Life Is Always Changing

So I alluded to some changes coming down the pike in 2016 for us at Chez Sluggy in earlier posts.

And here is the big one.......my daughter is going back to school and moving back in with us in PA.
And she is bringing her boyfriend.
As Sonya Ann would say, "yaaaaay" with a frowning face. 8-(

As of now we don't have a hard timeline for when this move will occur as Daughter is dealing with medical issues and wants them address in Louisiana before they move to Pennsylvania(at least right now that is her plan).  So when she starts school(and moves here)will depend on when the medical is addressed.  She basically needs Laparoscopic back surgery.  I won't get into details on this here.
We are at the whims of her spine doc and our insurance provider(and probably appeals by said insurer)as to when she will be able to get the surgery.  If she gets it soon, she can start college in the Fall and will be moving here in August.  If they keep delaying then she starts in the Spring and moves here in December.  If her spine doc refuses to do the surgery on her then she can quit her job and move back sooner rather than later and get a new spine doc up here.

So I have either until August or until December to make room in the house for her and the boyfriend.
Oh and did I mention they are bringing their dog too? ;-)
So we are going from a household of 2 and 1 kid here part time(when not in school)to a household of 4 and 1 kid here part time and a rather large crazy dog.

We have very little clutter left in our house(just lots of dirt lolz)but I am again searching the house with a keen eye toward getting rid of more "stuff".  Hubs has lots of "stuff", from his book addiction, to his chess accoutrements to his beer brewing supplies.  My "stuff" is a fabric stash and lots and lots of toiletries.  The food stockpile is not "stuff" and will be needed even more once they all move in here.

I do still have some things I never listed on eBay(about 5 tubs worth)which I will be going through soon and doing something with it all.  The immediate problem is that Daughter's old room is now the Toiletry Room so most of the toiletries here need to be moved elsewhere.  If I had my druthers I wouldn't be selling or giving a lot of this away(as we will use it eventually and with 2 more people in the house we will be going through the toiletries at a faster clip).  But I took a serious look at it all and some of it needs to go for lack of room.  I guess I could keep it all and have Rubbermaid tubs stacked around in all the rooms of the house but I don't want the house to resemble a storage unit. lolz

So, even though some of you readers feel I don't need the cash and I should just give it all away, I will be putting some of the toiletry stash up for sale locally.  I really don't want to have to organize a yard sale/toiletry sale or go to a flea market and sell my excess, as I have done in the past, as it's time consuming and just something I don't want to deal with at this time.  So I am using a FB yard sale page for my town presently to sell items and will expand out and list items on the local Craigslist board if the sales just don't happen as quickly as I need them to.  And if neither of those ideas pan out then I can get use to the "Early American Storage Unit" Look.  ;-)

If I had my druthers I wouldn't sell any of this but life changes and you roll with the punches.

I listed a few items on Friday and a few more on Saturday morning and here is what I've earned for my efforts...........

$70 bucks and someone is picking up shampoo this afternoon which will make a grand total of $90 so far.  8-)))

Once Daughter and BF move in we will have added expenses all around.  At least until the BF gets a job here and starts paying for some expenses. With Daughter in school full time and depending on how her back is she might not be able to get a part time job for awhile.
So yeah, I do need the money to add to what it will cost us in additional expenses(food, electric which includes a/c and heat)to live here.  I'd rather not stop putting money away for retirement expenses like I do now but if I have to stop my Savings Challenge for awhile I can.
 And until Daughter sells her house(the proceeds of which will go toward paying for college-the portion her scholarships don't pay)we will be fronting her money for college expenses too.  In the end we will get back what we spend on the college expenses but not on the living expenses.

All I can say is that Daughter is darn lucky her parents are careful with their money and in a position to help her and willing to give her a help with a fresh start in life.

How do I feel about all this?
Well, I've been in a funk most of the Winter over this.  I'd go so far as to say I've been depressed. Going from a nice quiet and peaceful household of 2+ to a household of 4+ and a dog is not something that was on my radar as we moved toward retirement.  And we really don't know her BF well so having a stranger living here produced some anxiety in me.  There are elements of my personality that are gregarious and outgoing but when I am home I am pretty introverted.  I need a quiet place to call home to recharge myself.
And my Daughter is somewhat high maintenance and brings the drama at time(plus her relationship with BF adds to the drama). We seemed to have a great relations once she moved to Louisiana. lolz

Add in that having them here until she is finished with school is also going to push back our moving out of PA timeline.  We had hoped to leave in the Spring of 2018 and relocate once we paid for the last semester of College Boy's tuition, but Daughter may not be done with her degree by then.  So we are stuck here until she gets that diploma.  Well we CAN move away but we can't sell this house until she's finished with school.

