My plan for today was to tag along with my wife to an offsite church group activity at Virginia Safari Park. But I did not expect to turn into a kid again or have so much fun!

We carpooled about 100 miles from the church assembly point to this Virginia Safari Park, a place I had never heard of. It turned out to be the kind of wildlife attraction where you drive through a huge park-like area where exotic animals from around the world roam free and come close to your vehicle. But instead of driving in our own vehicles, our group program included riding through in a large, open, tractor-pulled wagon that made this even more fun.

As we boarded the wagon after an ostrich-gawking picnic lunch, the driver-guide gave each of us a large plastic bucket full of animal kibble. Every so often, he would stop the wagon along the trail and the animals would converge on us to be fed, close and personal, and essentially by hand. I loved it!

You name it, we fed it. Food bucket snatching camels, pot-bellied pigs, huge-headed Scotch Highland cattle, super tame buffalo, all kinds of gazelles and antelopes, llamas, deer and elk, and more. All coming right up to the wagon and sticking their heads in over the transoms for the food.

The bunch of little kids in our group got me acting like a little kid too. Wanting to be sure I got to feed everything. Wanting to pet everything. Keeping the camels from stealing our buckets. Pouring kibble onto the gigantic tongues of begging buffalos. Ooohing and aaahing over everything. It was great.

After the wagon ride, my wife and I roamed all over the pedestrian zoo-like part of the park to see many more exotic creatures and birds as they "did their thing" in various enclosures. And some of those animals were super-unusual australian and south asian species I had never ever heard of before. So that was great, too.

The trip to this place took practically all day, but it was sure worth it to me. On the way home, we errand-bundled building-supply and grocery stops. And topped it all off with a nice dinner out.

What a nice break.

My plan for the day was to spend the day packing up stuff* at our now-vacant previous home while my old and blind doggie, Little Bit, had surgery performed to remove a massive mammary growth. All went as planned. All went well.

Again, I had to skip a coffee-and-blogging start to my morning** so I could get Little Bit to the vet by 8:00 am -- which I did. Then back I went to our old house to keep working at getting the heck out of it.

It might seem strange for me to take my dog to a vet that is located over 100 miles from my present home, but it actually often ends up being more time efficient for me to do things like vet trips, bank stops and DMV visits when I am already going to be doing the 100-mile trip anyway.***

By 2:30pm, I had done all the packing I could stand doing, my truck was loaded and I was ready to get the heck out of Dodge. Got to the vet by 3pm, and there was Little Bit with a successful surgery under her belt (no pun intended).

With my doggie snuggled up in one of her most favorite places in the world (my pickup's passenger seat), we were off and running. Two-and-a-half hours and 102 miles later, we were home. Another half-hour and my truck was emptied out and I had had it for the day.

After that, it is all a blur but I would not be surprised if I wrapped up my day with a big Chivas Regal and an extended round of Pacific War!****

My plan for the day was to drive over to our now-vacant previous home (102 miles each way), do some caretaking there, load up my pickup* with yet another load of boxed up stuff**, and do a nice hike*** at nearby Shenandoah Virginia State Park. It all worked out.

8:00am to 1:30pm
I skipped my usual early morning coffee-and-blog-writing**** routine to get an early start on my drive. (It takes me a long time to get ready to go.) So I arrived at our previous home around noon, just in time for lunch.

After setting up for my overnight stay (because staying at a vacant house is just like camping!), I had a sandwich lunch while viewing the lecture on The Egyptian New Kingdom in my Human Prehistory and the First Civilizations DVD course.

1:30pm to 5:30pm
Drove over to Shenandoah Virginia State Park and piggybacked Overlook Trail and Allen's Mountain Trail (up and down the mountain) to trailwalk some 4 miles. Great stuff.

5:30pm to 7:30pm
Got a couple of hours packing in and then goofed off the rest of the night.

7:30pm until...
Cooked up dinner, ate it and then caught up my Pacific War fantasy combat journal*****, all while watching the movie Gettysburg.

My plan for the day was to focus mostly on doing stock research* and working on setting up my part-time hiking blog business.** That got changed by a raccoon, a newspaper flyer and a brochure in the mail. But it was all good in the end.

