Treasure Chest

Inspiration is key to any successful endeavor. In this case, inspiration was provided by my laziness. I really resent work I know I can avoid if I would just get around to doing a simple project. This keeps me pretty much in a state of perpetural frustration and explains a lot. I try to be philosophical about it, but often I start a project when my frustration level reaches critical mass. That makes me a lot of fun to be around while I'm doing one of these.

Kris has spent an enormous amount of time preserving the bounty of this years harvest. Oh, I helped some, but mostly it is her incredible determination that has resulted in over 600 jars of food canned, a freezer full of ziploc locked fruits and vegetables, and lots of jars of dehydrated foods which she has dried over the woodstove. Everyday she continues to add to our treasure. She has so many jars of food preserved, that it was a lot of work to find what you needed. A case of canned pints of food is heavey, a case of quarts is a gut buster.

It became apparent early on that we really, really needed a set of shelves to be able to see what we had and find it easily. If I had started the day, I decided to build the shelves, I would have been done way before the snow buried the lumber piles. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the cupboard to the top of my list of things to do. As a result, grabbing a jar of carrots from a stack of mixed up boxes of canning jars was heavey work.

If you could can all of one item at once, organization would be a little better, at least at first. But, you can as the the harvest progresses. You do some beets that are ready, then some green beans, then some carrots, etc. A few days later as the garden grows, you will repeat the process. Boxes of jars were carried up stairs as they were filled with various things. Several times, I scattered the boxes out and rearranged the contents, but once you start using the jars, to keep the boxes from tipping or collapsing, you have to condense them down and they become a jumble again.

Anyway, by the time I managed to get to the cupboard, the lumber piles were covered in snow and ice. By waiting, I was able to make a two day project, an almost endless winter pastime. First I dug out the lumber piles and beat the boards apart. I leaned them up on the south wall and waited for sunshine to melt the ice I couldn't scrape off. This took several days since, when you need warm and sunny, the weather can be counted on to go the other direction. After they finally, were clear of ice, I cut them up into the length I would need for the cupboard and took all the boards upstairs to the small, heated area where the water supply barrels and solar panels reside. I stacked them in there for most of a week to get them dry enough to plane. (It is easier to build if the boards are all the same thickness.) When they were dry, I took them downstairs again and spent an afternoon planing them. If you have never planed lumber, you just haven't lived. It is noisy, dusty, slow, and mind numbingly stupid work. Planing wood that isn't completely dry is particularly fun, because the chute spitting out the wood chips keeps clogging. To clear the chute you have to shut the machine off. So you can add aggravation to the list of pleasantries I enjoyed that afternoon. When I was done, I lugged the boards back upstairs.

Actually building the shelves took an easy afternoon, and a couple of hours the next day. I am amazed how long it takes me to complete and easy task. From the time I made the decision to build the shelves, until I completed them, was many months. How can it be so hard to find such a small amount of time? It makes me wonder about myself.

The shelves hold around 700 jars of food. Different sized jars keep me from giving you an exact total. Any way it held our food with room to spare. Kris is still canning squash and potatoes, and drying peppers and onions on the drying rack.

Getting a jar of carrots is no longer a dreaded task requiring a lot of lifting and rearranging of boxes. Each project we complete makes life easier and in this case, we can go upstairs and literally see the fruits of our labor. A trip upstairs to the pantry/utility closet is very comforting. Full water barrels, full battery charge from the solar panels and shelves full of colorful fruits and vegetables lined up in neat rows-- it is a great feeling to see your treasure and know how lucky you are.