Ode to a housewife

I have published this poem before, but I think it bears repeating.  So for those of you who may be new to this blog, here goes :

Ode to a Housewife


Now I lay me down to sleep

Alas my house I could not keep.

Kitchen, floors and laundry to do

But distractions came and time flew.

I did accomplish a few things

but many of them contained calories

I find that on a cool rainy day

I am less apt to work and more apt to play

At cooking and baking in my kitchen

Making chocolate cookies and fried chicken

So while my waist gets wider and my house is still cluttered

I look to tomorrow to find another

Day in which to give a try

To keep my house as women gone by

And Panic ensues.....

So yesterday I was so excited to see that I had enough green beans to fill a canner for the first time this season.  For the past few weeks I have been getting some, but never enough to warrant all the joys of pulling out the ole pressure canner.  Finally!  I could start filling up the larder with all the goodies coming in from the garden. To date all I have put in the larder are blueberries and beet jelly.  Don't get me wrong, every little bit helps, but pulling out the pressure canner is a sign that things are taking off.  So last night while watching a movie, I snapped said beans and then informed my DH that I will be staying up late to get the beans canned.  I get everything situated, jars washed, etc.  Then I go to get out my pressure canner.  Well it isn't in the cabinet where I keep it.  Hmmm, maybe it is in my closet...no...the boys closet...no, UP!  On top of the freezer....no.  It shouldn't be in the shed, but I check it anyway.  Not there.  This goes on for a while.  I can't find it anywhere.  Well I know it has to be here somewhere!  I then message Diva on FB to see if by chance I loaned it to her and didn't remember.  I didn't hear back by midnight so I went to bed knowing I couldn't can these beans.  I dreamt about that canner, finally waking up at 4:30 am.  I thought and thought about it.  Finally I gave up on sleep and went to the computer to see if Diva answered my message.  She had answered and she did have the canner.  I swear I do not remember loaning it to her and she even says to me that she told me the other day it was up there.  That will tell you how with it I am this time of year.  Now panic comes in when I have to face a life without my pressure canner.  Sure I could buy another one, but they are pricey.  The worst thing though is that my pressure canner is 72 years old.  Yep!  It was made in 1941 when my dad was 2 and it belonged to my grandmother.  It was a National Pressure canner.  Presto bought them out a looooooong time ago.  Fortunate for me, Presto was nice enough to replace the gasket and weight for just the cost of the part and shipping it up there.  They shipped it back.  I had it checked out at the county extension office (a great resource for all things domestic and agricultural)and aside from the gauge being off by one notch, it works fine.  I just have to look at 11 lbs pressure as the 10 lbs called for in the recipes.  Here are my newly canned beans and my ole pressure canner

I know it looks kinda worse for wear, but it is 72 years old. 

I have decided that I cannot let this thing out of my site.  I will have Diva come to my house to can her stuff or I will go to hers.  Anyone need a lesson, I can go to your house or you to mine, but it stays with moi.  As I told me mommy, and in the words of Charlton Heston "Out of my cold dead hands!"

Beet Berry Jelly

I know, are you thinking "Beets?".  Yes.  That is what I said.  I have made Beet Berry jelly for the past few years.  All thru the  year I keep a freezer container(in the freezer of course) and add the blueberry juice drained off my canned blueberries as I use them.  In the spring I plant beets, which are then harvested, and cooked.  The cooked sliced beets are frozen to give to my parents who love beets, and the juice from the beets is strained thru a coffee filter and saved in the freezer until I have enough to make the jelly.  See my family, including my DH hate beets.  I made Harvard beets from fresh picked beets one  year.  The response was less than stellar.  My Dh tactfully said they were good.....for beets.  Rubic said "They taste like dirt", and Einstein said "Uh I think you forgot to wash them".  FYI, They were washed, and peeled.  Need to have that disclaimer.  I would like to think I can cook.  SO!  Anyway, while my family won't eat the beets, they will eat the jelly.  Go Figure.  So I split the diff.  My parents get the beets and we get the juice.  So anyway, here is the recipe for anyone interested in trying something new.

