Littlesister

My DGD has now started feeding the baby food. She makes her own. I am thinking about making it and canning it. Just need to get the jars and make sure of the texture. This would be something new I would do. So not sure yet on what I will do. She's not on meats or anything and I am not sure if I could puree meats to can or not. But going to look into doing some foods. Jeepers, glad you found the Kerr jars. You are doing great getting all the veggies canned. I didn't know Gordon foods were still around. Glad they are. They do have some good products.

Don't think that earthquake in VA did much if any damage. So good there. I knew about the one in New Jersey and in New York. Seems they are getting more frequent now. Not doing a lot right now. Just trying to wind down. Cooked dinner and put GSs in fridge for when he gets home. Been reading up about this digital dollar. Things are not looking good in that respect. I also did just a small amount of weeding. Weather pending, I might do more weeding of the flower beds. I need to get mulch soon also. Just wondering how much I can get into my car. I would get bags as I think I can handle that better. I gave up on my grass guy. Seems all he wants to do is cut grass, edge and blow off the walkway. I'm tired of talking to him about it. So, going to start looking for someone else about taking over the whole yard. It is getting harder for me. And with GS possibly going into coast guard next month if he passes his test this time. I will not have any help for a while. GD and her DH would help but they will soon be moving. Yep, they got a house, but inspection is on Friday. So, will see how things go from there. The house is 2 streets over from my sister-in-law.

Jeepers, I know what you mean by needed an assistant. GS is no help in a kitchen. He prefers to do work outside other than washing his clothes and cleaning his bathroom, he is no help. He slowed down on the wood pile, and I had to say something. All I got was I'm tired and not working on it. So, told him fine, I will finish it myself. That was the only reason he got off his duff and went out yesterday and worked on it. He doesn't want me to do it. Guess I have to give him credit for that. What my GD and her DH are doing is buying a house that they will live in till he gets transferred. Then they are going to rent the house out and not sell it. So, I am just going to continue to downsize the house and then get the rest of house painted and the outside lights replaced and call it a day and put on market to move closer to my DD in NC. It might be a couple of years before he gets transferred. He has to go to school in NC for 4 months, but GD is going to stay here, and he is going to commute back and forth. She said it is about a 45-minute drive each way to where he has to go in NC. So that gives me a couple of years to get things done. So far today, have washed clothes and cleaned my bathroom. Went through a few more boxes and trying to figure out where to put all the empty plastic tubs for storage for the time being. Don't want to get rid of them as I can use them to pack up when and if I get to move from here. I need to go spend a few days with DD and drive around different areas to get an idea of where I want to move.

Look at the store-bought pizzas. those look like the crust is partly cooked and they have the toppings already on them. Don't know if that would help or not but when I make my own pizza's I freeze the dough and toppings separate. I have a pizza oven for outdoor use that we use a lot in the summer months. I can bake bread and other things in it. It uses 3 different types of fuel. Small sticks, charcoal, and I forget the other one. But it works great.

Went online this morning to the news to find out there was a 2.1 magnitude earthquake that struck in central VA. late Monday night. It happened just North of Glen Allen at 10:46 pm. We didn't feel anything around here on this one. Cleaning out the boxes in the living room and dining room. Getting ready to move the Christmas boxes to shed to put back up on the loft. Moving a few things around to get that out of the dining room. Need to also finish putting a highchair together. I keep trying to get rid of stuff and have seemed to have replaced it with a playpen, highchair, toys and other things for the baby. Funny how all that worked out. But it's for my GGD. So worth the switch from junk to baby things. GD and her DH are still looking for a house. I feel like as long as they need me to help with the baby and as long as GSIL doesn't get transferred for a while I will stay put for now. But after they get transferred, I will start again thinking of moving closer to daughter if she decides to stay put and not move again. She's one to want to move every five years.

Midnightmom, that idea might work good for me. Just make a jar at a time. I know of the freezer jam but have never made it before. Time to rethink my jelly issue.

Becca, glad you had a wonderful birthday. But didn't need the tornado warnings. Glad all went well. Mt. Rider, I have tinnitus but it's not a hissing sound. It does at times get loud. They say it is not the ears but the brain that is causing the noise. Wish they had a cure for it. But glad you are feeling better and no fires to worry about. I have eating canned food had been 2 years out of date with no issues. So yes, a lot of it is still good. My GS is very wasteful with food. It makes me mad, but he still throws out food that he wanted and then decides it's not what he wants and dumps it in trash to get something else to eat. We had a partial solar eclipse. I just looked like it was getting later in the day as like the sun going down some but that was it. I watched the full eclipse on TV. A couple of states said they could see the stars and it got really dark and the streetlights all came on. It showed the eclipse but didn't see any stars in what they were showing on tv. I went through some more boxes and cleaned out the China hutch. GS was off today and worked on the wood pile for a bit and washed his clothes. Then cleaned up his bathroom. Little by little I am getting the house back together. GS goes to Mepps for his test and to check the kidneys to make sure he doesn't have any more kidney stones. Then if he passes the test this time, he is off to boot camp.

