Marathon Over...27º

It was another long day...Started about 6am, finished the 4th canner after 6pm...The guys went for a load of wood while I watched the afternoon canners...We celebrated with a shrimp and steak dinner...Rusty and I prepped and cooked, Herb took care of setting up the card table in the living room so we could eat at a table instead of on our laps...Everyone finds a job to do and we move effortlessly around each other in our small kitchen...Only thing missing was our "Portland Girls"...We look forward to spring break when they can join in the "FUN"....Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Start

Finish

Celebrate

Rejuvenation...31º

Yesterday was a day for resting the body, after the marathon day before...Herb did work as he hauled all the boxes of canned goods down to the cellar before he and Rusty took my shopping list and headed for Safeway...I gathered my writing materials and was off to the Josephy Center...The Center was hosting an Artists meeting of some kind downstairs so we explored the upper rooms...Found one with windows looking out at the Eagle Caps and doors that could be shut all around...Perfect!

Such a varied group we are, we spend much of the time visiting about our different life styles and experiences...I opted out of lunch and came home to slice and dice veggies...Rusty started a ham in the oven while I put together some scalloped potatoes...Then we started work on the veggies...Two large tupperware bowls are full of celery, carrots, onions and peppers...To this we will add some frozen beans, corn and garlic when we fill the jars..Tomato juice, mixed with broth will be the liquid...We will add cooked turkey to some of them but most will just be vegetables and the meat (canned) can be added when it is reheated for a winters meal.

I was up this morning at 4am, filled the dishwasher with jars and now have finished all my scrabble games, chatted with Pat (on eastern time)...Will close this blog, get dressed and start stuffing jars...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Marathon...27º

First canner started at 8am, last one turned off about 6pm...The gas camp stove ran continuously all day long....Never turned it off just removed one canner and placed another full canner over the flame...None of us cooked a meal, if we got hungry we made a sandwich or ate a snack, whatever we could find. At 5pm we called and ordered pizza, opened a beer and sat in the living room to eat because the kitchen table is covered with 65 jars of various sizes, filled, processed and ready to be marked, boxed and carried downstairs to the cellar...Today will be a day off from canning, while I go to write group...Tomorrow we will can some more, playing with different things to put in soup and sauces to go with last years ground beef...People ask, Why do you do this?..The only answer I have is because I enjoy it!...Below are a few photos...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

All Done

Broth, Soup, Ground beef, Turkey

Soup

Work/Reward...18º

Hard work brings rewards...Turkeys boned, bones simmered, broth cooling, dishwasher full of jars, 6am and I must get moving...By tonight we will have; jars of turkey processed and ready for the cellar shelves, turkey broth and maybe even some turkey soup...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

An excerpt from "Siblings"...

I was 7 years old when George started dating Marlene. Marlene's Mother, Myrtle owned a hotel and I spent a day or two visiting there. I was in awe of the hotel (never having been in one) with its staircase to the bedrooms upstairs reserved for guests. I accompanied Marlene to school, where all of her friends exclaimed over me and made me feel special. That night I slept in one of the hotel bedrooms and the next morning Marlene fixed a special breakfast. Plate size pancakes, with a choice of pineapple sherbet or syrup on top. I ate two pancakes topped with sherbet that morning. 

Later when I was about 16 years old, my Uncle Harold introduced me to a new topping for pancakes, peanut butter. Over the years I consumed "gallons" of peanut butter. Mom bought it especially for me in #10 cans, which had to be stirred and stirred to incorporate the oil back into the peanut butter (before hydrogenation). For a period of my life she claimed that peanut butter was my main diet. She gave me the "look" when I spread peanut butter on my pancakes the first time, but since it was her brother’s idea she decided it was okay. To this day it is still a favorite and especially when I have homemade huckleberry preserves on top! 

I've thought several times about having pancakes with pineapple sherbet, but know that they would never taste as good as they did that day long ago when a wide eyed girl of 7 ate one of the best breakfasts of her life.

Cloudy, NO Fog....23º

Had a successful bread making day yesterday... Fry bread and soup for dinner and restocked the freezer with several loaves...Maybe I will keep feeding the sourdough and make another batch after the turkeys are canned...Herb plowed snow in the morning, maybe two inches fell but it was very wet and is nice to clear it out so we don't have to deal with a sloppy or frozen mess later on.

Looks like a partly sunny day as the sun is peaking through...I have to think of an easy meal for afternoon when Rusty arrives and now I must get stated on boning the turkeys and boiling the bones.

I made some headway on my essay yesterday and will try to include a paragraph or two in tomorrows blog...It is about siblings...What to write, what to imagine and what to leave to the readers imagination?..Hugs To All...OWAV:)

PS...Question to all you Utah readers...I visited North Summit High School with my sister in law Marlene when I was 7 years old...School Mascot was the braves and I remember an Indian head in the floor of the school that we looked at from the balcony...I checked history of the school and indeed the Indian head (now displayed in the gym) wasn't something I imagined, but nothing is said about a balcony...Anyone familiar with the NSHS?

Foggy....32º

The temperature rises and the fog moves in...We had a fun lunch yesterday, catching up on the news of old friends...Topics of conversation were the length of time that hearing aid batteries last...Who had the last knee surgery and who is scheduled next or was it cataract surgery?..Is anyone going south for part of the winter?..Who is still driving a car with maybe one good eye?..Oh the joys of getting old, nice that we can still laugh about these infirmities in "Other" people and think we still have most of our faculties.

Not much to write about today and in the days to come we will be canning turkey, so you get to hear all about jars, pressure cookers, Herb making umpteen trips up and down the stairs...Rusty coming home, an occasional moment of levity but mostly just my blathering!...Hugs to All...OWAV:)

1952 snowbank in Lake Fork Idaho

Old Friends and Lunch...32º

So nice to have the temperature rising a bit...On Wednesday we had freezing rain in the County as we transitioned into a "warm sunny" day yesterday...Snow and rain predicted today and the rest of the week...A welcome change from the near 0º that we've been having...It is much easier for Herb to keep the fire stoked and the house warm.

Today we join friends at the R & R (cafe) in Joseph for our annual lunch...Old friends that I worked with at the Joseph schools from 1977 to 1995...We have a great time reminiscing about the good ole days, eating, laughing recalling the good times and now are even able to laugh about the bad times...Those later years when administration was changing, money became more scarce and tension crept into what had been a family atmosphere...Enough said, it is better to remember the happy times...Hugs To All...OWAV.  Below is a pair of sled dogs from the Eagle Cap Extreme Race.

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