New week starts with Labor Day Holiday

This week starts with a holiday.  Thus giving a relaxing day followed by four how come it feels like this day of the week when it is this day of the week days.  Once the weekend gets her things often go back to a more normal until then well we have this or that day to make it though.  The list of today's for this week covers the front and back of an envelope.  We sat down at dinner last night and made the list as getting older we found this helps us keep on task a bit better. 

Today will be a day to go see a friend or two while working dogs.  Dan and I will go down towards Eugene, Oregon and spend some time working young dogs with our trainer.  The plans are to spend some time working the dogs then to come home to make a ham dinner.  Sounds good to me.

Last night OAM went and got an electric mouse thing, he plugged it in within minutes 5 mice ran out though the hole in the wall out of the kitchen.  He was so happy had rushed in to tell me about how well his find had worked on running out the mice.  Okay but still have the cats now to deal with.  Beanie and Cicle are the kitten's names.  Seems that OAM is training them to use the litter box, he even cleaned the litter box out.  For this I am very thankful, praise the Lord, pass the potatoes happy. 

Better go make up some side dishes and put the ham into the oven on time bake.  Thinking side dishes to be pickled beets,  roasted garden veggies -tomatoes, zuke, onion, carrots, and herbs, jello salad maybe with fruit, and watermelon for something sweet.  Might even bake a cake if I get time. 

Take Care, enjoy your holiday,

Ol' Mossback
 

Made Iced Coffee this weekend

Made iced coffee over the weekend, yes I did!  So good, now to recall how to stay awake all day long and not take super long naps.  Used just Folgers Coffee this time, it came out well.  I can pick Folgers up at the second’s store in town for half the cost of the name brand stores, plus other items I save on, like cottage cheese, a quart for 99 cents. I like going there to shop first then see what else I need.  They even have frozen meat sometimes which can really help stretch the food budget.  Going there is streaky so I see what is there first then fill in the gaps.  If I see something I will need in a few weeks or months form then, like cranberry sauce for two quarts for a dollar fifty, I get it then wished I had more.  Old Army Guy likes homey in his stews and soups so when I see it for 3 for a dollar I load up with 6 cans.  Which will last me will into spring if not I get more. 

Not each time do I load up on things, but with a fresh deli of Amish made cheeses and meats I find hard to pass on good meats for sandwiches.  Sometimes I have them slice the chopped ham the thickest slices they can then come home and freeze each slice on its own then use the slices to flavor bean soups or other savory soups. 

Chopped bacon needs to be made and bundled up as it is getting that season where I use the bacon flavor to help cover the lack of meat in some meals.  Potato Soup with bacon in the broth helps meet the need of “meat” my tongue asks for yet gets veggies into OAM (Old Army Man)  if I sneak some into the Green bean soup, one of my favorite ways to eat green beans, once the novelty of fresh steamed, pressure cooked, or just plan fresh wears a body down.  I purchase the bacon now as it is often on sale for BLT’s of summer eating.  Cutting it up into usable size bacon bits to fry later and store them in ice cube trays in baggies until frozen then put them in a larger zipper bag to keep them together.  I do this with other items I buy in large number 10 (commercial size cans) as I can get lots of meals out of one can for half the price of buying thes same amount in smaller cans.  Corn and chili work well for this along with other things I may see in large cans now and then. 

