kappydell

What IS going on with chicken prices?  Mary was talking with a friend back in Wisconsin and happened to mention that chicken was on sale here this week, (thighs, drunsticks, and breasts) all parts for $1 a pound.  Her friend asked us to bring some up when we came.  She also wanted one of the whole rib-eyes selling for $6.50 a pound cut up for her, too.  I know the rib eye is a good price (heck we bought the limit, two apiece, and are going back tomorrow.  For a $3 a pound savings, I will gladly cut it up myself.    Mary likes them trimmed with no fat, I hate to see the bits of meat going to waste, so I glean them for stir fry.  Our freezers were getting about half empty, these sales (plus the one for ground chuck) should fill the bill nicely.  I expect after Memorial day prices will rise sharply.  But chicken??  That has always been my budgets best buy.  Oh, well....

We have water!  On Monday after coffee, we headed to Lowes and bought what we thought we would need to repair our spigot....pvc pipe, primer, glue, stuff like that.  Came home, made our first cut, and....headed back to Lowes for things we discovered we needed and did not get the first time.  By this time it is high noobm 93 degrees.  Made lunch then we agreed to wait until the sun dropped a bit behind the trees to finish the job.  

About 5 PM we were in the front yard, digging around our target site a bit more, when one of our neighbors stopped, and called to us, laughing, that we are too old for mud pies.   We laughed, then told him we were working on getting our water back on,, and told him "the dog did it" which was true, of course.  

Lo and behold!  Our new friendly neighbor was a plumber, and volunteered to go get his tools to help us, saying it would go much easier with proiper plumbing tools.  

We all got muddy again, but in an hour we had a new water pipe spigot, cover, and foam insulation on the inside (just like the original broken one).  We learned a few things from him. Needless to say, we delivered fresh vegetables today.  Broccoli, cab bage, collards, some little yellow summer squash, and scallions.  The best we had.  It is sure nice to have a nice neighbor.  Now we have two we have bartered with...the ones that gave us 2 dozen eggs saying they could not eat against their chicken's egg laying production, and now this fellow.  Still going to see that sewing machine too, so make that three in our growing barter network.  I told Mary today that that clinched it, I would not be getting chickens (she heaved a sigh of relief) because why duplicate someone else's work....I would consider honey bees my lead choice, because NOBODY has those in this neighborhood (but there is a beekeeper in the next town who sells bees, equipment, and the like).  And Mary made me a very happy gal when she bought me some muscadine grapes!  We planted them a couple days ago.  My parents had an orchard, and I loved working in it and selling the surplus.  Now we are up to two apple trees, a ponmegranate (a gift from a neighbor who was thinning hers), and two muscadines.  Together with the wild raspberries in our wild area (very prickery though) we have a nice jam and jelly ingredient selection coming along.  And applesauce,,,apple pie filling...apple crisp (marys favorite)...our trees are semi dwarfs not dwarfs so there will be apples aplenty in 5 years or so.   

bout time.  i wont be taking the vaccine either, because something is definitely rotten in denmark and stinking to high heaven.  just WHY are they so anxious to force vaccines upon us after they wont stand on their own merits?  Adding children who are not at risk to their guinea pig population is just vile.

CRISIS OF THE DAY is getting to be a normal thing around here!  I could use a little boredome right now, LOL.

 

Yesterday afternoon our boisterous young pup wrapped his tie out around the yard water spigot.  Mary was talking to a heighbor walking her dog down the road (yes, it is so rural here that everybody walks down the middle of the road, stepping around the basking animals).  Donbrae was doing his usual jumping up and down and barking for her attention.  He BROKE OFF THE WATER SPIGOT!  We had an immediate fountain of water, but worse yet outdoor mama kitty had moved her little ones under the front porch, which floods when it rains.  So after doing the belly flop in the nice fresh mud (the red clay stuff - nice and slippery) to dig out the water turn off, we heard the cat babies screaming in fear under the lowest front step.  Fortunately I knew where the crowbar was and it was close.  We grabbed the crowbar, pried off the step and Mary scooped out the hysterical kittens while I made sure air ways were clear, and put them on a dry spot.  Once all six were out, we dried them off and put them back in the covered cage where Mom had insisted on having them - it was warm and dry with a carpet pad we had laid down.  So today we get to repair the broken pipes, refit the yard spigot, and build a box around that thing staking it down so NOTHING will move it.  (I guess I can add plumbing repair to my list of skills, LOL)

This morning we are both sore as hell and crabby from no water.  Fortunately we had water stored, so it was a hot water basin wash up - we were both muddy after all that "mud wrestling" and early to bed last night in anticipation of a busy day (once we get our coffee, LOL).    

Thank you for th encourgement, ladies.  Some days I wonder if I will ever stand for any length of time again.  But I am hanging in there.  I have lost 12 pounds now, not bad for 4 weeks I guess.  At least thats what my docs say.  
Today we went to a town meeting where the sheriff and the local district rep. talked with us and answered questions.  Both Mary and I had to hide smiles when one fellow kept demanding to know why the sheriff said he would be arrested for "only a little" marijuana.  (Well, because it is illegal in Georgia.)  Then he started up "but in other states..." and the sheriff calmly told him that it did not matter what other states did, its still illegal here.  Then he asked what about epilepsy?  The sheriff told him if someone had a prescription for medical marijuana, then it would be honored.  Then the part where we had to stifle our giggles...."Im not going to the bother of going to the doctor for a prescription".  Sounds like someone likes his weed and wants a free pass.  The sheriff suggested he write to his state legislators and ask them to change the law, because he has to enforce the law the way it is written.  I don't think he will get very far.  

 

The fellow that held the meeting said he had a Singer treadle machine and did I want it.  Oh yes, i would be interested.  He said it still works, but if I don't take he will junk it.  (NOOOOOOOOOOOO!  I love treadles and want one here badly.)  Before moving from the old farmhouse (2 moves ago) I had three but could not take any of them along.  I found them new homes, and have regretted losing them ever since.  Fingers crossed.  So back I went to the website "treadleon.net" to dig up all the "how to clean/repair/operate your new old singer" info.  Plus the site that matches serial numbers with the year of manufacture.  He said it had a cabinet and folded down into it when not in use...Im thinking 1930s or 1940s.  Both fingers and toes crossed!

