When I was
getting ready to pull the plug on my working days, I made a list of many of the
things I wanted to do in retirement. Among the activities was to learn how to
make preserves. I’ve always relied on others to provide me with a selection of
jams, jellies and pickles and now I have a desire to create my own. This past
week, my wonderful mother-in-law gave me a crash course in making choke cherry
jelly. We have a large number of choke cherry trees on our property and, until
a couple of years ago, I really didn’t bother with them. A couple of summers
ago, Mum was over for a visit. As she looked out the window, she offhandedly
said to me, you should pick some of those berries and I will make you some
jelly. I did and she made me a small batch. Truthfully, I figured it would sit
on the shelf until I cleared it out a few years from now, but I thought it only
fair to at least give it a try. To say I was blown away by how good this
newfound delicacy was would be an understatement. I absolutely love it! Last
summer we had a great crop of berries, and I filled two large containers and
put them in the freezer. We spent about half a day last week boiling and
stirring and filling bottles and I am happy to say I have my supply back for
another year. After years of consciously not having bread in the house because
if I see it, I will eat it, I now look forward to my toast and jelly every
morning. So much for the bread diet, but it is so worth the sacrifice! Next
week, she is going to teach me the craft of making brown bread.
I don’t
often buy big ticket items, but I got a great Boxing Day sale on a TV. To be
more precise, I bought myself a sixty-five-inch smart TV. Now that we will no
longer require home offices, I came up with the brilliant idea of turning one
of our spare bedrooms into a den/media room. My wife had a hair appointment one
afternoon last week and, knowing that moving furniture with her in the house
would take twice as long because we would have to do silly things like measuring
furniture and space, I made the executive decision to spare her the stress, and
make the move on my own. I figured I had at least ninety minutes to get the job
done. As soon as I saw the back of the car disappear, I jumped into action. I
had to clear out an accumulation of small items from the former office, move a
bed frame, box spring and mattress into that room, empty a bookcase from the
office and move it into the new den and then move two relatively large
recliners from the living room, down the hall and into the new space. I really
should have made a YouTube video on the last move. When the chairs are as wide
as the hallway and significantly wider than the door, it pays to have a good
imagination. When she asked me how I managed it, I told her we were following
the don’t ask, don’t tell philosophy. Long story short, when she arrived home
from her appointment, the new room was set up and ready to go. More
importantly, she was happy with the outcome. I live to see another day.
Hope you
can join me next time to see what trouble I get into next. See you then!