We have three refrigerators.  One is for the livestock and dogs meds, and dried milk replacers storage.  One is pop, ice tea, cold beverages, plus overflow and large item storage, and then there is the kitchen frig.  I love the overflow frig.  It has a place to put the next night’s meat out to defrost, remember those large cans of food I purchased will some was mustard, mayo, and ketchups.  I repackage some, others I leave in there packaging.  Last might I had pork chops defrosting and OAM got out steaks so I went to the frig, got out the Carna Asada sauce for that night, put a sweet soy sauce over the pork steaks, and tonight I will have Asian style pork with cold slaw (also from the overflow frig as the container is filled each month during the last few days of the month as OAM likes a vinegar based cold slaw so he gets it at the end of the month when other fresh veggies have run out) and then a jasmine rice which in the summer I store in the freezer part of the 2^nd frig due to Indian Meal moths in the house.  Then once again back to that 2^nd frig as dessert will be watermelon as it is too big to put in the kitchen frig.    Dinner tomorrow night I will need to pull out of the big freezer tonight after OAM gets home he was stopping by the store to get food he likes or I had forgotten or we were out of before coming home tonight.  Two more days and two more nights of him in summer session and we will be free of college for a while.  Doctors found some things in need of care so we will see if he goes back to college or what in September. 

Other things you will find in that second frig, oranges, apples, extra carrots, other root veggies in the fall and winter, spices, sauces I purchase in bulk, in the freezer is frozen milk, flours, etc that meal moths get into in the summer and in the winter frozen meals I make ahead for tax season.  If I make double in Nov-Dec then the meals I come home to are homemade rather than fast food or eating at midnight when I am working during tax season.  I often will go to bed w/o, but now that I have sugar issues I need to eat something to keep on track.  If we can, we butcher a pig and or a cow, but this year with ORM injured we sold the beef and sheep off and the goats are too small to butcher so we will need to talk about if we are buying half a pig or beef or what.  We do not even have a chicken right now which is so strange for us.  We do have the dogs, but they are the bread and butter of how we earn an income off this small farm of ours. 

 

Back to the second frig.  I love having it.  I went without for three years and found it hard to manage.  In the old cabin in the wood were I first had my home there was a cold storage box that was in the coldest part of the home in the summer that we could keep things cooler in like onions and mustards, but not mayo.  In the second place we had in Albany, we had an old frig which we kept things ready made for the kids to eat in the summer so they did not have to come into the house all the time to snack or get drinks. That frig out in the breezeway helped by cutting down the home cooling bills and allowing their dad who worked nights to sleep without the doors slamming all day long.  I made Kool-Aid and froze it in lidded reusable cups or paper cups and the kids could get them out and eat on them or drink them as they wanted.  I also had cheeses, sliced meats, cut up veggies and fruit and such for them to pull out and share if they had friends with them.  Along with cookies and such now and then to treat the other kids and my own or for them to grab for a meal if they wanted as long as I knew, some days I even packed lunches and put it out there for them so they babysitter did not have to make lunches on the days I worked.  It worked slick until I was feeding the whole neighborhood then we had to put rules on the who’s and whens of eating out of our frig.   

 

Better go time to fix myself up a bit before OAM gets home.   Wash my hands, run a comb though my hair, and well check to see if there are any dishes ready to use or if I need to do a other load of dishes before we can eat.  Next maybe I will write about limited water pressure and the effects on getting housework done the modern way.  Who will know, I will see what strikes me when I sit down to write. 

 

So long for now,

 

Old Mossback

 Iced Coffee

 

One 12 oz “can” of coffee

water

Pour coffee into a large container, cover with three times the water.  Let sit at least 12 hrs on the counter, but I never get to it before at least two days due to my lack of planning.  Stir, and stir ever twelve hours or so, strain the mixer into a mesh strainer.  Rinse out the large container.  Let the coffee mix sit a bit longer use a coffee filter this time and strain into the rinsed out large container.  Rinse out the storage container once empty of all the segment and then pour the coffee mix into the storage container.  Put in frig.  I sweeten mine with stevia and use whole milk about 2 oz. of coffee, two-three drops of stevia, and 2 oz. of whole milk to a glass filled with ice.  Now fix it to be favored by adding almond flavoring or such to the coffee or purchased a flavored coffee and go from there to sit and drink your refreshing iced coffee you made for the cost of one iced coffee at a coffee house.  This lasts me about three to five days on hot summer days or very long hard not much sleep nights otherwise I make it like once a week or every 10 days when I can.    