Wednesday already?!  Sunday we had a busy planting day.  Made more wicking pots, some from kitty litter pails this time for smaller stuff (herbs).  Much easier to deposit as needed in the yard for more or less sun, etc.  Moved several large pots.  Our newest dog is 18 mo old, a black lab, full of energy.  Donnebrae gets tangled up in the pots, then panics and pulls!  He has wrecked several potted plants already so we moved more things out of his tie-out range.  Hoping he will calm down in a few months.

 

Then we mixed potting soil by the wheelbarrow full.  Planted/potted up azaelias, and the aforementioned herbs: sage, catnip, lemon balm, mint, and basil.  I already am picking celery leaves and stalks to dry for seasoning.  The parsley in the garden is also ready.  I'm drying that, too.  I gotta prune my huge rosemary potted bush, so i will have plenty of that as well.  I wish Mary liked rosemary, I think it is nice with chicken, but she does not care for it.  Oh well.  Maybe I'll slip some into my low carb breading mix (she does not eat that, she uses the home made shake and bake made in the normal way, with crumbs).  

 

Monday I went outside to feed the cats and found one, Scruffy, dragging his hind legs.  Looked like he was hit by a car.  Off to the vet, fortunately no bones broken, but he got smacked and when he hit the road, the vet said, he pinched some hind leg nerves.  So we were to keep him inside, and let the nerves wake up again, and he would recover.  Dang!  Im glad came equipped with 9 lives, he has accounted for 3 already.  And he is an affectionate little guy, too.  Glad he is going to be OK.  He is starting to walk again, for short distances,  

 

Tuesday I had PT and wow, those tough exercises I am doing now remind me of my weight lifting days.  But the harder they are to do the more it shows that I NEED TO DO THEM.  The therapists like to work with me because I am willing to try anything and everything they suggest.  I figure that I won't get better without a fight, so I told one therapist that when old man trouble comes around I want to spit in his eye....not talk to his belt buckle. It's working, too.  I am about 75% upright now, and have lost about 10 pounds watching my carbs strictly.  Tonight Mary had pizza, I had a "pizza salad"....she feels bad when I cant eat old favorites with her, so I scraped off the pizza fixings and plopped them on a bed of fresh romaine I picked today.  Surprisingly good!  I guess pizza salad can give a taco salad some competition.  

 

Today we delivered vegetables around to our town friends.  My doc told Mary "I want to examine your thumbs to see how green they are!"  The collard leaves are huge, but everyone says there ius no such thing as too big when it comes to collards.  Doc got collards and a cabbage.  Then off to see our friend at the car lot.  Delivered yellow squash, scallions, and collards to her.  She was delighted, said she was cooking those scallions to caramelise then with the fresh yellow squash slices.  We picked them about 6 inches long, and she said that was perfect for sauteing.   Since I picked lettuce and cabbage yesterday, I didn't need more vegetables just yet.  

 

Then we went to the garden center to see if they had more cabbage plants left to put in where we are picking....nope.  But Mary got a bouganvallia plant (I did not know anything about them, especially that they have thorns!)  The garden center owner said when he was in Mexico he saw them used as border hedges, all thorny like they are, and blooming all the time.  They were, of course, much larger, 4 feet tall.  He said down there they are perennials and just get bigger and bigger.  Here they do not survive the winters he said.  (We will see about that....maybe the greenhouse will be enough shelter to keep them over the winter).  Then Mary shocked me, and bought some muscadine grapes for me!  She does not like them, but knows I do.  Now to decide where to plant them.....

 

 

Nobody seems to care about that until it is THEIR home endangered.  You dont want to know what I would do if I caught someone causing something like this...coroporal punishment if they are stupid...worse if they are intentional.  No reason for that at ALL. 

 

We did little bits of this and that around the place today.  I hunted up a source to replace my obsolete pressure cooker rack.  Fortunately I can get one the right size.  Then sourced steamer racks and inserts.  I have a 5 quart waterless cooker pot which would be perfect for steaming whole meals.  I was reading about steaming ones meals in an old WW2 reprint from England about saving fuel.  Might be handy to have that know how to save fuel, electricity, what have you.  The carport kitties are starting to eat big kitty food and goof around out in the open as they get braver, LOL.  Some of the half grown kittens love to jump up in my lap as soon as I sit down outside, and there is something so NICE about being greeted with lots of purring.  I could sit with them all day!   Mary tried to pose "Ginger" for a pic but all Ginger is thinking about is escape.

One of the smaller bunch is a long hair, very cute, but hisses at us every time we try to handle him.  I guess I will have to start bribing it with morsels of soft food until it learns that it is not in danger, but after a few pets will be released. I see now that Ginger still has a smear of food on her nose, LOL...

 

               

                 

 

 

We found the carport kitties!!!!!  Momma hid them inside the carport out of all the bad storms we had just after she moved them (phew!)  We were afraid she had picked an outside location, but for a first time momma she is very smart.   

 

We did some lettuce, kale, collards, and cabbage picking (some radishes, too) and delivered fresh veggies to the delight of our friends.  I was a little embarassed because I was in my gardening clothes (dirty and dirt under nails as well) when Mary said "lets go!" but nobody apparently minds when the scruffy person bears fresh veggies, LOL.  

Went to physical therapy later.  Now working my upper back and shoulders to get me more upright.  Hard but feels good to work those muscles again, at least til the next day when they let me know their objections.  Then I stopped by walmart to pick up a shop vac at Marys request and came home with a surprise find...imported Italian spaghetti for 25 cents a pound.  I got 12 pounds for our pantry stash.  Dinner tonight was barbecued chicken; Mary had cheesy rice and I had some of those fresh greens (collards).  Yesterday I had a huge chopped salad, two kinds of lettuce, cabbage, kale, some green onions & radishes.  With a little shredded cheese sprinkled in it was delicious even without dressing.  I guess I was really craving the fresh stuff.  

