You Find Out Who Your Friends Are

Where and when did we lose our sense of  caring for our fellow man?  How did we come to the point that all we seem to care about is "What's in it for me?"  I long for and miss the days of my youth.  Yeah, I'm old enough to remember them but those times have faded quickly.   I fear that those days are just a memory that some of us  haven't given up on quite yet. We seem to have lost it somewhere.  Always worried about ourselves and what is in front of us at this moment.  People don't stop and think about others anymore.  It seems to be a "quaint" idea these days.

The idea of helping out our fellow man in this struggle we call life appears to be a distant memory.  In the mind of a vast majority of the people in these modern times caring for anyone other than yourself  is more a novelty than an actual thing that happens.  Caring used to be a part of our nature as human beings.  There was a time in the not so distant past that if a neighbor  was in need, his community could and would gladly step up and come to his door and offer a hand. When you would, without a second thought, share the bounties of your garden or your kitchen or your labor.  Not one thought of what's in it for me or I don't have time for this or screw them...let them take care of it their selves.


Back when when you had a good day with your chickens having a "good laying day" nothing was thought about sending one of the kids over to the neighbors with a few extra eggs just because they might not have had such a spectacular day in the hen house.  Or sending that scruffy kid from across the street home with a dozen cookies because he/she helped you haul in the laundry from the line just before the the bottom fell out of the sky.

Back then if you knew your neighbor was struggling to put clothes on that kid that just seemed to keep growing out of his pants, you went through your closets just to see if there might be something that might fit those long legs that had a summer growth spurt.  You didn't think twice about it.. you just did it.
If you were headed off to town you actually thought about it.  You asked your neighbor if there might be something they needed from town while you were there since you were going to be there anyway.  Or  even offered a ride  in case they might have some errands that you might not be able to do for them.

If your friend down the road was having a tough time making Wednesday stretch into that Friday paycheck you didn't think twice about inviting them over for dinner.  And then you would send them home with those leftovers because "you just don't have anyplace for them".  Ya might be able to make a couple of lunches out of it... and I just don't have the room in the fridge.

If you needed a hand with canning all those extra tomato's or beans it was no problem... your neighbor would just step up to the plate and because she knew that if she was in a bind you would do the same for her even if neither of you ever asked.

I fear we have lost most all of these "values" in the troubled times we live in.  We are all so worried about "us" that we have lost the very fabric that once held us together.  Face it. Most of us can't even say that we know our neighbors..much less their kids names.  We are too involved with "us" to look beyond our own front yards.
I had a dream last night about a dear friend that passed away two years ago in August.  All the dream was about was one little flash... he passed by my front door, looked in, and asked ... Ya need a hand with that?

Vegetables and Stuff

Summer time and Iced Tea.... One of the all time best combination's there ever was!  We drink lots of iced tea around here and go through about a gallon of tea a day.  Until it starts getting hot that is.  The ante goes up to at least two gallons a day!  I'm also happy to report that I am almost completely off of the sodas.  It was harder to give up than I thought it would be though.  I like carbonated beverages. ALOT...lol.

Things are rolling right along at the Poser'sHomestead.  The garden is starting to produce and they are going to be opening the vegetable stand on June 7th. Mars and John are putting some of the finishing touches on the stand.

The zucchini is coming on like gang busters and the yellow squash should be right behind it.

Cucumbers, potato's, carrots,and lettuce as well.

I picked a few pinto beans today....not enough to do much with but it looks like within a few days there will be tons of them too.  The butternut squash is starting to give up some fruit as well.

Some of the tomato's are producing but it will be awhile before the majority are ready due to the late planting because of the hail storm we had here.

Mars finished up the new rabbit hutch this weekend.

This one is for the up and coming "dinner" rabbits.  John has 3 does bred so there should be new babies in about a month!  He also taught me how to "sex" the rabbits this weekend.  I really want rabbits when we finally get our place so I'm trying to learn all I can about them.  Nothing like hands on training!

I  found an old cherry tree behind the RV.  I had noticed the blooms a few weeks ago but I had no idea what sort of tree it was. Imagine my surprise to see cherries on it yesterday!  Being from Texas I suppose I just never have been around them.  I sure am going to miss the peaches this year though.  And it looks like I won't be putting up any strawberry preserves this year either.  Oh well, there's always next year right?

Well I guess I ought to cut this short as I still need to make a batch of tortillas up before heading into another Little Big Town this afternoon.  I have a doctor's appointment over there so I might as well do a little "sight seeing" while we are there.  I have no idea what all is there but hey... I love checking out new places.

I hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day weekend and that friends and family all enjoyed the time together.  These days we should all be thankful for good times  with our loved ones.  Things are ugly out in the world... lots of bad things happening.  Take time to make memories.  They "keep" forever you know!

