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Its day 5 of a 7 day moving trip across Canada. It was going too well. Engine light came on, fortunately just before an exit off the freeway. Because I'm still on Ontario time, 2 hours ahead of Alberta time, the mechanic in the small town was still open. Better still, there was a motel just up the block and it allowed 2 german shepherd dogs to stay in the room. The trailer full of chickens is locked up in the mechanic's yard.

Turns out it is the oil level sensor so maybe he can get it fixed by noon tomorrow. It could have been worse. Back in Manitoba, they wouldn't let out of province cooty bags like me, sleep in the motels. Had to sleep in the truck in the parking lot. It could also have malfunctioned going over the Rockies tomorrow. That would have really sucked.
 
Today I took the wife to see the eye doctor, new glasses... The doctor was helping my wife and noticed her shoulder.... When did you break your collarbone? Well that explains why she has been having a backache at the shoulder... I got my flu shot, didn't hurt when they did it, does now....

Went to Wal M to pick up a sling, while there I found some canned pumpkin, they had 2 flats (one the small cans, one the large cans), I got what we use each holiday season +2 cans of each. Went to get some frozen French fries all I found was 10 feet of empty freezer shelves, what's with the run on potatoes?

When I went to put up the pumpkin, I noticed a 5 gallon of bucket of mixed dry beans... It was hidden under some boxes and when I did recycling today it became exposed... we are in much better shape that I thought.

The pumpkin thing got me to thinking back to my college days, I had a neighbor who gathered up all the post Halloween Jack-o-lanterns he could and baked them down to make pumpkin filling, and that guy must of have baked 20 pies! Anyway if there is a real shortage of the stuff and if you can convince the kids to paint the faces on the pumpkins, there is a ready supply of filling for the baking season... And yes, I found the guy using old Jack-o-lanterns gross, but the pies looked nice...
 
Today I took the wife to see the eye doctor, new glasses... The doctor was helping my wife and noticed her shoulder.... When did you break your collarbone? Well that explains why she has been having a backache at the shoulder... I got my flu shot, didn't hurt when they did it, does now....

Went to Wal M to pick up a sling, while there I found some canned pumpkin, they had 2 flats (one the small cans, one the large cans), I got what we use each holiday season +2 cans of each. Went to get some frozen French fries all I found was 10 feet of empty freezer shelves, what's with the run on potatoes?

When I went to put up the pumpkin, I noticed a 5 gallon of bucket of mixed dry beans... It was hidden under some boxes and when I did recycling today it became exposed... we are in much better shape that I thought.

The pumpkin thing got me to thinking back to my college days, I had a neighbor who gathered up all the post Halloween Jack-o-lanterns he could and baked them down to make pumpkin filling, and that guy must of have baked 20 pies! Anyway if there is a real shortage of the stuff and if you can convince the kids to paint the faces on the pumpkins, there is a ready supply of filling for the baking season... And yes, I found the guy using old Jack-o-lanterns gross, but the pies looked nice...
As someone who has had a broken collar bone, and a daughter who had a broken collar bone, did you have to help your wife get up out of bed? That was the clue for my mother that my collar bone was broken. I couldn't sit up in bed. For daughter, I took her to the doctor as soon as her day care reported to me that she fell. They thought everything was fine. When she couldn't sit up in bed the next day, back we went. Yep, broken collar bone.

Pumpkin: I have seen some people report that there is a pumpkin shortage this year. Maybe, but I have gotten what we will need as well.
 
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As someone who has had a broken collar bone, and a daughter who had a broken collar bone, did you have to help your wife get up out of bed. That was the clue for my mother that my collar bone was broken. I couldn't sit up in bed. For daughter, I took her to the doctor as soon as her day care reported to me that she fell. They thought everything was fine. When she couldn't sit up in bed the next day, back we went. Yep, broken collar bone.

Pumpkin: I have seen some people report that there is a pumpkin shortage this year. Maybe, but I have gotten what we will need as well.
Wow! Not around here- they are everywhere. I think some things must be regional as far as being out or short on things. I’ve not looked for canned pumpkin though. My mom is the only one who will eat pumpkin pie but prefers others.
I’ve heard of Jackolantern pies the first of Nov 🎃
 
They said there was a canned pumpkin shortage in Texas. I don't normally "store" it cuz I'm not so fond of it, but I've got enough cans for pie for Thanksgiving tribe. I think I'll make something else with it instead of pie. Anybody got any other favorite recipes for canned pumpkin?
Short work day. School stuff, success.
Headache. Tired.
Got a tree out back that needs to come down, cracked in two places and rotting on one side. Kinda scary.

