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January in Review – a new baby step!

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Time flew by while we were in Baby Step 2, and I think time flew by in January even faster now that we’re in Baby Step 3. For those of you who are unaware of Dave Ramsey’s program, Baby Step 3 means we are officially out of (consumer) debt and are ready to build up our emergency fund. An emergency fund should be 3-6 months worth of savings for EMERGENCIES. Not for Christmas. Not for new snow tires. Not for a family vacation to Disney, lunch out with a girlfriend or a even a function / sporting event for your child. Examples of an emergency: a car accident, an unexpected illness that takes one out of work for a period of time, the furnace quits during the coldest time of the year, the loss of a job… even a government shutdown.

January was an interesting month for me. Yes, I felt horrible for what #45 did to a lot of families by throwing this public temper tantrum and shutting down the government, HOWEVER I kind of had zero sympathy for them because if they had an emergency fund, 34 days without an income shouldn’t have been a problem. I know, I know, if this happened 18 months ago I would have had a completely different outlook. But I now know better and I am choosing to do better. This is not the first time the government has shut down. Personally, if I knew there was a chance this could happen to me or my spouse, I’d prepare a little more. Easier said than done, I know, but c’mon, 34 days should not cripple thousands of people. I was secretly hoping Dave Ramsey would offer discounted memberships to federal employees to help them find a long term solution because the problem here is not the President, it’s a lifestyle/spending problem.

It rains, it always does and for the thousands of federal employees that this affected, it poured. That is why you have an emergency fund (aka a rainy day fund). Okay, I’ll get off my high horse and share a story:

Mid-January, just days before my birthday when it was super cold here in Upstate NY, I emailed the beau and told him I missed Mexico. We both miss Mexico (and the sunshine and the tacos). We immediately started researching flights and cheap places to stay and concluded that we could get away for a week for less than $2,000 – yes, sign us up! The only catch, the trip would have to be postponed until March due to my work schedule. No big deal we thought. Well, we held off for a day so that I could discuss this plan over with my boss and while driving the next day, I heard an update on the government shutdown. I got on my high horse and thought, “if they had an emergency fund, they wouldn’t have to turn to food stamps or loans.” Then, I felt like a hypocrite. Here I was, planning a trip to Mexico with the money that should be going toward our emergency fund! I told the beau and we both agreed, no Mexico until this Baby Step is completed.

I share this story because we are normal. We want a break just like everyone else. Many people say, “you worked hard, you both deserve a trip!” but guess what, we don’t deserve a trip. We worked hard to complete a task that should have been done years ago and will continue to work hard until we’re done and we have the extra money to spend. There is absolutely nothing wrong with WAITING AND SAVING for what you want and need in life. I feel like this post is getting preachy but I’m in a raw mood today and give zero fucks.

Back to January.

Drum roll please…..


We deposited $4,417.09 into savings this month! Whoop whoop! With the $1,000 we already had in there (plus the interest that’s been accruing over the last year or so, $18.06), we now have 1/5 of our emergency fund funded. That happened fast! Should an emergency happen to us at this point causing both of us to be out of work, we’d be able to pay all the bills, put food on the table (aka live like we have for the past 17 months) for at least 1.5 months. It’s mega fun to see that savings account grow throughout the month, as opposed to seeing our checking account dwindle (and never see that cash again).

I like this quote from Dave: when you are in debt, you PAY interest. When you’re debt free, you EARN interest.

There were a couple of changes made this month:

  • January was a dry month for us… except for our last cider punch for the Nine Pin 26er Challenge and a beer I drank on my birthday. This saved us some cash from our eating out/alcohol envelope.
  • We budgeted $100 each for personal spending money. We don’t have to confirm or ask for permission to spend this money, it can be on anything our little hearts desire. What’s funny is that I had a list of things I wanted to do / buy with this money but when push came to shove aka last week, I had only spent $4.40. Ha! I have no clue how the beau spent his, I have an idea, but I spent mine on a tablecloth (that needs to be returned) and a calcite specimen for my office. That didn’t total $100 but because I did spent $50+ on shipping for new members on my Young Living team and samples for others, I considered it a wash.
  • A couple items we paid for out of pocket that weren’t originally in the budget: a domain name renewal for this website, my AAA membership, a couple of gifts, our first quarter water and sewer invoice, a scrub brush for our shower, a strainer for our kitchen sink, a parking meter fee and deodorant cream for the two of us. Yes, the beau has officially kicked Axe to the curb! YES! I also paid two co-payments out of pocket because my FSA card wasn’t working, but those will hopefully be reimbursed in February.

