Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

I'm hoping to get stuff in my garden this weekend as well.

Yesterday in class we were able to bring our pressure canners in (if we had one) to have the dial gauges tested. Mine was reading 2 pounds low, so I've ordered a new one to replace it.

We also listened to an audio interview with a woman who had contracted botulism and survived. There are some stories online as well, but the ones I've read don't go into the details much. This woman talked about the constant pain-- not only as her nerves were dying (because that is what happens with the disease) but also for years afterward as they slowly grew back. She talked about lying on the bed in the hospital, unable to open her eyes, or talk, or move, but fully able to hear and think inside. Everytime the nurses moved her, the pain was excruciating- but she couldn't cry out, or even frown. When she was recuperating, she couldn't cry from the pain because her tear ducts weren't working.

After listening to this, I realize that botulism is nothing to take lightly. The spores are everywhere, and all it takes is a bit of carelessness (in her case, eating a foil-wrapped baked potato in a restaurant that had been kept warm-- but not warm enough-- for several hours)

In other news, they are saying that the long wet spring we are having may just be enough to save the farmers in our area. I hope so.

Today, I finally have most of a day to clean the house. I hope my body can keep up with my drive; I woke up aching in muscles I didn't even know I had-- and no idea why. I didn't do anything real physical yesterday- just sat in class, and helped can salmon for the demo.

Got a lot done in the house, and some of the garden planted. Yesterday I spent time earthquake-proofing the food and water storage. It's not done, but it's getting closer. I still need to finish bolting the shelving to the walls, but I've mostly finished putting pieces of wood around the outsides to keep bottles from tipping out. About half of the jars have cardboard spacers to keep them from banging into each other. I managed to bump one jar of cranberry sauce and it fell off the shelf and broke before I could catch it. BIG MESS. I also got the two can storage pieces installed- the kind where you put the can on the top and it rolls back-down-forward until it reaches the front bottom, so you're using the oldest cans first. The ones I found online were either DIY out of cardboard, or else they were made out of plastic. Neither sounds very sturdy, so I paid a friend to make me some out of wood. They look wonderful! I have room for one more.

Today we've got C&D coming over. They are bringing their dogs Tuco and Lily with them. Our dog Lucy has been a friend of Tuco's for most of their lives, Lilly is Millie's littermate; it should be fun. They don't have a large space for the dogs the way we do. I've got Chicken Mole going in the crockpot, and I thought we could have Peach Melba (to cool the mouth after the spicy dinner) for dessert. We're planning on watching Stardust together; C is the only one that's seen it, and she said it requires a whole new movie rating: PF (stands for Pee First).

I still have some clean-up to do in the kitchen, but I think I can get it done before the festivities start. The house has been suffering because I'm gone so much lately; Mondays and Wednesdays I have water aerobics and when I come home I'm too tired to do much. Then Tuesdays and Saturdays is the preserver's class (except for this week when it was on Thursday instead of Saturday) and that goes pretty much all day so I'm tired when I get home. Thursday is Shopping Day, Fridays I've been getting free groceries. I just don't have one full day where I can get down and dirty with the house.
Luckily, the preserver's class only goes to mid June, because after that the canning season begins. I'm already planning on making more salsa, enchilada sauce, marinara sauce and corn relish for sure!

Coming down to the wire on the BBQ welcome home for the veterans. They actually came home last month (except the wounded one, he came home last Friday), but we waited until everyone was home and somewhat rested before the BBQ. I just called DN to volunteer with helping make potato salad for 300 and shape about 150 hamburger patties. My hubby is one of the guys that will be manning the grill.

In preserver's class, we made small batches of sauerkraut; now I need to figure out how to keep it at the right temperature. The fridge is too cool, but the house is just a bit too warm (we don't use AC). I'm thinking of putting it in an insulated chest with a few inches of cool water.