At least the dogs liked dinner!

I had such great hope for dinner tonight, easy, microwave meal of food we both love.  Alas somehow I missed the boat.  Two plates needed rather than the one large platter was the first error.  2nd error, hubby not relating finger food with dinner.  3rd error,  not making another dish hubby related as a meal. 

I like nacho dinners now and then.  Not asking for monthly or weekly, but a couple times a year just to feel out of the mold of this is dinner-meat or meat base casserole, salad, side dish carbs.  I like dinner salads, soups, and stews for dinners.  Husband thinks of these as starter courses.   Now there are some things he likes that I just never have had or he finds he enjoys, but for the most part he has boundaries on what he thinks dinner is and expects it in his head.  He does not mean to be so set however he is very set in his way of thinking in many ways.   There is a reason I relate to him as Old Army Man.  Rules were rules to guild you though situations all you had to find was the right book to guide you.   Someone from above sent down the orders then others took and gave those orders into orders of action.  Old Army Man was midway up the chain so he was one who did take and do some delegating however he was also low enough on the pole to feel some of the dirt run down hill now and again. 

Maybe it is just because he is in his last week of classes in community college after being out of college 3 decades that he is grumpy.  Now getting those brain cells to open up to today's education system with computers, wireless systems, phones that have more power than we ever would have hoped to have in our lifetime power.  Remember the first time you walked and talked on a wireless phone.  I can recall having to sit by the phone and having a three foot cord with a 6 minute time limit or the phone company kicked you off the line no matter who you were talking to or why unless it was long distance than they loved charging you for long distance.  You know long distance like the town 8 miles away.   Yea I am on old piece of shoe leather.  I had to learn to use a party line phone with an operated on it when I first learned to use the phone.  Silly to think now I can 750 miles away and call my kids up and them not even know I am out of state.  

Progress is good do not get me wrong.  I had a mammogram yesterday.  I have odd shaped breasts in that they are not small two three picture each side breast.  5 positions latter on each side and at the angled view I am leaving.  No pain, no long term smashing of the tissue, no hour to be in the odd positions.  The pictures they can do now are wow.  I was loving it.  A course I was having a heat flash so I stunk up to high heaven.  Poor gal taking the shots had to get up close to me several times.  I had showered just minutes prior to getting into the car so I could be fresh and clean for the mammogram.  The best laid plans of mice and men went out the door.  Big heavy set ladies who are more round than tall in their 50's do have BO even on the best of times if they are hot, no a/c in auto, warm day, and having a heat flash.  I had water dripping off my face so bad I had to wipe my face several times during the 20 minutes it took to take the images. 

Cancer was the cause of death for both of my grandmothers you would think I would be more aware of things.  I become overwhelmed by thinking to much on the topic.  I have eaten home raised foods for the most part of my life until I went to work and stopped canning, freezing, and other methods of food preserving.   Well this gets to deep if I go where this is leading we will cover this topic in later posts I am sure it will come up again. Eating right well for who you are happens to be a topic I can talk on for hours. 


Thanks for your time, enjoy the rest of the week.  Until we meet again. 

Old Mossback. 

Finding a job at over 50

Today went well. How was your day?  Old Army man felt well enough to drive himself today.  He took it easy, did not push it.  His army disability is paying for him to attend local community college 3/4 time.  He has a long way to go to be finished however he has a goal and hope of working again which at 55 plus may be a punishment or a blessing.  He wants to work the farm so bad yet the pain will not go away if he is on his feet too much plus right now he is just under so many what if's from the doctors that we are falling the rehabs line of hope along with maybe he can work again some day.  In our area of the country people 55 just do not seem to be hired then again just a few months ago unemployment was over 11% county wide with our area of the county closer to 17%.   We live in a large Oregon County. 