Oh, and I’m no longer side hustling. We did have supplemental income thanks to my growing Young Living business, a couple alcohol mail-in reimbursements (ha!), and I finally cashed out Ibotta. Side note: I hate that app. I’ve only had problems with it ever since Hannaford changed their rewards program; I will no longer be using this for additional savings.

We both agreed that meal planning (at least for our dinners) not only saves us money, but also time. We both work well having a calendar on the fridge with what’s to be made each night specifically. Typically the beau works out at night before dinner so I dive in and get started with dinner prep. But last night when I walked in the door, he was already sauteing the mushrooms for our creamy carbonara. I leave our go-to recipes neatly on the counter so that there’s never any questions (or deviations from the recipes, ha!).

That’s it, folks! Same hustle, same results… but different Baby Step! If you have any specific questions for me, feel free to reach out or comment below.

Hiking Black Mountain

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On Saturday Paula and I hit the road nice and early to avoid the pending snowpocalypse and hiked Black Mountain in Lake George. The last time I hiked this peak, I was working toward my Firetower Challenge and training for a marathon.

Paula picked me up at 6AM and we were dressed and on the trail at 7:46AM… but not before stopping at the new rest stop! I mentioned this stop in my previous hiking post and decided to take a couple of photographs this time around. Did you know NYS spent 16 million dollars on this project?! Holy smokes! The fancy video wasn’t playing this time around and I noticed there’s a fenced in area for dogs which is a perk I missed last time… not like I have a dog to let loose in there. I’m telling you, it’s good, but I don’t know if it’s 16 million dollars of taxpayer money good. Needless to say, I’ll be using this stop before every hike from now on to get my money’s worth.

Back to the hike. For some reason I remembered this hike being a little harder than it turned out to be. Maybe my legs were mega tired from all of the running I was doing back in those days? Or maybe it was the heat? On Saturday it was a lovely little hike, never really kicking my butt / requiring me to stop to catch my breath and question what the heck I was doing on my day off. Paula and I climbed at a steady pace, stopping only once to go to the bathroom and put on our microspikes. There was ice on the trail under the thin layer of snow that made it a little slippery. Admittedly it was a lot colder than I anticipated and my water tube froze. I woke up that morning and saw a balmy 26* on my iPhone and thought I’d be fine, but the further north we drove, the temperature dropped. When we started the hike it was only 7*. Not good planning on my part but I did know it was a short hike so I wasn’t too concerned.

When we arrived at the summit, I noticed the small windmill that wasn’t there the last time I visited and the snow covered tower (that you cannot climb due to the equipment that’s mounted to it). I thought we were completely socked in and scanned the sky to find gorgeous views of Vermont! AND! We were above the clouds looking west and north! It was super neat to see the snow storm clouds moving in quickly. We were lucky in that it wasn’t windy, so we could take a number of photographs without having to seek cover in the tree line.

Because it was an overall chilly morning, we only spent about ten minutes on the summit before heading down the trail. As always, I bundled up in my last layer and added a face mask; I’m typically colder on the way down due to the less amount of work needed to descent, especially in the snow. A sled would have been perfect!

On our way down we ran into a number of people, including Assemblyman Dan Stec. He was on the last hike we took two weeks ago as well – it’s great to see representatives on the trail! We also ran into two gentleman on snowmobiles who were cutting / moving downed trees from the trail. Now that’s dedication in this weather!

5.72 miles // 1,215 elevation gain // 6/12 for our Winter Lake George 12ster Challenge

 

Hiking Erebus + Sleeping Beauty

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Now that I’ve got my Saturdays back – holler – I’m determined to do more of what I love in 2019, and hiking is at the top of the list. Did you know that there’s a new hiking list for Lake George? It’s called the Lake George 12ster challenge! There are 12 peaks with nearly 40 miles of trails and up to 9,000 feet of elevation gain. I love the idea of this challenge for a number of reasons:

  1. It’s a great list to start with for beginner hikers.
  2. It keeps less people out of the High Peaks.
  3. It’s much closer to home.
  4. They also have an ultra feature – ha!