 

After that, we went and got our lawn tractor tire re-mounted so we could put it back on and mow the lawn.  Whoo-Hoo!  We tried buying a replacement but the one that Lowe's assured us would fit...did NOT fit.  So we went to the John Deere retailer and they remounted the old one for $20.  Much better all around.  I lifted the mower, using our trusty cement block and steel fence post lever system, and Mary put it back on.  

 

Photos are pretty self explanitory...Mary in the greenhouse next to out giant tomatoes (blooming with little ones on board).  Kitties in the carport...first the bravest one then all the others who followed .  The veggies photos were pre-picking.  Things are thinned out a bit now, but we plan to replant with more 'stuff' asap!  

      the bravest little guy doing a recon....

 

 

then the rest followed All present & accounted for!     

The mostly gray one lying in the box is a long haired one.  Already a princess she hisses at us when we first pick her up, then purrs like a maniac.  

 

 

Chainsaw Mary checking tomato plants..Broccoli & collards in foreground.

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 Two lettuce heads fill a grocery sack....one is big enough for 8 cups chopped!

I am grateful for the veggies.  Prices for fresh stuff at grocery stores is astronomical and they are, lets say, well-traveled.  Ours is so much better it is embarrasing.  Planning on planting herbs tomorrow.  I noticed more shortages in Walmart today....the cheap spices are cleaned out.  Lunch meats are hard hit.  Cat food shelves are empty, too.  Mary reports info she sees on her websites predicting shortages in coffee, chicken, toiletries.  So we go get some more and hope for the best.  Coffee we always stock up on sale, we have enough for a year, maybe two!  (Good barter item.)  But a little extra T paper, paper towels and chicken we won't turn down, either.  

 

One other thing we did yesterday, BTW...traded our Ford Escape for a brand new Dodge Durango.  It handles nice, and is much bigger than the Escape.  Good thing, too, it won't take a trailer hitch because the spare tire is underneath.  But with 3 rows of seats it will hold lots of folks, and when they fold down, lots of pets.  We were looking for something a little bigger but better on gas than the pickup truck.  Now we are ready for some BORING (uneventful) days to rest up and finish planting the azaeleas. More storms this week end so we had to get all the outdoor chores done.  Ready now. 

 

 

 

 

 

Baby steps, Momo, baby steps.  You are coming along at your own speed.  I was a hermit for a while too.  It was easier than explaining over and over again where my husband was.  So no worries.  We love you.  

OW MtRider!  I have had pain plus since stepping up the PT.  They always wake up muscles I did not know I had.  And cramping, too.  One of my docs suggested I drink some quinine water (also known as tonic water) for those and it helps greatly.  Then add in that we always save the more physically active chores around here for days I am not going to PT and I have been pretty sore lately.  Waking up is easy, moving around after waking....not.  But I see progress with the PT so I keep going even when my body says, "oh, no, not again".  When I cant get pt orders anymore, Im off to the gym to keep going.  I have decided this is the year I do a "Dick Clark" and age backwards.

The low carb diet is part of it as are the mega vitamins.  My docs all say my lab work is wonderful, just minor tweaks needed, so I seem to be on the right track.  Now if I could find something to lift my sags and iron my wrinkles....Oh well, I'll be a muscular old biddie if not a spring chicken.  Gotta make the flesh stronger to match the will, ya know.  I'd rather spit in the one eyed jack's eye than talk to his belt buckle.  The nice thing is that when I lift weights I muscle up fast, but it does not show like on a man.  I want the extra advantage of looking weak and being strong, just in case of thuggery.  Its getting pretty wierd in the world lately.

 

Today we re-positioned "Holy Hernia" our name for the huge AC unit we put in.  We needed to angle it for better run off of water.  It only took us two hours of huffing and puffing.  Went looking for the outdoor mamas kittens (she moved them).  No luck.  But she is a sharp cookie.  Took the new soon to be transplants out of the car where we put them to protect in the storms, and back on their eastern exposure outdoor shelf ( plants love it there).  Mary and I were wondering....how come its always Sunday when we end up doing hard physical stuff?  Simple...no PT on Sunday, LOL. 

 

Stovetop burgers tonight for dinner.  Much like swiss steaks, Mary likes them better than plain burgers because they stay nice and moist.  Green beans and mushrooms with, to keep those carbs down.  Tomorrow is the  BIG DAY...I will pick some of that lettuce, mix up some low carb ranch dressing and dip and chomp leaf by leaf.  That to me is the height of decadence.    

I went to your facebook site, MRSJACKSPRAT and it is excellent!  Thank you so much for steering me there, I will be following from now on.  I notice some time ago you posted about using hamburger grease for cooking.  It works beautifully for frying as its smoke point is higher than other fats.  I read somewhere that McDonald's famous french fries used to be cooked in beef tallow (a natural enough idea as they were frying burgers and had all that nice fat on hand, lol).  They changed when public opinion became anti-hard fat oriented.  The fries have never been the same, I can attest to that (I am old and remember those fries from the 1960s).

I have save hamburger grease for years, cleaned it and re used it.  It is the best of all the fats I have tried for frying - once cleaned it is virtually tasteless, but it does brown things up so much more nicely than anything else I have tried.  It even makes a superior soap bar...nice and hard and long lasting.  

 

The other fat I never waste is poultry (chicken or turkey) fat.  It is soft, even cleaned it is soft, so it makes "soft soap" (it used to be very popular for laundry uses because it dissolved so easily) but its real charm is that it is less saturated fat than most animal fats, and you can substitute it in a one to one ratio in baking for butter or other fats.  Melted it subs nicely for oils.  There is even a lively market for it as a kosher cooking ingredient....last time I looked it was selling for $12 a pound 

 

So I would not be shy about playing around with the animal fats.  You can always make soap or fat lamps from any excess.  (Oh dont get me started on game fats....)

 

I loaded them a way I dont usually do....back to basics and hope this works (it is stormy here, internet is gimpy)

TH

 

Lets try again.  Last time I hit send and the internet went down & it was gone.  

