The Ants Go Marching 2x2

So last week I discovered we had an ant problem.  I didn't want to spend money on poisons, and I wanted a solution right then. So after doing some research on Pinterest,  I found out that if you mixed together icing sugar and baking soda, they can't tell the difference between the two and when they eat the baking soda it reacts with their digestive system and makes them explode.
So I mixed up a couple lids of it and waited a day for the ants to take the bait. Well that never happened.  The ants didn't touch it at all. So after some more research,  I discovered they didn't like vinegar. So I went out to the dollar store, bought a spray bottle, then proceeded to fill it with vinegar when I got home.

The ants didn't know what hit 'em. There was mass genocide in my kitchen.

Though I did find that if you sprinkle the ants with baking soda first and then spray them with the vinegar, it is a much more efficient way to kill them.

So hopefully you find this post informative and helpful if you were need to get rid of ants without resorting to poisons.

Ta ta for now

It's Just A Truck....

So at the moment I am on Craigslist looking for a new vehicle. Well then I thought, "Hey why I don't see if the local auction place has any cars?" They didn't online, so I then went to the website where the Xterra got repo'd to. Curiosity got the better of me and I clicked on the Nissan tab to see what they had there. Very last vehicle on the list, was my Truck Truck. They had taken all my decals off the back, but I knew it was mine because in the first photo, I saw my flies on the sunshade on the driver side and the Mossberg sticker from off of the 4.10 shotgun. I am currently trying not to cry because I miss my truck. I'm repeating in my head that "it's just a truck".

But she isn't just a truck.

She was my adventure getaway vehicle. She was my mobile tent for when we went camping. She was the vehicle to drive my drunken friends. I love that truck. And I wish to hell that I was able to afford to get her back. Heck, she's going on auction this weekend. I could buy her. Although I don't think she'll go for my budget of $2000. Plus I don't have the money needed to fix her up. She has a lot of issues right now.

I just hope that whoever buys her, loves her as much as I did.

No, I Didn't Die :-)

Oh My Gosh! It has been forever since I have posted anything. Life has been insanely crazy. Since December, life has continued on the downward spiral. I filed bankruptcy, my truck got repo’d. The truck getting repo’d really sucks. Seeing as my blog is called XterraGirl and I no longer have an Xterra. I may have to buy another one once I get discharged, as long as I can afford it of course. Although I did find out that 2015 will be the last year that they are making the Xterra, so I may have to win the lottery and buy a Jeep Rubicon instead. Then I’ll be JeepGirl. Or maybe RubiGirl. I don’t know yet. Only time will tell what is going to happen.

Anyways, there will be a post coming up. A recipe. I took some inspiration last night from a dish that I saw at Costco, but wasn’t able to afford it. Keep a look out…. (although I am going to write it as soon as I finish posting this, so you won’t have to look out for long)


Ta ta for now

Happy New Year

Greetings!
I hope everyone had a great holiday season. The new year is here and with that comes a new outcome on life.
My holiday season was not as good as it could have been. It was another emotional December,  but I am hoping that everything is now behind me so that I can have a fresh start to 2015.

December is always a hard time for me. I'm not a Scrooge,  I am a Grinch. Easiest way to put it is that I hate Christmas.  To me it is about spending time with your loved ones, but too many people focus on the gift aspect. And about receiving gifts. For example,  I was appalled this Christmas when my oldest nephew complained about the number of presents he received at Nana's house. Child was not grateful for what he did receive.  This year I spent approximately  $50 on gifts, as everyone received something handmade. This is mostly because I gave myself the "gift" of bankruptcy for Christmas. 

Ever since leaving the tool store, I have been in financial hardship. Partially brought on from them not paying me my last pay check and vacation pay until mid November.  So with the bankruptcy, I am hoping I can get my financial life in order. With the new year, I will be looking for a new job. One that pays more than minimum wage. I will also be doing my 2nd year as a tax professional.  Which I am excited about.

That is all for now. But I will have another post coming right up also. I figured it would be easier splitting it into two posts. Part 2 to follow...

