OWAV:) 01-22-11, 5am, 30°, Dark

I awoke sometime in the night with the waning moon shinning in the bedroom window. Thought for a few minutes that it was time to get up, but realized it was the moonlight, so turned over and went back to sleep.

Just had a surprise chat with Rusty, he usually connects with us on his mornings and our evenings, as China is 13 hours ahead of us.  Good to hear that their job is about finished.  He will probably be off for at least a month and the next job will be in China, Brazil or New Jersey.

I have my scrabble games caught up so I better get busy on the next batch of chili.  Sure is good to have something to do on these long winter days. :)

9:30 and the first canner of chile is processing.  I'm watching it as I write.  The other one is jarred and waiting in the oven.  Sun is shinning, beautiful day.

❈ BS ❝My living arrangement worked, the apartment thought small, was adequate for the two of us.  Silvia had Saturdays off so she took on the job of cleaning the living room, I the bedroom and both of us kept our messes cleaned up in the kitchen.  I did most of the dishes.  We were both novice cooks, but we shopped together for bargains at the nearby store and each did some of the cooking.  I remember our standby meals as, meatloaf, burgers, chicken noodle soup, (made from chicken wings, very cheap in those days) and hotdogs.  We both packed a lunch everyday, that also came out of our meager food budget. There was a Woolworths store with lunch counter on main street, but we couldn't afford to eat lunch downtown.

The one luxury we had was a subscription to the Sunday newspaper.  Since Sunday was my only day off I did sleep in and then read the Sunday paper in bed. Silvia attended church every Sunday and other meetings during the week.

Laundry was done on Sundays.  Since I only had two uniforms, I would wash them out once, by hand, during the week and then do both of them again on Sunday.

The dress code for beauty school was very strict.  We were required to wear white uniforms, nylons and white shoes.  Panty hose hadn't been invented yet so the nylons required a garter belt or girdle with fasteners for nylons.   We were expected to act and look professional at all times.❞

Enough for now, chili is done except for cleaning the jars before they go to the cellar.
Looking forward to tomorrow, OWAV:)

OWAV:) 01-21-11, 5am, 25°, broken clouds

Barton Heights home in Winter

Aha, I figured out how to get a photo on here and it doesn't cover the entire page.  I will have to post later because the turkey broth is boiling and ready to go in quart jars and then into the pressure cooker.  It is going to be a busy day.

We did 30 jars total yesterday, 20 turkey, 5 beef and 5 elk meat.  They are cooled, wiped off and on the cellar shelves.

This morning, 11am, 10 qts of turkey broth are done.  While processing the broth I have been making the chili.  Started with 12# of ground deer and pork meat, that Herb has been grinding.  Added chopped onions, garlic, chili powder, chili con carne mix, cumin, salt, and pepper, then browned all the oven.  Divided this meat mixture into 3, 4# batches, then added tomato juice, paste, and diced tomatoes, to the first batch.  Now I have added 3 quarts of dried beans that soaked overnight(drained). Have put the entire mixture into the oven to  heat, before it goes into pint jars and then into the pressure cooker.  Herb and I have the first canner of 19 pints processing as I write.  We have 7 quarts that will go in as soon as these are done.  Total today looks like 10 quarts broth, 19 pints and 7 quarts of chili.  We will be doing chili for the next two days so I will write about my time in beauty school then.  I'm sure you have heard enough about canning!

It is gray, overcast with a slight drizzle of rain.  Thought about walking but probably not.  More Later, OWAV:)