Interesting time working at the Fair....

We went as requested on Thursday for 1030 am to the fair grounds.  Our contact was not there so I went in to the show barn and offered to help out - many ladies there doing their thing but none of them accepted my help. Feeling awkward, I left and went outside where a bunch were trying to erect a tent. I jumped in and helped out best I could inspite of the lead hand who did not know how to put it up, and had the wrong poles on hand. Went back and forth many times to a shed bringing different sized poles and left me and a few others holding up the half erected tent. Harry was also helping here and so after looking for our contact again and not finding her, we left and came home feeling that we were not really needed. She called us the next day and apologized but as it turned out, she was put into an awful situation - the president resigned on the Thursday and she was left to pick up all the pieces and take over completely. She insisted that she was counting on us to help this morning for the parade and then for car races this afternoon. So, we went again for 9 am. I was to help judge the floats and organize the orderly flow of the parade (with another lady). It was fun but hectic and so I had a great time doing what I thought was best but never having done this before, did not really know. eg "Best running antique car" Best running antique tractor" What a hoot! Then over to the Fair grounds, and time for a hot dog, and then to the wooden car races (cub cars). I was to register the entries and then organize the schedule for the individual races or heats, to determine the eventual winners 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. What a hoot(again)! We got home about 3 pm. Don't you wonder sometimes what you get yourself into?? The rain held off for the day which was good because thunderstorms were forecast. it is raining now, and i hope it won't be too much as i would much rather go to bed than pump water haha.
Hope you weekend is going well. Tomorrow I'll have to catch up on housework - laundry etc. And the tables in the front room are completely covered with produce that I have to do down. Looked for more recipes for green tomatoes. How dos a green tomato pie sound to you? Anyway, really tired so off to bed Take care

pay day and power cooking

Yes, that time of month again.  We had been living out of the freezer for the last month, hoping to empty it so we could clean it, but ran out of options for meals. So, we had to buy meat--Kachin-n-n-g!  I usually budget $2/person/day for meat, but with the price of beef had to do some fancy juggling.  Still, with a little care I managed to stay within the budget, but it meant a lot of power cooking.  so we started this morning, and by noon had the three biggest slow cookers bubbling away on the counter.  Tomorrow we'll deal with meatballs and hamburger patties for the freezer.

I made the mistake of mentioning that I was thinking about blueberry muffins and maybe a cobbler, so, of course, David made sure we had ice cream for the cobbler.  Over breakfast I started looking for recipes. but, lo and behold, there were blueberry muffin recipes in today's paper.  On second thought I don't believe I'll make my blueberry muffins with oat flour.  I am very grateful that I kept all of the old Five Roses and Pillsbury cook books I got when I married.  They are in tatters now, but I still use the recipes out of them.  More modern books talk about making cobbler with pie filling, but no mention of actually using real berries.

We also bought the makings for four batches of Rhubarb and \pineapple jam.  I'm not sure when I'll get to that!  This, too, was in an effort to clean out the freezer, as a good chunk of it is filled with last year's rhubarb.

Our only real extravagance this pay day was to buy a small panini cooker.  I also bought the meat and cheese to make myself a Reuben sandwich.  I had one a couple of months ago that had been cooked that way, without using butter on the bread.  Well, I tried it today for lunch.  Needs a little tweaking.

Beth, did you check Not Afraid of Color today? Seems like she made a whole bunch of owls while she was on holiday.  So cute, and I love the flower eyes!

So time for poker now.  We are both quite tired.  This working bit is for the birds, but mainly finished, so no worries.

Keeping in touch

Seems a few days since I wrote, and if I want to see messages from you folks, I better pull my share as well!
Really busy - this harvesting is all consuming. Tomorrow it will be another batch of ketchup - bought more ingredients today and the tomatoes keep piling up. And crabapples galore. Made one nice batch of juice so far. Harry started to pick more apples this afternoon while I went to the store and promptly quit when he fell off the ladder onto the cement blocks. Oh boy!
A few big apples are falling off the one nice tree and I collected them with intent to make "original Pancake House Apple Pancake" for breakfast tomorrow.I have the recipe out ready to get at it as soon as I get up ( and get a coffee in me) Speaking of coffee, I feel a little dismayed at hearing of the takeover of Tim Horton's by Burger King. We do not have a Burger King Restaurant near us. Used to be one in North bay but closed years ago. Time will tell what it will mean for Tim's but in meantime, I shall continue to enjoy every time I can indulge myself with a Tim's coffee or other goodies.
One day soon I shall be able to introduce you to my OWL. Every spare minute I have , I have been working away at her creation, and making good progress. Slow and steady seems to be my mantra to get the job done to my satisfaction. I went into that fabric store in South River this afternoon - the one that is closing end August. Now everything is 75% off but little is left. Two ladies were having a ball buying up metres and metres of fabric by the bolt. I had a look at the remaining fabric selection and nothing interested me.  I don't think I ever intended to buy anything anyway, as I have so many boxes of fabric on hand that I could use if and when I get involved with a project.
We confirmed our volunteer commitment today with the Fall Fair organizer for the weekend. We have to go at 11 am Thursday to set up and they will be providing a meal at supper for us.We do NOT have to go Friday as previously stated, but then go again at 9 am Saturday to help with parade, and then Cub Car Rally races. So it will not be as bad as I originally was led to believe.
So how are things there?  Take care

Rain-day 5

Is this a case of "be careful what you wish for"?  Five days a gentle -and not so gentle-soaking rain.  It is August and today we went out with jackets.  We have extra quilts on the beds, and everything feels damp.  However, we don't have to work in the garden-bonus!(Although it's getting so out of control that "somebody" should be working out there.)

