No fuss applesauce

A lot of people seem to know how to can. My dad always made applesauce but I mostly just ate it. Now with my own apple trees and still my love of applesauce, I can my own. Now I hear all sorts of ways to do it and they are probably good, but I don't own a pressure cooker or an apple corer or anything special but i do have extra large pots. You will need one for the sauce and one for the jars. The kitchen will be hot and steamy so it's nice to do this on a cold day.

My apples are not just organic, they are natural. That means they have squirrel nibbles and worm holes and an occasional earwig in the middle. But for applesauce who cares. I pick up the ones that aren't rotted off the ground and all my ripe ones on the tree. I used to bother peeling but with apples, the cooked peel tastes fine and it is where the good-for-you stuff lies. I cut out the bad parts and the cores, then wash them. If you washed them before cutting you have to wash again, you are just adding extra steps and this is no fuss applesauce.

I throw them in a huge pot with water up to the top of the apples and some cinnamon, probably a tablespoon for a vat of it, and stir it around a bit to get the cinnamon mixed up. Now my dad keeps telling me to use apple juice instead of water, but I like mine the way they are. Notice I didn't say sugar. If the apples are a bit sour I will add about a cup for my vat but otherwise I wait til they are done to see if I even need it. I heat 'em the apples and water, pop the lid on and prepare my water bath.

I have got my jars filled partly with water sitting in a big pot filled to half of the jars with water. If you don't have water in your jars they will float and that's not good. Put your rings and lids in a small pan. 

Once the apples are squishy in a few hours and your house smells like apple cider, I will drain what was water and is now apple juice out, but keep it. I use a large bowl for this. Then turn on the heat for your jars and lids/rings so they come to a bowl while you are squishing. I squish the apples until my desired consistency is reached. It would be handy to have a potato masher but I just use a big spoon against the pot and yes it takes a while. Add some of your apple juice if it got too dry. When done squishing, I filter my apple juice through a sieve into a pitcher and the remnants in the sieve is like really smooth apple sauce that I add back to my pot.

Now some people like a really smooth sauce, and will need to put it in a blender or food processor to do this (some people call this apple butter) but I already have a mess to clean up and I like mine a chunky so I leave it that way.

Taste it at this point. Sometimes you will need to add sugar, some apples are sweet enough.

With my oven mitts on I pull out a hot jar, dump the water back into the jar pot, and ladle some applesauce into it. I go all the way to where the jar threads are. Use a utensil to get a hot lid on it and thread the ring on but leave it loose. Place in the hot water pot with its jar friends. Continue doing this, you will notice that water that was in the jars when poured out starts to fill up the pot. You want to water to be pretty high on the jars but you may have to pour some in the next round of jars to prevent overflowing into the empty jars in the pot.

Now you leave your filled jars in the boiling water. I usually hear them pop while I am getting my next batch ready. Yes next batch because I can only fit six jars in my pot at a time. And really, once the water's boiling it doesn't take long to sterilize jars.

It took me pretty much a day to finish but I have a lot of jars of applesauce. I gave some to friends and neighbors I had so much.

So now you have delicious applesauce for the year and some apple juice for the week!

Mini greenhouse from chicken coop

So a few posts ago I talked about how to make a cold frame. Well a pine branch fell on mine during one of the wind storms, breaking the roof and soaking all the seedlings inside. It has now become my second compost bin instead since it takes at least year to make really good compost so I stopped putting it in one and am now putting it in the second so next spring the first compost bin will be ready to use for planting.

I got some old animal cages from my neighbor across the street who is building new ones. They were sitting all winter waiting for me to decide if I wanted to turn it into a chicken coop or rabbit hutch, but now I decided I would like a mini greenhouse. So I removed all the hardware cloth, cleaned them with soapy water and a brush, and then took most of the panels completely apart since there was some dry rot and they weren't exactly the right size. The ones that were right I put new nails at the joints since they were coming apart too easily. So basically if you have a pile of 2x2s, a tape measurer, a pencil, hammer and nails, and a chop saw and you can build what what I've built so far.

The two short sides and the base fit together  perfect so after putting the base panel on some level cinder blocks (I would do pier blocks buried halfway down instead), I put the short sides up one at a time and used some short pieces of 2x4 screwed on each side of the base and then screwed to the wall diagonally to keep these walls up while I get the other two walls made. I nailed down the sides from the base plate to the base panel and constructed the other two long sides to fit the length in between. Luckily my door was on one of these short sides, it is constructed out of the same 2x2s. You will have to make a door and also frame in a space for it. In either order since you will make one to fit the other,

Since my greenhouse is not getting a heavy plywood roof or any live animals, I didn't put that many joists in, just enough to make the wall panel stable. I made the whole wall panel on the ground and then put in on the base as a whole unit. I nailed it to the base, and to the side panels using a level to make sure it is plumb.

