Category Archives: Journal

personal journal

Heating Season

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Attila turned the heat on yesterday morning. After a chilly night, the indoor temperature had fallen to 18C, which is a little cooler than we like it, so the thermostat was set to 21C, and the heating season has begun.

I’ve been busy in the kitchen.

I was going to be spending a lot of time organizing the freezer. As usual plans change, a distraction appeared, in the form of a bushel of Northern Spy apples. Saturday was dreary, so after making a call to ensure availability, we took a drive out the apple ‘farm”. It was more like a carnival site than a farm. I grew up on a farm, and it was nothing like a producing enterprise. It was a “do-dad” store. Sure, there were bins and bushels of apples, at sky-high prices, but there was mostly astronomically priced goodies, that looked homemade, but probably were not. $10 for a small jar of jelly seems a little over the top, but people were lined up at the cash register, and most of the high-priced baked goods were gone. We looked around, inwardly gasping at the prices, then found what we were looking for, bushels of Northern Spy apples. The store owners were cunning. They gave the grade of their apples their own names, so they didn’t have to meet government grading standards. The told us we were buying their highest quality apples, at $27 a half bushel, $37 a bushel. Baloney. What we bought were seconds. The size ranged from 2 1/2 inches in diameter to 5 inches in diameter, there were significant blemishes (cosmetic) on many of the apples. A bushel of Northern Spy apples was purchased. Next autumn I will be looking for an alternative, and more honourable, source for my apples. Still, I was thrilled to get my favourite apples!

Northern Spy Apples

These are not first grade apples, these are seconds. The apple store claimed they were best grade apples, I would hate to see what their seconds looked like. Cunning avoidance of quality standards. Still, the blemishes aren’t a problem for my purposes, I just resent the top quality prices being demanded for lower grade produce. I will be trying to find another farm to deal with next year.

Since the apples were not number one grade, they needed to be processed sooner rather than later. So Saturday afternoon, and Saturday night, I got busy and made applesauce from the first half bushel. I removed the stems and blossom ends from the apples, quartered them, and filled the 16 quart stock pot, and a 6 quart stock pot. Northern Spy apples are very dense, as they cooked down, they became thicker and thicker, so more and more and more water was added, quarts of it, and still the applesauce was very, very thick. Late Saturday night, Attila helped by putting the cooked apples through the food mill, while I cleaned the equipment. Exhausted, we went to bed, leaving a clean kitchen and the 16 quart stock pot four fifths full of very thick strained applesauce.

As is often the case when I work late into the night, I don’t sleep very long. By 6:00 a.m. I was up and enjoying my morning coffee. 7:00 a.m. found me dressed, in my apron, heating up the applesauce, washing canning jars, and heating up the steam canner. By 10:30 eleven 1 litre jars of applesauce were lined up neatly on the countertop.

Just as a note to self, the applesauce was so thick that I added a can of apple juice to it to thin it down even more, and simmered it for ten minutes to prepare it for the canning jars. It was so thick that it was difficult to stir with a regular wooden spoon, so the recently purchased “canning paddle” (Canadian Tire) was christened, and it worked wonderfully.

Cooked northern spy apples, with wooden spoon standing up in them.

This was the cooked Northern Spy apples, so thick you could stand a spoon up in them!

What was my rush to get the applesauce canned? We had other plans for Sunday!

Attila likes to sleep in, so that is what he did on Sunday morning, while I was canning in the kitchen. After he arose he began to organize tools and equipment, and to load the car. As soon as my jars were lined up neatly, and I had a little sit down after all my toiling, we were off to the Rideau Camp.

Lucky! The day was magnificent. Cloudy and sunny by turns, warm and cool by turns, it was a dry and rustley and colourful autumn day. There was much to do, to winterize Grace the Trailer, and get everything ship-shape for the coming cold weather.

When we arrived I made a beeline for the mouse trap inside Grace. Sure enough, there were two more mice in the bucket trap. Arghhhh! However, there were few droppings, so the cleanup was minimal. They were starting to build a nest in the sink drain, which was secure, chewed wood in the drain and underneath the drain. The mice are damaging something, but it isn’t evident just what. Two of the burners on the range no longer function, so I suspect they have been at the propane lines, I hope not, but it will need investigating. I HATE mice.

