Noah's Ark Quilt

I can finally reveal one of the projects I was working on and talked about earlier.  When I was in Wichita the end of June, Karen and I did the applique on this baby quilt.  I could not reveal our work then because it was for a gift for my nephew and his wife, Isaac and Kate Broeckelman.  Today was their baby shower and I gave the quilt to them.  Here it is.

The guests at the shower wrote or drew on flannel quilt blocks and I have been asked to put a quilt together with these blocks and additional fabric Valerie got to go with it.  I'll post a picture of this when I get it done.
Rose

Midnight Bull Fight

About midnight last night I went out to burn trash.  At that time the wind is usually down and I am cleaning the kitchen before going to bed.  While at the burn barrel, I hear a lot of strange commotion in the creek.  I walked down to Mom and Dad's to get the Ranger to check it out.  I thought of taking the pickup to be more protected if I came across anything weird but it made a lot of noise when it started and takes off and I did not want to wake up anyone.  As I drove through the creek down the lane I stopped once to listen to where the noise was coming from.  I then kept following the drive lane and planned to only go to the gate as I would have to get off the Ranger to open it up and, after all, it was dark and spooky next to the trees and with weeds taller than the vehicle on both sides of me.  Holy Moly! Suddenly two huge bulls came out of the weeds right in front of the headlights.  Both were snorting and foaming at the mouth.  Talk about making my heart beat faster.  My guess, they had been fighting.  I sat there as still as I could with eyes as big as the moon as they both walked so close to me I could have reached out and touched.  Once they went into the hay field I turned around.  I thought as I walked across the road that I saw light from Derrick's TV on but was not sure when I drove back up the hill.  I decided not to call him and wake up his entire family and get Dad instead.  If I walk in the house, he most likely would hear me but Mom would not even know I was there. 

After telling Dad what I had done and saw, we debated about what we should do.  At fist I thought he was just going to let it be till morning.  I was more concerned that he should go out with me to at least see if there was more going on that what I knew.  We went for a ride and found the gate broken open which meant that the electric fence waeno longer connected and shorted out.  We drove around and found one of Dennis Roger's bulls and one of Dad's in the newly plowed field to be planted to hay.  They turned on each other in the headlights and butted heads and snorted and pawed the ground and began pushing each other.  Round and round they went.  Dad drove closer towards them trying to break them up but that only made them madder and I thought they were going to run into us.  Dad decided to leave them be for the time and see if we needed to chase cattle out of the field as well.  We drove around and chased some cows and calves but gave up on that and checked out the fence between our ground and Roger's.  There were 4 more bulls standing at the broken fence snorting and pawing.  Dad decided to try to chase them back from the fence to keep them from coming over also while we went to get fence stretchers and extra wire to splice with.  I held down the fence around where a post was broken off so Dad could drive across.  I put on my seat belt.  If we were chasing bulls I did not want to get thrown off the Ranger by sudden starts or turns.  Cowboy Up!  As we chased them, at one point we got really close as one suddenly stopped in front of up of us and I thought he was going to back kick us.  Dad made a quick turn around to get out of his way.  They were run back and as we came back into our pasture we saw where another gate was broken through. We fixed the broken fence and gates by the light of the Ranger, the bright half moon and a flashlight.  But, the electric fence had no spark.  We began tracing back the wires to find where it was shorted.  We drove and drove the fence lines checking along the way for spark. 

As we opened one gate at the east end of the line, the two bulls walked out of the field right into the pasture as nice as you could ask for.  At least they are in the pasture instead of in the field and possible getting out on the road.

