Storms and Suppers

It has stormed here again today so we did not put the gazebo up. It's supposed to storm again tomorrow so we will not put it up tomorrow either.

I was planning on canning today. When I was ready to get started, I saw the forecast for storms and decided to hold off until tomorrow morning. Since we lose power here so readily, I did not want to risk the jars going into the canner and then not finishing due to power loss.

Today was a regular day for me. I got laundry done. It was outside for a while to dry. Nothing like the smell of laundry hung outside to dry in sun and fresh air. Then the clouds started rolling in, so I brought it in to avoid it getting soaked again.

As I said yesterday, I made some beef veggie soup Saturday morning. For the beef, I used the eye of round roast I made and didn't eat, as the meat was really tough when I cooked it the first time. I tried a recipe I found online that was repeated several times so I hoped it would be good. Not so much. I cut the roast up into pieces and made a tomato juice, with some other veggies pureed and added in, and let it sit overnight hoping to make the meat more tender. I added some beans and corn to the mix and let it simmer all day. When we ate it and to begin with the meat still wasn't tender enough for me and the soup had way too much meat. To stretch the pot of soup, today I added more veggies (carrots, potatoes and some zucchini from the garden) and a bit more tomato juice. Now it has the consistency and look that I hoped for the first time. Plus it stretches one dish that will have a few leftovers into something we can eat for a few more days. (It makes a great lunch.)

Any ideas on how to cook eye of round roast good and tender the first time? I am thinking I need to pressure cook it, but cooking beef is a new thing for me. I didn't grow up eating much beef. I was totally missing out! My husband is a total beef and potatoes kind of guy, but hasn't had much experience cooking roasts, so we are a bit clueless in this!

I would also love some recommendations on cube steak. It is not something that I have had and like so far, but we have some from the beef we bought. I am thinking I will need to pressure cook that as well. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I found a broiler pan at Kroger. I have been looking for one for a while now, but after reading reviews decided against any that I found online since I couldn't put hands on it. On Sunday, we went grocery shopping and checked out their kitchen stuff. It is a Good Cook brand. I think I will be pleased with it when I use it the first time.

 Change of thinking now: we have had almost three inches of rain in three days. How much rain have you gotten? You getting flooded out?

P.S. Supper tonight is the fixed and added to soup.

P.P.S Today I am thankful for readers (Annie) that help me out and give me some tips! Advice is always welcome! 😀

Some Canning Lessons and More

Last week ended up being a busy week, right through today. We just got home.

Wednesday, I had some unexpected time with my husband. We spent the day going over some plans for when we are ready to build our home. We also made our plans for what we had going on this weekend.

Then Wednesday evening, I noticed that something didn't smell too good in the hallway. I thought it was the litter boxes. I thought to myself, I really need to do something about that. My husband and I also noticed a big increase in the gnats and flies in the house. I assumed it was from the heat and humidity and letting the dog in and out all day long. And probably the litter boxes.

So on Thursday, I decided to get a start on the litter boxes. I figured it must be time to completely dump and wash out. Except when I got them out, I knew that could not be the problem. Cleaned them out anyway. Still smells. Did something die under the house?

I got the beans and beef broth jars washed off and ready to put in the panty. I opened the door, and Oh my Lord! there was the smell. And flies. And gnats. And GRODY! maggots on some of my canned jars. Barf-gag-eewwww-bleh! I pulled the jars down and immediately took them to the kitchen sink to wash them off and see if the seal was broken. As far as I could tell they were not, except that the bugs were on the inside, too. I pushed the tops in to see if they popped. They did not. They still looked sealed. So I filled the sink with hot soapy water and dropped them in. Here was the bubbles. Not very many, but enough to show me they were not sealed completely. I am not sure how the tops can be popped down but the seal not intact. Strange.

Then I had to clean the pantry out. I inspected every single jar in there. Most everything in it is commercially canned or sealed up in bags, so everything else was ok. I sprayed vinegar on the shelf and wiped up as much as I could. I got out the vacuum cleaner and sucked up as much as I could. Then I sprayed again. And vacuumed again. Then sprayed again for good measure. I left the pantry open to check on the progress and make sure no more icky buggies were left. I did get everything out of the pantry but the flies and gnats moved on the rest of the house. I spent all day Friday chasing flies and killing them. My dog helped out and caught a few. And proceeded to eat them. I am glad he is not a licker. The cats were useless in this job.

To control the gnats, I used water, apple cider vinegar and a few drops of dish soap. I mixed it up, covered it with plastic wrap and cut a hole in it. When I have read about it online, it said a little slit. I found that doesn't work and put a decent size hole. Then when the little bastards fly in and land on the under side of it, I smack it and send them right into the mix. They drown and I laugh my evil laugh. Just like every time I killed a fly. DIE bugs DIE!

