more with pavers, painting, and building greenhouse walls (greenhouse post #6)

my dad came up today to work on the greenhouse. there was a fence post in the way.


he used his saber saw to cut it off below the level of the pavers, then we filled the hole in with dirt and put the remaining pavers in place.


we cut and built the two side walls of the greenhouse. we attached the plywood on the lower section to help keep the walls square. we also attached the brackets for attaching the sides to the north and south walls. Molly made an appearance.


tomorrow we are going to assemble the four walls, so the bottoms of all the walls needed painting. starting with the side walls


the south wall, bottom painted


the north wall, bottom painted


painting the backside of the OSB sheet


doggy paint barricade


painted as much of the south wall as i could stand, then i was done painting for the day.

adventures in painting and pavers (greenhouse post #5)

yesterday and today i worked on painting parts of the greenhouse.

there is an added challenge of keeping the dogs safely away from the freshly painted surfaces.

see, Puppy has helped me paint in the past. he did this by sweeping a painted wall that i had thought was dry enough with his long fluffy tail, and then turning around and painting the door with his painted tail, just by wagging it. so i knew i had to not only keep the dogs away, but i had to keep them far enough away that their tails couldnt accidentally reach either. its been interesting. thus i've been making doggy barricades with lawn chairs and shelving.


the north wall, outside face is painted


one side of the uncut sheet of OSB painted (that stuff sucks up a LOT of paint)


you can keep the paintbrush soft by wrapping it in tinfoil after cleaning


oil based exterior primer


paint thinner for cleanup


laying pavers where the second section of fence was removed


there is a fence post in the way. one set in concrete below the frost line.

progress on the greenhouse (greenhouse post #4)

knocked one side of the red fence down


there were some tree roots in the way. too thick to use the shovel on. i had to use my hatchet.


i had to chop out a lot of roots


there are tons of tree roots in the area


the north and south walls of the greenhouse have been hiding under a tarp from the rain


laying some more pavers


with the red privacy fence gone, you can see my porch/sunroom now (paranoia! people are watching me!)


with the pavers put in where the fence was in the way. look at all those pretty pavers. they far are nicer than those old stupid landscaping rocks!


my awesome chop saw (miter saw) tilted at an angle from cutting a certain piece of milled lumber


the south wall, with cutouts for three windows, plywood put on and squaring bracing removed. and the special milled piece of lumber horizontal above the plywood


end view of the specially cut piece. the notch in the top is where the pieces of glass will sit. the angle cut on the outer edge of the top is to direct rain away from the notch. the notch in the bottom is to allow overlap over the plywood. the second, smaller notch on the outer bottom is a rain deflector. so rain doesnt run down the front and along the bottom and wick up under the plywood. it'll wick up into the little notch and drip down from there. and the end is beveled at 30 degrees. my dad did all these cuts on his table saw.


better picture of the outer notch on the bottom for rain diversion


the north wall (with the south wall behind it) with plywood/OSB put on and bracing for squareness removed. with cutouts for a door and one window.


knocked down the second section of red fence

canning applesauce

mom took me to apple jacks orchard out in delano. we got two pecks of paula reds for applesauce making, plus a peck of honeycrisp and a peck of sweetango for eating. those are my two all time favorite eating apples. they're both very crisp, sweet apples. they have a lovely crunch to them.


the paula reds were seconds, but they hadnt bagged them up in the clear bags yet. instead they just grabbed the regular paper bags for us since they didnt have any other bags out yet. two pecks of paula red seconds cost $18 seconds mean they're picked off the ground, not the tree. there are more likely to be smaller, or have defects, but they are just as many that have nothing wrong with them. fine for sauce making when they're going to be peeled and cored and sliced up and any defects are easily cut away.


all bags were one peck. had some trouble focusing my camera today i guess.


canning setup today is the canner, the stock pot to cook the apples down, and the little saucepan for sterilizing the lids.


wash up some jars (bonus watermelon i grew in my garden in the background)


the apples are on the small side


we use an old fashioned hand crank apple peeler/corer/slicer. makes quick work of the apples.


you just smack the apple on as straight as you can manage, crank it down, and your apple comes out all nicely sliced up, peeled, and the core stays behind.


peeled/sliced/cored apples go into a bowl of water with lemon juice to prevent browning. i ran the peeler. mom cut the ends off, broke the sliced apples into little chunks, and carved out the cores on the ones i put on crooked. its not always easy getting them on the peeler straight.


first stock pot full of apples


now the fun begins! we use a stick blender to puree the cooked down apples into sauce


going


going


gone! ladle into jars


fill the jars. add the lids and rings. run thru the canner.


unload the canner


do it all again and fill the stockpot a second time


fill the canner again


save the scraps for composting


and voila! applesauce!


of those two pecks of paula red seconds, we saved out about 10 apples for making applecrisp.
the first stock pot full cooked down to be 13 cups, or fill 5 jars
the second stock pot full cooked down to be 10 cups, or fill 4 jars.
for a total of 8 pints plus one odd size jar. the odd size jar is an atlass mason jar that is somewhere between a pint and a quart.

it took us two and a half hours.