Anyone who lives in a neighborhood where trick or treating goes on, I hope it is a big no this year for you. I would guess it is not allowed.
There are so many people that flood this neighborhood every year. Out of towners included.
 
Cream cheese pumpkin roll is great. Recipe should be on Libby's site. Hope your headache goes away, Patchouli. There's plenty of actual pumpkins here. Just a little short on canned pumpkins. I baked tons of pumpkins last November. Son works at a plant nursery, and they overordered for decoration and to give to customers, but they weren't Jack O Latterns. Those I give to the chickens. Husband wanted to talk to the John Deere guy today about a tractor, so we did that. Started painting the inside of room one in the old milkhouse. About 1/4 done.
 
They said there was a canned pumpkin shortage in Texas. I don't normally "store" it cuz I'm not so fond of it, but I've got enough cans for pie for Thanksgiving tribe. I think I'll make something else with it instead of pie. Anybody got any other favorite recipes for canned pumpkin?
Short work day. School stuff, success.
Headache. Tired.
Got a tree out back that needs to come down, cracked in two places and rotting on one side. Kinda scary.

Anyone who lives in a neighborhood where trick or treating goes on, I hope it is a big no this year for you. I would guess it is not allowed.
There are so many people that flood this neighborhood every year. Out of towners included.
I have a pumpkin bread recipe- kinda like banana nut bread but with pumpkin- pretty good sliced and toasted and buttered. Let me know 🍂
 
They said there was a canned pumpkin shortage in Texas. I don't normally "store" it cuz I'm not so fond of it, but I've got enough cans for pie for Thanksgiving tribe. I think I'll make something else with it instead of pie. Anybody got any other favorite recipes for canned pumpkin?
Short work day. School stuff, success.
Headache. Tired.
Got a tree out back that needs to come down, cracked in two places and rotting on one side. Kinda scary.

Anyone who lives in a neighborhood where trick or treating goes on, I hope it is a big no this year for you. I would guess it is not allowed.
There are so many people that flood this neighborhood every year. Out of towners included.
Interesting. I thought about a thread for pumpkin recipes. The pumpkin roll that Amish suggested is fabulous! When I was a young adult, I tried a recipe for pumpkin roll and it failed a few times. I have no idea what was wrong, but I finally gave it up. It may have been the recipe I used, or it could have been the cook!
 
I think it takes a certain touch to make the pumpkin roll. We used to buy it at the AMISH market near us back east. Such a favorite of so many. It was a pretty cool place to shop and only open on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Closed early on Saturday.
Just home from taking a sick cat to the vet. Yes, we do that. When we got home the dog would not stop sniffing us. And sort of smiling at us like, hey did you see any dogs?
It was really weird but neither of us remembered to take our phones. o_O :D Look, turns out we didn't need them after all.
 
My wife usually makes batches of pumpkin and banana bread during the holidays. We have mini-loaf pans that make lots of little loaves that are fun to share. I have a hard time telling the two breads apart, but add a "glaze" of butter and I could eat them all day... :) But, that makes me look like Santa Claus ;)

If I am going to eat pumpkin pie, I use it as a base for a mountain of wipped cream
 
I have a pumpkin cake recipe that we'd make a huge sheet of it for the preschool for afternoon snack this time of year. The frosting would be a sprinkle of powdered sugar. I guess that would be a "lunch lady" recipe, but since I was the one who could cook, I typically did the cooking, and my office door opened to the kitchen.
I make banana bread or banana pudding regularly, because the kids won't eat bananas unless there's no spots on them. Not sure what's planned for today. Husband is still sleeping, he was up alot last night. The kids are leaving for the bus right now. I know husband mentioned going out to breakfast this morning. The kids have their last marching band gig tonight, so we'll have to pick them up after the football game. But I have a crazy list of projects. The milkhouse is one of them.
 
It was 30 degrees here this morning. I'm glad I put flannel sheets on my bed a few days ago, but it makes me want to snuggle in. The furnace is not coming on, so I will need to get someone out here to figure out what is wrong. It would be a good time to get the furnace cleaned. It is ten years old now.

Have two dogs today, one this morning, one this afternoon, both going to the dog park to play for a while.
 
We haven't reached the 20's yet but it has been freezing most nights for almost a month.

Made it back from our 500-mile round trip down to Phoenix with no issues. Did it in one day and we were home by 8pm. Long day of driving for me but it is done. Most of it was on winding mountain roads.
Wife got mostly good news from the eye doc specialist. Basically they will wait and see if things get worse but do nothing for now. Glad that day is over.
 
