Back At It...

 I have spent time in the past couple of weeks working on sharing my genealogy research with my family.  I feel it is important for my kids and grands to know their heritage.  But if they have nothing to eat, it isn't going to matter where they came from.

My twice monthly grocery order goes in on Monday.  I find I really like the pint size chicken meals in a jar that I canned a short time ago.  Especially when I am really busy and just don't want to cook, by using a jar meal, I can have a relatively healthy supper in mere minutes.  

I already have lots of food combinations for soups and stews in quart jars.  And that is great when cooking for multiple people.  Just this week I made beef stew using my canned beef stew base in a quart jar and adding a pint of beef cubes.  It tasted really good, but there is just me here in this apartment and I really am not fond of eating the same food three days in a row.  I also don't like waste.  Yes, I could freeze the leftovers, but I tend to freeze and then forget. So, for me, (and my fading memory), the pint size jar meals work well. 

I have lots of hamburger in the freezer, so I'm thinking pints of chili.  And I am ordering a variety of fresh and frozen veggies to go with whatever meat is on sale next week.  

This is just something that I find works for me.  The point is that it really doesn't matter how we are stocking up on food, it is the stocking up part that is important.

High prices - border invasion - corrupt politicians on all levels.  That's where we are, and I don't see things changing for the better any time soon. 

Do what you can.  Full larder, dry powder, open Bible.  And pray.  

Tee Hee - Ha, Ha, Ha

 The sound of laughter.  Don't you miss it?

I grew up in an extended family of happy people.  My Dad was famous for telling "Dad" jokes that made everyone around him groan.  And his eight siblings all had the same, rather dry sense of humor.

Even the family of my very strait-laced mother knew how to laugh.  The giggles emanating from her siblings when they all got together was music to the ears.

My children inherited a well-developed sense of humor from both sides of their families.  I remember their Dad laughing so hard at some silly thing or other that his face turned beet red and he nearly lost his breath. 

My kids loved to try to make me laugh.  There was the time when our old farmhouse had about an inch of water on the basement floor from the snow melt leaking in.  One of my daughters descended the stairs from her bedroom, dressed in swimwear, complete with flippers on her feet.  Her remark:  "Will you please light the wood stove in the basement?  I invited my friends over for a pool party and I promised them the water would be warm."

Another daughter would call me from school on her lunch hour to tell me the joke of the day.

I still hear laughter generated by my kids.  My son loves to tell me about funny things his kids have said or done or about his dog being on high alert for mailmen, Amazon delivery drivers, neighbors out walking and especially about the presence of bunnies and squirrels.  All of which is guaranteed to bring a smile to my face.

Some of my best memories of my oldest son are those times he made me laugh.  Like walking into my kitchen, empty coffee mug in hand, saying, "Just give me coffee and nobody has to get hurt."

But I have to wonder what happened to most of the rest of the world around me.  

Granted, the world is a hot mess.  There is so much going on in our country alone that there isn't room to list all of it here.  But beyond that, so many are now "offended" at any reference to anything they don't like that I think they have forgotten how to laugh.  

We need to remember how to laugh at the silliness and especially at the absurdity of things we see and hear.  A good friend of this blog said that if we don't laugh, we will end up screaming!

True, that.

I find it funny...

that after all the dire warnings and hysterical hype over today's eclipse, the only folks who will actually be able to see anything are those in Maine.  The rest of the country is under cloud cover.

Don't ever try to tell me that God doesn't have a sense of humor!

She's Back...

 Yeah.  I know.  AWOL again.  I'm sorry.

Hasn't been a waste of time, however.  Dehydrated broccoli, green beans and onions.  Canned chicken legs and thighs.  Cut up and froze two spiral cut hams that were on sale.

As much as I am reluctant to admit it, age seems to be catching up to me.  My sister had the right idea when she told me she was simply counting the years backwards at each birthday.  I wasn't that smart.  And to top it off, unlike those who have the good grace to be aging like fine wine, I seem to be aging more like milk.  :)

As the result of all those birthdays, standing at the stove to cook a meal doesn't work all that well some days.  So, I decided to can some meals in a jar.  I've got lots of soups canned, but this is a bit different.  Into wide mouth pint jars I put a handful of chicken breast chunks.  Topped that with layers of chopped celery and onions, sliced carrots and either peas, green beans or corn.  Tossed two chicken bouillon cubes on top and added water to within an inch of the top of the jar.  Pressure canned the jars at 10 lbs. pressure (for my altitude) for 75 minutes.  Two canners full gave me 32 meals.

And they taste good.  Found I can eat as a soup or thicken for a stew or consume just as a chicken dinner.  Two minutes in the microwave and dinner is served.  I may do more using different meats - whatever is on sale.

In the meantime, I have been working on making access to my Family Trees a bit easier for my family who might be interested.  Being a grumpy old woman who is also a cheapskate, paying a monthly fee to put my family data online irritated me.

So, I figured out how to do it, using this blog.  Earlier I had made more blogs under the umbrella of Mom's Scribbles.  One held writings by ancestors and another I used for some old pictures.  This time I made a new blog for each branch of my Family Tree - five in all, including the ancestors of my kid's Dad.

Adding links is a pain in the posterior to accomplish.  I am not that computer savy.  So, I gave each person in my direct line a separate Family Group Sheet.  Each page has a label listed in the side bar.  The object is to choose a person you know to start with.  From there the labels can be used to move on to other ancestors.

