I have about 12 pounds of ground beef defrosting right now. All of that will be shelf stable in jars by tonight. Slowly I am relieving my concerns about having so much food in a 44 year old freezer. Particularly now, with prices so high, I do not want to have to try to replace this much food. And, I want more room in the freezer for other things. I don't know about you, but when I bring home a bag of flour from the store, the first place it goes is in the freezer. I have had no problem with flour weevils since I started doing this. I'm working on training myself to do this with all flour/grain products. A while back, I found flour weevils in a jiffy cornbread mix which I'd had in the cupboard for a while. And I don't know about you, but I don't like the idea of sifting those little buggers out and eating the product anyway--an old timey depression era "solution" to the problem. So, cake mixes, BisQuik and the like, Jiffy mixes, oatmeal, cereals--yup, they all get a chance to spend time in the freezer. But that means there has to be room for them in the freezer!
I actually went outside yesterday and did some work. If you've been around here for a while, you probably remember that I had some hedges along my front walkway that I was keeping alive by watering them by hand. Unfortunately, when I tried to water them last summer, the hose bib had no water. I don't know what happened. I just knew that I was in no shape to try to carry water to 10 ft of hedges during a desert summer. Honestly, I was barely in shape to walk outside. So, those hedges perished in the heat. I've begun the task of taking them out, a little at a time. They are so dry/dead that they break off easier than I can cut them. Got in another session today. So, right now I have about 2/3 filled a 42 gallon contractor's bag with pieces of hedge. It'll take a long while, I fear, but I will just have to keep after it every day.
It's evening now. I have 12 pints of ground beef in the canner. Should be ready to come out in about 40 minutes + cooling time. I'm proud to have gotten this done.
I've been wearing my slippers almost all the time. The last little while I worked, I even wore them to work. I found some bits of dead leaves in them tonight so I turned them upside down in the trash to get them cleaned out. And, guess what? The indoor/outdoor soles are cracked all the way across on both of them. I guess I don't have much choice but to spring for new ones.
One of the things on the to do list for today was to run the Roomba. So, first thing this AM I went around making sure the floor was clear. Picked up all the doggy toys, put away a random pair of shoes, and like that. Then I discovered that somehow the Roomba had not charged. So, it's been back on the charger for hours and I'm ready to run it again EXCEPT Miss Alissa has pulled out 7 doggy toys to replace the 4 I put away. She's such a helper, LOL!
Well, I'm gonna go try finding the floor and running the Roomba. I hope it's faster than she is!
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