Tired of the snow!

Once again, there was no school today because of the ice/snow. This is the third snow day in a row and I am giddy in anticipation of school resuming tomorrow. There's nothing better than seeing that big yellow bus coming down the road!

Tomorrow is supposed to be a nicer day, so I'll spend my time chopping firewood. We don't have natural gas around here; if you want to heat with gas, it's propane. When I bought my house (a doublewide mobile home), I couldn't afford to get a propane tank, so I decided to heat with wood until I could save up enough for propane to fuel my furnace. Four years later, I'm still heating with wood.

The good thing about heating with wood is that it's cheap. My house is usually 75-78 degrees inside. My electric bill is about $60/month and the wood I burn comes from trees in my yard (one acre). We had to cut down about 100 trees to clear a spot for my mobile home when I bought my land. It sure beats the $200/month heating bill I used to pay when I lived in the city!

The bad thing about heating with wood is when it's really cold outside, I can't leave my house for more than 10-12 hours at a time, or it will be freezing inside when I return. I have to feed the wood stove every 6-8 hours to keep the house warm.

When I win the lottery, I'm going to buy a propane tank.

Snow Day!

It's a cold, icy, snowy day here in the the Ozarks. The boys, ages 7 and 9, are out of school and just went outside to play with their new snowboards that big sister gave them for Christmas.

Big sister and big brother are from my first marriage. He is 23 and she is 21. I've also been blessed with two grandchildren; she is 6 monts old and he is 3.

I'm a single mom, divorced from my 2nd husband for four years. After the divorce, I bought a modest home for me and the boys and we're living happily ever after ... I guess.

You'll hear more about my adventures of a broke single mom, trying to adjust to the slow-paced life in a town where the sidewalks roll up at 9:00. I heat my house with a wood stove, fueled mostly by the trees we've cut down from my one-acre yard. Don't worry, tree-huggers, we only cut down the dead or overly crowded trees, leaving the good one's to grow fuller and stronger.

When I say broke, I mean it! Before my divorce, my husband and I had a combined income just over $100,000/year. Now I manage to live on less than $10,000/year. Continue reading my blog and I'll explain how I do it!

My First Post!

I'm just getting started with this new blog. I've done this before, at other sites, but it's been awhile.

I find writing to be very relaxing to me; almost like having my own personal listener here with me and I get to talk about whatever I want. It's great therapy, too!

I'm not sure anyone will ever subscribe to my blog, but if so, I hope you enjoy reading along with me. I'll share stories of my life here in the Ozarks, hopefully with a little bit of humor mixed with sarcasm.

After all, if you can't make fun of your hillbilly neighbors, what good is it to live in the Ozarks?