out_of_the_ordinary

Big Lots is having a 20% off your entire purchase sale!! It's TODAY July 15 ONLY. There was a coupon for the 20% off in my local newspaper. There's also a printable one on their website. But, I got to the store and every register had a stack of coupons anyway. Wow was that store crowded today! I stocked up on laundry detergent, liquid hand soap and tissues.

You can't have more money going out than you have coming in. Municipalities are spending more than they have coming in. The unions won't renegotiate. I think we'll be seeing more of this. It's usually a public stunt to be able to raise taxes. If those jobs were in the private sector, and a company was bleeding that much money, they'd close up. You should see some of the crap that gets pulled when the teachers contracts are up in school districts in PA. My brother didn't start his senior year of high school until nearly the end of Oct., then had to go to school over Christmas vacation and didn't graduate until almost July because of a teacher's strike. in PA, the unions representing people whose paycheck comes from my tax dollars need to accept that these are tough times. Our taxes keep going up to pay for union contracts and union pensions for government employees. A year or 2 ago, the teachers in my school district went on strike the maximum number of days allowed by law. The biggest fight was over a increase in their healthcare costs. They had no monthly premium. The district wanted the teachers to pay a $10/month per individual or $20 month per family monthly premium. That was the biggest reason for the strike. I don't have much sympathy when our premium is over $500/month. Then there's union pensions. There's alot of gov't (union) jobs in PA with very cushy pensions. We know a guy who was a PAT bus driver in Pittsburgh for 20 years and then retired with a full pension. They're union. . PAT is Port Authortiy Transportation (the city of Pittsburgh's government public transit). I'll rant about how my driver's license fees and vehicle registration fees keep going up and the $ goes to the Port Authority --raises, pensions, ect-- and fares don't go up, and they don't strike, for another day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

If you're able to dehydrate, make banana chips. Although they don't last long here...

I'm sorry for your loss.

Happy Birthday (a little late)!!!

We had a cooler morning, so I was able to open a few windows and cool the house down a few degrees. By 8, I had to shut the windows again. We're going to be in the 90s all week , humid with no rain in the forecast. We need some rain! Here's one I didn't expect: with the high humidity, the jamb of our back door must have swelled a little. I can't get the deadbolt unlocked. We've been watering the garden every evening. While DH waters, I weed some or pick raspberries. We have black raspberry bushes and they've been producing very well. I think we've got our $5 back out of them! (A couple years ago, I found raspberry bushes on clearance for $1 each. I bought 5. I think we've gotten our money back on that deal! )

NO!

Happy Birthday!!

Since finding that GE hides crappy, cheap pot metal in their washers that corroded and caused me to suffer for the past 7 months, I'll never buy a GE anything again. And that was in a 3-year-old washer. That didn't scream quality products to me. (Maybe that's biased, but my rash isn't completely gone, I still have itchy spots and yesterday I got the credit card statement with doctor's appointments and the new washer on it). That aside, before the washer fiasco, DH and I decided not to buy their products for other reasons (political). Other than that.... When I picked out my stove, I made sure to get one that had an actual knob for setting the oven temp. My mom's oven had the electronic little board to set the oven temp. and they had a lot of problems with that. My other 3 requirements for a stove were: 1) Gas. I've had gas and electric and I think gas cooks better. Now I know It's better for canning. Plus working in a power outage. 2)Oven light. I had old, used stoves before, too, and always had to use a flashlight to check on whatever I was baking. 3) an oven window. See #2. I hope this helps.

I recently finished Beverly Lewis' The Courtship of Nellie Fisher. It was the 3 books in one volume. I read in another thread here how some ladies here enjoyed her books. I liked that one! Right now, I'm reading Glenn Beck's Arguing With Idiots and "Reflections on the Psalms" in The Beloved Works of C.S. Lewis.

Hi! It's been very dry here, too. The humidity has been very low and the temps in the low 70s. I want the rest of the summer to be that cool! Tomorrow the heat and humidity are coming back and staying for what looks like at least a week. I'm trying to get some things done around the house today so I don't have as much to do when it's hot. I saw the fires on the news.... Has Mt Rider checked in with anyone? I thought of her!

