This new batch of granola is much better, with just a hint of the honey flavor and not too sweet. I've bagged and frozen some, and I used the FoodSaver vacuum seal canister to bottle some more. The trick is to put a jar with whatever dry thing you want to seal into the vacuum canister with a sealing lid held lightly in place on top of the jar. Set up to seal the canister, and when the machine turns off, open the canister and you'll find that the lidded jar inside is now also vacuum sealed. It means you can use all of those old spaghetti sauce jars to seal in dry stuff and reuse one canister to seal those jars, not spend $20 or more per canister just to store dry things like herbs and cereal and other grains. I've also stored dehydrated vegetables this way.

My neighbor gave me a bottle of avocado oil at xmas and I've been looking for ways to use it; for the granola this one is perfect, it's much healthier than corn or canola but not a strong flavor like olive. It looks like I'm going to have a good crop of basil this year and I think making my own pesto with this kind of oil is a great way to control salt and have as fresh as can be at the same time. I've added pine nuts to my shopping list.

Last week I switched the house heat pumps over to the summer settings, and I see this week that two of the dogs are now choosing to sleep on the tile floor instead of the filled dog beds. It's time to wash the covers and put them away and stack the orthopedic foam and fiberfill beds out of the way (so Cookie doesn't tear them up to get at the stuffing. That's why there are covers on them.) I'll leave a couple of the orthopedic mats out. There is so much dog stuff around here.

Charmion, I hope the yard looks fabulous after your raking. Dorothy, those sound like some rather heavy plates and bowls you're working on now. I have a few of the real heavy ones around here from my Dad's house, they get used for serving food on special occasions. Hopefully that is the destination of your fine pottery!

How is everyone else doing? Any lurkers want to lower their shields and share their spring plans or progress reports of home renovation or decluttering? Jon? Keb? JennieG? Patty? Don? Steve? Sandra? To name just a few.