• Blog,  Money

    We Are Officially Debt Free!

    I’m going to take a moment from my regularly scheduled blogging to post a more-than-humble brag today. Today marks the date when my wife and I can call ourselves 100% debt free. We have no debts what-so-ever. No credit cards owed, no car payments owed and we own our homes outright! No, we will not be on the Dave Ramsey show. It’s been a long time coming. Lots of long hours, hard work, saving and not splurging on trips and on “want” items. The couch in our living room was one that was given to us. The dogs of torn up the chairs and our deck is falling apart. No…

  • Blog,  Money

    Poor people pay top dollar for depreciating assets

    I’ve been thinking about writing this for some time, but always had a tough time deciding where to start. A to B to C, etc. I finally decided there is really no good place to start, but to start writing these as they come to me. Listen: I’m not saying I’m perfect. Far from it. Yet, I have made the appropriate decisions that keeps me on the path of making money and keeping (aka saving) more of what I earn. One of the big things that struck me is when I go purchase a vehicle, I look for a nice used one. Always. I’ve only purchased one new truck (1999…

  • Blog,  Maple Syrup Production

    Last boil of the 2019 Maple Season

    The Maple sap has been down to 1% sugar content for the past week. This means that a whopping 86 gallons of sap is needed before you can get 1 gallon of maple syrup. Without a reverse osmosis setup, this type of ratio would be a waste of fuel and money. Last year, due to the low sugar content all year by the end of the season, people were giving away sap because they had run out of wood or got tired of paying for propane. Thankfully I only saw the 1% for a short week. Picked up 60 gallons out of my 50 taps on Thursday and boiled it…

  • Maple Syrup Production

    2019 Maple Season is Winding Down

    Cheers to another poor, but a well produced season. While it may not be over yet, the 20 gallons of sap I pulled yesterday evening was only at 1% sugar. Two more days of sap run left and then nothing but warm weather both day and night forecast so the season will officially be over! I’m back to boiling outside. I will make a post on my ghetto sugar shack 2.0 and it’s short lived life. Time to build a physical shack and build a container for my sap pan.