I did too shades! loved hearing the 'pops' and lining them up on shelves in my laundry room (basement). I gave it up yrs ago tho, after the kids were grown and gone. there are times now I wish I could do up a few jars of peach or apricot butter / preserves but I got rid of my stuff and it'd be too hard for me to lift the canner anymore. even yrs ago I had the now X do that part.

I had a corning glass top stove, so I used a hot plate for the canner.

a mini canner might do (if one exists) and using those tiny jars.

I'mhappy, you're lucky to have an outside area to do some of the prep work! I had about 3' of counter space and my kitchen table.

I wondered if an regular hot plate would support the weight of the full canner. I almost bought a double one at the second hand store but then everyone who was there discussed it with me and we decided it would be too heavy. I'm having second thoughts about that and I'm going to look again when I'm in town next week. It probably won't be there now that I've decided to buy it. My pressure cooker would fit on it but I wouldn't be able to get as many jars in.

I just brought a load of white clothes in off the line - DRY! It is so humid I didn't think they would or if they did they'd be stiff as a board but everything is soft and dry. Just a bit of a breeze. Last night was awful! Not a breath of air and 99°. Tomorrow is supposed to be better, low 90's I think? Even though Brier Fox lives near me, I let my Chickie Girls out of their pen yesterday. I thought they could find a "cooler" place to sit for the afternoon. The horses stood in the barn :-( There is a shady grove that would have been much better! The bugs weren't bad. Or even the east facing barn would have been better. I have kid pools for the dogs but even that was hot water. The dogs were in here with the a/c! I don't know what the barn cats did. I gave up telling them what to do years ago. Water and shade. The cement floor is the coolest place. Top half of the doors open for ventilation.

99º at night?!!!! OK, I am going to quit complaining about our heat. At least we are in the 70's at night!!

Your canning adventures sound so neat. I am here alone and could never use all that food up in many years! Plus I have no idea how to do it. :)

I do have a related question, though. A friend gave me a jar of "freezer jam". It was cold when she gave it to me. On the hour long drive home in the heat, the top "popped". When I got home I put it in the refrigerator. I haven't opened it yet. Am I in any danger of it having spoiled? Is it ok to use? Thanks for any info on this. Of course it's not a big deal, but I would like to try it if it is still good. This all happened about a week ago, if that makes a difference.

I would eat it. The difference is that it wasn't heat processed. Keep it in the fridge.

We're having a heat wave this week. Hope it's over soon! The temp in itself wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the humidity that equals it.

Forgot to tell you, I had hung two loads of clothes out early this morning, not expecting them to dry in the humidity but they did and very nicely, too. I was afraid they'd be stiff but just enough breeze they are soft. And most importantly, DRY!

How are all of you who are in the middle of this heatwave? I've been watching the news, and this looks like a pretty disastrous heatwave!

It's been raining all morning here. This was what I hate about Washington! It's almost the end of July--it should not be raining! My garden party is tomorrow. The forecast says sunny and 79 tomorrow. But it was supposed to be 79 and sunny today. You just never know here! :-)

I shouldn't complain. I'd much rather have a little rain than insufferable heat. We really do live in a beautiful part of the country. I'm surrounded by tall pine trees and green everywhere. I don't have to worry about tornados, hurricanes, or other natural disasters. (Fire would be the one thing to worry about here.)

I'm blessed. I hope you're all having a wonderful day and staying cool!

:-)

fyi - about 6pm here and 108. was 109 about an hr ago. tomorrow up to 111!

Oh my, Steph! That's awful! Are you OK?? What kind of cooling system do you have, and is it adequate?

I'mhappy, the peaches sound deee-licious! I can almost smell them from here! But the process sounds hard, what with the heavy lifting and especially in that heat! How much stuff do you can in a year? My mom used to can a lot every summer. I just never got into it, I guess, but her blackberry jam was amazing. :-)

My sort of double post earlier.......my computer froze as I was typing. I didn't expect it to post by itself but the first one did. I didn't know it and reposted about the laundry.

I freeze more stuff than I can. My main reason for freezing most of it is because I have parrots and make the Mike's Manna Mash recipe for them. It takes a LOT of stuff. I grow everything I can both for cost effectiveness and because then I know how organic it is. I would like to have organic zucchini but the bugs like the plants and I have to dust them eventually. That's the only thing I have to treat. I grow carrots for the parrots and horse treats. I grow pumpkins for the chickens and they get anything edible that I don't use. I compost the old plants. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

I don't know if it's cheaper to grow my own. Add the cost of seeds or plants, jars, lids, gas for the stove, and the sugar if needed together and it might not be. I did the math a couple of years ago and at that time canning my own peaches was about the same as buying them. Crates were $17.99 this year. I have a note in the cook book about how many pints I get from a crate but I don't know off the top of my head. I wrote it down so I would know how many jars to get ready.

It's pouring down rain. Temperature is 80 something at 7:30 AM. Hot. Sticky. If the humidity weren't so high, the temperatures we've been having would be bearable. Hot, but air I could breath instead of air I can wear.

ImHappy your lucky critters to have fresh grown organic veggies by you. My cow used to love lots of vegetables. And weeds were a delight to her too. They always taste so much better. I had to treat our zucchini and tomatoes in the beginning of the season and so far only once. I used seven very sparingly.Seemed to work. Waiting impatiently for ripe tomatoes. We did eat a fresh bell pepper the other night. Yum.

I hate the humidity. Air so thick you can cut it with a knife. Since we live high desert we rarely have those humid days. It seems the older I get the more I suffer in the heat. I just do not work out side until evening on the hottest days. Or some times I will get out early mornings. I really try to avoid the sun. One of the medications I have to take causes sun sensitivity.

Thanks, Imhappy. I think I will get some english muffins and put the jam on that. Should be good.

Speaking of feeding the horses home grown treats, my late horse lived at a farm with lots of other horses and the owners had company over and had corn on the cob and they fed the husks to the horses. Well, my boy loved them so much he wouldn't let any of the other horses get close enough to have any. LOL What a nut! I didn't even know horses would like that, but I guess they do.

You should see my horses leaning on the fence to reach the neighbor's corn field! I even put a top wire up last year. Leaning on the fence makes the fence go down. They'll eat the sweet corn cobs, too. I'd rather feed those to the chickens. I'm always afraid the horses will choke. They're gluttons with those and try to gobble the cobs down before anyone else gets any.

It rained or nearly rained all day. The temp was in the mid 80's but really humid. I did another canner full of peaches. I had thought they might all be ready and planned to do them all today but of course they weren't.

I've been working on my genealogy book. Before I know it a "few" hours have gone by. I've been looking at all the stuff I have saved. So much of it I forgot I had or forgot what it said. I thought my uncle/neice great great grandparents were gossip worthy but found the 1665 divorce story of the adulterers. How could I have forgotten them! And that's NOT a typo! 1665! I have close to 6,000 people in my tree so plenty of stories to write. I didn't want to have that many people because I can't remember them; example the story above, but without siblings and their spouses and family it's hard to track and/or be sure I have the right people. Too many generations of repeating names. And they all intermarried so if someone shows up once you can bet a family member will show up again. I'm only writing the stories of my direct ancestors but often other family members are a part of it.

" It seems the older I get the more I suffer in the heat."

seems that way for me too! I used to love the heat here. how I prefer temps from about 60 - 75. maybe up to 80 sometimes.