Menial Labor

Dinner last night WAS meatloaf. about 1 lb of hamburger, and about 1/2 lb of sausage meat. I added to this, some

sea salt, some pepper, some worcestershire sauce, a drop or three of liquid smoke, and a few generous dollops of

hickory BBQ sauce. I made it up into largish meatball size (about the size of a baseball) and set it in a ring

around the outside of a pie tin. In the middle of this ring of meat I put a coffee cup of water and put it to

cook in an oven that varied from 300 to 350 degrees F for about 25 minutes. The coffee cup of water was to water

bath it. I only have one shelf in my camp oven, and this served nicely. To get a nice and moist meat loaf you

should always water bath it somehow. In a larger oven I usually put the loaf pan for the meatloaf in a cake pan

and put water in the cake pan. This really does work well in keeping the meatloaf moist.

We made a trip to the dump yesterday. Only $5.00 and it was just absolutely peachy. Dumped off a whole truck

load of trash and it was WONDERFUL. most of it was packaging for this or that. The world would be a much cleaner

place if companies just used less packaging.

Then we ran into the nearby small town and put some gas in the truck, and let hubby on the internet for a little

bit. He was trying to find more information on our generator and such. I was also able to find out that

"Loppered" milk is the same as Clabbered or soured milk. That's a relief! I had found a recipe for cottage

cheese that was basically just loppered milk with hot water poured over it and wanted to try it. But now I find

out I need unpasturized milk. Good grief. Where do you find that now a days when you don't own a cow?

Did some laundry by hand yesterday, now I have several days worth of clothes again. I'll probably wash some more

today or tomorrow though, just so I can keep up on it a little more. Will have to try to use bigger tubs though.

I used a few dishpans and they were FAR to small to do my jeans much less any of Hubby's thick flannel shirts. I

can't wait until spring and summer when I can put a clothes line or two outside. Then I'll have more room to dry

things. Right now I have a short line over the propane fireplace (about 3.5 feet long) for socks, washclothes and

other small things. And then for jeans and shirts they are hanging from the rafters. Come summer though.. Watch

out! I'll be a hanging fool!

So,to do laundry this is what I did. Large wash basin with warm water in it, and some liquid tide. I like the

liquid as even if you use cold water it will not clump up, but I don't like the fact that so much is stil WASTED

when you empty the bottle. Put the clothes in there while we filled the smaller basin with clear warm water. I

would swoosh the clothes in the wash basin, and if there were any particularly dirty spots I would scrub it

together with my hands until it looked cleaner again. Pay close attention, after you wash clothes many stains are

set, even if you don't machine dry them. Then I wrung out the clothes, and put them in the rinse basin. Hubby

swished well the clothes there, and wrung them well, then hung them up. Unmentionables were on a line strung over

the stove, and jeans/shirts/heavier stuff were tossed over rafters to dry.

Eventually I'll get two BIG basins like 5 gallons each, and a toilet plunger. I'll do the same thing there, that

I did with the smallish basins yesterday, but I'll be able to do more at a time. The plunger will work the

clothes like the agitater in a washing machine. I'll also splurge on a washboard to help get the hard stains and

dirt out of the clothes.

Got the mail, it had the usual bills in it. Blech. Also a nice big envelope of stuff from my Sister in law of

craft stuff to do. There is a great possiblity there. Stuff I may be able to make and sell or that hubby may

make and sell. Some definite possiblities there.

Well, I am off to do some stuff around here. This morning it's egg sammies for breakfast, and then to empty some

more boxes from the garage.

Later Gater!