefer them shorter, and don’t mind bending over to access them.I found it interesting when I was researching the refrigerators, that about half of the French door models are NOT Energy Star certified. This model is. With 19.7 cubic feet, there isn’t much in the way of freezer space, but we use more refrigeration than we do freeze
Ooohh..... aaaahhhhh! 2008-03-17 04:34:45 Jim is working this horrible shift, from 4:30 am until 4 pm, so he’s up at 3 am each morning. Not too bad for me, as I rarely sleep past 5 and am more often than not up at 4, but it’s awful on him as he’s a night owl.I smoked a whole chicken yesterday for our dinner last night, so sometime today I need to fleck it and figure out what I’m doing with the leftovers for dinner tonight. I have to go to town and find insurance for the house today, and I have to decided on a refrigerator and washer and dryer and get them ordered today as well, otherwise they won’t come in on time.Tomorrow I will be running to a little town called Mulberry about an hour’s drive from here, where there is bulk food store I found on the internet. I’m hoping
Running out of space 2008-03-21 03:59:54 This just tickled me to death when I read it, so I had to share. One summer evening during a violent thunderstorm a mother was tucking her son into bed. She was about to turn off the light when he asked with a tremor in his voice, “Mommy, will you sleep with me tonight?” The mother smiled and gave him a reassuring hug. “I can’t dear,” she said. “I have to sleep in Daddy’s room.” A long silence was broken at last by his shaky little voice… “The big sissy.”I will be glad when this house buying business is over. It seems like every day I have to be out and about taking care of some errand or another. I’m not using to going out so often! Wednesday, I ran to the little t
Pasta! 2008-03-22 06:04:06 Before I forget, I’d love to hear from you if you know of any dedicated forums/websites for:Pasta
makingDehydrating foodsI have decided, once we get moved and settled, I’m going to learn to make pasta from scratch. Jim and I adore pasta dishes, and since I have an abundance of wheat for fresh flour, all the better. I’ll buy some Semolina flour to keep on hand, but hopefully I can get satisfactory results with fresh ground wheat.We especially love ravioli! I’ve saved some wonderful sounding recipes for fillings, such as pear and Romano cheese, and butternut squash with curry, but I would love a cookbook recommendation if anyone is a pasta fanatic, with a really good selection of sauces and fillings for pasta.I’ve also been giving more thought to our
Dreaming 2008-03-27 06:48:13 Yep, I can’t help myself. Throughout the day, during every little task, I daydream about how much more enjoyable little things are going to be in a house once again. Things you never think of, until you’re making do with an alternative. Things like being able to run water at the kitchen sink while Jim is in the shower. Having a ceiling fan blowing on me while I sleep. Being able to run multiple items that use electricity all at once. Room to walk around the bed while I make it, without contorting my body into positions it should never make after the age of 20. Being able to step into the garage when we’re wet and muddy. Having a freezer with room for ice cream. That’s rather essential.Never having to pack my sewing machines and projects away. Actually having all the Read more:Dreaming
Bleh… tired, sick doggies… 2008-03-26 06:34:21 I'm pretty much running on empty. Jim's outage schedule has us getting up at 3am each morning, but I haven't had much luck going to bed before 9pm, and then hot flashes are keeping me awake most of the night. I can't even begin to describe how much I am looking forward to having a ceiling fan over the bed!The dogs have upset tummies, and were up 7 times last night. We took turns taking them out. I think I scored a total of 2 hours of sleep. Bleh. Times like this, I don't know what I'd do without my faithful CookShack smoker. I've already loaded it up this morning, and now I don't have to worry about cooking dinner tonight when I'll be a zombie.My seeds are starting to sprout! I have beans, tomatoes and tarragon showing. Now I realize my timing is awful and the chance of me getting Read more:tired
Dryer Balls 2008-03-30 08:23:56 Say what?! Seriously, these things are wonderful! A pair of spiky rubber balls that you toss into the clothes dryer in place of fabric softener. And they really work! They are a bit annoying to listen to, but well worth not having to buy fabric softener. I think perhaps 2 pairs might work even better than a single pair in a full size dryer.I jumped the gun on planting my beans. They’re over a foot tall already and just sprouted a few days ago. I seriously doubt I can hold them inside for another couple of weeks, but I’ll give it a shot. Everything else has sprouted except for the pepper varieties I started, not a single sign of life with those yet. I have tomatoes (several varieties) and chives, oregano, tarragon, marjoram and sage that have sprouted, and a couple of different Read more:Dryer
, Balls
Update on the Schnauzer 2008-04-01 15:09:30 I just returned from town and the vets. I went in and visited with Tanzer this morning at 9am. I left feeling sure my time with him was going to be ending soon, as he was just lifeless, the girls in the office said he had lost quite a bit more blood in his stools overnight, and the vet was on a farm call so I didn't get to find anything out. Jim called an hour after I left, and they said Tanzer had perked up so much he even ate a bit! I went back at noon, and the vet was in. Tanzer was so much better! He even wagged his tail a bitJ. I got to look at his x-rays. There is no mass internally. What Dale (our vet) felt was likely scar tissue from when my male shepherd nearly killed him some years back. That was a mess, I don't know how he survived it, Faust tore him wide open, and mes Read more:Update
