Jeepers

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Glad you are finally getting your life back! Now you can be the daughter and not the parent. Hope you and your DH have a relaxing time.

I used to have trouble with toads in my strawberry patch. At first I thought it was birds pecking at them until I saw two toads munching away. They went bye-bye real fast. I had plenty of berries and I really wouldn't have minded sharing but they would take a bite out of this one and then that one and the other one. I didn't have time to train them to eat one at a time. Edited to add: I forgot to wish you good luck on your re-plant.

If something like that is cause for a banning then I'm in deep...... Shaving Cream

Hee-hee. My son and I were going through the drive thru and McD's once and I was telling him my order to tell the speaker and at the end I said, "to go" and he repeated it to her without thinking. As soon as it left his mouth he realized what I had done to him. Duh, we're in the drive thru. Once son and I were going through a toll booth and the guy said, "Have a safe trip." Son said, "You too!" I got the side look from him to see if I noticed. I did! We have a garden center here called Petitti's. A neigbor asked where we got a certain shrub and he said, "Patooties". Don't tell him I told y'all.

Glad you are back!

A fan here too. I have a great cd that I made with all my favorites of his that I keep in the Jeep. Well, all that 80 min. would allow. I'm always singing one of his songs to my son. You know the one...'I'd love to knock the h3ll out of you'

Good Luck! I go back Friday.

SNIP: I found this but I've never tried it. I'll bet the watermelon would be sweeeeet. Also bet it takes a long time to dry with all the water content melons contain. http://wellpreserved.ca/2011/08/31/dehydrated-watermelon-and-dehydrated-cantoloupe/

Sending prayers your way today.

I found some drying time carts but they vary widely. The problem is they don't know how hot your dehydrator is or how thick/thin your prepared food is. Also the temperature of your house and humidity can effect the time. One thing I've found is that I really have to rotate my trays. Also, some of the trays will be dried and some won't. So some of the food comes out and some will need to stay in longer. Sometimes I've taken food out and, after it had cooled down, didn't think it was quite dry enough so I put it back in for an hour or two. It's frustrating I know. I wish there was a chart like for canning but dehydrating is mostly by sight and feel. I tend to over dry a tad to make sure there is no moisture at all. Also frozen food may take a little longer because it is colder than fresh. Don't worry...you'll get the 'feel' for it. You already have the pea thing down. Here are a couple of sites I found that has some info. http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/348/348-597/348-597.html http://www.countryconsultant.com/blogspot/?p=1652 http://www.drystore.com/page/page/1346972.htm I just found this one and it looks interesting. I haven't checked it out yet though. http://pinterest.com/conniesmith1/dehydrating-foods/

8-10 years. The way you are going to store them will be fine. I put mine in 1/2 gallon canning jars and then used my food saver jar sealer on them. If you are tight on space, you could use a food saver and seal them in individual packets and then store the packets in a gallon or 5 gallon food grade bucket. Sorry I missed the question on drying times. I've found that they get a little harder when they cool off. So if they feel dry when warm, they are probably dried. I'm not sure you can over dry stuff but I have scorched a few things. I pitched them. Also be sure they are completely cooled before storing them to prevent moisture. I can't imagine storing dried food in a freezer. Except jerky. Corn is good to do too. Try a kernel or two after it's dried. It tastes good and real sweet.

Hope everything went well today!

Ohhh, I'll bet lime would be good in salsa! Yeah, I figured she had lime juice on hand too.

Congrats! You did a wonderful job. You have been busy!

Thanks for all the links ANM.

The Excaliber is top of the line. I couldn't afford one either and to be quite honest I don't know anyone in real life who has one. I got my dehydrator at Walmart. Actually I got 2 but that's another story. I figured I'd go inexpensive to see how I liked dehydrating before I sunk a lot of money into it. Also, I knew I'd probably use it a lot, but not 365 days a year. Mine has the fan on the top with a tube thingy that goes down the center through the round trays. I have not had any problems with it at all and it dries my food just fine. It may take longer but I've never used anything else so I'm not sure. I pretty much ignore it for the first few hours then I rotate my trays because the ones on the bottom dry faster than the ones on top. It's such a slow process that it's hard to over dry. Although I have! It would be nice to have one with a thermostat but at the time I couldn't find one. I've been using the same one for about 3-4 years now so I got my money's worth. It is similar to this one but not exactly: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Nesco-American-Harvest-Food-Dehydrator/15398566 Here is a post I did on drying peas in 2008 when I was a newbie. http://mrssurvival.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=28055&st=0&p=220864&hl=+dehydrating%20+peas&fromsearch=1entry220864

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

The website dehydrate2store has a lot of good information about dehydrating and some recipes. Also if you go to Youtube and type in hydrate2store you will find her videos. I think she has about 9 of them. I like her videos and she really inspires me to get busy. (website) http://www.dehydrate2store.com/ (Youtube videos) http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dehydrate2store++&oq=dehydrate2store++&gs_l=youtube.12..0.13986.13986.0.15725.1.1.0.0.0.0.53.53.1.1.0...0.0...1ac.JNKLHO-zFwY

I'm sorry for your loss.

Any news? I get mixed up with our time differences.

Have a wonderful day!

That had to be scary! I'd let the Dr. know I needed some extra inhalers at home incase of another emergency. Could any of the cleaning stuff you used caused it? Maybe you over exerted yourself? Hope you are feeling better. Take it slow and easy. The house isn't going anywhere. It will wait until you are ready to deal with it.