Since I spent so much time on bug patrol on Thursday and Friday, I did not get as much around the house done as I wanted. I did not make it to the store, I did not get out into the garden and I did not get any laundry done.

I worked again on Saturday. So no time there either. Saturday morning, I put together some beef vegetable soup in the crock pot for supper Saturday and leftovers for Sunday. Thankfully, because we had a two hour road trip to meet my ex and pick my kid up from his visit with his dad and grandmother. At work, I did get a really good deal on more fruit trees. $5 each! I got two more apples, a pear (will need another one for pollination) and a nectarine tree. I will be so glad when we get our property and I can plant my fruit trees in the ground instead of in pots.

Sunday, we pretty much spent the day either out shopping and running errands or calming the dog and one of the cats when the thunder started rolling again.

We did find a gazebo on clearance on Sunday so we snatched that deal up. We have been looking at replacing the one that bit the dust last year but so far just hadn't bit the bullet and gotten one. Sunday was our day. We don't have it up because of the storms. Hopefully by this weekend we will have it up.

Today, we went to my mother-in-law's house to install her microwave. She bought a new kitchen set of appliances and they had to order the microwave. So my husband and I met his brother at his mom's house to install it. Which of course goes how every installation goes. We ran into problems and it took about 4 hours longer than we thought it would. Totally typical. At least for us, and I assume most everyone else.

We are now home and can take a breather before getting up tomorrow and starting our work week. (Our work schedules are Tuesday through Saturday.)

Lesson learned: Check those canning jars. Don't put them on a top shelf where you can't see them. Check them all the time. Don't let those bastard bugs set up shop in your pantry, because when you do, it's hell to get rid of them.

Tomorrow, it's back to normal for us. With a new routing for me to check the canning jars at least once or twice a week.

P.S. We did clean the vacuum cleaner out. We took it apart to make sure that none of the bugs were left in it.

P.P.S. Supper tonight is Arby's as I didn't plan anything for dinner, so we grabbed a couple of sandwiches and will eat them for supper.

Canning and More Canning

It's supposed to rain here today. So far, it has sprinkled just enough to make my dog want to come in.
Then it quits and he wants back out. Then it sprinkles and he wants back in. I am well trained, obviously. I hope it does actually rain as I don't want to water again and the garden could use some rain.

We got more canning done. We canned the green beans we picked out of the garden. Since it is mostly just my husband and me, I chose to can in pints so we don't have a ton of leftovers. I got five pints of beans from one week of picking! Not bad for my little bitty garden.

I also made some beef bone broth. I have made it before with added veggie leftovers and canned some in quarts. This time I wanted pints for smaller amounts. It was very strange for me the first time I made it, as I didn't know it came out white-ish. I thought it would have a brown color to it.

I have also made ham stock from a smoked pork butt my husband smoked up. OH MY! It was delicious. I used some of it in the navy bean soup I made on Tuesday. Talk about a little slice of heaven. Well, bowl of heaven. I didn't even add any seasoning to it. It didn't need any. We will definitely be doing that again. The ham was delicious and the broth was delicious. I'm making myself hungry...

I took several pounds of hamburger out of the freezer and hope to can that tonight. Today, I plan on canning the rest of the beef bone broth. I will also be making some breakfast burritos to put in the freezer for my husband to take to work for breakfast. I will be heating up the kitchen today!

I have no idea why, but my dog and cats were really acting up yesterday. They were not fighting or anything. Well, the dog wasn't. My cats were both quite testy yesterday. Hissing and swiping at the poor dog. He was too close for comfort, I guess. Every time I start to think the cats will relax and just ignore the dog, we have another day like that. At some point, they will all figure it out.

The solar generator is charging today. Since we have a good chance of storms for the next few days, I figured I better get it ready. I have also gotten a start on laundry and filtering water to refill our pitchers. Busy bee today.

I'm off to the kitchen to start some cookin'. And no, I won't be barefoot today.

P.S. Tonight for supper will be eye of round roast. I have never cooked that before. I'll let you know how it turns out.

June 19, 2018 Because I'm too Lazy to Come Up With a Title

I have talked about power outage being the most likely problem that we will have to deal with. Yesterday, our power went out again. This seems to be becoming a regular thing. This spring and summer, at least once a week, the power has gone out. It started out about 10-15 minutes. Then 20 minutes. Then 30 minutes. Yesterday, we have worked up to a little over an hour.

I do not have some big conspiracy theory about why that is happening. I believe that it is simply the grid is overwhelmed with all the new construction and growing population in our area.