Today, I did my early morning coffee routine at the computer while I edited, typed up and posted my blog article Cashback Cards ARE Worth the Effort. Then off to the barnyard -- where we found our first trapped raccoon.***

8:00am to 12:00 noon
-- Drove and hiked into a secluded wooded area with fresh water access, and released the raccoon. It trotted off about 20 feet, went behind a tree, and then stood there on its haunches looking at me. (Yes, you are welcome for your life, raccoon.)
-- Back at home, I did some stock portfolio monitoring**** and it was time for lunch.

12:00 noon to 1:30pm
-- Another enjoyable sandwich lunch eaten in front of the TV watching a DVD lecture in the Great Courses' Human Prehistory and the First Civilizations.

1:30pm to 6:30pm
-- A day or two ago, a newspaper flyer from Ace Hardware sold us on picking up a modest above-ground pool there at a great discounted price*****. This afternoon, we set it up. (1000 gallons of water is a lot of water.)
-- Having some leftover time and energy, I knocked off a few boxes off our monstrous storage pile.****** It's a start and it felt good.

6:30pm until...
-- Having hardly made a dent on my June 30-deadlined $5000 spending spree*******, I opened today's mail to find an offer I could not resist from the Great Courses company. Seventy percent off on anything and everything in their catalog, including all already discounted courses on sale. So I spent an hour or so deciding what to buy and how to get the most bang for my buck, and then I picked up the phone and ordered TEN courses at a total cost of $795 including taxes and shipping. (List price on the courses was well above $3,000.) Take that, spending spree.
-- And then I played a little Pacific War********...

My plan for today was to spend most of my task time "stockering": reviewing quarterly earnings reports on my portfolio companies* and researching new investments to make.** Plus doing a little more start-up planning for my TrailWalkers Club part-time business***. And I accomplished all that.

Today was also the day we trapped a big raccoon we suspect is the raider that killed 2 of my wife's chickens last week!****

I launched my day with an early round of blog writing, getting down 200 more words***** on my newest opus, Cashback Cards ARE Worth the Effort, while enjoying a cup of my free gourmet coffee.******

8:00am to 12:00 noon
-- barnyard critter detail and house chores
-- pinned down all the regulatory hoops I will have to jump through to start up TrailWalkers Club (county, state and fed -- oh, my!)

12:00 noon to 1:30pm
-- lunch and another Great Courses DVD lecture from Prehistoric Man and the First Civilizations.
-- welcomed my wife home from her latest business trip.

1:30pm to 6:30pm
-- researched stocks, plowed through several quarterly earnings reports, and set up some new buys and some possible profit-making sales.

6:30pm to ...
-- set out our new and BIGGER live trap at the barnyard.
-- after dinner, played a long session of Pacific War******.

and a trapped raccoon!
-- the trap worked and the next morning we found a big raccoon in the trap!

Last year, I had to choose between spending $350 for a new laptop computer or spending $113 to get both my desktop pc and my laptop back into service.* Of course, I went the frugal route** and regained the use of 2 computers for one third the cost of buying just one. Unfortunately, my Gateway laptop has now developed new problems that actually make replacing it the frugal way to go. Luckily, I have found a way to also keep using my old Gateway that makes the cost of my new laptop tax-deductible. Here is how.

My Gateway laptop's screen suddenly went black. It had been flickering slightly for a few days, but this was finally the end. One second I had a fine screen image and the next I had nothing. My local pc repair shop offers free diagnostics so I took my poor pc there. The tech confirmed that my screen was dead... priced out an installed replacement screen at $170... and showed me the keyboard command to shunt the laptop's image signal to an exterior monitor. And that would give me a frugal solution. But...

My laptop's operating system had become another problem. My Gateway's operating system is Windows XP. I knew Microsoft had stopped "supporting" Windows XP in April. But I did not realize what that meant until the tech explained it to me. No support means no more software updates automatically downloaded and installed when you shut your pc down. And no software updates means no software "patches" to combat new hacker threats. My XP system had become an open door for hackers to access my laptop anytime I went online. All my financial accounts and passwords were now at serious risk of breach.

