Thursday Afternoon

I went to get the grocery shopping for the dinner on Saturday. Now that is out of the way and I don't have to think about it again till Saturday morning when I have to go back and help set up. But I won't be the only one there so it will go fairly quick.

Tonight I have to go to the Veteran's Medical Center, we are doing a Bingo for the patience's there. I went to the one we did back in October. I think that it is a good thing do bring these guys something to do. But I hate to go. Now this isn't a bitch session. It is more my heart breaks for them. They are in the lock down ward. We go down there twice a year.

I helped DH this morning we bottled the stout beer that he made. We were able to make all 48 bottles. It will be ready to drink in 5 weeks from today. This was the first time I was able to help him. The last time he did it himself. Very kewl!

Hopefully, tomorrow I will be planting the spearmint in one of the pots outside in a pot that is by the backdoor. It is suppose to rain all day again tomorrow.

Gotta Run,
Yart

Just feel like typing

This is one of those nights. I could go for a smoke. Now I know it isn't healthy and it smells and of course it is expensive. But it still doesn't mean that I could sure go for one right now. I have been smoke free for 2 years, 2 months and 2 days in just about an hour. I think that for the rest of my life I will still want to have a smoke. I smoked more of my life then not. But since I am doing something else with my hands, ie; typing the craving will pass.

Lets see, I got all of mouthy monsters bedding washed. Its a good thing as we are suppose to get rain tomorrow. Teenage monsters bedding is next but that will have to wait till Friday.

I got 9 pints of hamburger pressure canned. While I was babysitting the canner I started to make another cleaning cloth. This one is variegated blue for the bathroom. Got almost half done. So now I need to find something else to go in the canner so I can finish... LOL!

We went for Mexican tonight. I always eat way to much. But it is an indulgence of once a month. I did do my boxing exercising this morning so its ok.

See the craving is all gone.

Gotta Run,
Yart

Not so Wordless Wednesday

I went to K-mart yesterday to get some of the chicken that was on sale. They had 2 packages left and both were frozen solid. The ad didn't say previously frozen or completely frozen. So I didn't get any.

Bingo ended up being not so bad after all. The woman that I was to shadow all night was a lot of fun. And I did learn quite a bit. I stood with her as she did her calling set. So that was kewl! Then clean up only took like 15 minutes. So I was there for about 3 1/2 hours. Not bad. Only 2 more times to go! WooHoo!

I have hamburger cooking as I type. I'm hoping to get it into the canner today. I have a full day tomorrow. Then it is the weekend again. And I have a dinner at the Post that I have to attend. I am hoping that it will be over with quickly. As I would rather be doing something else. But this will be the last of this type of dinner as it was free and we still can't get people to show up. What a shame.

Summer will slow down at the post as there is not that much for me to do. But that doesn't mean that I will be laying around eating bon bon's all day... LOL! I should only have to be down there maybe twice a month all summer.

I found a recipe for strawberry syrup and I think that I will make it out of the berries that are in the freezer. Get that type of stuff done so then when its cold again the monsters can put it on their oatmeal. Teenage monster really likes the orange jelly. She has been eating that. Which is good cause I would hate to make stuff no one will eat.

DH hung the clothes line outside for me but the weather has just been miserable well at least on the days that I need to hang laundry... LOL! I think that I will be doing mouthy monsters bedding today. Get the small stuff done first then I feel like I've accomplished something.

Sorry my thoughts are so scrambled today. Even my morning coffee did nothing to help. Maybe it is just going to be one of those days.

Gotta Run,
Yart

Tuesday's Musings

Chores, chores, and more chores! They never seem to get done. I am doing laundry again or should I say still. This morning I went and got 4 more boxes of candy bars to sell. I know I said I was going to get 2 but we should be able to do the 4. Cleaned out the kitty litter box.... Ewwwwww! I got a new head for the mop so I can mop the basement floor.

I pulled out the 2 - 5pound chubs of hamburger that I bought a couple of weeks ago. I figure I can get it cooked tonight after bingo. Then it can sit in the fridge overnight to de-fat and I can can it in the morning. K-mart also has chicken breasts on for $1 a pound. I think I am going to get some to can up. The only meat I have canned right now is hamburger that I did and corned beef and ham that I bought canned. Need a bit more variety.

I noticed that since I have been doing this blog I am doing less and less posting each month. So I am going to try and rectify that. Even if I just do the wordless wednesday's and the like.

Gotta Run,
Yart

Monday Rambling's

I was going to get on here yesterday and say how fast the weekend flew by. Well, this week seems to be going like crazy too.

