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This shirt hangs behind the bath room door. It’s an old shirt I bought Bernie over 20 years ago.

The collar is quite worn. It’s really only a rag now. He gave it to me a while ago.

It’s full of memories. Happy times. Sad times. Worse times. Better times.

It keeps me warm when there’s a chill in the air.

It reminds me of all we’ve been through.

It makes me smile to think of all we have in our future.

It makes him laugh when I wear it.

I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

I love this shirt.

We’ve had this Presto pressure canner for a while.

I don’t remember when we got it. Bernie says about 20 years ago. It can process 8 pints or quarts at a time.

And if I’ve got 8 or less jars to process, this little canner does the trick in short order. When there are more than 8 jars to process I can still use this canner, and I have on many occasions, but recently I got a double-decker canner that cuts down the amount of time spent canning by allowing me to process twice as many jars at one time. It’s a huge monstrosity in comparison. I named it Franken-canner.

It’s an “All American” brand canner, and the documentation says it can hold 19 pints or 14 quarts. I could only fit 16 pints in it, but I was using wide mouth jars and I imagine that’s why. But 8 pints easily fit in the bottom of it.

And, after adding the second rack, 8 more pints fit on the top.

I know there’s only one pint on the upper rack in that picture, but I wasn’t really canning and was only trying to give you an idea of how much these canners hold. Those green beans were some of the 10 pounds Charlotte gave us last weekend and I had already processed them, and they just agreed to model the canners for me.

I like both of these pressure canners.

If you’re in the market for a pressure canner and don’t know which size would suit you best, consider how many jars you would typically be processing at one time. I think if you typically process 8 jars or less at one time, a smaller pressure canner like this Presto will work beautifully for you. It’s also less expensive than the Franken-canner. But if you typically process more than 8 jars at one time, then the Franken-canner is probably going to be a good choice for you. Keep in mind that because pressure canning requires pressure to function properly, using the Franken-canner for only 8 jars or less is not quite as efficient as using a smaller canner. Because there is less space to pressurize, the smaller canner will work a little quicker and more efficiently for smaller batches.

I also have two sizes of water bath canners.

The smaller one Bernie and I bought just after we married. It processes 7 quarts or pints at a time. The larger one was gifted to me from an aunt and it processes 8 quarts or pints at a time. In all honesty, I’d have a hard time recommending the larger water bath canner over the smaller. The reason is because the difference is only one jar, but the amount of additional water required to fill and bring to a boil in the larger canner is significant. If I know I am only going to can exactly 8 jars, I use the larger canner, but I typically water bath can more than 8 jars in a day, so I tend to use the smaller canner. Did that make sense?

And since we’re on the subject of canning, I’ve been wanting to share this little book with y’all for quite a while.

I have no idea when or where I found this manual - certainly it’s much older than our Presto canner, but there is no copyright date inside it. There is this little clue though:

The style of this manual, combined with the “material shortages due to the present national emergency” lead me to believe it was published during World War II - probably between 1939 and 1945. I don’t know why that fascinates me, but it does. And I love that the manual let the owner know she had made an investment in good eating.

Because home canning is very important.

There are so many things I love about this manual and enjoy looking at, but there are a couple of pages I actually use from time to time.

I just love that manual. And I’d love to see the canner that came with it.

Here’s Bernie’s solution for keeping skunks out of the yard:

He thought he’d take care of bears at the same time:

I sure hope it works.

We’ve looked out the window a couple of times today and seen an unexpected, and rather unwelcome visitor in the backyard.

I don’t know a lot about skunks, but I do know they are usually nocturnal.

But we’ve seen this one in the yard twice today - in broad daylight.

At first we worried she may be rabid. But she’s not at all aggressive. She’s also not terribly worried with our presence.

The closer we got, the more nervous she acted. Eventually, she walked away.

We think she’s interested in making her home in a pile of brush Bernie piled up after a storm and has been meaning to mulch.

She’s really, really cute. But she can’t stay here.

She finally got tired of the photo session and went outside the fence.

But I really think she was hoping we’d leave so she could get back to snacking in the backyard and setting up house in the woodpile.

She finally started moseying off.

Even though she seemed to feel the need to turn and look threatening just one more time.

We’re going to get rid of that wood pile. And we’re going to hope she takes the hint and finds somewhere else to hang out. With dogs, chickens, and goats running around nothing good can come out of a skunk hanging around the yard.

Ever had to deal with discouraging a skunk from visiting before? We’re not interested in harming her. And we’re not interested in getting sprayed. But we are very interested in convincing her to move on.

It’s hard to see in this picture, but Bernie finished the goat barn lean-to.

The barn still needs some trim and a couple of small things, but the majority of it is finished. Bernie’s to-do list is never ending, and I’m really tickled he fit the lean-to in his plans.

This summer has been hot, dry, and busy - I’m sure it’s that way for most of us. I’ll try to update again soon and show you some of the things that are keeping us occupied.

Bernie’s been busy adding the lean-to on the front of the goat barn the last couple of days.

He never ceases to amaze me what he’s learned to do since we’ve moved here. I think he does such a nice job with buildings - something he had no idea how to do not so very long ago.

Georgia and Mirrie worked up an appetite admiring Bernie’s handiwork.

Sometimes Mirrie gets so excited she forgets to quit walking forward while she’s munching.

Georgia is convinced the best leaves are the highest leaves.

