He’s HERE! Welcome Timothy!

Posted on April 22, 2013 by

Timothy is here!

Timothy is finally here!

He was born on April 11th, 2013 at 8:21PM.  He weighed 9 pounds, 2.5 ounces and was 22 inches long.  That’s a big boy!

In the week and a half since his arrival, I’ve noticed a few things:

  • My body and multiple feedings and diaper changes during the night don’t mix well.  It’s a finely tuned sleeping machine.  Until now I’ve typically been able to get into bed and be asleep within about 5 minutes and out cold until it was time to wake up.  This getting up every few hours just ain’t right. Normally when I wake up, I’m awake.  No grogginess.  Well, I found where I was storing all of my groggy and I’m tapping into it.
  • Urgency has a new definition.  I have found myself doing normal household chores on a much more frequent basis whenever the opportunity arises.  There used to be a mental conversation where I’d convince myself that it could be done later.  Not anymore.  Any chance to get something done is a chance that needs to be taken.  You never know when the next opportunity will come.
  • Cuteness does not cancel out frustration at 2AM.  Timothy is a cute baby.  I know I’m biased, but he’s cute.  This does not change the fact that at 2AM I want him to fall back asleep after being changed or fed.  I’ve heard that exhaustion is a temporary thing.  I hope that’s true.  :)

What did you learn in the first days or weeks after you brought a baby home?

Timothy with a mohawkTimothy

Posted in Raun's Blog | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Cutting the Cord Part 2 — How to replace Cable TV for a few dollars a month

Posted on April 15, 2013 by

Raun's BlogLast week, I told you about our decision to cut cable TV.  I did a lot of research to determine what our options are.  It turns out that there are lots of possibilities.

There are a couple of qualifications I want to make before digging deeper:

  1. We are keeping high speed internet service.
  2. We are keeping the TV.

From this point, we have a few choices to make.  We could completely avoid any additional investments, we could purchase equipment and/or services for a one-time fee, or we could sign up for monthly subscriptions.  I’ll start with no new investments and work up from there.

No additional investments

We could watch YouTube videos or standard Hulu programming on the computer. We could plug the computer into the TV by HDMI and watch from there.  That is an option, but it could be a bit cumbersome.

Some networks allow you to stream entire episodes of shows onto your computer.

We decided these options weren’t going to cut it, but if you really don’t have any budget to work with, this is probably better than nothing.

One time investments

This is where options really start to unfold.  Most of us forgot about over the air stations long ago, but they are still there.  When Congress required OTA stations to broadcast in digital rather than analog, many stations added additional subchannels. In order to receive channels, you’ll need a digital tuner and an antenna.  Any TV built after March 2008 is required to have a digital tuner built in.  Larger TV’s built in 2005 or later probably have them as well.

Depending on where you are in relation to transmission towers, you may be able to pick up quite a few channels just from the TV.  We needed an antenna.  I searched and read reviews of several different types and brands of antennas. A great resource to help you determine what type of antenna you need and what channel options you’ll have is Antennaweb.org.  You simply enter your zip code and it gives you a list of channels you should be able to receive and a map of where the towers are along with the distance between you and them.

We’re only 6 miles away from our local towers so we only needed a small indoor antenna.

We settled on the Mohu Leaf Paper-Thin Indoor HDTV Antenna.  We picked it up on Amazon for under $40.  This thing is amazing! Like the name says, it is paper thin.  It’s white on one side and black on the other to be able to hide it in your decor.  It is also paintable to make it blend in even better.  It is about the size of a sheet of paper as well.

Mohu Leaf Digital TV Antenna

Mohu Leaf Digital TV Antenna

Putting aesthetics aside, it actually works too!  We are able to pick up 43 channels in full HD.  We didn’t have HD service with cable, so this is a step up.  The best part is there are no ongoing costs for this.  We’ve been pleasantly surprised with how many good programs we’ve been able to watch that we didn’t even know existed before.

We also decided to jump into the content streaming market.  There are several devices on the market that stream video content directly onto your television including Apple TV, the Boxee Box, and Roku.  We chose to go with Roku.  We picked up a Roku 3 Streaming Media Player directly from Roku for $100.  There are other models that may work for you for as little as $50.  There are no ongoing costs for this either.  Dozens or maybe hundreds of channels are available (some have a monthly subscription cost).  Some are very good, others not so much.

