Been Busy, Busy, Busy

Winter is finally over and spring is here. It's that time of year to get the yard cleaned up and get my garden ready so for the past couple of weeks I have been spending a lot of time out side. After being cooped up in the house most of the winter it sure feels good to get out side and enjoy the fresh air and getting my hands into the nice moist earth. I have been pulling weeds, picking up branches that fall during the winter, trash that people throw out of their cars as they drive by, getting my garden and herb bed ready to plant and foraging for wild spring foods.

So far in the foraging department I have been picking purslane, wild onions and red bud flowers. I use the purslane in soups, stews and salads and I will be making red bud jelly with the red bud flowers. Will also be making lilac jelly in a few more days when the lilacs bloom. I am all for free food and learning to forage is helping me to feed my family better and cheaper. Plus if the time comes when the world as we know it ends and grocery stores are no longer around I will have other ways to provide for my family. :)

I have been doing some canning here and there in the last few weeks. One thing I made for the first time was Mango Chutney. I have never had any type of chutney before so I looked on line for a recipe I thought I might like. I found this one http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mango-Chutney-230708.

I followed the recipe almost to a T but I used apple cider vinegar instead of white and I didn't have any golden raisins so I used plain raisins. It turned out so good that I will be making more of this soon. Doesn't it look pretty?

I got 5 half pints out of the recipe.

Valdilia onions were on sale up here about 3 weeks ago so I bought 16 pounds of them and made most of them into caramelized onions and canned them. I have already opened one jar of them, heated them up and served over New York Strip Steak. It was so good!

To make the caramelized onions I simply sliced all the onions and put them into two crock pots with a stick of butter in each. I turned the crock pot on low and let it cook for 24 hours. I then drained off the juice and reserved it. Fill the jars with the onions and topped off with enough of the juice to one inch level, wipe the rims of the jars with vinegar, applied the two piece caps and pressure canned for 40 minutes.

Warning: This is not a USDA approved recipe so if you try it you try it at your own risk.

Because my two crock pots would only hold half of the 16 pounds of onions it took me two days to get them all canned since each batch had to cook in the crock pots for 24 hours. So here is a picture of all the canning I got done in two days. Five of the jars are mango chutney and the rest are onions. Since I am the only one that likes caramelized onions in my family these should be enough to last me a year. :)

Next it will be the red bud jelly. This will be my first time making it so I will report back as soon and I get it done. :)

Praying for Boston in the aftermath of the bombings

The thoughts, prayers and love of a nation go out to the people of Boston and the victims and their families of the bombings. May God hold you close and give you comfort in your hour of need. 

Even though we will never know who all the hero's were during this horrific event we has a nation thank you for all you did. If not for you many more may have lost their lives.

Terrorist are nothing more than cowards. They attack stealthily instead of being out in the open. They do not care how many innocent lives they destroy. They do not care how a parent feels to lose a child or a child feels to lose a parent. They do not care if a whole family is killed. They are not brave enough to stand up and fight with words instead of cowardly acts of terror. They may think they that they will bring America to its knees but they couldn't be further from the truth. We might fall but we always get back up, dust ourselves off and then get back to the business of making sure justice is served to those who try to or do harm to us.

This country was founded on the blood of brave men and women who fought for the freedoms we have. For  generations our brave men and women have fought and continue to fight to keep this country free. So terrorist around the world need to remember that even if you knock us down we will come up fighting and we won't stop until you have been brought to justice and pay for what you have done. 

The American spirit will never surrender and will never die! We will not go out quietly into the night but instead if we ever go out it will be with a loud roar. 

Long live the American Spirit. Long live the land of the brave.

Excuse Me..... I am hearing impaired not stupid!

Why is it that people tend to forget that there is a hearing impaired person in the room? I don't mean some one who is completely deaf but some one who even with hearing aids has limited hearing. You tell them and tell them that when there is a room full of people talking and there is back ground noise going on you can't hear what they are saying. When you ask them to repeat themselves they get irritated making you feel like you have done something wrong just because you asked them to repeat what they said.