Millie keeps getting out of the yard and going walkabout. I went to Big R to pick up some Tposts and barbed wire yesterday after class; the girl at the counter swore that Tposts were NOT what I wanted as they are "made out of wood" ( I have NEVER heard of anything called a Tpost being made out of wood?)
She also neglected to tell me that the barbed wire I bought was a quarter mile long, not the 50' I asked for. When I found out, I asked for a refund, and headed to Diamond Hardware. They also didn't have a small bit of barbed wire, but at least they knew what a Tpost is, and I was able to buy what I needed... AND they give veterans discounts which Big R does not. We have some welded wire fencing that I think will work instead of the barbed wire, but it will be more of a hastle to put up. DS needs to trim back the wild roses so we can attach the fencing in a spot before the damaged fence.
In the meantime, Millie can only be outside if someone is with her, or she's on a lead. I moved the ice chest in front of the doggie door so she can't get out, and we have to remember to let the dogs out before we go to bed if we don't want to make a dawn trip.

Sounds like the girl in Big R didn't know what she was talking about.

Just came home from the BBQ. I woke up this morning feeling a bit tired and grumpy and didn't want to go, but I was committed so I had to go. Once we got there though, I caught the festive attitude and ended up having a lot of fun. We only had about 100 people show up, so we had tons of leftovers. The stuff that was thawed and otherwise perishable is being taken to the Mission tomorrow. We have enough meat, buns, and some side dishes that we were talking about having another barbecue in late summer. It will be easy to come up with some extra side dishes like coleslaw and potato salad- the hard part is the meat, of which we have plenty in the freezer.
So, I'm exhausted, but still feeling good.
My new pressure gauge came in and it tested perfectly, so tomorrow I can put up the pork meat I bought. I also hope to work in the garden.

See you all tomorrow!

I've had times like that myself. Glad you enjoyed yourself after all.

So, yesterday was another class in the Master Food Preservers program; we covered canning tomatoes, had a lab on salsa verde, and then a demo on making fresh cheeses. Well, I've been canning tomatoes for so long there wasn't much new for me. Had fun with the salsa, and one of the teachers made a fresh (uncooked) batch for us to snack on. She and I decided it was especially good with the pressed Queso Fresco on Triscuits. There was a lot of the salsa ingredients left over and I got to take them home to cook up and can (but I have to bring some of it back to the class to share ).

It turned out that I had the most experience making cheeses in the class, including the teachers, lol. They asked if I would be willing to teach that section next year when they have the classes again. I'm gonna have to do more cheese making, because even if I had more experience than anyone else, that doesn't mean I know what I'm doing, lol.

When I got home, I just barely had enough time to can up some ground pork for dog food before I had to run to the Community Action Group meeting. We had a guest that works with groups like ours to help them get the funding etc for community halls and such. He feels we have an excellent shot at the funding. We are looking at buying a piece of land (beautifully placed for the town) about 27 acres. We don't need that much, but he pointed out that we could sell or lease the land and that would give us some income to take care of maintenance on the building. Some of the things we want/need are a large hall for weddings/funerals/bar mitzvahs etc... and a commercial kitchen. I was thinking that once L and I get certified as Master Food Preservers, we could hold classes in our town and people wouldn't have to travel that way. We also want to take over the Food Pantry (boxes of food for low income people)-- currently it is being handled by the local Lutheran Church, but I think the youngest member of the parish is over 65, and they are finding it more and more difficult to carry on. We want a Daycare facility and playground, a Dog park, a Community garden, and an office for one of the County Sheriff Deputies, maybe eventually have the Public Library Branch in the complex as well.
We've been working toward this for 8 years now, and suddenly everything is starting to gel.

Today was a little less hectic- I just had my Water Aerobics class, and then delivered eggs to a couple of customers, helped C pick up a dog crate for her dog, did some shopping and then we had a late lunch together before I headed home again. I'm feeling very sleepy tonight; I'll probably make and early night of it. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to can up the salsa verde.

Hopefully I will have some time over the rest of the week- I want to gather roses for rosepetal jelly, and elder flowers for elderflower syrup.

I'd love to go to a cheese making class. I have no experience w/it at all!

All I did was follow the directions in a box of junket

Got the salsa verde cooked and ready to can. Hopefully I can get that finished tonight. I still have apples and potatoes that I want to dehydrate too.

As part of our "final exam" we are supposed to give a short demo on some form of food preservation. I'm thinking of doing one on fruit glace (those candied fruits you find in fruit cake). I've made some before and it's easy and fun.