Prepping Earthboxes for Winter

Looks Kind of Like Spring?

No...I didn't plant that Sunflower

Word of the Day

Malbingophobia - The fear among some bingo players that they have incorrectly marked a square, and calling "bingo" could cause them not victory, but public humiliation.

I had planned to use my FoodSaver to vacuum-seal things that I've been freezing to bring back home to Arizona with me. *sigh* Best laid plans and all that. My FoodSaver is no more, it's dead, it has passed, it is no more. I ordered a new one online but...it won't come until next week...even with Amazon Prime. So? Now what?

I took another look at my itinerary and decided to cancel the hotel reservation for my last night on the road to Arizona and switch it to another. I decided that it would be smarter to drive a bit farther on the day that I leave Sarge's place and a little less on that final day of driving. So, I'll be staying at a really nice hotel in Van Horn, Texas on that final night before returning home...and I've stayed there before. Pampering time.

I started putting my gardens to bed. Started is the operational word here. I've still got lots to do but, it occurred to me, why do I always feel like I have to do everything on one day? Tomorrow is another day. I've got a bit of time yet to do all this.

Meanwhile, I found a couple of Italian peppers that I'd missed when I was picking everything the other day. So...I decided to make an End of Season Soup. There is no recipe for this soup. I decided to use some frozen pork chops, some of my potatoes, a zucchini and some baby zucchini that I harvested from the plants before I hauled them off to the compost heap, green beans...I'm still harvesting those, and fried puffballs, and some jarred tomatoes from 2010. Hey! They're still good! I used some special spices and decided to make my soup into a sort of hot & sour soup. It ended up tasting WONDERFUL! But...what the heck will I do with a huge pot of soup? I decided to can four quarts of it. Yes, you can can your own soup but...wow...90 minutes at 10 pounds pressure? I've NEVER canned something for that long. I imagine that the resultant soup will end up a bit like soup stock. I mean, what the heck could be left after it's been cooked at pressure for that long...certainly not dangerous organisms, and, I suppose that's the reasoning. Oh well... That's OK. I'll use it for a base for a future soup next year. Canned, it will last 3 years so...I'll have time to use it up. I still ended up with at least three more servings of the soup to enjoy...fresh.

I've made two trips up to the main road and back with Kylee but despite all that I've done today, I will not make my 10,000 steps. I'm just too tried to do more. I've got a venison burrito/chimichanga prepped for dinner tonight. I'll make my 10,000 tomorrow when I plug in my aerobic workout. No...I didn't pick any more giant puffballs.

Random Quote of the Day

Set all things in their own peculiar place, and know that order is the greatest grace.

- John Dryden (1631 - 1700)