A Rainy Weekend

This weekend is the local fall festival, hopefully the rain will hold back a bit so we can enjoy some of the activities that are planned around town. At the very least, we'll hit the local thrift store and antique shop. Don't tell my kids, but secretly I'm a little tickled that there's rain in the forecast. This will give us a chance to catch up on things indoors.

I've got about 14 quarts of applesauce to can tomorrow. I already cut, cooked and pureed them so all that's left to do is bring them up to a boil and process. It shouldn't be too time consuming since all the hard work is already done. This is probably one of the final canning sessions of the season, which is a good thing because I'm starting to run low on canning jars.

I'm hoping Jim will insulate the attic over our bedroom this weekend. I've been exploring the house in search of drafts and discovered two that I had never thought about before. We have through the wall exhaust fans in our bathroom and kitchen. While the heat loss through them is probably minimal, its definitely cooler right next to them. I'm working on making a cover for each of them that will attach with heavy duty magnets (for easy removal) at the four corners and the center. I'm using the leftover fleece blanket from the curtain project in the boys' room. I'm thinking of backing it with something wind resistant, perhaps an old windbreaker or raincoat? I'll let you know what I decide on.

And the menu for the day? Lunch will be a choice of leftover pasta or peanut butter and jelly. For dinner, I have leftover gravy and cooked yellow split peas from earlier in the week. I'll be using these to make a loaf type dish very similar to the Red Lentil Loaf (see September post). I'm thinking about cooking some root veggies in the oven with the loaf. A meal like this can be popped in the oven and cooked with minimal attention which is definitely a plus when you're trying to accomplish other things.