Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Books

It's been very rainy and stormy here and Tues. morning when I woke up the bed had a wet spot. At first I thought one of the cats was going to have to die but upon further inspection realized it was water, our ceiling has a leak. Right down through the bracket that holds the light fixture. So we let S&J know as it's their trailer. The roof needed to be re-tarred and I guess has for the last year or two. Grrrr. So it was kind of a wake up call, I want my own place even more now and though I don't think I could get anything right away. I am honestly looking because you never know what might fall into your lap. Carbondale is way too expensive..seems to be the price for an acre here is $10k-20k, which is nuts. But outside of Carbondale is sooo much cheaper and thats what I want...outside of Carbondale. I don't mind having to do some repair/remodelling either if it lands me a sound sale on a place..but alas these are just daydreams. I'll focus on learning what I need to know before I get land.

So I finally made it to the Co-Op and the library, yay! I had three books in mind: "The Encyclopedia of Country Living", "It's Not Easy Being Green" and "The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency". They didn't have any of them available there but they could get a copy of the Encyclopedia from a sister library..so I requested it. In my search I did however get three other books: "The Manual of Practical Homesteading", "Back to Basics" and "How to Live on Almost Nothing and Have Plenty"
I've been trying to research pressure canner equipment as well as boiling water bath equipment and Bill is as enthusiastic about canning as I am....especially his salsa which is divine. He does make it from store bought diced tomatoes but there is also cilantro, jalepeno, onion and concentrated lime juice. After a bit of reading and asking around we have decided that its something we will try in a boiling water bath instead of a pressure canner. He's been a bit gun ho about all this and he even bought me these eggs today from the little local grocery down the street. Cage free and no antibiotics :)
In other news the hospital called but I didn't talk to them. I will call in the morning and see what's up. Im pretty sure that they called to offer me the job but I had made myself unavailable by phone ( a rare thing indeed). The lady had told me they would know by the end of the week so I had figured on a call Thurs or Friday so let's see how tomorrow goes when I call them back.

2 comments:

Phelan said...

For a pressure canner, look in your local paper at this time. End of canning season starts sales of people that try and failed...given up. You shoul get a good deal. You local extension office will test the pressure gauge for you, that should be free.

Good luck!

Kathie said...

For a boiling water canner - you can just use a deep pot. You just need a pot that's deep enough to cover your jars with 2 inches of water. Place a towel on the bottom of the pot so that the jars aren't actually touching the pan...