Hooray! Sunshine! It seems forever since we’ve seen it. And, living off grid, having long periods of cloudy weather means it’s generator time when I want to wash clothes. Yep, I put it off, put it off, then couldn’t stand it anymore. So, I cranked up the generator and started washing clothes. Then the sun came out. Oh well, I’m still washing clothes today, but should get them finished. My new dryer is so very slow, compared to my old one that I got very used from my wonderful son, Bill, and used it for more than 14 years before it totally crashed.

I canned up a bunch of ham dices from a ham I got on sale, then decided to can up some quarts of old Navy beans I had in the basement. So, right now, I have 8 quarts in the canner, coming down to zero pressure. And I’ve boiled that ham bone for a couple of hours, planning on using the broth and a few quarts of soaked Navies to make a batch of bean soup to also can. It’s amazing how many meals I can get out of one on-sale ham! It makes my frugal soul sing.

Even though it’s a beautiful day, I’m staying in to get some canning done.
These half-pints of diced ham come in handy for tons of recipes.

Will went out and brought in another big trailer load of firewood logs and poles to cut up and split as needed. I’m hoping that on Wednesday, we can get that split and get the fruit trees protected from voles by wrapping their trunks in screen, hardware cloth, or plastic tree protectors. Voles look like they’re very plentiful this year.

Sarge is waiting for Hondo to come see the pile of wood “Dad” brought home.

The last few days, Will has been repairing the plank fencing in the cow’s winter yard and also repairing the run-in shed for the horses and cows. (When we get a bad storm, they all come into the training ring where they can get completely in a barn for better shelter. Most of the material has been home-sawn and recycled lumber and OSB that David saved from the big Dumpster bins at work. While he’s doing that and I’m canning, I am just finishing up the mailing list for the seed business. We’re going to get catalogs out early this year. For some reason — maybe the world situation — we feel folks really need to get at gardening this year. That’s also probably why I’m canning so much food right now!

Will has been busy repairing plank cow yard fence and updating the run-in shed

— Jackie

16 COMMENTS

  1. I just had my 44-year-old dryer repaired for the second time. Since I purchased it with gift money from an aunt & uncle and my grandmother, I have only $419 invested in it. I really hope I can keep it going because it is far and away more economical and practical than a new one. Even a used one was quoted to me at $600.

  2. That is a very well aged pressure cooker! my mom, aunt both had those.(wish i d kept)
    so Heavy to lift. i thought my 35 year old one was aged, not so. it seems so many are no longer (pressure) canning these days. when I say I do;’well, you do replace it every 10 years…” nope it keeps doing its job. Thank The Lord

  3. My husband said something I’m going to remember, since some are mentioning the signs of the difficult times ahead: Though we prepare and get ready, God is our Provider.

  4. Hi Jackie and friends! Well, just found out that my grow zone has changed. Gone from 5a to 5b. It says we’re only going down to minus 21 in the winter. I think something is off about the new listing. Last winter we went down to minus 35 and had days at minus 30, along with tons of snow here in Idaho. I know that the planet is having warmer summers but I’m not sure about the USDA changing the grow zones as they have. I suspect that really affects people in the higher growing zones. Those of us in the lower zones may not really be affected by the heat. I lived in South Texas most of my life and lived with my Great Grandparents as a kid. They said the extreme heat and even cold was normal. They were born in mid 1890s, to farm families. Great great Grandparents who had a ranch in the Texas Hill Country and were born in 1870s said what seem like extremes of weather was normal. So best bet now, seems to be hope for the best and plan for the worst.

  5. My Dads old dryer finally gave up the ghost last month. He had bought it used about 12 years ago and it worked without problems for all that time. My brother was at an auction house in a small town not far from us and found him another one for 50 dollars. It so far is working like a charm. Its always nice to score a good deal. Its been sunny here and warm for the past several days. Daytime temps are staying in the low 60’s and has been quite comfortable, but still no rain and none forecast. It makes me very concerned considering we were under water restrictions during the summer. It doesn’t bode well for next year. We have a couple of old wells I am hoping we can get refurbished and working to water the garden next year just in case. I have moles here in my yard at times, but my dog hates them and she has been able to catch and kill several. It does make holes where she digs, but that is much better than the darn moles. That ham sure does look good. Hope you and Will can get your projects caught up before the weather turns again. Im looking forward to receiving your seed catalog. Sending prayers for a blessed week.

    • Thanks Marilyn! We’re slowly getting caught up. This unusual weather has sure been a huge blessing for us. I do hope you’ll get rain. Drought is no laughing matter.

  6. The warm weather has allowed some work that we didn’t think would be possible: flower bulbs planted, finished cement work for son’s sidewalk and steps, and more garden clean up. We had temps up to 60 -wow. I forget is your generator gas or propane? It is reassuring to have a stockpile of food and wood. It also makes it so our livestock need far less hay at this time of the year. The world seems so unstable now and I hope that changes.

    • Amen, Everett! Our generator is propane. We have a 1,000 gallon propane tank plus a 250 gallon tank for the greenhouse. Propane is so much more able to take long-term storage than is gas, so that’s why we switched over. Also propane is a whole lot cheaper!!
      We had 54 degrees today and that was a huge blessing!!

  7. Unfortunately, the cats can’t get at them under three feet or more of snow. They do a good job, but those darned voles have several litters a year, which, in turn, sexually mature at a few weeks’ of age. Same with the birds of prey, and, unfortunately, our chickens run in the orchard so we don’t want the predator birds flying in there. They would prefer to eat chickens instead of tiny voles. Ha ha. So would I.

  8. That canned diced ham is BEAUTIFUL!
    I love it when I am energetic enough to get those things done.
    I LOVE that photo of Sarge. He looks like such a good boy.
    You and Will truly amaze me with your work ethic.
    I love your blog posts. Thank you for making the time out of your crazy schedule to write these updates.
    Happy Thanksgiving

  9. Dear Jackie,
    I also canned white beans this year and I added the broth to the beans when canning. They are quick and delicious! Great ideas you have and thanks for sharing.

  11. We have lots of voles every year too. They especially like our winter squash. We have an outdoor cat but she doesn’t like them. We don’t want to use bait pellets as we don’t to harm our cat or dogs. Do you have other ideas for getting rid or at least reducing the vole population?

  12. New dryers (it seems to me) are a bit *too* energy efficient. Used to be one would get the current load out of the dryer at the buzzer/minute or two before the buzzer as the dryer was still hot. Not these days – dryer hits “cool down” at a given point in the cycle. While the dryer is not stone cold, it isn’t hot like it used to be.
    Mittens and Buffy need to up their game on those dang voles. Perhaps word will get out to the birds of prey that the hunting/eating is good at Jackie and Will’s place. We’ve seen mice scurrying out of all sorts of places lately – the feral cat is earning his keep killing ones near the house. A well cat is worth his/her weight in gold. He’s killed a number of chipmunks too (we are overrun with them so he’s not killing an endangered species by any means).

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