To my kids...the Matheny Family Tree is complete except for photos.  Go to Mom's Scribbles.  On the right side, click on "View my complete profile" and then click on Matheny Family Tree.  I will add photos later.

My grocery order went in today and I ordered nothing that needs processing.  I am kind of on a roll with the ancestors and want to finish that project.  Personally, I believe it is important to know our heritage.  I want my kids and grands to realize they spring from some pretty good people.  Oh, we have our share of rogues and reprobates, but for the most part they were hard-working, God-fearing folks who make me proud to be counted among them.

And with that, I am off to wade in my gene pool.

Things around us don't appear to be getting better.  Keep stacking.  Keep praying.  Stay safe.

The Old Ways

 I have been a bit under the weather the last week or so.  Nothing serious.  It is "flu season," after all and this probably was just a mild case of the garden variety flu.  I expect that before long, the flu will suddenly become another horrible virus requiring several doses of whatever so called vaccine our government deems necessary, along with keeping folks indoors, wearing face diapers and all of the silly rules presented by those in power last time.

Unless we have learned anything at all from that debacle.

Since I haven't felt much like doing anything and because I have never been one to just sit and stare at the walls, I have been using the down time to work on my family tree.  While wading through my gene pool, it occured to me that if we pay attention, we have a lot to learn from those who have gone before.

My grandparents were Preppers.  They just didn't know it.

One of my grandfathers kept a roof over the heads of his family of six kids and food on the table during the Great Depression by finding and keeping a job that was necessary in his area.  He was for many years a depot agent for the railroad in the small northern Minnesota town where they lived.  In addition, his family kept a huge garden to help feed them.

My other grandparents raised a family of nine children on a small farm in the same area of Minnesota.  My Dad, the youngest kid, learned to love gardening while helping his mother raise food to feed their family.  They raised a litter of hogs every year, milked a few cows and raised chickens.  They were hunters who kept venison on the table along with the home raised pork and chicken.  Grandma canned as much food as possible, including the wild blueberries and raspberries that grew in that area.  

These activities were not anything special.  They were a way of life.

Unlike so many today, my ancestors didn't head for the Doctor's office or the Emergency Room of the hospital when they had a headache or a case of the sniffles.  When growing up, in my house an upset tummy was treated with Pepto Bismol and a bottle of 7-Up.  The common cold was dealt with using Vicks VapoRub.  And we all survived!

There is a blog that is chock full of all things preparedness.  I highly recommend it for references to so many aspects of preparing.   Jennifer has done much of the research so we don't have to.  Here is the link and her blog can be accessed using my sidebar.

Prep School Daily

Things aren't looking all that great these days.  I barely recognize the country I grew up in.  And it is more and more apparent that we as citizens are on our own.  Remembering how our ancestors lived and researching all aspects of being prepared for whatever cliff the elites decide to push us off is necessary for our survival.

As a friend of this blog is fond of saying:

"Larder full, powder dry and Bible open."

Attention Prayer Warriors...

 A friend of ours, B. W. Bandy, who runs the blog "Everybody Has To Be Somewhere," is in the hospital following a bad car accident.  He has given us much pleasure with the photos of rural Canada that he posts.  Perhaps we could return the favor with our wishes and prayers for his recovery.  Details are in his post today.  

The view from here (everybodyhastobesomewhere.blogspot.com)

Time Flies By

 Anyone else feeling like time is running out for us?

I look around and see so much that would have been condemned by my parents and the preachers who preached in small churches across our nation.  In my opinion, Mega Church preachers fall in the same category as politicians.  

I'm not going to dwell on the horror that is now my homeland.  You all know what is happening.  Contrary to the belief of those in charge, we the people are not - for the most part - stupid.  Stupid is when we believe everything we are told by our "betters."

Those in charge do not give a rat's ass about any of us.  They care about getting reelected so they can continue to line their pockets with their ill-gotten gains.  

I find that the bad news has become overwhelming.  I don't even try to keep up with it all anymore.  I scan headlines so I am aware if the hoards are headed into my neighborhood.  I can do absolutely nothing about the rest.

What I can do is make sure my family is taken care of when the inevitable happens.  And that is how I spend my time.  And that's where I have been.

Grocery prices are still heading skyward.  But I am still buying what I need to make sure my storage area is as full as possible, knowing that food will cost more next month than it does now.

Quarts of beef stew base (veggies and seasonings to heat, thicken and add canned beef cubes to for a quick meal), more chicken and the leftover stew veggies were all canned last week.  This week my grocery order includes frozen hash browns, broccoli and green beans to dehydrate.   In between the food processing sessions, I have been putting together and packaging dry soup mixes, flavored rice mixes and other dry mixes.  They are handy to just dump into a crock pot for an easy meal.

I have been spending evenings either crocheting an afghan or putting together quilt tops.  This winter has been unusually warm for Minnesota.  Today it is 43 degrees here in the Minneapolis area.  Mid-February normally finds us shivering in sub-zero, snow blowing, frozen slippery roads weather.  Still important to finish the quilts.  This heat wave could turn icy in a flash.

No election will save us.  No politician cares what happens to us.  Only a miracle can change things back to the place they should be.

Our only Savior is Jesus.  If we forget that part, we really are doomed.