What a crazy week. We live about an hour & ten minutes from Timmins. On a good day. With nice weather. Without construction. That's the "big city" around here. Population 45000.
Hubby woke up Friday morning with his leg severely swollen, and very painful. He took some advil, some tylenol, and decided to suffer through it all weekend. I had an ultrasound appointment on Monday in Timmins. After the appointment, after shopping, after supper... he decides, maybe he should get this checked out, since it isn't getting any better. Back to the hospital. After waiting a ridiculously long time in a not very busy ER, with the doctors happily socializing at the desk... They finally tell him he has a blood clot. They give him a shot of blood thinner, some anti-inflammatories, and tell him to come back tomorrow morning for another shot and an ultrasound. Home we go.
The next morning, back into Timmins. He gets his shot in the Er, ultrasound won't be til 3:30pm. Oh joy. We do some more shopping. Spend way too much money. Have a nap in the car. Finally, we go back to the hospital for the ultrasound. Back to the ER to wait for the results. Another hour. Finally, he gets called back in, to find out there is no clot. Blood tests and x-rays. Another two hours. He has gout. Again. We go home.
Wednesday is cadets night, my regular trip to Timmins for #1 & #2. Another three hours, wandering aimlessly, killing time.
Today I get to stay home & relax. Tomorrow, I get to back to Timmins. #2 was chosen to be on the sail team, and they have a competition this weekend. I have to drop him off Friday afternoon and pick him up Saturday night.
Some weeks I begrudge the weekly trip to town. This week... #$%^@!! Looking forward to Sunday!
I don't know what I hate most. The actual driving. The time it takes. The cost of fuel.
Somewhere, between all the driving, I did manage to get mint transplanted to both the flower bed & the forest garden. I picked some rose hips, planted a couple in the flower bed. Most are intended for jam, but I'll need quite a few more.
Painted gardening tools, shovels, picks, axes, etc. with used motor oil for winter storage.
Cleaned out the car.
The boys built the new chick starter box.
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| Press board bottom, 2X6 sides, octagon shape. Cardboard to extend the side height. |
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| White rock chicks, arrived September 15th. |
I ordered the white rocks. Not really my choice in chickens. They've been bred to be nothing but eating, growing machines. If they aren't butchered by 8 weeks, they'll go lame, unable to carry their own weight, and their internal organs will start shutting down & exploding. I ordered them this time, because it'll be a race to get them in the freezer before winter. These guys here, 1 week old, already tripled in size since hatching.
Next spring it'll be Barred rocks for sure. They're cousins, so to speak. Achieving the same size and quality over all, but the barred rocks grow slower, and survive well into adult hood.
The kitchen got a little cleaner. Almost ready for round two of salsa time. We had more frost, and I've given up any hope of tomatoes ripening. Then, just for good measure, because my life isn't crazy enough, I bought two nice pumpkins at $2.99 a piece, to cook & freeze for pies & bread this winter. Last winter was really sad with no pumpkin. I waited until after hallowe'en, expecting them to go on sale. They rotted in the stores before hallowe'en. This year is expected to be worse, with the pumpkins ripe very early down south. So, I'm getting a bit of a head start. If I can manage to get started between all the driving.
Cleaned up the cold room again. The boys carry stuff down stairs for me, but shove it anywhere they can find a space. Here's what we've got stored for winter so far.
Pickled carrot 8 pints (2009)
Green Salsa 15 pints (3 from 2009)
Pickled beets 50 quarts + 9 pints (the pints will be gifts)
Pickled tomatoes 5 quarts
Pickled radish 1 quart (2009)
Dill pickles 14 quarts
172 pints (family sized servings) of vegetation.
Watermelon Rind Preserves 7 quarts
Pear sauce 2 quarts (2009)
Pears 5 quarts (2009)
Raspberry Sauce 4 quarts, 7 pints (2009)
24 1/2 pint, 6 pint (2010)
Blueberry pie filling 3 pints (2008)
Blueberry sauce 6 quarts, 12 pints (2009)
24 1/2 pints
Assorted jams 39 pints, including 14 strawberry & 4 grape
139 pints of fruit.
252 days of winter. Still have a ways to go. Of course there is the freezer stuff, but it doesn't amount to much. A few blueberries, some over ripe bananas, rhubarb... Maybe 30 servings total.
On to the pumpkin... The kitchen awaits.
Why is the chicken box an octagon shape? A pentagon shape would make sense...just kidding. That would freak out the inlaws...lol. I got pumpkins off the street that were used for decorations and made pumpkin butter for toast. Maybe the outdoors keeps them from going bad. Of course, I live in a town where decorations abound in front of homes. That is a lot of canning you have stored away. Pints of vegetables are family-size?
ReplyDeleteWhen you have a number of chicks- 32 here, but sometimes I get 50 or more at a time- they will crowd each other, climb on top of each other, trample the weak. If they get too hot, they'll all move away from the heat lamp into the corners, and squash & kill each other. I've used plastic kiddie pools before, which make excellent starter pens- no corners & no drafts- but it's been a few years since I've been able to find one at spring clean up (large garbage day). I'm too cheap to buy a new one, lol. Octagon was the best we could do with wood.
ReplyDeleteSome years the pumpkins do fine outside well into November. Depends on the weather. Indoors they rot faster.
Pints are a little skimpy, if you're following the dieticians. Most veggies are 1/2 cup servings per person. There are 5 of us here for most meals, sometimes 6. A quart would be too much though, so we scrimp a little.