The web site I designed as a donation has been reviewed by the congregation, and others, and only one edit was needed, the addition of a link to the links page. I am very pleased with the site, and very glad that the church members feel the same way. Yesterday I prepared a document to send them, to hand over the site, with all the passwords and details they will need to administer it ongoing. It has been a good experience thus far.
I submitted my receipt for yesterday’s physiotherapy, and found that they are requesting an audit. I don’t have my printer/scanner here at the little house, so I used my MacBook Air and Photo Booth to take a photo of the receipt, then uploaded it to the insurance people. I hope there isn’t a problem, because I am staying at the little house, with the little house address, which isn’t the address on the insurance account, they have the country house address. It will all work out in the end, but I am hoping that I don’t have to jump through hoops to get it all sorted out. Then again, they may just accept it as is. Who knows. I am expecting a problem with it though, because it is unusual to have two addresses, and corporations HATE the unusual. The unusual is not yet punishable by death here in Canada, only by endless contention.
Today I am canning beans. Attila has eaten all the home canned beans at the country house, so I need to replenish his supply.
Yesterday I purchased 8 small stainless steel condiment cups, for $2.50. I washed and dried them, then set out 7 of them, and into each of them I measured the correct amount of herbs and spices for one jar of canned beans. Now, when I need to add the herbs and spices, all I have to do is pour the contents of one condiment cup into the jar. This will greatly simplify the preparation for canning.
This morning I chopped garlic, red peppers, and onions for the project. I distributed the chopped vegetables on 7 saucers, ready to be added to the canning jars.
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The mason jars were lined up on the kitchen counter, ready to be filled. I measured the beans, one cup at a time, into a strainer, washed them, and added them to the washed mason jars. Then I added the vegetables, and herbs and spices to each jar. While I was doing all that I had a one saucepan on the stove heating the jar lids and rings, another boiling the water to be added to the beans, and the pressure canner on the heat with 3 inches of water in it.
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After filling the jars with boiling water, the lids were carefully placed on them, and the rings screwed on “finger tight”. Then I lifted the hot jars carefully into the pressure canner, placed the lid on and levelled it, carefully screwed it down, and turned on the heat. After ten minutes of venting, I put the weight gauge on the canner and settled down at the kitchen table to review the manual once more.
I like to stay in the kitchen when the pressure canner is doing its thing, I like to keep an eye on it, ensure it is maintaining the correct pressure, alert to any problems. Today I got a good seal on the lid, which is an improvement over my earliest attempts to pressure can. That little dab of olive oil around the rim of the pot works wonders!
While I was whiling away the 90 minutes that it takes for the pressure canner to work its magic, this little video made me laugh out loud. It is a comedy skit, but I do believe delightful things like this can happen, when you least expect it!
Worldly Distractions
Weather
Little House in the City
-18°C
Date:6:00 AM EST Tuesday 3 March 2015
Condition: Partly Cloudy
Pressure: 102.9 kPa
Tendency: falling
Visibility: 24 km
Temperature: -17.7°C
Dewpoint: -19.2°C
Humidity: 88%
Wind: N 2 km/h
Wind Chill: -19
Country House
-22°C
Date: 6:00 AM EST Tuesday 3 March 2015
Condition: Partly Cloudy
Pressure: 102.7 kPa
Visibility: 16 km
-22.0°C
Dewpoint: -23.7°C
Humidity: 86%
Wind: ESE 5 km/h
Wind Chill: -27
Quote
“Do not believe that he who seeks to comfort you lives untroubled among the simple and quiet words that sometimes do you good. His life has much difficulty… Were it otherwise he would never have been able to find those words.”
Rainer Maria Rilke
1875 – 1926
Maggie, I have learned to eat supper before reading your food entries. Good thing I did, too!
Wendy, I was so focused on getting the beans canned the right way that I forgot to eat, missed my snack and almost missed my lunch. 🙂
A good days work, Maggie. Were you trying to keep busy while receiving snow? We had about 3 inches today, plus a good bit of freezing rain and then freezing drizzle. But, amazingly, the temperature has now gone above 0C (32F)!
All this time we’ve been waiting to go above freezing and here it is right after having all this nasty.
I truly like your quote, today. I’ve had that happen so often, honestly. People think that because you give support and comfort that you’re not in need of it yourself – and in my life so often that’s been untrue. So many times I’ve needed support myself while giving it to others, and seldom received it back. That’s one of those things that makes DH so special. He’s always been there for me when I need it, even if I’ve been spending my energy giving him or others support.
I admire the organized way you went about doing those beans. And I also like that quote.
Teri, the storm hit here yesterday just as the canner was almost done its work. I wouldn’t even have noticed the weather, but the sanding truck went by the house, a noisy affair, causing me to look out the window to investigate, and that is when I noticed the storm had begun. I don’t like to leave things to the “last minute”, and canning is an all day job, and Attila is planning another visit, hopefully soon. I was “making hay while the sun shines”, but with no thought at all to the weather!
Joan, I found this technique to be so much easier on the back! My first canning experiments were modelled after a video I watched, where the individual had all the herb and spice jars, and the chopped vegetables, sitting on the counter waiting to be measured into the jars. I found that technique exhausting. Breaking the project down into doable bits worked a lot better. I measured the herbs and spices the day before, and cleaned up right away. I chopped the vegetables hours before I began the project, and cleaned up. I added the beans to the jars just before I started, and cleaned up. I like working in clean, organized work space, so this works well for me. The job seems a lot less intimidating when parts of it are already done at the get go.
Maggie, you really should be hosting a TV show! Martha (Stewart) has nothing over you regarding household organization. I try to cook like this a lot since just going from my work space to the fridge or cabinets actually hurts, a lot, so the fewer back-and-forth trips I made in the kitchen, the less hurts I experience. I make a big mess and just push it all into the sink, however, because my “helper” (Paul) will come along and clean it all up before we serve up our food. Without him, I’d have to re-think my whole procedure!
Your methodical methods are appealing to me. I’ve joked in the past that I have a scant OCD attraction for the visual pleasure of seeing things lined up. Years ago I wrote a post about it with photos as proof.
It was in the 60s today. A heat wave! But tonight ice and wind and snow and frigid gusts will swirl around my mountain.
Rilke is brilliant. Fabulous quote. Stealing it. Love.
Bex, too bad they don’t make hovercrafts for one, to use around the house, for those of us with mobility issues. Wouldn’t that be cool! Maybe they do make them, something to look up on the internet. If they do exist they would probably cost the moon.
Paul has so many great qualities, helping in the kitchen is a great one!
Reenie, I love patterns, mostly symmetrical patterns. I look for them constantly in nature, patterns of leaves, patterns in grass, sand, you name it, I am looking for patterns, they are so beautiful. And yet, when I look around my house, and on my computer desktop, it is quite obvious that I do not have OCD, oh my no!
We had a beautiful day today here as well. Just as I finished shovelling the driveway this morning, the sun came out, and stayed out all day. It did go above freezing here, so that the snow actually compacted, and some of it melted. Oh happy day! And tonight, is supposed to dip down to -17C, so I guess it is getting cold all over the eastern part of the continent. I loved the quote too, the minute I saw it!