Newsletter - July, August, September 2008

Something New!

Quarterly Newsletter
July, August, September, 2008

Recipes, hints, ideas, new books, whatever...

Pickled Green Beans (hot)

3 pounds green beans
6 bunches fresh dill
or
6 cups vinegar
6 teaspoons dill seed
2 cups water
6 small hot red peppers
1 cup canning salt
6 small cloves garlic

Wash beans. Remove stem ends. Heat the vinegar, water and salt to boiling. In each of six sterilized pint sized canning jars place 1 red pepper and 1 clove garlic. Pack raw beans (nice, fat, long beans work best for this!) into the jars, leaving 1 inch of headroom. Cover with boiling vinegar-water mixture. Seal and process in boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

Store at least three weeks before serving (to allow for pickling).

—from "Preserving Foods" by Oxmoor House, circa 1975.

Boiling water bath canning is done in an old-fashioned blue granite canner with a jar rack, still available in most department stores. It is important to keep the boiling water level at least an inch above the jar lids during the processing. This method of canning is easy and a great way for the beginner to “get her feet wet” before she attempts the pressure canner.

The best book I have seen for the home canner is "Putting Food By" by Ruth Hertzberg, Beatrice Vaughn, and Janet Greene.

July 2008

Hello!

The big news this quarter is that we have our first grandson! Rudy (our youngest son) and his wife Marsha are the proud parents of Balen Cade Zahn, born Sunday, June 29. Balen is a Celtic name (Marsha is Celtic) and Cade is a maternal family name. Balen looks just as his daddy did when he was born, precious! Balen has four sisters, Melinda, eighteen; Kyla, fourteen; Bronwyn, twelve; and Morgana, two. The best part for me is that they all live right next door!

Marsha requested old-fashioned white flannel diapers for Balen. After hours of unsuccessful searching on-line for them, I opted to sew a few dozen diapers for her. I first pre-washed the 10 yards of 100% cotton flannel fabric in hot water, then dried it in the gas dryer as Marsha will do when she uses them. Using a pinking shears I cut the 45 inch wide fabric into pieces 18 inches long. I then cut each of these into two pieces, one 31” x 18”, the other 14” x 18” per Marsha’s directions. I stitched each diaper around the outside edge with a wide zigzag to prevent fraying, and again with a straight stitch 1/4 inch from the outside edge to help hold its shape. The smaller diapers are perfect for the newborn when folded the old-fashioned way into thirds, with an overlap in the center. The larger diapers will be for Balen as he grows, also folded in thirds, with the smaller diapers to be used as inserts for nighttime. They are soft, absorbent and a practical gift I took great pleasure in giving!

Many of us experienced a rather wet Spring this year with floods occurring throughout much of the Midwest. Jim and I were very fortunate to have only eight inches of water come into our cellar. After having had the experience once before, we had put our furnace and water heater onto cement blocks, so that amount of water did no damage. Luckily, I had cleaned our cellar just a few weeks before, so there was nothing on the floor to create mess. Our cellar is used primarily as a firewood storage bin for the wood fires we use to heat our home. There are three rooms in our cellar, each, curiously, on a slightly different level. Only one of the three flooded with water. I poured two gallons of bleach into the standing water to prevent mold, mildew, and as a bonus, to prevent mosquitoes from hatching in it! After a few days the water subsided leaving no mess because our cellar is not “finished”. The walls are stone in the oldest part and cement in the newer part. The floors are cement with seams that allow flood water to flow in and again out, preventing structural damage.

My mother was not so fortunate. She lives on river frontage and has not been able to live in her home since the first rains in early June (it is now the first week in July). Her cellar now has eight feet of water in it, which means it is licking the cellar ceiling.

On the first night of the floods Mom was awakened by a neighbor who called to tell her that he was on his way to pick her up in his canoe! Her home was completely surrounded by flood waters. My sister Cate warned Mom to pick up everything off the floor of her one storey home that she didn’t want to have get wet even suggesting that she strip her bed of anything hanging down so that if water came into the house the bedding wouldn’t wick water into the mattress. How smart she is!

The storms are over, the flood waters are ebbing and the damage to Mom’s house seems to be limited to her cellar. She, too, has an unfinished cellar, so while she will have to replace her furnace, water heater and water softener, there was nothing else down there of any value. Many families and businesses in the Midwest have suffered much more loss.

Summertime means making hay on the Zahn farms and we’re in full swing at the time of this writing. Rudy and his girls are out in the fields with Jim baling hay for the horses, donkeys and sheep.

Making hay begins with cutting, which is done with a haybine on our farms. It cuts a field of standing hay into ten foot swaths and crimps it, then throws it out in “windrows” about five feet wide. At this point the hay is too wet to bale, so it must be left to dry several days. Hopefully we will have no rain while the hay lays in the field to dry.