After taking the bucket trap out to Attila, who buried the mice in the bush, I moved the furniture around so that the slide could be retracted into the trailer. All of the bedding, and anything fabric, needed to be removed, and the lanterns and few remaining liquids, bleach and hydrogen peroxide. It didn’t take long. While I was setting Grace to rights, Attila started a camp fire, getting a good blaze going to build up some healthy embers for cooking.

We enjoyed the campfire tremendously. When the embers were just right, Attila cooked grilled cheese sandwiches over them, and we ate them hungrily, with homemade chili sauce on the side. This meal was so good! It was however, the entire sodium quota for the day, so nothing else containing sodium could be consumed for the rest of the day.

It was sad to pack up the Rideau Camp for the winter. We will be out there again though, if it can be managed. There are three newly dead elm trees that need to be felled, and it is best to do it when the leaves are off the trees, for better visibility.

When we arrived home I cooked a spaghetti dinner, using the very last jar of frozen spaghetti sauce from last year, while Attila picked the full-sized green tomatoes from the garden. The garden is still bringing on fruit, so it will be kept going, with frost covering at night, for as long as possible, to harvest as much as possible.

two boxes of green tomatoes

Full sized green tomatoes from the garden. On the left are San Marino, and on the right are Amish Paste and Health Kick (larger) tomatoes.

Yesterday it was back to the weekly routines.

Tank is having problems. I noticed it a few weeks ago, and then again last week when driving to the grocery store. A week ago I dropped into the garage we favour and made an appointment, to have Tank looked at, for last Friday. So I’ve been without a vehicle ever since. The upshot on Friday was that the job was too big for the mechanics setup, so another appointment was made for later this week at a different reputable garage. The problem has something to do with timing, and apparently the whole motor has to come out to replace the part, so the bill will be thousands of dollars. Sigh. Time to tighten our belts. Owning a vehicle is a constant source of expense, they aren’t free transportation by any means.

When it rains it pours of course.

Yesterday, as I was busy in the kitchen, I noticed the dehumidifier in the basement was making a very loud noise. An investigation resulted in shutting it down, and trying to remove the filter for cleaning. Eventually this was accomplished, when it thawed, it had been frozen in place. It was very dirty. After starting the dehumidifier up again, the problem persisted. Attila has determined that is in need of repair, and would like to tackle the job himself. I have no optimism about this, it will be time-consuming and is probably fruitless. In the meantime, the dehumidifier we had at the country house was pressed into service. It is beginning to smell musty down there, so the backup humidifier is not up to the job at hand. I see another big expense on the horizon! Actually, today will be research day, I won’t let this mustiness go on for very long, as I am the one who will be cleaning up mold and mildew, and prevention is more important to me than saving a bit of money trying to fix the old one.

The freezer organization project is not completely on hold. A bag of mystery frozen food was brought upstairs and investigated. The contents were, a pound of lard wrapped in foil, a plastic container of squash, suffering from some freeze drying, and two bags of mystery meat. The pound of lard went into the garbage, it was dried out. The plastic container of squash was placed in the freezer with the other containers of squash, and the mystery meat was put on a plate to thaw. The mystery meat ended up being sliced turkey breast and some small pieces of dark turkey meat.

The white meat was chopped, and went into the Instant Pot to become Sweet and Sour Turkey with Vegetables and Rice, and it was delicious. The dark meat was chopped and went into Attila’s turkey soup, which he made last night, using the carcass of the roast turkey enjoyed the weekend before last.

The vintage mystery food of the day today is a bag of frozen peas, a little worse for wear, and a container of homemade fallafels. Fallafels are on the menu for tonight or tomorrow night. The peas are awaiting the next Instant Pot meal.

Note to self. When salvaging vegetables with freezer burn and significant ice formation, place in colander and run under cold water until the ices has melted away, consume immediately.

Well that’s me. Not too exciting, I think it probably lives a lot better than it sounds.

Worldly

Weather

5°C
Date: 9:00 AM EDT Tuesday 16 October 2018
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 102.0 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 5.4°C
Dew point: 2.1°C
Humidity: 80%
Wind: W 18 km/h
Visibility: 24 km

Quote

“Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.”
Maria Montessori
1870 – 1952

Anti-micromanagement theory.

Thanksgiving

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It is a long weekend this weekend, Monday is the Canadian Thanksgiving.  Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends!

