Happy first of November!

Well, it's getting closer and closer to my favorite holiday....Thanksgiving!
That's when I make lots and lots of food, with pretty much no help from anyone. Although they tend to turn into vultures and fly around the kitchen, pacing and waiting for a moment when my back is turned so they can sneak a taste! I love making and eating the comfort food. I consider it a labor of love. I always end up having a kitchen window open and at least one of the ceiling fans going because of the heat and stuffiness. But the smells are so WONDerful!
Dilemna: My oldest brother wants us to go to his house for Thanksgiving. I always have it at home. A couple of years ago, I invited everyone to my house. My mother made all sorts of lame excuses as to why she couldn't come, including saying my youngest bro and I don't get along, and my oldest bro was upset that she didn't want him at her house anymore for Thanksgiving! Oh PULLEEEEZE! He's a big boy....he'd get over it! She said maybe we can do it another time. I decided I was done with trying to please my mother. Anything I cooked or baked, she wouldn't have eaten anyway! And it's been four years since she stepped foot in my house. That was only because she wanted to see the damage the fire had done! Before that, it had also been years since she'd stepped foot into my house! My husband thinks I'm being stupid, and so does my oldest son. Sure I would like to see my oldest bro and his kids. The rest, I could do without. I apparently am the black sheep of the family. (Or as my mother would say "odd".) I don't take orders from my oldest bro's wife. And she is very bossy. If I DO go, I'm bringing my knitting and parking my butt in one chair and not getting up cept to eat and use the restroom! Turnabout is fair play doncha think? That's all she ever did at my mother's house when we used to all gather there, whether it was a holiday or just visiting. Everyone tended to wait on her hand and foot! And there was NO reason for her to NOT be able to do for herself. Unless you consider her "porcelain nails" which she always used as an excuse not to open a can of pop for her kids, or tie a shoe for her kids, or do anything for anyone. She would just sit and crochet or read a book!
About a month ago, I accepted a friend request from my oldest bro's wife. I thought what the heck....I don't have to post on her wall or anything. Next thing I knew, she was asking me to add my mother to my friends list! Nope nope nope. No way in H E double hockey sticks!
I know that I will have people mad at me, including my husband, if I don't break down and agree to go. Hell he is just all about the eating! I am tempted to find a restaurant that serves Thanksgiving dinner, and go THERE instead! But then, we wouldn't have any leftovers to eat on for a week or two! And we definitely wouldn't have any if we went to my brother's house. What to do...what to do! But I do know this...I need to stick to my guns....no matter WHAT the decision! No chickening out.

Bad news was let out a couple of days ago. A large company will be laying off 90 of it's 137 employees right before Thanksgiving, for 45 days. One person I know of....her husband has worked there for over 30 years! And he will be laid off. Only salaried employees will be kept. This business is what has been keeping Chanute going. Not that it has a ton of employees, but that the pay for a job there is very very good! And the company has always helped with charity events and matching funds with this and that for the city.
It makes me mad that a person is doing the woe is me route, yet she has constantly overspent her husband's income from that company. And yet "well I need to get my hair cut and high lighted at the salon." I mean... geez...where are your priorities???
More later.........

