Littlesister

Haven't done any canning since middle of Oct. But here is a list of all I have canned this year' Chicken 12 pints Veg. beef soup. 24 quarts pizza sauce. 12- 1/2 pints green beans 48 quarts salsa 12 pints carrots 24 plain and 24 glazed Beef stew 24 quarts Chicken soup 24 quarts So far this is about all I have canned this year. Hoping to have a better year next year. We are not going to plant a garden per say. Might still do tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers. But that will be about it. Those I will plant in flower beds instead of the garden. Going to hit the farm markets next year. Still have a ton of meat in freezer that I need to get canned but will wait till after the holidays. To much going on right now.

Got clocks set back an hour. Though I like the way it is now. I do better on this time than falling back. So today I have been trying hard to catch up on house work. Switched out the summer clothes to winter clothes and went through all the ones we don't wear any longer or are worn out. Stripped bed and got sheets and blankets washed. Had to run to pharm. to pick up the RX's. Now that the pharm. close to us closed. I have to go a way down the road and fight traffic to get to the next closest pharm. Got things together to start in on Monday cleaning out kitchen cabnets. Was hoping to start that job today, but DH gets cold easy these days. So decided to get the winter clothes out. So much to do and so little time. I don't remember ever being this far behind before. But the driveway had to be done. Still work outside to do but will have to put off most of it till spring. Will try to do what I can when time permits for outside work. Did get the bigger garden weeded and ready for mulch as soon as we can use the driveway. Got about 2 weeks before we can drive on it.

Jeepers get the shingles vac. We got ours about 3 years ago now. DH's father and brother both had the shingles. And I have a friend that it just about ruined her. She ended up in hosp. and on a walker. Shingles about did her under.

Out of the ordinar, the bovine thyroid is all natural from pigs and is very much like our own bodies. Armour thyroid is suppose to be the same but by RX only. I have now ordered the bovine thyroid from Neuta meds. And yes the bovine is from cows. Guess I had pigs on my mind. And with the swine flu or whatever is killing off the pigs maybe bovine is the best choice. I have now been taken 32.5 mg a day and can already feel a difference. Waiting now for the other one to come in for the adrenal glands. Hoping it all works for me as well as the ratings are saying. Only time will tell. At end of month I get labs done. So will see what happens from there.

This is an old post but with Lymes disease increasing, we need to be fully aware of it. And now that deer hunting is starting soon, this is very important. My daughter has lymes disease. There is no cure but can be controlled. She also had rocky mounted spotted fever. Found out she had both when she wasn't feeling well and was preg. with 3ed child at the time. She has to take certain vitamins daily to counter act the symtoms and at times has to go back on an antibotic for the lymes. She has had this disease now for over 18 years. So you will never get rid of lymes disease once you get it. I see above they had a vacine for it . Never new that. They need to come out with it again. I for one don't like vac. but in this case I would get that one. Right now the only ones I get are the flu and phnemonia, with the phn. being every 5 years. Lymes disease if not treated can lead to arthritis and can be debilitating. I have already seen what it has done to my daughter. If she does not stay active, her muscles and joints get very stiff.

With flu season around the corner. This needs to be bumped. We never know how bad the flu season can get from year to year as it is also based on location as well. For some it won't be bad and for other areas it can be really bad. I see some good post on pandemics as well. I know elderberry is very good. My daughter swears by airborn. But must be used at first signs of a cold. We have started back taking Vit. C. We don't usally take that during the summer. Fire cider is another one that is great. We got our flu shots about 2 weeks ago, so that should have now kicked in. October is the best time they say to get the flu shots. Any other ideas on staying well from the dredded flu season?