Beet Berry Jelly

4 cups beet juice (Or in my situation a mixture of beet juice and fruit juice.  Any type juice would work except OJ)
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 pkt sure jell
6 cups sugar

In a large pot mix the beet/berry juice, lemon juice, and sure jell(Pectin).  Bring to a rolling boil for 1 min.  Add the sugar.  Bring back to a rolling boil and let boil for 3 minutes.  Have some clean, hot, jelly jars ready.  Fill each jar leaving about a 1in head space.  Wipe rims and put on your sterilized lids and rings.  Process in boiling water bath canner(With jelly jars I just use a reg stock pot.  You just need to have a pot deep enough to cover the jars by 1.5 to 2 in of water) for 10 min. Makes about 8 jelly jars.  Well it makes 8 if you don't do what I did and knock one over.  FYI that is hot and very messy. 

It Soooooooo pays to ask! Tee Hee!

Today was my monthly main grocery trip.  It was an excursion to Kroger (Ralphs for those in that area), Aldi, and Sams.  My plan for Kroger was to pick up some bone-in chicken breast which was on sale for .99 lb.  They were out mainly because two ladies came in and cleaned them out of what they had out.  I shrugged it off thinking I would check meat prices at Sams to find an alternative.  Well as luck would have it (In other words, I was blessed), I happened upon 7 whole Tyson chickens with an expiration date of today.  They weren't marked down, so I asked the meat dept lady how much they were planning on marking them down.  I made sure she understood I would buy them all if (and I do mean if) she gave me a good deal on them.  I got those 7 whole chickens for .49lb!

 Now some of you may turn your nose up at mark downs, but they are a staple of my grocery buying.  They are what allows me to keep my grocery budget under $400 a month (including pet food, toiletries, cleaning) and still keep a well stocked pantry.  The only concern you need to have when buying markdown meat is that you either use or freeze it that day.  Well I do that anyway.  I buy meats on sale and in large quantity, and freeze them.  I also look for breads marked down as well as dairy. 

You can freeze milk, cheese, yogurt, etc.  Cream cheese doesn't do as well frozen, but you can still use it to cook with.  Many items like milk, yogurt, etc are good refrigerated after their sell buy date.  I used to scout out markdowns in the dairy dept at Kroger so much, that I met the manager, Robert.  He is no longer in that dept.  He is in produce now, but he still throws up his  hand to say hey and notices when I haven't been around.  Oh, and I do scout out markdowns in the produce dept as well. Things I can either use quickly or can.  So I guess I have typed all of this to say, it pays to search out mark downs.  Although if all of you realize the treasure trove of savings when buying markdowns; you will start buying them all and there will be nothing left for me.......hmmm.  Okay!  Change of plans!  Forget everything I just wrote!   Uh  I was....Kidding.  Yea that's it!  Nothin to see here, move along, move along.

Summer time on the Beckner Homestead (Pics)

So finally I have arrived at the time of year where my garden, and everything else is in full swing.  Should you ever walk outside in my back yard, the following is what will greet you...
( I should say up front "Thank you Babe!" cause DH fought with the digital camera to get these to down load.)

This is a "Sun Parasol".  I have been waiting all summer for it to finally bloom.  I would say worth it.

The blueberries are coming in.  I am up to 8 lbs so far.  That is a round up cause I have weighed 7.5 lbs andeaten at least another 1/2 lb while picking and or working out in the backyard.  I can feel those wonderful antioxidants coursing thru my veins.

This is the upper half of my garden.  I had to take it in two shots cause it wouldn't fit in the camera.  Here is the second half.  This includes my concrete raised beds.

The front bed is my herb bed and also holds my yellow squash plants as well.  Each opening in the cinder blocks holds either beets, marigolds, or lima beans (the beans are new additions).  The front right bed holds more lima beans and cucumbers as well as volunteer peanut plants.  The back left bed hold sweet potatoes (new), lima beans(new) and beets.  The back right bed holds marigolds, tomatoes, and volunteer peanut plants. 

