April 27, 2016

Hi! Hope you have all been well! I've been down with yet another pesky lung infection ... the last good-bye from the Coe Hill woodstove. Thankfully with some prescription meds and a ridiculous amount of herbal remedies I am slowly getting better. :)

I've been having some fun house hunting :) I am suppose to be getting a some money from my uncle's will in the next six months and plan on using it as a downpayment for a home. I want my own place so bad! I want to get a pet rescue going again; I want to set up altars and faerie gardens, and a big fire pit perfect for dancing around!; I want a huge garden and my hens to be able to free range, plus I want 5 more hens! and two female goats!. I want privacy, so I can go hang my clothes on the line in my underwear if I want! I want my own piece of paradise, somewhere to call home forever.

I found the PERFECT place! I wish so much I had the money for it! Fingers crossed no one buys it before I can! I should be able to put 20% down and pay it easily over just five years ;) It'd be a dream come true!

I'm told the area have a horrible economy, but that's ok with me, with such a small mortgage, I can easily pay every with my online art money, article writing money, and photo/video money, and I'm sure I'd still get teh occasional dance.

http://www.century21global.com/property/1077-chaleur-street-charlo-new-brunswick-e8e-2e4-canada-C21107083830-USD

Ok, on a completely different topic, I found this guy on facebook and found him hilarious. Damn, it reminds me of my crazy hippy Pagan religious community! I LOVE the weirdos!

Have a great week everyone! Hugs and love!

Hydro Bills

Well, I got my first New Brunswick hydro bill today ... 

It was just over $700; however, $400 is the deposit and $45 is the hook up fee, so my actually hydro bill was just under $300. 

$300 is pretty high; however, that includes heat (I have electric heat here), hot water heater rental, hot water and normal hydro use. Its not horrible.

There was a $18.23 service charge (for rural residential) on the bill, but unlike Ontario, no crazy delivery charges or debt repayment etc. 

A quick cost comparison:

When we lived outside of Sarnia (pretty well same distance from a city as we are now), we had a $100 delivery fee every month plus the debt thing etc. We started each month about $120 in the hole, before any actual hydro usage charges. For the month of March, my average hydro bill would be about $220, my average water bill was about $30 and heat cost me about $250 for the month (I had oil heat, its very expensive). So, for heat/water/hydro, I paid about $500 for the month of March when I lived in the country outside of Sarnia.

When I lived in Coe Hill (I wasn't there for March so I will give you Feb. stats). I paid about $250 for gas/oil for the generator and about $80 for propane (For the fridge/stove/hot water heater). Water was free as it was well water and heat was free as it was wood heat (It was free money wise, but took a heck of a lot of physical work and time). So, for heat/hydro/water it cost me about $330 a month. However, that only got me about 10-20% of the hydro I had to use when i lived outside of Sarnia, and the woodstove did not heat the place well, so it was extremely cold in the house.

The month of March in New Brunswick cost me about $300 for heat/hydro/water. I have well water so it is free. Honestly, I used more heat than I normally would. After freezing in Coe Hill for all of Jan.and Feb, I just wanted to be warm and didn't want to wear three sweaters!

So, cheapest- New Brunswick, by far, even with the electric heat

Now, I gotta get my butt to work to make some money to pay the deposit! the $300 hydro bill is no problem, but the $400 deposit is scary! 

Hugs and love!

Mactaquac Dam

The Mactaquac Dam is about a 10-15 minute walk from my house; I can see the Dam from my front porch. The dogs and I walked down to the Dam today to get some nice photos and to enjoy the gorgeous weather!

The Mactaquac Dam is an embankment dam used to generate hydroelectricity in Mactaquac, New Brunswick. It dams the waters of the Saint John River and is operated by NB Power with a capacity to generate 670 megawatts of electricity from 6 turbines; this represents 20 percent of New Brunswick's power demand.

From what i understand there are some problems with the Dam and it needs to be rebuilt. Wikipedia says:

"The concrete portions of the dam (namely the spill-ways) are currently experiencing a problem of expanding concrete. When built, locally quarried greywacke was used as the aggregate and is responsible for an alkali-aggregate reaction expansion. The dam is being monitored and extra maintenance work is being performed, although the original 100-year lifespan of the spillway has been reduced by almost 40 years.[1]"

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

I generally work online seven days a week 8-10 hours a day. Most of my time working online is spent working on art, be it making designs or putting designs on products on the sites. Working on art, especially putting designs on products on sites, can be awfully boring, so I watch TV while I do it. As you can imagine I watch a lot of TV! I prefer to binge watch shows and watch full seasons in a row. I like to download the shows I watch and keep them, on an external hard drive (The external hard drives is hooked to the Raspberry Pi computer, which is hooked to the TV to play the shows) so I can rewatch them a few years from now if I want.