The last fish fry was good. We sold 55 dinners! And we are done now until September. I am very happy as are the other women. The post did really good with all of the dinners. After the dinner was over and the last dish was put away, we sat down and relaxed. Then DH took me to another post where we met up with some friends. They told us about a run that was planned for in the morning.

Saturday morning at 6:30 DH and I are up getting ready to meet up with everyone at the restaurant. Cause we were heading out to a Blessing of the Bikes! What that means is we went to where there were people who blessed each and every bike that was there. They were fairly quick as over 500 bikes were in attendance. We then went to an eating establishment to get hotdogs and soda's for free. All in all we put on over 100 miles that day. My face and chest where my shirt didn't cover got totally sunburned. Didn't realize that the sun was that hot or bright.

Sunday, didn't feel well cause of the sunburn. Went to look for yardsales not to many going on. Then went for a 2 hour drive. Came home and cooked BBQ Chicken on the grill. Took the kids for a walk and played with my new WII game.

Gold's Gym is a boxing game for the WII. I did really well with it. I even did it again tonight. DH likes it too. So I think that this will be a game we both will play.

Went to the dollar store today. Didn't get to much but I did buy a few extra's like razors, shampoo, mints & handy wipes.

We need to sell some more candy bars for the band camp thing. I am hoping to get 2 more cases tomorrow. I also have to work a bingo. I have to do 3 of them as that is the manditory so that I don't have to pay an additional $125. So this will be the first bingo I have worked since I was a teenager. Loads of fun!

Gotta Run,
Yart

Canning Jars and Jam

Wordless Wednesday!

Some of the canning jars I got


Banana Jam and BanBerry Jam

Knitting Adventures

I think I said before that I wanted to learn to knit. I am a visual learner so it is very hard for me to look at a book and go oh is that all I need to do. It doesn't work for me like that. So I have been searching for a way to do this on my own. Well, I was able to find a couple of really good sites to help me.

The first one is Knitting Help.com, the other is the Knit Witch both offer videos that show you just what to do.

Here is what I was able to do, I am calling it a cleaning cloth. It is all knitted. There is no purling. That will be some time down the road. I just want to get this skill down before I try and learn the next step.


I finally made bread tonight. It has been like 3 weeks since I made any. I just kept putting it off. I made granola last night and I got all the laundry done today. As well, as the bathroom. So there was nothing left to do other then work on the other cleaning cloth...LOL! Since I can work on that while watching TV tonight I figured it was time to make the bread. At least it is on its last rise so it will be done very soon. Plus, with all of the work that will be happening here over the next few days it will be nice to have it.

I think I am going to work on cleaning some more of the basement. Looking for more places to put my preps!

Gotta Run,
Yart

Contest for Homeschoolers

If your interested in getting a great set of books for your kindergarten little one or 1st grader Called Let's Get Ready ... by Stacey Kannenberg. Head on over to Wandering Quail Road for details on how to enter. Good Luck Everyone!

Sunday Recap

I told you all the stuff I got on Saturday. Well, let me tell you about Sunday. Late Saturday night for a hoot I went and checked craig's list. I see that there is yard sale that has been going on for 2 days and Sunday was the last day. They were offering canning jars. So I went to bed debating whether or not to set the alarm. In the end I didn't bother since they probably sold them all anyways. At 8:30 am I wake. Now this is not normal for me, especially since no one else was home. Everyone had other things going on. So I went back to sleep. When DH came home from work I was awake still thinking about going to that sale. He was to tired to go with me so I decieded to head out myself. When I got there they had a few canning jars mixed in with others. I asked them how much and that I saw the post on craig's list and we got talking. They said they might still have a case or 2 still in the basement that they could check. Also asked me if I was interested in the blue ones. They start carring out cases, the one woman made the comment that they would have more but they still had food in them. I told them all I had was $11 on me but I would take what ever jars they wanted to sell me. Even the ones with the food. By the time it was all said and done I had got just over 14 dozen jars of various sizes. I cleaned most of them out last night. I still have 18 to clean but they have to wait till the rain stops as the jars have black tar food in them. The earliest date on the jars was from 1976 all the way to the 1990's.

So all together this weekend I got just over 18 dozen canning jars. And also a few decorative ones.... Even a blue one or two!

Not a bad haul! I am set now for awhile. I need to get canning more stuff!

Gotta Run,
Yart

MIA

Sorry I haven't been around lately. Easter break is just that... well, not really. We have been running around here like chickens with our heads cut off.

