Clyde

73°f/22.8°C, overcast but not raining! Rain may come later today, and we had storms last night. Only 3" total here in the past few days, but many places have not been so lucky. There is much flooding still happening, landslides, bridges damaged, and many homes damaged. 

News around our state hasn't been good as people deal with all the torrential rains. I know of 2 animal shelters that lost their bridge access and are flooded and without power. It was a rough weekend for so many people, and my heart goes out to them.

Clyde, December 2025

We stayed home all weekend.  The main reason was Clyde,  our 17-year-old cat. He was doing okay for his age,  but this past month he began to slow down, and this weekend wouldn't eat. He slept inside Saturday night, a rare thing for him, and didn't wake up Sunday morning. It was a peaceful way of going, but we will miss him terribly. He was a fine cat, undemanding until this past year when he wanted to be fed several times a day and seemed to crave attention. Rest in peace, dear boy. 

As a kitten, Clyde tormented Charlie, our female cat who was a few years older. He often jumped higher than my waist, and it wasn't easy to catch him being still enough for a photo.

It took a few months, but they finally became uneasy friends.

We would come upon Clyde in the most unlikely places, like on this January day a few years ago when I was walking in the woods. He was mainly an outside cat, rarely coming in the house until he was 15. We had a warm workroom he could access whenever he wanted.

Our handsome boy. What a joy he was.

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

The Equipment List

68°f/20°C, foggy.

I admit, I am loving this autumn weather. Cool mornings, long shadows, leaves drifting down, and this morning a heavy fog that didn’t clear until after 10. Bliss.

The pears are hanging heavy but are not yet ripe, although some are starting to fall. These are old Bartlett pears, also called winter pears, that must be stored a while before ripening.  The thing is, many spoil before they ripening! So it's a careful game to get enough to can or otherwise preserve.

Clyde avoided the damp morning by camping out in one of his favorite places. 

This planter of impatiens managed to survive the heat and drought and still provides a bright spot of color.

I spent most of the day in the kitchen again. Yesterday I canned a few jars of vegetable soup,  and I made a second batch today. While that was in process I picked the meat from a rotisserie chicken we had for supper Friday evening. I made the meat into chicken salad, and then started a pot of broth with the bones.

Cooking from scratch and preserving most of our food takes a lot of time, as I guess regular readers know. And makes a lot of dirty dishes! But the end result is so satisfying. My friend Batsy (a nickname from her storytelling days) suggested that a post about all the equipment needed for food preservation, so here's a stab at it. Let's see:

• A pressure canner is a must if one wants to put up meats and low acid foods. I havev3, just to have backup, and often have 2 going at the same time.
• A water bath canner for fruits, pickles, and tomatoes. I have 2 or 3 of these too.
• A jar lifter to get hot jars out of the canners
• Jars! Lots and lots of them. And lids and rings. The lids must be replaced with every use but the rings can be used over and over. I have used about 250 lids so far this year, much less than usual.
• A food processor isn't a necessity but certainly can make chopping stuff up much easier, and saves a lot of time. 
• I also find my immersion blender indispensable these days for purees. I can't think how I got along for so many years without it.
• A dehydrator is great for herbs, onions, peppers and a host of other things that can be dried and stored. 
• A vacuum sealer is another tool that's not a necessity, but food sealed with one doesn't freezer burn and stays in good shape much longer than with traditional bags. 
• A candy thermometer for making jam. Getting it to the right temperature makes the difference as to how well the jam will set. Not foolproof,  but a big help.
• The Victorio strainer is amazing for making applesauce and tomato juice 
• A meat slicer and a meat grinder are needed when deer season come around, or if I find pork loin or roasts cheap. We can slice our own chops that way.
• The big copper apple butter kettle makes an annual appearance, along with its stirrer.
• Ditto the cider press. It's not going to be used much this year as our apples didnt do well, so unless we find a source for apples, it will mainly be making pear cider.
• A drying rack is handy for hanging herbs, hot peppers and garlic.
• Baskets--half bushel and peck-- for picking and short term storage. And buckets for picking.
• Then there is all the other small stuff: a food mill for small batches of apple sauce, canning funnels, ladies, a jelly bag and stand, colander and strainers, cheesecloth for straining, a drying rack for pasta, a pasta machine. If I went in the kitchen and looked in the cupboards and drawers, I am sure i could add to this list 
• And the other big stuff, mainly BIG pots! I have three stock pots, I think, and often all three are in use. 
• Let's not forget the biggest thing: storage! The cellar is our main storage, but we store potatoes and winter squash in the back room. The large pantry cupboard holds most of our dry foods, the equipment cabinet holds most of the small appliances, and then there is the big pot cupboard, which is part of the kitchen base cabinets and was built just for that purpose. We have 2 freezers, one large upright and one smaller one. I know people who have 4 or 5 freezers but these two are enough for us. 