We did not find any spark anywhere until we came to the gate at the bottom of the corral. I do not understand how the electricity line of flow is connected so I do not know what that meant but Dad does.  We started heading to the west pasture to see if there was spark there.  Dad switched something by the stock tank there and we saw vehicle lights that seemed to turn north.  In a bit the vehicle turned around and was headed back to the main road.  Then it turned west towards us.  Dad told me to turn around and head back towards the road because someone must be looking for us.  Sure enough.  A pickup came down the road and came flying through the ditch and into the field headed straight towards us.  Someone was out to get us.  It turned out to be Derrick.  He thought kids were messing around and he was going to chase them off.  He said he did not have time to grab the gun or he would have been shooting.  Lucky for us he did not shoot at us.  I would have never walked out of my house again after dark.  Derrick was not very happy that we did not call him to get out and do all this as it should be his responsibility.  I tried to explain that I did not want to wake his whole household and I was more than happy to help Dad.  I agreed that next time I would call him and let him and Dad do it.  I hope there is not a next time but I have traveled fence lines in the middle of the night with Dad before.  Actually it was a beautiful night to be out and about.  The moon was bright, the air was cool and there were no mosquitoes. 

I got back in the house at 2:30 a.m.  I never would have thought that when I went out to burn trash that it would be nearly 3 hours later that I get back in the house.  A couple things to be grateful for--1-we were not hurt by the angry bulls and 2-I did not catch the farm on fire.

As I write this now, Alysha Rogers just pulled up with the stock trailer to pick up their bull.  He must have come into the corral for water or was chased up this morning and penned up.  Derrick came out and walked the bull right into the trailer with no problems.  I have to admit that this bull was huge and made Dad's bull look small in comparison. 

All in a night's work on the farm.
Rose

More projects

I have been working on more projects.  Even though they are not completed, I feel I've made good progress and different phases are done. 

First project today is a completed project.  I made the Double Irish Chain quilt top several years ago while I was staying at Karen's.  We worked together to make this.  I had purchased a precut kit (strips with pattern) from e-Bay several years before that.  I probably had the kit for 6-7 years before sewing and had the top made for 4-5 years before I finally decided to quilt it last month.  I machine quilted it with a meandering loop design on Mom's long arm quilting machine.  It really did not take too long and it turned out great.  The quilt is completed with binding and all.  I even hand stitched the binding down.

Another project that I have been working on in between other things has been the embroidered flowers.  In an earlier post I showed two flowers done.  I now have the other 4 flowers embroidered.  I am so excited to have these done and to put this wall hanging together and hand quilt it. 





This past week I have been working on Baby Broeckelman quilt.  Karen helped me pick fabrics and work up the appliques.  I have the top completed and will get it put together and quilted once I return to the farm next week.  No pictures of it yet as I have not given them the gift.  You will have to hold on and let the suspense build for a little bit.  I promise pictures soon of this special baby quilt.

Now I am helping Karen with applique on a quilt that she made when in North Dakota sewing with a friend earlier in June.  We are having fun but I will need to go home soon.

Rose 

 

Little Mowing Man

A couple weeks ago I tried to mow my yard but the mower was gone.  Then I got gout and could not walk.  After going to the ER and falling through my porch rail trying to get into my house, my nephew, Derrick, said he'd mow for me since it was getting really tall from all the rain we have had.  Not until you get the mower back from your hired man.  The next day Jeff brought back the mower and Derrick and Layne began mowing.

 



 After mowing some between the trees across the drive and a couple rounds in my yard with Derrick showing Layne how it works, Layne began running the controls by himself with his daddy sitting with him.  Then Derrick got off and let Layne mow all by him self in my yard.

 

Layne finished mowing my yard by himself with his daddy and great aunt watching.  He went slow enough for the thickness of the grass and learned where to drive the front wheel in order not to miss some grass.  When he would miss a spot when he turned around (I do that all the time) he would go back and get it the next time he came by or when his daddy pointed it out to him.

 

You can see that his 6 year old feet are not able to tough the mower deck by a good 6 inches but that did not stop him from being able to run the joy stick and mow.  He was so pleased with himself that he mowed their ditch which is flat (mine is not) and then mow in front of Grandma & Papa's house so they could see him.  