Out of the ordinar, the bovine thyroid is all natural from pigs and is very much like our own bodies. Armour thyroid is suppose to be the same but by RX only. I have now ordered the bovine thyrod from nutri meds and as soon as I can find out about dates and how to store long term I will post on the other forum about it. I ordered the 130 mg and quartered it. So starting off with the lower dose. I have not taken the synthroid now in about a week and feeling better. I went back and ordered the 65 mg. So only have to cut in half and after a bit of research, I also ordered the adrenal glandular. Those haven't come yet but has shipped, so will be adding the adrenal glandular to see how I am feeling. Hoping that this all works out well for me. Then after a bit more research to find out shelf life of both of them. i am going to start to stock up on it as it is looking like our heathcare system is starting to fall apart. Already they are talking about a shortage of heprin that is needed for heart surgery. This is not a good sign. And just a sample of things to come. Most of our prescription meds come from over seas. It's past time that we start manafacturing our drugs in the USA and fix our FDA for approval of these drugs and not having the FDA paying our politians for favors to look the other way.

Yes thank you. Something we really need to know about medications and how to store them. Will be checking my books on this. And post as I find answers to these questions.

Be careful with those hot tubs. They say do not stay in them no more than 15 minutes. My DH cousin's wife got in one and stayed in it for almost an hour and when she went to get out, she was so relaxed that she fell and broke her ankle. They had to put in rods and took her a long while to be able to use that foot. Had a rough night last night. DH was having a hard time with the fluid and just could not get to sleep. So was up with him most of the night. And Halloween was something else. We went from having just 2 to maybe 6 kids for past several years with one year with no kids. To having 4 car loads bus in a slew of kids putting us over 60 kids. Cars everywhere on street. Neighborhood next to us had over 140 kids with half being bussed in. Don't know why parents bring their kids to other neighborhoods for trick or treat but a lot of folks here was not prepared for that. Didn't get a lot done in house today, but did get the work done on the car. That put my whole morning in the shop. But everything is good. Still need to go get the inspection done. Have to go to a different place for that. But shouldn't take long for that. We had a bad storm last night. Though it was only 6 tenths of an inch of rain, it was blowing sideways with winds 60 to 70 miles an hour. Current lost for about 2 hours, but generator kicked in. Thinking we may need to get new battery for the generator. Noticed it was hesitating a bit. It is getting about that time for a new one. Thinking of maybe buying an extra for emergency situations. Annarchy that is so sweet that your DH proposed like that and everyyear for that long. That just goes to show how much he loves you. My DH was sneeky. though it was a second marrage for the both of us. Daughter and I was at his house for Christmas and he had talked to my daughter, she was 12 at the time, about him marrying me. She was all for it. So they plotted to put an engagement ring in the tree where I would not see it. And nope I never saw it. He had me go look at all the tree decorations and there it was, well hidding. He had done things like that almost every year. Been married almost 35 years now and loving every minute of it, even though we both have slowed down in our old age.

Haven't had to use mine yet, but yes we do need to keep our fish healthy. Starting a thread on this sounds good.

Snapshotmiki, that is funny. I go to the general dollars around here but that has never happened. Ambergris, you are right about not being his time. But his health has suffered in the past few months. And we will get through this also. He just turned 82 this past Sat. Plan on keeping him around a lot longer if God wills it. I remember that poem. I have always washed on Monday's though but never thought about the poem. And yes I do have ironing to do but it won't get done on a tuesday. I will be lucky to get to it tomorrow. I also need to get busy and bake brownies or cake for the cake walk for fall festival. I am way behind in getting things done. Already took candy to the church for it. So guess I better get baking in the morning. The weather is a bit crazy. It will be cold in morning and then warms up really nice. Then by about 3 the temps drop suddenly and back to cold but still mild enough to get outside stuff done. Been busy with getting the yard work done. Worked on the larger garden getting it ready to put down mulch. My yard man came and cut down the bushes in front yard. They were way up past the windows. So he cut them all the way back to ground. So they will start over again next spring and maybe we can control them better. If not, I am having them removed. They are called mop tops and were only suppose to grow no bigger than 3 feet. Guy at nursery that sold them to us was wrong. They can get as high as 10 feet tall. Can't have that in flower beds. But if I do end up removing them, it might be the front yard flower bed but I might just plant herbs and other things that we can eat in there.