I am going to have to try this. Might be ordering some also. I want to start making sour dough bread again. It's been a long, long time since I have made it.

Happy Birthday Becca!

Haven't done much of anything today. Just taking it easy and trying to stay off my knee. I have been favoring it and the other knee isn't liking it. So just cleaned kitchen this morning and then sat down with a cup of coffee and read my Bible. Since the doctor said no driving, I haven't been going to Church as that is over 20 minutes away. And that drive has both my shoulder and knee killing me. GS is off work tomorrow, so hoping he will work on wood pile tomorrow. But not getting my hopes up. He got lazy on me the past 2 days off. Not planning on anything tomorrow but on GS's next day off, I will get him to drive me to a couple of places I need to go. They are a bit further than I want to drive right now. Why couldn't it have been my left knee and shoulder instead of the right knee and shoulder? It would have made things a little easier for me. Jeepers, glad you are doing better with B/p and getting some much-needed canning done. Mt. Rider, glad you are starting to feel better also. Seems we are all falling apart these days with something.

Jeepers, I am glad you are feeling better. Definitely sounds like you need an adjustment in your meds. Yep, that is for sure ugly strawberry jam. I don't eat enough of it to warrant making jam any longer. So, I just buy a few jars, and use it up till I am down to one and then replenish it. I do have a few more jars than I would normally store because of GS using it. Wine sounds like a good idea. Wonder how that would work with the jelly. Not sure what else I will be canning next. Need to pull out the coolers in order to dig down to the bottom of the deep freeze.

I need to take inventory of my jars. I have gone through a lot of the pints during the last 2 times I have canned. Not sure how many of the 1/2 pints I have. Will be looking for them at yard sales this spring and summer also. I am mostly just going to can what I am starting to get low on. I know I need to can more squash. Didn't get much from garden last year so not many jars left. Hoping to get a bushel of squash from the farm market this summer.

OK. I'm tired. Thought I was in What are you doing today. Looked up and I am in What are you canning today. I need a nap.

Didn't get as much done as I was hoping to do today. Knee got overworked yesterday and is really sore today. Plus, the bone spur on right heal is hurting. Might need to start wearing that boot again. Talked with my next-door neighbor today. We made plans to go out to lunch and to Carrollton furniture store. They have a lot of antique furniture there. She has antique furniture in a house she is trying to sale in Florida and wants to get an idea on prices before she sales it. Pulled a small cut of Boston Butt that was in freezer and have that in the slow cooker. Wanted to get that out of freezer. So, dinner tonight. Had a family pack of chicken thighs in fridge that GS had bought so got that in the freezer for him. He loves chicken thighs. Jeepers keep a close eye on your B/p. That might be the reason you had trouble while trying to can. It was too low. So, they might need to adjust your meds a bit.

Mt. Rider I will read that when I have more time. Glad you are feeling better and hope the hissing sound goes away. I never felt the earthquake here. The only one I have ever felt was the one on the other side of DC or Richmond. That was enough for me. It does make you feel a bit disoriented. I would hate to feel one that was worse than that one was and that really wasn't that bad for us here. But did shake things in the house a bit. Yesterday in mail, I got 2 envelopes in mail a bit larger than a postcard. They were not sealed other than with the postal label. Nothing was in either of the envelopes. The postage was paid on 4/8/24. Well, the 8th hasn't happened yet. One envelope came from Richmond TX and the other one from Lafayette LA. There is a USPS tracking label also. It says from shipping center. Nothing more. Took them to the post office this morning and they tried to trace the tracking number with no info in that. So told me to call the Postal inspection services. Will have to wait till Monday when they reopen. A couple of people I talked to think they are using my address for a criminal act. After I call the postal inspection, I will also notify the police if needed. I first want to see if the postal inspections can figure it out. Working in bedroom today. Got some things done this morning while waiting for post office to open at 10:30.

You did great Jeepers. I need to try to find some asparagus cheap enough to can. One of my goals for the garden was to fix up a place to plant asparagus in a controlled area. But not going to happen this year. I canned the other day: 12 pints of hamburger, 14 pts of the thin boneless steaks, and 9 pints of chicken breast. Haven't started on veggies yet. Jeepers, I like the idea of canning veggies in the 1/2 pints. That would work out great for me. I have always used the pint jars for that but then it was 2 of us. Now with it being just me, I think I will start doing 1/2 pints for that. It would work out much better for me. Though I still have a lot of pints in green beans left. But will be using those up first. I had a bumper crop of green beans and still overloaded with them. DD will take a jar home when she is in town. She loves them.

