It seems as though the rain has stopped and the forecast doesn’t call for any for several days! It’ll be nice to be able to get out and pick some of the vegetables growing in my garden. My husband brought in more turnips and greens a couple days ago. Blanched and in the freezer are 13 pint bags of greens and 11 pint bags of turnips and rutabagas. Now, I need to take care of the Swiss chard, kale, and eventually the beets and parsnips. The beets and parsnips aren’t ready, yet. The spinach is about ready and the peas are making a effort. The broccoli hasn’t started to head and the kohlrabi is just thinking about growing the edible portion. Temperatures have already gone down to 37 this week. Sure don’t want it to freeze before produce ripens or is harvested.

My husband and I have been going on nice, long walks when the rain stops. Today, I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather, so he went by himself. We’ve been walking about 40 minutes a day. The fresh air has felt good. In the past, I did most of my walking at the supermarket. Walking out of doors is nicer, weather and path conditions have been good. Once the ice and snow arrive, it will be too difficult to walk outdoors. I have never done well walking on ice at more than a snail’s pace.

A couple baby chicks were spotted in our coop this week. Their momma had them in hiding as they aren’t tiny anymore. Hopefully, they are females. Some years we wind up with a couple dozen babies.

I bought some xylitol this week to use in place of sugar. It has been used for many years overseas, but was recently approved for use here. It seems to taste like sugar. It comes from birch trees and doesn’t raise blood sugar levels. My friend uses if in al her baking and then gives gifts of the food to some of her diabetic friends. So, as it isn’t a phony or unnatural product, I decided to try it. I’ll give more of an up-date later after I’ve really been able to test it.

This week I bought four organic gala apples. The cash register rang up at $7.00. Wow! I’m trying to buy more and more organic foods as I truly believe that our health will be so much better if that is the bulk of our food. It is amazing the higher percentage of vitamin and mineral contents are in the organic foods as opposed to the other, more common types. The price that must be paid to the grocer for the organic food is considerably higher than usual. Although it hurts the pocketbook, it sure does taste better and, overall, we don’t have to eat as much to obtain the same amount of nutrients.

We went to Anchorage, yesterday, just for the fun of it. We had a short visit with my eldest daughter, shopped and started home. On the way up, we had to detour around some runoff that had come onto the highway. Earlier, an 8 foot boulder had crashed onto the highway after rolling down a mountain. We took a detour and visited some of our glaciers. We sometimes go a couple years between going down that 10 mile stretch of road. Glaciers don’t change very fast, so not seeing one for a year or so doesn’t make much difference. They are still beautiful and a delight to the eye.

Well, it is time to close for tonight. Take care. Till next time…