Memorial Day 2010

                                                                   ( picture courtesy of baristanet.com)

Saturday Ramblings

  It is hard to believe it is already Memorial Day weekend.  Where in the world does time go?  It has been an interesting 3 months here at our host's homestead.  When we first got here the weather was still on the cold side and now its worked its way to hot.  Not as hot as Central Texas but enough to qualify as hot.  Especially the last week or so.  It's finally creeping into the low 90's some days.
  I'm feeling a little "homesick" this weekend as it has always been one for great BBQ with good friends.  Now that I think about it, we haven't had a cookout since we got here!  Weird for us....as grilling has always been a weekend ritual. 
  I'm sure that the menfolk are glad that all those trees and treestumps  that had to be removed were done back in March. Sure wouldn't be a good time right now to have to do that sort of work! Neither would building the vegetable stand.  It won't be long now before some of the vegetables will be ready to begin harvesting.  The garden has really come back well after the hailstorm we had a few weeks ago. Most of the melons and some of the squash had to be replanted but it was still early enough in the season that it was still possible thank goodness.  Mars and John planted around 300 tomato plants and 300 pepper plants after the storm.  They are all looking pretty good.  Most everything recovered and is looking good.  It looks like our host's harvest should be a good one after all. 

  Mars is building a new rabbit hutch for the "dinner rabbits".  It's coming along well and is being made from mostly wood recycled from around the homestead.  I have to give the man kudo's for his carpenter skills. Of course he's got years of experience and knows what he is doing but I still find it fascinating to watch.  One day, soon I hope he will be using his skills on our own place. 

  I'm still waiting to hear about my disability checks.  Apparently there were some blood tests that Social Security didn't receive when I transferred my case from Texas to Oklahoma.  I had already had them sent to the Texas office but no one seems to know what happened to them during the transfer.  It really threw things back a bit as they are the most important determining factor in my case.  They couldn't locate my files in the computer.  Apparently, because my diagnoses was made back in 06, they were put into "hard" storage rather than into their computer.  The good news is that the files have been found and are in the process of being received and reviewed by Oklahoma.  Bureaucratic BS abounds.  It shouldn't be too much longer now.  I certainly hope not anyway as things are getting really tight here.  

The Wonderful FoodSaver

First thing I need to do is to apologize for my post yesterday.  Somehow I erased the first paragraph and a half.  I didn't even realize it until late last night.  Sorry for any confusion there. I figure I will just leave it as is for a reminder to self... Self check your dang posts twice silly!

I found an article I wrote awhile back over at the American Preppers Networks Forums.  Its a great place to find some good prepping information as well as a great place to find answers to most anything.  The folks there are wonderfully friendly and there are no "dumb" questions other than the ones you don't ask.  Stop on by and check them out.  I don't think you will be disappointed.

I love my FoodSaver. My hubby bought me mine as a Christmas gift. (I know, he's romantic like that! ) Truth be told though we both really wanted one and they were having a sweet deal thru the survivalblog last year. (And free shipping)
There are tons of ways to use one of these wonderful tools! The one most people are familiar with is the use of bags to freeze meats, veggies, fruits, anything you want to keep air out of.
I had to flip my freezer recently and found several packages of different meats I had put up last year around this time. Still as good as the day it was sealed!
Our FoodSaver came with two rolls of bags, a vacuum hose, a wide mouth jar sealer, and a large and small canister. Well it wasn't long before I discovered how expensive the bags can get. I'm pretty particular now about what I use my bags for. But the use of jars really started getting my attention. If the lid's are good and you get a good seal you can put up all sorts of stuff. I use my old canning lids for this and they work just fine. It also recycles those old lids.
Just think, you can open a fresh can of coffee, pour it in a jar, seal it up and it will retain its freshness. We don't drink alot of coffee ( I know....weird ) so vacuuming it makes good sense.
If you looked in your fridge right now....do you have an onion or peppers or some veggie in a plastic ziplock? You know you do. I use jars to seal up all those type things up in jars and set them in the fridge. They last at least twice as long stored in jars. I hate tossing out fresh veggies because I didn't use them fast enough.
Another wonderful thing to store with the FoodSaver is cheese. I hate it when my cheese starts to mold. Put your bulk cheese in jars and vacuum seal them after each use. You would be amazed at how long cheese will keep like that. With no mold either! I even put up my leftovers in jars and seal them. Again, they keep longer.
I use jars to help with food rotation as well. I have buckets of things stored and when I need to get into some them, I don't really need the whole bucket. So I will fill a jar with dry milk,yeast, or sugar, or salt or "fill in the blank" and reseal the bucket. Then I vacuum the jars after each use.
Eventually you run short on jars!
So here I was using all my widemouth canning jars for storing dry goods. I didn't have (and still don't) a small mouth jar adapter. It set me to thinking. I went surfing the net and finally found a solution. And not just ANY solution. I found a way to not only seal my smallmouth jars, but almost any jar that has a rubber gasket for a lid. Like your spaghetti sauce jars, jelly jars, peanut butter jars. Anything with the rubber seal on the lids. It doesn't matter what weird size lid it is. Even Pace picante jars with their weird shape can be used. The secret is......the large canister that came with my "package" deal. You can buy these separately at their site. You fill your recycled jar, put the lid on it, place it in the large canister and vacuum the air out of the canister. Release the vacuum and take the jar out. The lid should be concave and sealed. It works great and I don't have to forfeit my canning jars. Just be sure to check your jars for a good seal while doing your pantry check. I have found that sometimes,even when using regular canning jars, they sometimes loose their seal. Therefore, I recommend using bands on your vacuumed jars. You don't want a surprise when you go looking for that jar of dried carots!
There are tons of other uses for the FoodSaver, but I will save that for another time!