Finished cleaning the kitchen from all the canning yesterday. I left a mess last night. Washed up the jars I canned and got those labeled and put away. So done canning for a few days at least. Still a lot in freezer to get canned but can't do but so much at a time because of interruptions when I need to be doing other things. Yes, I am babysitting this afternoon so GD and her DH can go look at houses. Nice to know that though she told me yesterday about the one they didn't get because they didn't move fast enough, she never told me I would be babysitting till about 2 hours ago. So, baby will be here at 2:30 to ?. At least the kitchen is cleaned up and the jars of food put away. But was going to work on wood pile this afternoon. So again, that is on hold as well as my bedroom closet. Got a few other things I need to get done first. Just needed this break for now and a cup of coffee. Yeah, didn't get my morning coffee when I first got up. Just started in cleaning the kitchen. I must have started something around here. I got new gutters and now my next-door neighbor is putting new gutters on her house. Guess it is a trend for us widows. Doing what should have been done before our DH's passed away. But my DH and I had already planned on redoing the bathrooms and such. Only extra thing I did was to put in a wood stove verses a fireplace. That DH and I never talked about. But was worth it as it heats the whole house, and I can cook on it if need be. Which I didn't think I could do. Learning curve but I'm learning. I think I am done with remodel other than painting the rest of house and then get the storm doors and new outside lights put in. Other than that, I am done with remodeling. And I hope by then I can just sit back and enjoy it. GS leaves on the 26th to go to Mepps. He should be leaving shortly after that to boot camp. I am ready to move his messes out of my house and finish up the cleaning. Then I can get new living room and dining room table as soon as I sell this monster dining room suit I have now. Will soon be getting that emptied and ready to put on GD's app she uses to sell things. The living room suit I have now I will donate to Sarmatians purse. I think they will pick it up.

Jeepers, it seems they should have let you know so you could move that money into something else. That is going to be rough. Yeah! I can say that because they didn't take taxes out of my SS after I told them to and then when I had to take money out of my retirement and move another one into something else, I told my financial planner to take taxes out of what I got from it. Nope, he didn't do it ether. So, I had to pay the tax man. And it wasn't pretty either. So now I am getting taxes taken out of my SS and I am not having to move any money around for a while so good for next year. That will make for a rough couple of months but will be back on my feet soon from that one.

Happy Anniversary Euphrasyne. And happy birthday to DD15. 16 is a special day for her. . And DD 3 is growing up too fast. She is a cutie.

Mt. Rider, glad you are doing better. I hope whatever it is will go away. Been canning all day. Still have the last of the 2 canners going. Will start dinner in about an hour.

Canned 12 jars of hamburger and 12 jars of the thin steaks, plus 8 jars of chicken breast. The chicken breast and the last 8 jars of steak is in canner now. So far all have sealed. Hoping these last 2 canners will also seal. They are still going.

Miki, sounds like you are going to have a busy month. Lots of visitors coming and going. Enjoy your time with all of them. Mt. Rider, I also have severe neck issues. Had to have surgery due to the fact it effected my spinal cord. The bone collapsed on the cord. So, Godiva bone also. C4 through C7. If you decide to go to doctor. Get an X-Ray of neck and an ultrasound on carotid arteries. I know it is more test and doctors, but you really don't want to take any chances. Thank about it. Hamburger is in the canners. Went to Harris Teeter early this morning and hit the jackpot on beef. Got a lot to can. It was all on sale but some on reduced special. So can the beef tomorrow. Also got some skinless chicken breast. That wasn't on sale but from the section where they will cut it for you. They had the breast already cut and wrapped so got enough of that to can as well. Going to be a busy couple of days. And yes, again my plans have changed from what I should be doing to this needs to be done now.

Happy Birthday Wormguy.

Mt. Rider, Becca Anne is right. You need to have the carotid arteries checked out. If your DH can get him to listen to the carotid arteries. If not, you really need to get that checked out. A blockage can cause a stroke. Got everything ready to can hamburger tomorrow as soon as I get back from Harris Teeter to pick up RX and check on Boston Butts. I don't think anyone has them on sale this week. So will just keep watching out for them.

When I got home from Food Lion, my pharm. had left a message that my prescription I had been waiting on for 2 weeks is in. So, I will pick that up tomorrow. Glad I didn't go to Harris Teeter first for hamburger. Tomorrow is Senior day. So worked out great for me and I can hit the Dollar Tree also while there.