Rain rain, go away! NOW!... please?

October 22, 2019 - Tuesday morning

51 degrees/rain/wind

Pentoga Road

Darn. I guess our token day of Indian Summer has come and gone. 1.9 inches of rain has fallen since late Monday morning. Less heartening is the fact that there's copious amounts of precipitation in the long term forecast, much of it measured in inches of snow.

Monday was a good one at Florence Elementary. Being the librarian/computer person is a good job.

It was good to see the bobkitties. 

I grew weak yesterday and agreed to sub four out of the five days next week. Yeah, I know, I'm a pushover. 

Thankfully, my only other scheduled day this week is Thursday afternoon.

Sargie was up and at 'em Monday morning and mowed the yard before the rain began. She has it looking like a golf course as usual.

As promised yesterday, here is the continuing saga of the Sauerkraut People in my life. The following narrative is from my friend, Norriene. She and her husband, Big Jim, live in Pennsylvania, travel the world over, and as you'll read, Norriene has been, and is, very active in mission work.

Norriene

As written by Norriene:

"So, the other lady is my Latvian friend, Baiba.  She and her family fled Latvia when Baiba was two years old as the country was being invaded.  That in itself is a long, interesting story. 

She and I and a team of 18 have been to Latvia and Lithuania doing mission work twice.  Spending 3 weeks each time. " 

Baiba

First step in Kraut making, we go to the local outdoor farm market to get the cabbages. 

The bigger the better.  

Then we go to Baiba’s house and set up our stations in the garage.  Often there are 4 or 5 of us.  

Core the cabbage and cut in to manageable size pieces and then begin shredding on the old fashioned hand shredders.  And if you aren’t very careful that is what it does, shred your hand 😳. Thus the first aid kit at hand. 

We shred into large metal dish pans. Once the pan is filled you put about two inches in the crock, sprinkle with a secret mixture of salt and sugar and pack down the kraut with your fist.  

You keep repeating until the crock is full about 4” from the top.  It must be really tight and as you go the liquids begin to come up through the cabbage.  Once filled we cover the kraut with the larger outside leaves that we saved and washed.  Then we put gallon bottles of water on top of the leaves and cover with cheese cloth.  We let it ferment in a cool area for 3-4 weeks before canning or bagging and freezing.  

We always make one crock where each layer is lightly sprinkled with caraway seeds along with the salt/sugar mixture.   That is how they did it in Latvia. 

Oh, yes and there may be a couple of bottles of wine involved in the process!!!

It is always a great day filled with good conversation, laughter and lots of LOVE."

I love it, absolutely love it. In this age of modern everything, it's nice to know that folks like Norriene and Baiba, and Mark and Sheri, are keeping old traditions alive. Thanks so much for sharing the pictures and story, Norriene.

Oh, I almost forgot. I'll trade you a turned wooden bowl for a jar of that sauerkraut. (I haven't forgotten about the canister. I'm just waiting until I get a bigger lathe.)

Sargie's working at the eye clinic today. I am heading out to the shop as soon as she leaves. It's the perfect shop day, rain, cool temperatures, dark skies.

The birthplace of Elvis
Mississippi Brother Garry and Miss Jody are taking a few days to camp through northern Mississippi and were in Tupelo Monday afternoon.

I wonder what the poor people will be doing?

After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...