Wow, @hiwall that's quite a trip for a day. Hope you get more good news.
Weedy I slept with the window open a few inches last night. Low 50s I guess, so no frost! 10 year old furnace better behave itself.
Snap, our dog doesn't mind the vet as long as there are no needles involved. Lol
Off today. Lots of catch up to do.
 
I'm waiting!
Pumpkin Bread.jpeg

Bon appetit!
 
Wow, @hiwall that's quite a trip for a day. Hope you get more good news.
Weedy I slept with the window open a few inches last night. Low 50s I guess, so no frost! 10 year old furnace better behave itself.
Snap, our dog doesn't mind the vet as long as there are no needles involved. Lol
Off today. Lots of catch up to do.
I came home from the dog park and messed with the thermostat and got the furnace going! I had turned it down to 48 degrees in the spring, and the house had not gotten that cold yet. I do have to change the furnace filter though. The last ones I bought are 3 month filters, and I thought I had changed the filter about the same time I turned the thermostat down. The fan was off as well, because I do not have air conditioning running through it.
 
Only thing on my list after my walk is to take Oreo to vet this afternoon. He will get 2 pills to sedate him first. I will let you know how this goes. Could be interesting with his fear aggression.

Well this visit went better than expected! The pills slowed him down some but did not sedate him. Slowed him down enough for the girls to throw a towel over his head to hold him because there was no putting a muzzle on him. He wasn't happy but should be good to go for 3 years on rabies! I'm resting and eating dinner. That will be all today.
 
Hello, hello.
I'm back.
Have had grand daughter the last few days.
Mom, big sister, Aunt, and cousin who watch Granny's big little grand daughter has been ill.
Granny has her through the day.
Dad has her at night.
Got a pot of chicken soup going in the crock pot.
Finished up moving the last three pieces of furniture in living room.
Just about got everything put away.
Plants are back on the bay window.
Nights have been in 30's.
Time to bring them in.
Strawberry is laying on my right hip, covered in blanket, shivering, snoring.
It's 69* inside my pace.
No heat, no air conditioner on right now.
I think it feels good in here.
That dang splint thing on my left arm has rubbed a sore like a bed sore on it.
So it's off today.
My pertual dab of dishes is done up.
Floors has been swiftered.
So ready for nap.
 
Ran to Walmart this morning. Mostly more dry goods and cleaning supplies. Since I made a batch of laundry detergent I grabbed another box of borax, washing soda and 2 bars of white Zote. They were out of big boxes of baking soda but I have a 5 lb bag under my kitchen sink for cleaning. I saw they were out of the unscented bleach tablets so I grabbed 2 bottles of the linen scent. Those last almost forever! I have bottles that are as old as Roo and they still work! No empty shelves at our Walmart BUT it is Friday right before the weekend so I am sure they got in a delivery last night.

I plan to inventory our LT food storage in the next few weeks. We started prepping around the time Roo was born and she turns 9 at the end of the month. Some food storage has a shelf life of 10 years depending on the food (dehydrated apples). I wanted to start eating these before the 10 year mark stated so we are not overwhelmed with several years of food that is going bad (or could). I also want to start replacing these as soon as I can.

Gas prices went up again. I haven't had to fill up in several weeks so I was shocked at how high prices were today! I'll fill up another gas can tonight when I run out to the grocery store for meat. Costco had inflated beef prices so we didn't get much last week. Our local Vons (Safeway) has a sale tonight on london broil and pork loin so I will be hitting that up.
 
I can't remember if I posted before or after the last hurricane. LOL. We were told in the evening that there was mandatory evacuation by 6am the next morning. I spent awhile arguing with my mother & by the time I convinced her to let me pack her stuff up, it was too late to go bc the roads had flooded too badly. Loggers filled in the ditches to get across to cut trees & didn't bother to dig them back out again so the water stayed on the road. It started raining ahead of the storm & it had already been raining for a few days before so the water was bad. Lost power bc a tree hit a power pole & knocked it down across the road. I guess one of our neighbors decided to chop up the pole & move it bc fireman came around in the afternoon to check on us. Some of the neighbors were stuck with water up to their chests from flooding. They couldn't evacuate bc of the flooding either.
It was cool enough for us to stay at the house at night but we went over to a friend's house in the day. Had some bbq (his power was out too). Town got hit hard. Lots of flooding. People lost their homes & everything they owned. Stores were all shut down. Took a few days for them to get power back but took a week to get ours back.
The barrier seems to be keeping the raccoons out, but cats are not happy about it. Some of them can get by it, but they want to go through my window instead now. They tore a hole in the screen when I had my window open & they keep pulling on the screen from the outside & howling to get in or scratching at the window & howling from the inside to get out. One of my fatter cats kept climbing on me and chittering at me, then going to the window, then coming back & chittering until I let him out.
Store didn't have much for us to restock with so we have limited food supplies.
I still need to get a crown put on one of my teeth. I meant to call the dentist to let them know I'm OK, but landline is out still. The box got underwater. I need to put for a repair.
Mom just requested that I cook shepherd's pie for her so I'm going to take a naproxyn & get to it.
 
