With a volunteer fire department, maybe it’s not such a bad thing to not have a birthday cake….50 candles is an awful lot of fuel!
Projects are still not complete and time is quickly running away from me. The heat is not helping matters any and my garden is a severe disappointment.
Yesterday the farmer that we purchased our hog from was selling his sweet corn out of his truck up on Main Street. DH bought a dozen walking home from the hardware store and then cooked them for lunch for us all. I was going to freeze the remaining cobs and the thought occured to me that I might as well freeze a couple of dozen if I was going to freeze any, so off he went to purchase some more. About 5 dozen more. So that is what I did all afternoon, well until I my new Seal-A-Meal started giving me grief and then I ran out of bags.
DH was kind enough to walk up to the hardware store in 102 degree temps and come home with the only two boxes they had. These boxes must have been on their shelves for a couple of decades, as I had never seen any quite like these. They were almost a cellophane. After working and working AND WORKING with the appliance, I discovered that it was not the bags….it was a faulty sealer. This is sad in that I purchased it last year, but had only used it once prior to yesterday. The vacume portion wasn’t functioning properly and the sealer sometimes did not seal. So I still have about half of my corn sitting in the fridge…already shucked and no way to store them. Those two boxes of bags were over $12 with tax, I am disappointed that i didn’t just buy Ziplocs. This is usually what happens to me on spur of the moment ideas.
Anyhow, I thought I would share a few photos from yesterday…..
My Hero shucking corn on the side porch…..
This is one of the few times the vacume sealer worked…sort of……
As mentioned, I am sorely disappointed with my garden. So much work and expense for such a small harvest. OH! and the jalapeno peppers that I thought I was planting, ended up being hungarian or banana. Not much use for them around here. 
There has not been much time for writing these past few weeks, but now I find that I must focus all of my attention on a few projects around here that have to be finished immediately. We have had several small issues become bigger issues and if we do not get on top of it all, well…..hmmm…. I don’t know what to say will happen. Nothing earth shattering…no one is ill…although DD and I are definitely not on top of our games these past few days. I am sure most of you know how it is at times, you procrastinate thinking you have plenty of time to get “it” all done….then–OH MY!
So, I will be checking in, but I do not know if I will be doing much posting …for at least a week.
To top everything off…isn’t school about to start? You mean I have to go shopping too? You’re killin’ me here……:D
Answer: PLENTY!
Lewru, at Wisdom of the Trowel, has a great post Wastrels and the Wastey Wasters They Rode in On….. about how people all around her continually waste resources and seemingly have no clue or care of the negative difference they make on an overburden earth.
She concludes her post with the summation that we all at “different steps in our journey” to becoming a greener society and maybe it is not best to judge (though darn difficult at times), as we all have our own areas in need of greening. She confesses three areas in need of more diligence in her very own quest at reducing waste.
I will let you read her blog to find her three, but I will mention that we have one area in common…solar cooking. My solar oven has yet to arrive (ordered well over a month ago now) and I have not had much success with attempts made with my home-fashioned cookers. My enthusiasm wanes and motivation to “destroy” yet another meal is lacking, so this is the first area I wish to list as needing my attention.
Food storage is an area that I would like to reduce waste. I have not kept on top of monitoring expiration dates, which has resulted in moths and waste.
Making do with what I have is an area that is in serious need in my part of the household.
I want to be better at remembering to take my cloth bags into the grocery. My cup runneth over with plastic bags.
Though small, these four waste reduction areas will see more effort in our household.
♥
I feel as though I have been away for weeks… maybe even months, but I am now home for at least a few days. We have been in Nebraska for the Miss Basketball Tournament since last Wednesday. I am now confirming that my brain is mush…because I just had to spell and re-spell…TWICE…the word Wednesday. No it wasn’t a typo…I just couldn’t spell WED-NES-DAY!
