With our entire gardens harvested, we switched energy to canning up the produce as quickly as possible. Those twelve big crates of tomatoes on the enclosed back porch are beginning to ripen quite quickly. I am still seeding a few remaining varieties of new tomatoes. One of our favorites this year for sheer beauty is Cosmic Eclipse. It’s a large, round, plum-sized tomato with awesome color and taste. Another “black” tomato, it starts out pure black then ripens to dark red with a lower half green with beautiful stripes — a true gem! We also love Purple Russian, a “black” large paste tomato and Black Dragon, a smaller paste tomato. All of these “black” tomatoes have amazing taste and the dark color of the meat adds a wonderful rich color to the tomato sauce which is thick as can be.

Isn’t this Cosmic Eclipse tomato gorgeous? Tasty too!

I got a dozen pints of pizza sauce canned up along with fifteen pints of enchilada sauce. Then Ashley and I canned up fourteen quarts of huge Kuroda carrots, cut in nice big pieces — just right to put into a roasting pan with a big roast, potatoes, and onions. Today I’m doing a medium-chunky salsa with another batch of ripe paste tomatoes along with peppers from our hoop house and big fat onions from the garden. This is the first year ever that I’ve run out of salsa, so you can bet I’ll put up lots real soon. I do several different flavors, including multi-colored salsa with black beans and corn. This salsa is simply a corn relish with added tomatoes and hot peppers, but boy, is it ever good!

Work continues every weekend on David and Ashley’s cabin in the woods. Since David doesn’t get home until after dark, it’s the only time he can work on it, but slowly, it is taking shape. Some of you may wonder why on earth he’s building it so high on concrete piers. They can’t afford a basement so not only will having the bottom of the floor up so high, making it easier to install insulation and plywood protection against rodents and squirrels getting in it, but they’ll end up with lots of covered storage under the cabin for firewood, equipment and tools. Not enough money for a garage or shed, either!

David worked hard, drilling the concrete piers and installing the steel brackets for the support beams.

David managed to drill and install the steel brackets which were bolted to the concrete piers then he and Will started setting the 6″x12″ support beams for the floor joists. Those beams are heavy and it took all they had to lift and position them into place. There are still several to go, but slowly the cabin is taking shape. Meanwhile, Will is using “spare” time to cut floor joists and 2″x6″s for the cabin walls.

It is all Will and David can do to carry and lift the huge beams into place.
More beams are cut to length and readied to place on the piers.

We had our friend, Tony, out yesterday to draw blood to pregnancy test our cows and heifers. So far we’ve only had one calf from our borrowed bull but are hoping there’s just a delay before more cows calf. This was the first time we used our new cattle chute and head gate to work cattle and we were pleased at how the whole thing works. Just a couple of gates to install so we can squeeze cows into the chute but it’s a work in progress. Just like several things around the homestead. That’s life… — Jackie

26 COMMENTS

  1. Do you pressure or HWB your paste tomatoes, peppers and onions and for how long. Also, what’s the ratio of the veggies? Thanks!

  2. Yes, I know that’s a possibility but both men have worked all their lives, with heavy logs and have developed not only strong muscles but effective ways of handling them. An accident is always possible but sometimes we just have to gamble. The reason David has that strained expression on his face is he is transitioning from “carrying” position to lifting. The beam is heavy but not extremely heavy.

  3. Glad to see the progress on David’s and Ashley’s cabin. Still canning up the garden here in Michigan too.

  4. Am waiting to pay off my house this month and then plan to order Jackie’s cookbook…..can anyone point me to the mustard bean pickle recipe? I haven’t found it yet in back issues.Thanks!!

  5. This post is great. I live in outside a Calgary Canada and was wondering if you would know where I could buy the seeds for the Purple Russian, Black Dragon and Cosmic Eclipse tomatoes, as well as the Kurado carrots. Our carrots, tomatoes and beets were great this year considering we had almost no rain and hot weather. The potatoes all were dead by Aug 1st and the one we did get were tiny and coveted in scrap, any suggestions. I just love gardening and we give most of it away but that is a blessing also. I wait to hear from you and keep up the posts and good work.