Now repairing would cost more than buying new. I could have a "late model" Windows 7 operating system for $190 installed. I could replace my screen for $170 installed. And I would have to spend $70 to clear my Gateway of any and all viruses and malware it had picked up. That all added up to $430. Instead, I bought a brand new Asus Transformer Convertible Tablet/Laptop for $374 total. With more computing capability than my Gateway. Preloaded with Microsoft Office, which I did not have on my Gateway. And perfect for my under-development hiking blog side business.***

But my old Gateway will still help keep things frugal. I have a spare working monitor! So I just connected it to my Gateway using the keyboard command the tech showed me and my old laptop became usable again. I just will not use it for financial or other password-sensitive stuff. The Gateway is now my "fun" internet computer, dedicated to Retired-To-Win blogging and web surfing. Why bother doing that? Because it makes the purchase of the my new Asus laptop tax-deductible.

My new Asus is now my "business" computer. I will use it for portfolio stock management**** and for TrailWalkers Club*** work. This makes the $374 cost of the Asus a tax-deductible business expense. And therefore brings my true cost for the Asus down to under $300. (To be exact, $296 if I factor in the cashback reward.*****) Sweet!

The takeaway: There is more than one way to skin a cat. And more than one way to be frugal. When a piece of equipment stops working, don't just run out to buy a replacement. Always look first into repairing what you have.****** Then go with the frugal flow.

My plan for today was to go hiking* in the morning (before the rains came) and hunker down to do paperwork in the afternoon. And so I did. Walked a long, hard new trail and swept a bunch of paper out of my inbaskets.

I am now back to my early am routine of good coffee** and blog post writing.*** So I did some 200 words on my new blog article "Cashback Cards ARE Worth The Effort", had breakfast and got ready to go hiking.

8:00am to 1:30pm
-- With my wife Kathy on a business trip, I took care of her barnyard (geese, bunnies, chickens) for her.
-- Took a nice drive to Walnut Creek Park for my hike.
-- Since I had enough energy and time, I walked the longest trail in the Park (about 4 miles) for a darn good workout, seeing as this Wilkins Way Trail was designed for trail biking and that made it challenging in places for on-foot hikers. But what the heck!
-- Back at home, I had lunch while viewing The Origins of States and Civilizations, lecture #19 in the Prehistory and First Civilizations DVD course I am currently "attending."

1:30pm to 7:30pm
-- Dove into my paperwork pile and paid bills, updated stock records,**** fixed admin problems and placed orders for miscellaneous house stuff.
-- Wrapped my tasks time block***** with 45 minutes of new-planting watering for my wife.

7:30pm to ...
-- Had dinner and played Pacific War****** until I got too sleepy to stay awake.
-- NICE DAY!

I drink fancy, schmanzy Tully's French Roast Coffee. I get it in little individual serving "K cups" that I brew in a Keurig coffee maker. These K-cups come in boxes of 18 that retail at $11.78 (with tax) where I get them. That works out to 65 cents per cup of coffee. But I do not pay a single penny for my coffee and have not for a couple of years. Here is how I manage that.

First step: I use cashback cards. And I always make sure that I am taking advantage of each credit card's quarterly 5% cashback promotion.* My Discover cashback card has promotions like that. So I make sure to carry that card in my wallet and use it whenever I can get that 5% cashback leverage on purchases I am going to make anyway.

Second step: I leverage my cashback redemptions.** For the Discover card, that means that I redeem my cashback Discover dollars for Bed Bath and Beyond gift cards instead of cash. Doing that gets me a $25 BBBY gift card for just 20 Discover cashback dollars.

Third step: I wait for the BBBY discount coupons. These come regularly via emails and via postal mail flyers. And they are good for either $5 off a $15 purchase or 20% off a single item.

Fourth step: I go get that free coffee. Here are the numbers from my most recent BBBY coffee raid. I gave the cashier two 18-cup boxes to ring up at $11.49 each, for a total of $22.98. Then I gave her a $5 off store coupon, leaving a balance of $17.98. Add the 2.5% food sales tax, and the final total was $18.43. To pay, I handed the cashier a $25 BBBY gift card. And I walked out with my two 18-cup boxes of Tully's French Roast Coffee and $6.57 credit still left on my BBBY gift card.

Doing the math, I leveraged 14.74 in Discover cashback dollars by almost 60% to get coffee worth $23.55 after tax. That is a nice win. And I got those Discover cashback dollars just for using that credit card on 5% cashback purchases I would have made anyway. That is a win-win. Free gourmet coffee every day. Win-win-win.

The takeaway: Playing the Frugal Game my way*** will put a smile on your face every time.

My plan for today was to sweep through May-end pending chores and paperwork, and to do some blog planning. I managed to do all that, while continuing to act out our raccoon raid saga.*

I got back to my routine of starting my day with good coffee and writing or posting in my blog.** Today I posted an article I titled Is That Expense Essential or Discretionary?***. Then onto the chores and paperwork.

8:00am to 12:00noon
-- First thing, I went to check the traps we set out last night.* No raccoons. Just sprung traps several feet from where I set them. We are going to need a bigger trap! (So my wife promptly ordered one.)
-- Then I blitzed through a whole bunch of home administration paperwork until lunch time.

12:00noon to 1:30pm
-- Back to my routine of a nice sandwich lunch while viewing a Great Courses DVD lecture. (Presently, I am halfway through the course on Human Prehistory and First Civilizations.)

1:30pm to 5:30pm
-- Because it is month-end and I just returned from a 3-day trailwalking trip****, I doubled up today's task time and dove back into the paperwork.
-- That done, I spent a couple of hours reviewing quarterly earnings reports***** from companies in my stock portfolio (something I am falling behind on) and placing some orders for tomorrow.

5:30pm until...
-- Work time done, I spent my evening doing some blog planning, organizing my TrailWalkers Club to-do notes, and playing my Pacific War pc game.******

Whatever plans I may have had for today flew out the window when, early in the morning, my wife came in from her barnyard and announced that we had "a crisis in the henhouse." I spent the better part of the day helping her address that crisis by setting up chicken coop defenses against suspected raccoon raiders. Here is the whole story.

Yesterday, my wife had reported the disappearance of Goldie, one of her preferred egg-laying hens. Not finding her in the coop when she opened it that morning, she had speculated that Goldie might have somehow escaped the previous evening before the coop was closed up for the night. But, alas, no. Because today she found the mangled and torn-asunder body of Cochee, her only Cochin hen, on the roof of the 8-foot chicken coop.

She deduced that a raccoon had found a way to scale the coop wall, crawl into the coop through the ventline that runs along and under the roof, catch and drag out the hen, and then totally shred her. So, we had a job to do if we were going to keep our remaining 5 chickens from suffering a similar fate.

So off we went to obtain the materials and get the tools to completely wrap the roof ventline in tightly-stapled chicken wire so no raccoon could again crawl in. But there was more to be done, because who was to say that a dexterous raccoon would not be able to open one of the rabbit hutch doors and make off with one of my wife's cute bunnies? So we installed raccoon-proof spring-loaded latches on all four rabbitt hutches and weighed each of their swing-up hutch tops with a brick.

That took care of defense. Then on to offense. Because the raccoon(s) had to go.

So that night we set up 2 live traps around the chicken coop (each baited with an open can of tuna) and retired for the night hoping for the best.

I did do some stock portfolio management today and took care of some other paperwork. But that was just minutiae. Today was the day of the raccoon.

Whatever plans I may have had for today flew out the window when, early in the morning, my wife came in from her barnyard and announced that we had "a crisis in the henhouse." I spent the better part of the day helping her address that crisis by setting up chicken coop defenses against suspected raccoon raiders. Here is the whole story.

Yesterday, my wife had reported the disappearance of Goldie, one of her preferred egg-laying hens. Not finding her in the coop when she opened it that morning, she had speculated that Goldie might have somehow escaped the previous evening before the coop was closed up for the night. But, alas, no. Because today she found the mangled and torn-asunder body of Cochee, her only Cochin hen, on the roof of the 8-foot chicken coop.

She deduced that a raccoon had found a way to scale the coop wall, crawl into the coop through the ventline that runs along and under the roof, catch and drag out the hen, and then totally shred her. So, we had a job to do if we were going to keep our remaining 5 chickens from suffering a similar fate.

So off we went to obtain the materials and get the tools to completely wrap the roof ventline in tightly-stapled chicken wire so no raccoon could again crawl in. But there was more to be done, because who was to say that a dexterous raccoon would not be able to open one of the rabbit hutch doors and make off with one of my wife's cute bunnies? So we installed raccoon-proof spring-loaded latches on all four rabbitt hutches and weighed each of their swing-up hutch tops with a brick.

That took care of defense. Then on to offense. Because the raccoon(s) had to go.

So that night we set up 2 live traps around the chicken coop (each baited with an open can of tuna) and retired for the night hoping for the best.

I did do some stock portfolio management today and took care of some other paperwork. But that was just minutiae. Today was the day of the raccoon.