Monday, May 30, 2011

Canning has begun

WELL! Canning season has begun. Yesterday we had a counter covered in mostly zucchini, yellow squash and cukes. We now have a counter with just picked spaghetti squash. We put up 16 pints of zucchini Bread & Butter pickles, grated and froze squash for 6 batches of zucchini bread (a favorite of ours) and got 19 1/2 pints of zucchini jam which will have to be re batched. Someone didn't listen to me as I was making the pickles and doubled the jam recipe which just doesn't set up. Ok, nothing major, but will have to be done. Also, got 5 pints of cuke Bread & Butters and a batch of cucumber salad too.

Scott has never liked pickles like Kosher dills which is why I always do so many B&Bs, but I like them and always out up a few jars just for me. Last night he served some of my Kosher Garlic Dills with supper and he LOVED them. Well, hog tie me and brand me with an W!

As you can tell, the garden is doing great and is starting to feed us which we need until the pay checks are coming in regularly again which will be in a couple weeks. Till then - good thing I stocked up.

His new job is going well and he is enjoying it so far. We are still hoping he will get the Palatka store instead of the St Augustine store because of the gas spent. We will see in a few weeks when training is done. Best part is that he has become the person he used to be and in very involved with the garden, rabbits and all things part of our small scale homesteading life.

Mean while, I have had to do with out meds, including insulin, then redoing the days on what I take on each day to make things last longer. My meds take 3/5s of my SSI check, so it has become difficult to handle. I am experiencing general weakness in arms and legs along with what comes with skipping meds. But that is how life has to be till Sept. when I get Medicare.

Peacer Kitty is somehow hanging on. I just can't handle the idea of letting her go when she isn't in pain, but the poor thing has wasted away to bones covered with skin. She still wants her loving and ice water and is as loving as ever and I fear the day she is gone. I don't know how I will get by sanely without her.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Vacation

We are almost done with our unplanned 2 week vacation. Loosing a job sure hit us when it was a bad time, BUT when they get better they really get better. New job starts Monday; better pay & day hours are enough to be jumping in air for. And there will be a bonus, but quarterly rather than monthly.One week day off and SUNDAYS! Can deal with that!

We have gotten so much done in the time off, the place is amazingly changed to lookin good. 2 pascked truck loads to the landfill are gone, new dirt floor in the lean to (future meat rabbit area), cannas weeded and some moved, berries all planted today. Each day there seems like 3 projects get finished. Trouble is each day 5 more projects appear. Garden is doing so well that I know we will be canning a nice amount. In our latest planting the green beans and corn are coming up. Tomatoes are covered with babies, peppers too. Cukes are difficult to see thru all the blossoms. Pickles! Eggplants are blooming along with the black chowder beans. Just blooms or fruits everywhere you look.

Lost a couple bunns, I think it was the heat. Even with fans and ice bottles they seem to have problems. I have 8 baby dwarfs and 6 are sold, 4 satin babies and 3 are sold, 1 meat baby, if it's a doe we will keep it for a brood doe. The good thing is the other 2 dwarf babies and the other satin baby are ones I wanted to keep.

Now for a complaint - IT'S TOO HOT for May, feels like July! Seriously, it's too hot.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Sadness

Am I the only person who feels a sadness over the death of Ben Laden? No, the man deserved to die and needed to be stopped, but he was sentenced to death before a court trial, shot un armed while shielded by his woundered wife. It seems to me that there was no reason he couldn't have been captured and brought to justice for all the wrongs he has done to the people of the world. How is that any different from us going there to kill not capture him?

As I said he needed to be stopped, but, how was this true closure for anyone that lost someone on 9/11? He was an old man with many health issues. This wasn't a trophy win or some fantastic happening. It was the death of an old man that should have stood in front of his peers and hear what he did and how he would pay for his deeds.

Ok, yes, I am a tree hugging liberal, but I support the death sentance for many types of crimes, including this one. I have never depiested anyone the way I do George W Bush for what he cost us in lives for his little revenge plan and his part in the deaths of so many persons with HIV and so many other things. Laden deserved to die and he did, but where is our honor in the way he died?