I'd trash it! Not worth getting you and your family sick. Don't feel bad....Last winter, I was digging something out of our deep freezer in the basement. I set a ziploc bag on the floor containing 2 nice beef roasts. I just set it down for a "second" to get a whole chicken out that was underneath. I got the chicken out, shut the freezer and went upstairs. That "second" turned into nearly a week! I was glad the ziploc bag didn't have any holes it it. There was alot of blood in that bag. I was upset with myself over it. But DH just told me stuff happens and not to worry about it. I wouldn't have been so gentle with him if he would have been the one to do it. Ever since then, I've been trying to be as forgiving with him as he is of me. So I wasted 2 roasts but learned a lesson about not being so hard on DH when he screws up. Priceless!

Best site for info on being gluten-free: http://forums.glutenfree.com/ They even have a Gluten Free diet Bootcamp thread http://forums.gluten.../topic1309.html which I highly recommend checking out. Keep in mind that there are a lot of sources for cross-contamination!!!! There's also recipes on that board. I buy very few specialty gluten-free items, mostly because of my 19 food allergies. I do recommend Tinkyada brand rice pasta. It's the only one I've tried that holds up like regular pasta. My Walmart actually has a small gluten free section and that pasta is under $3 there. Anything specific she's looking for? For us, (except for the obvious gluten-stuff, like baked goods, bread, ect.,) it was switching brands to ones that were safe/gluten-free. Most of the Chex cereals are now Gluten free. That was huge for the gluten-free community! I don't recommend eating out, especially at first. I personally don't eat out because I don't trust anyone else to make sure my food is completely safe for me. It took me quite awhile to get the hang of everything, so I don't trust someone in a busy restaurant kitchen to know exactly what to do. Just stirring my food with a plastic spoon that had previously stirred something with gluten in it (even if washed), is enough to cross-contaminate.

Botulism is something none of us ever wants to experience! I greatly appreciate Violet's willingness to share her knowledge and answer our many, many questions here! Another thing to consider about info that goes AGAINST the safe, up-to-date info Violet shares.....is that if someone read those UNSAFE practices/recipes here, followed it and got sick, or even died....well, that'd be a lawsuit. Botulism can be deadly! And to be very clear, I don't in any way, shape or form think that Violet, the USDA or the UGA food preservation website recommends doing things a certain way to avoid a lawsuit. It's to do things in a safe manner so we DON'T get sick/die.

We have Eclipse brand thermaback blackout curtains on several windows. It's not necessarily the color, but the thickness of the material that blocks out the light. The backing of the blackout curtains is a very heavy material, but is white in color. I have seen that they make that same material in liners for curtains (and made by Eclipse) that you can buy and attach to your present curtains, but it was more expensive than the blackout curtains!

My DH lost 70 lbs. He quit eating most processed foods. He eats salad alot. He ate salad before, but there was a bunch of UNhealthy stuff we were adding to it. That changed. He now fills it up on healthy stuff. He quit drinking pop (soda). And he exercises. He recently quit chewing (snuff) and used the nicotine mints. This is the first time he's quit on his own without me nagging him to quit. I had been praying for this. Anyway, he has been eating some junk. I haven't said too much about it as quitting chew has made him a mean ------- (insert bad word here). Now he said he's not craving the sugar he was when he first quit nicotine and is working out more regularly to loose that extra weight he's gained with that.

It's very humid here. It was too muggy this morning to even open the windows. The temp is supposed to be in the 80s today with 90s the rest of the week! Not much planned for today. I set out a bunch of chicken breasts to grill for supper. That'll cover supper for tonight and leftovers for supper a few days. We won't feel like cooking--inside or out--in 90 degree weather. I picked up a box of knitting stuff for $3 at a yard sale over the weekend. I need to go through it and see what's in there (and identify it!). The main reason I bought it was for the books. There's several books---there a "Joan Fisher's Guide to Knitting", a "Make it yourself" book, a Woman' Day Knitting and Crocheting Projects book (original price: 75 cents) and 2 books on needlepoint. I don't know if the knitting books are for beginners, but figured they're worth the $3 I spent.

Happy Birthday, Carie!

Good afternoon! The weather here is very nice. The past few days were very humid. Today isn't humid at all. There's a nice, cool breeze coming in through the windows. My new Speed Queen washer was delivered this morning. So I'm slowly working on getting things soaked in vinegar and then washed in the new "safe" washing machine! I think this was a good choice over the used ones as I don't have to be concerned about any kind of scented detergent residues. I have some grass-fed ground beef in the fridge. After DH gets home from work, he'll grill us burgers for supper. I have to pick some lettuce from the garden. I really like getting my lettuce from the back yard instead of the grocery store!