#1   ghreenhouse #1 - summer squash in front, then blooming pepper plants, spectacular lettuce at the far end.

#2  2nd greenhouse, this one has vcabbages in front, then some seeded areas, blooming tomatoes, and at the far end....collards.

#3  carport babies, about 10 days old.  Mama moved them somewhere, hope she picked a dry spot!

#4  Our big honkjing AC that we get to reposition tomorrow because we dont have enough tilt on it to shed rain.  

#5  Ouside raised best east of greenhouses.  Collards in front (dont know if you can see the radishes nearby that we just thinned.  Then a space for sweet potatoes, and irish potatoes at the far end.

#6  Lettuce...romaine

#7   Lettuce again....bibb.  One head of each fills a grocery bag.

Tomorrow job #1 is to fix the AC.  If I get a chance then I will try to find where I put the rooting hormone to propagate some rose bushes from the neighbors bushes.  She is selling her place, I want the roses as they are colors and forms I do not have.  Lovely.  

 

Oh Momo.   I hurt in sympathy, remembering how it felt to be widowed.  Even when it is expected it still hurts.  There is still part of us that cries out "Wait, wait, not YET" but to no avail.  The time is not for us to choose.  It does get better.  Focus on the happy times, it does help.  Until death do us part seems like it will never come.  Then it does and along with the pain and emptiness there is a feeling of "now what?"  That too passes, as you get used to being just one person again instead of one of a couple.

We are always here to talk and even if all you want to do is lurk, do drop by.  Our love to you and prayers for your husband.  Prayers of healing, as well as joy because you loved him and he loved you, and prayers of thanksgiving that his struggle is over and his time of peace and refreshment is at hand.  You will see him again, and the reunion will be sweet, and all the tears as if they had never been.  Meanwhile, we are here for you.  Come back and visit as often as you like.

Actually Midnight Mom printed them, but yes, thats exactly how I learned beginning fractions.  And I can still do those ratios and translate ounces to tablespoons faster than anybody I know, LOL.  "A pints a pound the world around."  

My mom just taught us to bake at that stage, and we learned fractions as we went along.  Also all those teaspoon-tablespoon-ounce ratios.  And eating the class results was a nice reward, LOL.

 

Jeepers, for purple flowers I replanted some wild heal-all (prunella vulgaris)  It grows, well, like a weed and the purple flower spikes are quite large - 2 inches in my wild area - plus it is a well known herbal remedy for quite a few ailments....  I was just tickled to find it growing wild in my yard, so transplanted some to my wild herb area lest the lawn mower get them!   On the physical body it acts as an astringent, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, mild antiseptic, detoxifier, diuretic, hemostatic and vulnerary (a substance used to help heal external wounds). It is also used for mouth and throat ulcers, sore throat, and internal bleeding.  See why I was so glad to find it?  And pretty too.  Yes you can buy seeds.  

 

Our activities were intense yesterday.  We decided we had better put in the Air Copnditioner we bought because last year we went from pleasant spring weather to triple digit heat very suddenly.    The only thing was, we had bought a large, LARGE  one 15,000 BTU with somne of our last stimulus money because our bu8ult in air conditioner freezes up and stops working after about 30 minutes of use.  Not terribly effective.  (We did find out that the parts are waranteed, and got the company name from our realtor who carries the warantee, but we still have to pay for parts.  Right now we are saving to try to get back to Wisconsin for Mary's class reunion (50th....we are old....mine is next year).   So paying for some tech to diagnose the unit is not in the budget; the unit was on sale, reasonably priced, and we had a stimulus check....well....done deal.  

 

So we put it in, and what a circus.  First you have to take it apart.  Take off the face plate, filters, thermostadt, then slide the innards out of the outside 'cabinet' (?)  Then we put the cabinet in the window.  It took up the whole thing, didn't have to use those little side wings.  Since we were worried about excessive weight on our mobile home window frame (who knows what is underneath the vinyl) we had agreed top put additional support legs on the outermost part to equalize the weight.  We did call the man who assembles the mobile homes, and he did assure us the windows were framed with 2x4s, so the inner part was OK.  The 'legs' of the unit are 14 feet high.  Mary kept trying to screw the top in while I held them.  What a laugh! I can barely stand straight yet, and kept using the leg to help me stand up.  Mary kept yelling down "stop wobbling, hold it still" and I tried but no way could I keep the wobbles away (or the giggles, when I realized how silly it looked!)  Finally we fastened them from the top, then secured the bottom on concrete pads. The AC cabinet  bottom (which is open for air flow) had screwq holes its entire length for the provided (rather puny looking) brackets and for screwing it onto a 2x4 frame for through the wall installation, so at least finding a place to fasten our supports was easy.  

 

 

Then slide that unwielding and heavy thing ono the shipping cardboard over to the window, and  (as the directions ordered) "team lift" and slide the innards into the outards.  Very heavy and unwieldy but at least the doggone thing slid in on the first heave-ho.  Then re-assemble in reverse order-

thermostadt, filters, front face plate.   Plug it in, and try the remote control....nothing.  Put in batteries the right way ...try again.  SUCCESS!

 

 

 

It took us all day.  But worth it.  We were tired, but around 10:30 PM little Mamma Mia (a VERY pregnant outdoor kitty we were feeding inside to make sure she got enough food) started meowing LOUDLY.  She was laying around all day like her back hurt...not surprising since she looked like she was carrying a bowling ball inside!  She is a 'talker'  and friendly.  Comes over to 'talk' when we sit outdoors, jumps up for scratches, tells us about her day, then wanders off.  Not last night....around 10:30 she started complaining.  Then bitching in earnest....and having contractions.  She is a first time momma so she was scared and did not know what to do with this "thing" coming out of her.  Picture this (if you are not squeamish) she is yelling, running around with a half-born kitten hanging out of her, in a panic.  Fortunately her trust in me helped.  I got her a nice clean tote, slapped in a towel, scooped her up and put her in there.  Told her not to worry about crapping on the floor when the contractions started (she tried to clean it up, sweet baby).  And showed her how to brace her legs during contractions.  The first one took a while, but once born she took care of him well.  Second one was faster (and less noisy) and by the time #3 showed up she has handling things like a pro, and it was 3AM so I went to bed.  This morning, we had five kittens.  She was cudding and feeding them, but lets us look and accepts scritches, scratches and treats.  We gotta get the name of the cheaper neutering clinic from our vet and take the outdoor males in to get snipped.  We love her but $30 versus $120  makes quite a difference when you have multiple males.  