My favorite free Roku channels:

  • VideoBuzz — This channel allows you to easily stream YouTube videos directly onto your TV. [UPDATE:  VideoBuzz is no longer available, so if you have any suggestions on a new way to watch YouTube videos on TV, please leave a comment below]
  • TED Talks — This channel shows videos of hundreds of presentations from TED conferences.  I find many of them to be fascinating.
  • TWiT — This Week In Tech Channel has tons of shows available all about technology and computing.  You can also live stream some of their shows.
  • MLB.tv — This one could be a stretch as far as free goes.  You can buy a yearly membership to get a bunch of advanced options.  I need my baseball fix once in a while and MLB.tv gives you access to a free game every day.  They choose the game, but it is still baseball and it is still free.  Local blackouts apply, so if the free game features my home team I can’t watch it until it’s over.

Subscription Options

Along with the free channels, there are many channels with paid subscriptions.  The most popular channels are Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Instant Video.

I think Netflix has the best selection of content and at $7.99 per month, it could be a great deal for you.  It is the only paid service we have subscribed to.  I have found lots of shows that are worth watching.  It will take me years to go through it all if they don’t add another bit of content to the library, which isn’t the case.

Hulu Plus is also $7.99 per month and does have a lot of content available.  I’m not particularly interested in most of it.  They also have some weird restrictions that prevent you from watching certain shows on the TV.  You can stream them on your computer, though.  Seems strange to me.

Amazon Instant Video comes with a paid Amazon Prime membership.  This gives you access to lots of free content and gives you the opportunity to pay for individual episodes or full seasons of several shows.  We thought about doing this, but I just can’t see enough value to pay the $80 per year to the Prime membership.  Maybe someday, but not now.

Cost Breakdown

We bought an antenna, and Roku 3, and a new cable modem (so we don’t have to rent one from the cable company.  These 3 items cost a total of $200.

Our high speed internet access costs $50 per month.  We purchased a Netflix subscription for $7.99 per month.  Our total monthly cash outlay is less than $60.

Our monthly TV and Internet bill dropped from $165 to $58.  The new equipment will have paid for itself in only a couple of months.  Not too bad!

Are you thinking of cutting the cord?  What’s stopping you? 

Posted in Raun's Blog | Tagged , , , , , | 29 Comments

Cutting the cord — The decision to quit Cable TV

Posted on April 8, 2013 by

Raun's BlogWe waffled over the decision for days about whether or not to quit cable TV.  It was really a technicality.  We knew the answer.  We just couldn’t admit it yet.  In my post, Sacrifice is Hard to Swallow, I mentioned 3 options.  We could drop cable, drop to a lesser cable TV package, or just stay as we were. We decided to look at the issue from the other side.

The question changed from “What are we going to watch on TV if we lose cable?” to “What do we want our life to look like with Timothy in the picture?”

As soon as we realized we were standing on the edge of a whole new world of experiences for all 3 of us, it became clear that we needed to make a move.  The third option was completely off the table.

So, would we move to a lower package or drop cable completely?  We looked at the channel lineup for the only package lower than what we had.  The channels that we actually did watch weren’t included.  We could have taken the road more traveled and moved down.  This would have been almost the same choosing the option of doing nothing.

We would save about $120 a month by losing cable.  What could we do in exchange for that $1400 plus in the next year?  What opportunities would we have to open up the world to Tim and to ourselves?  Is it worth it to give up the opportunity for all of these experiences just so we can sit at home in front of the TV?  NO!

We know that Timothy’s world will exist primarily within a 6 inch bubble around his body for the next several months.  Even then, is it better to truly focus on him or to divide our loyalties with a cord coming from the wall?  Should we take the boy out for walks and to get fresh air or should he be in a bouncy chair while we watch this episode of who knows what for the 8th time?

When we looked at what we would gain by cutting the cord, it became so obvious that I felt silly for dragging it out as long as I did.

Every decision we make either moves us closer to the life we want to life or it moves us farther from it.  When we look at decisions through the lens of what life could be, it’s hard to see any other options.

Next week, I’ll show you what we did to move forward without cable TV.

