>>>>Sustainable Living PLUS Canning and Dehydrating Food<<<<

Hey Mama
How's the heat treating you? I feel like I'm on slow roast.
No let up at night. Unbelieveable for N. Idaho

It was sooo hot, Friday was 105 degrees. Still nice to be with friends and family though. Thank god our little travel trailer has air conditioning...We were able to take breaks from the great outdoors and cool off for a bit.

HI OG,
It's like someone flipped a switch here. It has been so nice outside. Very unusual this time of year for August. We have had 80's this week and last. Hardly the humidity that we are accustomed to this time of year as well. We are supposed to hit low 90's again though tomorrow. Better than 100's.
Hope you are doing well!

Guys...this is really getting weird. You're all north of me at high 90's-100's. We've been at mid to low 90's and now high 80's. What's up? We're having a t-storm AGAIN tonight with HUGE lightning. Where's my blankie!?!

Weather on tv has us with a high of 81 tomorrow.

Last Edited by Texan Buckeye on 08/20/2012 11:25 PM

This is testing my patience.

This is canning time, and the heat just takes my energy away

The largest thunderstorm I have ever seen was in Ft. Worth. The lightning was crazy and the hotel windows shook from the thunder.

We're not having too much thunder lately, but I've been watching the lightning out of my front window. I'm glad it's not close to us! They had to evacuate a small town to the NW of us tonight. Lightning started a grass fire. It's out now and no one lost their homes.

Lightning has been crazy with these storms this summer.

Hi Tb I am surrounded with fires in Washinton, Oregon and Idaho. The smoke is horrible

It's been huge, hasn't it? I saw on cloud-to-cloud tonight that was at least 5 miles long. It's been orange/reddish this year too. I don't remember that. It's usually white. I could be wrong, but I just don't remember it being colored. Have you guys seen it before?

OG, hon, I know what you're talking about. The high heat makes it unbearable to can. I used to do mine overnight, but even that didn't help much. I'd have the fan on and the door open and then, I'd have to get rid of them. They would interfere with the canner getting hot enough. Just couldn't win. I almost had hubs convinced to build me a canning kitchen off the house. Then, we had 3 years of drought!

Glad no one lost there homes. We have fires all around us at this point. Some days sure get smoky here in the valley. Eastern Oregon has been hit hard, over 300,000 acres have burned. Fortunately it's high desert and sparsely populated so it's mostly sage brush and such that is burning.

Yes, the smoke is horrible. Northern California has had fires too. We keep getting socked in with smoke here.

Oh, man!! I didn't realize you were that close to the fires. Can you guys breathe ok? When we had bad fires, people here would get lots of asthma and bronchitis.

These were taken by individuals and submitted to our local channel here. Borrowed them. Just thought I'd share.

The fires scare me more than any other doom. I worked some of the bigger ones last year. I'm so glad we really haven't had too many this year. Really, I don't think we've had any until last week. There were the fires in New Mexico in the spring and they were pretty close, but far enough away.

What did you do when you say you worked them?

I had a sore throat and my eyes burned. I don't have breathing issues but it can really be bad for those that do. I have had a tickle/cough in my throat for several weeks now though. My eyes really bother me the most though. I love to read at night and it's hard when your eyes hurt.

Wowzer!

Wow!! That's alot like our lightning. We've tried to take pictures over the years, but they never turn out very good. Youngest son took a few good ones several years ago, but I don't know what he did with them. The lightning has been really high in the sky this year too. The storms aren't high based. either.

We're on a volunteer organization that helps the fire/police dept. when there are emergencies. The last time I mentioned the name I got baned! For the fires, we have a trailer that we take out. It's got search and rescue equipment, water, gatorade, food, first aid supplies, that sort of thing. We set up a re-hab station for the firefighters to re-hydrate and cool off or warm up. They fight the fires for us and we make sure they stay healthy. I like it, 'cause I know alot of the kids on several of the depts. and I threaten them if they don't drink the water, I'll tell their mom's! I usually know them, too!LOL

That is great TB! They probably look forward to seeing you with a bottle of Gatorade or water. Kudos to you!

Goodnight Everyone... got to get up early. No more sleeping in late as school is in session!!!

We have to keep reminding we're here, though, after this summer! They haven't needed us, thankfully! Pretty soon, we'll start helping the police dept. with security at the hs football games. That's fun, too. The kids really don't get out of hand too much, it's the adults. The good thing they told us, is in the 2 years we've been doing the games, no cars have been vandalized. We're really unpaid rent-a-cops, but I like talking to the kids!

Sleep tight, Mama!

That is such a wonderful thing to do!

I'm heading off too. My book is calling to me. I'm reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It's pretty good so far.

Almost purely selfish, SO! I've never lived anywhere, until we moved here, long enough to go to college or have a career. This is something I can do even if the fibro-myalgia flares up. If we ever really have to do the search and rescue part that we train for, I'm probably toast! I'll stay back and organize the shelter! Thankfully, I know how to cook for a few hundred people! I've gotten to do some pretty cool, off beat things over the years. I'm the fortunate one.

Night, SO! The book is really good! I won't say anymore, but read the other ones, too!

I'm sure you have learned more along the way than they can teach in a college course. Thank goodness for people like you willing to volunteer to help!

Hi Everyone!

Well, I am glad Im not home in Florida, cause I am in no mood for a hurricane! I have heard that we have been getting dumped on with rain at home. Here in Ga its beautiful, even cool to me, but gets into the mid 80's during the day and low 60s at night.

It rained alot on the drive up here but hasnt been a bit of bad weather since we got here.

Were gonna spend the next few days bumming around some of the sites and then sunday the whitewater rafting trip I have been looking forward to! I hope its really hot that day cause that water is really cold!

Pete put a skylight in the living room and it has made a huge difference. It was very dark in there even during the day and now its nice and bright.

I will catch up with you later.

Mama-- that lightning looks amazing. My daughter was out on a boat with friends over the weekend on the gulf and got caught in one of those storms with the lightning, and she said the waves were coming up on the boat and everyone was racing for the docks and ignoring the no wake rule. She said visability was terrible and the rain pelted them and hurt cause they were racing in so fast. Im just glad they didnt collide with any other boats being they couldnt see much.