Like Jemdandy, I also grew up on a dairy farm, only at our farm we had a coal stove in the kitchen and we did not have running water. Our day started at 5am when we went to the barn to milk the cows and feed the stock and we finally went to the house for breakfast at 9am. After breakfast grandad would assign one of us boys to help grandma in the kitchen for the day. That meant we had to carry 10 or 15gal of water in from the spring then shake the grate and clean the ashes out of the cookstove, and carry the ashes outside, then we had to go out to the coal pile outside and fill the coal bucket. Grandma was cooking 3 meals a day for 15 farm hands plus she canned about 4,000 quarts of fruits, veggies, pickles and sausages to get us through the winter, and in her spare time she baked 20 loaves of bread, a couple dozen yiest rolls and two or three pies every Wednesday and did the laundry for everybody on Monday. When she was canning the fruits and veggies were brought to the house in bushel baskets and we had to continually tote the baskets in to grandma and take the 5gal bucket she used to catch the peelings and veggie trimmings and dump that in the hog lot. When it was time to start preparing lunch Grandma would hand us a basket and tell us to get potatoes, so we headed out the back door, grabbed a hoe and headed to the potato patch where we dug a basket of potatoes. When we got back to the kitchen she handed us a basket and a paring knife and told us to go out in the garden and get leaf lettuce, onions & veggies (whatever was in season at the time). When we got back to the kitchen we had to clean, peel and prep the veggies under her supervision, while she continued working on what she was canning. We had two huge chest type deep freezers and in the fall we would slaughter 2 or 3 huge 900lb hogs, (I bet you guys have never seen a 60lb ham), a couple sheep, and at least two yearling steers, which then had to be cut up and wrapped for the freezer or hung in the smokehouse. When grandma wanted to make chicken we had to go catch the chicken, kill it, then clean & dress it and for holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas we had to catch and dress a couple geese or ducks. (The first time I ever tasted turkey was after I went in the Air Force). In the winter we hunted racoons for their hides, but more often than not, a racoon or two ended up in the stew pot..as well as rabbits and pheasants. (We didn't have any deer on our farm). In addition to her veggie garden, Grandma had a huge herb garden and she was an undisputed master with herbs and spices. In summer it was fresh herbs but by fall we had to cut them and air dry them for winter and in the evenings after all our chores in the barn were done we used to sit around the kitchen drinking hot chocolate and coring and slicing apples, which we threaded on a string and hung across the kitchen ceiling to dry for winter stores. To this day I can still remember my Grandmothers weekly shopping list for the grocery store. 50lbs of flour, 25lbs of sugar, 3lbs of brown sugar, two large canisters of Quaker rolled oats, 5lbs of raisins, a gallon bucket of peanut butter (peanut butter used to be packed in 1 gal pails and grandma kept the empty pails for berry picking buckets for the kids), 8 packs of chewing tobacco for Grandpa and two boxes of arm & hammer baking soda and once in a great while she would buy 5lbs of whitefish fillets. At the time I didn't really think about cooking much, but over the years I have known a lot of guys who didn't have a clue how to cook and when they ended up divorced it was pizza or hot dogs and porky beans ( I couldn't live like that). Ladies, if you accomplish nothing else in this life, teach your children & grandchildren how to cook. Sometimes Jan laughs at me, but she knows, I don't need a menu plan. I walk in the kitchen and look around at what ingredients we have to work with, and I can turn out a gourmet meal every time. I may not have much money, but you can bet I eat good.