She does a pretty good job of stretching up to some of the taller branches.

Mirrie likes to do her browsing a little closer to the ground.

That way she can ham it up for the camera a little easier.

Sweet little goat babies.

Today we finally added a stall to the goat barn.

It’s something that we planned to do when we built the barn, but you may recall we were in a bit of a rush to get it finished enough to bring home the goat babies.

Goats are very nosy creatures. We kept Mirrie and Georgia out of the barn while we workd on it - and their curiosity was just about to eat them up. When we finished the stall and let them in, they didn’t hesitate to give it a thorough inspection.

When we opened the gate for them, they waltzed right on in.

I think it met their approval.

I think the coolest thing about this stall is that we were able to use boards that Bernie milled and boards/materials left over from other projects.

Next on the list is finishing the lean-to off the front, and putting up the soffets and trim. These sweet babies are worth it to me.

Vegetable gardens in this area are having a tough go of it this year. Too cold, too hot, and now a drought. A few days ago I wandered out to check on the cucumbers and was very pleasantly surprised to find several were ready to be picked. 15 pounds worth of them, to be exact.

See those long, zucchini looking things? Those are Chelsae’s Prize - English cucumbers that my sweet blog buddy, Becky, sent me seeds for. I have to tell you, Chelsae’s Prize is definitely a winner. I will be saving seeds from those babies. They are prolific producers, and the cucumber is very mild and crisp. I used these to make hamburger chips, and the rest to make dill spears.

The cucumbers plants are loaded with blooms and baby cukes, so I’m fairly certain we are going to have enough pickles to get us through to next season. We’re also eating at least one cucumber salad a day. I’m praying our tomatoes do half as good this year. That remains to be seen.

A whole pie or a cake is often a bit much for Bernie and me. He doesn’t have much of a sweet-tooth. Unfortunately, I do. So if I make a pie or cake when we are not expecting company, I will end up eating the whole thing, or it will end up going to waste. Needless to say, I don’t often make a pie or cake for just the two of us. So I was pretty darn happy when I found the recipe for those little single serving sized gems above. Not only are these raspberry crisps really yummy, they are easy to make and, because they can be stored in the freezer, they are a quick homemade treat when needed.

I had read about making pies in a jar, but 1/2 pint jars are really very small. They only hold 4 fluid ounces, and I was certain any pie crust I make would quickly fill the majority of that little jar and leave precious little space for any filling. When I read the Crisp in a Jar recipe on Wendolonia, I knew this was the solution.

I made my raspberry crisps with no changes to her recipe, but I will share a couple of notes:

For the filling I did not add the optional flavorings. I felt that the fresh raspberries really did not need any help.

Since we had such little rain this spring, the wild raspberries on our property didn’t produce a lot of berries, and many of what they did produce dried on the vine. Each day when we took the pups on their mail run, Bernie and I would pick the few ripe raspberries that we found along the way. I froze them and added to them each day. I used those raspberries to make these crisps. The recipe calls for 1 cup of fruit per jar, but I found that 6 cups of frozen fresh raspberries ended up making 10 jars of crisp.

The recipe for the streusel topping made the exact amount needed for my 10 crisps. It was perfect.

I baked the frozen crisp as she recommended - I took the jar out of the freezer and put it on a cookie sheet. After removing the lid, I put it in a COLD oven (do not preheat) and set it on 375 degrees. The recipe says to bake it 30 minutes, and it was certainly done in that amount of time, but I think it could have baked another 5 minutes or so to get the filling a little more bubbly and to brown the crisp a bit more. But this could have been a difference between her oven and mine.

This recipe makes a great tasting, convenient, homemade treat.

I’m pretty sure my freezer is going to contain Crisp in a Jar from here on out. Dewberries will be ripening in the next few weeks. Oh, and I’m really looking forward to apple season……..

When we made sausage from venison right before Christmas, we went to the hog farmer up the road and purchased about 20 pounds of “trimmings” to blend with it. “Trimmings” really is mostly the fat leftover when hogs are processed. We used a good deal of it, and what was left was put into the freezer. This weekend, I decided to render it into lard.

There are a few ways to render lard, but I chose the crock pot for this batch for several reasons, the least of which is not the fact that using the crock pot requires the least of my time and attention.

I used a 6 quart crock pot and simply took the frozen trimmings out of the packages and put it right into the crock pot. We had finely ground our trimmings to use in the sausage making.

Then I turned the crock pot on low, put the lid on it, and went with Bernie visit with the plant lady up the road. Several hours later, the lard was slowly simmering.

I stirred it from time to time to break it up as it thawed and began melting. If you are using trimmings, just cut them into small cubes or chunks before rendering.

I left the fat in the crock pot on low overnight, and then put the lard in canning jars this morning.

Since not everything was fat, there was some meat at the bottom of the pot. I strained the lard through a metal mesh strainer, and that worked just fine for lard we will be using to cook with. I save the meat pieces I strain out from the lard. This makes great seasoning for beans or other dishes. I just put mine in a container in the refrigerator.

If I had planned to use the lard for soap making, I would have used cheese cloth so the lard was as clear as possible. For cooking, this creamy white lard will be just perfect.

There is no need to process the lard in a canner. Once the jars are filled with the hot lard and the lid applied, the lid will seal. The jars can be stored on a shelf at room temperature with little worry. But if you are at all concerned, just freeze or refrigerate them.