hobbies Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Slowly Sipping Coffee

Is an $8 tomato worth it?

Recently the topic of a fall garden has come up around the SSC household. With the high temps starting to stay at/below 90 during the day, and night temps around 75 (time for a fire!) it got me thinking we should plant some stuff for the cooler weather. We keep talking about wanting to garden and grow more stuff as part of our Lifestyle Change, but we don’t do too much of that now. I figure now is the best time to get with it so we can iron out any bumps and what not before we go big with a garden. However, our success rate with getting anything edible from any plant isn’t exactly stellar. Is it due to our ungodly hot climate, our lack of green thumb, or possibly lack of diligence with taking care of the garden due to our schedule? I’m all for the fall garden, and have even agreed to scale it back a bit, but I’m having trouble getting Mrs. SSC on board due to our usual gardening adventures fails.

Our first “big garden” attempt down here was nothing short of a disaster. We’d decided to do a raised bed, with a garden system that made a 6’x6’ box separated into 4 squares. We then put our usual peppers in 2 squares, some squash in another square, and something else in the 4^th square. The fact I can’t remember what it was should be a clue as to how successful it turned out. We were doing well with the garden even though it was as far away from the house as it could possibly be in our backyard. Then we went on vacation. Ever mindful, I set up a timer and watering system so it would get water while we were gone. I hooked up the sprinkler, ran it out to the garden, and even adjusted the flow and coverage of the sprinkler so as to be efficient. I was SO proud of myself.

When we returned home the scene looked like it was out of a plant horror movie. Some plants were dead – straight up dead, while the other plants looked droopy, wilted, and brown. Not dried up lack of water brown, but a weird brown, like a “death” brown. I thought I may have overwatered, but that couldn’t be the case. I checked the sprinkler and timer and they looked good too. Then I stepped into the spray of water and was scalded from my knee down to my flip flop covered foot!

Gah!!! Idiotic me didn’t think about how hot the water would get while it was sitting in ~50’ of garden hose stretched out across the yard, in the sun, ALL DAY, in the middle of Houston summer. Yep, I had managed to kill the garden with repeated scaldings over the course of a week. Side note – if you want to get rid of a certain patch of grass or weeds and don’t want to use chemicals this seems to be an effective method, as even the weeds were dead… We haven’t tried keeping anything alive since beyond our two pepper plants and the occasional tomato plants or herbs.

This guy's about 6' tall and flowering again! — This guy’s about 6′ tall and flowering again!

This year I got one tomato before the heat cranked up and I calculated it cost me around $8. I’ve kept that plant alive and I’m hoping for a fall crop now that it’s cooler and it’s starting to flower again.

She's a sad tomato... — She’s a sad tomato…

However, the other one got decimated by some kind of bug. I went to water it and all of its leaves were gone. There were just little leafless nubs all over it. I brought it inside to try and resuscitate it, to no avail. Our pepper plants are still cranking out peppers though, and we do have a pineapple we started from a cutting earlier this summer that’s looking quite nice.

Now that it’s cooler, I proposed the Fall Garden! However, I want to only put up 2 squares, so it’s half the size. Also, I would put it on our back porch so it’s right next to the hose and in our daily view so we won’t forget about it. Plus, the kids seem like they could get excited about it. Our oldest transplanted a bean plant he started in daycare, and it got over 6’ tall and made a decent amount of beans. He really enjoyed that.

I was thinking of planting some cauliflower, but maybe they get too big for that small of an area. Maybe plant some root vegetables like turnips, carrots, or something along those lines, and maybe something leafy like Collard Greens or Bok Choy. I even proposed to fund it from the allowance, but was reminded my allowance is a bit tight currently, Oops…

I think our gardening fails are mainly due to our busy schedule, not being diligent with the garden, and having the plants out of sight. The high summer heat doesn’t help either, but I don’t want to make too many excuses. With the weather getting nicer, we’ve been spending more time out back, so we should be able to manage it way better. I really think the kids would like gardening too since our oldest liked seeing the bean plant get big and make beans he could eat. I think it’s worth giving it a shot and hoping they want to get more involved.

What are your thoughts? Should we start a fall garden? Thoughts on what we should try to grow – any advice is welcomed. Do you want to hear about more gardening fails? I have plenty!

By Mr SSC
Posted on September 17, 2015September 17, 2015
10 Comments on Is an $8 tomato worth it?

The “About Series” rolls on!

Welcome to today’s post where I’m continuing the “About Series” put out there by Steve at Think Save Retire. It’s essentially a challenge to other bloggers to write more about themselves, their blog, and what not so we can get more of a sense of who they are by giving more details than what is on their “about” page. I took our next life’s formatting and some questions from their “About” post because I liked how it was structured, so thanks guys! Without further ado, here is About: Slowly Sipping Coffee.