Attila has been out and about, actually taking the old, completely destroyed, metal eavestroughs, that have been sitting under the back porch since we bought the house, well since the rotted wood they were attached too fell off the house just after we bought it.  They were/are an eyesore, and since Mist Cottage has come so far along with the exterior renovations, they don’t have any further purpose.  Attila would like to buy new eavestrough for the entire house, when the back porch is renovated, the new metal roof has been installed, and the new siding is installed.  Well, all of that renovating might never happen, none of those projects are a priority, and all of them will cost a small fortune.  So for the forseeable future, Mist Cottage will be getting along without eavestroughs.  The bright side of that is that they won’t need to be cleaned!

I have contacted an individual through social media, who would be glad to receive my old, well-kept hot water bath canner.  There is no room for it here, as all of my high acid food canning will now be done with the new steam canner.  It would be nice if this gifting worked out, but as with anything in life, it isn’t over until the fat lady sings.  Where did that saying come from!?  Wikipedia say it started with sport writer Dan Cook, who said “the opera ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings.”, in a 1978 Newscast. It is a good concept, that you don’t really know how things will turn out until they turn out.

Attila is busy in the kitchen, after having arrived back from the dump, and is rustling up a turkey dinner for a Thanksgiving dinner today. Breakfast, and lunch have consisted of leftovers, in an attempt to clear space in the refrigerator for the treasured leftovers after the meal. Meanwhile, in a distant kitchen, a meal is being prepared by Sister-The-Youngest-Girl, to celebrate not only Thanksgiving, but her birthday, and a special birthday for Sister-The-Middle-Girl, who also has a birthday and is turning 65, becoming a bonafida senior citizen.  I can imagine them all together, working on a jigsaw puzzle, as we have done many times, having a wonderful day.

Secret confession, I ate an early breakfast while Attila was still sleeping. I made Pumpkin Squares last night, for the Thanksgiving dinner today. Last night I thought about having a slice, but decided against it as it was nearly bedtime. This morning however, no such consideration had to be taken into account, so I cut myself a generous slice and enjoyed it with my morning cup of coffee. My leftover breakfast, later in the morning, was my second breakfast! The leftover breakfast was a smoothie, consisting of a banana, the last bit of homemade applesauce that was in a jar in the refrigerator, the last little bit of Crabapple Jelly foam leftover from jelly making yesterday, and bit of lactose-free milk. It was very good, and I felt I had honoured myself by eating a few helpings of fruit.

All of the canning equipment has been washed, dried and carefully stored away in the basement. It needed to be out-of-the-way since Attila needs a clean kitchen to do his magic with the turkey dinner. I contented myself this morning with testing the seals, wiping, drying, labelling, packing in a box, and conveying of my 9 jars of Crabapple Jelly to a sturdy shelf in the basement.

If boredom finds me today, I’ll work on organizing the freezers. It might happen, then again, I might just get back to the crocheted blanket that is in progress. There are so many interesting things to do! My life is very, very small… but to me it feels very, very full, and very, very satisfying. I think there is greatness in smallness.

Worldly

Weather

10°C
Date: 12:00 PM EDT Saturday 6 October 2018
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.8 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 9.6°C
Dew point: 9.6°C
Humidity: 100%
Wind: NE 8 km/h
Visibility: 19 km

Quote

“Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.”
Epictetus
55 AD – 135 AD

Steam Canner

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Comments Off on Steam Canner
Victorio Steam Canner VKP1054

This is the Steam Canner I purchased. It can only be used on coil electric, or gas burners, no flat top. There is another model they sell, suitable for flat top stoves, but not this one.

This entry is mostly an info-note to self about my new steam canner.

When I tested it, as suggested in the manual, by canning four 1 litre jars filled with hot water, and watching the gauge, one of the jars cracked on the bottom. I began at a 6/10 heat on my burner, I never go higher than 7/10 because my pots are heavy and don’t need a higher heat, nor do they benefit from a higher heat. I waited until the lid rumbled a bit and steam forced it up a bit, then checked the gauge reading, lowering the heat to 4.5/10, which provided a full rolling boil and a steady, strong stream of steam. I thought that perhaps a bit higher heat was desirable.

When I made my first batch of Crabapple Jelly, two 500 ml jars, I heated the water in the canner to a boil, added the jars, then turned the heat down to 4.5/10. This was again, a full rolling boil. Only one of the two jars sealed.

