the solitaire
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CGrindahl wrote:
Such constraint Buddy. My guess is that as a recently minted father, you don't have TIME to wax eloquently on any subject, except perhaps potty training... 
I'll add a coda to your comment, however, because I'm sitting alone in my cottage with nothing ahead of me for the day except putting away laundry... I'd rather chat. 
As cars have gotten bigger and much more sophisticated in features offered, so have homes. I continue to be very happy in my 400 square foot cottage for the past 26 years but it seems most folks want more house. I saw a report that said home size in the U.S. over the last forty years has increased by 1,000 square feet. At the same time family size has gotten smaller. It is little wonder that homes have increased in cost. Forty years from 1960 to 2000 prices, adjusted for inflation DOUBLED in the U.S. and TRIPLED in California. The home I bought in Vallejo in 1980 for $36,500 sold a year ago for $325,000. Amazing!
Apparently the crash in 2008 has contributed to some reduction in home size but prices are still over the top... I wish the next generation well as they establish themselves. The American dream has become very expensive to achieve....Show more →
There is that as well. Most of the time I can take for myself is in the morning hours, before the sun and Anouk rise, and in the evening hours, after Anouk and the sun both decided the day has had it's best time.
In both occasions that also means no lights, dimmed notebook display and not too much noise as Anouk and Kristina are light sleepers and both need whatever sleep they can get at the moment (Kristina watches after Anouk during the night, when she wakes up).
We have some 900 sq ft of space at our disposal, but with 2 adults, a child, 2 dogs and whatever else we keep in our zoo (2 snakes, 2 tarantulas, 5 degus, 8 rainbowfish, 8 hermite crabs and some 30 crabs of the genus Geosesarma plus all supplies needed to feed the bunch and keep the enclosures clean/refresh substrates etc.) that is not a lot of space.
The other 1500 sq ft of the farmhouse are occupied by the landlord and his wife. We have a fairly good understanding and as such, we chat a lot, which invariably means that I get to learn a bit about farming as well. They keep cows and horses, and even though this winter most everything went well, the oldest lady in the herd did not make it, and after combined efforts died at an approximate age of 31 years. 5 calfs were born during the winter, which was also quite exciting, but the last one, born just last week, didn't survive. The other extreme is that one of our hermite crabs resurfaced yesterday after 4 months of absence (it burrowed in to moult and remained subterranean for the past 4 months)
Lot of talk about the various walks and ways of life and death recently on our little farm, so yesterday we went out (to the DIY store) and got supplies to make a shelf to put some flowerpots on. Puts things in perspective again 
 DSC_9681-Edit by b j, on Flickr
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