Sunday, July 16, 2023

Starting to fill it up


 After putting the edge guards on this morning, I moved all the jars over to the shelves. I moved the canning pots and stock pots, too. We have peaches and two kinds of green beans. The tomato sauces will be coming soon.

Saturday, July 15, 2023

Utility room upgrade

First thing this morning, Natalie and I took down all the pots and pans from the wall and pulled out the wire shelf that was in the utility room. After washing the wall down, she started painting it.
It went from sort-of white to a medium grey.
Then it was my turn. I got the rails all put up and we figured out the shelf spacing. We were going to have 4 8" shelves and a 12" one at the top for the big canning pots and stock pots. There was enough room to add an extra 8" shelf in the middle.
We can now stack the pint jars side by side and they can also be stacked two high, if we need to do that. Quart jars will all be single file. Lots of extra storage space and it looks nicer, too!
 

Friday, July 14, 2023

More beans canned


 I picked two more buckets of beans this morning. We had some of them for dinner and I canned 14 more pints, 6 Blue Lake and 8 Roma.

Monday, July 10, 2023

Good start on beans

Yesterday, Heather and I started canning the beans. We picked the Romas (italian beans) first. We got 13 pints of them put up.
This morning, I went through the Blue Lake variety and got another bucket full. It took most of the morning, but I got 6 more pints put up. I am getting a little quicker at it the more I do it.
 

Sunday, July 9, 2023

Canning season has begun

Natalie and I started this morning with the peaches Lisa picked up for us from the peach truck. We got 10 pounds, but ate several before the canning started.
We still got 9 pints put up.
Heather and I checked the garden later this afternoon and found a bunch of the beans were ready. These are the Roma. We canned 13 pints tonight. The Blue Lake are loaded as well, but they will have to wait until tomorrow. The summer squash is also producing, with more ready in a couple more days.
 

Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Cabinet floor done

Over the years, the old faucet in the kitchen had leaked and that waterlogged the bottom of the cabinet. That faucet was replaced a while ago and I started tearing the old wood out on Tuesday. It's all removed in this picture, down to the floor.
I measured and re-measured to try and get it close, but it's kind of hard to read a tape measure there. I did get it very close, though. Then I drew it out on the board and cut it. The original cabinet bottom was one piece, put in before the water lines and countertop. I had to break it up into a big jigsaw puzzle that I could get through the opening.
There is a total of 4 pieces that now make up the "floor" in the cabinet. They seamed together fairly nicely. We can now use the space under the kitchen sink again.
 

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

Kitchen cabinets finally finished

As you may recall, Natalie got the base cabinet painted a while ago.
Yesterday, I finally got the drawers and remaining doors painted.
Today was spent getting hardware and more stuff to finish the installation of the handles. For example, the screws for the knobs were fine, but the screws for the handles were all too short. The hardware store saw me several times today. But it is done and looks good.