Can it!

A few months ago I checked out the cannery in our area. I was given a tour of the facility and a demonstration of how to use the canners they have and allow people to borrow. It was a great information-gathering trip for me. We reserved a canner for this weekend and now share our experience.

We arrived at the Storehouse and got lots of help to complete our order.  I knew the general things we would need, but figuring how many cans to buy for how many pounds of wheat and oats, etc took a little time to figure out.  With the order figured out, we loaded up all the supplies with the help of two senior missionaries and filled up the truck.  We could have crammed a lot more into the truck, but didn't want to bite off more than we could chew for our first experience. 

At home, we unloaded the truck and got to work.

First we needed to secure the canning machine to a steady table.  We have no such article of furniture, but were able to manage with our door-on-top-of-two-file-cabinets computer table. 

Then we filled the cans.  Jefferson did this, as it was the heavy lifting part.  I made sure the cans had roughly the same amount of wheat in them. 

The final preparation was to add an oxygen absorber and place on the lid.  Evidently the longer the oxygen absorbers are exposed to air the less effective they become.  I'm glad the people at the cannery told us that, because we may have not been so strategic at this point in the process otherwise. 

The canning machine was very simple to operate once I started holding the table top steady.

Last was placing the labels and putting the cans in boxes.  We completed a total of 47 cans, mostly hard red wheat and some oats.  Even though these cans should last 30 years, we intend to use them long before that. We eat oatmeal for breakfast a lot and grind wheat into flour for baking.

It was a bit of work, but truly didn't take much more than 2 hours once we got home.  And we were complete novices.  We feel very satisfied with our work, it was fun to do together on a cloudy January Saturday.  And while we may not rush out to do it again next week (we have a good supply now), we learned a lot and are so glad to have this Storehouse and canning equipment available to us. 

Happiness and Cheer

December is now upon us, and we are thrilled to announce the latest installment of Criddle Christmas music!:




Download it now!


With four brand new songs to brighten your holiday season:

• Dance of the Flutes


• Christmas Time is Here


• Carol of the Bells


• It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Enjoy!

and be sure to catch up on all the previous releases:
Visions of Sugar Plums (2010)
Amid the Cold of Winter (2009)
Happy Golden Days (2008)

Ending the Month of Thanksgiving: Days 21-30

Day 21-My mom-This is another post that I think will be hard to do the person justice.  I have lots of great memories as a kid that are surrounding my mom-lots of little things she would say and do have made their way into my life.  She is a strong woman, hardly ever gets sick (I remember as a kid that it would be so weird when she was sick and not up doing stuff.  She can't get sick, she's Mom).  And in the past few weeks, she has been going non-stop traveling to visit family, working at the office, and doing her church duties, as well as many other things I'm not aware of, I'm sure. She is generous, understanding and loving. Even though we live far away from each other, she still helps me a lot with things going on in my life.   I love her and hope she knows how much she means to me.

Day 22- Eternal Families.  Two women in my family have passed away recently.  Although neither of these deaths was a huge surprise, it is always sad to know you time on earth with some one is over. Knowing that people who die still exist and that families can be together eternally is comforting.
I also want to give a shout out others in my eternal family.  My dad has been a great counselor to me over they years about many subjects and I value his input.  My brothers are great guys each with a great wife.  Lastly, my in-laws are great too.  I've enjoyed getting to know them over the years.

Day 23-My youngest Sister- She turned the big 1-8 on the 23rd.  She is a bomb photographer, has a great sense of humor and is a great friend to lots of people.  She is self-motivated and works hard at everything she does. I hope she knows how valued she is.  She is a good example to me of how have a sense of humor even when you tons of stuff to do.  (I have a tendency to stress about things)

Day 24-working on family projects-We spent all weekend working on the Christmas Music Album and other projects.  It was great spending so much time together working on the same projects.  I observed that compared to some of the first projects we did together we seem to work better together now.

Day 25- Having a roof over our heads.  I know our home isn't fancy or big, but it is enough space for us and keeps us warm and dry.

Day 26- Great summer adventures-We had some great trips this summer.  The best was our combined trip to Mt. Rainier and then climbing Mt. St. Helens.  It helps us get through the winter knowing that summers are so great!

Day 27- Successful first attempts-Cheesecake and Dutch apple pie.  The cheesecake isn't perfect but it is quite good. (and of course we are thankful for left overs of successful first attempts)

Day 28- The Right to Bear Arms- We invested in our first gun recently. We took it to the shooting range.  We love it.

Day 29- Health-this is something I don't appreciate enough until it's been compromised.  I was sick last week, just with a slight cough.  I'm so glad that is behind me (knock on wood).  One new thing I did to get rid of my cold faster this time: at the recommendation of two friends from church I got a neti pot.  I was pretty weirded out by it at first, but now I've got the hang of it.  It seems to help a lot, because usually my colds linger for 2-3 weeks and this one was only a week. 

Day 30- Agency-I'm glad to be able to make choices.  It can be difficult sometimes to accept reality, but learning to make responsible and wise choices brings peace and happiness.  I can't have it all or do it all, so I have to choose what is most important to me.  I try to make choices that make sense to me and are simple.  I am not always right, but am certainly learning and becoming better at admitting I'm wrong and asking for help.

Month of Thanksgiving day 20

Fresh produce- bananas, carrots, potatoes, oranges, spinach, cherries, strawberries, blueberries, peaches, avocado, peppers, onions, cabbage.  And at this time of year, apples  pears and squash.  'Nuf said.

Month of Thanksgiving day 19

Pretty leaves-By now most of the colorful leaves are down, but I have to say that I really enjoyed the fall colors this year.  I was also glad that lots of October and the beginning of November were not too drizzly and were actually pretty sunny.  Every year I think it would be neat to make something decoraty out of the pretty fallen leaves, but I never get around to it.  Has anyone made anything out of leaves before (garland/wreath)? How did it go?

Month of Thanksgiving day 18

Sleep-When I first started getting sick last week, I came home from work and crashed.  That really helped me to get a little better faster.  Even if I'm not sick, I love sleeping soundly after a full day and waking up refreshed. On days like today I think the animals have the right idea about hibernating.

Month of Thanksgiving day 17

King County Library System-We have an awesome library system here in King County.  We came across our first local library a day or two after we moved here, signed up for library cards and have been hooked ever since.  We get 99.9% of our books and movies from here, and the selection is pretty great.  I've been surprised to see that they have some LDS books as well as sheet music.  It's nice to be able to reserve things online and pick them up where we want. Also, when things are overdue the fine is only $.10 per day.  Not bad!  For me personally the library has been a great asset, because I wasn't much of a reader before we moved here.  Thanks to our library I have become much more cultured.