Click Picture for Close Up View

Raking hay with a side rake
(The horses are in the pasture behind Jim)

After a few days the hay will be ready for raking. This process lifts the windrow of hay off the ground and flips it over, exposing the damp underside to the sun and moving it off to one side, thereby setting it onto drier surface. Jim uses a side rake for this job, pulling it with a Farmall model BN, which is one of my favorite tractors. It’s small, easy to drive and it’s quiet. (Back when we were milking cows raking hay was my favorite job. Hay is always raked early in the morning on a very nice day!) Once the hay has been raked it’s time to gat the baler and wagons ready. Every moving part needs grease. The tires are checked. The twine supply in the baler is filled and threaded. The baler must be hitched to the tractor, and a wagon must be hitched to the baler. Then, off to the fields!

Click Picture for Close Up View

Baling Hay
That’s Jim on the tractor, Rudy pulling the bale up onto the wagon, and Bronwyn atop the hay stack.

Typically, when we were milking cows, we would put up 20,000 small bales of hay into four barns over the summer, in four crops (or cuttings) of mostly alfalfa. Today we put up 2,000 bales of mostly grass throughout the summer. Milk cows need alfalfa for protein in order to produce milk. Our sheep, horses and donkeys thrive on grass.

Save money on your electric bill!

Unplug your electric toothbrush for all but one night each week. The typical charge will last more than two weeks, so you really don’t need to leave it plugged in every day. This means you save over 98% of the power it takes to charge it!

Turn off the main switch on power strips for your computer and all printers each night. No reason these things need to be on while we sleep. Ask your local school district to do the same. This adds up to at least 50% power savings. More if you don’t use your computers every day, or all day long.

Turn off the juice when not in use. Yup. Turn off the lights as you leave each room. Contrary to popular belief it does not take more power to switch lights on and off than it does to leave them on.

Opt for the old-fashioned fan instead of the central air as often as possible. Sometimes a little air movement feels as good as air-conditioning! Major savings on the monthly bill!

Until next time, enjoy!

Back issues of Something New! from January 1996 to the present are available for purchase at $1 each, postage paid, or 1 full year for $3. Simply write in which issues you desire on your order form (found at center of catalogue) and enclose payment. Mail to The Soap Lady at the address below.