Generally I have a sitcom and a drama/action show going at any one time. I watch a couple of episodes of one then watch a couple episodes of the other. The sitcom I am watching right now is: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is about: " a group of five depraved underachievers: twins Dennis Reynolds (Glenn Howerton) and Deandra "Sweet Dee" Reynolds (Kaitlin Olson), their friends Charlie Kelly (Charlie Day) and Ronald "Mac" McDonald (Rob McElhenney), and (from season 2 onward) Frank Reynolds (Danny DeVito), the man who raised Dennis and Dee. The Gang runs the dilapidated Paddy's Pub, an Irish bar in South Philadelphia.

Each member of the gang shows varying degrees of dishonesty, egotism, selfishness, greed, pettiness, ignorance, laziness, and unethical behavior; they are often engaged in controversial activities. Episodes usually find them hatching elaborate schemes and conspiring against one another and others for personal gain, vengeance, or simply the entertainment of watching another's downfall. They habitually inflict mental, emotional, and physical pain on each other and anyone who crosses their path. They also regularly use blackmail to manipulate one another and others outside of the group.

The Gang's unity is never solid, and any of them would quickly dump any of the others for quick profit or personal gain, regardless of the consequences. Everything they do results in contention among themselves, and much of the show's dialogue involves the characters arguing or yelling at one another. Despite their lack of success or achievements, they maintain high opinions of themselves and display an obsessive interest in their own reputations and public images.

The Gang has no sense of shame when attempting to get what they want and often engage in activities that others would find humiliating, disgusting, or preposterous. These include smoking crack cocaine and pretending to be mentally challenged in order to qualify for welfare, eating cereal while driving, hiding naked inside a leather couch in order to eavesdrop on someone, coercing people into sleeping with them, forcing each other to eat inedible items, huffing paint, foraging in the sewers for valuables, sleeping with each other's romantic interests, seducing a priest, plugging their open wounds with trash, and stalking their crushes."

(the above show premise came from Wikipedia)

I'd give the show a 3 out of 5 star rating, while my son gives it a 4 out of 5 rating.

I find the humour a little too ridiculous and crass at times.

All in all, not a bad sit-com, definitely for people who do not get offended easily. Its not a show for my mother that's for sure!

The show airs on FXX and has 11 seasons so far (Only 10 episodes per season)

Making Art

I have been busy busy busy making new art and putting old art on new products. This week my son and I are focusing on putting my designs on shower curtains and blankets on Zazzle. They are both big ticket items, so I get a great commission from any sales (I make 15% of the sale price). Honestly, I think Zazzle's prices are outrageous; $100 plus for a shower curtain or throw is crazy! I wouldn't pay it, but surprisingly lots of people will. I'm more of a $20 shower curtain gal :)

If you want to check out the shower curtains and blankets I made, just hit the links below :) It should take you to the Zazzle collection

Shower Curtains
by Patricia Cartwright

Blankets
by Patricia Cartwright

Tomorrow I plan on walking down to see a beaver dam near my house, I'll take lots of photos for everyone! Hugs and love!

Neighbours

I really do not like my neighbours. I seem to have idiots on both sides of me :(

My poor hens have been locked in the barn now for five weeks. They had to be quarantined for a month (Coming from one province to another) and due to both my neighbours I cannot let them free range anymore (both neighbours complained about them going onto their property before they even got out! Its sad when people complain about stuff before it even happens!). I have to get a fenced area set up for them.

The weather was lovely yesterday, so I figured I'd put the hens in the dog cage for the afternoon so they could get some fresh air and do some scratching. I set up the cage in the area that the veggie garden is going, so the hens would start breaking up the earth for me. Chickens are excellent for tilling the land; one hen can till 50 square feet of established sod in just 4-6 weeks!

I set the pen up and as chickens can fly had to put something on top of it so they wouldn't get out ... I found an old wood pallet that fit well. My son helped me put the wood pallet on top of the cage ... and then the screaming started.

My one neighbour came to her back door and SCREAMED at me to move the pen. She DEMANDED I move the pen behind the barn so she "wouldn't have to look at it all summer".

