Stocking Up

This weekend was a stock up weekend.  Friday night I came home from work and got my applesauce canned.  I had it all ready earlier in the week and ran out of time.  It was put into the fridge for a day or two to wait.  Friday I actually had the time to get it done.  I ended up with 8 quarts.  Of course it was 1 quart too much to fit into my canner.  Oh, well!  That means it must be eaten soon-and it was.  Wow, nothing compares to homemade applesauce! 

The apples we used were JonaGold.  We made our apple-picking trip late this year, so there wasn't much of a choice in apple variety.  That was fine with me.  The apples still were delicious!  We picked 60 pounds of apples this year, so we are in apple overload!  We also picked about 60 pounds for my mom. She was busy that weekend, so we picked for her.  I love going out to the orchard to pick the apples.  Nothing is better than picking your own fruit and eating it right then and there.  The warm fruit is beyond compare.

I also love dehydrated apples.  The rest of my family isn't as keen on the idea, but as I type this, I'm snacking on some.  They are almost addictive!  I have a tiny plastic dehydrator that my mom bought several years ago.  We don't use it much, but I dry herbs and apples with it.  It's nice that it's so small, but a larger one would be nice, if I could just utilize it like it should be.  Maybe one day.  Two batches were made and I will probably leave it at that.  They will most likely be gone by Christmas, but that will keep me wanting more for next year.

 

Between apple drying and sauce making, we finally got the wood put up from the front yard.  Earlier this year we had to cut down the oak tree in our front yard.  We think it got hit by lightning a couple years ago and each year the leaves fell off in early summer.  Branches kept falling out when the wind blew and finally the bark at the base of the tree began to come off in large sheets.  We knew it had to come down.  In late September my husband took the chainsaw to it and made several cuts to make sure it fell the direction we wanted.  We probably let it lay in the yard longer than we should have, but it was still warm and neither one of us really wanted to cut wood in the heat.  Saturday was cool and there was no wind, so we decided to get it loaded up.  The top branches were already dried, so we loaded them up and stacked them on the side of the house. 

 

This pile will probably last a good 6-8 weeks heating our home.  Not nearly enough to get through the winter, but a good start.  We have another pile of seasoned wood out by the silo to burn too.  Probably still not enough, but we have some other wood cutting sites that should get us stocked up. 

The trunk of this big oak wasn't dry, so we cut it into large slices.  Oh my, those were huge.  It took three of us to roll them to the splitter and up our make shift risers to get it onto the splitting area.  We ended up with a full trailer of wet wood to stack up for next year and there is still more in the front yard.  Hopefully we can get it loaded this week and stacked up in it's new home.

 

Our wood of choice to burn is hedge or mulberry.  Oak is a nice dense wood too and should do a good job of heating the house.  We are overrun with cottonwood and elm trees at our place, but we only burn those in the outdoor fire pit.  They are not as dense, so they don't burn as hot and they leave a ton of ash behind.  Hedge can be a tricky wood to burn though.  It likes to spark.  Our fireplace is completely closed up except for the small vent in the back, so not many sparks make it out.  My husband said that a nearby city will not let you burn hedge because of the sparking hazard.  Glad we live where we do so we can burn it!

What type of wood do you prefer to burn in your fireplace?

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