Blah blah blah

It's homecoming tomorrow. I will force myself, sorta, to go to the football game tomorrow night. I do wanna see the kids play, yet I am sooo pooped and doubt I will snap out of it by tomorrow night. Lots going on this evening... LOTS! I will need to get paid triple in about an hour and a half. Simply because one person shouldn't have to subject themselves to so much and so much work! I would love to go to sleep right now. In fact my vision is kinda going blurry....probably because I just can't hold my eyes open for too much longer.
I am STILL getting maters...STILL canning....STILL not doing much else cept canning maters, (along with eating them!) Probably need to make a few jars of salsa this weekend too. I am running out of room to put it all! Right now I have at least a dozen quart jars full of maters sitting on the kitchen counter...with no place to go. It's driving me NUTS! But on the other hand....they sure do look pretty. Makes me feel proud....out of little bitty mater plants, green bean seeds and cuke seeds and a little tlc, we have gotten lots and lots of veggies that I have turned around and canned. We'll have plenty to eat in the winter. Lots of veggies and lots of meat. Been thinking about possibly not buying bread anymore and just baking it one a week. Never know... it just might be cheaper. Even if I bought a big sack of 100% whole grain wheat to make the bread. Been a long time since I've baked bread. Maybe a banana bread now and then, but not very often.
Never got strawberries from the 25 plants. Darn it! I have a feeling we have on e season strawberries. Which means hubby read that he was supposed to pluck off the first blooms to stimulate the root growth, then we will have lots of everbearing strawberries. Nope... no strawberries. So maybe next year? Maybe before the family reunion so I can make some jam and take a few small jars of it? I really am craving strawberries... without sugar too. Just fresh strawberries. Maybe a few on top of an angel food cake would be yummy. mmmm
Except for part of Saturday (craft fair in town) I will be peeling and chopping and canning again. When will it end?? I want to have a NORMAL weekend of just doing laundry, maybe going to my favorite shopping city for a day out. It will all be worth the long hours working on the veggies this winter... but it doesn't do a thing for me right now.

It's been quite awhile since I've posted. But...life sorta gets in the way sometimes.
I planted my mater plants a little late this year, and they didn't start turning until August. Now I have an over-abundance of them. I canned fiesta salsa weekend before last, canned maters last weekend, and I will probably do both canning maters and making/canning salsa this weekend. LOTS and LOTS of maters! Golden girls, Rutgers(found they are too "stemmy"), Jetstar, Celebrity(one of my faves), and Romas. And had four volunteer plants come up, making a total of 24 plants. I haven't had time to go through the garden for the past few days, but did so early this morning when it became daylight. I only picked a couple, but there are TONS to be picked! Gotta pick em early this evening and start peeling them. I make a mess if I peel them sitting down and watching tv, and it seems a lazy way of doing em, but my legs thank me for not standing in one spot the entire time I'm peeling. And I don't mind doing it so much. Guess I like to multitask too much. If I'm doing something monotonous, I have to have the tv going....a good movie or maybe a documentary on discovery channel.
Since the high school football game tonight is out of town, I will start directly on those maters when I get home. AND I need to pick okra to wash, slice and freeze too. YUMMY! OOH dang... forgot I need to get more cornmeal. So I can coat the okra slices with it and then freeze em. Don't know why, but everyone in my house loves fried okra. Go figure. ;o) Pickled okra is good too, but we just don't get enough okra at once to make a few jars. maybe today will be different when I pick them. I hope. And everyone else hopes....pickled okra is everyone's favorite way to eat it.
Well times have been hard for everyone....and my family as well. Husband was cut to 3 days a week from about January until July. And in July he got to work four days. After that, he has been back to 5 days a week. I was worried about getting my contract renewed, but it came...very late, but it came. Next year may be a whole lot different.
I bought my half a beef(cow, whatever you wanna call it), and we haven't used very much of it since we got it in mid July. But that's okay. Lots of comfort food to be made during the chilly fall months as well as the cold winter months. Beef and canned veggies fresh from the garden will be great then. We also have fresh taters and onions too, although we were disappointed that we didn't get more taters out of what was planted. Found that we can freeze taters...checked it out in my BIG Ball canning book. So I may be doing that. Slicing some, chopping some and freezing the whole lot of them. Wish I had done that with our broccoli. Time just got away from me, or I would've been cutting more of it. It is like okra...you have to keep checking it...EVERY day. Not just once a week. Otherwise, the broccoli starts blooming. Then it's no good. And as long as you keep cutting the crowns off, it will continue producing. And this was my mistake...not checking and cutting crowns off every day. Nothing like fresh steamed or stir fried broccoli... or just raw broccoli in a salad. Yummy.
Been knitting as much as I can. Craft fair is happening the 26th of this month and my fellow knitting ladies in our group are making things to be sold in a booth we will have. I'm still trying to finish a HUGE blanket for my son and daughter inlaw, that I started back around the first of May! I may end up just knitting a few more rows, then binding it off. It will be WAY too long if I knit as many rows in this particular session as the pattern calls for. But then, I used size 8 needles and I noticed the pattern calls for size 6. Anyway, I am sure the blanket will be very much appreciated. I had never given the couple a wedding gift, so this will hopefully make up for that. I so much wish those kids would move back here. But where they are at, there is plenty of adventure and hunting and fishing there. They are in their element.
Still being very cheap and very crabby. Just a bit lazy with the posting in here. AND the fact that I got hooked on facebook. Yes, I am embarrassed...yet it is a fun place to be. Twitter? NOPE! I don't have internet on my phone and don't plan on it any time soon. Yes it would be handy, but if I have internet on my laptop at work and at home, why have it on my cell? It would be nice if I was out of town...and waiting in a doc's office or something. But that is when I pull out my knitting or a book to read. (Usually it's knitting!)
Husband will be 50 in October. I don't like to celebrate my birthdays, but this is a major milestone for him. I've gotta decide what to do...and cheaply. For one, I want to find one of his goofiest pictures and get it put in the paper on that day. Since it will be on a Monday... and we don't have a Monday paper, it will have to be put in the Saturday before. Also I imagine he would love to have family there to help him celebrate. Maybe invite all of his relatives and a few friends over. OH MY that would be a mess! But would it be worth it? Probably. But I would also like to keep it a surprise too... and then everyone starts showing up! Would be great! Don't know if I should cook or what. Maybe make a big cooker of chili? That would be great! Yeah chili... I do have the ground beef for it! Just would need the beans, maters, onions and peppers! A chili supper! Yeah! Now how would I be able to cook that much chili without husband figuring things out? Well, sometimes I have made big batches of chili like that, and put part of it into the freezer. And I could also make milder chili, for those that can't take the heat, in a couple of stew pots. Oh that sounds like a plan!
Now that the old gears are cranking away... I need to start the ball rolling.