I have doubts about how this will all work in the end but I am willing to make changes in my life to accommodate them and their needs.  I hope we can avoid conflict and I am trying to stay positive about what will come.


Sluggy

Weis Friday Deals

I did indeed go back to Weis(PMITA)Markets on Friday to do the One Day Deals only available on Friday.  I put it all away before thinking to take a picture. 8-(

I got.....
1 Watermelon for $4(despite the time of year it WAS good!)
1 head of Lettuce for .99¢
1 head of Cauliflower for $2
10 ears of FL Corn for $3(again, early but sweet!)  Dinner last night was roasted corn on the cob and watermelon for me.  Hubs added leftover Rigatoni in Sauce.

I also picked up an in-store bakery blueberry pie for Hubs for $3.99.

My two best deals though were meats--
I tried that chicken breakkfast sausage for $2 I bought on Thursday and it was excellent so I bought 5 more packages and "fed" our freezer. lol
And I bought a slab of ribs which cost $7.19 for 5.21 lbs.  How could I not for the price of $1.38 a lb!
This slab will be going on the smoker Sunday morning and will be enough for 2 meals for Hubs & I.

Another $31.18 spent OOP, $32.49 saved or 51% savings rate on these groceries.
Still under my $250 food spending Budget for April but by less than $1.

I've now got to resist spending anymore on food until a Week from this coming Sunday.
Not sure if I can do that but I'll try.  ;-)

Ok, time to get some laundry done, sell a few toiletries and get those ribs rubbed down for tomorrow.

What's on your agenda this weekend?

Sluggy

Weis Markets Run on Thursday

I went up to Weis(PMITA)Markets yesterday to check out the instant sticker discounts.  Found some surprising good deals while I was there that didn't even necessitate that I bring any coupons with me.

I usually check out the Weis ad online which they release on Tuesday, and gather my Qs and see what Deals I want to get when they go live on Thursday.  But Weis' online site was down Tuesday and Wednesday so I went in without knowing what I was going to do....other than check for instant sticker discounts.

It wasn't the frugal-est of shops since I bought a snack type thing and sodas but things went aok.

Here is what I came out with.......

As usual everything was on sale(except the milk which is never on discount here in PA).

First I picked up a cuke and BOGO free grape tomatoes.  I also had a Weis Q they mailed me for .75¢ off the tomatoes.  I like to make a cuke and tom salad with a splash of Italian Dressing on it.

Then I found in the refrigerated case of healthy drinks a 50% sticker on a small POM bottle, as well as 50% off stickers on the 3 Bolthouse juices you also see in the photo.  Each Bolthouse juice bottle also had a hangtag with a $1/1 Bolthouse juice Q on it.  I don't usually buy these pre-made juice concoctions but for $.64, $1.49 and $1.99 each I'll be drinking some healthy juice/smoothie drinks this coming week.  The "Healthy Greens" doesn't look very appetizing but it's full of veggies so I'll just close my eyes when I swig that one down. lolz

Next it was over to the fresh meat counter but they didn't have any sticker deals today that tempted me, so I was off to the frozen foods case where I found Halal(kosher) chicken maple breakfast sausages with $1 off instant stickers.  These usually go for $5.99 a 14 ounce pack but were on sale for $3 a pack, after the $1 off sticker, they were $2 each.  I would have bought more but I don't know if Hubs will eat these(chicken for breakfast?loz)so I only bought 3.  I intend to open one up this morning and try them.  If they pass the taste test, and if the rest that had stickers on them are still there, I'll go back on today and scoop them up as well.

Following around the perimeter of the store I found those large burrito-sized tortillas on clearance for $1.50(only 1 pack left)and I got the milk over there as well.

I fancied some popcorn so picked a 3 pack box up that was on sale.  While in the drink/snack aisle I saw Powerade Zero drinks were on sale for .88¢ each so I bought a rare flavor I never see in sugar-free, Strawberry.  Then I had a craving for that good dark ginger-ale, it was on sale so into my cart it jumped.  Also a bottle of Polar Soda half & half was on sale so it accompanied the ginger ale.