 

 I love to watch Derrick with his kids, especially with his son.  Derrick is such a good father.  Layne is such a little man as he follows his daddy and Papa around the farm and the little guy is a lot of help.  They will tell him what they want him to do and he can do it.  He was in the tractor 2 different times in the week or so as Derrick and Dad were working on equipment and Layne would pull levers or flip switches for them as they worked on the ground. That saves them so much time climbing up and down, in and out of the tractor.  All you need to do is explain it once to Layne and he knows it.  That is just like his daddy, Derrick, was and still is.  Layne will grow up just knowing how to farm work on equipment just by hanging with his dad and his great grandpa.  I love these three men in my life.

Now that Layne is learning to mow and Derrick wants him to do it more with him being there to watch and move things out of his way and to mow a perimeter for Layne, I may be soon out of my summer farm job.  Oh, well.

Rose

Wind Damage

Last evening we had a spring storm.  We were in a severe weather warning and high wind warning.  As the weather front moved through we had high winds that started from the north but also blew some from the west.  Winds were measured 70-79 miles per hour in some surrounding areas.  We got some hail with the rain.  There was some that was the size of a quarter to half dollar sized but, thankfully, there was not much of it.  I watched it a bit and saw it hit so hard on the north side of my house and bounced off and hit the garage.  Hail did crack a storm window on the north side of my bedroom window.  Within 15 minutes the rain and hail quit but the wind blew for a few more hours.  I saw a tree limb blown down against my fence before I went to bed.  This morning Brother Mitchell called to check on me and how I weathered the storm.  I went out and found a lot of limbs down in the yard.  Derrick's gate blew open breaking the main post against the house off but the gate did not break off.  Their yard tub was blown out of the yard onto the driveway and some of the kid's toys were blown around by the corral.  We only had .10 in of rain (very little).  At least that is all the rain gauge caught from the straight sideways blowing rain.  Fortunately the crops look good.  There does not look like there was any real damage to the wheat and the corn was laying over some but Dad thinks it will pop back up.  When I got home from church, Dad was picking up and hauling off broken limbs.  I pulled a lot out of my yard into a couple big piles for him then later mowed the yard and chopped up all the little twigs, bark and leaves.  Overall, we came through this storm not nearly as bad as we could have.  We have been blessed with much needed rain (nearly 7 inches) since the week before Memorial weekend without having hail or high winds.  This has helped the crops greatly.  For as bad as this storm was in many areas around us, we have been blessed again to not get harmed too much. 

 

This branch that landed on my fence had a base of 10-12 inches in diameter.  We could not see where any of these broke off the trees.  Dad said there were 4 different branches that fell on my fence and knocked over my bird bath.  Amazingly there was no damage to my vinyl fence except knocking off one little top cap which I had picked up from the driveway.  I had several branches that were 6-8 inches.  Thank you, Heavenly Father, all is well.

Rose

Full Moon

Today is June 13, 2014.  It is Friday the 13th.  It is a full moon.  What are the chances of that happening? 
The last time a full moon fell on Friday the 13th in June was in 1919.  The last time the full moon fell on any Friday the 13th was in October, 2000.  The next time a full moon will fall on any Friday the 13 will be in October 2019 according to an article in the Salina Journal but USA Today says the next Friday the 13th full moon will be in October, 2049. I guess we will see.
Is this a lucky day or are you superstitious?  I look at it as a really neat quirky thing.

This picture was taken last night with the cell phone and zoomed in as much as it could.  Sorry it is blurry but you get the idea.  I looked really neat shining through the leaves of the tree.

