Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

[Britesea]

I wonder why the cherry pit idea doesn't cause problems with cyanide? I saw a similar thing using peach pits to make almond liqueur and I wondered about the cyanide there too; nobody has ever been able to tell me why it's safe to do this, but I've been told all my life that the pits from stone fruits are poisonous. Of course, I've also been told that tomato leaves are poisonous when in fact I found out recently that they are NOT (potato leaves are a whole different story though). In fact, I found out that tomato leaves are apparently really good (small amounts) for helping to get rid of excess cholesterol. The writer said that adding a couple of leaves, cut up very fine, made tomato sauce taste more "tomato-y".

I had a day-long class with CERT yesterday. We covered fire safety, how to let people know it's time to evacuate, and how to put out small fires. We had a practice session with a combustible liquids fire (mixed gasoline and deisel). After lunch we went on to disaster medical; we learned how to triage injuries in a mass casualty event, as well as basic first aid for bleeding and wounds, broken bones, burns, heat and cold-related injuries. Ended the day with a little bit about haz-mat. Mostly, what I'm learning is that we (the CERT team) will be primarily documenting stuff and taking notes and running errands for the big boys, unless we happen to be first on site (which isn't going to happen very often, because we are not allowed to self-start; we have to be called to report). Still, it's good to learn this stuff, because you never know when it might be needed.

We got our first snow today! It didn't stick in the basin, but on all the surrounding hills I'm seeing white. I don't know if it's still snowing, but it looked like it until it got too dark to see.

DH and I went grocery shopping today, since I wasn't able to do it earlier this week. I ended up running back to the store when I realized I'd forgotten to pick up a turkey. They had a special- buy $50 worth of groceries and you could get a frozen turkey for .63 a pound. Luckily, the store let me pick up the turkey since I had the receipt showing I'd been there just half an hour ago and had bought enough groceries to qualify. I plan to cut off and cook the drumsticks and wings; the rest of the turkey will be boiled and pulled, then canned for dog food. The stock will get canned as well, for soups. I also bought a half ham for a very reasonable price-- that will be cut up into meal sized portions and frozen, and I can make up a nice pot of beans with the bone. I love setting up multiple meals from one purchase!

Tonight, I'm making White Chili with Chicken, and cornbread, with molasses cookies and ice cream for dessert. Yum!

 

[Denim Deb]

Yum is right.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Congrats on the shopping trip! I like getting multiple meals out of one hunk of meat too.

 

[Mini Horses]

Me 2X. Especially like cooking once for several meals and just heating (usually thaw and heat). Saves time, $$ & self energy.

Those CERT classes are good general knowledge. Never know when you might need to use it even when not an area wide disaster.

 

[creativetwinszoo]

I agree with the above!
Very good classes and defiantly awesome grocer bonus! ;D
>,<
I'm not sure on the cynide, i found it online somewhere, the poster does a few days soaking but I only do a few hours or overnight at most for the pit vinegar

 

[Britesea]

Well I suppose if the OP and yourself have drunk this stuff and you're obviously still kicking, then either there isn't enough cyanide to be a problem, or something about the vinegar neutralizes it.

Things have been sorta quiet around here the last couple of days. I've just been doing housework, attending my CERT classes (Monday's covered terrorism and disaster psychology) and so forth. I'm glad I found out about these classes- learning some good stuff and making good contacts with other like-minded people. After these, I'm planning on looking for classes in advanced first aid as well. The more of this I do, the more confident I will become-- less likely to freeze up in an emergency.

I picked up a big package of basil yesterday, so I'll be making pesto for the freezer today, plus by now the turkey is thawed enough for me to work on it as well.

 

[Britesea]

Well, the end of last week and the weekend turned crazy, which is why I haven't been here except to touch quick bases on others. I received a letter from an investment company that said my stepmother had passed, and I need to fill the forms out so that my inheritance can be forwarded. Well, right away I suspect a scam, because no one had told me she died, although I know she had been in poor health. I wrote an email to my brother, asking me if she had died and if so why didn't he tell me? He replies with a "what.....?" and that he will look into it.

Next day, he lets me know that yes, she passed... 6 weeks ago! and none of her kids told us? He got this information from the lawyer that had originally written the living trust. My father was married to her and when he passed, his assets became hers. Over the years, I lost contact with my stepmother, as she became too ill to write much, and I've never been the best of correspondents. Of her 3 children, only the son stayed in contact with my brother.

The next call I get from my brother is that he had attempted to contact the son and found out from his wife that D has also passed way from leukemia, 14 days after his mother. Well, I suggested that losing 2 family members so close together might well account for no one trying real hard to contact us (my brother, who is a suspicious type person, is thinking dark thoughts at this point you see).

While he was at work, I got on Google and managed to find D's obituary (I never did find anything for P, my stepmother). From that I got the names of his two sisters, since neither my brother nor I were certain of their last names. I was able to track down an address and phone number for one of them, the twin sister to D. I called and spoke with her husband; he sounded very relieved to hear from me as they have been trying to contact us. Apparently they did not have current addresses for either of us. Letters from the lawyer were sent to us, but we obviously had not gotten them. He also said that P had saved my father's ashes, and they wanted to place them in the same cemetery as P. What did I think? I said that that was ok with me, as I didn't have any other plans; at least I would know where his remains were.

So everything is fine, I think. Well, more strangeness happens. It seems that last August, my brother was removed as co-executor (or whatever they are called for a living trust), and was never told. Again he is thinking dark thoughts about our inheritance since we could have been written out of the trust at the same time. I soothed him, saying if that were so, L wouldn't have been so relieved and happy to hear from me. I pointed out that if someone played around with how the estate will be split among the children, there is nothing we can do about it since neither of us have the money that would be required to contest the trust and win. Peace, I told him; it is what it is. If we have been written out, it's the will of God and I trust that somehow it will be a Good Thing.

So that is where we stand now... we have no idea how much is in the estate, or how much (if any) we will get. It's killing my brother, as money has always been very important to him and he doesn't like NOT being in control of a situation. May this be a good learning experience for him! As for me- well obviously the money would be welcome- I have several expensive projects that have been on my wishlist for some time and it would be nice to bring some of them forward. But financially we are in reasonable shape and I am just sort of relieved that this whole episode in my life, which started 5 years ago with the death of my father, will finally be closed.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

What a turn of events! I think you're smart not to get your hopes up, BUT - I hope you and your brother are pleasantly surprised!

 

[Denim Deb]

Same here.

 

[Britesea]

Thank you. I sent off the forms that the investment company sent me so now there is nothing left for me to do. Brother did find out how much was in the account and if it is split evenly 5 ways, we will each get a little over 10K. He said there are also several other accounts in various places- some to be split 5 ways and others to be split 3 ways, but this was the largest. I don't want to keep thinking about it, but my brother is... shall we say obsessed?

We had a fun Thanksgiving Day. Like previous years, we went to my friend C's house for potluck. It was just the 5 of us- Me, DH and DS, and C&D. They tried frying a small turkey and it turned out quite well, plus all the usual sides (except green bean casserole- no one seems to care for it that much here). I took the edge off my hunger with the large tray of crudites I brought, along with a tzaziki dip that was a nice change from the ubiquitous ranch. She sent the carcass home with us since they don't do the turkey soup thing, so tonight that's what we are having. The big question being: Turkey Noodle or Turkey Barley? She also sent home some pumpkin hand pies for our dessert... so I don't really have to do much planning.

No shopping today- You couldn't get me out into that madness for all the tea in China! But I need to call and make an appointment to have the winter tires put on. Maybe tomorrow, or even later in the week.