The rains have begun in our neck of the woods, which means ....  Too much to put down into words..  Of course the mowing is about finished (a good thing)  altho i did manage to mow yesterday during one of the week's only truly nice days..  Felt great to get outside and do some work instead of being stuck indoors cooking and canning..  I always so dread this time of year but so do enjoy it over the course of the wintertime as the food is just sitting ready to open at any time..  What did i can this yr?  Let's see..  Tomato Soup, Green Beans, Pickled Beets, Zucchini Relish, and Jalapeno Jelly..  Of course we already had canned Tuna, Salmon, Pickles, Mixed Peppers, Blueberry Syrup, Salsa from last yr.. I don't bother canning more of what we have leftover from the previous year..  We also have froze Raspberries, Blueberries, Blackberries, Plums, Apple Pie filling, Fresh Sausage (2 kinds) that we grind and add our own seasonings to ourselves, Beet Greens, Swiss Chard and Grated Zucchini..  I could be forgetting a few but who could blame me?  It's been a busy time..  It's funny, family and friends are always asking me what do i do with myself all day long, being a non working housewife..  It's very frustrating in the extreme..  Yes our child is now 21 and working and building her own life, but still lives at home, not much to do there..  Like you ever quit being a parent, lol..  I do at times feel guilty for not having a job that brings in $$ from an outside source, i'd be nutz if i didn't..  On the other hand, i don't sit around on my fat hiney doing nothing but eating bon-bons and going to the tanning salon and getting my nails done..  You can find me here most every day working on something..  The 11 chickens we have, the almost 3-4 acres of lawn we maintain, the vegetable garden and the herb garden, the compost pile i swear i'll master, 2 sets of aging parents, the housework..the list goes on and on..  Yes i consider myself blessed to be able to stay here and do all this, my husband works at a great job and frankly we do without most things that other folks consider to be items to not do without...  In short we live within our means, we always have.  Unlike most of today's folks who think nothing about getting a loan for a house they will not in the end be able to realistically afford, having every little thing that comes along like new cell phones, new cars, all those credit cards..  The canning is just yet another extension of this..We live in a single wide home that was paid off before we hit 40, including our 5 acres of land..  But it's the nicest damn single wide you'll ever see, we don't need anything bigger..  Maybe if everyone were so inclined we'd all have less troubles to deal with, i don't know..  Am i lucky??  The term "lucky" implies that through no fault of my own i "arrived" here with all these gifts..  No we aren't lucky, we worked hard to get where we are, calling us lucky downplays all the sacrifices that we continuously deal with to be here..