Craigslist on an Island

Sadly, craiglist is not always that great around here.  There is always cool stuff - but it is on Maui or Oahu, so kind of a pain to deal with.  But last night, I saw canning stuff on my island.  Even better - on my SIDE of the island.  The Big Island is just that - Big.  The other side is a 100 miles one way, and a 100 miles back.  It's a five hour proposition, so basically, unless you are really motivated, you mostly stick to your side of the island.  In fact, most of my life takes place in the 12 mile radius between me and school.  Once every other week, I drive to Hilo, which is a bit further. 

These people are selling a 23 qt. pressure canner, a 33 qt water bath canner, and 50 mason jars (don't know what size).  I am very tempted because basically the price they're asking is about how much I would pay to buy a 23 qt. pressure canner and ship it here, too.  And apparently, Amazon doesn't ship to PO Boxes (at least pressure cookers), and that's all we got for mail delivery out here.  Yup, no county water (just catchment) and no mail delivery and, my sore spot, no wired internet either.  No cable TV, but I don't give a rat's tail about that - though the weak and sad cell phone service isn't a lot of fun, mostly because of the sad internet, I want to use my phone sometimes to check my work email.  

You know all those memes about 1st world problems?  Well, I have some second and third world problems, too - water, for example.  Although, you know, water falls from the sky with prodigious regularity in a rain forest, so there is water - we just have to pump it and clean it.  You don't just drink out of a tap on catchment, in other words.  

On more week until Fall break.  Now, I am just crossing my fingers that the boys' and girls' cross country practices are at the same time, because I think if I have to drive to work twice a day during a break I may just snap.  I can't have them miss it, because beyond my expectations, my children have a shot at the State meet - fairly shocking in the case of the 9th grader, frankly and the qualifying meet is the week after the break.  You can't take a week off running at this point in the season, and neither of my kids is capable of pushing themselves on their own (neither am I!).   If they aren't, that might mean that the girl has to run with the boys, which isn't the greatest option.  I have absolutely drained myself this quarter (even more than usual) and my garden, animals, and house show it.  I need to sleep and then dig and then clean....after all the grading I have to do.