No matter what the reason is, at least once a week the power goes out. It was a bit over 90 outside yesterday. We closed all the curtains to keep the sun out and pulled out our solar generator, plugged in a fan to help keep the pets cool and continued working on the stuff we were working on outside. We were weeding and mowing and weed-eating.

Then the mower went down. My husband could tell you exactly why, but it's all mechanical and I'm not so I am not sure why. We have previously talked about getting a reel mower if our mower died. No gas, no oil, minimal maintenance. So we went ahead and got one. Back to the whole being prepared for the shit happens and it may not be TEOTWAWKI. It's the little things that can get you first. So we went to purchase a reel mower and to buy the part if we could find it. No such luck, we didn't find the part. We did get the reel mower. At least we mowed the yard. And by we, I mean my husband! 😁

We picked a few more beans so we can put them up. I will be glad when we have a pantry full of home canned yummy foods.

I have also decided that I am going to start doing some landscape design. I have had several people at work ask me if I will come to their house and help them figure out what to plant. Originally, I said no, but have decided that I will. I like the design part of things. I don't want to do the digging and all of that, but like the planning part. So, I am designing some cards and will share them with the folks that are asking about it. I have a friend who will do the digging. I think we can have an accord and make a go of it for both of us.

A lot of rambling tonight, hope you don't mind.

P.S. Supper tonight is navy bean and ham soup. Boy it smells good!

Father's Day Ride

Hope every dad out there had a wonderful day!

We went for a ride. I took my camera to take some photos along the way.

We saw some cool cars 

We went across the Foothills Parkway That is where we saw these cars. There was one guy who was willing to talk to us about the cars, but the guy driving the yellow car didn't seem to want to talk to us at all. He rushed them all off. Boy, they sounded good!

Next up, the Parkway:

I never get tired of looking at the mountains.

I never get tired of the beauty of this area either. 

We are so lucky to live in this area. We like to ride and there are plenty of rides in East TN. And they are all beautiful. 

P.S. Supper tonight was a breakfast bowl. Sausage, eggs, fried potatoes and onions all topped with sausage gravy. 

Moonshine and Mishaps

My husband and I like to ride. We now have a dual sport bike that is really fun to ride. My husband grew up riding and I grew up riding with my dad. So, when we have time, we jump on the bike and take off. Mostly day trips, but have taken a couple of longer trips. Although, the second one we took pretty much got rained out.

Last summer we decided again to take a day trip. We rode our way through back roads and ended up in Gatlinburg. We don't really get up there too often. There's usually more people there than we like to be around. It was a nice day out, so we chose to park the bike in the garage and mosey a bit. Our first stop was Doc Collier's. I like that store. We go in and wander around a bit. We hadn't been there in quite some time. Well before the fires. Apparently, they had some smoke damage and had some items like clothes on clearance.

Then the guy behind the counter announced they were ready to start a tasting. Of course we had to join in. There were some we liked and some we didn't. We decided we should get a couple of bottles to take home with us.

Once we were done with the tasting, we continued to browse around. I found a shot glass that I liked. I also found a couple of the clearance tee shirts that I liked. After that we were ready to check out. The lady at the register rang everything up and packed everything in a bag. As we head to the door, my husband, ever the gentleman, opens the door for me. Good thing as I had my head in the bag looking at my purchases and really wasn't paying attention to where I was walking. So, my husband opens the door and....

I fall out the door! Straight down. There is a small little step down that I didn't see as I had my head stuck in the bag. I twisted my left ankle and landed hard on my right knee (This knee already has occasional problems due to a fall I had about 10 years ago). Shit! That HURT!

The first thing I do is check the bag to make sure my shot glass and drinks didn't get broken! My husband, of course, is trying to see if I am okay. I tell him I think I am okay. Nothing broken that I can tell. As I sit there rubbing my ankle, the guy standing outside the store next door smoking looks over and says "I see that all the time"! Awesome, I had an audience! At least I'm not the only graceful person.

Up I get so I can walk it off. I am hobbling and limping up the sidewalk. Holding a moonshine bag. I'm sure some folks thought I had a little too much! At that point, I wished I had so I wouldn't be hurting so much.

We had planned on stopping in a restaurant and getting some dinner. With that in mind, we continued up the sidewalk to the restaurant of choice. I had to stop and sit on a bench. I pulled the leg of my pants up to look at my knee. It was already getting a huge bruise on it. My ankle wasn't any better. My husband went down the street a little bit to see just how far I would have to limp to get to the restaurant, which of course was at the opposite end of town from where we parked. It was a lot farther than I was willing to go. Home is where I wanted to go.