Rose

ER Visits for Dad and for Me

My father lives to tinker on equipment and fix things, change things to make them work better. He has an amazing way of seeing something and figuring it out and either fixing it or revamping it to work better.  He is a very happy man when he is not disturbed and can spend time working on things is his own time without any pressure.  Dad can fix anything.  He can look at something or listen to something and figure out what it takes to fix it.  He can get a phone call from a grand kid or neighbor or family members, listen to what they are saying, ask a few questions, maybe even listen to the noise the broken item is making, then tell them what is wrong and what they need to do to fix it.  Again, I'll say it: My Dad is amazing. 
For as amazing as he is, he is also just as stubborn.  He doesn't like to ask for help from anyone even though he will do anything for anyone.  I love to hang around with him to 'help' when I can but he will usually not come to ask me for help.

A couple weeks ago my father was working in the shed on a tractor and post hole digger. He did not want to come get me to run the hydraulics on the tractor as he changes the pin in the post hole digger so decided to use the tall farm jack to adjust the height to get the pin in.  As he was trying to adjust the jack, something went wrong and the jack slipped catching his hand between the top of the jack and the underside of the diggers main bar.  He was cut deeply.  He went to the house to wash it and thought he's just pull off the loose skin but it looked like there was flesh attached.  Mom wanted to take him to the ER for stitches but he did not want to go.  She called me to come take a look at it.  I went down and insisted we go to Colby for stitches.  He still did not want to go but we out voted him and took him to the ER anyway.  He hurt bad enough he was feeling sick to his stomach and was a little light headed so he did not fight us too bad but still grumbled. 

When the ER nurse looked at it they told him he definitely needed to have stitches.  They began to clean it up and it hurt so bad that he jumped, yelped, and kicked.  He was x-rayed to make sure there was no break in the hand which, gladly, there was not.  When the nurse practitioner came in, he began to clean it up deeper and irrigate it, he could see the bone in the hand and a blood vessel began spurting blood all over his gown.  They had to cauterize it to get it to quit bleeding.  At this point he noticed damage to a nerve and thought we may have to be transferred to a plastic surgeon.  Under further investigation he decided that the nerve was just nicked because Dad had full range of motion of his finger.  Dad ended up with 12 stitches in a horseshoe shape in the palm of his hand. 

After 10 days of keeping it clean and wrapped, he went in to have the stitched taken out.  they left in 3 and said he could pull these out himself in a few more days.  He is to leave it uncovered except he should wear a glove or some type of covering when working in the dirt or grease to still try to keep it clean.  It is looking much better.  My hopes are that from this accident he will think a little more about getting help.  I am happy to help him even if it is just for a few minutes at last minute notice. 

 

One week later I was in so much pain in my foot and ankle that I could not even touch it to the floor therefore could not walk.  It had been building since Wednesday but Sunday morning I could not take the pain any longer.  Mom took me into the ER.  It turns out that I have gout.  I was given a strong anti-inflammatory medication.  It helped a lot the first two days but not I am at a standstill.  Monday I could begin to move my toes and touch my foot to the floor to balance and walk with one crutch.  Tuesday I was able to walk without the crutch but limped heavily and walked as little as possible.  Wednesday I am walking a bit more but still have a lot of pain and some stiffness in the foot and ankle.  I go back to the doctor for a follow up next Tuesday. 

 

The worst part of it all except for the severe pain was trying to get me in and out of the house Sunday when going to the ER.  Because I could not put any pressure on my foot I was trying to use crutches to walk.  What a disaster.  Dad pulled the ranger right next to the steps of the front porch.  I used the hand rails to hop down the stairs to the Ranger then he drove me to the car so I could get in.  At the ER they got me from and took me back to the car with a wheel chair.  When we got back to the farm Dad, Derrick & Dana were sorting and moving cattle.  Mom finally got the Ranger and brought me into the yard by my porch.  As I was trying to hop up the steps with the crutches and hand rails and not touch my foot to the ground something went wrong. 