Grinch Time

This  is going to be a bit of a rant. I completely understand if you want to skip this post all together as it is not going to be one of the greatest moods. You can call me a Grinch but it is what it is.

I do not like Christmas. As I have grown up, my hatred for Christmas has grown also. I know that some of it stems from childhood. Dad being a trucker, was not always home for Christmas. But a lot of it stems from the commercialization of the holiday. I do not understand the purpose of celebrating a holiday where a lot of people go into debt trying to get everything that everybody wants. I know that I am guilty of doing it in the past, which is a partial reason as to why I am in the financial hardship that I am in currently. It seems that no one celebrates the joy of coming together with family and celebrating. It has become all about the presents. For example, I was appalled when one of my nephews last year stated that, “He only got….” I love my nephew, but to complain about the amount of presents that you got does not show the true meaning of Christmas. Yes it is a holiday to celebrate Jesus’ birth. But I think of it more as a time for everyone to come together and spend time with your family. The same nephew last year also made his father very upset as he wanted to spend time at Nana’s (my Mom’s) house playing with me instead of going with the rest of his family (dad, stepmom, and siblings) to visit his stepmoms mother.
It is not uncommon for me to go into a deep depression during December. Unfortunately it started a little earlier this year. Pretending to be cheerful through this time of year is very tiring at times. This year we get to include the joy of trying to move right before Christmas. We had decided late last week that we would just wait it out until the house got sold. But with the circumstances that arose last night, the search has been reinstated. I had even set up our tree.
There won’t be any presents underneath it. It is just to have a bit of a festive feel to the house.
Well that is all I have for now. Hopefully the next time I post it will include some good news about our living situation.

It Is Happening Again…

Oh the joys of being renters.
So earlier this past week, I got home from a shift at work and I notice a sign in the front yard. I ask Justin about it, and low-and-behold it is a For Sale sign. Yay our landlords are putting their house for sale. At least they are going to try to sell the house with us in it. Except that we are going to try and find a new place before that. I have a list of suites to look at, now I just have to call them and set up appointments. If we’re lucky, we can be moving next weekend.
Although the part that really sucks is that we just started organizing our spare room. We have been here a year and only last week did I set up my desk in the spare room. So much for that. Hopefully our next place is bigger. Then we could actually have people over.
Anyways, just wanted to put a little update. I have to get back to cooking dinner before going to class. Ta Ta For Now

Hunting Cliffnotes

October 17 - 20, 2014

We left Friday night after we both got off from work. We headed straight out to Kelowna, as one of Justin's co-workers said that the hunting for grouse up there was awesome. He had been up there two weeks earlier and got about 19 grouse and some rabbits. (Which looking at the reg book afterwards, he is over his possession total for the grouse and if they were cottontail rabbits, those are illegal to shoot.) So here is the synopsis of everywhere that we went...

**Kelowna**
Beaver Lake FSR, Grizzly, Philpot - saw 2 grouse, 1 rabbit, and 1 white tail doe (we bought a white tail tag before going up) in two days. Not impressed at all.

**Rock Creek**
I don't know the name of the road that we went up. But after having an argument on whether to go forward or turn around (we decided to go forward thankfully) we ended up seeing grouse. Saw one covey of 6, then two coveys of 2. We should of stayed in Rock Creek instead of moving over to Tulameen...
Shot - 7 total -- Lisa 2 (including the only Spruce grouse) Justin 5

**Mount Baldy (between Rock Creek and Oliver)**
My bright idea to go up this FSR as a detour between Rock Creek and Osoyoos. Except we only saw one grouse and the road that was supposed to go back down to the highway didn't go through on the GPS but did in the map book so we decided not to go down it and ended up going to Oliver instead.
Shot - 1 total - Justin 1 (he shot it with the .22)

**Tulameen**
Only saw one grouse on either road that we went onto. We camped at the boat launch and finally had a fire.

Shot - 1 total - Justin 1

Total grouse for weekend: 9 --- Lisa 2, Justin 7