Like I said, it is too bad if you have very picky eaters. My mom always served "Mrs Smith's" frozen pies and I've always enjoyed them. That's my kind of pie, take out of freezer to thaw, bake, cool and dig in yum! Now if you just adore making pies and you're going to feel so disappointed if you don't get to make one, then by all means do it. But if it is stressing you out, I say let it go, and go store-bought. Embrace the calm that goes along with it. I make semi-homemade pies with store bought crusts, it's my compromise and I never hear any complaints. The only reason I make home made crust is to save money. I had Thanksgiving at my aunt and uncle's one year, she was in her 80's and is the bestest cook. She made the whole dinner and I think enjoyed doing (it was super delicious as always) it, but I brought all the appetizers and they bought a caramel apple pie at the bakery for dessert and everyone raved about it. My uncle had a good time telling everyone all the elaborate trouble they went to making that pie too, like hand picking out the rare apples at some special store, etc. :) That's my motto, pick your battles when it comes to Thanksgiving and food, it's only food. Being in a good mood and rested and enjoying family is way more important. There's a whole cadre of folks who LOVE to cook and fuss and entertain at Thanksgiving. More power to them, but there is also a whole cadre of people who just don't love it, either due to being introverted, super busy with work, not feeling well, or just not liking to cook. It's time we gave those folks a break from "keeping up" with all the media hype around the holidays. Last year at the last minute mom said dad really liked sweet potatoes with a sweet sauce so instead of just baking them, I chunked them up and threw them in a casserole with some butter, brown sugar and a can of crushed pineapple. He loved it and I had to laugh because that came out a bigger hit than all my previous years pouring over cookbooks, magazines and the Internet for the ideal healthy or unusual or gourmet recipes.

jasdip - I agree that a vet visit is in order. I would probably start with an eye check just to rule out failing eyesight. Actually on a pet board last week a woman was beside herself because her 8 year old Shih Tzu had started to bite her (and her husband, but she was the favoured one and her dog had never exhibited any antagonistic behaviour towards her) whenever they stroked her dog with just one hand - with 2 hands - not a problem. It would appear that the pup did not see the one hand coming - but could see two. Then I would move on to perhaps dementia or other physical ailment. I definitely know what it is like to have 2 pets going after each other and it was not pretty. You mentioned that you have a third cat - hopefully Bud will not team up with the other cat and both go after Smudge if in fact Smudge is losing his eyesight, hearing or suffering from dementia. Your regular vet is unlikely to have the super magnifying eye checking equipment that Guelph or the Toronto McMurrich Clinic has. (I know this because like many others our dog was first diagnosed with conjunctivitis that was really an ulcer in the making that turned into an abscessed cornea - we caught it day one and this story has been going on since May 24, 2011.) We have been seeing the board certified eye specialist who travels to Toronto twice a week since July of 2011. So just in case I thought I would mention this to you. I would watch the cats closely and perhaps if you go out in the evening you might separate them until this issue is resolved. Obviously the vet visit will cost but hopefully an answer can be found quickly.

Ok here’s a mssg typed in Mac Textedit. I started with Mac last fall and found most applications totally complicated compared to the cut down versions of MSFT word pad and MS works SS etc. All I need are the cut down stuff. I absolutely do not need an SS or word processor with every possible variation of every function known to man. Especially in icon form. How about some words? I didn’t major in Icon at school. I tried all the Mac text apps and with all else just gave up - too much info - not enough patience. In my case NONE. Gave up on Numbers too - blah. Enter Libre Office Vanilla. Not enamored of that either but can use it although is does aid my digestion. Even with this Textedit I had to mess around to figure out how to change the default font. As you might imagine switching from Windows there was a lot to figure and figure I did but found it expedient to let a lot slide. Text Edit, Notes Numbers Sticky Notes AntNotes Phooy. I got Libreoffice going and stuck with it. AAAAHHHHH ! No hassle. Not only that Mac seems the think they can organize and/or run my stuff better than me. Got news for them. Take pics for example. I take em, send em, delete em. What to my surprise and horror I found a million billion pics lined up for 30 days to await final deletion just in case I changed my mind. Well. I am a big boy now. If I delete a pic I want it gone as in gone. If I delete a pic by mistake I somehow have the feeling I just might survive with out barfing my guts out. So this ought to be a good test of the Houzz preview problem. 10-4? 10-4. We be gone gone. Edit: Seems to have worked.