 

I don't know if my crutch slipped or if I just lost my balance or what but I began to fall forward and thought my head was going to go through the glass door.  Instead I began to fall to the left against the porch rail but I just kept going.  I tried to grab the rail but that did not work and I fell through the railing breaking the crutch that had wedged between me and the rail.  I ended up with my hips on the porch deck with my head on the ground below.  Mom was screaming, "Help, Help, HELP, HELP!!"   I was telling her I was OK but before I knew it Derrick had a hold of one arm and Dana had a hold of the other arm and they were lifting me up trying to scoot me back onto the porch.  "No, just pull me into the yard."  They did that and Derrick helped me roll over to my tummy.  I crawled on hands and knees around to the steps, up the steps, into the house, and onto the sofa.  I lay there panting trying to catch my breath.  I do have a skinned knee and a bruise on my upper left arm along with a few sore muscles but that is not bad.  At first I really thought I would be going back to the ER for head lacerations and stitches.  Falling through the rail off the porch really was not the worst that could have happened.

 

At the time my mother was scared to death and scared Dad, Derrick & Dana also.  Dad said Dana and Derrick flew over the top of the corral fence before he really figured out who was screaming and what had happened.  I am glad they came to my rescue.  Now it is really funny and we can laugh about it. 

 

A side note to this whole story is that I had to go to the bathroom before we left the hospital but I did not want to get out of the wheel chair.  We had to go to Wal-mart to pick up a prescription and Mom went in to do that as I stayed in the car.  After I fell off the porch and crawled to the couch I still had to go to the bathroom.  I did NOT wet my pants.

 

Rose

Tiny Quilts Done

I am excited that I have finished another quilting project.  The two tiny quilts I put together while in Arkansas at my brother's home last fall are done.   I quilted these with monofilament thread zigzag stitch around all the fusible applique.  I am thinking of making tabs on the top of them to hang with and then attach them together by the tabs.  I can also just pin them to the wall also till I decide if I want to do the tabs or not.  Another project finished-many more to go. 

 

 

 

I am still embroidering on the flowers for the batik wall hanging and I have the block of the month embroidered baskets quilt top finished with sashing and borders and I am in the process of hand quilting that also.  The embroidery is easy to carry with me and the quilt is a bit harder so it seems to stay at home and is being worked on as I watch TV in the evenings.  I am glad to be working on quilt projects again.  I most likely will not get every project done on my goals list before the end of the year but at least I am trying.



Rose

Birds

I have been watering my yard lately and today while the water was running on the west side of my house, I looked out the sewing room window and saw birds.  There were 5 little American Goldfinch birds playing in the shade of the big tree in the sprinkler.  They were so cute.  There were several robins as well and one that looked mostly like a robin but its tummy was as gold as these.  I only saw it twice then it flew north over the shed.  There were also some sparrows, a couple shiny black birds and a blue jay enjoying the water.  A robin was splashing and splashing in a tiny puddle at the base of one of the trees.  I went outside to move the water further north and I love listening to all the bird sounds and songs.  One even sounded like a kur-plunk in water but I could see him high up in a tree.  I really enjoy watching nature.

Rose

Because of Him

Happy Easter. 

It is a beautiful spring morning.  The wind is calm for a change.  The trees are budding out and a few flowers are blooming in the bed along the house.  I am so grateful for all I have. 

As we celebrate the life of the Savior today, here is a beautiful Easter video titled Because of Him.  It reminds us of what He did for us through his atonement, death and resurrection.  If we repent of our sins we can start again. When we keep his commandments and follow Him we can become more like him and one day return to live with him in Heaven.  I know God lives.  We have a loving Father in Heaven who sent his son, Jesus Christ, to atone for the sins of the world - for US!  He is risen.  The Holy Ghost can be our constant guide, comforter, teacher, and companion when we live worthy of it.  I am so very grateful for the plan of salvation and all the Savior, Jesus Christ, did for me - and you.  May I always live worthy of this amazing gift.

Rose

Wind, more wind, dirt and more dirt!

