Well, it is pickle season, green bean season is in intermission, and tomatoes are on their way. What does that mean? I am canning like crazy. Canning, freezing, blanching, depending on whatever the particular vegetable is. Now, for those of you thinking that it sounds great to take excess food in the summer and turn it into meals for the winter, you are right, in a way. However, canning is not fun. It isn't. I'm not going to sugar-coat it. It used to be okay, when I only had 7 jars of beans to make, or a few dill pickles. Now, however, I look out the window and see Luke carrying 3 bushels of pickles. That makes a lot of jars of pickles. When he set 6 bushels of cauliflower in front of me, I literally had tears roll down my eyes.
Part of the problem with canning is that there is no immediate reward for canning. You kitchen starts a mess with food all over, and it ends a mess with more dishes, and hot jars sitting on a towel on the cupboard. The food you preserved you don't enjoy for several months, so it seems like you got nothing out of it. Regardless, I'm going to tell you a little about canning.
Canning is a several step process; wash and clean the produce (which takes FOREVER for pickles), then, cut it as necessary (like dicing tomatoes or snapping green beans). Seems easy enough, right? Wrong - it can take a few hours to cut up all the tomatoes or to snap all the green beans, and that is supposed to be the easy part! Then, cooking the food. Now for green beans and pickles, this is easy - you don't have to cook them. But for tomato juice, salsa, pasta, or any tomato product, you are looking at 3 hours of sitting in the kitchen and stirring to prevent burning. You are basically trapped next to the oven, but it gives you a good chance to clean up!
Then comes the canning part of it - either a hot-water bath, or a pressure cooker. For I long time I worried that I was going to screw up and have the pressure cooker explode, but I got over that! (mostly, I'd be lying if I said a small part of me didn't want to tie couch cushions around me for protection - but again, I am nuts). Then, you take the jars out, and let them sit until cool, usually overnight. Now, this is the most annoying part, because no matter how hard you try to ignore it, deep down you are sitting there listening for the "ping." The ping that says, "yes, this jar is sealed." Now, somedays it is like "ping, ping...ping ping ping." That is a good day. Right now, I just finished canning 7 jars of pickles, and I have been sitting and waiting patiently, but, NO pings! I am getting mighty nervous that they might not seal....which is the worst. You are sitting there thinking you made this great product for the winter, and then it doesn't work. I better start hearing some sealing happening pretty quick - or I'm retiring from this business.
Okay, I know this was a bit of a rant session, but I needed to get that out. If you ever want canning lessons, let me know - it is better to can food with partners! And, this winter, when I'm happily munching my pickles and eating pasta, you can shove this post in my face and I will admit it was worth the headache. Now, keep your fingers crossed for those pings...
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Worrying
The art of worrying is a pretty crazy thing, and let me tell you, I have mastered it. My whole life I have spent worrying about one thing or another, and when I get over one thing, of course something else pops up. I have never been diagnosed as a hypochondriac, but I might as well be. If you knew everything I worried about, everything I have irrationally told myself I had, you would think I'm nuts. My worrying is so entirely irrational but I can't do anything to stop it. It truly doesn't matter how many rational people I talk to, my mind is always at the extremes. Today is no exception...
I am all alone this weekend...and while many people love that, I do not. One thing about living on a farm is that you don't have next door neighbors, you have neighbors that are 1/4 mile away. Well, when I lived in Madison, there were plenty of times where I would stay in my apartment alone, and it never bothered me. There were people everywhere. But here, it is just weird to me - a big house in the middle of a bunch of farm land. So, typically if Luke is going to be gone, I head over to my parent's house for the weekend, or drop by Luke's parents for the night. Unfortunately, this weekend, Luke is gone, and so are all my parents - mine on the way to Seattle, Luke's are camping up north. So, I'm left here. And, I don't think I'm doing a very good job keeping myself busy, because worrying is something I've been doing a lot of in the past 24 hours.
You see, it seems like when I am about to be tested (ie, staying alone), that a bunch of other stuff also has to go wrong so that I can really test my sanity. Last night, I had some family friends over to play games, and the daughters were staying with me to keep my company. When they pulled in, they were in a convertible! I wanted to check it out, and I was holding Banjo, the kitten, while looking at it. They were showing me how the hard-top convertible worked, and when he was putting the top up, Banjo freaked out and bit my middle finger, drawing blood. While most people would think "ouch," I thought "rabies."