Ever tried to rethink your life and it's goals.  I work a 12 step program, have for 22 plus years now.  My word it is hard. Sometime I have to adjust my life dreams and hopes to be more real other times I just need to allow myself to be in the moment, forgive myself.  Experience starts to become an issue as you have too much,  employment agencies state you should be looking at these types of jobs-high pay, leadership, jobs like state workers have and paid as good or better than them, yea right.   In all the years I have looked no one I mean no one has said gee whiz girl you are too cute, able bodied, or too athletic to have this job.  Rather I get well you are over qualified, ( you must be old) your are just not what we are looking for ( combo-not a knock out beauty, too fat, I am so fat it scares them, they see their insurance rates going up because of age, weight, or conditions), best of all is the I wish I knew of someone hiring cause you have so much to offer someone however you just will not fit in here.  (See above).  I have had people hire me nearly sight unseen, they have loved my work once they got past the oh my she is heavy, old, gray haired hum, or other reservations.  I have gotten great responses from them however seems these jobs just did not work out due to the changing economic climate in most cases.  So I now work a job that requires someone in my state to hold a licence's to work at that job.  I only work tax season but it is a job that does not pay out right well but better than any other I have been offered in the past 5 years.  About 10 years ago I started looking for something to be a second "job" one of my own making say a business I could work at between tax seasons.   I had several things I was researching when I meet my husband and well farming came back as an option. 

I attended Oregon State took courses which would have lead me to be an agriculture extension agent related work.  Alas 18 months after I had gotten my diploma the state started changing how or who they hired.  I needed a Masters degree to even apply.  Shot here I was two kids in diapers, drink unemployed abusive carpenter husband #1, who had been told by the college when I went back 3 yrs later I needed to update my college skills before entering the masters program.  I had a 12 day old baby when I walked down the concourse to get my degree handed to me.  Seems all those job apps I had been applying for just did not know how to take my degree.  I am holding anger over choices I made.  I have drank over them plus other choices I have made.  Seemed each time I started to make headway something got in the way.  It took years but I know now I need to be the one making my way in the world not asking people to make my way in the world.  I make my own way.  Not something corp America likes to hear, drives my boss nuts during tax season as I am a bit of a maverick.  I can read his reports he allows us to read, I had economics, business, and math, along with social insight classes.  I have read the results of the reports as I see them and being able to read some of the writing on the wall.  I have had to learn to wait to respond to the boss when I work for others.  I love the freedom to work for myself there are months I earn more working for myself then I do working for the "man" however I still am not sure enough to go it alone without the  safety net of a job to help cover the expenses most of the year. 

I like doing it on my own. Being the one who knows the market, advertises, does sales, research which can be the best side of this being self employed equation.  Then there is the promotion of my bit of heaven.  Dog trails, livestock auctions, the everyday wonderful God bless them real people.  No one trying to stab me in the back in the next office, no one telling me Not to go there, but watching to see if it works.   I can name many ways not to raise sheep in the Willamette Valley.  I can tell you dozen of ways how not treat to allow your livestock guard dog to behave or acts one should not allow them to see.  I can tell you which types of goats I am liking and willing to spend time around.  I learned I miss the smell of a horse on the place.  Calves can cause as much laughter as baby lambs.   I don't get to hold the calves as long on my lap as I do the lambs but then again calves are not as often coming into the house looking for me like the goats and sheep do.  Chickens are great.  Ducks actions bring smiles.  Geese can eat loads of grass.  Things I find heart warming.  Grand kids love to feed the baby livestock, run around seeing all the sights we have on our small acreage.  I love my ATV plan and simple. 

Better go now.  I have spent the day removing mouse droppings as I moved things around on the pantry shelves finding 3 places those buggers have chewed though the wall to get into that room.  Old metal shelves where on the floor moving and cleaning those not fun.  Taking the time to sort out old stuff, do I need that in here questions, and just adjusting life to live it a bit better.  Need to go into town and get some drywall maybe steel wool so these mice will not chew back though the walls where I patch.

Old Moss had better go finish this blog as it is nearly 10 pm and I work in the morning.