Mt rider that is a good site about the meds. I have been storing all types of meds that I know will go past the dates. Yes the asprin is only good until you start smelling the vinager. But I have had asprin that has kept for over 2 years past date with no problem. I have bought some fish antibiotics about 3 years ago and they are just now starting to go out of date but are still good for quite a long time from those dates. Worse case is that they could loose there potency. I am going to wait another year before buying another supply in hopes nothing happens between now and then. Otherwise it might be sooner. Things in the world are not looking very good right now. Went to store to pick up DH RX and picked up a few sale items for my storage. After Christmas, I am going to pull everything out of closets and change those wire shelves that I hate and put in wood shelves. They work so much better for me. Having a list of the drugs glued somewhere on this site would be a great idea. I will try to locate mine as right now a lot of that stuff is on dining room table for me to go through and get into binders. I have started on it but things keep getting in the way and pulls me away from getting it done.

That is one nice kite. I really like it. And it is huge. Thank you Jeepers for thinking about DH. He felt much better after a long rest and an nap. Just something we have to deal with on a day to day basis. But we will get through it. He is my miracle and have had a few prayers answered where his health is concerned. First his stroke which was an anurism in the brain stem. They said it was a deadly stroke but he is still with me. He had to learn to walk all over again and get strengh back. That was over 20 years ago. Then in 99, he had a major heart attack after passing a stress test with flying colors. So much for those test. He was rushed to another hospital from a local one for emergency surgery after a heart doctor split a vein doing a cath. Came close to loosing him then as well. Scary stuff. He ended up with a 6 way bypass and a repair on the torn vein to stop bleeding. He had 6 units of blood before they even got him to the ER. I know the Lord was with us during those times and I know he will get us through this as well. They finished the driveway but cannot use it for 10 days as it has to cure. But I have windows now that are so dirty from the cement dust that I have my work cut out for me. So tomorrow I change my plans and start washing windows. And hosing down the porch and brick. Even the lights on house have so much dust on them the light won't shine through. That is a lot of dust. Ambergris, glad things went well with the insurance company. Smapshotmiki, I also was doing the shoeboxs. Did one for a girl and one for a boy. Took them back to church Sunday. So that is now done. But still having to buy some food for our food ministery. We will be giving food out the 3ed Thursday of November, so trying to pick up things our folks that can't afford, so they willl be able to have that for Thanksgiving. Then we will be working on the food for Christmas which will be given out the 3ed Thursday of Dec.

I also have the Hashimotos thyroid. I cannot take the generic synthroid. Have been taking the name brand now for several years and though it has helped better, I still get very tired at times and have to lay down to take a short nap. I ordered 2 bottles of the Bovine Thyroid health 130 mgs. from Nutri-meds and I am quartering them to take with the synthroid. If it works for me, I am going to try to wean off of the synthroid as I have never really felt right since I first started taking it years ago. I am going to be ordering more very so often to keep the dates from going out. Though from things I have learned from drug reps when I worked for doctors is a great many meds will last long past the exp. dates. You have to know which ones will last and which ones must be used by the exp. date. There are a couple of antibiotics that you cannot go past that date. The only thing is that you have to be careful that you are not over doing it. So you must know your body well.. Heart racing, etc. says you are taking to much and need to back off. So must pay attention to how you are feeling.

Went to church this morning and was planning to go back this evening but DH is not feeling well today. He did go to church this morning but really wasn't feeling well this morning either. So staying home this evening for him to rest. We had a hard rain this afternoon. So hoping they can finish driveway tomorrow. They just need to cut in the expansion joints and then it's done. Other than we can''t drive on it for 2 or 3 weeks. I am thinking more of closer to 3 weeks. My energy seems to be coming back some, so I guess just resting this weekend helped that. Sometimes I just go till I drop. Will be hosing the rest of house off after they finish making lots more cement dust. But at least it is at the end of the driveway this time. My brick house is white with the dust. It's on everything on back porch and the black cover over the grill has turned white. What a mess.

Jeepers, Thank you for that video. I seemed to have missed that last time I was on here. It explains flat sour very well. As far as I know I have not had that problem, but will be watching for that type of thing from now on.

I knew about the venting for 10 minutes as I have always done that. But first time I ever heard about flat sour from the jars cooling down to slow. Though I have always taken mine out when time was up after letting them sit in cooker for 5 minutes after removing lid to settle down. Then I would always remove them. though I to have had late night canning when I was working. But I did take time to take out jars. I am guessing do to habit. But I am glad to know about this.

