Canning Without a Canner

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I successfully canned turkey broth (I think :)) the other day-without a pressure cooker.  I searched and found that as long as you keep the broth boiling while ladling it into the jars, you don’t need a canner-which is good as I don’t have one and getting one is not in the budget right now.

It is sealed when you hear the pop or as I describe it, the light thwock! sound of the jars sealing.  I went to bed while they sealed and heard a couple of them seal before falling asleep.  When I got up I pressed on the tops to be sure they sealed.  If you can feel the top move while pressing on the lid, it did not seal properly.  At that point you can store it in the fridge for quick use, reboil and put it back in a jar or pitch it.  Supposedly they can last for a year this way, but I don’t see mine lasting that long as I will use them in soups and stews.  I will have to see if this method works for other things too as it would make my life easier.

I must say I was so excited to see that this worked-I had one jar I had to reseal out of the 24 I did.  Not bad for a first timer!

Get Rid of Pests Organically

It is summer time and that means bugs in the home and worse-in the kitchen.   If you have ants you can try putting vinegar or lemon juice outside their entryways.  I have done this and it works, but sometimes their entryways are not in a place you can do this.  If this is the case for you, try dryer sheets layered at their points of entry.  I have done this too and it does seem to work-others have not found it successful.  I have not found this successful with my countertops.

There is something else you can try for that and this will also work for pantry moths.  If you have had them you know how hard it can be to get rid of them, and of course still be able to use the space for food storage.

One caveat-this will not kill them, but it will make them go away, which is what most people want anyway.  And getting glass containers will not prevent them from hatching if they are already in the foodstuffs-just so you know.

Remove all grocery products (boxes and bags) from cabinet shelves. Check thoroughly and throw away any and all containers that have telltale signs of bugs, and wipe down all shelves with warm soapy water.

Then mix a 1 oz. bottle of pure peppermint oil (sold in drug stores or health food stores for approximately $8) with 2 quarts of distilled water. Note: This is not the peppermint flavoring sold in grocery stores, for candy and cake making.)

Pour mixture into a pump spray bottle; and store the remainder in a sealed glass jar for later usage, as it will keep indefinitely.

Spray each shelf or drawer lightly with the mixture, as it is quite strong, but with a refreshing scent. Matter of fact, you might want to leave home for a few hours.

After shelves have completely dried, put unaffected groceries back into cabinets. Oh, by the way, other areas of the house can be sprayed at any time, for any type of critters, as insects absolutely hate the smell of peppermint. This is non-toxic, and will not bother or harm humans or pets, other than perhaps clearing up your sinuses.

Another remedy to keep insects out of cabinets is to place whole bay leaves on the shelves and leave them there. Another scent that bugs don’t like.

Pass this information to others who might need it.  Lastly, I must give credit where it is due-a wonderful person sent me this information and you know who you are!  Many thanks to you, my friend.

I’ll Never Understand

There are some things I will never understand in life, and while I know that intellectually, it does not make it any easier.

I do not understand how people can attend a conference stating how wonderful it was, how they grew in relationship with the Lord, give a testimony to the congregation about how they grew and what they learned and yet a few weeks later state how they and their significant other are at a graduation party already drunk.

I’ll never understand.

Life

I have been away from this blog for a long time now-at least a year.  That is because I had an ongoing challenge that took all my creative energy to deal with and there was none left over for writing.

I still do not believe the challenge is solved.  Supposedly there are signs of improvement and things are changing slowly.  But I also know that the people in charge still do not want to face this particular challenge or do anything to correct it.

For now I watch and I wait-but I have to say that this is my last chance with them.  And I will not pretend to support or pretend to make nice about this challenge anymore.

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Some youth got quite a nasty surprise when they were visited by some deputies:

“Without physical provocation and/or physical gestures from B.B., Deputy Bowers held B.B. down on his bed and shocked him repeatedly with a taser. While he was tasing B.B., Deputy David Bowers threatened to sodomize B.B.”

This is only part of the story.  Other things happened to the three other youths in the story. And the four youths in this story were not the ones the center called the deputies for .

The guardian of the youth has filed a lawsuit and rightfully so.   I don’t know what was going through the minds of the deputies, but how awful for these youth to most likely be traumatized again by authority figures in their lives.

Students Are Now Considered Personnel

Mrs. C has a post about  happenings in one Kentucky county for home educators.   The gist of it is that the new Pupil Personnel Director wants to come into homes to check on the progress of the students….presumably to make sure they are getting the same education as everyone else.

So many troubling things about this…first off when did students become personnel?   According to Merriam-Webster,  the first, and therefore the most common usage of the word is”: “a body of persons usually employed (as in a factory, office, or organization)”.   I think the parents should ask the DPP  when their students will be getting their wages?  I’d love to see the reaction to that question.

Secondly, asking the community to report to her all children out and about during school hours is atrocious.  This is not the way to foster good relationships in the community, when everyone could be spying on everyone  else.

Later on the article states that the parents have the option to meet the DPP on neutral ground. Notice that there is presumably no option for not meeting with her.

She also says later that parents who do what they are supposed to should have no fear.   Translation is that if you do what she tells you to do, you’re fine.  If not, then I guess she will show you who’s boss.

And as if this wasn’t enough, now she will have access to your child’s medical records.

