What I am doing this week

 Not canning  SNICKERING

Dealing with scarp wood. We put it in tubs and I use it to limp evening fire to night wood, bump up heat for cooking or if it's warm (50s) outside use it instead of the longer lasting wood.

We have several appointments. Hubby has nerve testing and follow up with neurologist today. Tomorrow is cardio rehab and that will be 3 days a week unless he stops. His cardiologist told him he does more work at home than he will with the physical work out he get in rehab but he wants him to at least go 3 times due to insurance issues. Wednesday he has to take the wood wagon to the saw mill. He also has to catch E when he is not in the fields taking off beans. Amish work together taking their crops off. He need E to mow the around the edge of the pond, mow the asparagus (our mower would damage it, his is to the side so weight it not on the asparagus) and see if he knows anyone selling cords of wood. He would like to have one cord cut as he gets tired easy and not sure he will get the wood he has cut to size. He had someone give him about half a cord....it's too long for our stove so he has to cut off about 2 inches (more for tubs) .

I changed our chiro appts back to the regular day so it matches our appts with primary and blood work. One trip, less gas and Hubby will be less frustrated of losing a day of working at home.

I need to declutter and clean the 1st floor. THEN I can start decorating. Won't turn the decorations on but we won't be worn out trying to do the "get it done in one week" mode we usually do at Thanksgiving. He is going to start decorating the outside since it's to be nice this week.

Daughter 1 is having surgery next week. She's on disability right now. She has had serious health problems for the past few years. We talked to her and her hubby about them needing to look for a different home that was one story and not up a hill that she has to walk down to get to the car or where she can't get to the laundry room as it's in the basement. They didn't do it. NOW she can't walk up or down the 9 steps to get to the car and it's too steep to ramp. They had to take a window out of the bedroom and put a door in to get her in and out of house. Lesson learned. She does not want to rent but might have to due to interest on mortgage loans. She's too young for the one set of apartments that would work great. Daughter 3 told her a couple places that she could probably get into. Daughter 3 used to work at the old folks home.

Son 2 is having more testing and tons of follow ups. 

The berries are only half weeded. So one or both of us will probably try to get more done this week. 

I am reading "The Cabin Full of Food" by Marie Beausoleil. I am also following her at justplaincooking.ca

I need to rewrite the to do list that is for both of us. Hubby loses his list.

Prayers for peace 

Blessed Be

Sunday is the day of rest. I cleaned the basement.

 I went down to get something out of the one freezer and had to move the dehydrator and thought enough is enough.

I cleaned the mechanical room first as it is off the freezer room. Cobwebs down, breaker box, furnace and water softener dusted and floor swept. I had Hubby check the furnace filters and water filter. He couldn't remember changing the water filter so he change it now. I will now put that on the calendar to make sure one of us changes it. I will remind him to flip the pipe on the septic tank. It's changed with the time change.

I moved the dehydrators to a shelving unit in the bucket room and finished putting away stuff off the top of the 3 deep freezers. Move a couple things off the top of the one refrigerator (now in donation box) and put some of the extra empty canning jar boxes there. I picked up a green Rubbermaid thinking there was stuff in it... it was empty. I have been sitting the food processor on top of it. Now food processer is in bucket room on shelving unit, rubber maid is going to barn. I stacked all the empty wide mouth quart jars there

The regular mouth pints and the wide mouth pints stayed by the refrigerators. I keep them neat as if I don't we fall over them walking into this room.

The pantry area was just dust and sweep. I do need to finish grinding some of the herbs and greens I dried but that can be done later. 

I hung the onions on the wall. Hung garlic in bags from stairs and put the little onion in the hanging basket. Straightened up the regular mouth canning jars under the stairs. Moved the solar cube to that area so I am not moving it daily to get into the chest of drawers (It was Daddy's) that I store small baking pans in.

Straightened up the buckets that hold flours and grains. Hubby takes things and sits what ever on these buckets instead of putting it away. Just something I have to get used to with his dementia. 

I have 3 rice buckets and 1 bucket of homemade noodles and one bucket of Ramen noodles in the pantry. 

There is 9 buckets at bottom of stairs of what I use weekly. 

There was 1 small bag of trash, 2 small boxes of burn trash (one was mostly dog fur as Charlotte has a bed in the basement for when she is hot or scared) and 2 boxes of donations and 2 boxes for Daughter 4. I do have 1 boxes of extra kitchen stuff as we have grandkids starting to go out of their own and I let them pick through that box.

It took 6 hrs. BUT it's done and I should be able to maintain it since I moved things around. It helped we bought 3 shelving units when we bought one for Daughter 2.  I might add another one for the oils that sit to the right of the staircase . I will see what I have in barn I can use as this area never gets water so I won't have to use something waterproof.

I already did the lofts last month. I do need a better system for some things in then north loft. I might go book cases for it. Make it out of the scrap lumber we have in the barn  as the north loft is canned goods like cases of soup, coffee and teas etc. and canning supplies like canning salt, citric acid etc. Cleaning products are in boxes on the other side. Building book cases is winter project.

Ever think "I am not going to do anything today" and then work twice as hard?

Prayers for peace

Blessed be