That sounds like a big mess, zannej, but it's good you are all ok.
Husband and I went to breakfast this morning at the Amish place. Then got a call from my favorite cousin's dil and her and her and her husband got Covid when they went to Indiana for her mom's funeral. Everyone who went to that funeral is sick now. So they had meat chickens, they butchered 75 of them weeks ago, and had 25 more to go. They are going to the mtns of New Mexico to finish their quarantine (and hunting), and told us to pick up their meat chickens to do. So we went to Sams and bought another freezer. The largest wasn't really large, but we got one. We'll be picking up chickens tomorrow morning, and butchering them all at my cousin's place. Filling up the new freezer. High School just was put on an improvised schedule starting next week. The twins will go on Wed and Friday, and the rest of the week on line school. Little one will go every day to the grade school, but half of the school will be meeting at the Mennonite Church down the road for school, the others at the school. The school has under 60 kids for grades K-8th. So just 30 kids at each place. No school at all Monday so the teachers can get it together.
 
Well, the truck got fixed ; 477.00 for labour and 55.00 for the part. They had us over the proverbial barrel. Two hours down the road and the mechanic called. His friends approaching the mountain pass from the opposite direction sent him pictures of 3 semi trucks jack knifed across the road. The road is closed till further notice.

Good news is, we had just pulled in for gas at the last town before the pass and there was a room at the inn. This too, shall pass.
 
I came home from the dog park and messed with the thermostat and got the furnace going! I had turned it down to 48 degrees in the spring, and the house had not gotten that cold yet. I do have to change the furnace filter though. The last ones I bought are 3 month filters, and I thought I had changed the filter about the same time I turned the thermostat down. The fan was off as well, because I do not have air conditioning running through it.
Sticking with heating season theme.

Today my brother and didn't dig or do concrete but rather swapped out the furnace at my son's place.

20201016_122421.jpg


Any time we can complete a project like that without a trip to Lowe's and get by with what I have in the garage it is a success. Each trip to Lowe's from my son's place involves at least a 1.5 hour round trip.

The kids were happy and the girls were excited.

But while I was there I was able to help Olivia with some math questions since her school is shut-down due to the Kung-flu.

Behave!

Ben
 
We rode up to Cosby today. There is a huge orchard thats been up there for 70+ years. The trees along the driveway were hanging full of HUGE apples. We bought a bushel to dry. Also got some acorn and butternut squash and some nice big onions. Plus some real butter like we get at the amish stores. It had went up from 9-12 dollars.
Looked like many others had the same idea. There was a crowd, usually is, but even more today.
 
I can't remember if I posted before or after the last hurricane. LOL. We were told in the evening that there was mandatory evacuation by 6am the next morning. I spent awhile arguing with my mother & by the time I convinced her to let me pack her stuff up, it was too late to go bc the roads had flooded too badly. Loggers filled in the ditches to get across to cut trees & didn't bother to dig them back out again so the water stayed on the road. It started raining ahead of the storm & it had already been raining for a few days before so the water was bad. Lost power bc a tree hit a power pole & knocked it down across the road. I guess one of our neighbors decided to chop up the pole & move it bc fireman came around in the afternoon to check on us. Some of the neighbors were stuck with water up to their chests from flooding. They couldn't evacuate bc of the flooding either.
It was cool enough for us to stay at the house at night but we went over to a friend's house in the day. Had some bbq (his power was out too). Town got hit hard. Lots of flooding. People lost their homes & everything they owned. Stores were all shut down. Took a few days for them to get power back but took a week to get ours back.
The barrier seems to be keeping the raccoons out, but cats are not happy about it. Some of them can get by it, but they want to go through my window instead now. They tore a hole in the screen when I had my window open & they keep pulling on the screen from the outside & howling to get in or scratching at the window & howling from the inside to get out. One of my fatter cats kept climbing on me and chittering at me, then going to the window, then coming back & chittering until I let him out.
Store didn't have much for us to restock with so we have limited food supplies.
I still need to get a crown put on one of my teeth. I meant to call the dentist to let them know I'm OK, but landline is out still. The box got underwater. I need to put for a repair.
Mom just requested that I cook shepherd's pie for her so I'm going to take a naproxyn & get to it.
Zanne was wondering where you were, hope things dry up soon and you get back to normal. :huggs:
 

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