Back to the parking garage, with a pit stop at the convenience store for some cold water and Advil. I took a few. I was hurting a lot by then. Finally the parking garage.

And a motorcycle. Oh lord, how am I going to get on!?!? Both legs are hurt! So after a bit of thought, I lean myself onto the bike and ease myself up. I lean back and swing my right leg over the handle bars. Then I reach back and grab the handles at the back seat and pull myself onto the back of the bike. Then my husband could get on. Off we go.

Putting my feet on the pegs just made everything hurt more. I was ready to tell my  husband to pull over, go home, get the truck and come back for me. Which he would have never done. There would be no way he would just leave me on the side of the road somewhere.

Since we had chosen River Road to head out of town, I asked him to stop on a pull off where I could get to the water. He found an acceptable spot and pulled in. Getting off the bike was just as fun as getting on!

He helped me hobble down to the water. I took my boot and sock off and stuck my foot in. AHHHHH! The cold water felt awesome. I left it in the water until it was numb. I got my sock and boot back on and limped up to the bike. Using the same technique as the first time, we got back on and rode home.

Being as I am just a little bit accident prone, I already have an array of braces. So, I iced my ankle and knee and braced them up.

I had to work the next day. That means a lot of being on my feet and a LOT of walking. And stairs. The garden center I work at is about two acres and multiple levels. I'm a trooper though and went in. We do have carts, so I figured I would just ride as much as I could.

Oh, my! The ribbing I got! To this day, every time I damage myself in any way, the first question I get is "Was there moonshine?".

So what about you? Any moonshine mishaps?

Power Problems

As I stated yesterday, a power outage is the most likely situation that will come up for us. While we will try to be as ready as we can for multiple problems, we pay attention to the power issue because that happens quite often here. Mostly due to storms, but for other reasons as well.

Most of you will remember the wildfires that affected Gatlinburg severely. While we don't live there, those storms and winds that came through and caused the fire to spread, also caused smaller fires elsewhere. Like our backyard. We had a limb come down on the power line that runs across our back yard. While we were able to contain it, we still called the fire department to make sure everything was fully out and okay. After all, a trailer park would turn into an inferno if even just one trailer caught on fire. They do pack trailers in like sardines in trailer parks. Of course, when that limb came down and caught fire, it knocked the power out.

In the winter, we are better off with a power outage because we do not rely on power to heat our home. We have kerosene heaters and the fireplace. We do not have a furnace. In the summer, the trailer turns into an oven. We do have a little bit of shade from the trees in the back yard and the fence line and some tall shrubs on the west side of our house, but not enough to actually shade the trailer.

In order to remedy that particular concern, we bought a solar generator. We so far are not that impressed. We have run load tests and time tests to see how long it will last. We have tested a lot of different things on it. We have found that it charges our tool batteries and regular batteries just fine and will fully recharge with the panel. It is not big enough to run any appliances. We have also time tested fans overnight to see the capability. After being fully charged we ran three fans only. We have plenty of other light sources and if it's weather that we need fans, it's most likely light enough outside that we can do without the lights. Even with a full charge the generator will not last through the night running those three fans. We may try again with just two fans and see what happens. It's too hot to turn the air off overnight and test right now. As soon as we get a break in the heat, we will try again with just the two.

If we didn't have two indoor cats, I would not worry as much about the heat in the trailer. We could just spend as much time outside as possible. The dog can go outside with us as well and usually does. I don't let the cats outside because there is a large feral cat population. While that is great for rodent control, it is not so great for my cats. I am sure the cats are full of feline diseases and do not want my cats to contract any of them, nor do I want them to get into a fight. They are both about 12 years old and starting to show their age. So, we work at finding a solution to the heat.

Maybe I should go ahead and get my chicken coop and just toss them in that! Sans the chickens, of course!

Another thing that I have learned regarding short term (relatively speaking) power outages is to keep paper plates and disposable utensils on hand. I don't like paper plates and don't use them, therefore, didn't have any in the house. I have since decided that the solution to my aversion to paper plates is to suck it up, buttercup! and use them so I don't have to heat water to wash dishes. That will save that vital resource for more important things. Like drinking.

I'm sure a whole house generator would be awesome, but we don't have the money for something that expensive as we are saving for other big ticket items (like a house) and I wouldn't waste the money putting one in here since we already plan on moving.

So what solutions and ideas have you put into practice? Not to prepare for the end of the world as we know it, just those "run-of-the-mill" things that pop up?

Now I am off to wash and hang the clothes to dry and start picking more beans.

P.S. Supper tonight is fried chicken, beans from our garden, cottage cheese and peach slices.