Scratch that last one, I couldn’t even manage the Saranac 6 last season. I will be back for unfinished business this season I promise you that!

Paula and I have hiked all of them between the two of us (maybe she’s hiked them all?) but we did them prior to the start of this challenge. So, we decided this time last year that we’d hike them all again within the winter season, December 21 – March 20th, to help us stay in hiking shape. And avoid the rattlesnakes on the Tongue Mountain Range… more on that later.

Paula picked me up at 7AM, we stopped briefly at the new rest stop at exit 19? I think it was near exit 19 – and it’s GORGEOUS! It use to be this shitty, tiny, cold room with a couple of stalls and now it’s HUGE, serving only NY made food and bevvies, with this giant screen showing off the Adirondack Park… with a fireplace and cozy seating, and a nice water station… and a playground! We only spent a few minutes here but I’ll be back, ha! Worth the stop if you’re heading north… We were geared up and on the trail by 8:30AM.

We decided to hike Erebus first and make a loop out of the day. Despite not having hiked for a month or so, we were moving at a fairly consistent pace. We followed the trails out to Bumps Pond, where we picked up a horse trail to take us up to Erebus. I could see how this would be a wet trail in the springtime, but everything was pretty much frozen over on Sunday. There were a couple of water crossings, but nothing serious. There wasn’t enough snow on the trail for snowshoes (a dusting at most) but I was very thankful for the microspikes; it was fairly slippery up there at times.

This was my first time hiking Erebus and I wasn’t aware of the fact that we weren’t actually summiting a mountain. For this challenge, the official summit is marked by a white disk on the Erebus North Slope Trail. There is no plan for a trail to reach the actual summit of this peak and they ask hikers to respect this area to leave it pristine for generations to come. We reached this spot just before 11AM (after hiking a little further and returning to make sure our intuitions were right – traveling down is a great indicator of this!). After our celebratory photograph, we sat down and enjoyed our lunches. My leftover Chinese takeout was delicious and still hot thanks to my thermos! I love it when I remember to pack myself hot meals for the trail.

Before too long we were back on the trail headed toward Sleeping Beauty. To be completely honest, I don’t remember much about this trip over other than the fact that it wasn’t tricky at all. The sun was finally shining and I was pretty content wandering in the woods that afternoon. It wasn’t my first time up Sleeping Beauty and we were in no rush, it took us 2 hours to summit our second and final peak of the day. With gorgeous views!

It was a little breezy up there so we didn’t stay for long and began the trip out. We ran into a couple of Paula’s friends on the trail and we also passed many hikers heading in toward the summit. It was difficult for me not to speak up but all of them were VERY underprepared (8 people total): all in sneakers having difficulty choosing correct footing on the way up due to the ice, almost all of them in jeans, no one was wearing a backpack with food, water, additional winter gear like hats, gloves, a jacket… and about 3 hours remaining for daylight. Yes, this trail is not difficult but anything can happen, especially in the winter. It was 30* and with the breeze, even colder. I had to remind myself that people must do this every weekend because it’s a popular trail and I never hear about the rescues on the news. I just wish people were more careful, more smart this time of the year. End rant.

10.71 miles in total, as Hogtown Road is closed for the season. // 5/12 done

Books I’ve Read: Q3 2018

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I honestly had to go back and look at my GoodReads account to see what/if I read this last quarter. I go through phases: I’m either obsessed with reading and can’t get enough or I won’t pick up a book for months. I’ve got a number of great titles on my list but I’m just unmotivated to read these days. I’m thinking that’ll change soon because it’s getting darker and it’s getting colder in the evenings. I’m determined not to turn on the heat until at least November 1st (Thanksgiving would be even better), so hopefully I’ll be snuggled in earlier in the evening with the beau and a good book. Or three.

I did read two books during the first week of July:

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

This story is about 15-year old Christopher who is logistically very smart and decides to write his first novel as he tries to figure out who murdered a dog in the neighborhood, Wellington. I know someone very similar to Christopher – with high functioning autism – who also has a knack with numbers. This first person tale put even more into perspective for me (re: yellow cars) and I have to admit, I too enjoy making lists and found this format comforting. I gave it 3 stars.

The Call by Yannick Murphy

WHAT I LIKED ABOUT THE BOOK: The format, it’s told from the perspective of a veterinarian living in the Northeast, receiving phone calls from people within his community. While off-putting at first, you’ll easily adjust and want to read more.
WHAT MADE ME LAUGH: The little stories throughout – what his wife was cooking, what his children were up to.
DID IT MAKE YOU CRY?: Yes, yes it did.