I found a pack of in-store bakery made bagels for 50% off in the bread area and then nearby they had a display of that 1893 Pepsi I've seen ads for on tv.  It was on sale and they had a tear pad of coupons on the display(which doubled to $1 off 2 drinks)so I had to get one of each flavor to try.  I wouldn't buy this for the reg. price of $1.99 a can but with sale/Q I'll spend .75¢ a can to check it out.  Even if it's tasty I won't be buying it as a regular part of my shopping, but sometimes you have to break out of your comfort zone and try new things.

The last thing that caught my eye was 6-pack bottles of Pepsi branded sodas were on sale for $2.50 each when you bought 4.  The diet Dr. Pepper ones all had $1 off this 6-pack coupons stuck to them, so I got $15.96 worth of DDP for $6($1.50 a 6-pack of bottles)after sales and Qs.
Summer drink supply?
Heck ya!

My little shop cost me $33.53 OOP after discounts.
Regular price of my groceries was $77.53 making this a savings of 57%.
And I am still under $250 food spending for the month.
Yeah Baby!! 8-)

I'll be going back today for the Friday specials as they have some fresh produce on discount today only, including watermelon, strawberries and corn on the cob.  Dinner tonight might just be watermelon and roasted COC and nothing else.
Yah, I could go for that.......

Sluggy

John Redfern.....My Wandering Ancestor Part 3

Here is where we left off on the last installment--

It's 1860 and John Redfern is farming in Richland Township, Jackson County Iowa.  Also living with him are his second wife, Mary Hagen Redfern and some of their children; Alice(14), Francis(12), Peter(9)and Anna(9).

Also in 1860 we find Sarah Redfern, daughter of John Redfern and his first wife, Sarah Elizabeth O'Neal, married to Robert Spencer Bowman and living in Orange County, New York.  They have five children together and all the children are living with their parents.

Since John Redfern does not appear on any 1870 Federal Census we have to go to other types of documentation available to us to track his movements.
If you thought he'd still be living in Jackson County Iowa in 1870 you would be very much mistaken!
Yes, John Redfern was on the move again.

In December 1868 John Redfern appears on a tax assessment list for 1000 acres of land he owns in Stinking Water Valley Montana.
Also appearing on that same assessment page is James, his son, as the owner of property in nearby California Gulch Montana.  Jame was assessed taxes on his 412 acres in July of 1868.

So we know by this tax record that by the end of 1868, both John Redfern and son James were in Montana.

Then we can look at the Montana Pioneers Society applications for John Redfern and three of his sons; William John, James and Francis Redfern.  Part of this Society application asks when and where the applicants arrived in Montana and where they traveled from to get to Montana.

William John Redfern, John Redfern's oldest son, was the first to make the move to Montana, arriving in late August of 1863 at Bagdadtown, Biven's Gulch.  He said he traveled from Denver, Colorado through Salt Lake City, but we don't know how long he was in Colorado before leaving for Montana.  When he arrived in Montana he was 32 years old.

Here is the most probably route William John took to Montana....

The leg from Jackson Iowa to Denver Colorado is 864.9 miles.

The leg from Denver CO to the Ruby Valley area of Montana is 925.7 miles.

Before we tell of the journeys of the other Redferns here's a bit about western overland travel during the 1860's.

First off there were no highways, trains, ferries or even much of any roads once you got west of the Mississippi River in the 1860's.
There were well established trails which the native peoples in America had forged and used for well over 300+ years.

In the 1840's after the discovery of gold in California and as the US government began land grabs from the British and Spanish and Mexico to annex those resource rich lands to America, and the Native peoples were driven off by the US military, people began moving beyond the Mississippi in larger numbers.

There were 3 important migration Trails at this time; The California Trail, the Oregon Trail and the Mormon Trail.

This was basically one trail west, the starting point of which was Independence Missouri(except for the Mormons who started from Nauvoo IL).  Many groups took boats up the Missouri River from Saint Louis, but others made the trek from somewhere East to Independence MO to begin their Westward journey.

Once you made it into Wyoming at South Pass which was on the Continental Divide where two passes were located through the Rocky Mountains that is where these three trails diverged.

The Mormons headed southwest into the Salt Lake Valley of modern day Utah.
The CA and OR bound travelers zigged northwesterly to Fort Hall Idaho Territory where the CA immigrants headed south westerly across Nevada and then decided on which of three routes into California, while those with an Oregan destination verged off from Fort Hall ID northwesterly across Idaho and into Oregon.

Here's the route of the Oregon Trail in full.