Now, I do a pretty good job of covering up my worrying in the beginning. I rinsed out the wound with water, washed good with soap and water, then stuck my finger in some hydrogen peroxide until it stopped burning. Seemed good enough, and then I enjoyed a few games with the family friends. But yet, every second that I had a spare thought, it was about rabies. Banjo doesn't have a rabies vaccine yet, and that freaks me out.
So, I decided to text our vet, and hear her thoughts. She said it was "probably" nothing to worry about, and that I should just keep it clean and take some ibuprofen. While it was momentarily comforting, I still couldn't sleep most of the night. I decided I would call my friends at the Wildlife Sanctuary. But first, it was off to the Farmer's market, which I thoroughly enjoyed going to and not working at! As I walked through the market, I ran into the senior animal keeper at the Wildlife Sanctuary, so conveniently! After catching up, I asked for her opinion on the cat bite. She said that she has been bitten by many barn cats, and none of them were ever vaccinated. She also said that I shouldn't worry, but instead, watch the cat, and if I notice odd behavior, then go to the doctor. I learned that cats can't be carriers of rabies like a skunk can; instead, cats will die within 10 days of contracting rabies. So, if my cat was still okay in the next 5-10 days, then so am I. She said that since I play with the kittens every day, I would have noticed a bite or a bump on it, and that odds are more than great to say I'm fine. That made me feel better, when I had company with me. But, left alone to think, my mind wanders. I keep checking Banjo to see if his behavior is "normal," and am being totally obsessive.
It doesn't help that I don't have company to keep me occupied. The thing is, I know that I am being super irrational, but I can't stop it. I have talked to my mom, dad, brother, sister, husband, vet, senior animal keeper, and my family friends - all of them said it is nothing to worry about. But, yet, here I am. It is hard to stop, I'm hoping that writing about it will make me realize how ridiculous it is. But that's the thing about worrying, while it isn't rational, it is hard to stop. I know this from a lot of experience. A pretty crazy place to be trapped in is my mind, and right now, that is where I'm at. I know that if I want to live the farm life, then I have to get used to things like this and just move on - I guess I still have some work to do to get used to the farming life.
I am all alone this weekend...and while many people love that, I do not. One thing about living on a farm is that you don't have next door neighbors, you have neighbors that are 1/4 mile away. Well, when I lived in Madison, there were plenty of times where I would stay in my apartment alone, and it never bothered me. There were people everywhere. But here, it is just weird to me - a big house in the middle of a bunch of farm land. So, typically if Luke is going to be gone, I head over to my parent's house for the weekend, or drop by Luke's parents for the night. Unfortunately, this weekend, Luke is gone, and so are all my parents - mine on the way to Seattle, Luke's are camping up north. So, I'm left here. And, I don't think I'm doing a very good job keeping myself busy, because worrying is something I've been doing a lot of in the past 24 hours.
You see, it seems like when I am about to be tested (ie, staying alone), that a bunch of other stuff also has to go wrong so that I can really test my sanity. Last night, I had some family friends over to play games, and the daughters were staying with me to keep my company. When they pulled in, they were in a convertible! I wanted to check it out, and I was holding Banjo, the kitten, while looking at it. They were showing me how the hard-top convertible worked, and when he was putting the top up, Banjo freaked out and bit my middle finger, drawing blood. While most people would think "ouch," I thought "rabies."
Now, I do a pretty good job of covering up my worrying in the beginning. I rinsed out the wound with water, washed good with soap and water, then stuck my finger in some hydrogen peroxide until it stopped burning. Seemed good enough, and then I enjoyed a few games with the family friends. But yet, every second that I had a spare thought, it was about rabies. Banjo doesn't have a rabies vaccine yet, and that freaks me out.
So, I decided to text our vet, and hear her thoughts. She said it was "probably" nothing to worry about, and that I should just keep it clean and take some ibuprofen. While it was momentarily comforting, I still couldn't sleep most of the night. I decided I would call my friends at the Wildlife Sanctuary. But first, it was off to the Farmer's market, which I thoroughly enjoyed going to and not working at! As I walked through the market, I ran into the senior animal keeper at the Wildlife Sanctuary, so conveniently! After catching up, I asked for her opinion on the cat bite. She said that she has been bitten by many barn cats, and none of them were ever vaccinated. She also said that I shouldn't worry, but instead, watch the cat, and if I notice odd behavior, then go to the doctor. I learned that cats can't be carriers of rabies like a skunk can; instead, cats will die within 10 days of contracting rabies. So, if my cat was still okay in the next 5-10 days, then so am I. She said that since I play with the kittens every day, I would have noticed a bite or a bump on it, and that odds are more than great to say I'm fine. That made me feel better, when I had company with me. But, left alone to think, my mind wanders. I keep checking Banjo to see if his behavior is "normal," and am being totally obsessive.
