Paying Off the House, Part I: The Big Picture

About this time last year, we paid off our house!

We purchased it in September 2009 and paid it off in August 2018, which I thought was pretty good.

This is the part where most bloggers announce something dramatic, like living on Ramen noodles and dandelions, or the opposite – they casually mention that they're both computer programmers making big salaries.

Sorry to disappoint you, but neither of those is true.  We lived a pretty ordinary lifestyle which is frugal, but not extreme.  And during the time that we were paying down the mortgage, we never even made six figures… combined.

Happy Easter!

Saturday in the garden

Lilacs are blooming!  Here's a bud.  (Some of the tomato seedlings pictured last month are in the background.)

Accomplished Saturday: weeding, spreading compost, setting up the rain barrels, fixing the wheelbarrow tire, picking up bricks from a coworker, watering strawberries, raking and shredding leaves... and feeling rather sore and tired at the end of the day.

We are putting out rain barrels even though we are not past the last frost date here in Nebraska because temps during the day are high enough that Belovedest thinks it won't get cold enough to freeze an entire barrel of water, which will retain some heat from the daylight sun.  A partially-filled barrel can afford to freeze, as the ice has room to expand without splitting the barrel.  We'll keep you posted....

Here's the long, long tap root of a small and innocuous-looking dandelion:

Hope all of your spring adventures are going well!