I randomly picked up this book off of the bookshelf at work while waiting for another to arrive, and read it in two days. Chosen only because there was a cow on the cover, I got really lucky. The story is about a father looking for answers after his son was injured during a hunting accident. The format made it feel like you were reading through his personal journal, which made it very easy for me to get drawn in. Yes, I may have seen the ending coming a mile away but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it when it happened. I gave it 4 stars.

And I did start three other books this quarter – reading about 20 pages of each and returning them when they were due.

  • After This: When Life is Over, Where Do We Go? by Matthew Walker
  • Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Claire Bidwell Smith
  • Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews – I still have this book by my bedside and am now about 80 pages in, ha! This is an interesting book to say the least… also on the Great American Read list.

I’ve read 12 of 15 books in 2018.

Hiking Pillsbury Mountain Fire Tower

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I’m on a blogging roll! Can you believe it?!

Last Wednesday I took advantage of the cooler temperatures and lower humidity to hike another fire tower. And this time I brought a friend! He’s just getting started on his fire tower list so we plan to hike a lot together over the next month to get his numbers up and me in shape for this race.

Rocco and I were on the road at 6:30AM from Saratoga and headed west on Rt 29 and then north on Rt 30 until we reached the seasonal road leading us to the trailhead. I pulled over briefly at the lookout on Mason Lake to confirm on my map that we hadn’t passed the dirt road and saw three loons! They were at the edge of the lake closest to us, such a treat! Rocco had never heard of a loon, noting that they looked like ducks, so later that evening I sent him a YouTube video of loons at night. “Loud!” he said.

About the dirt road: it’s approximately six miles to the trailhead and at times, very bumpy. I had read warnings about low-riding vehicles and parking at the Sled Harbor “clearing” (didn’t look like much of a clearing to me) but I wanted to take it slow and give it a try… mostly because when we stopped the car at one point for an oncoming vehicle, the car was SWARMED with deer flies. Nope. I wasn’t about to tack on 3+ miles if the bugs were that bad. I took it slow, at some points needing to downshift into first gear, and got us there safe and sound and in one piece. It took us about 30 minutes to cover those 6 miles.

Before getting out of the car, we lathered on the Young Living Insect Repellent. I was admittedly a little nervous about it working because this was my first test hike but let me tell you, worked like a charm! Neither one of us came home with a bug bite, despite the deer flies attacking the car and the trail being wet due to rain the previous day. It says it’s not greasy, but it was. Never did I feel heavy or sticky however, I just noticed the sweat beaded up more so than usual. It didn’t stain my clothes and it’s vegan / plant based sooooo that’s all that matters in my book.

Reading reviews for this hike, it states that it’s strenuous and difficult over the 1.6 miles up to the summit. I tried to prepare Rocco as best as I could for this immediate climb and told him to lead the way; we’d take a break whenever he needed one. It wasn’t that bad! And the kid agreed! While there were sections of continuous climbing upward and a couple of water breaks, there were nice recovery sections throughout. I want to say the last half mile or so was pretty enjoyable. We chatted about vacations and other hikes we’d like to do eventually and before we knew it, the tower was in sight!

There was an old caretakers cabin and some lumber on the summit, I’m assuming for updates to the cabin of the tower. I had read that the tower cabin was closed but I wasn’t expecting there to be minimal wire on the stairs. As someone who’s afraid of heights and watching a kid not her own, we only climbed up three levels. There was still a wonderful view and a breeze to keep the bugs at bay. We each enjoyed a Pillsbury crescent roll – thanks mom! – and some Pirate’s Booty. We didn’t sit for too long because the breeze gave us a chill.

Note: we saw a lot of toads on this trail! One peed on me when I picked him up; him couldn’t help it.

I enjoyed this hike despite the drive being longer than the hike. I’m determined to get Rocco camping at least twice over the next month so that we can knock out 4 more long distance towers, even if that means having his younger brother tag along for company / moral support; these boys have never been camping! Challenge accepted! Rocco if you’re reading this, get ready!

Pillsbury Mountain brought my fire tower challenge total to 22/23 and 4/23 for Rocco.

Random question: anyone know what kind of animal poop this is?