I was able to get 6 quarts of beef stock canned up. I have also been a dehydrating fool. Lets see, lemons, limes, green onions, bananas, celery, tangerines, cabbage have all found new life as dried up snippets of food. DH keeps shaking his head. The cabbage was about the funniest. As he calmly asked me what would I be doing with it.... LOL! I told him that I will add it to vegetable soup. I am having a lot of fun dehydrating everything that ain't nailed down.

I went to the library a couple of weeks ago and checked out some canning books. Yesterday I went through and copied down a ton of recipes. One off the top of my head is caramel apple butter. When I make these I will include the recipes.

Well, it finally happened. We got our new roof. All of the wood was in really good shape. So they didn't have to replace any. Now the roof is no longer the eye sore of the neighborhood. That honor has moved to the missing siding that blew off during a wind storm awhile back. Been trying to get a ladder tall enough to get up there and put it back up. Hopefully, in the next couple of days. *FINGERS CROSSED*

Measured out the area for the square foot garden. I have enough room for 13 boxes. We are going to go and get the wood on Thursday and the dirt on Friday. As I want to get all of this done so that I can go to the last fish fry really doing the happy dance! Plus, the damn basement cats keep getting up and eating all of my seedlings. All that is left are a few tomato plants. So that means I will have to direct sow the seeds. Then if nothing comes up by the end of May I will still have time to get plants to plant.

I went yard sale-ing today. I was able to get 4 or 5 dozen jars for $7.50, an old muffin tin $1, bread pan .25, 4 crochet hooks .25, skein of yarn $1, 10 reader's digest books that have 4 stories each (like little women and lorna doone) $5, train cake pan .75, water bath canner $6.

Plus, I have started to knit. Nothing fancy. I started a cleaning cloth with peaches and cream yarn. Unfortunately, I made it too big so I ripped it apart and am making it smaller. I don't mind so much as it is a learning experience. I will get some pictures on here as soon as I can.

Gotta Run,
Yart

Another way to earn some money

YouData believes that you shouldn't have to suffer through advertisements for things you're not interested in.

That's why they're paying you to view advertisements targeted to your interests.

Simply sign-up for YouData and enter some information about yourself in your "Me-File." You Data will then show you ads that you may be interested in based on your responses. You get paid for every website you visit. You can also earn additional funds for each person you refer to You Data.

All you need to collect your money is a PayPal account. And the best part is: Payday is every Friday with You Data.

The money isn't a lot... in the week that I've been a member, I've earned $4.31, but it's super easy and didn't take very much time at all (a few minutes a week). And who couldn't use a little extra spending money these days? I've even found a few new interesting websites since I've joined.

Don't forget, once you sign up for YouData and start earning money, you can refer your friends and family and earn some extra cash.

Monday Rambling's

Let's see where to start. We had a really good turn out at the fish fry on friday. 94 dinners sold! We were hopping. And we are figuring to break 100 on Good Friday! Saturday we went to Shipshawana. I didn't buy anything but I was able to find the E&S Bulk I hear everyone talking about. So once I get some money I will be heading there. Went to Essinhause (sp?) to eat, the food was wonderful as always. Came home and then went to the post to shoot some pool. Very long day turned into a very long night. Slept in on Sunday. Went to the fruit market got some more lemons. Some to juice and some to dehydrate. Also got some limes to dehydrate. Now I heard that you slice them 1/4 inch thick and dehydrate until they are completely dry, then put them into the food processor and make a powder out of each. I can't wait to have lemon powder and lime powder. Now your wondering what to do with them. I had the same thoughts. You can use the lemon powder to make lemon chicken and the lime powder to make fajita's.

Oh, I can't believe that I almost forgot. DH was able to bottle his Irish Red beer on Friday night when I was out. He got 47 bottles that are sitting aging as I type. Now we need to get some more bottles and another kits. Neither one of us realized that once it was bottled that it had to sit for 35 days. LOL! Well, it is a learning experience. So since we have a wait and with summer coming I thought it best to get more and start it in 2 or 3 weeks. That way we can rotate it.

Teenage monster opened one of the jars of orange jelly today. So I won't know if it is any good until she gets home from school. Hopefully, they will like it as we have a lot of it. But I can also use it in cooking. I can make a glaze with it if nothing else.

We have snow on the ground. I was wearing a t-shirt last week running around outside and now I have to get bundled up again. Spring gotta love it. But the snow should be gone almost as fast as it showed up. They are calling for 50 - 60 degrees for the rest of the week.

