There is a lot in the news lately about the swine flu virus and how to prevent getting it. Using hand sanitizers and washing hands frequently is being pushed in the schools. Children are urged to bring their own from home and have them handy. I have taken to carrying them in my golf cart when I am out working.
All of this reminds me of the old fashioned way of preventing the spread of germs - washing hands with soap and water. When I was teaching my new students my rules in September, hand washing was a must before lunch and I encouraged it also after a visit to the bathroom. In my first years of teaching in the mountains of Ky. we did not have running water so we used a round metal bowl and a pitcher of water. I poured water over the little hands as they soaped and rinsed them on the spot. I do not remember where the water came from. I think it came from the bathrooms which we did not use as they were always in disrepair. But the faucets you could not stop up.!!!!!! This meant we had to use an outhouse for anything but hand washing. But wash hands we did !! I was adamant about that.
Later in my teaching career when I lived in Arnold Maryland and taught in an elementary school in Severna Park, we had much more agreeable accommodations. The children would wash their hands in their respective bathrooms, often they were at one side of our classroom. If I had any doubt that some little Huckleberry Fin had not washed his hands I would say "let me smell your hands". If I did not smell the sweet fragrance of soap the child was sent back to do it correctly. They soon learned that it did not pay to disobey orders as it would just delay our departure to the lunch room.
Bringing in the new means departing from the old. I found this especially hard to do regarding my juicer. My son-in-law set up the new Omega 9000 for me on this past Sunday when we had our family gathering here. I had saved up some of the almost seedless muscadine grapes which I like to use for jelly. When that juice came pouring out of the spout it was just lovely. We all had to have a taste. My grandson who is in grad school in Ann Arbor Michigan likes to have wine with his evening meal. I asked him if he would like to taste some wine before it became wine. He agreed that it was very pleasant indeed. We were too busy to do much more with the juicer that day, but on Tuesday I got it out again and became discouraged ,when after making some beautiful juice it began to growl and shake. I turned it off and had to wait 2 minutes for it to come to a complete stop.
In the meantime I began to have pangs of remorse about having to give up on my old juicer. I just knew that if I could find a motor for it then a transplant would set it right again. After many attempts online to find what I needed I resorted to the old fashioned way and started making phone calls to see if anyone could help me find a small motor. All of the very nice men I talked to were very sympathetic but none could help me.
So, okay back to the new juicer I went. I soon discovered what caused the loud noises and shaking. That was juicer talk for "hey clean all of this pulp out of my strainer basket". I was pleasantly surprised to learn that a spoon and a few passes through the basket got all of the pulp out and I could resume juicing. Now that is progress I can vote for. In no time I had all of the grape juice in a container and in the fridge for an overnight rest. The overnight rest is necessary for tartar crystals to form and be strained off the next day.
This brings us to what I see on a rack on my counter, beautiful, clear, wine colored jelly cooling after the hot water bath. One test of good jelly is clarity and this jelly is very clear.
I have to admit that I do miss the familiarity of the old machine but this one is really better. I have more juice and dryer pulp. In time I will become so familiar with the new that I will, someday, take the old one out of the storage place and send it off to the dump. But, I have difficulty just pitching it out, after all it only needs a new motor.
All of this reminds me of the old fashioned way of preventing the spread of germs - washing hands with soap and water. When I was teaching my new students my rules in September, hand washing was a must before lunch and I encouraged it also after a visit to the bathroom. In my first years of teaching in the mountains of Ky. we did not have running water so we used a round metal bowl and a pitcher of water. I poured water over the little hands as they soaped and rinsed them on the spot. I do not remember where the water came from. I think it came from the bathrooms which we did not use as they were always in disrepair. But the faucets you could not stop up.!!!!!! This meant we had to use an outhouse for anything but hand washing. But wash hands we did !! I was adamant about that.
Later in my teaching career when I lived in Arnold Maryland and taught in an elementary school in Severna Park, we had much more agreeable accommodations. The children would wash their hands in their respective bathrooms, often they were at one side of our classroom. If I had any doubt that some little Huckleberry Fin had not washed his hands I would say "let me smell your hands". If I did not smell the sweet fragrance of soap the child was sent back to do it correctly. They soon learned that it did not pay to disobey orders as it would just delay our departure to the lunch room.
Bringing in the new means departing from the old. I found this especially hard to do regarding my juicer. My son-in-law set up the new Omega 9000 for me on this past Sunday when we had our family gathering here. I had saved up some of the almost seedless muscadine grapes which I like to use for jelly. When that juice came pouring out of the spout it was just lovely. We all had to have a taste. My grandson who is in grad school in Ann Arbor Michigan likes to have wine with his evening meal. I asked him if he would like to taste some wine before it became wine. He agreed that it was very pleasant indeed. We were too busy to do much more with the juicer that day, but on Tuesday I got it out again and became discouraged ,when after making some beautiful juice it began to growl and shake. I turned it off and had to wait 2 minutes for it to come to a complete stop.
In the meantime I began to have pangs of remorse about having to give up on my old juicer. I just knew that if I could find a motor for it then a transplant would set it right again. After many attempts online to find what I needed I resorted to the old fashioned way and started making phone calls to see if anyone could help me find a small motor. All of the very nice men I talked to were very sympathetic but none could help me.
So, okay back to the new juicer I went. I soon discovered what caused the loud noises and shaking. That was juicer talk for "hey clean all of this pulp out of my strainer basket". I was pleasantly surprised to learn that a spoon and a few passes through the basket got all of the pulp out and I could resume juicing. Now that is progress I can vote for. In no time I had all of the grape juice in a container and in the fridge for an overnight rest. The overnight rest is necessary for tartar crystals to form and be strained off the next day.
This brings us to what I see on a rack on my counter, beautiful, clear, wine colored jelly cooling after the hot water bath. One test of good jelly is clarity and this jelly is very clear.
I have to admit that I do miss the familiarity of the old machine but this one is really better. I have more juice and dryer pulp. In time I will become so familiar with the new that I will, someday, take the old one out of the storage place and send it off to the dump. But, I have difficulty just pitching it out, after all it only needs a new motor.
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