Saturday, April 26 I was in Walcott Iowa at their public library for an author book signing and program. Wonderful people, had a great time meeting friends of my husbands family as he grew up in Walcott. Thanks for all the support!

#rescuinglove #caroldenekas #caroldenekasauthor

Warmer weather brings renovating... 

First this year on our list of projects is the much needed and coveted pantry:)

We decided to do away with an old tile shower that was near the kitchen and convert it into a pantry. Easter weekend was a long weekend and so we ripped into things on Friday morning.  I really thought that the tile would come off quickly but it took a day and a half to chip them all off:(  So, true to all projects...we were officially behind schedule on the first day.

New drywall was delivered Saturday at noon and we were thankful that the rain we were supposed to get was nowhere in sight as the garage is still pretty full with last years projects.

Finally we succeeded in getting all the tile off and decided to remove the old plaster behind the tile.

Next, we cut a door way from the hall to the new pantry area.

Here is the door we will be using. It was rescued from a demolition of an apartment building many years ago by my dad.  24 inches wide and solid wood, beautiful when stripped. Door jams and hardware came with the doors. I think a clear coat over the wood will work the best. I briefly considered painting it white (booo hissss). I think that was about 2:30am on Saturday, I mean Sunday morning and my brain was going to mush.

Next we had to get rid of the water pipes and shower head from the old shower. This turned out to be the tricky part as there wasn't a water shut off specifically for the shower or even that bathroom so we had to shut off the water to the whole house.  Unfortunately, we had company for Easter weekend...bad hosts!  Our company fled to the town library and hung out there doing homework (ok, so our company was our college daughter working hard on her senior paper and a good friend in a master's program working equally hard on her final projects for the year.) We did manage to have some social time and saw a couple of good movies I would recommend to anyone.  The Book Thief and 12 Years a Slave.... both great movies.

With the water shut off, we cut the pipes and capped them by soldering. I loved this as it had all the elements of excitement for me. DANGER: as were working close to the old wood lathe (we hung a dripping wet towel on the wood lathe so the flame didn't burn the house down. This trick was suggested by my father-in-law who is a retired fire fighter.  NEW GROUND: I have never soldered before.

House is still standing and the water is back on:) 

Here is the proof of our labors.

Next, we put up support frame for the new wall that will close the bathroom off from the pantry.

Finally, the drywall that had been delivered at noon on Saturday was installed.  This was about 10pm on Sunday night. A couple of hours of clean up and everything was back to normal except for the gapping door hole in the hallway right outside the kitchen door.

More to come on this project....

This past weekend I visited an Amish area in Hazelton, Iowa. This was my second trip to this community. I love to buy grains and spices in bulk. This time I came across Whole Spelt Flour. I bought a bag and then did a little research on how to use Spelt flour in baking. Seems this is an "ancient grain" unmodified.  Although not gluten free, evidently Spelt is easier to digest than common wheat.  From what I can tell, you can just use it as a replacement for white and wheat flour when baking. For more information on how and why to use Spelt flour please select the link below. 

"I really enjoyed this book. This book may be short but it kept me interested all the way to the end. The author's writing style pulled me in and made me want to take the journey with Daniel and Emily. While the ending may not be a total surprise to readers, the journey to get there made for interesting reading & kept me turning the
pages to find out what would happen next. And there were a few surprises along the way that I did not see coming! This is a lovely book about the power of love and forgiveness. I can't wait for the author's next book."     
                                                                             
D. Schrandt from www.amazon.com 

#rescuinglove #caroldenekasauthor #caroldenekas

Raw cubed beef just picked up from the meat locker. Enough for 56 quart jars of canned beef.

Ready to go in the canner. No sterilizing needed as the pressure canning process takes care of that. Everything goes in cold and cold water added to the canner.

Jars of raw cubed beef with some white onion and a bay leaf in the bottom of the jar. No liquid if stuffing jar with raw meat. I fill my pressure canner with 7 quart jars and about 3 inches of water.

First batch out and still boiling on the counter. 21 jars done tonight.  A good run. Beef cans 90 minutes at 10 lbs pressure.

First injury of the season...steam burn from taking the lid off the pressure canner.  Must ...use...potholders:)