Just been dragging today. Guess everything is catching up on me. Lots of yard work when they get finished with driveway. Cement was still to wet for them to do the cutting for expansion joints. So tomorrow it will be raining. So my guess is they will finish up on Monday. Then I have to redo all the landscaping between the patio and driveway where they had to move things to remove old driveway and pour the new cement. Then on each side of driveway and down front walkway needs to have dirt filled in. Time is flying, So much to get done and Thanksgiving and Christmas is right around the corner. And of course my energy is zapped. I am beginning to just think I am overwelmed and it's at a time where neither grandson nor daughter and son in law can get over here to help with the yard. But it is what it is. Grandson starts his on line classes Monday for college and has now gone full time at work. Daughter is in college and working full time. Youngest granddaughter is in college and working full time. The oldest grandson is stationed in Texas as he is in army. Oldest granddaughter lives in CA but is well away from the fires. Has not lost her power so far. And the 2nd oldest is in Maryland as her husband is in Navy and they may be getting shipped to either Texas or Washington State. He is Naval hospital so hard to say right now. He is in school in Texas right now and will be back in Maryland in Feb. So all my help at this point is unavailable and a husband that can't do much. Gee, no wonder I am tired. But by the grace of God, I will get there. Glad Luna is doing so much better. You really do take care of the dogs very well. Found out this morning my nextdoor neighbor's dog has breast cancer. She had a place come up on her within 4 days of finding a small lump and now it is huge. It keeps bleeding as well. So she goes back to vet monday as they think it is in her lungs. But she acts like nothing is bothering her. If the cancer is in her lungs, they have to make the dicission to put her down. I hope it's not and they can bring her home. I don't understand why so many dogs around here are getting cancer. This is the 7th dog that has passed from cancer. Something has got to be wrong. This is my neighors just a short distance around us. But on the bright side, today is DH's 81st birthday. He didn't want to go anywhere today, so we stayed home and had a good time. Fixed him an early dinner. Steak, potatoes and butterbeans. He enjoyed that. He didn't want much else, so I fixed what he wanted. Took it easy today to spend time with DH and tomorrow when we get home from church, I am going to just relax and enjoy the day again. Then Monday I will get started with the work around here. We are not doing a winter garden this year nor one in spring as well. Will hit the farms next spring. Going to get the garden soil built back up and then till it in spring and mulch it then. Not sure I can get it ready now for the mulch. Will talk to yardman when he comes to cut grass next week. Annarchy I know how you feel.

Finally made it to Harris Teeter but not the day I wanted to go. DH was not feeling well when he got back from cooking collards and I won't leave him by hisself when he feels bad. So went today.. Got the coconut oil to try. The one on sale was organic coconut oil in the glass jars. So got one to try out. I have a great deal of olive oil that went out of date that I got super cheap when Farm Fresh went out of business. So moved it all to shed to make olive oil lamps. You can burn olive oil in oil lamps and I think I have directions saved on pinterest on how to make your own in my DIY section. Will have to check to make sure and get it printed out.