When I made Crabapple Jelly this morning, eight 500 lm jars, I heated the water in the canner slowly at 3.5/10, added the jars, left the stove temperature at 3.5/10, waited until the gauge indicated it was up to heat, then set the timer. After waiting five minutes after the heat was turned off, the jars were removed from the canner and set out on a towel on the counter. Within five minutes the first five jars sealed, after fifteen minutes one more sealed, and within a half an hour the last two sealed.

My conclusion is that on this stove, I will preheat the canner at 3.5/10 heat, and leave the stove at that temperature for the entire canning process. The reading on the gauge need only come as far as my elevation minimum, no more. I am 278 feet above sea level here, so these are the settings that I will use going forward, with this canner, for this location, and on this stove.

The Crabapple Jelly is delicious. The Crabapple Jelly recipe used is from the National Centre for Home Food Preservation, but I made one change. Instead of processing for 5 minutes, I processed for 10 minutes. The reason I did this is that jars would need to be sterilized for processing times under 10 minutes, so by processing for 10 minutes I was able to eliminate the extra step of sterilizing the jars and lids.

The end result was:
9 full, sealed 500 ml jars of Crabapple Jelly;
1 full unsealed 500 ml jar of Crabapple Jelly;
1 partially full 500 ml jar containing the last dribbles of the first and the the second batch;
1 cereal bowl of sweet foam, skimmed from the top of the boiling jelly;
1 peanut butter and jelly foam sandwich, down the hatch, yum!

Worldly

Weather

8°C
Date: 11:00 AM EDT Friday 5 October 2018
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 102.6 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 8.4°C
Dew point: 0.3°C
Humidity: 57%
Wind: NE 15 km/h
Visibility: 24 km

Yay, no frost here last night! The garden will keep going for a few more weeks, so more tomatoes, peppers, basil, and beans on the way!

Quote

“Statistics: The only science that enables different experts using the same figures to draw different conclusions.”
Evan Esar
1899 – 1995

This was meant to be amusing, and it would be, if it weren’t true. GIGO

Treating Ourselves

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a bowl of crabapples

Crabapples from the back yard. They are small and hard and tart, tart, tart. They have many blemishes, and a few bugs. Most of the bugs float away when they are washed, I don’t worry much about bugs. The blossom ends were cut off, and the whole apple, stems and all, were added to the pot, to be boiled for several hours until all the flesh from the apples dissolved. These Crabapple are on our property and have not been fertilized, or sprayed with insecticide, or paid any attention whatsoever. since we bought the property in 2010. I consider them organic, non-gmo, and pretty darn healthy.

The second batch of crabapples are boiling on the stove. This week was a busy one! There is a volunteer apple tree in the back yard at Mist Cottage. It is probably a crabapple tree, the apples are about half an inch to an inch in diameter. Attila figures they would be much larger if the tree were pruned, which is hasn’t been, ever. Two quarts of the apples were boiled this past week, the pulp strained through a clean cotton cloth, and the juice made into jelly. Two 500 ml jars of jelly were the result. The only ingredients were the crabapple juice and sugar. The jelly set well, and it is delicious, just like my Granny used to make. This evening Attila picked about four more quarts of crabapples, they are on the boil right now.

Since we spent our vacation working away on our projects here at Mist Cottage, we decided that it would be appropriate to treat ourselves to a new chest freezer. It arrived last week. Of course it was yet another dominoes situation. The wall against which it was to be placed was bare concrete, with a studs framed-in over it. I decided I wanted it insulated before placing the freezer there. Attila volunteered to do the work, insulating with Roxul, then sealing it with vapour barrier and tape. He got that done the day before the freezer arrived.

The freezer delivery was interesting. It barely fit through the doors, and the delivery fellows decided the doors had to be removed to get it into the house. Myself, and Attila, both feel it would have come in without taking the doors off, but these fellows had their heart set on taking them off, so off they came. Then the fellows felt the flashing around the exterior door should be removed. I grabbed Attila’s tool bag, found a screwdriver and removed the flashing for them, and put it back on again after they got the freezer into the house. They set the freezer up, installing the casters at my request, the casters were optional, so I felt they were good sports to install the casters for me. It was a hot, humid day, so I made sure they had cold beverages in their hands as I waved them goodbye.