At this very moment the wind is calm enough that Derrick can spray the fields.  Earlier it was windy.  We have had terrible wind the last few months.  It is so dry and when the wind blows so hard there is a lot of blowing dirt.  In January there was a horrible accident involving 11 vehicles and killing at least one with many other injuries just a couple miles west of Rexford. The dirt was blowing from the fields causing zero visibility through the blowing dust.  As I drove home that evening from school, I drove through 1/4 mile of that by one of our own fields.  I could not see past the front end of my car and was watching out the side window hoping to see some weeds blowing on the edge of the road.  It was scary but at least I had not seen vehicles coming down the road either ahead of me of behind me before I ran into the dirt.  There were dirt drifts in the ditch as if it were snow. 

 

The next week I took pictures outside my front door across my yard and across the road towards Derrick & Dana's house and the creek beyond.  I could not even see the barn across the road nor the tractors parked in the trees across my yard drive.  So many times you could not see the trees in the creek bottom from Mom & Dad's front windows. 

I have been cleaning house trying to clean up dust.  I always have dust on the bathroom window ledge since that window is not sealed up until we are ready to put the new siding on that wall.  I expected dust there but is was no worst than normal.  The part that was really bad was the picture window in the sewing room/office.  I caulked that window a couple years ago but I'm not sure it did any good.  There was so much dust on the inside of that window and on the curtains and the sewing table from all the wind.  I spent a full day cleaning, vacuuming up dirt from the window ledges, the curtains, the sewing table and storage things, the baseboards and the floors.  I dusted the book cases and everything else in the room.  I had just spend a couple days doing this in the bedroom.  I was so proud of myself and how nice it looked.  You guessed it.  The very next day the wind blew 40+ mph with higher gusts.  More dirt blew off the fields.  Derrick went out and chiseled the field again to try to stop so much of the dirt blowing off the fields.  There is a new 1/4 inch of  new fine dust all over the yard.  You can see my shoe print in the new dust. 












Here are my sewing room windows before I cleaned the second time.  I cleaned again and again the wind blew the next day.  My windows were filled with dirt again - on the inside!  Oh my, I feel so defeated.  I cleaned again and the wind blew again.  The past few days I have just left the dirt.  I'll clean when the wind quits blowing.  I hope the wind does quit blowing so hard and we get some rain soon.

If you come see me, I pray you come to see me and not an immaculately cleaned house.  My guess is that there will always be some dust sitting on my window ledges and baseboards and the furniture could use a good dusting also.

Today I went outside with the garden hose and sprayed down the siding and the windows.  So much dirt and mud washed out but as I came inside to see how I did, I still have mud in the windows between the screens and the glass.  I guess I'll have to take out the screens and spray down the windows again to get more mud out.  Living on the farm it seems to be never ending dirt.  This spring is the worst I've ever seen.  We need rain!! 

At least I have not had any mice in the house for a couple months!

 Rose

Laundry Room

One of the house cleaning projects of my list for this year is to clean the laundry room.  It seems that everything that does not have a home gets pitched into the laundry room, mud room, or bedroom closet.  This morning Mom came up to help me get some things to the basement.  We opened the grate in the mud room and handed down all the canned jars, canned goods, empty canning jars, canner, extra toilet paper and other items that do not belong upstairs.  It took about 15 minutes to do this and saved many, many steps up and down the stairs to the basement.  Great thought Mom, it worked wonderful.

Next I took everything out of the laundry room.  I took all the clean clothing hanging in the closet and baskets with clothing that needed folded out to be put away.   I knew that mice had been in there but I was not ready for all the mouse turds under the laundry basket of junk and the rag box.  I took out a lot of things I had in there that were to go to the recycling center and just burned it in the barrel.  I swept, wiped down the walls and ceiling, scrubbed down the appliances, and scrubbed the floor. 

