Monday Stuff On the Way To Other Stuff: Winter, What Winter?

     Well, it's late summer again... sort of.  After our rockbottom cold temps (and a rush to get a heat lamp set up in the chicken coop), it's back to warmth and sunshine. Go figure. Needless to say, our frostbitten landscape is not getting the full benefit.
     The chickies have a new hobby: sitting on top of the 6-foot wire fence, and rocking back and forth. Did we click their wings earlier this summer? Yes. Do we want them to do this?  Guess who's getting their wings clipped again Real Soon...
     No eggs yet. Sigh. 

While I'm plugging away at Stuff to Be Done, here's the latest gleaned from the Internet, beginning with a fitting song:

A whole bunch of do-overs and redoes, thrifty furniture-wise, thanks to Southern Hospitality.

A ton of reclaimed-wood and pallet projects, channeled through Funky Junk Interiors. 

Fattoush, home-style, thanks to Heidi's 101 Cookbooks blog. Think a kind of bread-and-yogurt cucumber salad.  

Will a missed or late payment negatively affect your credit score? Not if you deal with it quickly, according to Financial Samurai. We've even had penalty fees waived, after we pointed out that we paid regularly and on time for years.

A new Charles Dickens letter has been found...stuffed in an old Bible!

Homemade laundry soap, courtesy of Keeper of the Home. Three ingredients, and I already have them...I might actually be able to make this! 

A lottery winner collects food stamps, even after she wins more than a million dollars. (She was forced to pay it back -- the food stamps, not the lottery.) Now Amanda Clayton is dead, from a possible drug overdose. Very sad. 

A Connecticut man shoots and kills a masked teenager apparently intent on burglarizing his neighbor's home -- only to find out it was his own son.

Could you sleep in your car, if you needed to? My Frugal Miser did it for a night...and it wasn't so bad. Considering that my former boss at Tight Fisted Miser does this regularly (he bought a van for the very purpose), it doesn't seem like that big a deal. We've done it ourselves on occasion, when we were driving to/from Michigan to see family. And one night, we got stuck out on a dirt road during hunting season. (Now that experience, I could go without again.)  

Five painless ways to help your kids. (Grown kids, that is.) From yours truly via Midlife Finance.

Have a warm, sunshiny week.