Posted in Backyard Living, Raun's Blog | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Current Hard Work Update, April 1, 2013

Posted on April 1, 2013 by

Here are my goals for the first quarter of this year.  Let’s see how it did…

Current Hard Work Projects:

Continual Effort Projects:

  • Create content for this blog at least 2 days a week.
  • Create at least 1 outdoor cooking tutorial each month
  • Do a better job of showcasing people and products I believe in

Do It Once Projects:

  • Seek out outdoor cooking and backyard lifestyle product inventors to help them market their products. (Business opportunity?)
  • Improve sales performance of BackyardLifeBlog.com Shop products (Keep building momentum)
  • Create helpful, content rich products to help people live the Backyard Life
  • Baby related projects:  Paint and furnish the nursery, get the rest of the house ready, finish lingering projects before it’s too late.  :)

The first 3 months of 2013 have been dedicated to getting ready for Timothy’s arrival.  I dropped down to an average of 1 post a week and I think I’ll stay there at least for a while as we get used to life as a family of 3.  I hear exhaustion is a key component of life with baby. :)

Now that the weather is warming up again and the snow is almost gone, it’s time to fire the grill and smoker and make some new tutorials.  I got some new cookbooks for Christmas and I can’t wait to try some stuff out.

I’ve been working to find product inventors to help bring you the next big outdoor cooking and backyard lifestyle products.  I’ve come across a couple of interesting products but haven’t struck a deal yet.  I’ll keep working on it.

Mostly, we’ve been preparing the house for a baby.  The nursery is done and ready.  Sometimes I just go in there and look around.  If I was a little kid again, I’d like it.  The kitchen, which has been a work in process for 7 years is done aside from a couple of small details and a touch-up or two.  This weekend, I got the final materials necessary to finish the job.  We’re *this* close!

Where do we go from here?

Next quarter, my primary focus is on taking care of Liz and Timothy.  Let’s get the boy home happy and healthy.

I’m on the launch team for Jon Acuff’s next book, Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters, which will be released on April 22nd. (If you order your copy by April 21st and register at TheStartBook.com, you’ll get $250 in free stuff to go with it.  I’ve only ready bits and pieces so far, so I’ll need to read the book and write a review in the next couple of weeks as well.

Softball season is about to start up again.  This is going to be interesting.  Liz has been my scorekeeper for years.  With the little guy, I think that task is going to have to move to someone else.  I just hope it isn’t me.  😉

I’ve been on a reading tear since December, so I want to continue that.  I set a goal for 2013 to read 12 books.  I’m almost done with number 5 and “Start” will be number 6.  None have been picture books either!

That’s my focus.  What are you going to get done in the next few months?

Join Us!

Do you want to have more accountability to get things done?  Consider becoming a part of the Hard Work Network.  You can find graphics like the one at the top of this page at http://bluecollarliving.com/current-hard-work.

If you choose to join, go to http://bluecollarliving.com/hardwork and fill out the form.  James will take care of you.  Let’s form a community to encourage, persuade, and inspire each other to get the hard work done.  To send a message to the Hard Work Network community on Twitter, be sure to use hashtag #HWN.  Save a search for hashtag #HWN to see have other members’ tweets to show up in your Twitter stream.

Posted in Raun's Blog | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Sacrifice is hard to swallow

Posted on March 25, 2013 by

Raun's BlogAs Timothy’s arrival date approaches, we’ve finally started to look with a discerning eye at our budget.  We decided long ago, that we both prefer for Liz to stay home with the baby.  That means our income is being cut dramatically.  I earn enough at my day job for this whole thing to work but not much more than that.

We’ve changed our car insurance and our trash service to save some money.  Those were easy decisions.  We don’t really see the changes there.  Our coverage is the same, the cost is lower.  The trash gets picked up on Wednesday instead of Thursday.  I can deal with those.

The decision that has been the most difficult is about cable TV.  We both enjoy having it.  We’d really like to keep it.  But it is a lot of money going out the door every month.  We don’t have HD service and we don’t subscribe to any premium channels.  We do, however, watch shows on the networks we get beyond basic cable.  The 3 I watch the most would disappear with a downgrade.  That hurts.

I keep asking myself which is better — Having access to those channels or having some more budgetary freedom.  My brain knows an answer and my heart knows an answer and they don’t agree.

We knew we would sacrifice money for time with the boy.  Sacrifice was just a concept out in the future sometime.  Well, that time is here.

Here are the options we are looking at:

  • Drop cable TV completely and only keep high speed internet.  This would save about $120 per month.
  • Drop to a more basic cable TV package that includes high speed internet.  This would about $100 per month.
  • Stay where we are and squeak by with very little wiggle room.

What would you do?  Can you think of any other options?

Posted in Raun's Blog | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments