Never too old to learn

I am 75 years old, married for 52 years and have canned since I got married. You would think I would have a grip on the best way to do this but… no… I only learned today. Canning tomatoes has always been a pleasure but it was quite a long process. Today I had an 8 kg bucket heaped full of tomatoes that Cliff picked in the morning. Normally I would can that as juice to use in all kinds of recipes. That means cutting up the tomatoes after taking out the stem part then cooking them until they are soft. After that I used to pass them through a food mill to get the skins out, fill jars and can. Today I decided to just can the whole tomatoes but first I had to get the skins off. Pretty easy to do if you know how. It took me 1 1/2 hours from start to having the jars in the canner. Amazing. Most of you probably knew how to do it but I only knew how to the hard way and now I am a really happy camper.
I was not too happy awhile ago because I lost a lot of my hearing back in July and it has not gotten better at all. I had an audiogram done and I might need a hearing aid. So far I am not doing too bad without it. Watching TV is a little harder to do but I don’t watch that much anyhow. Poor Cliff has to repeat quite a bit for me but he is very good about it.
I also ended up in the hospital with a severe case of vertigo. It came on within seconds and was quite scary particularly since my blood pressure was 200/90. Never happened before. I could not stand up at all and kept on vomiting. We got really scared and called 911 for an ambulance. They were there within 10 minutes and off I went on a stretcher. A totally new experience for me and one I hope will not be repeated soon. The emergency was packed. The nurse later told me that it was the worse she has seen there for a long time. It took about 2 hours before the doctor could see me. All that time I was on a stretcher in the hallway but it did not matter to me, just as long as I did not have to move my head. I was still vomiting although I had nothing left in my stomach. They kept me hydrated intravenously and after I was stabilized around 8.30 at night I was able to get Cliff to take me home.  The doctor ordered a CT scan and that came back normal so I am glad about that.

Now I feel really good again. Last week I made and canned 19 pints of spaghetti sauce and today just tomatoes whole. It was a fun and I will have to do it again.
I went shopping today and the gent in front of me bought 4 tomatoes and I just about fainted, the price came to $ 2.64. Imagine the “gold” I have in the jars ☺
Enough of my rambling.
Good night everybody ☺

Not a cloud in the Sky

and we really need the rain. Cliff and I walked in the woods yesterday and it is bone-dry. It makes it very scary to live where we are. Lots of tall trees around. I just hope everybody takes care not to start a fire inadvertently.
It really was nice weather for travellers on the long weekend though.
We are having lots of tomatoes now but they still are not ripe enough for my liking. Great for slicing etc. but I want to make tomato sauce and for that they have to be soft to the touch.
I just opened a jar of 3-fruit and noticed that I canned it on Sept. 8th. Our pears and plums are not nearly ripe to eat. It seems that everything is about 3 weeks later than normal. The damp spring and even part of the summer was great for the cucumber crop. I make a cucumber salad everyday and still they are coming on strong. I gave away lots too. Just now I cut swiss chard for lunch but most of it is still out there. This time of the year the vegetable patch is large but when the winter comes we have to buy veggies. The only vegetable I like frozen is peas. Every other type I rather eat fresh.  Not sure how the squash harvest will be. They are still very small and not plentiful this year. That sure changes from year to year.
Years ago this would be the time when I start to gather things together for our trip South for the winter. I really miss that time. Now we gather wood for the fireplaces ☺.
We were in Kelowna for a few days some weeks ago. We really hit it lucky with the weather since it was not too hot but on the way home we drove in rain from Hope right to Vancouver Island. Driving was not too bad though and we did not run into any roadwork. I guess that was due to the rain. On the way to Kelowna we saw 2 long line-ups in the opposite direction. We were hoping we would not be ending up in one of those. So the rain was good for us in a way.
School will start tomorrow and we have to be very careful driving through school zones. I am sure police will be checking to try to keep folks from speeding.
That’s it for today.
Good bye everybody ☺

Sunday Sign Waving

It was a beautiful day yesterday but very hot for waving signs. The turn-out was fantastic, more than 100 people. Lots and lots of cars going by and blowing their horns. As usual the cookies I baked in the morning were a great success and not one was left over. Good thing I saved a few for Cliff.




this is the area where an recycling/dump depot is supposed to be built.



read all about it

We have been battling the local government for over a year now. I hope it will not go on forever because it really messes up our life.
None of us is against recycling (I have been doing it diligently for years now) It’s just the location we are fighting. This area is zoned agricultural and is such a beautiful sight. I cannot understand how anybody could chose to destroy it. Besides that there are 4 recycling centres already in the area.
OK, rant over ☺

It is a little cooler today and I am thankful for that. Yesterday was the first time this summer when we spent some time downstairs in the rec-room because it was too hot upstairs.  We left all the windows and doors open last night to cool the house down. I closed the drapes this morning to keep the sun out and now I have to open everything up again to get a bit of heat inside. Crazy weather but at least I have my clothes on the line today. They always smell so nice when they are dried outside.
Lunch is over with and now I have to think what I am going to serve tomorrow. It’s a never ending chore ☺ but I like it.

