Saturday--

Busy day yesterday. I got bread started while Mom started on the half-bushel of Roma tomatoes. While the loaf was rising I joined her working the tomatoes. Those are now cooked and ready to blend down into sauce. We will can the sauce today. Tomorrow we work on getting the half-bushel of canning tomatoes done up. Not bad for a weekend's work.

Wonderful how our news media manages to erase the accomplishments of women.

Sunday--

Finished canning the tomato sauce yesterday. Final count: 24 pints. Three didn't seal so I will redo them today with the canning tomatoes we will can whole or in chunks.

Interesting that this notion is featured in a Time magazine op-ed. I do have a few quibbles. First, who says that sufficient jobs will exist for all of the future teachers, law enforcement officers, or whatever. How many of those jobs evaporated during the last "recession" which hasn't truly ended yet. Second, forgive the past loans but end the program entirely and put all of the money that would have gone to a new student loan programs into grants and scholarships which don't have to be paid back. Third, if we want to encourage students to opt for public service jobs, target some of those grants and scholarships to those careers. Do not guarantee any loans and make all dischargeable in bankruptcy.

Actually, this article doesn't go far enough in describing the disconnect between the elites and the "great unwashed." Our big financial institutions are global. Our major manufacturing companies are global. Many of our largest commercial companies are global. They are no longer rooted in the communities that gave rise to them. They no longer have to consider the needs of the lower classes.

Update: the last of the quarts of tomatoes are in the canner and should be ready to take out in another 45 minutes or so. I am waiting till the water boils again to start the timing. Just figured out the cost of this batch of canning: a whopping 67 cents. I am not counting the cost of the jars because almost all of the ones I used came from items previously--mainly honey. We made sure that all of those jars are Ball, Mason, or Kerr. I did use several new lids and rings but the added cost is negligible.

I have only flown twice in my life and I sincerely hope to never do so again. Not because of any phobia but because of the hassles involved and this simply adds to the aura of "Gods, I never want to do that again." In an economy where we feel more and more "nickled and dimed" to death this is just another gouge.