I think that's the list! Seems like a lot, but i have been at this over 50 years, so it gradually accumulated. We used to make butter so I still have my old churn, and finally sold my grain grinder a few years back. The churn, though, holds too many good memories so I am not ready to let it go yet.

Christmas Eve

34°f, about 1°C, overcast and raining. Most of our snow has melted

Not a creature is stirring...except Larry, Buddy and Little Boy, who are out for their morning walk, in the rain. 

But here is Clyde the cat, who rarely stays still long enough for a picture.  At 15, he's a pretty spry old fellow. 

And here is the couch, boobytrapped because someone seems to be getting up there at night! Not naming names, but it's probably Little Boy, since Buddy claims Larry's chair. I have given up on that front, but am determined to keep dogs off the couch. Will I win that battle? The odds aren't good.

We don't have much on the agenda today. The house is clean, laundry caught up, the porch mopped and the yard tidied yesterday. My pies and tarts are done, and I just have a few things to make this afternoon. So maybe we will have breakfast in town, pick up olives ( which I forgot the other day), and enjoy the last minute bustle of shoppers. Or maybe just stay here? We shall see what Larry wants to do when he returns from his wet walk.

Merry Christmas Eve, friends!

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

Covid Journal, Day 62: How the Mighty Are Fallen

57 this morning, might be a pretty day, with a few thundershowers. Yesterday got pretty warm, so I had the ceiling fans on in the house.

We had a surprise the other day. There was a large oak tree that we noticed was leaning about a month ago. I was keeping an eye on it, and we discussed when would be a good time to cut it down. Could we wait until fall, when the garden was done?

Then Wednesday morning I saw that the tree had leaned a lot more, and there was no question about when to drop it--it had to be soon. So Larry took down the electric fence and moved a planter or two. We hoped it would fall right between two bushes, and miss my flowerbed. We could also see that the tree was most likely fall on the little damson tree.

Larry had everything ready Wednesday afternoon. That evening, Larry was sitting on the porch, thinking about his plan of attack on the tree, when the tree started to move--and in less than a minute it was on the ground.

So no effort required on our part, and that was a relief, because you never know what might happen when cutting a tree like this--it could be hollow, and split while you are cutting, which is not a good situation, or it could kick off the stump, also not good. While it looks like the tree fell close to our van, it's actually a good thirty feet away.

Now comes the work. Larry began cutting away the top branches and hauling them off yesterday. Since our driveway is a circle we still have access so he didn't have to worry about that. It's not like we're going anywhere anyway. His main goal right now is to get it out of the garden so he can put the electric fence back up. Then begin cutting it off the driveway.

After Day 1's cutting:

Larry likes his new saw (bought with ebay earnings last month). It's a beast, bigger than his last chainsaw, but given the size of the trees that need to be cut, it's what he needs.

He had a lot of help.

This is one of the world's most curious cats, I swear. Whatever we're doing, he wants in on it.

The wagon full and ready to haul off the third load of trimmings.

Who can take pictures when this face keeps getting in the way?

Clyde found the branches a nice scratching station. He's such a pest! No matter what we're doing, he's always right there to see what's up. We love this old boy. He's 11 years old but still has plenty of kitten in him.

I told the tree how much I appreciate that it fell in the best possible place. It did take out part of the damson tree, and although it went between the spirea bushes they got a little beat up too. But the damson and the bushes can grow back. And the tree is down safely, so all is well.

Living in the country--you never know what to expect. I think this tree, like many others that have fallen recently, was a victim of the 2003 ice storm that severely damaged so many trees here. That, and the heavy rains and high winds we've experienced for months, have taken their toll on our forest.

Larry's cutting again today.


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