homeschoolshe

for safe travel and comfort.

Frankly this scares the daylights out of me......owning rights to rainwater??????? Hey that cloud had my name on it! (see, even that isn't funny to me today). Hmmm, nope, no appropriate jokes for this. Even my shrug your shoulders and just keep moving doesn't help this one. So what do we do? How bout dropping a barrel underground under the tile line. slice a good slot on the bottom of the black and let about half run downward and the rest out the bottom....see it's coming out the bottom the tile line. ..nothing to look at here, move along folks. Maybe not as good, but easier to get done in town without suspicion, how about some buckets hidden in the bushes. Plant bushes under the downspouts, raise up the elbow so it goes straight through the middle of the bushes and slit open the bottom over the bucket. Reminds me of the Tim Hawkins song "The Government Can" . "Who can tax the sunshine...... Okay, found my happy place!

FYI, I also found information stating that you should never use a moisture absorber and an oxygen absorber in the same container.....Unpleasant chemical reaction. I didn't read further, just noted the "do not".

"There are two types of oxygen absorbers used for the storage of Food, "B" absorbers and "D" absorbers. The "B" absorbers require moisture from the food they are packed with to perform their action. A good example would be beef jerky or dehydrated fruit that hasn't been dried until it is brittle. The "D" absorbers contain their own moisture and are better suited for dry pack canning because there isn't enough moisture in correctly dried food to activate the "D" absorbers." The above information came from this website. https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/information_center/packing_your_own_food_storage/oxygen_absorbers.htm So, apparently the moisture came from the oxygen absorbers themselves. So I probably wasn't supposed to sit there and watch the jar....... . The only jar I saw do it was the one with 12 oxygen absorbers in it. So maybe 12 is too much for a pint jar! LOL. I did take them immediately back out of my dehydrated foods....Just in case. I left it in my buckets of oatmeal. The one in the ice cream bucket has keep the middle of the lid pushed down where I pushed it down when I put it on. So it much be working. I just didn't want to take any chances with the food I dehydrated.. . All that work! So I don't know what to do. I want to extend my shelf life, but don't want to ruin anything either. My best guess is that the chemical reaction is what caused the moisture. A 300cc absorber should be fine in a quart jar. If there was any moisture my food would have absorbed it, but it shouldn't be enough (as I probably over-dry all too often) to cause spoilage. The 3600ccs combined is too much for a pint jar, thus the condensation inside the jar. They are only there to save them for further use, and they did seal the jar. The moisture disappear after several minutes. About the time I took them out of most all the rest and quit panicing! Sorry about posting and leaving before. I can't seem to consistantly type on my kindle, which is what I use daily for internet use. I usually only have the big computer on when I'm working and then only if I have orders or items to list, or prayer requests to get out for church. ( I have an Etsy shop and my sewing machine is right by the computer! so I may be on for hours then just hitting the "new content button" so on the days I comment off and on all day....that is what is going on! )

AHHHHHHHHHHH... I opened my package of 20 oxygen absorbers and proceded to put them in my buckets of oatmeal and my jars of dehydrated foods. I popped the rest of them in a jar by themselves and now the empty jar is all foggy, I opened it back up and ran my finger along the jar and it's wet! It was a dry jar, because it was smaller, so I dumped one of my dried items into a larger jar..... What do I do, is it going to ruin my dehydrated food?????????

Do tell! They are on sale this week here too! I didn't want to fill the freezer with them.

Onions! And, I finally found a surefire way not to cry! SWIM GOGGLES! Borrowed my only DS's spiderman swim goggles! I may have looked ridiculous, but, hey, no tears!

The last of the peaches, the last of the tomatoes, leftover cabbage, and a few slices of zucchini. Did a full load of peaches last night.

Praising God that you all made it through okay. Great that you DD stayed calm; I think mine would have paniced.

DD#2 and DD#3 and I canned 14 jars of jam - 8 peach and 6 banana.

14 quarts of tomatoes that we picked up at a produce auction today. Hubby even pitched in and helped start to finish. He now has a new understanding of the time it takes! Really enjoyed working with him on one of MY projects!

Corn today and tomatoes tonight. I've had that thing running constantly since I got it.

Canned 6 jars of peach jam.

Banana chips last night and peaches today.

