Canning Beef

            

            I spent today really living up to my role as farmer’s wife.  We butchered a cow not long ago so I spent a good portion of my day today canning beef.  Canning is one of my favorite “farmy” activities.  There is just something very satisfying about having shelves full of quart jars filled with food that you’ve raised for your family.  It always makes me think that my Grandma Green would be proud.  I can remember being in the kitchen with her and my Mom when I was little and they were canning vegetables from the garden or meat from a deer my Dad got.

            Oh, how delicious it smells all through the house today.  The jars of beef cooking in the pressure canner with garlic and onion smell so good it makes us almost hope that one of them doesn’t seal and we’ll have to eat it for supper.  That was actually the first question Jeff asked me when he got home from work today.  But to everyone’s disappointment all 35 jars sealed and we polished of the last of the Thanksgiving turkey and mashed potatoes for supper instead.  (I think we’re all getting tired of turkey.)

            We also had the repairman here to look at the big washer and hopefully the part will be in by Friday so that we can get it fixed by Monday.  I’m glad we have the little washer downstairs, but it’s just so much nicer when the big one works and all the dirty laundry doesn’t have to go downstairs to be washed and then brought back upstairs, still wet, to get dried and folded.  Today that fit in pretty well though since I was making a lot of trips downstairs canning several batches of beef. 

            Sally got a sudden surge of bravery today too.  She decided it was high time she took on the vacuum cleaner.  This is very unusual for her.  Normally when I run the sweeper she will find an out of the way place to hide until the noisy beast has gone away.  Not today.  This time she thought that trying to bite the front of the machine (where the beater bar is) would be the best course of action.  Even with me yelling “NO” at her she still tried about 4 times.  Each time she yelped and ran.  Final score Sweeper 1- Sally 0.  I hope she learned her lesson I hate to see her get into things that could get her hurt.

            It’s very peaceful here now.  Jeff has just left for work and Sally and the boys are all asleep, no doubt dreaming of what kind of adventures we could get into tomorrow.