A couple of sad things have happened in this last week, both associated with our travels. First confession {deep sigh}..it is with deep sadness that I have to restart my counter for our dryer moritorium. I washed a load of clothes the day before we were to leave and it became cloudy and rainy…and then remained humid. I couldn’t leave the clothes in the washer while we were gone and I wasn’t in favor of having to rewash them, so the dryer came out of retirement and one load was run in our electric dryer. While we were on our trip, I did, however, wash 16 pairs of socks (daughter wears two pairs at a time) by hand and hang them to dry in our hotel room. That was a site. Her friends did not understand why I didn’t just go find a laundry mat. I was too tired to explain to teenage girls whom would most likely NOT care about the reason, nor whom would listen beyond my first few syllables of an explaination. They would opt for pushing that invisable “parents-off” button.
Another sad confession has to do with something that has not been publisized much, but we had sort of sworn off of soda. “Sort-of” because we were afraid to announce it because a feeling of inevitable failure. Twenty-two entire days with soda and I blew it. Yes, it was I who lead us astray. To make it worse, it also took us off our path of not purchasing individual plastic bottles. For me, not drinking soda is as hard as quitting smoking….I have an addiction. I need a 12 step program.
“Hello, my name is anajz, and I am a popoholic.”
THERE! I said it. It is out there for everyone to see….my addiction.
Now they say admitting it is the first step to recovery, but I feel breaking down and having that very first Dr. Pepper the other night, was actually my first REAL step to recovery. Going to dinner with the other families on the team every night, I sat across from someone each night with a large, bubbling glass of soda. (I must mention here that we also have a frugal rule of only ordering water at restaurants.) As I watched the bubbles rise to the top and admired the sparkling shades of caramel glisten through the heavy pilsner glasses in which they were served….I kept telling myself…I can do this…I can do this! I held out, and held out, until one night… in solitude…. after dealing with just one too many difficulties that often ensue when you have too many teen age girls together at one time…. there it was…in a dimly lit, non descript, tiny room right off of the hotel lobby….the beautiful, large, bright red box that promised refreshment, relief from whatever ails you…. sugar crack….it was chipping away at my strength….calling my name…..offering a quick caffiene fix with a bit of carbonation. One Dr. Pepper from that machine and shame washed over me….but not for long.
How in the world can you go THAT long and stumble? The next day, I made my very first purchase from the concession stands at the university. I wanted MORE pop! Of course, who met me up with me at the concession? One of the mom’s that I had told just the very night before, that we had gone 22 days without a carbonated beverage. (I have decided that it is the carbonation on which I am hooked.) She came up just as I was paying for my 1 Qt. refillable plastic cup, with handle and cool straw. So there is was, I had to admit in public my fall. For almost two days, I did not refill the cup with pop, I carried water and ice to the remaining games. It wasn’t until the last game, that I purchased a refill of Pepsi. And who do you suppose came up beside me at the concession stand? You guessed it…the same adorable, small figured, fit, healthy, mom that was there the first time. I found myself stumbling on explainations that this was the first refill I had purchased and that at least it wasn’t in an individual bottle (that previous discussion could possibly fill an entire page of posts) .
What I learned about my addiction this weekend is that, like I previously mentioned, I believe I am hooked on the carbonation..not the caffeine, not the sugar…well maybe not the sugar and that my desire was in my head. All three sodas that I consumed during this trip were not really even that good, especially not the fountain drinks. I had built this up and now I am over it. Telling myself that I could not have something in affect, made me want it even more. I suspect that I am on the road to recovery and will continue in a more positive fashion…not making such stringent restrictions but following fluid guildelines.
As I close this post, I will leave you with a short snip of an email sent to an aquaintance this morning, explaining how our weekend ended…..
”this is how my day went yesterday after five days spent in nebraska with my daughter playing basketball….at about 9:30 last night we are driving down the road when suddenly, i gasped loudly (for no apparent reason) …husband all but slams on the brakes asking…”what, WHAT?”…..i ask…”what is today?????” the reply from my daughter in the backseat…”the 13th”. Hubby and I look at each other with unsure, questioning eyes and then both of us begin to roar in laughter, followed by a quick ”high five” in celebration of our forgotten anniversary….lol. “
