Guns are ALWAYS LOADED

It's my blog, so pardon me if I have myself a rant here...

Guns are always loaded.
That is the first rule of Gun.

Guns are always loaded... never, never, never NEVER assume a gun is not loaded.
Even if someone you trust tells you a gun is not loaded.
GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED until you safely verify for yourself that the gun you have in hand is in fact not loaded. And when you hand that gun to another person... the gun is treated as if it is loaded. Because GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED!

Headline on the internet radio station Mr C streams: 15 year old accidentally shoots and kills his friend.
He thought the gun was unloaded.

I am a staunch believer that gun safety is every bit as important as swimming lessons are to children.
You may be one of those people who don't allow your child near a gun. Maybe you think your child will never come into contact with a firearm because you don't have one in your home.
Maybe you screen your children's friends for guns in their homes.... you think your child doesn't need to know about guns.

Let me tell you- you do your child a huge disservice by not teaching them the basics of gun safety.

The first rule... say it with me: GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED!
Treat every gun as if you know it is loaded. Always.
The following rules are what my Dad taught me, growing up.

Treat every gun as if it were loaded.
Never point a gun at anything you do not intend to kill.
Never kill anything you do not intend to eat.

(Of course, this precludes target practice and having to dispatch varmints, as far as the eating goes. But goofing off shooting at road signs... nope. I can imagine my dad requiring the eating of any sign we should be as idiotic as to shoot!)

Children need to know that guns are NOT toys. They need to know that guns are tools to be wielded properly. Children need to know that if they should happen upon a gun, they are to get an adult to secure the firearm. Not pick it up, not play with or examine. If they only memorize one rule... GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED.... maybe it will save their life.

November 11

Today is two years since my sweet little granddaughter Dakota Rose was born! Happy Birthday to her!

Two years ago, I was living in Ohio and working 60+ hours a week.
I didn't get to meet my Dakota until the end of December.

The past week has been a very busy one at O'Reilly's. Inventory is TODAY at my store, and we have done a lot to make sure it goes smoothly.

We finally had our first hard freeze of the year... and then rebounded into the pleasant mid-sixties. This evening, our first big winter cold front it supposed to come through, driving temperatures into the tees. Depending on whose forecast you hear, we might (or not) have snow and/or ice. But then the rest of the week, the temperatures go back to well above freezing.

Yesterday, I was looking for something to do with the remainder of our green tomatoes. There were way too many to rely on using them up as fried green tomatoes, and I have no place to keep them spread out to slowly ripen. Tom suggested maybe some sort of tomato/pepper relish. All the recipes I have seen were fro sweet relishes, and the guys just do NOT like sweet relish. So I Googled tomato pepper relish, and the very first one I found said "No Sugar" right in the headline. I gave it a try. It was great! (I took the time to read through comments, hints, and updates and modified the recipe a bit, according to suggestions made.
Personally, I do NOT like the flavor of green tomatoes one little bit- and I like cilantro even less. The guys sampled the salsa for me, and seemed quite pleased with the taste. I tried some.
Oh.
 my.
The rest of the green tomatoes went into a second batch!  For my own touches, I used very little red bell pepper, substituting the called for weight in bell peppers for jalapeño peppers. I added most of the  jalapeño at the beginning cook time of the recipe, but reserved about 1/2 cup to add at the end, when  the cilantro is added. I also used 1/2 cup apple cider and 1/2 cup cider vinegar, rather than the 1 cup of cider vinegar. I added 1/2 tsp. of cumin, and 1/2 tsp. of smoked paprika to the original recipe. I used the food processor at the end, instead of the blender, as I don't have a hand blender stick, and my blender carafe was broken. I pressure canned my jars, 10 minutes @ 10 lbs. for the 1/2 pint jars. (I am thinking I will repost the recipe with my modifications to my cooking blog. We really love this stuff!)
Today, I have fresh sage in the dehydrator... I bought a sprig of fresh sage at the grocery store, because dried sage was outrageous- over $4 for a small jar. I decided fresh would dry just fine for me, as I don't need much! (I don't need it YET, but like to have it when I need it, hence, drying it.)
I also am TRYING drying some sliced  jalapeño peppers- once they finish, I will grind them to pepper sprinkles.
Mr. C was commenting on how busy I have been staying at the preserving of our garden- I told him, I hate to see any good food go to waste simply because I was too lazy to deal with it. He worked hard all summer to grow the garden. We have been very blessed by the bounty from it.
That's about all from here! Have a blessed day, Thanks for reading!

Applesauced...

Yesterday, Daniel accidentally mentioned that our neighbor, who is out of town, had told he and Sam that we are welcome to pick apples from his small (4 tree) orchard. I'm sure he didn't MEAN to tell me, because I sent their happy little faces right over to pick apples today.
They brought back a bag of incredibly UGLY apples- but oh so tasty! I made 4 pints of applesauce- and it is SO good! They also got a sack of apples that had already fallen to the ground, and scattered them out in the field, hoping we can attract deer.
MMMM. Bambi.
Our poor neighbor is in for a terrible surprise/shock when he gets home. We forewarned him by phone that he has new neighbors immediately next door. He said he expected someone to move in, as he had seen them looking at the house. I'm sure he didn't expect to share a driveway with a car lot. Not a REAL car lot... but these folks have hauled in trailer after trailer of dead vehicles, including a 2.5 ton Army truck. I'm thinking these folks don't know they have encroached on the neighbors property, considerably. We counted at least 10 vehicles parked along the fence behind the new folks place... however, that strip of land belongs to our vacationing neighbor. We will see how this plays out when the neighbor returns later this week.
Mr C and the boys built a lean-to against the well house, using the porch left behind when another neighbor sold his trailer and moved away. The new owner blessed us with the materials of the old porch. So now some of our yard care things are more protected than with just a tarp. Not bad looking for being made of scrap/recycled junk.
That's about all for now.
(I dislike the time changes! My body is so confused!)

November

The weather has cooled off enough that we have started to shut the windows most of the way at night. It has reached the mid 30's. Here are a few pictures taken this past week.

Looking Southwest!

 

 

 To the East of our front porch. Tall grass marks the neighbor's land... though we have encroached.

This one is continuing from East towards South. You can see where I have the same green tree (in the foreground) of the above picture as well as in the picture to the right. 

This one is looking west, from behind the house. The shadow in the left corner is the mower, parked near the garden.

 

Below, you can glimpse the leaves raining from the trees across the garden. We are STILL getting peppers from the garden.