PATTYCAKES

Bailey is a crazy dog. She ate Cameron's pack of gum earlier this week. An entire pack of about 18 pieces, with Xylitol, which is supposed to be poisonous, but apparently did nothing to her. We were waiting for bubbles to come out the other end, if you know what I mean, but nothing. Darn, we were hoping to be entertained for our troubles. She has been guilty in the past of eating an entire stick of butter and a whole package of chocolate chips that were sitting out waiting to be made into cookies when the stick of butter softened. But, the only cookies we had that day were the ones she "blew" when she threw up chocolate goo all over the place. Chocolate is supposed to be toxic too, but not for this dog! No wonder she has kidney problems. She ingests all the wrong things!! She is particular about her bread. I often have both a loaf of wheat and a loaf of white bread in the house. Before purchasing a bread box, she would occasionally, when no one was home, get the bread. If she got hold of the whole wheat, the loaf would remain intact on the floor. If she got hold of the white bread, that would be gone with nothing but the wrapper left to show us she even had gotten it. One time I was canning, (see previous posts) and while the jars were left on the counter to cool, she managed to pull one off the counter where it fell crashing to the tile floor. She ate all the meat inside as well as the glass!!! I know she must have because I did not find enough glass to make an entire jar. We were waiting for an interesting outcome there, but no, she was fine. Then there was the day she attempted to eat a lizard. She was outside in the backyard when I heard a bark. She rarely barks and this was one of distress or frustration, like she does if she sees a piece of popcorn under the couch and can't quite reach it. So, I opened the back door and saw that she was staring at something cornered on our patio. Upon moving some patio furniture, I flushed out a lizard about 6 inches long and rather fat. It started running and Bailey placed a paw on it to stop it then scooped it up in her mouth and ran out into the grass. The tail of the lizard was hanging out of her mouth, flapping around. Well, lizards are a good thing around here as they eat other bugs so I wanted her to put it back. Besides, our luck, she would be barfing lizard all over our bedroom carpet in the middle of the night. So, I told her to drop it, and she did, and the lizard got away by hiding under a big rock. Bailey has never forgotten that lizard and she digs around that rock constantly now! These crazy eating habits are a result of being on a diet for the past 5 years of her life. Poor dog, low thyroid and zero metabolism. (Welcome to my world, Bailey!) After my most recent canning, I placed the completed cans in a lower cabinet. I had room there but the pantry was full. She must have been able to smell it because she walks over that cabinet now, every day, and paws at it hoping to get at those jars!

She is a crazy dog. So we made her try on some Halloween costumes. After all, our kids are too big to do the whole trick or treating thing anymore so I tried dressing her up. She did not appreciate it a bit. But, she is crazy so she tolerates craziness as well! Oh, and this is where we find her when we come home and no one had been home all day!

I decided to give canning meat on my range another go. Here is the reason why it has been a BIG deal. The control panel for the oven is on the front of the range rather than against the back wall. As a result, there is a sensor in it that detects heat and when the front burners are used, this thermal sensor triggers a disconnection and the control panel no longer works. The manufacturer is aware of this overly sensitive sensor and has developed a new one that is not so sensitive. The first time it was triggered by some power surge that flipped our power off for a fraction of a second, not even enough to reset all our alarm clocks. The first time the repair people were out, they simply reconnected the thermal sensor but when it happened again, they replaced it with the newer and better one. This required an additional visit from the serviceman as the part had to be ordered, then installed. So, by this point we had had a repairman in our home three times over this range. We plugged away again but, because I have to use the front burner for my canning as it is the bigger burner, I tripped this sensor again. We called, said it was the same thing and please just order the part first! Well, according to the warranty, they have to come out and diagnose the problem. By this time, I felt I could do the diagnosing myself. Still, they came out and this time ordered the parts and had them mailed to our house. Now i was wondering when the parts arrived in the mail if they were expecting me to install them. Hmmmmm That had me worried as the entire range has to be taken apart from the back in order to access the front panel!!! Nice job engineer guy! Anyway, they did come back, installed the new sensor as well as some fan that they said should have been running but was not. I never noticed a fan before so I am guessing it has never worked since we bought this range two years ago. Thank goodness we decided to buy the extended warranty or all of these trips would have been about $125. At this point they have now been out 5 times! So, now the fan is working and that is super except that now this fan never shuts off, just runs constantly! We called the manufacturer and asked if this should be happening. They said no and so we had to once again get the warranty people to send a service person out. They are coming next Friday. I decided to save them an extra trip by heating up the front burner that seems to trip this sensor to see if using this burner would once again cause troubles. I figured if they were coming out anyway, they could order the part then! ha ha Sad, I know. So, as I set to work doing my canning, I had meat cooking on one burner and water boiling on another to add to the canner. I had another pot boiling to add to the meat once it was in the jar and the third small pot was set to boil for the seals to go in.If you do the math, you can see I needed all four burners, which I have never needed since the last repair job so it was then that I discovered that the knob on one of the rear burners, one I rarely use, does not even move! I am guessing this nifty fan they installed in the control panel is blocking the knob's ability to turn. It used to work! Holy Cow! Now they have another thing to fix when they are out here on Friday! Ahhhhhh!

So, now I have completed another 20 jars of extra lean ground beef and the thermal sensor has not been tripped. I guess that constantly running fan is doing the trick together with the inability to use the burner behind it. Big Sigh!