Sunday, January 27, 2013

Canning bacon and family

I know I usually get something out on the blog on Wednesdays, but just wasn't to be this week.  It has just been one thing after another and besides that all my get up and go went somewhere, don't know where but I sure haven't had it.

I sent a bunch of growing up pictures of our late daughter Tanya to her hubby as they wanted to make a slide show.  Maybe that's what got a hold of me?

KK s as active as ever but I'm not lolIt's been harder to keep up this week.

I have been trying to work on some of the family history for a 3rd cousin and her hubby as they are 90 and I need to get that out to them soon.  My great grand dad was her uncle.  I called and introduced myself a couple of years ago and she sent me a few pictures of g grand dad and his brother when they were older say 60's.


Here is what he looked like as a young man around 1910.
This is Harvey Frank Barker, he always went by Frank.  His mother was Nancy Belle Cornett and father Solomon.  The parents died while Frank and his brothers and sisters were still children (9 children) and they were seperated and farmed out to different family members.  Frank being seen in a 1900 census in his aunt's home the Caudill's by the time he was 11 yrs old.



 I sent back pictures of g grand dads daughter my grandmother Icie Fern and pictures of my mom and us.  It's awful how families lose track of one another.

The cousins (slews of them I don't know) still live in northern KY where my mom was born and lived the first couple yrs of her life.  Parts of moms side of the family have been in KY since the late 1700's.  Some relatives died in attacks in Boonesborough way back when.  Yes I am also a history nut, love it.   I know, I know don't bore you to death.

I just got a flyer form a local store in the valley and they have garden seeds 50% off.  That will be something to go look at after this payday.  Time to pick up a few extra seed packets especially of the things we like the best.  Beets, carrots, green beans, broccoli etc.  I also like to find something new we haven't tried to grow up here and see how it does.  Most of the things we plant have to be cold hardy.  So that slims down what we can grow especially if we have another cool summer like the last 3 years.

We have had a warm up the last 3 days and it has made for a big mess, lots of slush and mud. But did make the drifts easier to plow out that were impacted in ice.

Hubby was out until mdnight last night plowing the heavey stuff out of a neighbors back road and driveway.  The man on that road he got unstuck from a ditch of snow died this past week.:(
The family that was renting from him that we know and Dave plowed out last night again now has to move out.

Recipe: I got this off the internet.

Canning Bacon


Use thick sliced bacon for the best results.

First sterilize jars and lids and get the pressure canner ready. 
Lay the bacon out in strips on an opened-up paper bags.  You can use parchment paper or open up a brown paper lunch bag and use that. A roll of brown paper works.
Put a layer of paper on the top of the bacon before folding the bacon in half and rolling it; so the bacon won’t stick to it’s self when unrolled. 
Next, fold the bacon in half, in the paper, and start tightly rolling. The rolled bacon goes into the jar and is sealed.  No need to add water or salt.
Pressure can at 10 pounds of pressure for 90 minutes. NO LESS.
You can see about 1 1/2" of bacon grease in the bottom of the jars.
It fries up beautifully!  It is nice and crisp, takes just minutes to fry up
I have no idea if this is an FDA approved method for canning bacon or not.  Use at your own discretion. 

PS:  The grease soaked paper can be used as firestarter!




Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Interesting Site

I have decided I have a boring blog lol.  I have looked around and read the blogs of friends and acquaintances and I see mine is pretty bland.  One of the sites I go to is backdoorsurvival

She has a really great recipe for homemade soft soap I think everyone will really like. 
Link to soft soap recipe 

She also has a lot of great ideas.

I see others are already thinking gardens :).  I look outside and see nothing but white with more piling up everyday and know we have at least 4 more months of winter up here. I might start thinking garden say in March.  The last 3 years we haven't even gotten to plant until the middle to late June.  And have had some awful cool summers never seeing it above 90 degrees.  I know the never seeing 90 doesn't hurt my feelings any as I don't care for hot weather but gardens do. (I don't do hot well.)

I have been trying to fit some writing into my days at least a couple times a week and have taken up learning double knitting.  I try to challenge myself to learn something new once in awhile in something.  Not always easy with grand girl running around, she is as spirited as her mother was.
And of course it all depends on how much my fibromyalgia is acting up.

K''s new double knit hat.  I went ahead and put some ties on it to tie under her chin.


Loads of snow.


 Dave had to pull 2 pickups out of ditches this past weekend and went ahead and plowed their driveways.  Between our driveway and theirs he spent 7 hours on the tractor. 


Thursday, January 10, 2013

Flu, Cold Front & Storage

This was supposed to be a cold day but the cold front we are expecting is going to be another day coming in.  Good.  When we had that last real cold come in our kitchen water pipes froze up.  When the former owners converted the back porch to a kitchen and put in the pipes they installed them right up against the outside wall of the porch (no insulation, just the porch wall) ackkkk. 

We want to tear it out and extend a new kitchen by 10 feet into the back yard but that's a future date thing or is it a dream lol.

I tried climbing back in bed and getting some more sleep after Dave this left this morning but no deal on that one and after tossing and turning for 35 min. got back up.

We have had colds and flu for around 3 weeks now.  Dave is much better but mine and Kath's keeps coming back on us.
I get done what I can and run after the 4 yr old and that zaps me for the day.

Coral is back from Afghanistan yayyyyyy.  That is one big relief.  There are lots of dangers over there for women especially that isn't being reported at all.

Here's a picture of our front yard 2 days ago. 




Food Storage

Remember each time you shop pick something extra up if you are just starting.  It’s like eating an elephant-a little at a time.

Choose any or all of the following to place into your storage for 3 months, 6 months or 1 year storage plan.

Bouillon cubes to flavor soups wheat meat etc.

Canned vegetables and fruits

Canned meats

Non food Items

Bleach: Make sure that sodium hypochlorite is the only active ingredient so this may also be used to purify water.  Also need plenty on hand in case of flu’s and other illnesses to disinfect.

Dawn dish washing soap, good for taking grease out of things also

Bar soap and liquid

Shampoo

Things like baking soda that come in paper or cardboard should be transferred to glass or plastic jars, bottles or containers and or Foodsaver bags. Stacks of Foodsaver bags can then be put in a hard bug/mouse proof container.

Two free storage calculators are found at:
http://www.stockupfood.com/index.php   This one you but is free and very good and you can change the number of people and add foods as you need to.


For other ideas:

Comments welcome.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy New Year

Well we started off the new year being ill.  Dave caught a bad cold, Kathy and I have had flu like symptoms and I have some kind of cold in one eye.

Good news is that daughter Coral is working her way way home from Afghanistan, she is in Kuwait as of today.

Tanya's daughter our grand daughter Shea is visiting her Uncle Seth and Aunt Jessie and cousins, other aunts etc etc, she will go back to AZ on the 5th.

We're all coming to grips with Tanya's death as possible in our own ways.

With the new year we all need to take stock of what we have spiritually and materially.  Thank the Lord for our Blessings even the hard ones we have to learn from.

Reassess our and your Emergency and Food Storage plans and try to replace the things we are short on as we are able.  Finances have been tight and don't look to get any better.

The temperatures have been cold with 18 inches of snow still on the ground.

Here a nice site called The Household Cyclopedia, lots of information here. Care of animals to recipes.
http://mspong.org/cyclopedia/contents.html