Canning Corn

Hurray!  I did it!

My husband cooked a bunch of corn right away to eat, but we still had plenty to can!

It takes three cobs per pint and I canned eighteen pints.

Two batches of eight pints, plus two which will become part of a canned stew.

First, my husband shucked all the corn and put it in a large box to carry out to the compost pile.

Then I cut the corn off the cobs using a new madoline.

We sterilized the lids, heated the pressure canner, packed the corn into pint jars and placed them in the canner.

Thirty minutes at pressure later, we had our finished pint jars of corn.

© 2017 Kathryn Hardage

More Practice

I enjoy my fiber and sewing activities with my groups so very much.

This week was such a treat.

On Tuesday, I went to Stitch Night with my knitting friends.  My husband made a chocolate cake with maraschino cherries for us to enjoy.

On Thursday night, I went to Sewing Sisters at Heavenly Notions in Granby and worked on my challenge quilt for the Newtonia Quilt Guild.

On Friday night, I completed my challenge quilt at Heavenly Notions, during part of my regular get-together at the quilt shop.

On Saturday, I met with my occasional sewing group to celebrate a member’s birthday, and I worked on my hand-quilting project.

On Sunday, I went to my Fiber Folks meeting in Joplin, for a program teaching members to knit and crochet.

This week, my husband is helping me do canning, cherries and sweet corn, separately, that is.

I am enjoying my new life practicing homesteading skills.

© 2017 Kathryn Hardage

Our Community

We are not here for ourselves, alone.

We are here to connect with others and to raise our communities.

Our collective knowledge, skills and abilities, reaching out in compassion can educate the whole community so it supports itself.

Unified little villages and neighborhoods possess all the resources that are necessary to build happy lives.

Originally, small communities knew the capabilities of all their members.

The knew who could give help and when it was needed.

There was a kind of co-operation which took care of everyone.

Now, with the corporate distraction revealed so boldly, we are desperate for that feeling community.

What shared skills would enable your neighborhood, your community to be able to support itself.?

How would yo go about learning new skills that interest you that would also help support your community?

© 2017 Kathryn Hardage
www.transitiontownskills.blogspot.com

Sustainability

Each time we practice some aspect of sustainability we are honoring the earth.

When we take the little steps to reduce our carbon footprint.

When we arrange our errands to drive on only one day.

When we shop at local Farmer’s Markets.

When we learn new skills which increase our ability to do things for ourselves.

I have been enjoying my new direction of learning new skills from The Transition Handbook Study Guide.

When I first started my new skills in 2010, I took an inventory from the list of what I already knew how to do.

I was delighted to find that there were several things there.

In these posts, I will share how I moved from what I already knew how to do, to being introduced to many more skills.

In the interests of developing a working local community, I hope you will start enjoying your own skill expansion.

© 2016 Kathryn Hardage

www.transitiontownskills.blogspot.com

Origin of Transition Towns

In 2004, the first Transition Town was created in Totnes, UK, inspired by the founder of the Transition Movement, Rob Hopkins.  It was the first example of the process of creating a Transition Town.  You can follow Rob's blog at: https://transitionnetwork.org/blogs/rob-hopkins.

Rob Hopkin's book, The Transition Handbook, From oil dependency to local resilience, (https://www.amazon.com/Transition-Handbook-Dependency-Local-Resilience/dp/0857842153), describes the process of creating community through locating local resources and creating local networks.

Now, there are hundreds of Transition Towns all over the world.  They are listed as "official" or "mulling" sites, and given a number once they become official, i.e. Houston, TX is the 40th official Transition Town.

In this blog, I will summarize the information from the book, and integrate the skills we can all learn to cultivate in order to create resilient, self-sustaining neighborhoods, communities and towns.   My list of skills comes from the Seattle Transition Town Study Guide.  http://transitionseattle.com/resources/discussion/

I will share my own skills and my experiences in learning new skills and discovering the local resources in my area, the southwestern Missouri Ozarks.  I encourage you to take this journey as well in your own location.

© 2016 Kathryn Hardage