No pic blog post would be complete without some shots of the ladies.  So now that I have shared these pics, lookie what I picked today.  This is what about 15 lbs of produce looks like

So that is that.  Thanks for lookin!

The Coop is finished! finally!

I can finally say I am raising chickens.  I still can't believe it.  Tee Hee!  So the saga of my chicken coop goes like this......

First of all I will go ahead and post a pic so you can see what I done did!

You can't see the roof of the coop in this pic.  The actual coop used to be my neighbors dog house, originally built for a bull mastiff (Big Doggie).  Because of the size of the dog house, I was able to convert it fairly easy to a chicken coop big enough to house 4 little ladies.  The original sides of the dog house were ripped off because they were rotting, but the frame was solid.  The roof is also in great shape.  We just had to get it to our house.  Enter my strapping young teenage sons and a lawn cart, and we managed to get it home.  The wood you see for the walls of the coop were actually left from a previous home improvement project.  Aside from the hinges, some PVC, and the poultry netting, everything was scrounged.  If you look to the right of the chicken coop door, you will see what looks like black PVC.  That is actually an old broken broom handle.  It was the correct size and I was short a bit of PVC.  It works! 

If you look along the back of the coop, you can see there are hinges along the middle part of the wall.  This will allow me to let down the wall and collect eggs or put in food and/or water.  You can see the ladies in the run.  They seem to be making themselves right at home.

And here are the ladies.  They are named Meg, Amy, Jo and Beth after the novel "The Little Women".  The coop has been aptly named "The Orchard House" also after the novel.  The Larger of the golden chicken (Far left) is Jo.  She was the first one brave enough to jump out of the coop and into run.  The tiny golden chick (far right) is Amy.  This one is pretty and little, but wants and believes everything should be hers.  She wants the finer things in life.  I haven't decided yet on who Beth and Meg are, but I will get there. 

So those are my ladies and that is my latest endeavor.  What ya think?

For those with restless legs. Something to think about

For three years I managed to go without any artificial sweeteners and still managed to lose a little weight.  Through the past year I have managed to maintain that loss without following any other plan but one of eating non processed, whole grain foods.  Now, don't get me wrong; I have partaken of pizza, ice cream, cakes, cookies, butter, sugar, whole milk, etc.  What I didn't eat was diet foods, low fat/fat free stuff.  I didn't get skinny.  I will never be skinny.  What I am is able to wear the clothes in my closet.  I am happy here. 
Anyway, I say all that to confess I fell off the wagon.  First I bought Crystal Light so the guys would have kool aid without using so much sugar(instead of them making Lemonade from lemon juice and sugar.  I know, I know, that's much better).  Then I bought 4  12 pk cases of diet drinks cause they were on sale and I thought one a day wouldn't hurt me.  Yea....."All the best laid plans of mice and men".  This all started a couple of months ago. 

What also started a couple of months ago was my restless legs (and shoulder) getting worse.  It was getting to the point where I was only able to get about 3 hours sleep a night.  My old tricks to alleviate the symptoms didn't work.  Not wanting to go to the doctor to get a prescription (yet another chemical), I went online to see what others did to naturally deal with restless leg.  What I found shocked me.  I read a post where a lady said that diet drinks aggravated her restless leg.  Upon reading that I immediately stopped drinking diet drinks and instead drank just tea and water.  That was 4 days ago.  I have had 4 great nights of sleep, only getting up to go to the bathroom (all the water lol).  I come back to bed and am immediately asleep.  I can set my watch as to when I will get up.  After going to bed @ 10:30, I get up at 1:30, back to sleep, and up for the day @ 5:30.  That is my normal wake up time.  I am sold on the fact that the artificial sweeteners were contributing to my condition.  I am back on the band wagon and will not touch another sugar free anything.  If anything I am going to focus even more on what I eat to make sure I am giving my body what it needs to function.  Like I said before, I will never be skinny, but that doesn't mean I can't take care of myself.  If you drink diet drinks or sugar free products, and have this condition, think about dropping them.  You may be pleasantly surprised and the results.