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 :)

Long time gone ...

Yeah it's been a while ... as very very long while, sorry about that. So an update because I still have 1 follower and I feel guilty also I would delete this blog but I kinda like to look at it sometimes.

I fell off my lifestyle change and landed in an extra 30 lbs, I'm back up to 230 lbs but I am trying for some balance again.

The day after the Easter long weekend in 2012 we had to put Cloe(our 3 year old cat) down. As far as we can tell something went wrong in her brain and she gradually lost control of her body and in the end she couldn't even blink. We were all very sad to lose her, she was a wonderful cat.

On New Years Eve day we were forced to make the same call for Mojo(our 14 year old cat). We're pretty sure it was cancer that got him, he quit eating, when he did eat he puked and finally I could no longer watch him slowly starve to death. We're all still really upset about it and we miss him terribly. Mojo was the first pet the man and I ever got together and 14 years is a really long time.

Susie and Wikket are doing fine. I can't believe they are 5 & 4 years old now. Susie is super smart and takes most of her walk off leash, her recall is great and I've had no trouble with her since she got bumped by a car in October 2012. Thankfully all she got was some bruising and we don't walk that way anymore, too many rabbits.

The kids are growing like weeds and are now 17, 12 and 9. The time sure passes in a hurry! Right now both M & A have colds and so I'll be keeping them home for a day or two.

That's pretty much it - life goes on even when we have to leave loved ones behind. I miss my cats a lot but we have plans to adopt 2 under 6 month old kittens from our local animal control in November 2013 as a birthday gift to K, M & I. I have all sorts of fun off the wall plans for them like toilet training them to go on the human toilet and building them a fun climber with cardboard boxes. Of course there will also be raw feeding and lots of love. I'm currently saving what I can so I will have the adoption fee($350 for the two) and possibly vet checks as well($150 for the two). It will for sure take me 10 months to save that up.

Cass :)

52 lbs down 48 to go!!

So I've reached my second goal weight of 200 lbs and I'm now down to 198 lbs. Being back in 'ONEderland' is really cool, I haven't weighed 1## lbs since K was a baby. Back then I was 170 lbs but that is the lightest I've been in about 15 years. Everything is still going smoothly.

My next goal weight is 190 lbs, then 180 lbs, then 170 lbs, then 160 lbs and my final goal weight is 150 lbs. I've been posting a lot about my weight loss on Facebook so if you friend me on there you'll get more information(if you want it). I probably won't post an update here until 180 lbs. I'm still thrilled over the whole onederland deal, I LOVE seeing a one hundred something on the scale instead of two hundred something and it all beat the hell out of 250!!!

Shrinking ...

One of the things I was not expecting about this whole weight-loss deal is how weird it is to get smaller. I'm now down 41 pounds and weigh 209 lbs down from the whopping 250 lbs where I started. I've had to buy smaller pants and actually found out the other day I can squeeze into men's size small shorts(my XL shorts were getting skirt-like). I now realize that weight-loss is the only time when we get smaller.

So now that I have dropped a significant amount of weight I'm noticing that I am smaller. I could probably drop from the men's large track pants I wear to a medium, I know I could drop down to a large size t-shirt and the sports bras I bought just a few weeks ago I can do up at the next tightest setting. I finally had someone comment on the fact I have lost a lot of weight and actually had a trainer at the YMCA say "I've seen you working out ... you're pretty hard core.". I also caught myself saying "I hope they deliver the fridge before noon, I'd hate to be late to the gym."

5 months ago I would have been shocked if you had told me I would be so far along my weight-loss road so soon. I wouldn't have believed you if you had said I would be going to the gym 6 days a week and liking it. The whole thing is surreal. I mean, sometimes I just don't believe that it's me doing so well at this. I know it's going to get harder the closer I get to my goal weight but so far it has been EASY. I keep saying that it's because I was ready to do this and that it's because I'm not depriving myself of the things I enjoy eating. I guess that's true but I think part of it is because I'm used to getting what I want and this, at long last, is exactly what I want.

