Sunday Night Ramblings

  This is my road. I realized tonight that I have lived in this house longer than I have lived anywhere since I was a kid. 13 years.  I had another startling epiphany driving home this evening when I passed the turnoff to the town I lived in as a kid, and realized that it was 50 years ago. Whoa...  I guess I have arrived at that surreal time of life where time changes and life marches and old people start turning out to be you.   


   I went to a big picnic today that we hold every year in my AA district. It's a lot of fun and you get to see people you don't see all the time (when you live out in the boonies like I do). There were between 100-150 people there I think.  The district provides the meat and drinks (we bbq) and everyone brings a dish. They said we went through 190 pounds of meat. Crazy. Anyway, there were lots of young women there that I love and it was a good time. I was looking at a couple of the pictures from today that people took and I think--bloody hell--that's ME. These youngsters are constantly taking pictures of themselves and I DESPISE having my picture taken, so you can imagine. lol But I am struck by how old I look next to them. It isn't that I don't KNOW I'm old.... it's just... I don't know. Inside I'm still that 24 year old, ready to conquer the world. But apparently I am mistaken, and I am forced to deal with it when I see things like this:

  That's me in the red Hawaiian shirt. You know, the old one.  sigh...  I remind myself that getting old still beats the alternative, but some days reality likes to rear up and smack you in the face, shattering all your illusions.  lol  If I lost 60 pounds and dyed my grey hair...I'd still be schlepping towards 65 . All the Miss Clairol in the world ain't gonna change that. 

  So, the world-- Texas has been hit hard by Hurricane Harvey.  Looks pretty scary down there. Florida is getting lots and lots of residual rain-- a tropical storm I think ?  I have friends and family in both places.  The amount of water falling out of the sky is staggering.  And during the normally hottest part of our year, we have been having fall-like temperatures. Last year at this picnic, we were nearly dying from heat stroke.  Today's high was 78.  People are wondering if they should plant fall gardens and I honestly don't know.  I have a feeling that it is suddenly going to be winter and snowing and nobody will be prepared for that. Well, except me. lol  I have lots of pickled okra (25 pints last night) a bushel of green beans ready to be canned tomorrow. All the peach and strawberry jam I can eat. And maybe a few other things.  I have canned lots of meats this year...chicken on the bone (leg and thigh quarters), chicken breasts, pork loin, corned beef, roast beef.  I have canned beans (pintos, great northerns, chickpeas, kidneys and small red beans).  I have stocked up on canned tuna and peanut butters and assorted and sundry pantry items. I am debating on whether I want to buy a few cases of tomatoes and can them, or just save myself the time and trouble (and probably a little money too) and hit the Aldi's sale and buy canned diced tomatoes.  I already keep tomato paste stocked, because I just cannot see doing that myself when I can get perfectly good paste for about 59 cents a can (or less sometimes), and it takes a LOT of tomatoes to make tomato paste. Not to mention the time. Like a few other things, I did it once and decided it was not an efficient use of my time or resources.  I probably need to inventory my dry stocks--flour, sugar, oats, rices, etc and make sure I have that stuff all stocked. If we have a particularly bad winter I want to be ready. On all levels.

   I have been craving fermented foods lately.  Eating lots of kraut, drinking my home made Kombucha. Eating pickled things.  Going to use my sister-in-law's mom's kitchen counter pickles recipes to make some old fashioned ice box pickles. They ferment to the point of sour that you like, and then into the fridge. They are a lacto-fermented pickle. Thinking I'll do a few jars of giardiniera-- pickled mixed vegetables too. No beets ready yet, and I'm not sure what I have in the pantry from last year.  Oh well, plenty of time for that...


  Well, it's the wee hours and I really should go crawl in the big sleigh bed and get some sleep.  The monster puppy is asleep in her kennel. When we got home from the picnic, she had destroyed the side of a square cube of a storage ottoman, ripped the whole side out of it, pulled things (fish supplies mostly, for our aquarium) out and tore them up all over the house.  Later she got ahold of a New Yorker magazine and started tearing it up before I caught her. Tonight she wouldn't do anything she was told, and sat whining outside the closed bedroom door where the Irishman is sleeping. (She NEVER does this). Finally in desperation, I moved her kennel back here into the office and put her inside. She's been sound asleep now for 2 hours. She's the most hyper dog I have ever owned and is driving me crazy. Will not potty train. Will not stop destroying things. ARRggghhhh....but she's adorable...when she's asleep.

    Sweet dreams....