Hot hot hot!

109 is the heat index temp. UGH! Don't wanna get outside at all!
Need to be hoeing my mater plants...aint gonna do that for awhile. Tomorrow will be more of the same. Heck when I got up this morning, it was already hot and sticky.
Got some fresh Alaskan king salmon from youngest son. He caught em Thursday, sent em UPS Friday during his lunch hour, and we got em Saturday morning..wrapped up tight with three ice packs that were still frozen!
Baked the salmon...oh man it was GOOD! Saved a little to make salmon dip. The rest we kept in the sealed bags and put it in the freezer to make later. Didn't want to have all that salmon at once!
Since it is so hot, and even though we have our a/c on, I don't wanna do ANYthing! Haven't even picked up my knitting needles once today!
Went to the dentist and got my teeth cleaned. Came home...then decided to go to the store and get cream cheese and parsley for the salmon dip. Didn't do even one load of laundry. Yet the day just sped by so fast! I'm afraid the rest of this summer will speed by too fast. Before I know it, school will start, and I will be going back to work, daughter will be going back to school, and we will have to get back into some sort of routine. Then, there will be no more Thursday night knitting guild meetings...not until school is out for the summer again! They will still have meetings, but daughter and I won't be able to attend on school nights. Too much going on.
Well...time to go see what we can have WITH our salmon dip!
Oh here's a few pix of the salmon and then baked salmon and then the supper plate.

