The most wonderful thing has happened! I found something that has been missing for more years than I can recall, and it is so precious to me. When Martin joined the army during the Vietnam war, (yes, he's old enough, can you believe it?) he found a little plastic red devil statue in his locker, and the statue had been left behind from the guy that had it before. It is about 5 inches tall, has a little pointed tail, little red horns and a cute expression. It is standing on a small platform and on the platform it says, "I love you when you're wicked!" He brought this little devil to me the first time we got to visit after he started basic training, and that was right after we married. I thought the little devil was lost after, well, maybe the house fire, the flood, the move, who knows. But tonight, Martin, David, Shane, Tyler and Natalie came to help clean out the attic. I needed my pressure canner, and Martin swore it was up there, but I know better. But, they all worked like maniacal squirrels and cleaned out box after box of stuff. Some of those boxes were put up there when we moved in 17 years ago, and before that they were packed with stuff from when the kids were little, and never unpacked. Christmas decorations, pictures, books, so many things that I haven't seen in years. It was like finding buried treasure! I am so happy to have my little statue back, and now, I will take extra good care of it. I have had it for almost 40 years!
I did home-can the beef today. Many memories came back to me too, when I was doing this. When the kids were little, if I got a super deal on meat, I would bring it home and can it. You have to remember, that all this happened in the 70's when the "Earth Mother" movement was in swing. Everyone wanted to move to the wilderness and live off the land, give birth at home and make everything from scratch. I couldn't move to the wilderness, but we did have animals, grew our vegetables, made butter, sausage and cheese, milked the cow and so much more. It wasn't anything special for me to home-can our meat, fruit and vegetables, and my kids thought nothing of it. One memory we have is when I canned peaches, and in order to peel them easier, I would boil them for 10 seconds and then run across the kitchen with the hot peaches in a bowl and dash them in ice water. The skin would just peel right off. (works great with tomatoes too!)To this day, if you say, "hot peaches!" my kids know that I am peeling peaches. I am not sure why I am so inspired to home-can meat at this time, but when these thoughts come to me so strongly, I just go ahead and do it.
To get back to my story, last night I asked Martin again for maybe the 10th time if he knew where my pressure canner was. All week he has told me it is in the attic, maybe the shed, maybe the garage, just be patient and he will get to it. I knew that I could get another one at Walmart, and brought it up to him, and he indignantly told me that I had no faith in him, and he would find my canner! Well, I bought the beef on Thursday, and the out-date was January 29th, so I was running out of time. This morning, Becky called and asked if I wanted to go to Walmart! Oh yes indeedie, I sure did! Naughty thing that I am, I went straight to housewares, and bought a brand new pressure, that was on sale by the way. Gearing up for the confrontation when I got home, I began to run a few scenarios through my mind. C'mon, I am 57 years old, I guess I can have a say over getting something I really need! Martin doesn't have a problem with it, you should see the tools and stuff in the garage. Do I carp when he gets new stuff? Well, maybe, but not really, except sometimes, it depends. Becky and I got home, and I left the canner in the car to judge his mood. After all, I don't want to "upset" him- but, he met me at the door. He said, "I have looked everywhere, and David and his family have pulled everything out of the attic, and Jaybird and I have looked all over the garage and in the shed, and well honey, I didn't see a canner anywhere and I'll take you to Walmart to get a new canner. I'm sorry I made you wait so long". Really? Well, that sure made it easy! I hugged him and told him I was "worried about having him go all the way to Walmart just in case he couldn't find the canner, and so I went ahead and got the one on sale, and here is the receipt just in case he found mine." I told him how much I appreciated all his efforts to make me happy, and went right ahead and just started cutting up beef, washing mason jars and so forth! As I used to say when I was little, "TEE HEE!" So, the meat is bottled. I am in the mood to do some more, so, I am going to do the small turkey that is in the freezer. Reminds me of the time that Martin had to take a dish to work, and I used some home-canned turkey and made turkey and dressing. Everyone loved it, and then he went and told them the turkey they were eating was over 2 years old. You can imagine their reaction. It wasn't that old, I had just canned it about 8 months before.
It was a good day. Oh, I am going to embroider a sign that says, "We got free batteries!". I want to commorate the blessing that occurred on a day that could have been momentous in grief. Instead, I got free batteries, and that let's me know that you never know when Heavely Father is going to surprise you. Like I said, a treasure trove!
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