We sold the Prius!

Yay! Last night, I met with a guy from another part of our state who saw my Prius on Craigslist. He said it was the exact car that he'd been looking for, and he agreed to buy it sight-unseen. We met at a local bank where he got the funds to pay for it and I said good-bye to the little hybrid. Unlike when I traded in my MINI, I did not cry. ;-)

We have paid off the balance of the loan on it (of course) and are now trying to decide how to best prioritize our next purchases. We think a new fridge is pretty high on the list as the one we have now is doing a terrible job of keeping things in the freezer, frozen. We figure that if we get a new fridge with a bigger and better freezer, that we can get away with only buying a much smaller chest freezer for long term storage items. We have already purchsed a nice, tabletop water filter. In an emergency, shelter and clean water are the most important items (followed by food), so with this filter in our possession, we are pretty well off. In the winter, we can easily collect rainwater and filter it. By summer time, we hope to get a hand pump installed on our well, so that we'll be able to extract water in the event of power outage. Then we can filter that water if we plan to drink or cook with it.

We had another cord of wood delivered on Monday. That sets us up pretty well for the winter - even if it's a harsher one than usual. Aparently, our inability to get wood wasn't unique to us (or related to our belated inquiries). The guy who delivered it said that the shortage is mostly due to the downturn of the housing market, if you can believe it! When there are less new homes being built, there is less need for lumber. Most of the firewood in our area is basically from the cast-offs of making lumber. Less building means less trees are being cut down (which is good) but it also means that there is less firewood to be had and that which is available is therefore more expensive. Next year, we'll be buying our wood in July!

This coming weekend will be a busy one (is there any other kind?). I have plans to meet with a friend to do some canning on Friday. I'm trying to secure enough canning jars (there is a shortage this time of year), but once I do, we'll do a number of things - applesauce, apple pie apples, grape juice, grape jam, etc... Then, since Saturday and Sunday are forecasted to be sunny - we'll finally start painting!! I can't wait!! I'll be sure to post pictures when we are done. :-)