 

Today, all I had to do was go to therapy, but I was still tired, so only worked at 70% masimum effort instead of 80%.  Then home for a steak and cauliflower dinner.  And a comfy chair.  (Mamma Mia says hello.)  

 

These are the babies born a little over  a week ago

 

Last nights dinner:  low carb shake and bake on pork chop with butter braised cabbage....about 4 net carbs for the meal.  Mmmm.

 

Time for a couple "slow days" when all we do is garden...mow the lawn...and fishing.  I gotta take some pics of the garden, it is coming along beautifully.

Please do.  Thids keto thing is the only type of diet that works well for me.  No more falling asleep after eating carbs (from my reactive hypoglycemia).  And when Mary suggests that I have been good and can have a donut, or some potato chips I am more easily able to say (calmly) "No thank you".   She actually gets more upset that I don't join her in eating some of our high carb favorites than I do.  I just tell her, "No, too many carbs for right now.  Maybe down the road when I can allow myself more carbs....."

She is able to eat nothing but homemade bread for dinner with no adverse results.  I guess we are kinda like Jack Sprat and his wife only with carbs, LOL.

 

There are also many kinds of city "game" as Mother mentions.  Pigeons, Doves, Iguana (notoriously running wild all over Miami).  Crows have a web site with interesting recipes but reportedly only the breasts are meaty enough to bother with.  I understand it is illegal to trap sparrows but it has been done in England and you can still find directions to build traps for them on the internet.  Mighty tiny though, you would have to trap a LOT OF THEM.  

Fishing is another possibility.  Many urban parks have ponds with fish, and allow fishing.  Just remember, those non game fish you might not recognize are also edible though some may require removal of Y bones.  A very old joke says that the other name for rough fish is....dinner!  Most of the parks I have seen with ponds allow children at least to fish for bluegills and other small pan fish.  Teach your child to fish (or catch frogs or crayfish) and he can help bring home dinner.  Many urban pests can be repurposed into  - food; woodchucks, raccoons, possum, armadillos, etc.   Those genteel city folk who do not eat meat do not mind a bit if you live trap them.  Disposal is your own issue, lol.  (Just don't go into detail about your "relocation" plans).

 

Many animals now raised as pets are edible, the guinea pig are indeed a popular city livestock in many South American cities.  Rabbits are popular, but many places limit how many they 'allow" so they may end up in the basement.  Pot bellied pigs are edible and if fed properly can grow quite large.  If you are not squeamish, reptiles are increasingly available as pets, even LARGE ones. My sister has eaten python steak and says it is not unpalatable, just kinda chewy.  I have not yet talked to someone who has eaten iguana but there is an ethnic market for the meat in Miami.  I understand that nearly all lizards are edible, and nobody cries if you kill a snake (well hardly anyone, lol).  And yes, even rats are eaten in Africa although they are often cane rats which are larger and eat plants versus american ones that would eat garbage.  But they sell rat cages and rat food for those who keep them as pets, er...livestock.  Mice are also considered useful eating, albeit kinda small nibbles.  

 

As my dad would say....it depends on how hungry you are.

 

Well we are moving right along into our summertime operations.  Get up, let the dogs out, feed the outdoor felines (check the babies!! they make me smile they are sooooo cute!)  Then open up the greenhouses if we closed them down due to cool nights.  The plants love it in there.  Tomatoes are blooming, the lettuce will be ready to pick soon (beautiful bibb lettuce, I only get it when I grow it). Everything except sweet corn is doing well.  The corn, well, I guess it isnt warm enough for it.  We had to plant it outside as we ran out of inside room.  

 

Today Lowes had veggies & herbs on sale, so when we were there getting another lawn tractor tire, I picked up some basic herbs.  I will plant them in wicking pots made from our kitty litter pails - basil, spearmint, sage,and  lemon balm.  I have not seen thyme around this year, so maybe next year.  I'd like to get a small bay laurel bush to compliment my rosemary bush in the half barrel planter (and my cooking, LOL) but this year I take what I can get.  Oh yes, Mary found us some catnip as well....we need to put some in for future feline fun.

 

I am still doing physical therapy.  Its getting harder and harder - but I am seeing marked improvement with balance and strength.  Im not as straight as I want yet, but its coming along, slooooowly.  I got time.  On the rainy days Mary and I have some counted cross stitch to do to keep busy.   Mary just got a CPAP and she loved it right fronm the start (I knew she would).  She would sleep for hours and wake up exhausted, so she had a sleep test.  Her CPAP is very nice, the VA got her the deluxe one.  The first night she used it she said she actually felt like she had slept for the first time in months.  Her energy (and mood) is improving daily now.  I am so happy she likes the CPAP.  Many people dont adapt to it well and end up not using it.  How sad - a good nights sleep is worth sooooo much.  

 

 

 

 

 

As I have mentioned on other threads, I am dead serious about tweaking my diet and losing weight.  I chose a low carb/keto path because it worked best for me in the past.  As a reqactive hypoglycemic, I react very strongly to a carb overload.  Ice cream puts me to sleep.  So does pasta, corn, home baked goodies, etc.  So I have been determined to find substitute recipes for me to use.  Mary and I always eat together, and she is able to eat all those high carb goodies, so I do not want to give up making them....just eating them, LOL.  She is content with a breakfast of 4 slices of home made bread and butter....no way does that do anything for me except make me HUNGRIER....Anyway, I found a couple of recipes that I will definitely use again since they mimic the flavors I want to keep enjoying, without the high carbs.  The other thing I needed was that they were not dependent on ingredients that couold get hard to find.  Pork rinds are as exotic as I have been so far, and since I know how to make them, supply should never be an issue.  Here are the first two recipes:

 

LOW CARB SHAKE AND BAKE (use it the exact same way!)         Servings: 6

Prep time: 5 min               Cook time: 20 min           

Macros Per Serving:* Calories: 605; Fat: 41g; Protein: 53g;  Total Carbs: 2g;  Net Carbs: 1g

*Macros are calculated using pork chops and coconut flour.  Carbs are lower if you use the parmesan from the green jar like I did.  I used mine on chicken, but pork is tomorrows dinner.

