Thursday, November 16, 2017

Finishing Up...

my canning marathon gave me, in addition to the soups I had canned the day before, 12 quarts and 24 pints of soup base.  Each jar contains potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, peas and cabbage.  I tossed some chicken bouillon in for flavor.  This soup base can be heated as is for vegetable soup.  I can add a jar of home canned meat for a heartier meal or thicken it for stew  with dumplings or biscuits.  It can also be used as a base for a casserole.  I like having jars of food on my shelves that have multiple uses.

All that canning wore me down a bit, so I took a couple of days for rest and relaxation.  Books were read and naps were taken.  And now it is time to get caught up again.  The washer and drier are humming away.  I have been doing some rearranging on the shelves to find room for the latest bit of canning.  And in between when I need to rest, I have been adding information to my genealogy program.  My genealogy research has been sorely neglected lately.  If I want to leave a record of who we are and where we come from for my kids and grands, I need to take the time to work on it.

I have settled into a routine with the home health care people who are here twice a week.  They come in, wash my lower legs, apply the antibiotic ointment and bandages and wrap my legs from knees to toes in ace bandages.  I thought perhaps they would do things differently, but the routine is exactly the same as Duane has been helping me with for the past two years.  I will continue with the home health care if for no other reason than to give Duane a break.  He has helped me with this for two years without complaint, so I figure he has more than earned  a rest from that responsibility.

I still don't have a cleaning person lined up, so if I don't hear anything positive about this, I will call and whine a bit to see if we can't get going on it.

And that is the extent of the excitement here in my little Home Sweet Apartment.  I still check the news headlines from time to time, and then thank God for my quiet, stress free life.

12 comments:

  1. I haven't gotten hardly anything done for the past week, due to weather, mainly. As a result, I spent entirely too much time on this computer! - lol - Oh well, it beats staring at the walls (or the TV screen).

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    1. Sometimes it just works out that way, Gorges. It is OK to have a week of rest now and then. Spending time on the computer ranks way above staring at the TV screen, in my humble opinion. :)

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  2. A well earned rest for sure.
    I put making cornbread-muffins on my to-do list this week. Thx for the idea.
    I've just been puttering the last few days. No big projects, just lots of little things getting done. One being cleaning up the leaf drop. The temps are lovely right now and in the mid40s.
    Take good care. SJ

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    1. SJ...It is nice sometimes to spend time just puttering about with the little chores before they turn into big jobs. We have been having weather like yous lately. Makes for good sleeping weather. :)

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  3. Duane should be pleased to hear he was doing as good as a professional!

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    1. Linda...I think he was pleased to know what a good job he has done. Infection is the big worry and he has really been a huge help in making sure that didn't happen.

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  4. I've been a bit under the weather, so I'm not getting much done. The sun should be out today, so I may wander out to get some vitamin D today.

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    1. Hope you get to feeling better soon, Kristina. The chores will wait - just work on getting better. Sunshine always seems to help, doesn't it.

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  5. Did you put the soup base in the jars raw and can it?

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    1. Linda...I mixed all of the raw chopped vegetables together and filled the jars, adding two chicken bouillon cubes for quarts and one cube for pints, and then added water for the liquid. I processed them in my pressure canner, using the longest time it took for the vegetables. The peas took 40 minutes and that time was longer than the rest. I don't use corn in a soup base because corn in pint jars takes 75 minutes and I was afraid some of the other vegetables might turn to mush if processed that long. If I want corn in a soup, I just add it when heating.

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  6. You deserve a rest after all that canning! Hope it was a nice relaxing weekend. I had a birthday party for my son and a few 8 year old boys. This was the opposite of relaxing lol!

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    1. Jenn...I don't know about deserving, but I am still in relaxation mode. I am planning nothing major this week except Thanksgiving dinner with my son, and he is cooking the turkey. You are a brave soul, dealing with a houseful of 8 year olds! I would bet they had fun. :)

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