Storm Pictures

During a lull in the rain, I ventured out to take some pictures. B and Honey watched from the deck. I walked down our road and headed toward the stream since taking a picture from the road was not workable - too many trees. This is a picture of the stream about 75 yards from the side of our house. Still trees but you get the idea!

This picture was from the main road that our street goes into. I shot up the stream and you get a better sense of the amount of water. Normally the trees are not under water! 

And then I turned around and went across the road. The stream enters a very large pipe to go under the road. This side then takes it to the Lake. Again, these trees are not usually under water.

And it's still raining at 11:27 AM 

Rains are slowing down

Well, we made it through the hurricane. It was dark all day Friday and we got one heavy shower then just the gloom. The rains started late afternoon and into the night, waking me around 3 with heavy gusts and heavy rains. I just looked out, closed a few windows and went back to sleep. We spent yesterday with the TV on - mostly to the Philly station as their coverage was very comprehensive. The local stations - Scranton and Wilkes Barre - really didn't have much to report though we were under a flood watch. Scranton got over 3 inches of rain by this morning so it's safe to assume that we are around that also. B is out right now with Honey who does NOT like the rain. We are in a lull and he is taking advantage of that.

Our "little" stream is again not little. I hope to get out shortly to take some pictures. The wind is still blowing and the showers occur off and on and right now is an off time!

I've got the dehydrator running. I did some fruit several days ago - a mixture of things. Today I'm drying lemons and oranges. I took some pictures when I started and will take some when they are done. It will be interesting to see how long it takes and how they look and taste. I'm thinking lemon or oranges in hot tea this winter when the lemons are not looking as good as they do now. I threw in an orange just to see what it does. Experimenting and then writing down the results. Reports on this later.

The New Grill

   The new grill that we purchased arrived and we spend Monday assembling it. The Weber people sure packed it well and we opened it up in the driveway and carried the pieces up to the deck that wraps around the house. It is now located at the corner by the sliders that are close to the kitchen. We read the directions and B assembled while I was assistant. Went together smoothly and as we worked we took pictures.

Gosh, so many pieces. As we worked, I unboxed stuff and took off the plastic.

Hummmm where did that last piece of plastic wrap go????

Honey got it!! She is such a help!!??

B did most of the putting together.

A guy has to have tools...and use them, which he did.

And Honey helped! Believe me, while the ratchet thing was really neat, her "help" made it more difficult!

And away Honey went to check out B taking pictures.

A side burner

The finished grill. While we have made sure it works by "firing" it up yesterday, we will save cooking on it until tomorrow or Friday.

Sunday

We had intended to go to breakfast this morning but Honey got sick. Tummy trouble that started at 4 o'clock and woke me up. She was doing better by 8 and we gave her some eggs and cheese which helped. By mid afternoon she was back to normal.

It was a busy weekend just doing things around the house. Several loads of laundry, meals to cook, general cleaning and dusting. I've been working downstairs trying to refuse the "stuff" we have. I'm making headway.

Dinner was roast in the oven with potatoes and carrots. It was very good and there is enough left over for sandwiches or something.

No, it's not exciting but it's enjoyable.

Canning and such

Here are some pictures of the canning I did last week.

My first project was blueberry jam. It turned out VERY sweet! But VERY good!

Notice that green "thing" in the back. This is a new product - a small batch Ball canning rack. The nice thing is it fits into most stock pots so you don't need to buy a large canner to try caning out. 3 pints (or half pints) fit in it. The important thing is to use a stock pot that will allow the water to be 2 inches over the top of the jar. Anyway, I used that but since the blueberry jam made 6 jars I had to do it in three batches. Next time I'll use the canner.

And here the jars are, all lined up. When totally cooled I take the twist on part of the lid off, label them and store down stairs.

The next project was Onion Relish with thyme. I chose this because Vidalia Onions were available at the local WalMart for $2. for 4 pounds. This recipe took about 2 pounds along with thyme sprigs from my pots, apple cider vinegar and light corn syrup. After simmering on the stove about 45 minutes to cook the onions, I water bathed them in that handy green small batch canner rack. This made 3 jars.

And here it is in the stock pot being processed. Since we live at 1200 ft above sea level, I have to add 5 minutes to each water bathed batch so this went for 25 minutes.

I enjoyed canning and will be doing another type of blueberry jam today using the larger canner so that all the jars get processed at once.

The new Weber grill is going to be delivered today so depending on how many parts it comes in will depend on when we start to use it! B took the old grill apart and took it over to the Township's appliance dumpster. So we are all ready!!

It rained today

It's 6 o'clock and dinner is in the oven. B is in the living room looking at the Philly news and I'm at the bar in the kitchen facing the kitchen so I can see the stove. While we had a rather gloomy and rainy day, apparently we didn't have nearly the rain South Jersey had - Elmer had 9 inches and Glassboro (where we went to college) had 7 and Philly had over 4. We didn't reach that at all. When we had rain it was a misty drizzle.

I did nothing this morning...well, it's Sunday and that's what Sunday is about! We did go to breakfast. I had a toasted corn muffin and ate the entire thing with 2 cups of coffee. YUM!  We got home and I just puttered around and really can't say what I did. I was on the computer and looked at the ads in the Sunday paper and ....well, I don't know. We at lunch around noon - hot dogs on the grill. Let me talk about that grill... it's a Charm Glow that we got at Home Depot several years ago -maybe three. I use it often - keep it covered with a heavy duty cover and feel I take good care of it. And the grates are kinda shot so when B started talking about a replacement I was all for it. The Webber grills sounded good! We had looked at them last week when we went to Ace Hardware. Went on Amazon and some other web sites and Amazon looked good with no tax and no shipping charge....and we ordered it. YEA. As I cooked the hot dogs I thought - gosh these things are taking forever to get done...and the temperature on the lid (not that it's accurate) said 320 so.. anyway the new grill should get here this week.

So for whatever reason, this afternoon I felt inspired. First I worked downstairs on the lower level. I have books on line to sell for our local library and I reviewed what I had and removed about 12 that were not going to sell since they had been on line for over 2 years. I also straightened things up and made it look neater. I then went up to the loft and did a quick sort of the "stuff" on my desk and filed, shredded or did something with everything. YEA..

And then I went to the kitchen. I've been trying to get back into canning. The other day I did blueberry jam - and it was good. Rather sweet but good. So I canned 7 jars in 3 batches. Today I first baked a cake. Now it was a mix so all I did was mix it up and pop it into the oven. And I still have to make icing. I then started the next canning project Vidalia Onion Thyme Relish which turned out OK. I canned three half pints and have a bit to taste. It's oniony with a sweet tart taste.

I also just finished icing the cake.Icing is REALLY good!  For diner we had roasted chicken using the convection oven...love convection.

And the day was good...and I'm tired. Busy afternoon and it's still kinda soggy out. So we will have some cake and relax..happy Sunday!

A new week ...A new month

I'm posting from the iPad Realized I could do that easily while we sit at the table having coffee, reading the paper and watching the news. Maybe I'll post more as this is easy and convenient. It's 65 out and we had rain overnight. B just brought Honey in from one of her many morning walks.

The news jus reported that there was a tornado touchdown both in Scranton and on Wayne County. Fortunately we only had heavy rain and moderate winds.