Cold

I moved from Alaska partly to get away from the cold. Back in Eagle River, it regularly got to 25 or even 30 degrees below zero (F). Down here in Everson, it rarely gets below 30 degrees.

The last three days, and probably the rest of the week are an exception. We got a huge wind from the Canadian Rockies moving in, bringing the air temperature down to 14 degrees, wind chill brings that down to 5-10 below zero! To make it worse, my house is drafty. The door leading outside from my bedroom won't shut all the way, so I have a dresser in front of it to keep it from blowing completely open. The window above my bed is SINGLE pane, and poorly installed. There is no insulation under the floor.

So I've spent the last two days with the bedroom closed off, all the taps running to keep my pipes from freezing, and sleeping on the couch next to the furnace.

And they call this global warming.

I Lost an X

I have been struggling with my weight for quite a long time. I've been overweight my entire life. Last year, I resolved to do something about it. I've resolved the same thing about a hundred times since high school. But something about the dial on the scale creeping ever closer to 300 lbs (I never quite got there, thank God) did something and I have been dieting and exercising (off and on) since mid February.

Since then, I've lost 45 lbs.

Yesterday, I finally went shopping for new clothes. I hate shopping, and I get sticker shock even at the Value Village ($15 for used jeans?!?) I know, I'm cheap. Anyway, I used to wear XXL shirts and 38 x32 jeans. Now, I fit inside XL shirts (and can almost squeeze into an L) and 36x32s are comfortable on me!

Green tags were half off, so I bought just about every pair of green tagged pants that didn't have holes or huge stains on them, and a couple of shirts too.

I still have at least 30 pounds to go, at which point, I'll decide if I look good, or if I need to loose more weight. The charts all say that a 6 foot man should weigh 165-190 lbs. I think that is bunk. I know people that when they were at their so-called ideal weight, they were sickly and anemic. They were healthiest when they were about 20 lbs over "ideal" weight.

Anyway, just to let you know, there is now alot less of me to love.

Gotta love the Muppets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY

Watch this. I just about died laughing.

Aaron's Awesome Apple Butter

The name of it says it all. This apple butter will blow your mind away, it is so good. And I made it up myself, experimenting over the years since I moved into Apple Country (aka Washington State.). Here is the recipe.

Apples
lemon juice
2-3 C sugar
2 T Cinnamon
2 t ginger
1/2 t allspice
1/2 t cloves

Peel, core and slice enough apples to fill your 6 quart crock pot to the line. throw in a few splashes of lemon juice and stir them up to keep them from browning too much. Let it cook a few hours, till the apple slices start to break down. Add 2 C sugar and the spices. Stir it up, and taste. Depending on how sweet the apples were, add more sugar, up to 1 cup. Let this cook down till the apples are super mushy, then blend it all together with a hand blender. You can also do this, in batches, in a food processor or blender. Or run it through a food mill. Just get it uber smooth. Taste and adjust the spices if necessary. Let it cook with the lid partially off until the butter reaches the right consistency; it should coat the back of a spoon. Can it in a hot water bath fifteen minutes for pints or half-pints, 20 minutes for quarts. (this is longer than what the USDA recommends, but butters are so thick I like to give it extra time, just to make sure the center of the jars get hot enough.) Naturally, if you live at a higher elevation, increase you canning time.

The secret is the Ginger. I've never run across a recipe with ginger in it. I've also made apple blackberry butter and plan to make plum-apple butter by replacing about a third of the apples with the other fruit.

Not much going on

Not a lot has been going on down here. It's apple harvest time, so I've been picking and drying apples from my back tree. The front tree isn't quite ready, and the other three trees were severely pruned, and didn't produce much, if at all.

I've also got more blueberries, and I tried my hand at drying them too. DISASTER!!!!! I had read somewhere that you had to blanch them before drying to remove a natural wax and to open cracks in the skin. So I blanched them, but left them in the hot water too long, so they got all gloppy and stuck together. I tried to dry them anyway. It did not work. Short story is, I had to throw away about three pounds of blueberries. :( And on top of that, I reread the book, and it was the grapes that had to be blanched, not blueberries. How I got that confused, I don't know. So I'll have to try again.

I also need to get out and start picking the blackberries. In fact, I'm going to go out and do that right after I finish this post. I'm thinking apple-blackberry butter, blackberry syrup, and blackberry jelly.

Pickled Eggs

I made pickled eggs today from the five doz I bought just before the fast. The recipe was simple: just vinegar, pepper, allspice, and ginger boiled together, cooled and poured over hard boiled and peeled eggs. It is supposed to take a month to brine, but I doubt that they will last that long. They may start to slowly dissapear starting on the 15th of August, at about 7:30 PM.

I'll let you know how they are coming then.

Watch This.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJYvaLS-xOw

You will not like it.

This woman's mother is alive today because she was able to get a second opinion. A second option. A second chance. When Obama get's his national socalist health care put in place, there will be only one place to go. The Government. And then, where will the Jane Sturms of the world be? Taking an asprin, because God knows that it won't be worth the cost to use the really good stuff on old hags that have outworn their usefulness to society.

Life is always worth living, always worth protecting. There is never a time when it is good, for the person or a society, to take a life. This book says it all.