Hot and Humid Monday, 09 July 07

Posted on Monday, July 9, 2007 at 20:30

Good evening everyone. Came in at 7pm as the PM Tech called in sick. I don't mind as every bit extra helps.

Been very hot and humid here. Not in the triple digets but I think here in the Northwoods 94 is quite hot. My house has had fans going constantly as I don't have an air conditioner. I can't complain as I have nice big Maples shading my house which helps emensly!  Blueberries are in full swing here. Will go pick Thursday morning (maybe Wednesday, we'll have to see). These are about the only berry I freeze as I love to use them in muffins and such. I do make at least one batch of jam as they taste sooooo good on fresh biscuits on a cold winter morning. I'll can some sauce as well as I use it on pancakes instead of syrup most of the time. Better for the diabetes ya know. LOL  If I get enough, i'll dry them and stir them into my hot cerial this winter. I love dried fruit in my cerial. Mmmmmm!! I'm so angry at my not so darling daughter as I went thru the effort of picking all those strawberries and putting them up and she's eaten half of what I canned!!   Grrrrrr! The grocery has peaches for .99/lb and have been thinking of putting up a few pints to refresh what I did last year. Will also dry some of those. Good snacking!! They looked good and I did buy a few pounds to eat for fresh and they tasted good. Put up some cherries last week. Made a batch of jam and canned some. I didn't get a chance to dry any but will hopefully get a chance to as the "good" ones in Door Cournty will be ready soon. Now those are some goooooood Cherries! Blackberries will be ready about the time I get home from camp in August. Fresh jelly and I juice them for syrup later on. Then after that, the apples will be ready - Ohhhhhh, I can smell the apple butter already. I may make a batch of jelly - not sure tho. Now that I got my juicer, I'll juice some and use the pulp in the sauce. Apple sauce, dried apples, low sugar pie filling - whew, I'm tired just thinking of the coming weeks! Farmer's market will be full of produce now so will be suplimenting my garden with some of their produce and putting that up. Peas, beans, corn, carrots, potatoes, brocolli, pumpkin..... I can it all and also dry a LOT of veggies. They work so well in a good "simmer all day" veggie soup. Also good in the slow cooker for soup or the like. The spuds I don't do too much of drying. I keep about a half gallon of small cubes to toss into soup if I'm running shy. I do manage to  use most of them up in a years time tho. I can some slices or the real tiny new ones - slices are wonderful fried and the tiny ones are tasty in a creamed peas and spuds dish my Grandma makes. Come November it'll be time to can last years venison to make room for the fresh. Someone always comes thru with a deer or two for me. I'll keep back some steaks and a roast just in case. That way if they get "skunked", I'll have a few packages. In November when the turkeys are so cheap I'll pick a couple up, cook them and spend a couple days canning them. I'll do the same with chicken and burger too. So nice to be able to open a jar and heat for sandwiches, toss in soup or hot dish. My brother has some venison burger he wants me to have - it's a couple years old but that's ok, I'll make some spaghetti sauce and bbq with it. I'm tellin ya, it's sooooo nice to have this on hand. With working nights and being tired in the evening, makes my life a whole lot easier - I can whip up homemade nutritious meals in no time. My slow cooker gets a workout too. My jams, jellies, fruit butters and canned fruit have very little (if any) sugar in them - which is the way I like them. The meats, veggies, soups, ect... I know what's in them. It's the crazy time of year for harvest of all sorts.  Lots of work for everyone I'm assuming. I'm looking forward to reading other harvest "adventures" on other bloggs.

It was a very busy week here in the ER. Didn't have any time what so ever to do any kind of searching or reading. I worked the weekend before the fourth and we were really busy then too. Uff da. I heard that this past weekend was "ugly".  Holidays usually are around here. Wait until Harley Weekend! There will be over 25,000 (yes, the number is correct) motorcycles in town. It gets overly ugly with crashes and drunken brawls and such. Very messy.

Well, time to do my night chores. If I get them done early, I'll have extra time to read. Have a good eveneing everyone!