    • We will be selling all of these varieties in our little homestead seed business, Seed Treasures. If you write us at Seed Treasures, 8533 Hwy 25, Angora, MN, 55703 USA, I’ll send you a catalog. Or check out our website. I’ll be updating it soon.

  6. Thank goodness for strong backs and willing hearts! My own sweet boys have been helping me “put the garden to bed” as I am now laid up (again!) on crutches after a simple spill in the garage. Argg! I remember the time when you and Will both took a tumble from your roof. A deep pantry is worth more than gold!

    • So sorry to hear you’re laid up temporarily. As you know; I’ve “been there; done that”. Get better soon.

  7. We just canned up the last of our tomaatoes and red peppers as chili sauce. We are at freeze up with temps remaining below freezing the last two days.
    I don’t understand the blood test for pregnancy. In the twenty years I spent as a dairy herdsman we always had the vet put an arm in the cow and physically check. I was trained as an AI tech and can usually check myself at 60+ days but an experienced vet can tell at 45. Also if not pregnant the vet can check for cystic ovaries at the same time.

    • Yep, I was a vet tech for over 20 years so stood by a whole lot of cows while the vet stood, arm up in a cow. But the blood test is cheaper as we are remote and the farm call plus the preg check is over $200 for 6 cows. The blood test cost us less than $50. We weren’t worried too much about cystic ovaries as the cows didn’t exhibit any symptoms. Yep, could have but probably wouldn’t have. (Remember we had 6 head we didn’t know if they were bred or not and three of them had calved previously.)

  8. What kind of structure, how large and what spacing is David building that requires support beams that large? They are honking huge. Did the local bulding inspector require them? or did someone calculate that they needed to be that large?

    • David’s cabin is going to be 24’x 28′. No, the building inspector didn’t require them; we have no building inspector up here, only having to have a land use permit. David and Ashley will have a large water storage tank in the cabin so they can fill it periodically and have hot and cold running water and 300 gallons of water is HEAVY; over a ton.

    • Properly canned home canned foods will last for decades, remaining tasty and nutritious. Rust is the enemy of long-term storage of home canning. Rust will eat holes in the jar’s lids eventually. So obviously, the drier the spot in which you store your jars of food, the longer they’ll last. I know new boxes of canning jars say “food best used within one year” and lids say “will remain sealed for 18 months”, but that’s just to sell more lids! I’ve got 40 year old canned cherries and 20 year old canned chicken; it all looks and tasted like I canned it yesterday! This is why I love canning so much.

  9. Jackie, this is the time of the year when gardeners get to partake of the fruits of their labor. I’ve just finished up storing away about 50 pounds of harvested potatoes. I’m definitely not on the level that you are but I’ve preserved green beans, sweet corn, pickles, green peppers, and potatoes. It’s been a good year here in Nebraska.

  10. Having a hearing loss, I always encourage people to wear hearing protection when using loud tools, like the drill. Also, eye protection.

    Keep up the good work – I often think of what you guys do when I am in my (relatively) small garden. You make me tired just thinking of what you do!

    • Yep, both David and Will use either ear plugs or ear “muffs” when using loud tools such as the chainsaw and drill. Just to be safe. (Their “muffs” also include a radio so they have music while they work.)

  11. Exciting to see the cabin moving along. I’ll bet they’re anxious.

    I’ve often wondered what kind of storage area you have for these 100s of jars of canned food.

    • Luckily I was talked into having a basement when we built our house. In that, I have a 12’x 8′ pantry. But I’ve overflowed that to under the stairs and also onto shelves Will build along our basement walls.

  12. Eeegads! Be careful Will and David, throwing out your back is going to push the timeline waaaay out. Maybe it’s time to have a meeting of the minds and come up with a lift mechanism of some sort – I know Jackie and Will and have all sorts of problem solving thought processes, I bet you all can come up with something better.

    • Backwoods Home Magazine is still going strong on Kindle and it’s only $1.99 a month. Or if you’d prefer a paper magazine, subscribe to the Duffy’s daughter and son’s magazine, Self-Reliance Magazine. It’s very much like Backwoods Home, having many of the same authors, including myself.

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