Don't be downhearted, , when we finally got rain it had been only a 20% change and it ended up raining all night! The next rain we got was not even in the forcast! The weather forcasters are the only people that can be wrong so often and still keep their jobs! Count your blessings. I bet you haven't had to mow Praying for rain for all

Normally I wouldn't put the effort into it. I would have just accepted the lose and not given it a second thought. I just couldn't shake the thought that I needed to plant whatever I could get. One DD and I planted almost all the rest last night. I have one other patch that I might get a couple more zucchini or yellow squash in. I only planted 2 plants this year, because they usually get away from me, but now, well.... I don't know! Not panicy or anything, just feel like I need to do it. Sounds like I'm not the only one with varmits! One DD caught one of the bunnies last night, and then let it go. We could have taken it to the park or something! That girl just has a way with the animals. She walks right up to birds, rabbits, gophers. She picked a sparrow off the fence one day. When she tried to put it back it flew away, so I guess there was nothing wrong with it.. Wish I had saved some of my extra starts. I know most of them went to good use though. California is cold, texas is wet, and the cornbelt is dry. Just wow.

That's pretty awesome, Annarchy! You're getting the sun from two angles, with a simple piece of foil! Love it! Did yellow squash chips dipped in oil and sprinkled with Mrs. Dash. Also did a small cucumber and a few of the middle stalks of celery last night. Today I put in 3 onions and some more corn. Cut the onion in half and then sliced it. Waiting for it to be good and dry so I can crunch it up. Figured that was less work than chopping, plus I wouldn't have to mess with the tulle.

An almost empty bag of shredded potatoes, zucchini, and green beans. Wish I had caught those tomatoes on the counter a few days ago. Threw one to the hens, and will have to eat the other tonight. Still good, but probably passed it's prime for dehydrating.

Aw, I needed that! Planting my garden today for the second time. Did some this morning and will finish this evening.

I told the girls (2 teen dd) that I had had it and I was going to plant the garden again, even if that meant that I had to plant the whole thing to green beans! (plastered on smile) My potatoes are done and small. My onions, also small, have tipped over. My beets never grew at all. My tomatoes plants just didn't grow and then were eaten off by rabbits. I got one bunch of spinach, and no lettuce. Several things I didn't even plant this year. None of my fruit trees produced (late frost after an exceptionally warm march) Strawberries were small and hard. :blah: So I went out and replanted beets and lettuce. (My original lettuce might come up in the fall; it's happened that way before.) I added an additional row of green beans and planted the cukes I hadn't gotten in. Found some potatoes sprouting under the counter and figured, "What do I have to lose?" I have a bunch of green bean seeds and stopped at the store and got more for 75% off. I also picked up some onion seeds, hoping to get some green onions to dehydrate. Some one asked my hubby the other day if something was wrong with my garden. He said, "Um...the drought?" La-de-da. Anyway we have incredibly sandy soil, which is great for getting out their early, because it thaws quicker. And, the melon's love it. Not good for holding in moisture though, and as there was no grass to mow this year, I had nothing to add for ground cover. Lest I sound like I'm complaining, I have some beautiful turnips and my green beans look good. Cabbage is okay. Peppers good. Zucchini looks good, though I planted it a little later than usual. And...my grape vines are loaded. We covered them for the frost! And, we haven't had to mow the lawn...I guess that can be looked at 2 different ways. Anyway, that is my plan and I'm sticking too it! Wish me luck!

DOH!

No to both! If they are frozen, then they have already been blanched. Just open the bag and dump them in the tray. I put wedding tulle in the tray for the peas and corn to keep them from falling through. I'm having a great time with this. Enjoyed taste testing my corn too! I ate a whole hand full! Much tastier than the peas. I'm going to do some green beans and shredded potatoes Monday. I'm taking a dish to a reunion tomorrow, but I won't use the whole bag of shredded potatoes. Once they are opened they don't last long in the freezer and I usually forget they are there until I find them freezer burned. I can't wait to do onions! So many of my storage onions end up going to waste. And more when you consider that often times we don't need a whole big onion....

Yeah, I guess I just wanted to know what each veggie is supposed to look, sound, feel like when it's done! The pinterest link got me here: http://rovinroberts.blogspot.com/2011/06/dehydration-1-2-3.html She's got some great pictures of dehydrated foods. Wish she had more! Thanks for all the help, everyone! I've dehydrated before, but only for immediate use. Like jerky and banana chips! Wonder if I can dehydrate muskmelon????

Don't you just love first eggs! It's time to start the flock over for us too. No tragedies, just old hens!

Corn has been in over 8 hours now. Some of the pieces shatter. Other's are more rubbery and it I try to break them they tear between my fingers. I'm guessing that means they are not done yet. Anyone know of a chart with info about how to tell when the foods are done.