Jeepers

I don't like goat milk/cheese at all. Wish I did, but I don't. I could have a goat in Indy. They are going after Amish dairy farmers hot and heavy now. There is one farmer in particular, in PA that they have been harassing for a couple of years now. He is a private farmer who only sells to certain customers who sign a letter of agreement about knowing what they are purchasing and the risk involved. Not good enough for the g'ment. Look up Amos Miller in Lancaster Pennsylvania. It's shameful.

Sorry about your osteo related issues Littlesister. Ouch! My DIL has rheumatoid arthritis and has to take meds for it daily. Not fun at all. The last two months my Vit. D was back ordered too. I take 5,000 units of Vitamin D-3 capsules.

I have a few prepper books too. Both real and Kindle. I want real physical books where I can study the pages of my reference books. Other less important books I have on a Kindle. I swear by the crates like I can get at Joann's or Hobby Lobby. Not to big and not to small. You can tip the crate up on its side and the books automatically pack themselves for moving. I just have to carry it out to the car to move them. They stack on top of each other nicely too. I think I need to paint mine. I noticed a new bookstore over here about a month ago called Books On The Wall. Anyone ever heard of it? I might have to go check it out soon. I still think my favorite prepper book is the LDS Manual. Stan Dayo and his wife Holly put out a good one too that I can't remember the name of. It has a lot of lists in it.

Yeah, I'm special that way. I'm not as worried over there because I don't have a woods behind the house over there. I have all kind of critters at my back door over here. No wild cats or bears so I'm good.

My posts were made of four pieces of treated wood nailed together making a square. It wasn't even a solid piece. They made about 5-6 holes in the wood each about the size of a half dollar. There weren't any bugs in them. I had sprayed the posts with Raid hoping to deter the woodpeckers with the smell. They didn't care. The holes were mostly in the top. So a nest would have to be about 8 feet down to the cement porch slab. There were about 8 of them on my fence panel. They destroyed it. All the trees in my back yard and they go for the fence and my house. I suppose I'm lucky they didn't start destroying my upper level. I couldn't fight back up there. If I don't see another woodpecker it will be too soon. I'm just hoping they stay away until I get moved. Trust me, you don't want to chance woodpeckers around your house. They are probably hatching baby destroyers right now. They didn't go for my windows. The little finches would do that. They didn't cause any damage and I liked to watch them. Hummingbirds didn't cause any problems either. Nothing coming out of my woods has caused any issues except those d@mn woodpeckers. Oh, and the deer come right up to our door here. They love to eat our shrubs. Or pull them out of the ground and leave them. But they aren't trying to take my house down. Sigh.

@Necie at first I thought maybe storm damage. I love to smell lilacs. Be careful attracting woodpeckers. They are the bane of my existence. They are very destructive. I have some in the woods behind my house. They tore up one panel of my wooden fence a couple of years ago. I finally had the fence removed. For the past 2 years they have torn up the wooden posts on my front porch. I repaired them with wood putty and painted them but they keep coming back. They did so much damage to one of the posts that I was afraid the post was going to break and bring the porch roof down. This year I had to have both posts replaced. $$$. I'm hoping and praying they don't come back until after I sell the house. One neighbor said they peck on his metal chimney driving them crazy. When they peck on your house it is VERY loud inside. They will tear up anything on your house if they become attracted to it. If you scare them away, they come right back. I had to sit on my front porch with a hose just to spray them off of the posts. They always come back. Pretty birds...until they fall in love with your house. Destructive creatures.

@Mt_Rider. I always check Amazon first before I order something I find somewhere else. It's not that I like Amazon better. I don't. But with Prime I get free shipping which can save a couple of bucks and stuff arrives so much faster. Sometimes the same day. I ordered two of them and they arrived the next morning. I'm going to give one to sons. So, thank you for mentioning them.

I spent most of the day canning yesterday. It isn't easy around here. I've found that I need to sit down often to keep from passing out. I think it isn't so much as a blood pressure situation as a it is a posture thing. Which affects my blood pressure causing it to bottom out. Sitting helps. However, I only have one chair in entire the house. A hard wooden dinningroom chair that doesn't reach the sink. And I have to keep an eye on the canner as it's building up steam and then pressure. Wouldn't it be nice if I had a recliner in front of the kitchen stove? Such problems. I really am thankful to be putting food in jars. I've been canning for a month now with no problems at all. Every single lid sealed. I did 3 canner loads yesterday and had about 6-8 jars didn't seal. What the heck! That has never happened before. And so many. All of the lids are the ones that came with the jars. Jars were new. So back to the drawing board today because you know I'm nuts (OCD) and I'm trying to get at least 40 jars of each veggie. I'm in the 30's on the corn and peas. I have 50 of the carrots and green beans. Lets hope i don't extend that number out to the corn and peas. I have number issues. But they are all going to look nice on a shelf. That matters in my world too. I'm going to need some short shelves for all of these blasted half pint jars. I don't like to stack if I don't have to. I drive myself nuts. I wonder... uh- oh...if you stack a jar half on one jar and half on the jar beside it, sort of like straddling the two jars, if that would be a safe way to store them? I suppose a layer of cardboard between the layers would work too. But that's still weight on the bottom jar. Oh, and I bought another small canner. 16 quarts. I'm loving it for smaller batches. It exhausts and builds up pressure so much faster. It doesn't stack so I'll still use the 23 quart one most of the time but it will be nice for smaller loads or to accompany the 23 qt. when I'm doing marathon canning. I'm stalling...