Ummmmm, what?

I tried to explain to her that it was just temporary. I tried to explain why I wanted the pen there (so the hens would till the land for me). All she did was scream at me.

She never once asked me to move the pen. She never once said please. She simply demanded, very rudely, that I move it.

WTF?

That is one crazy bitch! What kind of person does that? I was so upset, I literally cried for almost three hours afterwards, I was so upset.

The house I rent comes with about 2 and a half acres of land, land I thought I could use as I wished. Land for a huge garden, for my hens to range on, and for me to enjoy and host celebrations on ... ya, I guess not. Who wants to go out to their yard with neighbours like that?

I think most upsetting is both my neighbours come onto my property and disrespect my space, but bitch about everything I do. The one neighbour is tapping trees on my property and is in my backyard several times daily. He has never once asked if I'm OK with that (i had planned on tapping my trees!). He is selling maple syrup (illegally) and his customers often use my driveway (despite him having his own private drive) and again he has never use asked if its ok or apologized for any inconvenience he has caused. My other neighbour has a dog that just wanders around his yard and mine, sleeps in my garage all the time, and poops all over my lawn (which they have never cleaned up). Just like the other neighbour, they have never once asked if its ok or apologized for my inconvenience. My three dogs are not big fans of some strange dog sleeping in their garage and its really frazzling to try to take my dogs out and have someone elses dog right at my door!

I really hate this whole neighbour thing. I put a wanted ad on Kijiji yesterday looking for a rural home to rent. I had planned to stay here until I could buy a house, but I cannot live here with such nasty neighbours. I don't want to live beside someone who would scream at me and make me cry. Life is too short to be near nasty people. I want to live somewhere where I can enjoy my yard, as I should be able too.

Here's a great article, on ways to use hens to help make gardening easier:
http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2015/02/chickens-in-the-garden.html

Birthdays

Tomorrow is my Birthday ...

I'm not a huge fan of Birthdays, I find they make me introspective and melancholy. And, like everyone else I am not a big fan of getting older; though thankfully, I am not feeling old! :) Honestly, I still feel young, happy, and full of enthusiasm and adventure!  I happily remind myself that with today's average life span, I am just hitting middle age, I still got half my life to live!

I don't have a "bucket list", but I do have a few things that I have always wanted to do, I happily accomplished one of them this year with moving to New Brunswick: I have always wanted to live on the East Coast.

Tomorrow is also the anniversary of the day my Chihuahua Taco joined my family! He's been with us seven whole years!

This is Taco when he was a wee puppy; his ears are still down. He weighed about a pound and a half then.

 This is Taco about five-six years old. He's not real happy (hence why his ears are back) cause, well you know, there's snow! :)

This is my sweet Taco three months ago :)

Best Birthday present EVER! 

Catching Up on Online Work

Its been a month since I arrived in New Brunswick ... its been a month since I've had hydro .... and i am still trying to catch up on all my online work.

This week I have been working on clip art of Faeries and magical creatures for a book I am working on with a friend. Here's what I did this week ...

Chimera

Dryad: A nature spirit/faerie.

 Kappa: OK, this one needs explaining :) A Kappa is a Japanese Faerie. It lives in swamps and rivers. Yes, that is a cucumber it is holding, its the Kappa's favorite food, even more delicious than babies ;) If You ever meet a Kappa, simply bow, it is such a polite creature it will bow in return, thus pouring all the water out if its head and killing itself accidently! (You can be kind and refill his head with water from his home river or swamp, and MAYBE he'll be indebted to you)

Drawing Faeries is always fun :) 

I've been doing lots of Art, so watching lots of TV. In the last couple of weeks I have watched all of the Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO Sit-com) and How To Get Away With Murder. Loved "Curb Your Enthusiasm"; very dark humor. Meh on "How To Get Away With Murder"; its with interesting, but a little too"soap opera" like for me. Not a bad show though, just not a fav with me. 

I have had some electronic problems over the last couple of weeks; both my good camera and video camera died. So, I'm working with an old ok camera and video camera right now. I made some new videos today in the hope of making some new camera/video camera money. :)

Hope you all had a great weekend and brightest blessings on the week ahead! Hugs and love! trish

St John River

It was a lovely day here in New Brunswick! It was overcast, windy and a little rainy, but it was +15! I took my boys (dogs) out for a nice walk and we went and took some photos of the river. Spring will be here soon! YAY!