First Skein Spun

   It has been a couple years-before Larry's accident that I have done any spinning.  I am just not going to get fine spun yarns but I am not concerned with that anymore. I am liking my bulky handspun yarns and will add to my Yellowstone inspired yarns that I have spun off and on since 2017 when I visited there.

  I am loving these two fibers carded together and spun-the bison and karakul fibers The bison fibers gave the yarn a nice softness.

  I found another bag of the karakul  and I have lots of bison fiber bits so I will be spinning more of this and adding to my Yellowstone weaving project

  I am getting help getting caught up with the grass cutting. Our workers that are still working on the lift brought their lawnmower-I used the weed eater up by the lake as I have a lot of those water iris plants there-that look just like grass. So I appreciate that-they are working it in with the projects.  They are also getting the metal railing they made ready to put on the paint primer.  Slow going as we have the extreme heat and humidity today and for at least the next 5 days again.

  Happy Thursday

New To Me For Preserving

    Good morning,

Of course another hot and humid day-that is the norm this summer, and probably into September as well.

 I think it may have been on Instagram or maybe Facebook when I saw an ad for vacuum packing.

  Curious I went on Amazon to check it out-watched lots of videos, and settled on one that lets you know when the seal is finished-seems like a new feature. Really one needs this to know it has done it's job.

  Some of the videos were showing vacuum sealing  items like pasta after opening the package, grains etc to keep foods fresher. I liked this idea and thought I would try it. Amazon had the one I chose on sale as well.

  I buy different things online from Sam's Club now as their stores are over an hour's drive away-simpler at my age to buy online, get it delivered, so much less stress.  I like to buy their bags of dried cranberries but I end up with a half a bag that gets all dried out-so then I can still use them if I soak them in water a bit. So I thought this product could be good to try first.

  I also watched videos with people making pickles and instead of canning them they are using this vacuum pack tool instead. I need to do more research on this for sure.

    I did find this chart on the shelf life for foods vacuum packed here  they are listing fresh fruits and veggies too. Anyone a scientist understand vacuum packing?  This could be a really fast way to process a veggie garden. This was an interesting link for the shelf life-freezer, frig, shelf life I would not put glass jars in my freezer-but thinking in the frig would prolong fresh fruits and veggies.

 My camera does a horrible job with indoor photos I have read everything and don't see a way to improve the light-so I apologize for the bad photos.

  I did 6 wide mouth pints of the dried cranberries and had just a little left over to use up

There two pieces like this-one for wide mouth lids and you attach another piece on the bottom of this for small mouth lids-takes just seconds for each jar

Here is the one I bought off of Amazon this is the name of it --there are many on the market 

M12 Auto Stop Electric Mason Jar Vacuum Sealer - 2025 Upgrade Smart Jar Vacuum Sealer for Mason Jars with Wide and Regular Mouth Canning Jar Lids Portable Mason Jar Sealer Machine Kit

I am amazed about the fresh foods preserved this way-sooo simple and fast

  I grew up preserving foods and I have always done it my whole life until we moved to the lake house. I won't can on an electric stove and this one is old and needs to go--this is sooo simple I will need to try doing this for fresh produce to give them a longer time to be fresh.  I will need to see what I still have in canning lids.  I brought most of my canning jars along as well.

  Please share if you have used this tool too

Update: after more reading fresh foods can be vacuum sealed-to last longer-but need to be stored in the frig-that makes more sense to me for sure. and more information at this link   so this does not replace canning or freezing but extends time in the frig before it goes bad