Last day for the Off-the-Grid Superstack bundle

This is the last day for the Off-the-grid Superstack bundle.

It's a heckuva bargain, folks. Don't miss out. Click here to see what's included.

When Chuck Norris.....

This cracked me up.

Don't forget about the preparedness bundle

As a reminder, the Off-the-grid Superstack bundle is still available.

There's a lot of great info included, but it's only available for four more days. Don't miss out. Click here to see what's in the bundle.

Itty bitty apple pie filling

A couple weeks ago, I mentioned I had harvested a bunch of itty bitty but delicious apples from our trees. I never got around to weighing them, but I'm guessing I got 25 lbs. or so.

I wanted to get these processed into apple pie filling but was daunted by the task of peeling about 150 itty bitty apples (they were too small for my apple peeler). You, dear readers, made the very intelligent observation that apples don't have to be peeled to be made into pie filling.

So I sat down (note: about 12:20 in the afternoon) and started slicing itty bitty apples.

I cut them in quarters, cored them, then sliced the quarters into thin slices.

Since the apples had the skin still on, I kept the slices thin.

I sliced about a dozen apples at a time, then dumped the slices in a pot with lemon water to keep them from getting too brown.

It was a long afternoon -- one of those days when I was "multi-tasking" on various projects -- but I finally got 'em done. Then it was time to can them.

I blanched the slices in small batches at a time.

Meanwhile I made the pie filling.

I used fruit pie filling directions I got years ago from the county extension service.

Typical canning chaos.

By the time I got the jars packed and filled and into the canners, it was getting late and I was pooped. Notice the kitchen timers clipped in front of each canner and the glass of wine in the background.

In fact, some might argue this was the most important ingredient of all.

By the time the last jar came out of the water bath, it was nearly my bedtime. A long afternoon of processing itty bitty apples!

But I slept with the satisfaction of knowing I had 13 quarts of itty bitty apple pie filling for our pantry.

A job well done, in my opinion.

Never forget

On this day in 2001, we know very well it wasn't a matter of "some people who did something." We know precisely who did what ... and why.

Never forget.

What a rain

This afternoon, literally just as we were about to take Mr. Darcy out for his evening walk, it started pelting rain.

This caught us by surprise because the sun was shining brightly. A quick check of the weather radar showed a small but heavy cell moving in from the east -- a highly unusual direction for our area.

Well it rained. We had thunder and lightning. And more rain.

And a rainbow, because the sun was shining so beautifully from the west.

Darcy gave a sigh of frustration that his evening promenade was being delayed, but neither Don nor I felt like promanading in a thunderstorm.

A neighbor snapped a shot of the end of the rainbow smack on top our house. Where's the gold?

When the heaviest rain had passed, we took umbrellas and booted up to take Darcy out.

Everything was fresh and wet, a most welcome development.

We saw a family of young quail.

Darcy saw them too.

The autumn rains are just starting to move in after a summer of dryness, so we're not complaining in the slightest.

Except perhaps Mr. Darcy.

Preparedness bundle now available

As I mentioned last week, this year I'm participating in a bundle called "Off-the-grid Superstack."

It's one of those collections where the organizers pull together a bunch of spiffy information on the subject of preparedness.

They've gotten some high-profile names to include in this bundle. They have nine e-courses, 15 ebooks or workbooks, a private prepper community membership, access to premium software, steep discounts on all kinds of goods and services, a food-storage master class, an intro to permaculture design, urban survival, and the classic preparedness read "Holding Your Ground" (among much else). For a full list of what's included, click here.

Individually purchased, the contents would cost around $700, but they're selling the bundle for $49, which I have to admit is a pretty good deal. It will be available for one week, so I'll send reminders through the next few days.

Hop over and take a look at the contents and tell me what you think.

Bwahahaha!

I received an email from "Bria" as follows:

Hello!

I am a hacker who has access to your operating system.
I also have full access to your account.

I've been watching you for a few months now.
The fact is that you were infected with malware through an adult site that you visited.

If you are not familiar with this, I will explain.
Trojan Virus gives me full access and control over a computer or other device.
This means that I can see everything on your screen, turn on the camera and microphone, but you do not know about it.

I also have access to all your contacts and all your correspondence.

Why your antivirus did not detect malware?
Answer: My malware uses the driver, I update its signatures every 4 hours so that your antivirus is silent.

I made a video showing how you satisfy yourself in the left half of the screen, and in the right half you see the video that you watched.
With one click of the mouse, I can send this video to all your emails and contacts on social networks.
I can also post access to all your e-mail correspondence and messengers that you use.

If you want to prevent this, transfer the amount of $500 to my bitcoin address (if you do not know how to do this, write to Google: "Buy Bitcoin").

My bitcoin address (BTC Wallet) is: [deleted]

After receiving the payment, I will delete the video and you will never hear me again.
I give you 50 hours (more than 2 days) to pay.
I have a notice reading this letter, and the timer will work when you see this letter.

Filing a complaint somewhere does not make sense because this email cannot be tracked like my bitcoin address.
I do not make any mistakes.

If I find that you have shared this message with someone else, the video will be immediately distributed.

Best regards!

So you "infected me" with a malware through an "adult site" that I visited?

Oh, and you "do not make any mistakes"?

Bwahahaha. Wrong on both counts. Try harder, sweetie.

Found the froggie

For weeks, we've had a frog in our pantry.

He wasn't a particularly quiet frog, either. Three or four times a day, he'd let lose a belly-ful of loud croaks. Each time he belted out, I took a flashlight, crept up to the pantry, and tried to find the little fella. No luck.

Until this morning. Aha! There he is, crouched in the fold of a plastic bag holding some dog biscuits (with some great big frog-sized turds next to him).

I pressed a plastic cup over the bag and carried the frog, bag and dog biscuits and all, outside and released him near the (now-empty) chicken coop.

A few years ago, we had a frog live the entire winter in our canning closet, surviving on heaven-knows-what. I didn't want this to happen again to our latest visitor.

He seemed happy to be outside, though perhaps I'm ascribing too much emotion to an amphibian.

Regardless, now he's free to start preparing for winter. Au revoir, little froggie.