Organizing the freezers is now my domain. Attila has always wanted to do it, has always done it, but I decided I want to do it, and he decided that maybe that would work. I am much more organized than is Attila, and am now on a mission to organize the frozen food. It is slow going! When we moved in just over three years ago the frozen food was hurriedly stuffed into the freezers, after having been transported via a five-hour truck ride. The frozen food has remained a disorganized jumble since the move.

As vintage food reveals itself during the sorting process, I use it. Two bags of tomatoes were unearthed, frozen who knows when, which were immediately stewed and went into a spaghetti dinner. A bag of chopped turkey of unknown vintage was the main ingredient for an Instant Pot meal of Mongolian Turkey. So far only a container of navy beans has been lost, it must have thawed more than was good for it. And so it has been going. It was moving along slowly but surely, until I became enamored with making Crabapple Jelly

The other addition to our kitchen is a steam canner. After seeing one demonstrated on YouTube, I did some research. They weren’t recommended by the USDA when I bought my hot water bath canner, but only because they had not been tested and their safety was unverified. Testing was conducted and the findings published in 2015, now they are approved by the USDA. I’ve always used hot water bath canning for high acid foods, but I feel steam canning is a more practical way to do the job. So in addition to the freezer, we purchased a steam canner.

I am now climbing the learning curve with the steam canner. It arrived yesterday. The first step was to wash it. The next step was to test the gauge, by canning four one-litre jars of water. To my surprise, I lost my very first canning jar, one of them cracked! It didn’t shatter, held the boiling water until I could get it to the sink, and was still hanging together when I placed it in the recycling bin.

Today I made the first batch of Crabapple Jelly, two jars. Only one of the jars sealed! This is not a problem I have ever had before, so it is surprising. I cannot account for the failure. It doesn’t matter so much in the case of the jelly, because it will be consumed soon enough, jelly keeps quite well in the refrigerator. I will be making another batch of Crabapple Jelly in the next day or so, and it will be interesting to see if I get good seals with my jars in the steam canner.

This morning was cold and dreary, raining off and on. And then the sun came out and the day transformed. It was warm and lovely. Oh how nice it would have been to have had a few days like this over the summer! There is a frost warning for tonight though, so the beans, peppers, basil, nasturtiums, marigolds, and tomatoes are all covered with plastic sheets for the night. Fingers crossed that we don’t get frost!  Or if we do, that the plastic sheets do their magic!

Worldly

Weather

15°C
Date: 8:00 PM EDT Thursday 4 October 2018
Condition: Clear
Pressure: 101.8 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 14.7°C
Dew point: 7.0°C
Humidity: 60%
Wind: NNW 15 km/h
Visibility: 24 km
Tonight: Low zero with patchy frost.

Quote

“Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It’s already tomorrow in Australia.”
Charles M. Schulz
1922 – 2000

Cancation

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There are vacations, staycations, and I have just decided that what I had… was a cancation. I stayed home and canned for a week. And I enjoyed it. Attila stayed home and enjoyed being home, low-key, low pressure, he loved it. And I, and Attila, will enjoy the results of the cancation for months and months to come.

In total, I have canned over 100 jars of food since the first weekend of September. I am now perfectly comfortable using my All American pressure canner. There are only one dozen empty canning jars left in the canning supplies, so another dozen were ordered on sale from amazon, to arrive sometime this coming week. Canning lids were a reasonable price at the local dollar store, so a season’s supply were purchased, ready for next year’s cancation.

And still, apple season is just getting into full swing, so there may be a bushel of apples needing to be canned in the near future. The canning equipment is on standby.

Also, somewhere in the deep dark of the chest freezer lurks a large bag of beef bones, that were part of the quarter of grass-fed cow that we purchased quite a few years ago now. That needs to be turned into bone broth for soups, which will be pressure canned.

It will be a few weeks yet before canning season is over for 2018.

Since the cancation involved no financial outlay for entertainment or travel, no eating out, no drinking out… well, it didn’t cost a cent. So Attila and I both agreed that an indulgence was in order. We bought a 15 cubic foot chest freezer! It doesn’t sound like an indulgence I know. But we could limp along with the banged up, small, used chest freezer that in use at the moment, bought for a song quite a few years ago. It still works well. That is why this is an indulgence, a new chest freezer is not actually NEEDED, but it will certainly improve the quality of life here at Mist Cottage.

