Ok, it is Friday evening here. Kids went back to school yesterday, so it is back to the sme old routine! It is cold here, in the teens at night and today I think it got to 30, but the wind was blowing so it didn't feel that warm.

I have been fighting a cold. It is miserable with a stuffy nose, but I am gettting over it!

Feeding and watering the animals takes twice as long. The water is always frozen. That is the worst thing, but must be dealt with I guess.

I noticed on all my posts I spell "because" wrong! I always mix up the s and the u. I do know how to spell it correctly though! Just type too fast. Sorry to all you spelling checkers!

Cale is working on Kadia's rubber band car. Brady is helping too. I think he has spent at least 10 hours trying to perfect this thing! Kadia seems somewhat bemused by it all, and just helps hand them things.

I had to run errands today. It is getting close to tax season, so I had to go pick up forms and supplies. I need to spend an afternoon next week going over forms and etc... I am usually pretty busy in February, then mostly business people in March, then the people who owe in April! I tell them they can still have them done early and not pay until April, but it doesn't work. I have had as many as a dozen people picking up their taxes at the last minute on April 15th!

I did stop in the Dollar General store today when I was out. They have all their Christmas items on sale 60% off, so you might check there if you need anything. I bought some new stainless steel bowls, 4 in a box for $5. They are nice sizes, for the price. I got 2 sets. I am sick of plastic stuff. I know stainless steel won't melt at least (don't ask!!!!)

Well I had better go, got a few more posts to put on!

-- Melissa (me@home.net), January 04, 2002

Answers

This was an errand running day for me, I've been all over two counties! But I got a lot acomplished, so I'm just going to put my feet up for a while. The weather service keeps saying that we are going to have a snowstorm, so there were things I wanted to get done in case we get "Snowed in"-Hey! It could happen! The wind was very sharp today, and we had continued cold. I'm ready though, the pantry is full, I bought 12 rolls of toilet paper, and new rubber boots for the kids, and a new jigsaw puzzle.

I'm glad you said that about the bowls, Melissa, I had some but I have no idea where they went-I suspect at least one has plaster of paris in it in the basement. I don't like plastic, either and I'm gradually weeding it out of my life.

-- Kelly (homearts2002@yahoo.com), January 04, 2002.

I love stainless steel! I bought my mother's HUGE stainless bowl when we had the estate sale for her a few months ago. I am just thinking of how many green beans that thing can hold!

I don't mind the plastic so much, but I've decided the thing to do is hit the estate and garage sales for the old tupperware -- you know, the harvest colors and pastel colors. I've gotten some great pieces for 25 cents!

-- Christine in OK (cljford@aol.com), January 05, 2002.

My friend and I always try to get together on Fridays for lunch and a nice gab session. Sometimes we ride around our beautiful valley and pray. We pray for business and schools, more business to come to the vacant buildings. One time when we were out, we felt we should go down this street, when we were going down the street we saw all kinds of police cars. Later we read the paper, Big Drug Bust. We don't live in town,but we go there for things. We want it to be a safe place to go and people to raise their families. We have snow on the ground,and during the day it's been warm enough for the snow to melt off the roofs. Some friends came over and brought pizza you bake in the oven. We had a great time visiting.

-- Jo (farmerjo@kvalley.com), January 05, 2002.

Mellisa,I bought two sets of those bowls a few days ago,one set for my daughters hope chest and one set for myself.I also thought they were a good buy.The D.G.store here still had a lot of stuff,Iguess people didnt buy like last year.I too have some melted plastic peices!

-- willa (goodall6@hotmail.com), January 05, 2002.

Looks like I need to make a trip to the dollar general!! Before Christmas I did find a huge stainless steel bowl at Big Lots for under $5. It will be handy for canning season and I've already used it to let my bread dough rise in. Only thing, I had to warm it up some! I'd love to find an inexpensive stainless steel colandar. I'm sure if I'm patient, one will show up eventually. I also bought some of those big stainless steel stock pots at the dollar general. They have really come in handy. Next week I plan to take out the remains of my turkey carcus and pieces of turkey from thanksgiving and make and can some turkey soup. I'll cook it in one of the big stock pots. I've seen these same pots at other stores for much more than I paid for them! I am also trying to weed out my plastic. Don't really want my food sitting in a petroleum based product.

-- Barb in Ky. (bjconthefarm@yahoo.com), January 05, 2002.

Your allusion to plastics melting made me smile. Some years ago Tom discovered that one should not put a tupperware lid on top of the burner that has the oven exhaust under it when the oven is on! Since then, I have been educating all my kitchen helpers to NEVER put anything plastic on the stove, even if everything is off. Good habits prevent accidents, I believe.

-- Cathy N. (keeper8@attcanada.ca), January 05, 2002.

I know Cathy, my mistake was putting some pizza crust in the oven (it was just warm) to raise. Then I asked Kadia to make the pizza. She turned on the oven to pre-heat, and melted bowl and all inside the oven. What a mess!! Took a lot of work to clean it up that is for sure. I certainly learned my lesson.

-- Melissa (me@home.net), January 05, 2002.