I'm so close to my second goal of 200 lbs I can taste it ... 50 lbs will be a very big deal. I'm almost halfway there!!

Cass :)

Weight Loss

I know it's been forever but I always feel like almost no one reads my Blog and sometimes I just get into my life and just don't think I have anything to say. Today I feel like talking about stuff but all my friends have heard of it all over and over again and I don't want to continue to bore them so I thought I would post a summary here.

Back in May I had to buy new bras. Now, if you know me you know I hate shopping for clothes and I really hate buying anything that I have to try things on to see if it's the right size. Bras are worlds of worse because you have to measure yourself to get the correct size and then you still have to try them on! So there I was needing new bras and I took my measurements...

A long long time ago, when I was 19, I took my measurements. I was Bust-Waist-Hips -- 36, 21, 38. Now I realize that this was 20 years and 3 pregnancies ago but it was depressing as hell to go from 36, 21, 38 to 49, 44, 52. I cried. It was all very sad. I remembered that I lost weight before using a site called Calorie Count it was just a few months before I started this Blog and I had gone from 250 to 227 but I quit logging everything I ate because I figured that I knew what I was supposed to be eating and I was discouraged by how much weight I still had to lose so back in the early fall of 2006 I quit. Of course I ended up gaining it all back and there I was back in May looking at the most depressing measurements ever and knowing I was back up to 250 lbs. I was, in fact, inching into 251 and 252 and I decided that it was time to really get a handle on my weight.

I dusted off my Calorie Count account and put in my new weight and deleted all my old weights so I could make a fresh start. I started out eating 1900 calories a day and logging all my food. I left my activity pretty much where it was and just paid very close attention to what I was eating. I started eating more fruits and vegetables and set up strict meal and snack times for everyone in the family so we all ate better. My sweet man saw everything I was doing and he also re-joined Calorie Count and we encouraged each other.

I lost weight. I wasn't starving and I wasn't doing anymore than I had always done. I dropped 2 to 3 lbs a week and it was easy! I was shocked. After about a month the kids were off school for the summer and I changed my activities a little and kept losing weight. Each week when I entered a new lower weight my calorie needs dropped so I had to reduce my calories to suit or increase my activity.

Now it is about 3 months later and I've hit my first goal weight of 225 lbs and my measurements are 44, 41, 49. I'm down 5 inches off my bust, and 3 each off my waist and hips. I'm still a long way from those measurements from 20 years ago and I am not able to get that small again but it still feels good. Almost a whole foot of my body is gone! 25 pounds is gone!

I'm now working on my second mini-goal of 200 lbs and have increased my activity quite a bit this last week. I am eating about 1500 calories a day but can burn up to almost 3000 calories with walking and swimming. Once the kids go back to school I plan on talking to a trainer at the YMCA - all members get a half hour a week with a trainer for free and I'm looking forward to talking to someone who can help me set up some strength training so I can build some muscle to help me burn off some more weight.

So that's what I've been up to for the last few months. I'll refrain from talking more about my weight loss here until I meet my next goal. If you're friends with my on Facebook you have access to my weekly weigh ins and calorie numbers.

Soap nuts, a summary.

Okay it's been a few months since my big excitement about soap nuts. Here's where I am now - I use it to wash our clothes. That's it. When I make the soap nuts liquid I just but 20g of nuts in a liter jar and fill it up with boiling water and slap the lid on it. So far our clothes smell clean and I figure it's cheaper than regular laundry detergent.

We're using our dishwasher again and I use traditional detergent there and I have dish soap next to the sink as well(I missed the bubbles).

So best use for soap nuts? Laundry :)

Home Experiments: Soap Nuts Phase Two

Last updated: Nov 11 2010

Phase Two: Home made soap nut liquid. Liquid testing will include; hand dish washing soap, all purpose cleaner, hair and body foam and how long does it keep anyway? This section will also include my adventures in canning to preserve large batches of soap nut liquid.

