My Husbands Clean Vs My Clean

Before I had surgery on my hand I told my husband he was going to have to step up and do some things around the house to help out.  Well that lasted maybe 2 days before I had to beg him to help which always ends in an exchange of words.  This weekend I asked him to do a couple of things including doing the dishes.  After 2 days of dirty dishes I proceeded to do them the best I could with 1 hand.  As I was doing them he came in and said "I was going to do them, you just didn't give me enough time".  Now it's not like he had other things to do unless you call gluing yourself in front of the TV something important that needed done.  Right now there is another stack of dishes that need done and the house cleaned which he was going to do yesterday.  So far I have swept and moped the kitchen, did the sink of dishes, washed a load of laundry, dusted furniture, stripped the bed, put clean sheets on that took me 20 minutes to do and vacuumed the house.  When he gets home he WILL NOT notice that anything was done today.  Most of the time he says "well what did you do today and looks around"?
Why is it some men do not see a pile of dishes, laundry piled high or the house a mess and do something?  No one tells me to clean, cook, laundry or dishes; I just do them when I see the need.  WOW I feel a little better after this rant and a couple of pain pills one of which was Norco; not a lot but a little.

My Find at the Auction

This past Saturday we went to an estate auction, one of my favorite past times.   I bought 2 Presto Deluxe 17 quart canners for $12.50 each.  They are in excellent condition and now when pressure canning I will be able to do more at a time and cut down the amount of time it takes me.  I was hoping to fit the 2 new canners and my 23 quart canner on the stove all at a time but will be able to use only 2 at a time.  I thought the canners looked much smaller than they were.  Oh well I have a spare or a loaner to loan to the girls when they have huge amounts to put up at one time.  For the price I couldn't pass them up.  All I need to do is wash them up and I will be ready for my next canning adventure.

Free Corn and Soybeans

When we go shopping we cross the Illinois river and on our return trip we always look down at the road that leads down to a barge terminal that grain trucks go down to unload onto the barges.  There is also a pumpkin field down there that has had the pumpkins gathered in rows but is still sitting in the field rotting.  I am just amazed that good food is going to waste, oh well not much I can do about it.  When I looked down at the field I could see that there was a couple places on the road that grain had been spilled.  Last month we went down the road a couple of times and swept up a 5 gallon bucket and a 3 gallon bucket of spilled corn and feed it to the chickens and turkeys.   After we put groceries away and ate some supper we went back and swept up and brought home at least 175 lbs of corn and soybeans.  The majority of the spilled grain was corn and a little wet from the little rain we got today.  I have it in the garage and will take some out each day to the chickens and turkeys.  If it was dry we could make it last longer but because it is wet we will have to use it before it spoils.  The road is only about 4 miles from our house so I guess I need to check it out a couple of times a week.  There was still a good 20 lbs still there but we ran out of bags.  For about 10 minutes of work we were able to bring home all this good grain that other wise would have just rotted.

Weekend with Miss Reagan

This weekend Reagan our 10 year old granddaughter spent the weekend.  Reagan is a diabetic and was diagnosed a couple months before her 9th birthday.  When she comes her mom goes over everything with me (refresher course) so I am able to do what needs to be done.  Reagan takes care of her blood sugar, does her pump and knows what she needs to know to be able to live with this horrible disease.   The only thing she doesn't do is calculate the amount of carbs she eats.  You or I just sit down or grab something to eat anytime; before Reagan eats anything someone needs to look up the amount of carbs something has so she can program that info into her pump so she gets the correct insulin amount.   Her parents pretty much can figure that out without looking things up now.  I use the internet to look things up, a scale to weigh the stuff or measuring cups.  Her life is in your hands so I am pretty nervous when she is here. I want to make sure that I do everything as close to perfect as I can.  At supper her blood sugar was high, 400, and I was upset as to what did I miscalculate.  At bedtime we did the blood sugar again and this time it was 407.  Now it was time to call her mom to see what could possibly be wrong.  Stacey went over things and she decided it could be her pump, Reagan changed her pump and did the other things her mom told her to do.  It was the pump, there was a kink in the tube.  Some tense moments but we got through them.  Having the high blood sugars meant that I needed to do them every 2 hours throughout the night if needed.  Stayed up to 11 did the blood sugar and it was down to the high 200's, down but still high.  Called her mom with the update and she gave me all the directions I needed and what to do.  Got back up at 1 AM and the blood sugar was down to the high 100's so we were going in the correct direction and meant I could sleep the rest of the night.  Can't say I slept real good, you always worry about the what ifs.  This morning her blood sugar was 108 PERFECT.  Childhood Diabetes Type 1 is horrible and her parents are saints to go through this everyday.  This year she is being home schooled because of some serious neglect at school last year.  I don't think that people understand how serious having diabetes is.  Not doing things correctly can be devastating.  If you get the chance please donate to the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation to help find a cure.  Thanks

