themartianchick

Thanks for posting this! I think I'm falling in love with this site... I love reading through "what if "scenarios. Things that make you go hmmmm....

That sounds like so much fun! I'm so glad that you all had the opportunity to meet!

Thanks everyone for your advice. I just measured my old canner, and the base is 12 in. in diameter. That rules out using it on my glass cook top, and probably the Coleman camp stove too. I might be better off just buying the 23 qt Presto model that's in my Amazon wish list. To satisfy my dh, we might try boiling water in it on the green wonder. The only other way I can think to use it would be to buy a propane burner or Camp Chef Stove, which would allow us to can outdoors or without electricity, but would cost more cash up front. As for the dehydrator, I've thought about using Facebook to see if any of my friends have one they no longer want..of course, my dh might be mortified.

You might try a thrift store first. I often see bread machines and once in awhile a dehydrator at our local Salvation Army store.

I've been told that I'm an exception on another forum but our healthcare premiums went down after Obamacare passed. Hubby had been paying $132 per week and it is now $52 or 57 each week. Have any of you received the insurance rebate checks from your health insurer? We haven't gotten one of those, but we've heard of other people that have.

This is my favorite time of the year!

Congratulations on such a wonderful milestone!

The couple on the left is you and Old Pine.... The couple on the right is my hubby and me. (That's me with the frying pan. We have a different way of keeping the excitement in our marriage!)

Oh my goodness! Congratulations Dr. C4C! I am so proud of you! I knew that you would do it, despite all of the drama in your life. I hope you take a nice long vacation and relax for awhile.Truthfully, I don't know how you made it through all of the turmoil, you are made of some strong stuff, woman! You are my newest heroine and you will serve as an inspiration to all of us here at Mrs S.

We had a bumper crop of strawberries before the drought struck. The raspberries were a bust and so was most of everything else. Garlic is doing well in pots and we have exactly one tomato. If we can just keep the squirrels away from it then...

Adding my prayers for a full recovery...

Happy birthday, Westie! I promise to smuggle a piece of cake in to you. I'm certain that birthday cake has medicinal qualities!

Welcome back, Pixie! I hope that you visit more often to escape the whirlwind!

I hope that he enjoys the classes!

Echoing the others... The accessory kit is worth its weight in gold! My daughter bought it for me because it scared her to watch me can and lift jars out using undafe implements.

Good point, Deerslayer! I know that I rely on having access to Violet's wisdom in food preservation.

I've read a couple by Beverly Lewis, but I wasn't sure if she wrote any non-Amish themed books, too. I have read several Amish themed books written by Wanda Brunstedder and Beth Wiseman, too. I usually enjoy the "escape" to Amish country, even if it is only through fiction.

I'm reading The Preacher's Daughter In Beverly Lewis' "Annie's People" series.

I got all 3 books in the series at a yard sale!

Is this an Amish themed book?

I've gotten lots of canning lids and other supplies at Lowes. I usually wait until the Fall and buy them when they are on deep discount.

Adding my prayers that Grandma makes a full recovery from something that is not serious!

A trapper/hunter friend here in Iowa told me the rule of thumb is to NOT to eat wild rabbits in a month that doesn't have an R in it because of parasites.

We don't eat rabbit, but I think I will make a note of that tip! After running through the names of the months, it seems as though there really is an entire season to avoid.

I have a question What does it mean to monetize a blog?

Monetizing a blog is when you add advertising banners to your blog to earn a little cash. You can select the types of ads that you are willing to have displayed in most cases and with some companies/advertisers like Amazon, you can actually select specific products that you are willing to have ads for on your blog.

Welcome back, Wormie! You were definitely missed here. So sorry to hear about the garden. We didn't get much of a harvest from ours, either. I also didn't plant my main garden bed. Our best crop came from the strawberries, but there were absolutely no mulberries this year. The tree is usually loaded, but there were no berries at all on it. The raspberries are attempting to put out another (small) crop and I have 2 tomato plants left, but doubt that I will get more than a couple of fruits on them. My mom and dad had a bumper crop of green beans and they generaously shared with me. I will be snapping and freezing them tomorrow.

I suppose that it was a good thing that I didn't plant the big garden since the summer was too hot for me to even really be outside for any length of time. Here's hoping that we'll all have better luck next year!

I don't have a Kindle, but I do have the software on my computer and use an iPhone. I have quite a few books dowloaded for pleasure, but I don't expect to have acces post-EMP. Instead, yard sales are a great place to find cheap books for entertainment. If you go to a yard sale at the end of the day, the people will often give boxes of books to you. Then you just keep the ones that you want an donate the rest to your favorite charity.

I was afraid that Michael's story was leading up to Lori needing to grab a mallet to whack-a-mole in his garden.

Does he participate in any group activities? I know of a homeschooling mom that had all of her children enrolled in a lot of activities to make sure that they had access to other kids for socialization. At that age, I would think that he may be thinking that he's missing out on things that his public schooled peers may be doing. (It doesn't mean that he is actually missing out...Just that he may believe that he is!)

**Cat pulls Reb into a comfy chair, hands her a cool tea drink, then duct-tapes her firmly in place!**

 

 

 

Where have you BEEN? Missed ya, Sweetie!

Not duct-tape... tape!

Welcome back, Reb!