We have had a very quiet presence on the blog recently. That’s because we have been busy filling tires. We are now about half way through round #9. We ran out of stored tires a week or so ago and had to make some tire runs.

For some weird reason the recyclers had not been around at the tire shops. We’d never seen the piles so big! Kal Tire’s van was overflowing and Rivershore Auto Wreckers pile was about 12 feet high. Going through these piles was essentially an exercise in skimming anything new off the top and sides. The Rivershore pile was an adventure! My father had snagged 38 from it one day for us and a few days later we went back . Chris managed to dig down to ground and just started flinging tires out. I had to try to locate them once he flung them out and then throw them off the top toward the trailer. I also managed to dig down to ground and hit pay dirt. The last 235 was wedged under a few others and as I pulled the tires started to wobble. I had the sense to look up and see 10 feet of rubber jiggling and climbed out of there before the whole mess caved in! Sometimes a person can get too focused on the goal!

A few days ago we ventured north to Clearwater and the dump, which we’d never been to before. A grand total of 4 tires! Kal Tire in Clearwater had been cleared out too! Yay! Insight Auto in Barriere was cleaned out and if we are lucky, the recyclers emptied our regular haunts in Kamloops, too. On Tuesday we are on our (hopefully) last trip to gather tires. Five or six days is enough time for the busy shops to build up a decent supply of scrap tires, without creating the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

We have also been preserving like crazy. There are so many things we’ve canned, frozen and pickled that I can’t even remember all of them! Lots of great recipes from friends, which maybe one day I’ll post here. We have three apple trees of our own and one of my father’s so we still have to come up with some more apple recipes.

We started to run out of canning jars and through the Buy and Sell I located a couple east of Kamloops who are moving and had 300+ jars for sale. All quarts and half wide mouth. All for about $40! Less than $2 per dozen. On Friday night I arrived only to discover they didn’t have them in boxes! So, rather than arrive home with a pick-up truck of shattered glass, I am returning Tuesday to pick them up, along with their canning shelf, which they generously offered to me…now where to put that shelf in my 600 square foot house???

4-H is looming large this week and Winter Fair fast approaching. We will return next week with three fewer lambs. Whew! Less work over the winter.

Last week Katie stubbed her toe and after Chris and I spent most of the weekend essentially advising her to suck it up, we took her to the doctor and an x-ray. It was broken! The orthopedic surgeon who was consulted (the doctor was worried the growth plate was cracked) we decided she would have a tough time keeping the toe immobile if she were just on crutches. So we were given the option of putting her in a cast with a foot peg. So now Hop-a-long Katie is now exempt from the wettest chores. He 4-H friends have all rallied around her and will help her shampoo and coif her lambs in preparation for showing on Saturday.

This week Chris and I hope to complete round #9 and begin round #10. Still no working camera. If you’d like to see pictures, please leave a comment about how much you miss the photos and I will work on Chris and getting that Nikon D90 I have my eye on!! 🙂