Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

[Mike CHS]

When we set it for us being out of the house it records anything that trips a sensor. We only have them recording in the access areas when we are home but they are also triggers with the motion sensors. They are pretty flexible and have evolved well over the years. On older systems if an intruder could get to the control pad they could disarm the system by destroying the pad. That is no longer that way and all destroying the control pad does is send a signal to the monitoring system. It used to be that cutting a land line phone would take out an alarm but anymore they are all cellular.

You can log on via computer if you wanted to view any pictures, otherwise it auto deletes every 48 hours unless you change the setting.

 

[goatgurl]

sorry to take so long to answer. basically he's just here to make babies. hes got a nice hip on him and i'm counting on him passing that along. i've cut the number of ewes down to 5. thats enough to keep me and my family members in lamb and a few extra to sell. he is snow white and we know how i like my spotted sheep. i sure hope i still get those speckles on next hears crop of lambs.
i hope that PT helps helps with your pain and decreased mobility.

 

[Ridgetop]

Thanks Mike. I may look into one of those. Right now, with our deadlocked gates, Anatolians, and being on a private road with neighbors that have no problem demanding why strange cars are present, we probably are ok. When we move to our next place with more acreage and possibility of intruders, we will look into setting one up. It sounds like a really great system and I like the fact that is keeps the footage for 48 hours in case you have to download it for the police. In our case with Bubba and his backup maybe just to find the remains and bury them. Any intruder has it coming.

 

[Mike CHS]

We have used Food Saver brand vacuum sealers and have for years but we seem to wear one out in 3-4 years and then buy a replacement. We use them a LOT and didn't think anything about any warranty issues until the vacuum on the latest quit working. We bought a new one then noticed that they have a 5 year warranty on the new one so we checked and found that they old one did also. Teresa emailed them about a month ago and finally got a response a couple of days ago asking for more info. She responded to that and we got packing slips today to send in the broken unit so they can send a replacement.

 

[Baymule]

That is good to know. I have one too, but it is still in the Land of the Living. I haven't killed it yet. I use it a lot and I love it. I've been wanting a better one, but this one still works.

 

[Ridgetop]

When the children were small, I fed our entire family of 6 from our garden and fruit trees, Southern California, no AC and I canned all summer long!

I have been admiring everyone's canning accomplishments and thinking about doing the same again. I do make jams and jellies when I have free fruit but the family can only eat so much of that.

Remembering all the work involved in my old garden, (unlike the unproductive garden I now have), the planting of different tyes of veggies, picking, prep work, and running the canner all day and half the night again was really making me feel really OLD and TIRED!

Then I suddenly realized that I don't have to can quarts anymore! I can put up pints! Twice as many jars will fit in one of my pressure canners, cutting down the time. Pints will make twice as many jars and take less work and veggies! Then I realized that I don't need to can my tomatoes in quart jars anymore since all my recipes take 15 1/2 ounce cans of tomatoes. That is 1 pint jar! DUH!!!

Can anyone say "STUPID"!?

LOUDER PLEASE!

 

[Baymule]

You aren't stupid, you were still on the big family program. I canned quarts of spaghetti sauce, pints are not enough, quarts are too much. Eh

 

[Ridgetop]

Thanks for reminding me of that whole "big family" program. You are right. I used to go through half a pint of jam every 2 days! Now the open jar of jam just sits in the fridge. I should probably give more of it to my daughter for the grandkids. It will definitely be simpler when DS2 and FDIL are nit here. FDIL has gone back to San Diego with DS2 who will be working there for a year. She will only be here intermittently which makes the whole cook for a family thing easier. The grocery bill and electric bill might show a difference too. LOL

Can the spaghetti sauce with everything in it except the meat. Then you can just add either sauteed ground beef, lamb, or sausage to the pint of sauce and done! Or if you are already making the sauce without meat with the quart jars, add the meat first and use the pressure setting and times for canning meat.

 

[Baymule]

I can it without the meat. So far, I have canned 8 quarts. I start with 3 BIG pots on the stove, condensed down to one pot, kept simmering until it is thick, then canned.

 

[Ridgetop]

Here is an easy way to condense sauce, catsup, applesauce, or fruit butters without simmering on the stove top.

Chop it all up and bring to boil on stove till the tomatoes are soft. Then pour it into large flat roaster pans and bake in the oven at 275 degrees.. I make catsup and apple butter this way. You only have to stir it about every half hour or so and it doesn't burn. If 275 degrees isn't hot enough you can adjust the oven higher to 300 degrees. You don't want it to boil, you want it to simmer slowly and condense. Takes about 3 hours depending on how thick you want it. Much easier than standing over the stove stirring.

When I do fruit butters, catsup, and BBQ sauce, after boiling the fruit soft, I will let it cool slightly, then run it through the food processor so it is smooth before putting it into the roasting pans. To make BBQ sauce, I just adjust the spices and sugar in the catsup recipe.