Another gloomy day. It rained in the wee hours this morning.
Was going to do laundry and hang it out on the clothesline (drying clothes free via the sun!) But, it does look like it may rain again.
Been doing mostly knitting...knitting the modern log cabin blanket for my youngest son and his wife. I know he will appreciate it, and I'm sure she will too. I just hope that the finished project is perfect...without any flaws. Can't wait to send it off. But to whom should I send it? She is in college in Canada. He is in Alaska.
THEN I need to get my tons of dishcloths made. Don't know if I will make lots for the craft show this fall, or just keep making a bunch for the family reunion next year. I could possibly make some money at the craft show, but....I would love to make more for next year's reunion. There's always a chance that we may not be able to go next year...depending on whether we still have our jobs.
Need to get some cedar shavings for the bunny we have sorta adopted. I will be posting a found ad in the newspaper. But I have a feeling the bunny might've been dumped at the park. It is such a sweet little black bunny. I didn't wanna get attached, but right after I saw it....I was holding it. Why am I such a sucker?

What a very muggy day it's started out as! Makes me feel like I live in a tropical rainforest! Got laundry to hang outside to dry...I just hope the later the morning gets, the more likely the fog will be burned off and it won't be too humid. Gotta get clean laundry dry! And I prefer to dry it for free...via the sunshine!
Had a few storms roll through day before yesterday. Lots of wind, lots of hail and lots of rain! My mater plants look a little rough...some had little broken branches or whatever they are called. Yesterday they looked better and today they are looking better than yesterday. Most of them have blooms on them.
Gotta go through my books and put them somewhere. Got em stacked on my bedside table right now...pretty soon I wont be able to see the little lamp sitting there! Can't help myself...love to read. What an inexpensive pastime! Even less expensive if reading material is checked out through the public library, or going to the annual book sale there, or getting books the high school librarian is getting rid of. I know there are also books at garage and rummage sales. I just haven't been to any sales for a long time. Mostly because the price of gas outweighs the bargains from the sales. Costs lots of expensive gas to go here and yonder to the sales. So is it really cost effective? Not really....not unless I am hunting for something specific that I can't find anywhere else.
I still worry about keeping my job. But I am 70% sure that I will have my job for the next year. After that, who knows. Hubby is now starting to show his worry about his job. He's the main breadwinner here. So if he loses his job from more layoffs, I don't know what we will do. Of course my hubby is the type that WILL FIND WORK. He's talked about going thru truck driving school and then driving a truck. There are several different possibilities. He also thought about going to college and getting an associate's degree. But that doesn't help the money situation....even though the military would pay for his college classes.
Sure wish I could sew. I would end up making some of the kid's clothes...and mine. I do have a very basic sewing machine...very easy to operate. BUT, I was never taught how to sew. Knitting and crocheting...yes. Sewing...no.
Will be excited if our gardens do well. I will be putting up a lot of jams and veggies....Hubby said because times are getting harder...I may want to go ahead and start getting canning lids. I jave the jars, but no lids. I have the rings, but no lids. So I gotta get lids (flats). I may get a few smaller jelly jars, so I can give out jams as gifts...and maybe a few next year for the family reunion...if we can go. I hope so. I had so much fun this year....and there is always the chance that someone may end up not coming next year, because of serious illness or passing away. Gotta stay in touch with my hillbilly family. Love em all!
Family is the key word here. The harder times get, the more we depend on our family and friends and they us.
We try to live one day at a time, and not worry so much. (I am the world's worst (or is that best) worrier. Now hubby is worrying...which means things definitely will get worse. But I think we will be okay. Hubby says we have already cut back on things. But I know we can cut back more. It may be rough, but it will happen. Even my cutting out my homemade patchouli soap....which is my main luxury that nobody complains about. It's gotten more expensive, as the lady who makes it charges by the ounce now. And the last batch I bought has not lasted near as long. Maybe she is cutting back on some ingredients too. Who knows. But hubby said the kid and I will have plenty of time to go to the soap place and check it out and maybe buy some soap to replenish my supply. The woman lives in a big old stone schoolhouse! And they have a a small building where she makes the soap. She gives tours by appointment and you can watch her make soap and buy whatever your heart desires. My heart desires patchouli soap and ONLY patchouli soap. It stays with me all day and into the night. It isn't a strong scent either. But wherever I go, someone will mention they smell patchouli. And that's when I tell them it's my soap and where I buy it. I think the soap lady needs to give me a discount for so much advertising of her products.