I got a small shelving unit at Agnes & Clarence's sale with something else I bought so I put that in the laundry room under the window to put some of the extra things that I do not have room for in the kitchen cabinets.  I put the ice cream maker, vacuum sealer, bread machine and thermos drink container on it.  There are three laundry baskets in the closet to sort out laundry into and do the laundry when a basket is filled.  I hope this helps to keep up with the laundry and to keep the laundry room more organized.  It really looks nice now.  I wonder how long I can keep it looking like this.

 

First Project Completed

Hooray!!  I have completed one unfinished project from my list of goals for this year.  It has only taken me 2 1/2 months to get it done.  At this rate I will never get them all done but at least something is done.


Last fall when I went with my parents to visit my brother in Bismarck, AR, I took several projects with me to work on.  We were able to stay with him for 2 weeks.  With that as well as driving time and a weekend with my sister in Wichita we were gone for a full 3 weeks.  I purchased this little piece of colored fabric that was stamped with color and lines for embroidery.  I picked out all new colors of embroidery floss for it with the intentions of having this for my traveling project.  It was a nice size to take along.  I did not get it finished while in Arkansas but did finish it shortly after I returned home.  I now have it framed and sitting on my buffet.  Here it is.

Rose

Happy birthday to me & Canning day

Saturday, March 1, was my 57th birthday.  Where did the time go.  I am now in my upper 50's.  I'm not sure I even qualify for middle aged any more.  I am kind of in between middle age and old age right not.  This seems pretty close to 60 to me.  I still do not feel like I am old enough (grown up enough) to get married or have children.  Maybe that 'grown up' feeling is more emotional than physical.  Physically the time for having children is long past for me.  I have 19 wonderful nieces and nephews who are not getting married and having families of their own.  I have 16 great nieces and nephews now also.  These are my kids.  I had many wonderful birthday wishes from them.  Maybe one day I will be 'grown up' enough to find that special man to share my life with.


Now for how I spend my birthday---
I bought a 25 pound bag of flour when in Wichita since I brought home some sourdough starter and a bread machine.  Remember, I live on a farm and you never know what kind of critters may get into this old farmhouse.  I have been reading about oven canning dry goods for long term storage so decided to try it.  I went to the barn to find some of the old canning jars that I got at Aunt Agnes's auction. I have blue and green tinted jars, square jars, a 1/2 gallon jar and a couple that must be 1 1/2 quarts.  Aren't these cute jars?

I filled the cleaned and sterilized jars with the flour and placed them in the oven at 200 degrees for one hour.  During the last 10 minutes I laid the canning flats on the pan in the oven to warm them up.  Taking one jar and flat at a time out of the oven, I placed the ring on the jar, hand tightened it down, and placed the jar on a folded towel to cool.  Within a half hour or so I heard each jar 'ping' as it sealed.  Who-hoo!! It worked!  This is how I did it. I had some flour left over so placed it in a Mylar bag that I had from some other food storage project.  I purchased a vacuum sealer food saver and wondered if it would work on the bag.  I gave it a try and it worked also. 

While the vacuum sealer was out I wondered if it really would seal a canning jar with a flat.  I had the attachments for it so decided to try it with chocolate chips.  Oh, my goodness, it worked too.  Here explains how I did this.


While I had a mess in my kitchen, (o.k. I admit my kitchen is always a mess) I decided to clean out my freezer some and took out 5 quart bags of home butchered and ground hamburger.  I browned this all up, added some salt and pepper, chopped some onions and ended up with a 6 quart dutch oven full of browned hamburger ready to can.  I drained the meat, packed it in jars, put on flats and rings then pressure canned it at 10 pounds for 90 minutes.  I did not cover the meat with juice but some do.  I like the texture better this was.  I really like this video and this blog post.
Here's the day's conquests.