Been cloudy all day, but they finished pouring the cement for driveway. Tomorrow they come back to do the cut and then clean up. I am so glad it will be finished. But still have to wait 10 days before being able to drive on it. Though we can walk on all but the abron. Took DH to store this morning as they had can veggies on sale for .27 but had a limit of 15 cans. We wanted the corn for the food ministrey at church as we had none to give out for Nov. and we feed anywhere from 28 to 35 families. So DH has his Vic card and I have one so we each got 15 cans of corn. Where there's a way around those limits on sales, we both go to store. I am up to my neck in cement dust all over everything in garage and on everything on back porch. I am going to finish working on garage and going through things as to what to keep and what will go. Try to clean up and organize as I clean off all the cement dust from everywhere. Got a lot done yesterday and a bit more this morning. Had taken down bedroom curtains and got them washed and because it took 4 panels to go across windows, I was going to redo them to make 2 panels. But with the garage situation and Thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner, I am just going to hang them back up and wait till next time I take them down in spring to do it. Hard to believe some of you are starting to have snow. We have had low 50's at night and warm days though it is cloudy. No rain expected until Sat. So we are still going through where we don't need heat nor air conditioner. That is a good thing with what the cost of this driveway, porch and walkway will be. But think goodness for our neighbor. He really does a great job and gives us as he calls it the neighborhood discount. Still will be several thousand dollars though. But had to be done. Driveway was in really bad shape and ready to cave in. Two very large holes with one being 9 inches and the other 5 inches deep. The 9 inch hole was a disaster waiting to happen under that crumbling cement. But I will never have to deal with it again. Need to go get the larger garden in shape before our yard man brings the mulch. Need to get that started tomorrow. Going to call son in law to run tiller for me. Annarchy: Glad to hear Luna is doing better. My granddaughter's dog is named Luna.. She does rescue dogs and trains dogs as well. She has trained some police dogs as well. Something she had to go to school for and be licenced for. With having to move around for militarty, it makes it easy for her to find a job. Snapshotmiki, Making bookmarks from old Christmas cards is a neat idea. I like the idea of the Christmas ornaments from canning lids as well. Nice to get back to making things like that instead of buying them. I want to get caught up around here and maybe start doing some DIY projects again. It has been a while since I have had anytime do some of those things.

Got DH out to car at 5:45 this morning to head to market to cook the collards. So I started in cleaning some in the house, then by 7 am here comes the trucks to work on driveway. they got the apron ready to go and the cuts in the cement for the expansion. It's really coming along. So Tomorrow morning they pour the cement for apron, then come back next day to do the epansion cuts. Then the clean up and then a 10 day wait before driving on it. It takes 7 to 10 days to cure. I have white cement dust on the house, windows, chairs, grill cover and everything else that is on the deck. So when they finish out comes the hose and I need to clean up everything. I have already cleaned front of house and hosed down the brick to get the dust off. So now for the rest of house in a few days. Just hope the weather holds out. Next spring I will have to get house and patio power washed. The dust is on everything in garage as well. That's going to be fun to clean up. Got some of it today though. Winterized the big garage door after getting the dust off of that. Hope everyone has had a great week with no issues of illness nor bad weather.

Mt__Rider, You use plenty of water for boiling the collards. You need to put the jowl meat in to cook first. Once that is cooked add your collards. Do not put any other ingredents in untill the collards are starting to get tender. Add water if needed. Once collards are starting to get tender add everything except the salt. When they are fully tender then add salt to taste. Hope this helps.

Mt__Rider, The way we cook the collards: We use jowl meat, chicken base, salt, ving. and just a tad bid of texes pete. You do not use much as you just want that kick but not to be able to taste it. I can't really tell you how much of everything as I will have to figure it out. We always do 6 bushels at a time. We use a 35 gal. pot. That is a lot of collards.

Up again at 6 am as the cement trucks came rolling in. They got the cement pured in driveway all the way down to the apron.. Waiting for city inspector for the apron to get done. Then to wait a week, maybe a bit more depending on weather,, for it to cure. Then I can get car back in garage. We are parking on street in front of house right now and the sidewalk goes down into a slope so having to hold on to DH to get him to car. I will be glad when it is over. Scrubbed down the front of house this morning as cement dust is all over the brick, windows and everywhere else you can think of. So cleaned glass on door and cleaned the front door down and hosed off everything. When this is over, I will have to have the house pressure washed. What a mess. Windows will really need a good cleaning. Went to chuch supper and Bible study, so at least i didn't have to cook. I did take a pan of collards though. They won't let us forget to bring those as they seem to be the big hit at church. I am so tired right now so going to head to bed early. Got to get up at 5 am to get DH to the car and off to farmers market for him to cook collards for the market.

Jeepers, I am going to make some of the meals in a jar up and do like you said. Make in jar and then transfer to mylar bags. Defintly saves on jars. Snapshotmiki, we have general dollars here but have not seen any canning jars in any of them. But will check again. I have a lot of the golden harvest brand jars as well. Got a lot of them from yard sales for like 10 to 25 cents each. Haven't had any issues with them.