Things that make ya go "OH SHIT"

Yep I had one of those this past weekend. I will tell you for sure my heart jumped up in my throat and was thumpin away, RIGHT there(pointing to my throat). Anyway on Saturday we finally got out and got started butchering the young roosters that have made my hens a nervous wreck for weeks now. We got 2 of em killed and cleaned and it started raining. It was a cold rain, so we decided to come inside and Rodger said he would work on the furnace while it rained and if I stopped raining we could go back out an kill a couple more between showers. We moved the washer our from the wall so he could access the furnace. He got out the screw driver and started taking stuff off and apart, using the vacuum to clean stuff as he went along. The long and short of this is he did get the elements in and sequencer in and now our electric furnace works fine again. By now it had stopped raining so we went back out to kill more chickens. Got a couple more killed and got rained out again. Back in we go. About half hour, we went back and finally after all this butchered 8 birds total. It was getting late when we finished and it was getting colder outside. I told Rodger I would just get the chicken in the big pressure canner and have it ready to cook the next day. So this is what I did. We came in late and ate supper. Jason got his buddy Jeremy to help him move the couch from our house to his and bring his fat man recliner around here an put it in our living room. All this, again between rain showers. Finally we can just chill out for the night and start again the next day
I got up a lil late on Sunday morning and about 11 or  11;30 and I went to the summer kitchen to turn the stove on and get the chicken started cookin in the pressure canner to make stock. It usually take an hour to get up to temp oh high heat if you start off with everything cold, which it was. I cranked the stove on high and I came in the house for a lil bit to get some coffee. Rodger ask me if I was ready to move the rest of the furniture and re-run the TV cables and cables to our security system. I said sure as I poured my coffee. So we unhooked all the many cables behind the TV and moved it, Rodger went under the house to re-route the cables and I was inside with one of the portable radios so we could communicate. He finally got all the cables poked back up thru the floor in the right places and limited cussin, he came out and all is well. He mentioned being hungry, I made a kettle of veggie soup from a jar, my hillbilly convenience food and we ate some late lunch. After our soup Rodger got busy tryin to re-hook all those many cables back on the TV and make it all work right. After he had all those working and he could watch TV and I got all the stuff cleaned up from under where the TV was. WE sat down to smoke a cigarette and get something to drink. When my azz hit the chair, I said "OH SHIT!!!!" Rodgers eyes bugged out and he was askin what as I headed for the summer kitchen. IF ya been following this story ya know I turned the pressure canner on about 11:30 in the morning and it is now about 3 in the afternoon. I FORGOT about the dang canner. I went out there fully expecting to find chicken parts on the ceiling and my good canner ruined. Thank God the canner was still gigglin away on 13 lb pressure and the burner still set on high. I nearly had a heart attack. That is a big no-no, do as I say, not as I do. You really should never leave a pressure canner going unattended. I am so fortunate it didn't blow the emergency plug out and spray chicken parts under pressure on the ceiling. See I tole you I turned 50 and lost my damn mind. But I bet I don't get that sidetracked again and leave my canner. None the less I got the stock strained and canned up along with some chicken. I got 3 quarts of chicken thighs, 3 pints of chicken breast meat, and 7 quarts of just stock. Alls well that ends well I guess. My friend Deb told me God watches over crazy people. I tend to agree with her now. Not sure that is the word she used, I cant remember.
Haven't accomplished much today other than got the jars of stock washed off from canning yesterday and ready to put in the cellar. Cooked supper and did some laundry. When it got dark I went out to close the chickens up for the night and gather the eggs and we were getting sleet. After about half hour of that our porch was kinda white looking. Now it is raining. So maybe the roads will be OK tomorrow when the guys head out to work. I have to go back to the eye doc tomorrow and order my new contacts script so I can continue to see.
I have plundered around online some today and came across this website with tons of good info on it for people who like to do things for themselves, the self-sufficient type, ya know. Have a look at here. On that site I found a place that really caught my attention. This is the one with the info I will be using really soon. I think I might make some homemade lotion for my new daughter-in-law and the lil grand son that is on the way. I guess ya know IF I can remember I will post some pics when I make some of those this week.
Not much else happening here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella