Happily Negative

70 this morning, cloudy and humid. Predicted storms never arrived although we had a shower or two and lots of thunder all day. High of 84.

Guess what, I finally got a negative Covid test! I am so happy to see that, but will continue testing for a few days just to be sure.

I feel much better today. Yesterday I took it pretty easy, just prepared all those veggies he brought in, and no canning. What did I make with them? Well, I made the cabbage-dill-cucumber salad I have been wanting to make. 

Then made potato salad with our own celery and dill pickles, and ground up the squash and zucchini for the freezer, to use later to make lemon squash bread or zucchini bread, and to put into soups stews, etc. 

Then we shucked and boiled tbe corn and sliced a few tomatoes. What a dinner! And we had the same thing again today. I also made a cherry cobbler to have with ice cream.

 That was dessert last night, and lunch today. 

Today I canned tomato juice. 

We got about 28 quarts, a far cry from the 80 I had hoped for. I still have a table full of tomatoes though, so we will make more. Tomorrow I plan to make green tomato mincemeat, and Sunday, if my Covid tests are still negative, I will be back to working at the antique mall.

Larry got out early this morning and tilled the ground where the potatoes were, and sowed some fall crops--turnips, lettuce,  radishes, kale, etc. He had to pull the first planting of cucumbers because blight finally got them, but he planted more so perhaps we will have fall cucumbers. Tbe second planting is hanging on, but also has blight so we may soon be cucumber-less. How sad is that.

I was thinking, as I prepared jars of juice for the canner, what amazing engineering it is to make those jars work as they do. Some of my jars are well over 70 years old yet still sturdy. They survive extremes of temperature and pressure in the canner, over and over again. 

Then there are the lids. They have to be able to seal regardless of the strength, or lack of strength of the person tightening tbe rings. I mean it says "hand-tight". My 30 year old hands were a lot stronger than these 70 year old versions! But the jars still seal. Amazing.

The same thing applies to the many different medications people take. They all have to work together, whatever the combination.  I know doctors are careful not to prescribe pills known to interact, but still there are so many that seem to be okay when taken with others. Right now I only take 3 prescriptions but I also take several vitamins and no problems with interactions. Larry takes many more and still,  no problems. I have to hand it to engineers and scientists,  because to me this is just amazing.

I liked the news today about the unemployment rate and lower gas prices, and hope this means this inflationary period might be slowing down. It certainly put a crimp in our budget and I can only imagine the impact on those with very limited incomes. 

Larry is out in the garden again,  doing some weeding and hoping. Should I go and help? Maybe so. See you tomorrow!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.