Reagan sitting with the Kindle.

Playing a game on the Kindle, she earned some time by being good and cooperative.  

Turkey Pot Pie

For supper tonight I made a turkey pot pie.  I used a frozen double pie crust that I made last month, 1 pint of shredded turkey, 1/2 pint of yukon gold potatoes and frozen mixed vegetables. In a sauce pan I put in 1 cup of mixed vegetables, pint of shredded turkey, cut up half pint of yukon gold potatoes, a package of turkey gravy mix and 1 cup of water.  I simmered this for 5 minutes and then took another cup of water, added about 3 tablespoons of cornstarch, mixed this and added to the pot to thicken the turkey mixture.  Baked at 375 degrees for about 90 minutes, cooled for about 5 minutes and then cut it.  Very good flavor and something different.

1 cup of mixed vegetables.

Potatoes and turkey.

Cut up potatoes.

Turkey mixture after adding cornstarch.

Ready for the oven.

Out of the oven.

Cloudy, Ugly Day

It was a icky day today.  It was wet, cool and the sun was nowhere to be seen.  Made a trip into the village to the post office; then back home to list several jars on EBay.
For supper tonight I took a package of ground chicken and made a meatloaf, a quart of potatoes, drained them, drizzled some olive oil on them and sprinkled some garlic powder then baked uncovered for about an hour.  I also heated up a pint of calico butter beans and called it a perfect meal.  I love to open the pantry and see what wonderful things I can use.  Since I have been canning we eat a wide variety of things.  Before if I couldn't find an item on sale I wouldn't get it.  Now if I find it on sale I preserve it to enjoy for a long time.   Someone said to me once that they didn't can because they didn't have a garden.  You don't need a garden to can, watch for things to go on sale or glean the neighbor's garden/orchard.  Every week I look at Aldi's ad to see what fruit or veggies are on sale to see if there is something I want to put up.  Examples: carrots can be canned plain, pickled, dehydrated or add to jars of soup veggies; mushrooms can be canned or dehydrated; onions can be dehydrated or frozen; celery dehydrated; potatoes canned and dehydrated the possibilities are endless.  The key is to make sure you wait until things are on sale.   November and December you can get celery, cranberries, sweet potatoes, turkey and ham on sale.  The week between Christmas and New Years you can get lemons on sale; I dehydrate slices to add to ice or hot tea.  Again the key is to wait until you find things in season and on sale.

Fall Food Sales to Watch For

I have started to watch the sales and am watching for the following items so I can dehydrate or can them to use all year for bargain prices.
Celery, I dehydrate this to use in soups, stews and will use some next summer when I can mixed vegetables for soup.
Cranberries, will can this in 1/2 pint jars to enjoy all year.
Sweet potatoes, can or dehydrate to enjoy all year long.
Turkeys, want to can the meat and also can some turkey broth to use all year long.
In December I will start watching for ham and plan on canning some.  If you want to can some dried beans and ham this would be a good time to get the ham.