The rest of the story...

I have taken the time to tell the world at large my lack of infatuation with the Rug Doctor, so I might as well finish off the thought. The rugs downstairs look a lot better, however the above mentioned device leaves them too wet and in Washington that means they rot rather than dry. Yah, they greeted me the next day at the front door with an unfriendly smell that said I should have left well enough alone. I decided the best defence was to pretend I didn't smell what I knew I smelled and that time would just fix it. I am sure it would have too, in weeks or months. I gave in a built a fire down stairs, brought in fans and air fresheners and tried to make my house smell appropriate. Took 4 days but the down stairs carpets are now down stairs again. I won't do that again soon!

And then there were the hard wood floors. They need attention way too frequently but, while on the topic of floors, I decided to work on them too. It would save me a bucket of time if they were sanded and an appropriate sealer put on them, but that takes money and contracts and all sorts of things I am short on. So I use work instead. I started in the living room, swept three times in an attempt to get all the little dust bunnies. Then I moped three times trying to insure the dust bunnies were extinct. And finally I applied 3 coats of wax, being careful not to read the instructions too carefully, particularly the part about not applying to unfinished floors. They are right, of course, but this is my little fake-finish routine. For a couple of weeks it really looks like the floors are finished. Then for a couple of weeks it looks like I just need to mop and/or bag the floors and then, well, and then it looks like I need to get going and do it all again. I purchase a month, give or take, with each day of hard work. Did the living room on one day and then the dinning room on another. Tomorrow it will be the hall way and then I will sit back and enjoy the faux-finish. I tell you, when I have a better clue as to the next step in my life I will either refinish the floors or I will just walk away.

And yes, there is a life beyond floors. Now we need to discuss bathrooms....NOT.

The rocking shuttlecock

I would like to pay tribute to the marvel of a rocking shuttlecock on a pressure cooker. What a nice invention. I can pay attention to the canning process while writing a blog on the computer in the opposite end of the house. Such a deal. It just makes it rattle and I listen to the speed, knowing if it is hot enough or too cool. It doesn't get much easier than that! Right now I am canning string beans and they take 20 minutes. But last night I did some chicken that takes 75 minutes, way too long to just sit and wait so I worked over the beans while cooking the chicken. With the old dial canner I would have had to stay in the kitchen and actually pay attention rather than sitting downstairs watching the Olympics while preparing the beans to can. Still is work but such a more pleasant way to do the work.

Self Cleaning Floors

I think someone should invest some thought into making self cleaning floors. I have a self cleaning oven. You turn it on, lock the door mechanism and walk away. In a few hours you come back and mop up some white dust and the oven is clean. Yes, I know there are robotic round things that will move around your room and vacuum, but I mean clean and not just collect dust etc. Why this thought? I rented the rug Doctor to clean my carpets today. I want one and all to know it is misnamed, it is not a Doctor because it knows only what I know and I don't know all that much about cleaning rugs.

That said, I cleaned the rug in our bed room first. Daisy is a very dependable dog but she has been left home a lot this summer and it would appear she has decided to punish me for doing same. There have been a few occasions where she has marked my side of the room with her indignation at being left home. Poor baby....but such is life. Anyway, I moved the bed and used the misnamed Rug Doctor to clean it well. Then moved down stairs and gave it a good cleaning. Mind you, it is not clean. One would assume a clean carpet would not give off extremely dirty water, and as many times as I went over the same place I always had very dirty water. I guess it means I need to do this much more frequently....Oh well, such is life. Chances are it will still not be done frequently. And if I do decide to do it more I need to invest in purchasing a machine rather than renting the thing.

That said, I need to get to canning string beans. Oh the joys of this post fair week! But it is all good and I really don't mind all that much.

The County Fair

It is amazing how simple the County Fair is when you don't have children doing everything. Those days of baskets lined up in the kitchen, each loaded with ingredients for whatever is happening that day are gone and, truth be told, I don't miss them. I do miss the involvement however, but have come to the conclusion I can have that on my own terms.

This year I worked with open class food preservation. Another person was in charge and at the last minute didn't come through so I got to do it. It was actually kind of fun, but there have got to be lots of changes for next year. Like people have to follow the directions and those directions need to be spelled out a whole lot more clear. The judge was going to D.Q. half the entries because they didn't have proper paper work, I talked her into white ribbons however. If she had actually D.Q.ed all those we would have had empty shelves. As was they were plenty sparse, but I spread everything out so it looked roomy rather than empty.

And the 4-H portion. No one had all that many entries, just a particularly busy season for everyone. Avery had success with several of her things, bombed on photography but that is not uncommon, but her sewing was well received and she had some cookies that did OK. Samantha had straight blues on her things (4-H had almost straight blues which tells me there was not much judging going on) but my little Kristin came through with the winners. She took sewing Junior Grand champion and reserve grand champion. She also took grand champion in food preservation....and she only entered 5 things to get those 3 purple ribbons! She didn't have much but it was class work, I agree on that one.

Already leaves me thinking that we will do more next year. I can't possibly be more busy than this year! I don't think it is humanly possible to be more busy!

So tomorrow we break things down and then I have my house guests go home and I can start cleaning things and getting organized to start work the first week of September. I have started scheduling things and we will see what comes of this years schedule. Should be easier as there is no seminary.

Blue berries

One would think blue berries would be getting near the end of their season but they don't seem to be doing that. This has been a good year for those little blue critters. I have made at least two dozen quarts of pie filling plus frozen a bunch just as whole berries for future pan cakes and muffins. The family keeps telling me more is better but I am thinking I have gone a wee bit overboard this year. I have so many processed for storage and no one is eating them. Mind you, if I made more pies we would eat more pies. But Larry rarely eats them, the crazy man seems to prefer corn flakes to almost everything, so, being the good little girl that I am, I finish them off and.... and the results of that habit of finishing things off has greatly increased my circumference over the years. So I just process the berries and I don't eat them.
When Linda is no longer pregnant she swears she will use some for her gatherings. And Emily says she practices great conservation on her quarts of pie filling also. I have encouraged her to use a little less conservation until I get the count down a little. Even Nancy has kind of caught the vision as to the easy pie process. Purchase the crust, open the jar, dump and cook...how much easier could that be! Lawrence makes his own crusts but he too has been slow to use the abundance of berries.
Meanwhile, I have picked over a gallon of berries today. It has taken me all day as I pick awhile and then do something else for a time and go back later. I think this is the end of the back-log created with my trip South. I am back on top so it will not take so many hours each day. Ah the joys of abundance!
I do have ulterior motives for doing this however. I can see food storage as a more and more important part of our lives as the economy becomes more and more challenging. We have plenty of healthy food storage, but who wants to live a totally healthy life. I need sugar and processing these berries guarantees me a supply of sweet things for at least a year. One can live on wheat and beans, but it will be much more worth living with sweets!