Off the net - sort of

I have noticed over the last few months that I have become increasingly addicted to checking blogs, facebook, myspace, and generally just being glued to the computer. And with that I've noticed my mood going down down down. So short story long, after getting very frustrated with the way I was feeling, I decided to do an experiment and kick myself off of blogs/facebook/myspace/etc. I allowed myself email, craigslist (we're always looking for goat stuff) and a minimum of news stories.

I have felt so much better. A lot of the issues and feelings that were bothering me are getting better, and I feel healthier. I checked my email/craigslist, then instead of sitting here clicking around on the net, I have to get off and go find something to do- and you know - I had so much fun doing stuff! I finished a couple of projects that I've been avoiding, I spent more time talking to people that are actually here instead of "cyber stalking" people and news stories. I went to visit people and had lovely visits with them. I almost finished a quilt, I did some organizing, I spent time with my family, played with the dog, worked on Etsy, went to town, went to Soldotna, and on and on. It was great.

I thought by the end of the week I would be itching and desperate to get back online, but the few times I have caved and checked blogs/facebook/etc. I felt the same feelings coming back, I was happy to see what was going on with people, but I was disappointed with myself for "cheating" on my self appointed rules. I don't mean in any way that I don't love the blogs, or any of that, I think they are wonderful ways for staying connected, but I've been just following people online instead of working to stay connected, and that's not good for me, I'm enough of a hermit as it is. :) So anyway, I think I will keep up with my reduced online presence. I'll check the blogs frequently, but not like 5 times a day "just in case someone posted something since I checked 2 minutes ago", and am really looking forward to the Christmas blog, and Top Chef blogging, and all that fun stuff. I love the pictures and seeing what everyone is up to, but I need to get off my hind end and get busy so I can get feeling better about myself, and life, and everything else that goes with it. Wish me luck!

Winter wanderings

Well, I don't really have anything to post about, but I noticed it had been a week since I posted, so thought I might as well ramble a bit.

Justin is home now for the winter, the company he worked for has shut down for the rest of the year, and until at least spring. So that will be interesting. He's working on making some more burl bowls right now for us to sell, and he's thinking about cutting and selling firewood to make some extra money. He's kind of stressed, but enjoying being home more I think. I know I love having him home. Money will be tight, but its nice to have him around more. We're with the groups of people worrying about losing our right to buy guns with the new administration, so we're trying to get what we need before he takes office, even though its not in the budget right now. I don't like the sound of presidential edicts to "get things done quickly" without having to involved legislators and such. So we'll see what happens.

Other than that, we're doing pretty good. I'm trying to figure out what I want to do for the holidays, decorations and food wise. I want to try and make my own chocolate covered cherries. For some reason that sounds fun to me, plus its hard to get good ones at the store, so thought that might be fun. I'm pretty excited about Top Chef being back on - WOOHOO! I love that show. So that's something fun to look forward to each week. :)

We have a little skiff of snow, but not much. The ground is frozen, and its cold, but no snow really to speak of. Ok, well, I think that's all I have to say today. Hope everyone is doing good. :)

Lake Clark

Here's a jay or "camp robber"

Justin took "Flat Stanley" with him to Lake Clark so that he could enjoy the helicopter ride and rural Alaska. That's why some of the pics include Stanley, Stanley got some fun times. :) Such a pretty area. I'd like to go there sometime.

Justin's back

Justin's home - YAY! He brought some really cool pictures too from over there. I'll put them up soon. But just wanted to let everyone know he's home!

Holy Pinto Beans Batman!

Clean jars ready to go

Washing the great northern beans

Boiling water, and heating up the first canner

Mya wanting to know what we were doing

Beans measured out ready to go

Mom washing beans

Mya looking at me like "You've got to be kidding me - there must be food here somewhere!"

Beans with boiling water.

Up close and personal with the great northern beans

And the black beans

Half way through, this is the first batch cooling.

Rinsing the chili beans. They were really pretty colored

Boiling lots of water to pour on the beans

Here's the beans measured out, ready for the boiling water and their lids.

Another of the beans in their jars....

Mya the helper dog. She's been very concerned that she's being deprived treats, because we never spend that much time in the kitchen withouth making something that she gets a taste of. Canning is kind of a new concept to her. She was just sure we were hiding food from her. She kept bringing her dog balls and alien to "trade" for whatever we had. I think we ended up with 5 balls and an alien this afternoon.

Happily canning away

Tada! 28 more quarts. The ones in front, the multi colored, are the chili bean mix

You can really see the three types of beans in this picture. The really dark jars are the black beans

Another view of beans.

Well, see we had the great bean canning on tuesday, and wednesday I cleaned the kitchen and wrote about it. Then this afternoon, I still had the canners up stairs here because they weren't dry enough to put away yesterday. Well, I was talking to Justin's mom about canning beans, and she asked me how I do it, so I told her, and she said that there is an easier way to do it, but just putting dry beans in a jar, and pouring boiling water over them, then processing. Much less mess, much less time, much less everything except finished product. So I got really excited and thought, well hey the canners are still out, and the jars are clean, so what the heck! Nothing like canning another 28 jars of beans. Only this time I thought I'd try some other types of beans. I canned great white northern beans, some black beans, and some "chili bean mix" that we've had for a while (its kidney beans, red beans, pinto beans, and black beans all mixed together). So today we did the extra 28 jars of beans, about 14-15 pounds of beans. All in all that makes 83 quarts of beans all canned up ready to go. It will be fun though. A lot of time saving for dinners. Just mix in a little meat, and seasoning, and voila! dinner! Fun fun!