The WE2's

Pressure canned ... or water bath. Just depends on the type of food whether I pressure or water bath.

Yes...I've jarred up frozen veggies including green beans. Everybody kept saying "Oh, they'll be so soft and spongy"...NOT. They turned out great. We had bought them at a Mennonite store in their freezer section for 49 cents a bag. We cleaned out them out and I promptly jarred them up. I've also done corn and the bags of mixed veggies. I love to dump a pint jar of mixed veggies (peas, carrots, green beans etc.) in when I'm making chicken noodle soup. I've jarred up carrots too...even a whole bunch of bags of the slivered, organic carrots that we got free from a local pantry that was going to pitch them. And...believe it or not...I've jarred up Okra! I even jarred up some of my home grown Okra with a drained can of sweet corn and a drained can of diced tomatoes. It's wonderful over pasta! Guess one might call me a "gorilla/rebel canner"?

New Years Day...had a wonderful breakfast then packed a picnic lunch and took Miss B to our favorite state park for a LONG walk and lunch. Then home to watch the Rose Parade and then supper which was left over roast beef, fried potatoes with onions and Basil, black eyed peas with rice, mushroom gravy, hot biscuits and peaches for dessert. Wonderful weather...in the low 60's but very windy and of course, the park was shady in a lot of places. Wonderful way to start our new year!

New Years Eve I fixed a scrumptuous pot roast (still eating from our pantry's and freezers) with potatoes, celery, carrots and onions. Oh my...saved half for New Years Day meal. Watched a movie and then put on an old Ray Price song "You're The Best Thing That's Ever Happened To Me"...and danced into our new year!

Farmer friends of ours showed us how they take empty water bottles, put the DeKon (?) pellets in it, and lay it on it's side somewhere that is safe from pets and kids...the mice WILL find it! So...that's what we've done here and at the homestead place. I've also put out Irish Spring soap ALL OVER the homestead pantry and we've found a few nibbles on the soap but it seems the mice really do NOT like it...and we've not found any problems. Just sharing.

My step dad and my mom both lived with this...until they didn't.

When we bought our queen sized memory foam, we only had a van. We had them load it on top, strong some ropes over the top in three places, tucked the rope ends inside the doors and closed the doors...and off we went!

Weather was much cooler but dry and not much wind so it wasn't really that cold. Hubby spent the afternoon at the homestead and I pittled around here. Still haven't heard anything about my cousin...if she's still in hospital or ???

Still eating out of our pantry's and freezers. Just a few more days and we'll at least have one ss check and breath a bit easier...even though we still plan to let our pantry's etc. feed us until we get the rest of the RE taxes paid on the Roost property. Pulled out a Knorr Quinoa mix and put it in my rice steamer, on the stove I put some turkey, some bell peppers (from the freezer), and a can of mixed veggies in my big skillet and then added the Quinoa mixture. Very nice supper! Dessert was Raspberry gelatin with whipped topping. and a couple of Brazil nuts Total cost for supper tonight...about 2$ The Knorr mix we bought from a Mennonite store for 50 cents...bought a whole bunch of them. REALLY tastey. Wanna see?

Been raining most of the day...some areas around us have had some pretty heavy storms and even tornado watches. Made up some more dessicant packettes and re-jarred my Nido Instant Powdered Milk (100%). That stuff is so rich! Love it! Hubby (as usual) worked on the homestead project. Did have to re-distribute some put back dollars to renew his cell phone minutes. NOT a good time to have to do that, but if we didn't he'd lose his accumulated minutes and probably even lose his current plan. They've been trying to get us off our plans for a very long time. We have a pre-paid card...no monthly fee. We just buy 1000 minutes for 100$ and that's it. If we renew before the expiration date (or the minutes are used up) we get a bonus of roll over minutes. We never use all our minutes. We only call and receive calls...and sometimes I text. All we need. We have desktop pc's that take care of everything else...even this site! LOL

Everything we own (even our bank account) is in a Revocable Living Trust. Good management!

She...so far we haven't heard any more...so will just wait to see what the doctors are suggesting.

That's happened to me twice...absolutely scarey! The first one I thought for sure I'd knocked out all my front teeth. Second one not quite so bad, but still hurt like the dickens. I've finally figured out that as we age we have a tendency to "drag" our feet (shuffle?) and steps up or steps down are dangerous if we don't consciously lift our feet ... and ... hold onto a rail if it's steps!

Just think of how spoiled you're going to make her! She'll love it!

Got a call from my cousins son (my second cousin?) saying that she's in hospital and they've found several places of cancer in her body...a lung (she already had one ... removed?) and one in her colon...and a bleeding ulcer that they stopped bleeding...but??? Would enjoy your prayers for her and the whole family. She's quite a bit older than myself so this is not good news. We're planning to make the trip to see her when she gets home from the hospital. It's quite a ways from us...but we've got Miss B for a motel and a place for our Abby-girl to be safe and comfy, plenty of food and water we can take, and will just have to use some of our saved dollars to put in the gas tank. I want to spend some time with her ... regardless of her future.