Step One: Making soap nut liquid/canning.*Done*

Results: Making up the soap nuts liquid was fun. I think I made a small mistake with this 4 liter batch but will do better next time. I have done lots of reading online while waiting for my first soap nut samples to come in and settled on the method of making soap nut liquid that seemed easiest to me:

"OVEN METHOD

* Place 7-10 soap nuts in a clean glass quart(liter) jar with a resealable lid. Fill with boiling water. Place lid on securely. Place in an oven preheated to 250* Watch until the liquid starts to bubble and then time it for half an hour. Turn off oven and let cool a little. Remove from oven.

* The jars should seal and will keep indefinitely until you need to use it.

* I make a canner load each time I make it and keep the jars with my canned goods. When you open the jar you can strain out the soap nuts if you want to, but I just leave them in the jar until the liquid is gone and then throw them in the compost or make them into paste.

* This is my favorite and most economical way to use soap nuts! Works out to about 10 cents to wash a load of laundry! (purchased in the 100g size bag)"

In my case I think the water wasn't quite boiling when I put it in the jars and they didn't bubble very quickly. The jars were in the oven a loonng time ... they did seal though so I feel the resulting liquid will keep just fine. I have 4 liter jars to test. I would like to add something that smells nice to the liquid as it doesn't smell pleasant - thankfully it leaves no scent behind it.*Success*

Step Two: Hand dish washing.*In Progress*

Results: Washing dishes with no bubbles is flat out weird! I've done 2 or 3 hand wash loads of dishes with just the soap nuts liquid - everything is coming out clean and my hands feel nice(although this may be wishful thinking as I can't recall what my hands felt like after hand washing with dish soap). Having no bubbles is more disturbing than I thought it would be - the bubbles hid just how dirty my wash water is. If I had a double sink I would take up rinsing but I don't and have always felt rinsing was a waste of perfectly good water so I won't start now. The dishes appear to be as clean as when I washed with dish soap.

Step Three: All purpose cleaning.

Step Four: Hair and body foam.*In Progress*

Results: I can make the foam from the soap nut liquid with my hand blender. I've been making it up for A & M for their nightly baths and made some up for myself yesterday. I was unimpressed by the job it did on my hair. I think a little extra scent wouldn't be a bad thing. I say "In Progress" because I feel that lengthy testing is required before I can say "Yeah, this is good" or "Nope, this sucks".

Step Five: How long does it keep?

Phase Two Summary: I continue to use soap nut liquid on the laundry and it is still getting everything clean - even pee bedding. everything smells fresh out of both the washer and dryer. The liquid smells a bit funky so I am thinking about adding a little essential oil to the liquid to make it smell better in the jar - it leaves no scent on the clothes though so I may not. Why spend money when I don't need to?

Hand washing dishes with the soap nut liquid is odder than I thought it would be but the dishes are coming out clean so I will adjust.

Soap nuts, my overall thoughts so far: I love that this is a natural cleaner but without washing dishes in nothing but hot water and clothes in nothing but cold water I can't be sure that it's really doing anything ... it must be doing something, right? After all if all I was using was water on my clothes wouldn't they stink after a while? So far everything is coming out smelling nice except for the odd thing(like smelly dish towels) that would sometimes come out of the washer/dryer smelling funky when I used traditional detergent. I was unimpressed with it as a hair wash but the kids love washing with the foam and they smell all right.

What I'm trying to say is that I don't see any difference(other than the lack of bubbles when I'm washing dishes) with the soap nuts liquid than with the traditional detergents I was using before. It doesn't clean worse but I don't see that it cleans better or that my clothes are any softer than when I used detergents(I never used fabric softener). Will I keep using it? Yes, because it cheaper and I get to "make" my own soap. I will however keep using traditional shampoo to wash my hair and the kids hair. If at any point I feel it is failing at the job I'll quit using it just like I would any product that doesn't live up to it's claims.