My two sons are good at this. They seems to think that because I wear hearing aids that I have 100% hearing and I can hear every little sound. Nothing could be further from the truth! They talk in low to moderate voices, continue talking to me while they are walking away or turn their heads while they are talking so the sound it not coming straight at me. And when I ask them to repeat their selves they get irritated with me and either give me a mad look or look at me like I am stupid.

Hearing people do not realize what it is like for a hearing impaired person. We can't hear the tv at a normal volume level, we can not always hear a knock of the front door. Especially if we are next to the washer, dryer or dishwasher when they are running. We can not hear some one shut a door out side or a car or truck go by. We can not always hear a car pull out behind us in a parking lot and some times we walk in front of the cars because we did not hear them. I have almost been hit by a car 5 times in 12 years already just because I couldn't hear them behind me and they were not there the last time I looked.

People don't realize just how hard it is on a hearing impaired person. Because people tend to either get irritated with us because we ask them to repeat or slow down when they are talking so we can understand what is being said or face us and not walk away from us when talking to us that we must be dumb because we can not follow a conversation. Then they wonder why we withdrawal into ourselves or walk off and do something else. What is the sense of sitting there and trying to join in on a conversation when no one is willing to try to help us hear and understand what is being said.

I would love to see my sons spend a week having to live with my hearing impairment and maybe then they would understand how I feel and how hard it is to live the way I have to live. They would learn real quick that hearing aids to not give you back the hearing you had before.

So please, when you have a hearing impaired person in your group, slow down you talking, take turns saying something and look at the hearing impaired person so they can actually hear you to. And what ever you do, don't walk away when talking to them and don't look at them with irritation on your face or a look that says to them you think they are stupid. After all hearing impaired people are human to and we do have feelings, we do have minds, we do want to be a part of things.

Hearing impaired people are deaf to some extent but that does not mean they are stupid!

Winter Wonderland

This morning we woke up to our first winter wonderland of the season. Thought some of you might like a look at it. Doesn't it look so pretty? It always does until you have to get out there and shovel it which I have to do later if I can. LOL

If I could have one wish I would wish that snow was only allowed to land on the grass and not on sidewalks and roads. Yeah like that will ever happen!! LOL

Any way hope you enjoy a couple of pics of our winter wonderland today. We got about 2-3 inches.

 

I hate that orange fence hubby put around the garden but it was the only thing he had to keep out our two stubborn pekingese who like to snitch the tomatoes and green peppers. I told him that it was not going to keep them out and he found out I was right. The little stinkers chew right through the fence and had a blast getting fat on the fresh garden goodness. Guess they wanted to eat healthier to. LOL

 

Attack of the Poison Ivy Brigade

As you can tell by looking I was attacked by the Poison Ivy Brigade. They were sneaky devils! I have spent the last 40 years outsmarting them but finally this fall they got smart and sought revenge with a vengeance on the mean evil lady that has been ripping them out by her bare hands for as long as she can remember.

I guess they didn't like being evicted from their warm and cosy home at the back of our garage. It ticked them off to have their roots ripped out of the nice warm earth and their long reaching tendrils off the back of the garage. They must have really loved having their roots in up next to the coolness of the cement of the garage floor and the morning shade they had each morning and the warmth of the sun each after noon.

I don't blame them for loving their home. But you would think after being evicted every year for the last 17 years they would have given up and found a new home. But not these devils. They are bull headed and persistent. Quite like the meal old lady that keeps trying to evict them for good. She will not give up her fight with the poison ivy brigade and she has sworn to all who will listen that next year she will be back to fight again only this time she will bring more weapons to the battle. She will never way the white flag of surrender. She vows to keep battling the brigade until she renders on to them the ultimate defeat and they move on to greener pastures in some one else's yard.

In the mean time she is nursing her battle scars and taking notes on war strategy so that next year she is better armed to do battle once again the Poison Ivy Brigade. She may be covered from her head to her legs with her battle scars but she is stubborn and bull headed she will return to the battle and sooner or later she will triumph in the end. War may be hell but winning the battle is sweet!