“Upon Williamson’s recommendation, the board adopted a new attendance policy and medical excuse form that must be turned in for students that miss in excess of 10 days.

The form is a more in-depth response from doctors, detailing the reason a child is or must be absent.”

So if you have a child with a serious medical issue, you now have more forms to fill out and the knowledge that other people will have access to this personal information.  And Williamson ( the DPP)  thinks this is going to be less stress for families?

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

There is concern in Pakistan for the workers of the oldest profession in the world, so a workshop was held on how these folks can protect themselves from disease.

Given the culture over there, I am not so sure this will be successful.  What good is it knowing the precautions if the clients refuse to do their part?

Then there is this information:

“But prostitution remains illegal and anathema to many in Muslim-majority Pakistan. It is an ever-present fact of life, but never really acknowledged.

The last two decades, given the increasing Islamisation of Pakistani society, have further reinforced stereotypes about such women.

But the profession has only grown.”

One has to wonder why the profession is growing, given the above statements.

Pleasure

This is the name of a new leaflet deigned to discourage students from having intimitate relations, according to the NHS across the pond.   I’m not sure how titling anything pleasure is going to discourage people from doing that activity, but that could just be me.

Then again these are the same folks that are promoting:

“Linda Blair, a clinical psychologist, said educating older children and teenagers about sex had to be a process of negotiation. “We do not know what is right and wrong; right and wrong is relative, although your child does need clear guidelines,” she said.”

If right and wrong are relative, then there is no point in having guidelines at all.  Also, how can there be clear guidelines when there is no such thing as right and wrong, according to her?

It’s That Time of Year Again…

Every year when public school starts up again, there seems to be an opening bell of sorts letting people know it is open season on home educators once again.

This year we had two opening salvos-one from Kentucky and one from MSNBC. Kentucky is up first.

They are concerned about their absenteeism rate and have come up with a “No Excuses-Go to School” campaign which may sound good until you read what their concerns are:

“…a reduction in the dropout and home schooling rate of 25 percent by 2010…”

That’s next year, so they have set a pretty aggressive goal for themselves. The article again repeats that homeschooling is a major concern:

“One major concern of those involved with the district’s attendance plan is the recent rise of home schooling in the area.

“Parents that do home schooling need to keep attendance records,” Compton said. “There’s criteria they have to follow, and many of them are not aware of that.”

No, Ms. Compton is the one unaware of the criteria homeschools need to follow. According to Statute 159.030(1)(b):

“Homeschoolers need only send in a letter with this information (students in attendance at the school) during the first two weeks of school.” This has been the law since 1985.

This next part is important to note as well:

“All private and parochial schools …shall at all times be open to inspection by directors of pupil personnel and officials of the Department of Education. Section 159.040 School officials, however, have no authority to enter home schools, since they are protected by the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.”

Part of Kentucky’s plan is to have people report to the schools when they see school age children out in public and not in school. For students that frequently miss school, parents “should expect a visit at their homes.”

Notice that they do not define how many absences define “frequently”. And the article also puts forth the lie that this “intensive focus on attendance is not motivated by the loss of funds due to absenteeism, according to Compton.”

This statement is at odds with the school board minutes on this issue which clearly state on page 2 that “the End of Year (EOY) average daily attendance (ADA) will determine the district budget for 2008-2009.”

The rest of the paper goes on to state the incentives for students that have perfect attendance. Funnily enough there is no mention of any extra educational advantages in this “No Excuses” program. Looking at the minutes, it is all about the money.

The second article of concern is about vaccinations. The headline reads “Vaccine refusals fuel jump in measles outbreaks” The next line reads “Cases at highest levels in a decade;many sparked by home-schooled kids”.

This article too has some informational gaps such as the fact that the article lumps the unvaccinated with those whose vaccination status is not known. So of that number mentioned, some of those folks were indeed vaccinated but are being counted as unvaccinated. They also included babies under one year of age -too young to get the shot-in this group. In other words they really have no idea how many people had some vaccination for the measles.

I also fail to understand why the focus is always on the people who were not vaccinated. Why don’t they have the same concern for the vaccinated people that still got the disease? After all if the vaccine works the way the medical profession tells us it should, then vaccinated people would not get the disease in the first place.

Right?

Technorati Tags: truancy, control, vaccinations, education, knowing your rights

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Social Services in Pennsylvania

There is another state that has a problem with their social service system: Pennsylvania.

“The nightmare of forced starvation and infection that killed Danieal while she was under the protection of the city’s human services agency is documented in a 258-page grand jury report released this week that charges nine people — her parents, four social workers and three family friends — in her ghastly death.”

This family had been under the scrutiny of social services for years. Social services falsified reports of their visits and the Assistant Health Commissioner interfered in the investigation of the girl’s death.

The article says the girl lived with her father in her early years and things went well until the father moved back to Philadelphia. It sounds like the father had custody of the girl because they were in Arizona before returning to Philadelphia-and he also had his other children with him.

Why didn’t the mother have custody? What happened there? And what happened for the mother to regain custody?

I wonder if social services made life so difficult for him while he was there that they drove him out? It’s a tactic they use often. Also, the father did care for her when he was in Arizona, and it seems odd that he would suddenly stop doing that once he got to Philadelphia.

This proves once again that social services, as a system, is broken.

Technorati Tags: social services, death, corruption

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