Update on Tanzer 2008-04-01 05:44:41 Tanzer went from not feeling well to really bad, very quickly yesterday afternoon. We took him to our vet last night, and my poor little schnauzer will be there for likely the rest of the week. He was on an IV drip and sedated when we finally left the vet's office last night, but he still stared at me with those big brown eyes, wondering why I was abandoning him L. Poor baby. In the nine years of his life, he's only been away from me twice, but Jim was with him both times.Our vet ran some initial blood tests… Tanzer's liver count was through the roof, and his blood oxygen level was so high (or low maybe?) that the vet said he wouldn't have lasted the night if we hadn't brought him in. Now the girls are 100% this morning. How strange is that? All I can think of is that they're 5 ti Read more:Update
Dear Doggie God… please cut me some slack 2008-03-31 07:24:37 After days of practically no sleep, maybe 3 hours a night if I was lucky, I finally slept the sleep of the dead last night. And boy did I regret it when I woke up. I mentioned last week that our dogs were feeling poorly. They got better after a day or 2, but then it started over again. Except for the little schnauzer, he never gets sick. Until last night. I never heard him whimper… but he crawled over to the steps that go into our bedroom and apparently tried to ask us to take him outside. Thank heavens the kitchen area and front door area are all linoleum, as he made an awful mess. Not something I enjoyed as I came down the steps, bleary eyed, coffee deprived, and only half awake. Poor baby stayed right there until I rescued him. Meanwhile, as I washed the floor, the coffee pot ove Read more:Doggie
, slack
Dog update 2008-04-04 10:15:10 I brought Tanzer home yesterday morning, armed with a ton of various medications and special food. He seemed almost chipper yesterday, but is not feeling so well this morning. He's eating okay, but doesn't want to drink much unless I really coax him every 30 minutes or so. Jim called the vet yesterday and asked them to have Aneska ready to leave this morning at 9:30. When he went to pick her up, the vets were not in yet, and the office/kennel help tried to stop him! They insisted she wasn't ready to leave yet, but would not say why. Then they physically tried to block Jim and tried to close the door on him, knocking him off balance where he fell down on top of Aneska.I am just floored. I can't imagine what is going on here. We've paid the bill daily, so it's certainly not a questio
I think they’re going to make it! 2008-04-05 10:03:12 Jim was able to get Aneska to eat about a cup of the chicken mixture last night, and this morning she ate a bit more, both her and Tanzer drank some water. No vomiting or bad diarrhea in 24 hours now, and only a bit of blood in Tanzer's stools yet this morning. They both are going up and the down the stairs out of the RV okay, and Tanzer actually barked at someone in the campground while I had him out, a good sign indeed!I had started them all on a course of Pepcid antacid, and between it and the chicken mixture, seems to be doing more towards getting their guts working again than the meds. In fact Aneska seems to be recovering faster than Tanzer, and she's not on any meds, since Jim left the vet's office without any for her. Of course since they never diagnosed the problem, it could b Read more:think
We’re almost there! 2008-04-07 07:36:17 Just a few more days… this weekend we'll have the dogs over at the new house and out of the campground. What a relief that will be! They pretty much seem to be back to normal, I swear it's a miracle! I don't believe we will be buying any more packaged dog food either. I have some huge kettles in our storage unit that I can cook larger batches of food in, then either freeze or can the surplus. A 7 quart container only lasts 2 days for them, and I need something larger so I can add more vegetables. I swear all I've done for the last 3 weeks is walk dogs, wash floors, wash towels, and cook. Burn out reigns supreme! I swear the linoleum in the kitchen/entrance area of the RV is a lighter color than when it was new; it's had so much bleach on it lately. J This weekend we'll probably g
Salmonella 2008-04-09 11:05:22 Yep, that's what was wrong with the dogs, a nasty case of salmonella poisoning. I'm 99% sure it was the bag of dog food we were using, but we'll never know for certain. Anyway, the lab reports came back (did it take long enough?) and that's what the problem was. We're very lucky none of them died.Tomorrow morning at 9am is our closing on the house, and I have to stick around and wait for the freight company to deliver our appliances. How was that for timing? Our bedroom and living furniture are being delivered Friday, 2 different companies so again I'll be stuck waiting, but at least on Friday I can clean, do laundry, let the dogs run around, etc. Over the weekend Jim and I will move the Featherlite and RV over, so it will be Monday at the earliest before I write a new blog entry, bu Read more:Salmonella
House update 2008-04-17 04:46:44 I just haven't found time to update the blog lately! We did "move" into the house last Saturday, and have been moving out of the RV since. We've yet to get back to Missouri to start moving our stuff down from there, so we're making do with what we have from the RV.Jim had an awful time pulling the RV into the driveway here with the semi. It simply isn't big enough, there's nothing on the other side of the road but a big ditch, and of course the ground is like quicksand yet from all the rain. He backed it in, one inch at a time, over the course of 2 hours. We had to take half the branches off the pine tree next to the drive, with a hacksaw no less, all we had in the RV J. We also still need to go retrieve our Featherlite trailer from the campground. Today we're dropping the Dodge tru Read more:House
No title 2008-04-19 07:12:31 Yesterday… well what can I say. It was raining, so I didn't much feel like unloading any more of the RV. I decided to be a sweet little wife and bake Jim some dark chocolate and pecan cookies, EVEN THOUGH (hehe) I only have 2 teensy little cookie sheets that I used in the camper. With the first batch in the oven, (and both trays at one time, what a delight!) I got the hair brained idea of lazily putting the grill racks from the smoker into the dishwasher. Since our old KitchenAid dishwasher on the farm had a built in garbage disposal, it simply never occurred to me that this newer Frigidaire model might not.Black crusty grease sure packs into those water lines nicely. And the more you run the dishwasher attempting to free it, the worse it gets. J Lucky for me, we have a teensy shop
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