I did the same with the other long side just this one was a different height since there is a sloping roof. Now is the time to remove those little diagonal wood scraps attached from the base to the short sides. Give it a good shake. You want it to fall now instead of when you aren't expecting it right. Mine seemed a little wiggly so I put some more nails down through the base and in the corners.

Now the roof joists can be done several different ways. I put a board across the width of the roof and marked up where to cut at an angle. My angle is only 15 degrees. So I cut three boards and then drilled toenail holes and started my nails while on the ground so standing with them up on the ladder only a few hits were needed to get them secure. After these are attached the whole structure should be pretty solid. If not add a few more fire blocks (horizontal short pieces) in between the joists.

Now all my leftover wood I cut into braces my cutting them each at a 45 degree on both sides to get a whole bunch of foot long or less pieces that will hold up my shelves. I toenailed them in with the tops at the same height and cut some plywood I had laying around. I have four shelves in on the back and put some more braces on the other side for some future shelves. I painted everything to match my house which is light blue and that really made it look high class.

That is all I have done so far but am planning on putting clear corrugated plastic roofing on it and just some heavy painters plastic type sides. If the sides don't last a season I will do the corrugated plastic on all of it since it is 30$ for a roll of plastic to cover everything versus 15$ for a 2 foot by 8 foot feet of hard corrugated plastic that I will need probably 12 pieces of and have a heck of a time cutting for the door. Of course there is heavy duty greenhouse fabric as well which is in between those two price points that lets in sun and rain but also keep it warm and the bugs and birds out.  I have a feeling I should put a few drain holes in the floor as well before winter time comes too.

Firewood storage

The tarps over the firewood seemed like a good idea until massive rain, snow and wind of winter came. The water soaked through the tarps, the wind blew them off.

So today's project was firewood storage with a roof. Pretty much think of building a basic table just the top at and angle and then some thin plywood siding and a low shelf to keep the firewood raised off the dirt.

I like to use what I have and that was two 4x4 posts and then some 2x6s for the rest. Of course all you need is 2x4s. Then I had some OSB from my neighbor I used for the roof, some plywood veneer from another neighbor for the sides and back of it and then shingles left over from my house for the roof as well.

I measured my firewood and decided on a width of 28 inches and a length of my plywood which is 8 feet. So by laying my posts on the ground I found out the angle I needed to cut the tops at was 25 degrees. I attached these four legs to the bottom of my OSB plywood roof piece that I cut to the proper width with 2 1/2 inch screws. This was a little tricky because of the angle but with Rodger holding it and me screwing it worked out.

Now I attached the back and sides with just some finish nails. I left space for air which hopefully won't let too much rain in. Moved to its actual location I needed some blocks under it to make it level since everything is a slope in my yard. Once in place I realized I needed more support so I put 2x6s across the length on top to support the roof and then some scrap boards across the bottom of the sides.

I used the narrow length of OSB that I had cut off and used it as the shelf to keep the firewood off the ground. I shingled the roof and put walnut stain and water seal on the outside of it and it now looks pretty classy.

Freestanding deck project

This seems like a large project, and it is, but it really only took 3 few days to do and 2 days of waiting for cement to dry. So I picked the dimensions of the deck with the idea of having no scrap lumber left over and a minimal amount of cutting. So lumber comes in 8, 12, or 16 foot lengths at my local lumber yard so the deck is 8 feet wide by 12 foot 3 inches long.  Since my deck wood is going to go the width I picked 8 foot exactly for the length so all my deck boards will measure perfectly.

So for lumber for the structure of the deck ;
(4) 12 foot 2x6s since my spacing is 24 inches.
(1) 16 foot 2x6 plus some scrap dimensional lumber that is about 24 inches for cross pieces.
(4) 8 foot 4x4 pressure treated posts for the foundation.
(12) 16 foot 2x6s for actual deck

The total was somewhere between two and $300 for everything I needed and this will last longer than me.

Other materials needed were 12 inch diameter cylinder sauna tube and 12 bags of cement for the foundation and then the post brackets (6) and also (5) column caps. You'll need joist hangers nails, and vinyl coated or galvanized 10 penny nails around 3 inches long.

So first I marked out my deck location with stakes and strings. I dug six holes 18 inches deep and 12 inches in diameter INSIDE the string boundary. The four corners and then two in the middle of the two lengths. I cut and put the sauna tubes in the holes and then mixed my cement and put it in. It took about two bags per holes. The other way to do this is use the cement in the bottom of the hole only and put a pier block on top when it dries.