Yesterday, Young Samantha came to spend the afternoon so that the rest of the family could go to a baseball game. Evidently it is soe promotion where young ball players are out on the field, and get to meet players.  Jessica's team was selected for yesterday's game, and Samantha didn't want to go.  I guess she has spent a lot of time on the sidelines while the older girls play.

She brought a laptop so she could play her computer games, and after getting it into the household WIFI ( Password? We have a  password?), changing all of the plug ins, etc the game lasted about 15 minutes, before she became more interested in what I was doing. 

So Samantha took the first steps in learning to sew on Grandma's big sewing machine.  She made a blanket for Barbie, including ironing the seams.  I chose the big machine, instead of one of the two simpler machines, for two reasons: it had a start/stop button and she didn't have to learn to control the foot pedal, and I could turn the operating speed down to " bull low".  She was careful and suitably cautious, doing a respectable job for a 6 year old.  Then, by the time she had done some painting, and had lunch ( cooked her own in the microwave), and a little more computer time, Grandmas had time to set up something a little more challenging, and she tackled a simple wallet, although Grandma had to sew on the Velcro.

Overall, a good afternoon was had by all, and I still managed to get my work to the stage I had hoped, by supper time.  Then I spent time thinking about how children manage to adapt to society.  Samantha was able to turn on her computer and set up the games she wanted--she played several over the course of the afternoon,  She had no trouble cooking Kraft Dinner in the microwave. She told me that she is learning to ride a two-wheeler.  Within the society in which she lives, all of these are just a matter of course, for six year olds.

David has asked about the blueberry muffins, so we may tackle that in the next day or so.  Tomorrow I plan to head out to Selkirk to talk to a lady about buying some beads she no longer needs.  She may not remember that I know she bought them cheap at a thrift store, so I anticipate a bit of bargaining.  Since the latest A&W coupons arrived in today's mail, we may even stop for lunch!

Wow! Where was I yesterday?

Not strictly true.  We drove toward the mall in some very heavy rain.  Saw a poor young woman pushing a baby stroller down the street.  She had another one with her 5-6 years old who was trying to stay under an umbrella and keep the umbrella over the baby at the same time, and the rain was so hard that you could barely see across the street.  I sure hope they made it home safely.  Nothing in this morning's paper though.

Well, we signed the contract for the bathroom renovations.  Replacing the flooring, and whatever part of the sub floor has been damaged.  There is a lead flange below the toilet that needs to be replaced, and then the toilet will be replaced as well, with a higher, more sturdy one.  They expect to do the job in mid-September.

I picked up my new glasses this morning, and then got a call this afternoon that my sunglasses were in.  It will take awhile to get used to these as the frames are heavier than any I have worn before.  They look heavy and black, but in the sun or good light the blue comes out.

My joy today and yesterday comes form the fact that my brain is full of ideas and I have been able to spend lots of time in the basement the last couple of days.  The more I do, the more ideas seem to come.  It's almost scary!  Bought paint yesterday--what a treat!

Nothing else going on here.  Lots of reality shows on tv, maybe a bit of poker tonight

Sorry to complain about my rain...

I just watched the video on Free Press web page about all the rain in Winnipeg yesterday. What a terrible situation. The article did mention though that Transcona seemed to miss the worst of it all. Is this true Pati?
Wishing you all a good weekend in spite of the water. How about you Cathy? Did you get hit as bad?
Today I have pickles to make, and then tomorrow another batch of ketchup. The tomato plants are basically dead- the leaves are all yellow and falling off, but the tomatoes are still hanging on and getting bigger. Should make for a few more batches at least haha
Take care !

Pumping rain...

I was pumping from about 3 am this morning. By 6 am it started to subside so time for coffee and relax. I went downstairs to find the pasta machine and heard "drip,drip,drip...drip" and looked up to the rafters to see water leaking from a pipe. I could have cried!  So for the next few hours I was moving and clearing in prep to call the plumber. It takes maybe two days to clear enough room for him to come in. In this case i had to empty and then remove a five shelf huge unit covered with full jars of preserves. Right now they are in boxes on the picnic table outside under a tarp. it was about this time in my work that i thought to check the upstairs bathroom because in the past the rain has come in there from the roof. Sure enough it was wet in spite of my climbing on the roof long ago with the silicon gun! I had put  plastic protective cover downstairs from the ceiling to the floor to catch the leaking water but when I looked there was no water.  So the detective in me deduced that the water had dripped from the roof to the basement. Now, you say, that's not good! No it isn't but it's what I've got to live with right now. So I think I have NO leaking pipes but will check closely for awhile. I put the call to the plumber on hold as well.  And, what to do with the preserves? Oh, who knows....too much to think about for now haha!
Right now I'm going to have a bath and go to bed. Tomorrow we go to a Visitation in Burk's Falls.  When Harry's parents moved in 1977 from the farm to the town, they actually traded houses with a young couple. Now the wife has died (at 68 years) so we shall go to pay our respects. They were always good to Harry's parents, and the husband was a pall bearer at Harry's Dad's funeral.
Take care - stay dry!!
ps we made pasta this afternoon on a new machine Harry got at flea market. It mixes the dough in the bowl and then squirts it through the disk of the shape of pasta you want and out the nozzle. At least this is what it is supposed to do. What a laugh!