Natasha hard at work

Andy is away for the weekend, so I am getting things done. I don't know what it is about having the house to myself, but it is not yet noon on Saturday and I have gotten more done than I generally do all weekend. I love him dearly, but obviously, I need to send him away for a weekend once in a while--at this rate I could even get caught up on "dem fischer sin fru!"

Our next food drop for Bananas will be in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, somewhere around April 2. We send the packages to general delivery with an ETA, and I usually let her know ahead of time where we are sending packages. Since I have a little extra time on this, I have branched out a little. I still have the taco-flavored black beans to package up

To be fair, they didn't look much more appetizing before they were dehydrated. Still, starving+wilderness = EDIBLE!

I have red beans soaking right now


which tonight will be thrown into a crock pot with spaghetti sauce and pureed mixed vegetables. ( And for those of you wondering if I've finally mastered the crock pot, not at all--I'm just really optimistic.)

I read somewhere that you could make "leather" (ala fruit rollups) from pudding, so I have this


in the dehydrator now, along with 3 trays of bananas. I'm slightly bothered that I can't find where I read about pudding rollups, but I'm always the optimist!