And here is the Mormon Trail.

You can see that the bulk of the trail of all three traveled along the same route, following along the banks of the Great Platte River from Omaha NE into Wyoming.
There were no bridges along the route so rivers had to be followed and then forded where water levels were low using makeshift rafts to cross the water.

Traveling into the west was a slow arduous process, fret with bad weather conditions, having to stop for months at a time and "winter over" at forts or outposts of civilization.  Add in the danger of wild animals all around you and that there were still native peoples that hadn't been driven onto reservations or into other parts of the country by the US Calvary plus bands of marauders(of all races) who lived off of raiding settlers wagon trains(not to mention killing many of them).
And don't forget about injuries and diseases that were likely to visit upon these immigrants.  If you didn't break your leg fixing a wagon wheel or run out of fresh water then you might get dysentery instead.  Many who traveled in these wagon trains died and where buried along the trail.
This was no pleasant journey.


We don't know how long William John Redfern took to make his crossing from Denver to Ruby Valley Montana.  We know that from Kanesville Iowa on the Missouri River until they reached the Salt Lake Valley, the first party of Mormons took 10 weeks in relatively good weather to cover that much ground.  We also don't know if William John went to SLC and then North or zagged North into Wyoming via the Soda Springs Cut-Off route and then due North into Montana.  We just know that it was a difficult journey and he didn't travel alone but with a wagon train of other settlers of some sort.


William John is listed in the 1870 Federal Census, living in Madison County, Montana Territory with a wife, Margaret.  (This is Margaret Cain, born about 1840 in Ireland.  Looking through the immigration records I haven't been able to pinpoint which Margaret Cain she is and who her parents were but it's most likely that she immigrated to America from Ireland as a teen or adult and came alone.  There are only a couple of official documents attached to her, one being her marriage record and the other being her mention in this 1870 census.  She died before the 1880 Federal Census was taken.)

Now as for James his brother.....
James Redfern, the second son of John Redfern, was the second to make his way to Montana.  In 1860, a family narrative says, he was living in Nebraska, though he doesn't appear in the Census for that year.  You'll recall he arrived in America in 1850 and made his way to his father's family in Iowa.  At some point he made his way to Nebraska by 1860.
Jackson Iowa to Nebraska is a journey of 548.9 miles

He arrived in Virginia City, Madison County, Montana Territory from somewhere in Nebraska in 1864.

Again we don't know if James traveled via Salt Lake Valley and due North into Montana or if he traveled via the Soda Springs Wyoming Cut-Off.  The second route would have taken off a measurable amount of miles from his journey as the NE to MT via SLC route is 864.9 miles.

At any rate, James married in 1866 in Montana, to Julia Edwards, and appears in the tax assessment book for Montana in July 1868. James was about 31 years old when he got to Montana.

Then in 1864, John Redfern, along with his son, Francis Redfern, left their home in Jackson County, Iowa and made the journey to Montana too, arriving 16 August 1864 to Stinking Water Valley. Stinking Water is one of the names people used for the Ruby River, a tributary of the Beaverhead River.  It is said that this area on the River had sulphur deposits which made it "stink".  The deposits also kept the area warmer than surrounding areas in Montana so it had been a hunting ground for Native Americans as the warmth and running water even in Winter brought wildlife to this spot.
Francis Redfern was a boy of 15 years old and John Redfern was an elderly man of 59 years old when they arrived in the Ruby Valley of Montana.

We do know from the Pioneers Society application that John and Francis took a route from Jackson Iowa across the Great Plains(Iowa and Nebraska)to Salt Lake Valley and then North into the Ruby Valley of Montana.  This route constituted a 1650.3 mile journey.

Another family narrative fills in some of the details on the migration of Francis and John Redfern.
John and family(besides my ancestor Sarah)were living in Eastern Iowa up to late 1863 when John decided to head to Oregon to homestead there.  Oregon had just been made a state in 1859 so there was plenty of wide open spaces still and land to lay claim to there.
At some point before 1860 James left the Redfern homestead in Iowa for Nebraska and William John left Iowa also for Denver Colorado-date unknown but probably before 1863 when his father John Redfern decided to move to Oregon.
I find it interesting that John the father was going to Oregon but his oldest two sons most probably were headed to Montana as their destination as neither mentions in their applications about a change of plans from Oregon to Montana.