6 half pound pork chops or chicken  quarters                      2.5 oz or 1 c of finely ground pork rinds or pork

1 tbsp olive oil                                                                                        bread crumbs

1 tbsp grated parmesan or coconut flour                               1 tsp pink Himalayan salt  (pffft....used lite salt)

1 tsp onion powder                                                                         1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp garlic powder                                                                     1/4 tsp black pepper

Pinch ground red pepper                                                              Pinch parsley

Pinch basil                                                                                           Pinch oregano

Set oven to 425 F.

Grind pork rinds in your food processor until they are crushed to a fine powder. Alternately, you can use pork bread crumbs.  Add all ingredients (besides the meat) to the food processor. Continue to pulse until combined.  Add pork rind mixture to a gallon sized ziploc bag. If saving some for later, set aside before any meat touches the mixture.  Pat protein dry.  Add 1 portion of protein at a time to the bag, shake to apply a generous coating to each piece of meat.  Place protein on a baking sheet with a raised baking rack.  Bake for 20 minutes at 425F (check internal temperature before serving)  Enjoy!  

I used 1/2 cup of the mixture for 2 chicken quarters and had extra, so next time I will cut back a bit to 1/3 cup.  

This was as advertized....crispy and crunchy.  The pork rind crumbs were quite neutral in taste, so did not detract from the flavor at all.  Wal mart here sells already crushed pork rind crumbs in a jar alongside the bread crumbs....at ZERO carbs per truckload, that is a good ingredient swap for me.  

 

The other one takes care of those nights when Mary wants pizza and feels guilty that I dont get any....so now I make this which is not an exact copy of pizza, but it is close enough to cover most of the taste cravings....plus the whole pizza crust is only 1 gram of carbohydrate.  I topped mine with 2 TB tomato puree, Italian seasoning, Mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, green peppers and paper thibn onion slivers.  I think a spritz of olive oil would be good too, but I did not have any handy tonight.  It was good though.  I think the whole pizza (an 8 incher as I made the crust medium thick since I was too hungry to roll it out super thin) ran 6 net grams of carebyhydrates. (As compared to our usual pizza, which would have been 112 grams ... )

Chicken Crust Pizza Recipe

This entire chicken pizza crust clocks in at under 1g of TOTAL CARBS! It goes great with a high fat pesto sauce for a fun keto dinner.

total time 30 minutes                servings 1 8-10 inch crust              calories per serving 408kcal     prep time: 5 minutes cook time: 25 minutes

10 oz Canned Chicken, or cooked shredded or ground chicken.  I used chicken breast that I crock potted last night and had in the fridge

1 oz grated parmesan cheese  (fresh or the stuff in the green jar)

1 large Egg

Thoroughly drain the canned chicken, getting as much moisture out as possible.  (I squeezed my refrigerated chicken as dry as I could)

Spread chicken on a baking sheet lined with a silicon mat. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes to dry out the chicken.  ((No silicone mat here...used fat spray on a pizza pan)

Once chicken is done baking for 10 minutes remove and place in a mixing bowl. Increase heat of oven to 500 degrees.  Add cheese and egg to the bowl with chicken and mix.

Pour mixture onto baking sheet lined with a silicon mat and spread thin. Placing parchment paper on top and using a rolling pin makes this easier. Optional: With a spatula press the edges of the crust in to for a ridge for the crust. This is beneficial is you’re using topping that may slide off(i.e. eggs).

Bake the crust for 8-10 minutes at 500 degrees.  (I baked it alongside Marys pizza at 425...it was not as crispy as the recipe said, but it was still good and held together.)

Remove crust from oven. Add desired toppings and bake for another 6-10 minutes at 500 degrees. Toppings will dictate final cook time.

Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes. Your life is now changed. Enjoy!

Nutrition Facts:  1 whole pizza crust = Calories 408; Fat 17g; Carbohydrates 1g; Protein 61g

 

 

The cauliflower crusts are supposed to be very good, too, but this is what I had on hand, and I priced those cauliflower products....right out of my grocery budget! 

I have to pick up some cream cheese before I can try the pork rind version, which uses pork rind crumbs, cream cheese and an egg.  It sounds easy enough so next payday I will have to get a little cream cheese to try it out.  The cream cheese and pork rinds also feature in a low carb tortilla recipe.

 

Speaking of pork rinds, I found how how to flavor them at home to make a better junque food....

 

DORITO DUST MICRO PORK RINDS

Dorito Dust Microwave Pork Rinds are the keto/low carb friendly nacho cheesy solution for snack food cravings while on a ketogenic diet.

Prep Time 15 minutes    Cook Time 5 minutes     Total Time 20 minutes   Servings 1 serving

1 packet cheese powder from Kraft Mac-and-Cheese                        1/4 cup microwaveable pork rinds

1 tsp paprika (I used a heaping teaspoon)                                            1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder                                                                                  1 pinch ground oregano (a little goes a long way)

1 ea paper lunch bag                                                                                1 ea paper plate

Grind paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, and oregano together to dust in a spice grinder.  Incorporate the ground dry seasoning mixture with the cheese packet contents. Mix well.

Microwave pork rinds according to the instructions on the bag you are using. In my case, I spread the pork rinds on a paper plate and microwave for about two minutes on high.

Work quickly while the pork rinds are still hot and a bit glistening to remove them to a paper bag and add 1 heaping teaspoon of the seasoning mix. Close the paper bag and shake well. Serve. If you insist on a solo test (or just crave doritos) eat them from the bag.

