AntSaint

Oregon Taxes: 744 Oregon Biofuel Consumer Tax Credit - Pellets, Biodiesel, Bioethanol

Do you fill up with bioethanol (E85 only, thanks Chris in the comments for that clarification!) or biodiesel? Do you heat your home with pellets, firewood or B20 heating oil? If so, and you're an Oregon resident, you're getting a tax break on your 2007 state taxes.

I'm not a lawyer, accountant or anything even remotely resembling a tax or legal expert. But, I am a schmoe doing my taxes, and I've found the 744 Oregon Biofuel Consumer Tax Credit will save folks like me a few bucks off their taxes, effective with tax year 2007. The program looks like it's expanding in 2008, to include firewood and tax credit incentives for woodburners to upgrade to more efficient stoves:

• Oregon Biofuel Consumer Credit - Google Search
• Biofuel consumer - Oregon.gov - "Oregon now has a tax credit available for consumers of qualifying biofuels"
• Smallwood News :: View topic - OR State & Feds Promote Woody Biomass as Local Heating - "In early December, the Oregon Department of Energy announced the availability of a new Residential Energy Tax Credit for the purchase of highly efficient wood or pellet burning stoves. A household that purchases a qualifying new stove can receive a tax credit of 25% on the net cost of the stove up to $300"

The Biofuel consumer - Oregon.gov link contains info on who qualifies and how to claim the credit.

I could end this by saying "many happy returns," but I just won't. I'll just note that if you have any questions, talk to a tax professional, and good luck on your taxes.

Timber-Frame Woodshed

With spring on its way, Jodie and I are starting to lay out projects we want to work on for the house. One of my goals for this year? Build a proper woodshed for our firewood. Here's one resource I'll be drawing on: A Timber-Frame Woodshed.

Labor Day Weekend Sale at Jerry's Home Improvement Center

Lumber... power tools... garden items... anything home improvement, can be found at Jerry's Home Improvement Center, on the way to the airport on Highway 99 in Eugene. They're having a pretty sweet Labor Day Weekend Sale, from what I hear, so if you're needing anything for the house, best get moving.

10 Thrifty Ways to Deal with Mosquitoes

Easy, varied and cheap tips for getting rid of mozzies, or at least getting them to leave you alone.. My 2 favorites:

7. Spray garlic powder and water all over the yard.
8. Plant mosquito deterring plants around your yard such as citronella, marigolds, basil, lavender, and catnip.

Link: 10 Thrifty Ways to Deal with Mosquitoes.

I’ve done a little research and found some inexpensive ways that you can fight off mosquitoes

10 Thrifty Ways to Deal with Mosquitoes

We're big fans of candles on the patio table and lots of garlic and chile in the food, but via Lifehacker I just caught  10 Thrifty Ways to Deal with Mosquitoes.

Splitting wood? Get a wood grenade

There is no better way to describe the joy of splitting wood by hand, with the 4-sided wedge called the Wood Grenade, than this great quote from Wilder By Far's Wood Grenade post:

"There’s something wonderful to be said about taking a sledge hammer, slinging it above your head and down in a forceful, Thor-like arc and striking a piece of metal embedded in a 20” (that’s six meters for you soccer-watchers) diameter log and watching it split apart into two pieces like Tom Cruise’s personality."

Best online source for Wood Grenades is Lehman's - Products for Simple, Self-sufficient Living. I just ordered 2.

A friend of ours loaned me his, after we had to have two birch trees on our property cut down. Even for this first-time woodsplitter, the grenade made short work of every round. I'm hooked, and look forward to many seasons of wood-splitting with the Wood Grenade.

More about the Wood Grenade:

• The Farmette Report: My favorite wood splitting tool
• "wood grenade" lehman's - Google Search
• "wood grenade" - Google Search

Tile Weekend: Wonderboard - prepping to tile a hallway

Jodie and I are really close to, well, if not being done with our bedroom, at least very close to being able to sleep in it. The flooring is the last major thing to do, and it's going to be in 2 stages: a ceramic tile strip, that will run past the patio door and down a hallway, and carpet tiles, that will be the main flooring for the room. Once the flooring is down, we can — finally! — move in furniture and sleep in our bedroom.

This weekend, starting Friday night, is tile weekend. For starters, Wonderboard, for part of the tile floor. The strip that will cover the hallway will be over plywood, so our first step is to get a slab of Wonderboard, trim it down, and secure it. Here are some links that are helping us along:

• WonderBoard Tips
• Installing Tile Backer Cement Board
• BNO BBS - BNO's Bulletin Board System: Wonderboard or not to wonderboard I wonder. . . (tile)

Now to stand back while Jodie picks out the tile...

How to sharpen an ax

Chopping wood? Then you, like me, need to know how to sharpen an ax:

When You've Got an Ax to Grind

An Ax to Grind: A Practical Ax Manual, 9923-2823-MTDC, Getting the Hang of It (continued)

Home Depot to Give Away Compact Fluorescent Bulbs this Sunday ∞ Get Rich Slowly

When Jodie and I got the house, one of the first things we did was replace every standard incandescent bulb with full-spectrum compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs. Full-spectrum bulbs are similar to sunlight, quite helpful during our notorious gray rainy winters. And also quite helpful to the electric bill.

Whatever qualms you may have about compact fluorescents, put them to rest. The light quality is every bit as good — if not better — than standard bulbs. The higher cost is recouped a hundred times over in utility bill savings. Then again, if you like spending more money than you need...

Whatever the case, swing down to Home Depot and snag a free CFL this weekend. Don't be surprised if you convert your entire house:

Link: Home Depot to Give Away Compact Fluorescent Bulbs this Sunday ∞ Get Rich Slowly.

Considering extra mortgage payments?

Our house has a fixed mortgage, and one of the reasons I went with that instead of an ARM was the greater flexibility in paying it off early. There are a bunch of options I'm kicking around currently, including...

• Sock some money away monthly in a savings account, CD or money market fund, let it accrue interest, and make a mad lump sum payment in 5 or 10 years
• Pay a small extra amount towards principal on each monthly payment
• Pay a larger lump sum amount towards principal at the beginning or end of each year
• Pay both the small monthly amount and the larger annual lump sum towards principal

To help me along, there's a handy calculator to plug in different number scenarios: Advantages of extra mortgage payments.

"Are extra mortgage payments advantageous? This financial calculator helps you find out how much interest you can save by increasing your mortgage payment. View the report to see a complete amortization payment schedule, and how much you can save over the life of your mortgage"