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I am a Christian woman who loves her family and tries to live with a purpose. "I can do all things though Christ who strengthens me" Philippians 4:13

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Wednesday, August 26, 2015

RE-GROWING CELERY

I'm sure many of you already know this but I've just tried this and it works.  You know I've been dehydrating a lot lately.  One of the things I've been dehydrating is celery.  I love to put it in soups and stews and stuffing and..  Well I like it.  So one of my sisters-in-law shared a tip with me and I would like to share it with you.

When you cut the stalks of celery off, don't throw the bottoms away.  Place the bottoms of the celery in a shallow plate of water.  Check the celery bottoms every day or two.  Spritz the tops of the celery and make sure there is a enough water to cover the bottom of the plate and maybe just a bit more.  After about a week you will start to see new stalks of celery emerge.  At that time you will plant them in a pot or the ground.  Planting the bottoms up to the new growth.  I haven't planted mine yet, mostly because I need to find a place to put them but I will be doing it in the next few days.

I figure if I do this enough, between dehydrating and re-growing I'll never have to buy celery again.

Have a Safe and Blessed day and remember share your knowledge.


                                                                         BEFORE

 
AFTER

Saturday, August 22, 2015

FAMILY

I was just sitting here thinking about the title of my blog.  Old Way New Times and I was reflecting on the one thing that made the old ways work.  Simply put, FAMILY.  Family was what bound everyone together.  The word family, went without saying, I'm here for you.  No matter who you are, where you are or what mistakes you've made, I'm here.  Too many families have drifted apart.  Whether it be because of geographic differences or disagreements allowed to fester until all communication is gone.  All too many times someone can't or won't accept the flaws or decisions of another, (I'm not talking about drugs, alcohol or abusive behavior.)  I'm talking about the things we let irritate us.  Ambition, too much or the lack there of.  Money, making poor choices or holding it too close.  Life choices, promiscuity, divorces, or who someone falls in love with.  These things we know will never change but we still believe if so and so wants me in their life, they're going to have to change.  Most of the time it's because we want the best for them.  Sometimes it's because we feel used or betrayed.  Others it 's well, just our own selfishness.  But whatever the reason we are willing to cut them out of our lives.  Isn't it sad, when you think about it how little slack we are willing to give to the people closest to us.  Those whom we share memories, history, blood.  Those who know the best way to lift us up but rather tear us apart.

I come from a large family.  I have three brothers and one sister.  They are some of the sweetest, comical, frustrating and wonderful people you will ever want to meet.  Like most families, we fought like cats and dogs as kids.  But the one thing we all knew and so did the rest of the neighborhood.  We may fight amongst ourselves but don't you ever try to take one of us on.  Because before you knew it, all of us were there.  It really was a great feeling to know my family was always there.  A feeling for many I think has been lost.

We do go on with life.  We make strong bonds with friends.  Fill the hours with work.  Sometimes turn to alcohol and drugs.  But we just can't or won't take that step to be a family again.  Until we are willing to do just that, I fear we will never find the courage to make the hard choices anywhere else in our lives.

To my parents; I love you.  Thank you for the values you taught me.  The strength to stand for my convictions.  The courage to love and the ability to laugh when life is tough.

To my brothers and sister; I love you.  I always have and always will.  You make me laugh, you frustrate me to tears and you bring a joy to my life.  I've watched all of you grow into wonderful people.  To bring other wonderful and funny people to our family as you started your own families.

To my husband; I love you.  The one family member I chose, the one who loves me for all the things I am and all things I am not.  For fighting for me when I couldn't fight for myself.  But most of all for the beautiful family we made for ourselves.

To my children; I love you.  You have grown to be compassionate, warm, strong adults.  You have blessed us with your love, hugs and smiles.  You make me so proud to be you mother.

To my son-in-law and daughter-in-law; I love you.  You have brought joy, love and happiness to my children, so you have brought those same things to me.  I can't imagine our lives ever again without you.

To my grandchildren;  I love you.  Each of you bring a smile to not only my face but to my heart.  Many of you are too young to understand but some day you will.  You make my life have meaning. 

To my mother-in-law;  I love you.  Without you, your strength your love and your guidance I would not have the man I am proud to call my husband.  Thank you

To my brothers and sisters-in-law;  I love you,  Each and everyone of you complete this family.  Without you, none of us would be complete.  Thank you for loving all of us, when you didn't have to.

And last but not least.

To my nieces and nephews.  I love you.  You are the unique combination of all of us.  You are loving, funny, smart, beautiful both inside and out.  You all have hearts of gold.  You too bring a smile to my heart as well as my face.  No matter where you are or who you choose to go through life with remember, I am so proud to call you all my family.

And to all who may read this, remember without family we are alone.  No man can stand alone.

Have a Safe and Blessed day.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

NOW IS THE TIME

Last week was to say the least, a very interesting week for the US and the world.  Secretary of State John Kerry said if Congress did not approve the Iran Deal the US dollar could lose its standing as the World Reserve Currency.  That very same day China did something unthought-of.  They devalued their own currency.  Only by five % but...  This increased our trade deficit without anything having been done by the US.

