Greetings, All.
Corsaire: Thank you. There are so many hand-crank, emergency radios on the market it is good to get a reference.
Tracy: We are also SkyWarn. We happen to live in a county that on the west side, is partly under a major city and on the east side it is under a different state. So the people in our ham radio club report to the other state, while we report to the major city. Makes for an interesting challenge during storms. Have not done any spotting, yet. Weather has been quiet.
Thoughts for those of you on the East Coast.
Today I made, and canned, seven quarts of corn chowder. A farmer brings his delicious sweet corn to the “city market” site every day. I picked up two dozen and used one today. Today, I made 4 jars with chicken, and three with ham/bacon. Tomorrow, I will probably just make a Vegan corn chowder. That will give me 14 quarts, so one a month if we have no company. By making tomorrow’s batch without meat, I can heat it up for anyone. Also tomorrow, coleslaw is on the canning list: regular, Asian flavored, one batch with pineapple – none with mayonnaise. (I am a rebel canner, though, so no canning police, please.)
I had hoped the cabbage would grow larger, but there was a problem. Well, maybe two problems. There is a pocket gopher digging tunnels under the cabbage patch. I have had no red cabbage, those were the first attacked. The stem was nibbled until it fell over, then the cabbage was eaten from UNDERNEATH! Sneaky critter. I don’t think it is the gopher, though, that is eating the green cabbage heads. Those are being eaten from the top – almost surgically. Very neatly chewed off in a wedge. I harvested the ones affected. I will cut off around the chewed off part and use the rest. I figure that soaking in salt water, plus pickling in vinegar and canning it should kill any germs. I hope.
All is calm here in the midwest. No raging storms, except those that Daisy declares. Weather is beautiful at partly clouds and low seventies every day. Hubby’s thoughts have turned to splitting the wood for our wood stove. He chainsaws; that is one tool I will never touch. Either one of us will use the splitter, very glad to have that, then haul and stack. I pick up the kindling. He still volunteers to clean up after my canning messes, though, bless him for that. Good team work.
Prepping for a predicted difficult winter.
Take care, Everyone.