It doesn't help that I don't have company to keep me occupied. The thing is, I know that I am being super irrational, but I can't stop it. I have talked to my mom, dad, brother, sister, husband, vet, senior animal keeper, and my family friends - all of them said it is nothing to worry about. But, yet, here I am. It is hard to stop, I'm hoping that writing about it will make me realize how ridiculous it is. But that's the thing about worrying, while it isn't rational, it is hard to stop. I know this from a lot of experience. A pretty crazy place to be trapped in is my mind, and right now, that is where I'm at. I know that if I want to live the farm life, then I have to get used to things like this and just move on - I guess I still have some work to do to get used to the farming life.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Banjo and Murtle (Myrtle, Mertle)
Last Wednesday, I did what was probably the most spontaneous thing I have ever done in my entire life - on my way home from market, I called a lady who had advertised two free kittens, and I went, got them, and brought them home. Luke couldn't believe it - I never do anything random, but I did. Two little kittens - one gray, one black. We were still mourning the loss of dear Kat, and Luke wasn't sure he wanted to go through that again, but I missed having a four-legged friend lying on the porch. After watching them play for two minutes, Luke said they could stay and that he already named them - the black one Banjo, the grey one Murtle (Myrtle, Mertle). I spell it like that because while I picture it as Murtle with a u, Luke thinks it should be Mertle with an e, and the vet spelt it Myrtle with a y. Don't tell the Murtle though, I don't want to give her an identify crisis.
Murtle and Banjo are awesome! They are so playful and friendly, they love to wrestle each other, and they quickly made themselves at home. The first few days they took to sleeping in the wash shack and curling up around Luke's toes while he worked, but now they picked a new home, and Luke doesn't really love it. You see, Banjo and Murtle have decided a good home is to crawl up in Luke's engine and sleep on top of the motor. He keeps acting like he is concerned that they are going to do some damage or ruin some wires, but deep down, I know he secretly thinks it is adorable. He just can't quite keep a straight face when he says they were in his car again!
I brought them to the vet yesterday to get their distemper shots, and found out that Banjo is a boy, not a girl! The vet also informed us about a program that aims to keep barn cats and outdoor cats population down, so they neuter and spade for free. Luke and I are going to do that once the kittens are old enough - we don't want to have 10 cats next year. Plus, spaying and neutering your pets is important you know - I watched "Price is Right" when I was little - I know these things.
Banjo and Murtle love to play and they love to purr. They motor like no other kitten I have ever met. Seriously, I can hold them in my lap and they purr and purr. Tobshu still isn't quite used to them - he is for too energetic for him. He runs up to them to check them out, and Murtle freaks, hisses, and tries to claw him. I think they will eventually be good friends :) It is so nice to have some new porch-mates, and they are very enjoyable to have around; I love our new little pets. I hope that they stick around for awhile, they are quite fun to watch. I will post pictures soon - I can't find my USB cord right now...typical. Anyone want to be my maid?
Murtle and Banjo are awesome! They are so playful and friendly, they love to wrestle each other, and they quickly made themselves at home. The first few days they took to sleeping in the wash shack and curling up around Luke's toes while he worked, but now they picked a new home, and Luke doesn't really love it. You see, Banjo and Murtle have decided a good home is to crawl up in Luke's engine and sleep on top of the motor. He keeps acting like he is concerned that they are going to do some damage or ruin some wires, but deep down, I know he secretly thinks it is adorable. He just can't quite keep a straight face when he says they were in his car again!
I brought them to the vet yesterday to get their distemper shots, and found out that Banjo is a boy, not a girl! The vet also informed us about a program that aims to keep barn cats and outdoor cats population down, so they neuter and spade for free. Luke and I are going to do that once the kittens are old enough - we don't want to have 10 cats next year. Plus, spaying and neutering your pets is important you know - I watched "Price is Right" when I was little - I know these things.
Banjo and Murtle love to play and they love to purr. They motor like no other kitten I have ever met. Seriously, I can hold them in my lap and they purr and purr. Tobshu still isn't quite used to them - he is for too energetic for him. He runs up to them to check them out, and Murtle freaks, hisses, and tries to claw him. I think they will eventually be good friends :) It is so nice to have some new porch-mates, and they are very enjoyable to have around; I love our new little pets. I hope that they stick around for awhile, they are quite fun to watch. I will post pictures soon - I can't find my USB cord right now...typical. Anyone want to be my maid?
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