Why did we start this blog

To be honest, we started it mainly to document what we were going to be doing. It was meant as a way to keep us focused on FIRE, now FFLC, and maybe connect with other people out there doing the same thing. We didn’t come across too many people trying to achieve FIRE with kids when we had been perusing the blogosphere, so we thought we would blog about our journey. It was also initially intended to be a side income deal once we kick-off our FFLC, but now I don’t know that we will go that route. Who knows what the future may hold though, maybe there will be some ads in the future, and we’ll try to harvest those pennies, but until then, Meh….

What’s the point of SSC

Slowly Sipping Coffee is really our way to keep focused on our goals. I hadn’t been on board with this whole FIRE idea, because the few blogs that Mrs. SSC had sent me to were filled with uber extreme minimalists and ER folks. Everyone has their own idea of what is minimal and what is extravagant, and I didn’t see us being able to do this to our comfort level. When I did get on board with it, this blog seemed to be a good way to stay true to that, and put another FIRE perspective out there.

Won't you join us in our journey? It's less weird than this graffiti I promise! — Won’t you join us in our journey? It’s less weird than this graffiti I promise!

What do we get out of it

I get an outlet to write, and you guys get subjected to my drivel each week, HA! Seriously, though I get a lot out of it. Beyond getting to tap into my creative side by coming up with post ideas, I like getting to think about things, post work life, family life, and everything in between. It helps me to think about how this is all interconnected and how one little thing affects everything else. I mean, I went from reading exactly zero blogs on personal finance, retirement, investing, and all that to being able to hold my own with a financial planner one-on-one in his office (that’s a whole separate post – maybe even two). I now read numerous blogs each week and like catching up with you guys out there in blog-ville. Seeing other people move their dates up, back, sideways, and reading about all the other motivations you guys have for wanting to FIRE has been great. Thanks to everyone out there that puts out good posts, and remind me each week that we’re actually doing this!

What’s the name all about

The name came up almost as organically as the blog idea did. We were literally sitting there sipping coffee on one of our Friday mornings off, when I said, “We should start a blog!” Once we decided we’d become bloggers, we had to pick a name. We had some interesting choices, most of which I forget now, so see, we chose wisely. Ultimately, we settled on the name Slowly Sipping Coffee, because except for our every other Friday’s off, we don’t get the luxury to sit and slowly sip anything.* With two toddlers running around, the weekends start at ~5-5:30 am and we can’t sit down and relax again until around 7-8 pm when they’re in bed, and actually staying there… We imagined our FIRE life being more of a, “get up, get the kids off to the bus stop, wave goodbye, and then head inside to get some coffee and go sit on the back deck or front porch and enjoy the view before we start our day.” Since we want the freedom and time to get to slowly sip anything, we thought it went hand in hand with what this blog is about. Plus, I’m a BIG coffee drinker, and that’s why it isn’t slowly sipping milkshakes, slowly sipping tea, or slowly sipping bourbon, which is really the only way it should be enjoyed.

What’s in our blog header

Our blog header is a picture the Mrs. took on a family trip out to Tahoe. It’s some beautiful country, and since we want to retire to mountains, we thought it was fitting. At the time, we were still scouring the Rockies for places, so it fit well with that. We may have to update it to some more Appalachian style views when we go visit out there. Until then, here’s one from a past trip.

We are hoping we will have a view like this from our porch!

Who writes our blog

It started off as a joint venture, but I do 98% of the writing now (that’s Mr. SSC). I like writing and except that I can tend to be really long winded even while typing, it comes easier for me than Mrs. SSC. She does make a good editor though, especially in the earlier days when I was still trying to find my voice and tended to blather on and on, and go on “shiny” mid-post tangents that make no sense but seemed to be important at the time, like this sentence. 🙂

Where do we think the blog is headed

I’m not too sure where the blog is headed, but we just hit our 1 year anniversary, so that’s pretty awesome! I like to think that it will be around when things get more interesting and we can be like Living AFI and post our actual FFLC experiences instead of our “working to get to FFLC” experiences.

Random fun facts about us we’ve never shared before

I am a big “Dead” head – enough so that I “burned out” Mrs. SSC on their music, she alleges. At least solo commuting I can crank it up on the way to and from work. That or bluegrass depending on the mood. But really, I like both kinds of music, Country and Western. 😉

Yep, that's my favorite mug to drink coffee from. — Yep, that’s my favorite mug to drink coffee from.

The Mrs. and I met as interns in New Orleans – yep, it’s an oil patch love story.

If money wasn’t an issue I’d be teaching and I wouldn’t be looking for oil. It was fun having an intern this year that knew nothing about petroleum geology or the industry and getting to teach her all of that stuff and see the “light bulb moment” when she got a new concept.

Pre FIRE Mr. SSC was horrible with money. Beyond my credit card and student loan boondoggles, I would buy musical instruments I didn’t know how to play thinking it would be a good idea to learn a new instrument. Ultimately, they would sit there and I would end up not playing them. I still occasionally find myself online thinking, “I’ve always wanted to play the cello….”