 

PORK RIND CHEESE PUFFS “CHEETOS”

2.5 oz Pork Rinds (inexpensive rork rinds)                             1 TB Anthony's Cheddar Cheese Powder (the stuff from mac and cheese works for my test purposes)

1/2 teaspoon White Cheddar Popcorn Seasoning                 Oil Spray

Break up the pork rinds into bite size pieces and place in a large microwave bowl.

In a small bowl mix together the cheddar cheese powder and the white cheddar seasoning.

Lightly spray the pork rinds with avocado or coconut oil. Toss the pork rinds so all are coated with the oil.

Microwave for about 20 or 30 seconds just to warm them up.

Remove from the microwave, sprinkle the cheese powder mixture over the warm pork rinds and toss until evenly coated. Place back in the microwave for another 30 seconds. After 15 seconds you may want toss again to get any extra cheese powder from the bottom of the bowl to adhere to the rinds.

Nutritional Information: Serves 4

109 Calories; 8g Fat; 9g Protein; 1g Net Carbs

 

CINNAMON KETO PORK RINDS   YIELD: 6 SERVINGS

prep time: 5 MINS           cook time:20 MINS          total time:45 MINS

1 (3.5 ounce) bag pork rinds                                                        1/4 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup erythritol (see note)                                                       1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Add the pork rinds to a gallon Ziploc bag or a large tupperware. Pour the butter in and shake the bag to coat the pork rinds. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar in the bag and shake to coat.

If eating right away, no further step is needed. If storing and saving for later, follow the steps in the notes.

RECIPE NOTES

Tips for making these ahead of time

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. After pouring butter and shaking sure on the pork rinds, spread pork rinds on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.  We live in a humid climate and this helps crisp them up after adding the butter. If you live in a dry climate this might not be necessary.

Erythritol is a natural sugar alternative such as Monkfruit or Swerve.

These are sold at most grocery stores, costco, and amazon.  (i used my regular artificial sweetener - works just as well.)

If  are not doing Keto and just want to make regular Cinnamon pork rinds, use regular sugar.

Amount per serving (1g) — Calories: 160, Fat: 13g

 

I see no reason we could not use pork rinds in a chex mix recipes to fill that craving....or maybe a ranch seasoned version.....??  The low carb muddy buddies had too many carbs for right now, but they are on deck to test in later weeks. I have to find some of the ingredients or work out substitutes first, LOL.  But for Christmas....hmmm ......  

 

KETO MUDDY BUDDYS

Prep Time 10 mins;  Cook Time 5 mins;  Total Time 15 mins

Keto Servings: 21    1/2 Cup Servings    Calories: 127.17   Author: Courtney @ Bake It Keto

5 oz Epic Himalayan Pink Salt Pork Rinds (2 Bags)               6 Tbsp Butter

1 Cup Lily's Sugar Free Chocolate Chips                                   2 tsp Vanilla

1/2 Cup Creamy Natural Peanut Butter (make sure           1/4 tsp Cinnamon

     the ingredients are just peanuts, or peanuts and          1/8 tsp Salt (if your peanut butter is unsalted)

     salt!)                                                                                                1 1/2 Cup Confectioners Swerve OR Granulated

     Allulose

If using granulated Allulose to coat the keto puppy chow, you'll need to buzz it in a blender to create the consistency of confectioners sugar before you begin.  I use my Nutribullet to do this. I prefer using Allulose in this recipe since it tastes the most like sugar in my opinion. I use and like Hoosier Hill Farms Allulose.

One at a time, empty the pork rind bags into a gallon zip top bag and break them into Chex-sized pieces with a few whacks of a rolling pin. If any large pieces remain, just break them in half with your fingers. Transfer the pork rinds to a large bowl.

In a medium heatproof bowl combine the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter. Gently heat over a double boiler, stirring regularly, until the chocolate and butter have melted and combined with the peanut butter to form a smooth mixture.

Add the vanilla, cinnamon, and salt to the chocolate mixture and stir to combine.

Scrape the chocolate mixture out into the bowl of pork rinds and carefully stir to coat every piece. At first, it may not seem like enough chocolate - just keep gently folding and stirring the mixture, making sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl regularly.

Pour the powdered Allulose or confectioners Swerve into a large clean bowl and dump the pork rind mixture on top. Shake and stir the mixture to dust every chocolate pork rind piece.

Spread the finished Keto Puppy Chow out on a lined cookie sheet to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.  

Nutrition Facts

Amount Per Serving (1.5 oz (approx 1/2 Cup)); Calories 127.17; Calories from Fat 90; Fat 10g; Carbohydrates 4.84g; Fiber 2.9g; Sugar 0.3g; Protein 7.3g;

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

 

There ya go, some handy dandy crave-stoppers for a kety/low carb diet.  

 

We were prepared for major storms, everything battened down inside and out.  But all we got was rain, rain, rain.  Days at a time.  Good thing we had the greenhouse up or everthing would have washed away.  Not even a power outage, but we needed to clean out and renew supplies inb our tornado room anyway.  Ours is a walk in closet in the center of the mobile home (no outer walls) and no windows.  Big enough for chairs, dog kennels, and all the indoor pets.  The outdoor cats go under our sheds when it gets stormy so they are relatively safe as well.  But they complain`like the dickens when we bring the food out to them in the covered feeding area....every been cussed out by a cat??  "Where WERE you?...  TURN OFF THE WATER NOW!!...get that food down already!.....It's WET out there!!!...."   It gets very noisy as our cats are quite verbal.  But once the food gets put down all you hear is slurping, chewing, and purring.  Afterward is lap time, and everybody tries to jump up in my lap at once.  I stay to supervise dinner time to make sure nobody gets pushed away from the food.  Multiple plates.  And special treats to any that are pregnant, nursing, or having to take medicine.  Forthunately they are a pretty healthy bunch, but once in a while someone gets an infected cut or other mishap injuries, so it is good they are docile and easy to handle (we go out of our way to teach them to tolerate handling).  If ever they need to be rehomed we don't want them unfriendly to people.   Shy is OK but scratching or nipping is not permitted.  Once we pick them up they get rewarded for being cooperative.  And we handle the kittens from the get-go for the same reason.  And also because one of these days we will have to take all the males over to the neutering clinic to get snipped.  