That is the end for today.
Good bye everybody ☺

Where is our Summer? and Google+

I had lots of fun this afternoon trying out the new Google+. It is a really good concept and I hope to be using it regularly. My thanks to Rick for blogging about it.
I noticed that 2 more people have joined my Blog. Hope you enjoy it even though I have not been posting a lot.
The summer this year leaves a lot to be desired. On the other hand watching the News tonight I heard that a lot of people from the hot parts of Canada and the US are arriving here and enjoying our cooler weather. I must say that I rather have it this way than too hot. We had quite a bit of rain too which is not too bad since we don’t have to do too much watering in the garden. I am not sure if we ever get corn this year. It is so far behind that winter might come before it is ready to be picked. Lots of nice potatoes and the lettuce is wonderful. For awhile I was running out of greens but now swiss chard is growing great and we eat it every day. Pretty soon the cucumbers will be ready to pick as well. Life is good!
We have about 4 pounds of strawberries in the freezer and the same amount of raspberries. I am not sure what I will do with that. Time will tell.
I have been using my iPad a lot but I still like my iPod too. Actually the iPad is supposed to be for Cliff but I misappropriate it most of the time ☺☺
Between housework (not too much of that ), shopping, computer and listening to books the days just fly. I finished knitting a pair of socks for Cliff and have not started another pair yet. I think that is more for winter time.
That’s it for tonight,
Good night everybody ☺

Watching Swallows

What a great occupation!  We watched 3 little guys starting to fly. Usually one at a time with one parent around. One baby looked out of the door of the nest and another one was sitting on the peg in front of the door. At one time the little guy on the peg tried to get through the door but the “bully” in the doorway would not let it pass. It was almost through when it got shoved back down. That happened a few times and in the end it gave up trying. I must have sat watching the nest for about an hour.



I did not hear anything from the nursery in Chilliwack so I took the “Killer Basket” in the house for a few days.  It was a bit of a nuisance so I ended up taking it to the garden and using a fine mist from the garden hose to give it a good bath and hung it outside again. That seems to have done the trick and the bees stopped dying.
In the end the nursery phoned after all wanting to exchange the basket for another one so they could test the bad one. Of course there was no use to that after I had sprayed it. They were very good about it and told me to call back if the trouble came back. So far everything is OK.

butterfly on the basket


We have had a few beautiful days but the weather is supposed to change a bit. I don’t mind because I rather like the cooler weather. 

Good night everybody ☺

Happy Day

Happy in more ways than one.
First, my little iPod got a big brother! I took a flying trip to Future shop in Duncan and bought a brand spanking new iPad… big brother to iPod. It sure is easier to see but I still like iPod because it is easier to transport. Not so good is the fact that I have to share big Brother with big Cliff  
On the way to town I saw that BC Hydro was doing something on 2 power poles on the opposite side of the road so when I came back I decided to take the long way around Cowichan Bay from Duncan. That is the reason why Happy time two came into play.
Getting nearly to Country Grocer I saw a truck with a sign that read “Sockeye Salmon”. I came to a screeching halt and walked back to buy 4 freshly caught salmon. Each was between 3 and 5 pounds.
When I got home I alerted Cliff and he scaled them and I fileted them and froze them in usable portions. We love Sockeye salmon but I would not give you a plugged nickel for Chinook. I know a lot of people would deem that heresy but I find it too strong. Cliff likes it though.
When we still had our sailboat we used to fish all the time and mostly caught Chinook and Coho. I always called the sailboat “Tradewind”  a fish boat in disguise. One year we even caught the biggest Chinook at the Mill Bay Fishing Derby. That sure was exciting. I have canned hundreds of pints and half pints of Salmon in my lifetime but this year I just froze the 4 fish.  
I also have an update on my “killer flower basket” but that is for another Blog entry, right now I want to play with big brother

Good night everybody ☺

Updates

A while ago I wrote about my Maytag washer.
That break-down was actually a blessing in disguise. Because of that I started to use only a fraction of the Tide soap that I used before. It made my clothes so much softer and actually a bit cleaner too. I am a happy camper now.
Now about my Bee problem.
I asked Superstore where they buy their flowers and was told it is DeVry Greenhouses Ltd. in Chilliwack. I found their website on the net and left a message. A few days later they wrote and were very surprised that so many bees were dying after visiting that particular flower basket. They asked to have a picture of the basket and I sent one. They wanted to pick up the basket to test it and refund my money. I told them I would prefer another basket rather than money. That was the last of the correspondence. I wonder if I ever hear from them again so I wrote another email today. I will not let it rest though because if it happened with this one basket how many others are also affected and how many bees are yet to die. We are having enough problems with the lack of bees around Vancouver Island.
Now I will go back to listening to my audiobook “The Painted House” by John Steinbeck. I read the book twice already a long time ago and I love somebody reading to me.

Good night everybody ☺