I let my cement dry a day and then cut the sauna tube off and attached my post hole brackets to the cement. The cement was still a little soft so I let it dry another day.

Now  the eight foot 4x4 pressure treated pieces are going to go across horizontally the width from cement pillar to cement pillar. Everything will be level to the cement pillar that is highest in elevation so start there and have a buddy hold a board across with a level on it and then measure what from the bottom of the board to the top of the cement pillar on the opposite side from the highest cement pillar. Mine was about 6 inches. This will be the length you need to cut off that fourth 4x4 post. Nail this vertical 4x4 piece to the post bracket with joist hanger nails with a level on the top. Then nail a column cap on top of it. That first high cement pillar does not get a vertical post
 and therefore does not need a column cap.

Now put the 8 foot 4x4 across here and you can nail it in as well but don't nail the other two 4x4 horizontals in until you put a board across all three to make sure the ends are even so you don't have a diamond shaped deck. Now the next vertical post you cut you need to level both across the width and length to find out the length of this next post. And don't forget to account for the width of the 4x4 when measuring with just a level board. So my next one was about 8 inches, then 12 inches and so on since I'm heading to the lowest corner.

Nail in all your vertical posts and column caps and once you have checked the horizontal 4x4s for square you can nail them to the column caps. This is the foundation for your freestanding deck. Then I simply lay my 12 foot 2x6s across this base to be my joists and nail on the two 8 foot ends. Then I put my scrap pieces between the floor joists for stability.

Now I put some weather seal on this bottom joist section before laying down the deck. I used two wooden stakes on each end for my spacing between boards and starting screwing in my deck. Then I put deck stain on this and built a make shift rail with my one left over 8 foot 2x6 that I made my railing posts out of  and then used cable across.

I love working out my deck overlooking the blackberry patch and taking lunches in the sun out there. I just planted some boysenberry and climbing peas around it so they can grow up the rails.

Making a cold frame to start spring seeds in winter

So you already know I am super excited for spring planting. I have my seeds germinating and a bunch of little sprouts. To start them off early and get them hardened off a cold frame is a way to have your seedlings outdoors but protected in case of one more frost.

I wish I had known about this last year since I moved in at the start of winter and my spring plants didn't get a good showing with the late season frosts stunting them as sprouts. Basically a cold frame is a mini greenhouse.

The top though has to be see-through and placed at an angle for the sun to warm up the sprouts that will be inside. I took some plexiglass out of a free large plastic picture frame for this part. The bottom stays open to the dirt, or it could be closed I suppose. The top needs to be able to open as well so you can use hinges or like I did, put a 1x2 piece to rest on the bottom. Unfortunately it means I have to use two hands to open it but I didn't have the right kind of hinges in my collection. I still have some chip board from my neighbor and some 2x6 scraps from my deck project I will post about later to make the sides out of.

I have heard too about a heat activated window opener, like a small shock, that many people use so if it gets too hot in the cold frame, the heat makes the opener open the lid to the cold frame and let some air in to keep the plants nice and healthy. I don't think I have too worry about things getting too hot in the winter here though. I was worried about snow load on the lid though so I designed it so the snow will slid off my lid.

The size of my cold frame was dictated by my plexiglass sheet. First I made a frame for this. I did only three sides however and left the bottom off so the snow will slide off. I used a table saw to cut the groove so the plexiglass will slide in. I used screws on the bottom edge with the heads keeping the plexiglass in place but glue in all the grooves will work probably better. It was too floppy leaving the bottom off completely though so I put a piece of wood underneath a few inches up from the bottom, as short as I could make it while being able to screw onto the wood frame to act  as a block to keep the lid on instead of hinges. Later I did it on the top as well.

Now I know the length of my cold frame. I cut my two front and back pieces to length. One I made about half the height of the other since I want a steep angle on mine. With a little difficulty I laid the lid on top to see what my width would be and cut the two sides of my box.

The angle on top is simply the height of the front piece to the height of the back piece. I now used 2x6s for the corner supports. If  you don't have scrap dimensional pieces, 2x2s would work great. Since I have an arbitrary angle, I made them a little long and penciled the angle on the piece and cut them that way. Then I screwed them to the side pieces while laying flat and then raised them vertical to screw the front and back pieces on.

If you are doing hinges, mark your holes and pre-drill the holes for the screws and do that, but like I said, I just put blocks under my lid to hold it in place. Then I painted it all dark brown because the plywood was very conspicuous in the place I put it, which is in a sunny location with the angle facing the south so it will get the most exposure. Plus the dark color should help absorb a little more heat as well.