The new chest freezer was delivered last week, and installed by the delivery fellows. They were quite helpful, installing the casters for me, setting it up where I wanted it, plugging it in, making sure everything was tickety boo. The all-summer heat wave was still clinging to us at that point, so I made sure they parted with cold beverages in hand.

I have decided to take exclusive responsibility of the frozen food here at Mist Cottage. It is beyond Attila, who works full-time, and has other areas in the house to keep organized, like the garage.

My first step was to measure the interior of the new freezer, then head to the Dollar Store. Stackable baskets with handles were purchased to aid in keeping like items together and easily accessible. Wish me luck with that.

The next step, the one currently underway, is to slowly remove items from the old freezer, and place them in the appropriate baskets in the new freezer. This is a slow process, because there are many surprises in the old chest freezer. For instance, Attila thought he had found all the frozen tomatoes last year, for me to stew and freeze. Well, he missed a few, two big bags of them actually. So my efforts were diverted into dealing with the tomatoes, which were stewed and ended up in last night’s dinner, Lebanese Beef and Green Bean Casserole, in the Instant Pot of course. Then there was the bag of pineapple, with the missing tag, open to freezer burn. That was stewed as well, taste tested, Attila approved, then pureed as an ingredient for muffins. Today, a small container of chopped turkey breast was rescued from the freezer, and it will become tonight’s dinner, Mongolian Turkey, in the Instant Pot of course. So you can see how this freezer organization is going, slowly but surely.

So here I am, inventing ways to make dribs and drabs of vintage food palatable. It is my ongoing fantasy (decades of dreaming) that the chest freezer will be organized, and that food will be easily identified and used in a timely manner. I can dream can’t I!

Attila has been dehydrating cayenne peppers from our garden, a work in progress. I have dehydrated three 500 ml jars of tomato powder, which is the skins and seeds of the tomatoes, dehydrated in the oven, then put through the blender to powder. The real dehydration coup though, is the onion tops, walking onions, which Attila dehydrated, and are amazingly tasty. These onion tops would have been composted, but now they are going to a welcome addition to many soups, stews, and casseroles.

A project under consideration is freezing chopped onions. They can be purchased cheaply in the autumn in large 10 pound bags, chopped and frozen on cookie sheets, then taken out of the freezer throughout the winter for soups, stews, and casseroles. I don’t mind chopping onions every day for cooking, when they are freshly harvested and crisp, it is actually enjoyable. But as the winter progresses the onions available are decreasingly fresh, and become more and more difficult to chop; that is when frozen chopped onions will seem like a great idea.

Before seriously considering this onion chopping project, an experiment was conducted. Two onions were chopped, then frozen, then used to create last night’s dinner. They sautéed very nicely, and there was no noticeable difference in the dish, compared to using freshly chopped onions. So the decision was made to chop onions for freezing.

Now, if you chop onions, you know it is a sad affair, lots of tears. After reading a lot of advice online, for chopping onions in quantity, I decided to purchase an onion chopper, which will arrive sometime this week. The amazon ratings aren’t all that high, but the personal accounts I read online were more glowing. I chose this unit because of the personal anecdotes I read, the price, and the size. Storage is an issue here at Mist Cottage, and this item has a relatively small footprint. I hope to use it to chop onions for daily use, when frozen chopped onions are not available. This little unit should be easy to clean, in the sink or dishwasher. I could use the food processor, but I don’t like the inconsistent size of the onion pieces, and the cleanup is not something I would tackle on an onion a day basis. We shall see if my reasoning and plans for the onion chopper work out the way I hope they will.

Wordly

Weather

9°C
Date: 8:00 AM EDT Sunday 30 September 2018
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 102.8 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 9.1°C
Dew point: 5.6°C
Humidity: 79%
Wind: W 10 km/h
Visibility: 24 km

It was 7C outside this morning at 6:00 a.m., and 21.5C in the house. The heating system has not been turned on yet this fall, so we are maintaining our comfortable indoor temperature due to heat retention from body heat, cooking, and sunshine through the windows. This feels pretty good.

Quote

“We don’t know a millionth of one percent about anything.”
Thomas A. Edison
1847 – 1931

Mind boggling but true, in my opinion. What this means to me is that life is never boring. I feel it is cowardly to think you know everything, and foolish to think you are an expert at anything.