Happy Birthday to me…

ByValerie Comer

As expected, we’ve had a very wet weekend here, and so my lawn continues to grow unchecked. I’m sincerely hoping it’ll NOT rain for a couple more hours so hubby can borrow the lawn mower from work and get our minor hay field under control. I hope the thing has a bagger.

Being as this is most definitely NOT being a yard work kind of weekend, I’ve been canning soup again. Saturday was all about split pea soup and chicken veg barley. Today I’ve got about five gallons of beef broth ready to go for various kinds of beef based soup. There will be some borscht for sure. Yes, I realize that traditional borscht is vegetarian, but we like ours with beef. What can I say?

One of the reasons for a big push on canning soups now (besides the weather) is that my hubby has a new job starting in mid-June, and he’s going to be away from home quite a lot more. Over the summer, anyway, he plans to stay in our camper on the days he’ll be away from home. He’ll be working as a mechanic in an open pit coal mine, four twelve hour shifts, then four days home. We’re thinking he’ll have quite a lot more time at home than he’s been getting at his local job (with the tons of overtime) plus a reasonable increase in pay. The downside of course is the four days away, but we think we have plans that will work for it. When the rubber meets the road, we’ll no doubt have to do some further juggling.

Ah, yes. I had a birthday (number 46) yesterday. My in-laws had us over for supper, and Jim baked my birthday cake(s) – chocolate chip cake with a butterscotch filling and chocolate chip glaze. One of my family favorites. (Yes, from scratch. What else?) We were 16 people for cake in the evening, and it was fun to have family and friends gathered around.

Being as today is Victoria Day, a holiday in Canada, we’re off today as well, then it’s back to the salt mines tomorrow. Jim still has a couple of weeks at his old job before taking a couple weeks off. We hope to get to Vancouver Island to see our kids for a few days before he starts the new job. Many changes upcoming.

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5 Comments

  1. In honor of the occasion I will sing (a warped version from a favorite old mug of ours):
    Hippo birdy two ewes, hippo birdy two ewes
    Hippo birdy deer ewes, hippo birdy two ewes. 🙂
    (the mug was appropriately illustrated, but was broken long ago, but we still remember it fondly. We’re weird that way.)

    Sounds like you had a glad day. Could you send some of that rain to Kansas?
    Linda

  2. Happy Belated Val. I knew I was out of it, but I didn’t realize the party was for your birthday somehow. Glad you enjoyed it even more now :D.

    Cheers, Margaret

  3. Thanks, Linda. I guess you had to SEE the mug, eh Linda? LOL. And you’re welcome to some of the rain. You are, in fact, welcome to the next entire month’s worth. June’s likely to be just as wet as May.

    Thanks, Mar. (grin) Yeah, you were kinda out of it.

  4. Happy Birthday, Val!

    And it’s your borscht, make it and eat it any way you like.

    Hope Jim’s new job turns out to be all you hope it will be–and more.

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