@themartianchick Hope your hubby feels better soon! I always said I'd rather be sick myself than my DH or son. Note, both are males. I'm loving all of the pictures too. @Becca_Anne That's awesome that you are planting so many trees. I want to map out my yard to figure out where to plant some too. I'm always afraid I'll make a mistake so I want to buy a program to help visualize. I had one but it is old and no longer compatible with my computer. But it was a help. Thanks for the reminder about free wood chips. I think my sons town offers them at the yard recycle place. He can take his pickup truck there for me and get some. I'm not sure if it's just for the city or entire county. Today I'm catching up on some canning. I did some corn and peas in Indy but I want some more. After today I'll have 40 half pints of peas and 40 half pints of corn. Then 40 half pints of green beans. I already have 50 half pints of carrots. I think I have 36 half pints of asparagus. I'd throw a couple more jars in the canner but it's out of season now. Last week I saw some for $3.00 a pound. Yikes. I only paid $1.00 a pound. Unless I see some again in Amish country, I'll pass. I started early today so I'm sitting down a lot so I don't pass out. I'm half tempted to go buy a smaller canner. That way I can do a few smaller loads at a time. I can also use it when I do major soup canning along with my bigger canner. Would be nice for those little squatty halh pint jars too. It seems like everything I can takes different times. I have one in Indiana but I could really use one over here right now. Sigh. I think I'm gonna do it.

Mt. Rider, glad you got a ride in but not with the cold weather. I usually feel a little bit warmer if my ears are covered up too. And my hands and especially feet always suffer in the cold. I get pins and needle sensations in my toes when they get cold. Hurts. I have that syndrome that affects the hands and feet when they get cold. Of course I can't think of the name of it right now. Littlesister, you sure have had a time of it with that wood. But it's good you have it and at such a good price! Will be worth it. Miki, I hope your DH can get a clear culture soon and get off if his antibiotics. That can't be fun for him. I have no plans this weekend except to send back some canning jars to Amazon. I bought 2 cases of regular mouth Kerr jars for soafhetti sayce (that's spaghetti sauce. I hate yiu autocrap.) making. Pints. They sent me 2 cases of Ball Smooth Sided jars. I don't like those jars and that's not what I paid for. Luckily I don't need them right away. The nerve! I'm going to order them from Wal-Mart next time. I'm a Kerr jar snob. Raynaud. That's the word I couldn't think of. It usually comes to me eventually.

@Becca_Anne, glad everything is fine in your neck of the woods. its nice that you have a basement to go to. Poor Ben, its hard to leave a pet behind, even for adults. But hopefully the dry runs will help him understand better. Oh Dear, I didn't hear about the new bombing. Thanks Mt. Rider and Mother.

Littlesister there is a place, RadAir, a couple of miles from me and I'll see if they offer a ride. I don't mind staying there for a hour or two to wait. I can take a drink a the Kindle. They did give me a loaner once but it was a fluke that they had one. I might have to wait until I go back to Indy so DIL can give me a ride. I noticed today it was getting warm in the Jeep. That's a great idea Mother. I've heard that most people put wood and branches and leaves etc. in the bottom of their raised beds. Helps to fill them up so you don't have to add as much soil too.

My heart monitor is off today and I sent it in It wasn't bad during the day but I alway kept waking up and checking it through the might to make sure it was still attached. It always was. Men wouldn't have that problem. Women...boobage. There was a sign in the post office that said we can't send any electronics to Europe, Sweden and Norway. But we could send computers, cell phones and something else. Can't remember the other thing. I thought computers and cell phones were electronics. I went to the local food bank and made a deposit. They were thankful to get it. It was frozen veggies that i over bought. They went to a good cause so I don't care. Then off to get a pizza. I haven't had a good one since before I left the hotel. It will last me for supper and tomorrow's lunch. I'm taking tomorrow off but Monday I'm calling to see about getting some of my yard landscaped and about getting my chimney cap fixed. Oh and I forgot my car AC broke last fall. I need to see about getting that fixed. Not sure how without a ride.

Thanks for asking OOTO. We did have some pretty bad storms roll through with some hail and high winds. We were in a tornado warning for most of the day. It has finally been lifted. No damage here so far. Supposed to be rainy tomorrow. I think its heading north east of me so I hope it isn't heading your way!

Miki, I'm glad Bo is working out so well for you. Getting him socialized and used to the neighborhood is a good thing. Bet he loves his walks. Littlesister, I get it about canning meat. I don't have any canned right now so I have to get on to that. I'm sort of just the opposit. My kidneys are getting worse so I have to limit my protein. It's just a good thing I'm not a big meat eater. I want to can a lot of soups too. But they are the hardest thing for me to can. It takes longer to make it and I can in pints so I can't fit as many in the canner. So I put it off.