Took laundry over to the homestead and did more pantry inventory while hubby did more work in the basement area. The wiring is just about where it's somewhat "safe". There's two receptacles on each side of the kitchen sink that we're leaving capped off for the time being. I can manage without them for awhile. I'll still have a four-plug receptacle where the dishwasher will set, and I can use that since I'll be using the top of the DW for my microwave anyway. Got caught up on vacuuming, sweeping etc. this afternoon. Got clothes folded and put away. Still got supper bowls (fixed spaghetti) in the sink to wash. Used up the rest of my beer bread to make garlic toast to go with supper. Made a regular load of bread. I have love my breadmaker ... I just let it do the kneading...take the dough out (it has a dough setting) and let it rise in a bowl, covered in the oven with the light on, then push it down, dump it in my loaf pan, let it rise a bit again then up goes the temp to 425 until it's the brown I want, then cover it with foil for another 20 minutes. Still eating totally out of the pantry's and freezers. Saving mucho dollars and rotating foods out too!

Ate a light breakfast then drove to the church for their Christmas Dinner. Wonderful food and lots of fun conversation with hubby's friends from the area. A bit of a drive but so worth it. We ate Thanksgiving Dinner there and decided we wanted to spend this day there also. The pastor does nearly all the cooking...and boy does he know how to set out a spread...for free! There was a little boy at one of the tables behind us (sorry didn't get a pic) that decided I needed a hug! He wormed his way under my right arm and snuggled up next to me and no matter what his momma said, he wasn't leaving...then gave hubby a big hug...and then back to me! I love baby hugs! He was probably about 3 years old. So good for me! Then it was a nice long walk with Abby-girl, then this evening was a big mug of hot chocolate and the movie James Stewart made..."It's A Wonderful Life".

What is this?

Yesterday made a loaf of beer bread. So EZ. This morning I listened again and again and again...to Shane and Shane "Worship Initiative"...while enjoying my morning coffee. I absolutely love their worship music...so scripturally based. THEN...we had a late breakfast and packed ourselves a picnic lunch, hoped in the truck and headed for our favorite state park. Took a nice long walk then ate our lunch outside at a picnic table. Got a bit chilly towards dessert so we got back in the truck and finished it there...his was a Chocolate Curve/nut bar and mine were graham crackers. Then we came home...took a nap...and watched an episode of Mountain Men. It's been around for awhile, but oh so interesting. Some we haven't watched. Just finished catching up on my sink full of dishes and I'm done for the night. My butter jars have the rings removed but are still sitting on the counter to be washed, dried and labeled for putting them back in their half pint box and to the homestead for the extended pantry. The weather has been really nice...in the 50's...but today with the breeze and the shade from the park trees (even with no leaves) made it feel a lot cooler. But it was nice to get out and enjoy the sun. We know winter will arrive!

There are some who let people order online/or phone and they ship. Check out your state. I know at least two in our state that do.

Been in the 40's for a couple of days so most of the snow has melted off. Today was 50+ and very pleasant! Forecast calls for several days of 50+ weather...so we'll be bracing for the winter solstice! We're thinking about a day trip/or ??? in Miss B to just get out of dodge and enjoy this lovely weather while we have it...besides...hubby needs a break and me and Abby-girl need some time in the sun!

After I helped hubby sort through the "attic room junk" and drying a load of clothes, I came home an finished up my last batch of jarring up butter. That makes 36 half pints total for the extended pantry. For supper...we're still eating from one or the other of the pantry's...tonight we had boneless pork chops, steamed potatoes and green beans. Dessert was raspberry gelatin (I make it from the Mennonite's blend and soooo much cheaper than jello) with whipped topping. I buy the dry whipped topping from the Mennonite's also. For a one pound bag I paid 2.95$ and it takes 1/3 cup of cold milk and 1/3 cup of mix. I put it in a pint jar and give a very good shake...so tasty on desserts or fruit. (If I want it fluffier, I just put that mixture into my blender. Wanna see?

We were sorting through (today) a bunch of "stuff" that had been stored in an attic "storage" room (sort of) and found a VERY old cigar box that contained a hand written "diary"? on some of the history of the house. Haven't read it yet...but I will! Found a very old cane type chair too. Most of the stuff we put into the dumpster but it's a bit interesting to find "junk"...

Couldn't find my original post regarding the "gun shot" sounds we heard last week. Haven't been able to find anything in the local paper...but...one of our local radio stations had a written report on their web page. It appears that an "off duty" police officer called into the station saying he had heard sounds in his home and when he went down to investigate, there was an intruder, so he fired multiple shots". He has "left the department amid an investigation that was unable to substantiate the officer's story". The department apparently is still investigating potential wrong doing. That's the ONLY thing we've been able to find to match what we were hearing.