My lima beans are starting to look like the plant from the little shop of horrors..... Every time I walk by I think feed me semore... LOL! They are getting big really quick. I am hoping to be out in the garden soon. All of my peas died, as did the green peppers and the eggplants. My basement dwelling cats decieded that it was time for yummy greens and ate all of them. Needless to say I am taking better care to keep the cat away from the plants.

I will be doing breads tomorrow as today got all messed up this morning and something else came up. So this week Monday will be Tuesday. But I am going to get the soup bones into the oven so that I can make beef stock. Yummy! Oh and I still have that lemon juice to can up also. This time there should be less pulp. I still don't have a jelly bag but I am coming up with some new ways to strain the pulp out.

Gotta Run,
Yart

Friday Musings

It's Friday morning. I am tired, chilled and it is raining out.... I know it doesn't sound like I have a good attitude today. Well, I don't. I had a problem sleeping last night. At the meeting I was at last night one of the ideas that I proposed was shot down. The reason was that we did that before and it didn't work. Needless to say we need to continue to do things if we don't we are going to fall on our proverbial asses. Just because something was done before and it didn't work lets never do it again.... I hate that mentality. If that was the case how many thing would never have been invented or perfected. How many times did Edison make a light bulb that didn't work... It took him along time to find a solution to the problem. How many first time cooks screw up a turkey... We hear all the time the funny stories that we can relate to about leaving the neck or the offal in the bird while cooking. How many of these cooks go on to prefect the turkey years later. Not by giving up but by trying again and again. Ok, I am done with my rant.

I have the fish fry to do tonight. Only 4 more. But then we need to see what we can do to bring in some revenue for the summer. We also have a big party on May 2nd, then a kitchen cleaning party on the 9th, floor to ceiling will be scrubbed down.

I really don't have any plans for today. Maybe I will go and take a nap!

Huggles,
Yart

Thursday Morning

Yesterday I got the orange juice strained..... Need to find a jelly bag, I was using coffee filters... Loads of fun using them. Then of course I find out I could have used a pillow case..... Well, DUH! Live and learn that's what it is all about right?

After we picked the monsters up from school we went to this park area. They have dirt paths and a paved one for walkers or bicycles. We took the paved one. My best guess is that it is 1 1/4 mile long. We only went around one time as there were no washrooms open. The monsters were desperate to leave... LOL! But we are definitely going to be going back a couple times a week. Plus I am still working out on the treadmill. So it all helps.

I made country ribs last night.... Oh they are so good. I put the country ribs in a pan add tomatoes (crushed, diced, pureed or whole what ever I have on hand), BBQ sauce and some homemade salsa, pepper and onion powder. Bake covered at 350 until ribs are done. Served with rice and green beans.

This morning I was able to get the orange jelly made. 9- 1/2 pints are cooling on the table. I think that it might be a little bit to sweet but we will have to wait and see. Next time I will add a bit of food coloring as it isn't as orange as I would have liked. The recipe calls for 3 3/4 cups filtered orange juice, 1/4 cup of lemon juice, 7 cups of sugar and 2 (3oz) packages of liquid pectin.

I have to get my self geared up. Tonight I have a meeting, tomorrow is the fish fry, Sat. we are suppose to be going to visit relatives?, Sun. I know there is something just can't remember. But I am so happy with this week there are only 4 more fish fries.

April Fool's Day

Well, I got 7 1/2 pints of lemon juice canned up yesterday. Now I have orange juice filtering so that I can make an orange jelly. The recipe is up stairs so I will have to share it with you another day. I got to the library yesterday and checked out all of the books they had on canning and dehydrating... Lots of new recipes.... Can't wait to make them. I also checked out a book about virtual knitting and crocheting. It has a picture for each and every step. So I am hoping that this book will help me to learn how to knit and more stitches for crocheting. I want to make a new type of blanket.

I would also like to thank Melonie for her concern. And to answer your question I feel much better after I prep. But now I also have a huge list of stuff that I feel needs to be done.... Well, isn't that always the way. LOL!

My newest seedlings are doing very well, lima beans, cabbage, & sweet peppers. All have sprouted and are growing like crazy. I went to the dollar store and got a couple of the cake pans with the plastic lids that is what I am using now as my starter trays. They seem to be working very well and for a very reasonable price.

I would also like to congratulate Jenna over at Cold Antler Farm for her wonderful article in Mother Earth News! I was reading it and then once I turned the page and saw her beautiful sled dogs I knew who the author was. Needless to say my family is like who? Jenna also is the author of "Made from Scratch" which you can find here at Amazon.

Tons of chores to do around here today. Laundry and I have to clean out the fridge.... Yuck! But someone has to do it.

Gotta Run,
Yart