I really had fun doing this.  Now I suppose I should clean up my kitchen. Ugg.
 Rose

Visit with Karen

January 30 I went to Wichita to stay with my sister, Karen, for a while.  On Jan. 31 she had surgery on her foot.  I wanted to be with her and help her out till she was better able to do more.  The surgery was intense and the recovery will be slow.  She had a lot of pain and walked with a brace on that leg and foot just to be able to walk.  When I brought her home from the hospital after surgery, she was in a huge wrap and can not put any pressure on the foot.  It was so hard for her to get up and down from the chair and bed, to the bathroom and to change clothes.  Showering is still the most difficult activity of all.  After 10 days, she had the stitches removed and is now in a cast but still could not put any pressure on the foot.  An accident or two with pressure have sent her pain level sky rocketing.  She is back in school using a knee scooter to get around and that makes it so much easier than if she would have had to use crutches.  Today she can now begin to put a little pressure on the foot and on March 18 she is to get a walking boot.  She hopes then it will get easier. 


Besides spending time with her and her family, I was there to help her.  I really do not know how much help I am since cooking and cleaning are not my best chores.  But I drove her around, helped her get around, fetched and took orders.  Karen and I always enjoy spending time together.  We have many common interests and can visit for hours and hours.  Usually when I spend time there, we sew and sew, working on a quilt for one or the other of us.  Not this time.  Her sewing room is in the basement and it is her right foot (the sewing foot) that is casted.  She did work on a hand quilting project and some crocheted edges on baby blankets as she sat in her chair.  I worked on a hand embroidery project that is on my list of goals to do this year.  We sat and did hand work as we watched 5 seasons on Mad Men on Netflix.  We also watched several movies.  Poor Ron, her husband, was mostly kicked from his chair as I sat in it all day.  I'd offer to move my little next of computer and sewing in the evenings when he got home so he could have his own chair in the living room but he said no.  He watched TV in the bedroom since he did not want to watch the same thing Karen and I did. 


I did laundry, dishes, changed bedding, cooked and tried to clean up the messes I made.  I actually had a lot of fun cooking since I actually had someone to cook for.  It is not so fun to cook for myself, cooking for one.  The thing I had the most fun making was bread.  I have never been able to make good bread.  Karen has a sourdough starter and a Kitchen Aid mixer with the dough hook.  I wanted to try to use them while having someone to try it.  I made a loaf of regular sourdough bread first.  Then I made cinnamon rolls which were really good.  Then I made a rosemary Parmesan bread followed by two loaves of french sourdough bread.  I made one french loaf the regular long way and the second one I made round.  We took the round loaf and made the bacon cheddar ranch bread (Crack Bread) from it.  That was SO wonderful.  I also made pizza dough and soft pretzels.  Karen and I made pizza pockets (made like bierocks) for the freezer.  The soft pretzels turned out really good also. 


I found out a few things from my experimenting with bread at Karen's.  I like the bread machine much better than the Kitchen Aid.  I would just use the dough cycle so I could make what I wanted from there.  Emily had two bread machines she had gotten really cheap at garage sales.  She gave me one that needed the kneading paddle.  I got that ordered right away and now have it.  I am excited to begin making bread at home.


I also spend one day making Chicken Cordon Bleu.  I had never made it before but have always really liked it.  Judy had made some for Christmas dinner.  I looked at a lot of recipes on the Internet and made a combination of a couple of them.  It was actually pretty easy and turned out great.  That and the Crack Bread were two recipes Ron said were keepers. 
I stayed 3 1/2 weeks with her.  She is back in school full time.  Ron takes her and picks her up on his way to work since I left on Tuesday.  One evening she had him run her around to run errands.  He asked how much longer this was going to last.  I'm not sure which one of them is more anxious for her to be able to drive again. 


It was great to spend time with my sister.  It is also nice to be back home again.  I get the feeling that maybe I was a little bit missed here as well.  It is always nice to feel needed and wanted.


Recipes I used:
Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
Sourdough Soft Pretzels
Rosemary-Parmesan Sourdough Bread
Cheddar Bacon Ranch Bread-aka-Crack Bread
Chicken Cordon Bleu
Sourdough Pizza Crust


Rose