Teh family narrative continues that John and Francis along with some of the Edwards family(a multi generational clan of one of an Edwards line)who were neighbors in Jackson Iowa left in a wagon train headed toward Oregon.  The wagon master was a man named Charles Wesley Gideon.  This is most probably the husband of Phoebe Edwards.  (Phoebe Edwards was the sister of Manville Eli Edwards, who was the father of Julia Edwards, whom married James Redfern in 1866 in Montana.  More on the Edwards Family later.)

There was tragedy surrounding this trip.  Just before departing two Edwards children drowned in a river.  This was probably a smaller tributary of the North Fork of the Maquoketa River called Farmer's Creek.  Farmer's Creek is where the Redferns and Edwards homestead were located.

The wagon train made is as far as Salt Lake City before having to Winter over in place. Another of the group's 2 year old child died that winter in SLC.
At some point along the way news got to them of silver being found in Montana which made the group vote to head North to Laurin, Montana instead of continuing onward to Oregon.
So it's only by chance(and the prospects of making it rich in a silver strike)that John Redfern ended up in Montana near his oldest sons.


What was my direct ancestor, Sarah Redfern Bowman, during these years?   In the 1860 Federal Census she and husband Robert Spencer Bowman are living with their five surviving children in Montgomery, Orange County, New York, as we saw in the last installment of this saga.
In 1863 the US Congress passed a conscription which was the first wartime draft of US citizens in american history.  This act required the registration of all males between the age of 20 and 45, including aliens who had the intention of becoming citizens in the future.  You could buy an exemption from this draft for $300(this would be over $5000 in today's money)or by finding someone who would go in your stead.
I don't need to mention that this exemption which only the wealthiest families could afford led to the NYC Draft Riots of 1863.(If you saw the film, "Gangs of New York", these riots were briefly touched on in this movie.)
Robert Spencer Bowman/s name appears in the records for the 11th NY Congressional District which included Orange County NY.  He was 36 years old and still not a citizen of the USA.  Thankfully my ancestors were tucked away "upstate" in June of 1863 and weren't in the midst of the 3 days of murder and violence of the Draft Riots.

We get a bonus as New York state did their own state census a few times in the 1800's so we have a record of the family in 1865 as well which is only one year after her father John and half-brother Francis Redern made it to Montana.  My Redren/Bowmans are still living in Montgomery, NY and Robert the father is still working as a laborer. Two more children have been born since 1860; James M. in 1861, and Sarah J. in 1864. James Bowman is my 2 x Great Grandfather.

So why didn't the rest of John Redfern's family(his wife Mary Jane, and children Barnabas, Margaret, Alice, May, Anna Susan, her twin brother Peter Joseph, Patrick and Mary J)go to Montana as well?
And what happened to them all?  And what happened to the 4 Redfern men who went to Montana?
And what happened to John Redfern's daughter by his first wife, Sarah Redfern Bowman and her family in NY?

All will be revealed next time in Part 4 of our saga.

Sluggy

A Little Musical Interlude

College Boy plays bass in two different bands....these are outside of the college bands he is in.

The Docile Sponge is the first band he was/is part of.  They formed it while he was still in high school and their music is alternative/heavy metal-ish.

The other band he is in is called The New Nowhere.  They formed up at college and have been playing a few gigs here and there.  Nothing involving making money yet. ;-)
Their music could be classified as indie/punk/pop.

 College Boy is on the left on bass, Blaine on drums, Steven on guitar/vocals.

Hubs and I went to hear them play on Sunday as it wasn't too far from here.
The venue is someone's old barn building in the middle of nowhere(fitting for The New Nowhere to play there, right? lol).

There were 5 or 6 bands slated to play that evening, starting at 6 pm.  Things were a bit disorganized so the bands didn't start actually playing until 7 pm.  We had hoped to stay and hear more of the bands but with the late start we left right after CB's band played because we wanted to leave before dark as we weren't confident of finding our what back out of there in the dark.
So we hung out with all the college aged indie music peeps, mostly from their college, for an hour before the show started.  I think one of the college kids who came to watch the show brought their mom but otherwise we were by far the oldest "kids" in the room.

I find this band's music a little more relatable than the other band he is in.
The tunes are more mainstream. however the lyrics are still filled with teenage/college angst.
Here are two of the songs from their set.

Performing "I Hate Last Summer"

Performing "You Can't Win Em All".
Their friend Brandon plays the trumpet on this one.
And excuse the large pole obstruction in this video which CB is hiding behind for most of the song. It's a very informal venue. lolz




Sluggy