I'm still here

Yes, I've been off the radar for a while. Between being sick, not having any energy and just not willing to sit down at the computer long enough to rip something off, no posts. I'm back.

Yesterday I made Charmin an official member of the family. Signed the paperwork and gave up $214 to keep her with me. Yee-ouch on the fee, I just wanted to be done with this particular group.
Then I splurged a bit and bought her a new bed and a couple toys. She loves the toys, the soft balls with colored foil coming out of them. She wasn't sure about the bed at first, I found her using it earlier this morning.

Charmin is starting to overcome her shyness and come out of the office. I had company Saturday night, so I was cooking most of the afternoon. She was out in the kitchen sniffing at what I was making and asking for treats. When my friend came in, she stayed out, let S pet her, lounged on the carpet in the living room like she owned the place.

Kona... There are days when that one can be exasperating. If I wake up 4-5 am and she notices I'm awake she'll come butt her head on my hand and will purr away as I gently scratch and fluff her. She'll nibble on my fingers and be just a good cat. Later in the day she'll be racing around the house, from her perch in the living room through the dining room to the bedroom or into the tub and back again. She'll roll around and dig in the tub for 15 minutes at a time, and if I get down and fluff her, she'll complain as she purrs. If Charmin comes out, she'll chase her back into the office (which got Kona solitary in my bedroom for an hour last night). Silly feline.

They will get into hissy and growly fits at each other, especially if Kona invades the office. Charmin has slapped at Kona once, so Kona's learned to stay out of paw reach. Both will look at me like 'make her stop!' They will figure it out eventually.

Still no work. Nothing brewing on that front even with both the IT and admin sides of the staffing company looking for me. I'm starting to get that itch that I want to go back to work, but there's more I need to do here at home before I'm truly ready.

I also need to set some intentions around work this time. With the reduction in force (RIF) happening where I was doing software licensing at, my chances of going back there right now are slim. If my former boss survives this RIF she wants to do Six Sigma on software licensing and move to a different team. If those things happen then I might have a chance to go in as a contractor and then do the permanent.

But do I want to be somewhere permanently, or do I want to continue to do contracting and freelancing? I just don't know. I want the stability of permanent and a regular paycheck with the flexability and time off of contracting and freelancing.

Something else I'm considering is putting up a wind turbine (or five or seven) on my farm land. There's a company that helps finance and get clearance for wind turbines for farmers, schools and other businesses. The turbine I'm looking at is $268k. If I get it up yet this year, there are federal rebates that would kick back about 30% of that cost.

There are some hoops I would have to jump through, like putting a meter on the land and perhaps building a small hunting shack so I could sell back the excess energy to the local rural electric coop (REC). It benefits me by providing another income source off the land. It benefits the REC by giving them a green power source to help them meet their goals. I'd like to put up at least five turbines along the fence line, one every quarter mile. I could put up a couple more along the roads as well, for seven or eight total.

I need to look at the money issues and how much average wind is out there. I can finance the turbine with a mortgage on the land, which will bring the land value up. How much the retail rate is from the REC is another factor on the mortgage payment.
All things to contemplate.