Sunday, August 11, 2013

Of trees and cats and cleaning up!

I noticed today that it had been a very very long time since I had posted and my 1 follower actually commented so I thought I would post again. Hi, Jenn :)

Not much news, just the normal headaches of being a property owner. You wouldn't think trees would be a big issue on a city lot but they are. Surprisingly the ones causing me grief and costing me money are the ones I planted! 4 of the 6 poplar trees the man and I planted 13 years ago are dead and need to be cut down by a pro because they're 50 feet tall. This will run us about $1000 and things have been tight for us ever since March when the mister slipped on a small patch of ice at work and dislocated his knee.

We're not talking a simple twisted knee here that he could shake off in a while. We're talking a severe dislocation that had to be put back at the hospital. We're talking he was in the hospital for 2 weeks. We're talking being put on light duties at work for months and months, physiotherapy and possible surgery. We're talking I had to move our bedroom up from the basement because he can't do stairs anymore. It sucks.

So life is a bit of a challenge but I found a way out of it - I cashed in the kids RESPs. We won't get as much back as I'd like(they took about $3000 in 'enrollment fees') but it will be enough to pay down some debt, get the trees cut down and have enough left over to buy myself some new clothes(which I haven't done in a very very long time). Also the added bonus is that since I won't be paying into an RESP anymore I'll have enough to get the cats in November(it was looking like that was gonna be a no go) AND I should have enough after that to cover the $1000 vet bill we get in May when we do check ups and flea meds for 4 animals.

So in September/October I'll be cleaning up the house, getting a black light and finding all the places Mojo peed before he died(to avoid problems with the new cats) and generally tossing out a lot of junk that has accumulated over the last 2 years(my garbage shed is full!). I'm not looking forward to it because I've spent the entire summer reading and generally doing as little as possible. Also I'll be dealing with the cut down trees because to save money I just asked them to cut them down and chop them up - after that it's all my job.

Wish me luck!

Cass :)