 

 

 

 

 

Ever have "one of those days"?  We will laugh about it in a month or so, but tonight it stings a bit....

We were outside, letting the dogs run around and Mary was exercising the bigger ones by running them up and down the country road alongside her new scooter (yes we got her another one and she loves it).  The parrot was sitting on my shoulder, and the cats were milling around too, curious to see what was going on.  Mary yells, get the dogs in, Max is coming.  Our neighbor has a pit bull mix named Max, nice dog but not nice to other dogs, and our dogs are pretty territorrial, too,  So I get up, to to the door, abd call our dogs...naturally they are in to rush to come in, so they are dawdling.  A cat jumps up on the porch rail, curious about the parrot.  I shoo him away, no biggie, and call the dogs yet again.  The little ones are heading toward me.  The parrot decides she wants to get down on the ground (among our cats, of course) but get a gust of wind and rides it on to the rooftop.  Oh, crap.  Dogs still dawdling.  FINALLY they go in, and Mary and I go get a ladder to try to corral the parrot, who is on the roof wolf whistling away, having a fine old time.  We get the ladder, and the parrot is airborne again.  The neighbor sees which way she goes, and directs us there.  Fortunately she is on the ground, and Mary is able to pounce on her and bring her in.  Im running around, crookedly due to no cane (I needed use of botrh hands) and Mary is gimping due to her bad back and a spill with her scooter yesterday when she tried to go up too steep a hiilside.)  We both limp into the house.  Peaches is whistling at us, her "Im curious, what is going on" whistle.  Dogs are milling around wanting to chase her.  Ditto the cats, but we shut them outside.  What a zoo parade!!! Some days are just hectic, others are just wierd.  This was both.  

 

We have one new litter of kitties and another pregnant cat (what can I say, its spring, tra-la!)  Greenhouse plants are doing well, we are watching for humidity issues.  

Mary is chainsawing our ditchline, eliminating the saplings that have sprung up  between the bigger trees for better air circulation.  Im still doing Physical therapy, have improved my balance, and can stand straight again.  Its hard though, and I cant do it long.  BUT my doc authorized more PT to work on posture and getting mid and upper back strengthened so I can stand longer.  I pick the therapists' brains for when I have to use the gym when PT stops. 

 

l am also going back to my carb controlled diet to drop some of my body mass down a bit.  I figuyre I might as well, since I will be weight training again.  I want to get back maximum function, since I am not very optomistic about the future being very easy on disabled persons so I want to be as physically prepared as possible to maintain independence as much as possible.  Besides, Mary is getting worse, I need to be able to back her up when she needs help.  

 

What can I say...gettin' old ain' t for sissies.  I also find myself repeating my old training mantra....winners never quit....quitters never win.  I still think that would make a great T shirt slogan for the gym.  Maybe I'll make one up just for the heck of it.

 

  

 

 

 its sooooo cute when someone rediscovers something......

 

Well today we got to make someone happy and it was a blessing to us as well.

As you may know we moved to georgia after staying in our motor home on some friends property.  Dear friends that they are, they treated us to wonderful Christmas gifts when I was in chemotherapy and we were living by the skin of our teeth waiting for our new mobile home to get put in place.  We had been promised it would be in by thanksgiving so we sold, packed up everything and moved it all south to end up in storage until after Christmas.  /They made us feel very welcome and helped us through all the BS.  Well the husband had his leg amputated which was a great shock to him.  He took a while to get over the shock of it, but we visited very often both him and his wife to let him know we were rooting for him.  When he started to bounce back emotionally we got to visit in person.  His wife told us he had been worried abouot us staring at his amputation, or pitying him, so he had avoided seeing us for a bit.  When we did visit, there were no pity remarks, no staring, just the usual joking around and good humored fun.  He was perked up considerably by our acceptance...of course he is still the same fellow, just minus a little bit of a leg.  Both Mary and I lived with disabled folks so we did not bat an eye, of course.  His wife said he was tickled to see us and our visit perked him up considerably.  She has been keeping us posted, and we have seen him several times since, and he tells us he cant wait to get up and over to his dock to fish.

Well, Mary had bought a mobility scooter, and got a good price on it, too.  Four wheels for stability.  Rechargbeable, of course.  Today we took it down to his house for him to drive around and see how he liked it.  His eyes lit up, he got on, and he tooled all over the yard, up the drive, down the road, and in short was as excited as we have ever seen him about feeling FREE again to get around as he pleased.  Well, Mary looked at me, I looked at her, and we gave him the scooter.  Gave him the carrier for it too.  His wife told us later that as soon as he got into the house he cried tears of joy.  So did we, but nobody did it in front of each other, so as to avoid embarassment.  So today was a good day, very satisfying and it was an honor to help him regain some freedome he had lost.  Words cant express it, but lets just say....it felt GOOD.  Now you know why I love Mary so much....we think alike on these things....we will probably get another with one of our covid checks.  We consider a scooter a good prep as Marys back gets worse and worse.

 

You will know little sister when to let go of your DH things...dont let anyone rush you but do it on YOUR schedule not someone elses.  I kept my DH winter clothes several years.  They were brand new, heavy duty, XXXL things.  When a bitter winter came I donated them to a mens shelter along with his never worn bib overalls.  I felt that somone at the shelter was a big guy who found it hard to get really warm sturdy clothing...I was told when I took them there that indeed someone would be rejoicing over them.  I could hear my DHs chuckle at that and felt it was perfect timing.  So you will know the right time and place...dont be surprised if your DH  doesnt give you a nudge at the right time.

 

What a shock, Miki.  But sounds like it was sudden and quick.  I dont know about you but I think thats a blessing in disguise.  Hard on everyone else though.  My thoughts and prayers for you.

 

Mt Rider, these are for you... Mary in a greenhouse

 

Bouquets of heading collards taken yesterday                                                                                  

 

 

 

Bike in progress

 

I dehydrated 2 qts of collard shreds from that picking (cooked down from 10 qts raw).  MMMMMMM,,,,collards.......