The Soap Lady
W6378 Highway 26
Juneau, Wisconsin 53039



		Something New! Quarterly Newsletter July, August, September, 2008 Recipes, hints, ideas, new books, whatever... Pickled Green Beans (hot) 3 pounds green beans 6 bunches fresh dill or 6 cups vinegar 6 teaspoons dill seed 2 cups water 6 small hot red peppers 1 cup canning salt 6 small cloves garlic Wash beans. Remove stem ends. Heat the vinegar, water and salt to boiling. In each of six sterilized pint sized canning jars place 1 red pepper and 1 clove garlic. Pack raw beans (nice, fat, long beans work best for this!) into the jars, leaving 1 inch of headroom. Cover with boiling vinegar-water mixture. Seal and process in boiling water bath for 15 minutes. Store at least three weeks before serving (to allow for pickling). —from "Preserving Foods" by Oxmoor House, circa 1975. Boiling water bath canning is done in an old-fashioned blue granite canner with a jar rack, still available in most department stores. It is important to keep the boiling water level at least an inch above the jar lids during the processing. This method of canning is easy and a great way for the beginner to “get her feet wet” before she attempts the pressure canner. The best book I have seen for the home canner is "Putting Food By" by Ruth Hertzberg, Beatrice Vaughn, and Janet Greene. July 2008 Hello! The big news this quarter is that we have our first grandson! Rudy (our youngest son) and his wife Marsha are the proud parents of Balen Cade Zahn, born Sunday, June 29. Balen is a Celtic name (Marsha is Celtic) and Cade is a maternal family name. Balen looks just as his daddy did when he was born, precious! Balen has four sisters, Melinda, eighteen; Kyla, fourteen; Bronwyn, twelve; and Morgana, two. The best part for me is that they all live right next door! Marsha requested old-fashioned white flannel diapers for Balen. After hours of unsuccessful searching on-line for them, I opted to sew a few dozen diapers for her. I first pre-washed the 10 yards of 100% cotton flannel fabric in hot water, then dried it in the gas dryer as Marsha will do when she uses them. Using a pinking shears I cut the 45 inch wide fabric into pieces 18 inches long. I then cut each of these into two pieces, one 31” x 18”, the other 14” x 18” per Marsha’s directions. I stitched each diaper around the outside edge with a wide zigzag to prevent fraying, and again with a straight stitch 1/4 inch from the outside edge to help hold its shape. The smaller diapers are perfect for the newborn when folded the old-fashioned way into thirds, with an overlap in the center. The larger diapers will be for Balen as he grows, also folded in thirds, with the smaller diapers to be used as inserts for nighttime. They are soft, absorbent and a practical gift I took great pleasure in giving! Many of us experienced a rather wet Spring this year with floods occurring throughout much of the Midwest. Jim and I were very fortunate to have only eight inches of water come into our cellar. After having had the experience once before, we had put our furnace and water heater onto cement blocks, so that amount of water did no damage. Luckily, I had cleaned our cellar just a few weeks before, so there was nothing on the floor to create mess. Our cellar is used primarily as a firewood storage bin for the wood fires we use to heat our home. There are three rooms in our cellar, each, curiously, on a slightly different level. Only one of the three flooded with water. I poured two gallons of bleach into the standing water to prevent mold, mildew, and as a bonus, to prevent mosquitoes from hatching in it! After a few days the water subsided leaving no mess because our cellar is not “finished”. The walls are stone in the oldest part and cement in the newer part. The floors are cement with seams that allow flood water to flow in and again out, preventing structural damage. My mother was not so fortunate. She lives on river frontage and has not been able to live in her home since the first rains in early June (it is now the first week in July). Her cellar now has eight feet of water in it, which means it is licking the cellar ceiling. On the first night of the floods Mom was awakened by a neighbor who called to tell her that he was on his way to pick her up in his canoe! Her home was completely surrounded by flood waters. My sister Cate warned Mom to pick up everything off the floor of her one storey home that she didn’t want to have get wet even suggesting that she strip her bed of anything hanging down so that if water came into the house the bedding wouldn’t wick water into the mattress. How smart she is! The storms are over, the flood waters are ebbing and the damage to Mom’s house seems to be limited to her cellar. She, too, has an unfinished cellar, so while she will have to replace her furnace, water heater and water softener, there was nothing else down there of any value. Many families and businesses in the Midwest have suffered much more loss. Summertime means making hay on the Zahn farms and we’re in full swing at the time of this writing. Rudy and his girls are out in the fields with Jim baling hay for the horses, donkeys and sheep. Making hay begins with cutting, which is done with a haybine on our farms. It cuts a field of standing hay into ten foot swaths and crimps it, then throws it out in “windrows” about five feet wide. At this point the hay is too wet to bale, so it must be left to dry several days. Hopefully we will have no rain while the hay lays in the field to dry. Click Picture for Close Up View Raking hay with a side rake (The horses are in the pasture behind Jim) After a few days the hay will be ready for raking. This process lifts the windrow of hay off the ground and flips it over, exposing the damp underside to the sun and moving it off to one side, thereby setting it onto drier surface. Jim uses a side rake for this job, pulling it with a Farmall model BN, which is one of my favorite tractors. It’s small, easy to drive and it’s quiet. (Back when we were milking cows raking hay was my favorite job. Hay is always raked early in the morning on a very nice day!) Once the hay has been raked it’s time to gat the baler and wagons ready. Every moving part needs grease. The tires are checked. The twine supply in the baler is filled and threaded. The baler must be hitched to the tractor, and a wagon must be hitched to the baler. Then, off to the fields! Click Picture for Close Up View Baling Hay That’s Jim on the tractor, Rudy pulling the bale up onto the wagon, and Bronwyn atop the hay stack. Typically, when we were milking cows, we would put up 20,000 small bales of hay into four barns over the summer, in four crops (or cuttings) of mostly alfalfa. Today we put up 2,000 bales of mostly grass throughout the summer. Milk cows need alfalfa for protein in order to produce milk. Our sheep, horses and donkeys thrive on grass. Save money on your electric bill! Unplug your electric toothbrush for all but one night each week. The typical charge will last more than two weeks, so you really don’t need to leave it plugged in every day. This means you save over 98% of the power it takes to charge it! Turn off the main switch on power strips for your computer and all printers each night. No reason these things need to be on while we sleep. Ask your local school district to do the same. This adds up to at least 50% power savings. More if you don’t use your computers every day, or all day long. Turn off the juice when not in use. Yup. Turn off the lights as you leave each room. Contrary to popular belief it does not take more power to switch lights on and off than it does to leave them on. Opt for the old-fashioned fan instead of the central air as often as possible. Sometimes a little air movement feels as good as air-conditioning! Major savings on the monthly bill! Until next time, enjoy! Back issues of Something New! from January 1996 to the present are available for purchase at $1 each, postage paid, or 1 full year for $3. Simply write in which issues you desire on your order form (found at center of catalogue) and enclose payment. Mail to The Soap Lady at the address below. The Soap Lady W6378 Highway 26 Juneau, Wisconsin 53039 Sign up to receive my quarterly Newsletter —