* – We work a 9-80 schedule where we work 9 hr days 4 days a week, and every other Friday is an 8 hr day. This leads to having every other Friday off, which is pretty dang awesome!

By Mr SSC
Posted on August 24, 2015August 23, 2015
10 Comments on The “About Series” rolls on!

Sunshine Blogger Award!

Our blog was nominated for the Sunshine Blogger award by the bloggers over at Ditching the Daily Grind! Thanks for the nomination guys, I’ve been enjoying reading your blog! It’s nice reading about other families out there on the same path, and how their kids have/have not affected their FIRE goals. We really appreciate getting nominated for that award! Now, let’s get to the fun stuff!

The Rules:

Thank the person that nominated you

Answer the questions from the person that nominated you

Nominate some other bloggers for this award

Write the same amount of questions for the bloggers you have nominated

Notify the bloggers you have nominated.

The Responses to our set of questions:

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

These are really different answers from Mrs. SSC and I. Our family dynamics and priorities were pretty different growing up, as reflected in SO many ways in our lives. This is just one of those instances.

Mrs. SSC: She wanted to be a scientist or professor when she grew up. She’s done pretty well meeting those goals too, between being an actual rocket scientist for a bit, teaching some in grad school, and science-ing it up at her current career in the oil industry.

Mr. SSC: I wanted to be a long haul trucker. Yep, the guys on the road in the big-rigs hauling the 54’ trailers. I thought it would be fun, I’d get to travel a lot, see the country, and have a lot of freedom. Plus, you get to drive the biggest trucks out there! Woohoo! I’m a geologist instead and those dreams are in the rear-view mirror of life, and thankfully not the rear view mirror of my big rig.

What is the coolest/most memorable place you’ve visited

Mrs. SSC: Yosemite National Park. It was breathtaking and also one of the first times I ever went camping and hiking by myself. It was one of the first times I was able to take everything at my own pace, observe nature around me, and just get to be introspective and not have to deal with anyone else’s time table or schedule. It was awesome!

I really took this. It's so beautiful even at night. — I really took this. It’s so beautiful even at night.

Mr. SSC: Le Mont Saint Michel in Normandy, France. It’s an island commune and monastery that is just offshore, like ~600 meters. Besides being stunningly beautiful, an amazing thing is the tidal range of that part of the coast. When the tide goes out, it goes out 15 miles from the shore and drops nearly 40’!! When it comes in again, bam! The monastery is again an island surrounded by water. We got to take a 7 mile hike across the tidal flat at low tide, and it was awesome as a geologist, getting to see all those tidal features first hand. If you’ve never seen it, google it and check out the images, amazing! My picture doesn’t do it justice.

If money was not an issue and you could indulge in one thing, what would it be?

Mrs. SSC: My one thing would be land. I would want to buy an amazing plot of land with great views, mountains, fruit trees and more, and build a small but luxurious house. That and a Disney Cruise for the kids. Our friends say “it’s great!” and “the kids would love it!”, just like a 50’s tv ad, but it just seems SO expensive, so probably that too.

Mr. SSC: I’d go to the moon and spend a few hours bouncing around in my astronaut suit and riding one of those moon buggies around. That just seems like it would be a LOAD of fun, and it was literally the first thing that popped out of my mouth when I read this question. I mean, who could afford that nowadays? Not even NASA right, and you did say money was no issue. That would be my indulgence for sure.

What is the best compliment you’ve ever gotten?

Mrs. SSC: I don’t respond well to compliments, so I avoid them, and can’t think of a best compliment I’ve ever gotten. Sorry…

Mr. SSC: My best compliment was um, well, yeah I don’t know either really. I’ve been scouring my brain, but nothing jumps out. Sorry…

What legacy would you like to leave?

Mrs. SSC: I feel that if I can get the kids to grow up and be true to themselves, that would be good for me. I want them to be who they want to be, and not try to be someone that they think they should be because someone else wants them to be that way.

Mr. SSC: My legacy – with visions of being a trucker, I can’t say I’ve thought too much about a legacy that I would like to leave. When I was hiking the Appalachian Trail, I decided that I wanted to do something that would help the environment and not just take, take, take. Ironically, I ended up switching from Environmental Science to Geology and ultimately landed in the oil industry. Since I’ve had kids, I’d like for them to be adults that aren’t self-centered and self-serving and are empathetic to helping those who need it. Like Louis C.K. put it, “You should never look into your neighbors to bowl to see if they have more than you, but rather to see if they have enough.” If I can raise my kids to have that mindset, I’d feel good about that.

What do you prefer: beach or mountains?

Mt. Hood. We need to get back out there soon.

Both: Mountains for sure! Our relocation spot for our Fully Funded Lifestyle Change has to include a few things and mountains is one of them. We grew up near the Appalachians, so we like the feel of those mountains and are looking forward to being back there. I also love the Rockies, and could be there too, but as long as there are mountains and 4 seasons I’ll take it any day!

Our nominees for the Sunshine Blogger Award are (in no particular order):

Their questions: