C'mon, you can tell us. No way did you buy that beautiful chair for $25! Oh...you DID? Wow! I may have to start going to sales. DH had a pinprick while trimming a shrub one summer. He never saw the spider, but a few hours later he had a large red swelling on his arm. I called our doc and described the 'bulls-eye' bite. He said to ignore it -- just a spider bite, blah, blah, blah. I called the poison hotline and THEY said he should be seen. I called the entomology department at the Field Museum and that man said not to wait a minute, to GO and get started on antibiotics. Even with antibiotics the tissue around the bite turned black and died -- about the size of a fifty cent piece. Finally it sloughed off and new tissue grew to fill in the cavity. In about six weeks it was healing nicely. We don't live in 'brown recluse' territory, but bugs can hitch rides and turn up anywhere! Spiders may be small, but they can make you darn sick.

I have a 45yr old step brother, who I love dearly, but bless his heart, I have to say Randy is mentally one sandwich short of a happy meal and that is further complicated by a slight physical disability in his legs. As you might imagine, he had a very difficult time finding employment, but about 15 years ago he went to work for Goodwill Industries. To my complete surprise, Randy has a very good salary with a health & welfare package, including an IRA. On top of that, Randy has a wardrobe that some ppl would die for. Randy works on a van that goes around doing contract cleaning services for offices and apartment complexes and every day when the van returns to the processing plant he goes in the store and sees what they just got in. If one were to see Randy on the street, judging by his wardrobe they would think he was a doctor or lawyer or something. When I retired I mentioned to Randy that I wanted to get back into serious photography and he told me I should go to the store and see what they had for equipment. I did as he requested more or less as a coutesy to him and I did not find much at the store that I was interested in, BUT, the lady at the store told me most of the good photo equipment is sent to central points where they list it on the Goodwill online auction. I didn't even know they had such a thing, but when I got home I punched up the website, and wow!!!! Was I in for a surprise. In the last 4 years I have bought two professional digital cameras and 9 professional film cameras. (I bought the film cameras because they came in package deals and had extra lenses I could use on the digitals.) I am now four years into this project and to date I have amassed two Pentax DSLR's with 16 lenses and a long,long, long list of extras, all for less than $2000, whereas just one of the cameras cost over $900 on Ebay and about $100 or more each for the lenses. Needless to say, every day when I turn my computer on my first stop is the Goodwill auction, then on to GW....LOL. Last year I did all my xmass shopping on the Goodwill auction and everybody wanted to know where I found the things I got, but that still remains my secret. About once a week Jan & I go bargain hunting at the local Goodwill Industries, Salvation Army, St. Vincent DePaul and a local thrift store. We find its more fun that yard sales or the flea market and quite often we find much better deals, by example, last week I bought 5 large Pyrex glass baking dishes for about $1 each. All I can say is, if you like shopping at the thrift stores you would love the online auction. They have dozens of categories and there is something for everybody at super bargain prices, not to mention that the proceeds go to help ppl who are less fortunate than we. Check it out... www.shopgoodwill.com

Thank you Annie and Dave for the words of encouragement. After doing some serious thinking about it, I wonder if having too much water in the canner caused the problem. I had the empty pints jars in the pressure canner covered with water like I do with BWB to be extra careful on keeping them sterile. When I took the jars out, filled them with soup then returned them to the canner, I didn't remove any of the water so instead of a couple of inches of water, I had it going well over the tops of the filled jars. I think I'll just take a break and stick with BWB recipes for a while like you suggested, Dave. Annie, there was some diced onion and celery along with the chicken along with the stock. I made sure that there was only half veggies and chicken and half broth in each jar. It was the Ball Blue Book recipe. DH was in stage 4 cancer so they removed his right ear and the ear canal. That's when they found microscopic cancer tumors on the lining of his brain. Chemo and another surgery were out of the question so they put him under radiation. He now weighs almost 30 lbs. less than me - arrgh! His last scheduled radiation treatment is next Tuesday and, hopefully we'll get good news from the doctors. He should have been dead many, many years ago due to motorcycle crashes when he was racing them for 8 years, being a Army Ranger in Vietnam, the crash of plane he had reserved to fly then decided not to fly that day and the people who decided to take it up stalled and it killed the four of them plus their dog, his many heart attacks starting when he was 38, even when he had one that lasted 3 days and the doctors said there was nothing more they could do for him, well, you get the idea. Talk about a cat with nine lives, well, we're hoping this continues the streak.

That is old, but have had one older....35. She is not a very personable horse....she would rather be left alone, but I do think she appreciated me being with her her yesterday. Erin, have had trouble with my laptop, and typing on my phone is a pain. I will send you the other Bayou Tails as soon as I am up and running again. I am good at saying no, but possums have specific dietary requirements and most people won't raise them right and they get crippled and then they send them to me to save, and you can't. So I would rather take them and raise them right and be done with it. I have a mama possum and she is raising nine babies. All of mine are off the tube now and eating from a dish. Nickel, you asked how I started doing this....I guess you mean rehabbing wildlife. Not because I wanted to. I felt sorry for the babies. Also I get free food for my dogs, cats, and raccoons. I raised waterlilies and had two hundred varieties and to keep the raccoons out of my ponds, I fed them. I live in the boondocks on a bayou, and there are lots of raccoons here. who this going to rescue Marilyn? No one. I will probably die and the possums will eat me before anyone realizes I am gone. :)