 For the past few years China, Russia and others have actively been working to remove the dollar as the World Reserve Currency.  This move China has made is in fact moving that plan along.  By devaluing their currency they will force other countries to do the same or incur higher trade deficits as well.  This then could lead to hyper-inflations and a world wide recession at best.  More likely a world wide depression. Putting them in a good position to have their currency as the new World Reserve Currency.

This is a very simplistic explanation.  Please take the time to research this further.

Now why am I telling you this?  Well as I have said in the past, we are and will be going through some hard times.  Now is the time we need to hone the skills of the past in order to make our way to the other side of this or any other crisis that may come our way.  If you are not debt-free please work a plan to get that way.  If your pantry is empty, please stock it as best as you can.  Remember buy one get one free is a good way to start.  If you think times are hard now, think what they will be like in a world wide depression.

As always, have a Safe and Blessed day.

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

JUST ONE MORE THING

Yesterday when writing about dehydrating I forgot to mention a couple of tips.  The first will make your frustration stay well within normal levels.  The trays you place your food on have grates which you will find are much larger than you think after the food is dehydrated.  This allows the food to fall through the grates.  So an easy and simple fix is to go to your local crafts store and purchase plastic canvas. It usually is somewhere in the vicinity of the yarn or yarn type crafts.  Cut each piece to fit your trays.  If you have a round dehydrator you may find you have to cut two semi-circles in order to make it fit.  That's what I had to do and it works well.

Another thing you may find, is you may have to let things dehydrate for a longer period.  Don't be concerned about that.  Humidity, moisture content in the veggies and the thickness of your cuts all play into the amount of time it takes to dehydrate.  So if your veggies are not dry and brittle let them continue until done.  As I've been told many times, this is not a race it will be done when it's done.

You should also label your jars as you go.  Believe me when you have a jar of green beans next to a jar of green peppers in strips, well I think you know where I'm going.  Just one more thing granddaughter number one reminded me, dehydrated corn is as good as candy.  So just a thought, if you have little ones around or someone with a sweet tooth, dehydrate extra corn.  It can disappear right before your eyes.

Have a Safe and Blessed day and remember, share your knowledge.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

DEHYDRATING: MY NEW BEST FRIEND!

  Have you ever had that wonderful feeling, you know the one.  When your bed and sheets have accepted you as one of their own and they don't want to let you go.  No matter how loudly and rudely that mean screaming alarm rings.  Well I have and love knowing that my bed and sheets have accepted me so warmly.  Never the less that alarm just won't stop ringing no matter how hard you throw it.  So up I get to do my daily chores.  Starting with feeding the animals, collecting eggs and filling waterers.   Then onto breakfast, dishes, housework and collecting produce.  Somewhere in there comes running errands and canning, lunch, canning, dinner, dishes, Jeopardy, crocheting or needle work and then the wonderful moment I get to reunite with my bed and sheets.  As you can see my dilemma, canning is taking up a lot of time.  I really don't mind canning, I just would like to have time for a few other things.  But the produce has to be dealt with.  So what's a grandma to do?

As number one grandson used to say when he was just a few years old:  think, think, think (while he was tapping his little index finger on his chin), I know, I got an idea!  I've been watching a few videos on youtube about other methods of preserving food.  Lo and behold were these wonderful people expounding on the virtues of dehydrating.  I was thinking this looked good in theory but...  So I decided to give it a go any way.  My thought was I would set up the dehydrator and let it do its thing, while I did mine.  I would say this is the best thing since sliced bread, (but I'd rather not have sliced bread with all it's preservatives.)  So I'll just simply say I think I'm going to like this. 

Wash, slice and blanch are some of my favorite things to do now.  I said blanch because some folks say blanching some veggies shortens the dehydrating time as well and keeping items like celery from seeming woody when rehydrated.  If your thinking washing slicing and blanching is still going to take up a lot of time it really isn't.  I am running two dehydrators with seven trays at a time.  So once they're filled I'm done.   When the veggies are done dehydrating and the dehydrators are turned off, I let them sit for about thirty minutes to cool down.  Then I place the veggies in a quart jar.  Once the jar is full, I use my Food Saver Vacuum Sealer (with the lid sealer.)  You can also throw a oxygen absorber in before sealing the jar.  This isn't canning and you will have to keep a close eye out for spoilage.  However I'm told this is a good method for preserving food for long term storage. 

Just think, this winter when the wind is blowing and there's a cold rain coming down I can make a nice pot of hot soup without any worries.  I won't have to worry about not having fresh celery on hand because I can go to a jar pull some out and rehydrate it.  This will also go for carrots, onions and anything else I may want to throw into to the pot.

Oh yeah and lets not forget how much space you save.  I think I put about four pounds of corn in a quart jar.  That much corn would have used at least four quart jars if canned.

Have a Safe and Blessed day and remember, share your knowledge.