Thursday, August 31, 2017

Last Day of August



   One last 15 hour stretch to get all things August over and  done with.  lol   I am feeling pretty good considering I got maybe 4 hours sleep last night.  Having neck and shoulder issues. Got up at Zero Dark Thirty and put on the inflatable cervical traction collar for a while and that helped.  Having this shoulder pain pretty regularly lately.  Not liking it at all. Don't know if it's the way I am sleeping or what. Hoping it's not old lady shoulder stuff-- I've seen several of my friends have to have surgery for that sort of thing. lol

  I have been busy canning the past week or so...green beans, pickled okra, Dilly beans. Going to start some of the lacto fermented pickles later today. Will also do some pints of sweet relish if I have enough or can find any cucumbers. Canned 21 quarts of green beans with 5 pints of "soup" beans. The beans not in their prime (or that have gotten too big)  that will do well cooked to death in soup. lol  I need to take a walk out back in the pitiful garden and take a look at the jalapenos. Hope I can get enough to make a few batches of Cowboy Candy. Not sure if I am doing salsa this year, but need to inventory that.  Also need to hit the market and pick up more dill, pickling spices and eggs.



  Texas. Oh my... Mother Nature can be brutal from time to time.  Terrible pictures on the news, animal and people rescues abound. More than a trillion gallons of water has fallen in Harris County alone, CNN said.   They have broken the previous record set in 1978 with Amelia, with 51+ inches of rainfall. That's a lot of water, folks. And it's still raining.  Keep the people of Texas in your prayers...this is devastating. Around the world, Bangladesh-India-and Nepal are suffering the worst monsoon flooding in years, with over 1200 dead so far. Millions are stranded and the flooding has wiped out farming areas, so there will be serious repercussions later in the year from that as well.  Makes me remember one of  my first encounters with a national disaster that broke my heart...when over a million people starved to death in Biafra in 1969.  It was a  disaster and political tragedy that led to one of the worst famines the world has seen.  It still makes me cry...



  I have a couple of errands to run this morning, one of which is going to a friends house and picking up more canning jars. Her friend was getting rid of them and she said--Hey! I know someone who could use those!  And there you are.  Nothing better than free canning jars. I love having extra jars to share... the Irishman thinks I'm insane. But generally keeps his mouth shut about it. lol  And I have wonderful friends who bless me with jars and hook me up with people selling jars for a good deal. A REALLY good deal.  lol  This evening I am a speaker at an Alanon meeting. Every 5th Thursday this group has a speaker meeting with an AA and an Alanon (friends and family of alcoholics) speaker. It will be a short talk, the meeting is only an hour long.  And refreshments to follow.  They asked me over a month ago and if it wasn't written on my calendar I might have forgotten, even though a woman I don't know called to remind me. lol 

  So...I will make a batch of one of my favorite soups for supper for tonight-- Posole.  It's a pork and hominy stew with green chiles and rich broth... I use my home canned pork loin in it. I forgot to remind the Irishman that it was tonight, so I will be gone before he gets home. But the soup will be ready, with some warm tortillas for sopping up all that rich gravy. The weather is weird. Might hit 80 today, ( only 66 right now at 10) but tomorrow's high is forecast to be about 73.  And here it is Labor Day weekend, so that means the Irishman will have 4 days off in a row again.  He might take a day away by himself and go camping somewhere. It would be good for him, though this is the last big hurrah for the season, and he may have a hard time finding somewhere to lay his weary head. lol  I will just stay home and lay low, tend my critters, can another 25 quarts or so of green beans and dream of slow quiet winter days that feel isolated and endless. After my errands I will come directly home and a small nap I think. 

  I am reading a 20 year old David Baldacci book. It seems to be going slow, compared to his other books I have consumed lately. I have read him completely out of order, all willy-nilly. The last 2 I read were his very newest.  I have a bag of his stuff, borrowed from my great pal Mz.Milly, and they are all older ones. I am reading these in order. It will be fun to watch his style develop and see him grow as a writer I think.  I am over the moon for this guy... he's one of the most prolific writers I know.

  OK-- so here I go, off into my day. Hope everyone stays dry, eats well and loves unconditionally.  That's about as good as it gets....



 


 

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