Outdoor kitchen

I used to work on a farm, and make pickles, jam, and relish most of the day. It was probably the best job ever. So, every year I make a couple of batches of pickles & jam or jelly. Our garden was pretty bountiful this week, so pickles it was. I hunted down a recipe for something - anything! - that used zucchini and summer squash, and I did a batch of these zucchini dills (they're not bad - kind of sweet & sour - and used all of the zucchini and summer squash we had!). Dilly beans and big batches of cucumber dill pickles with my trusty old recipes were a must-do. Had to go to the farmer's market to get all the pickling cukes - we didn't happen to grow 15 pounds of them!

Canning has been a bit of a challenge - our glass-top range isn't recommended for it. But - we have one of those big propane-powered burners that we can set up outside (usually for lobster), so we made a temporary outdoor kitchen for me today. The furniture was all about function (no form!) and was 2 sawhorses with a piece of plywood on top next to the 'stove'.

It worked great! We got about 40 jars of the different pickles, and cleaned out the garden a bit. No more creative zucchini dinners for a couple of days, at least!

While we were outside, our neighbor gave us a few extra tomatoes. Ours are just about to turn red, but she had loads already. We had already pawned off zucchini on her last week, so it was our turn to take the surplus. No complaints here!

Amazing non-bungalow

This week I was in Woodstock, Vermont for work, and got a chance to tour the Mansion at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park. Also got to do some hiking, which was equally fantastic. Here are a couple of photos from outside the house (no cameras allowed inside):

Detail at the top of the porch - I love this Aesthetic style, even though it can be a bit much. It looks so great on summer 'cottages'.

View from the back/side of the house. The house originally had a mansard roof, but on the other side, it was remodeled (By the Billings family, if I'm remembering the tour properly) to have a peaked roof. They left the mansard on this wing, and I love the pleasing visual of the vine leading up to the chimney on this side.

And from the front. Pretty awesome, and they had a huge Dutchman's Pipe vine that I'm totally jealous of creeping all across the side of the porch.

Totally worth the trip up to VT if you're in New England, and the tour was a great value - something like $8 and it was about 90 minutes! I'm told they also have some tours focusing on the great art collection in the house (a Thomas Cole and some Bierstadts, among others), and the architecture. I'll have to go back for those...

Outdoor grocery store

This time of year is so great - everything just really started to produce in the garden. Snap peas are just ending; zucchini, cauliflower, and my lovely French filet beans are kicking in. Lettuce is going strong; herbs threaten to take over the entire back yard. Peppers are starting, and we're on our third cuke. No need to go indoors to shop any more...

Excuse the blurry photo at dusk - but it's sooo lush out there I had to snap a shot (and the weeds are somewhat in control).

And today, I found another person who has agreed to take zucchini. Things are good in gardenville.

Fateful doorstop

So I bought a doweling jig (which is soooo simple and totally cool) at a yard sale for $5 a couple weeks ago, and we've been using it for our trailer project. At the yard sale, the guy threw in this awesome, super-heavy brass (plated, but hey), gigantic antique door stop. I love old doorstops, and I figured I'd throw it in the "cool stuff for later" jar since every door has a stop right now and we really didn't need it.

Well, 2 days ago we opened the door too hard for the flimsy, crappy, lazy person's hinge pin doorstop we had installed on the back door. Fate! We had the new beefcake one ready to go - and because it was so cool, we were OK with screwing it into the nice re-finished baseboard. Fab!

A bit of winter in the midst of summer

Not much happening in the house this summer - we're doing a bit more landscaping, growing some food in the garden, and working on this other project.

But - today I happened by the ReStore in the vain hope they would have a bit of rigid foam insulation for the other project mentioned above. After several prods and a lot of patience, the one guy got the other guy, who asked the boss about a supposed stash of rigid foam in the trailer, that no one apparently thought was for sale, but that the boss decided just then to let go.

And the trailer doors creaked open, and behold! There was insulation! I only wanted the one piece (a complete 4x8 sheet, mind you!) of 1/2" stuff, but then Guy #2 said, "well, I'd really like to get this all out of here now that we can sell it - don't you want some more?". And we eventually arrived at a deal - $55 for all the insulation in there (plus he threw in a big ol' sheet of plexiglas I had picked up).

This is what we got:

The 1/2" I originally went for, plus 2 sheets of 1" (2x8 T&G)

4 sheets of 2" (4x8 sheets! Score!)

Two packets of the thin stuff in Green certified energy star, exterior grade, etc., etc. AND a packet plus scraps of the pink thin stuff.

As we loaded it all onto the truck*, the Guy #2 says, "I think you got a pretty good deal, young lady". I told him I was quite sure I got a fabulous deal. And the cellar will be a heck of a lot more comfy when we insulate the walls - next summer's big project.

* which was a ridiculous procedure, because Guy #1 did not believe any of it would fit, and then he proceeded to comment about every step of me strapping it in (it fit fine). But then, I had to drive home with the wind whipping the whole way - it was quite breezy and our ReStore is in a big open area. I'm amazed we didn't float away...

Got your new issue of This Old House?

The July/August reader created one?

Crack it open and turn to page 22. There we are, on the Plant Tags story! (In the middle, the stamped concrete marker stones).

Funny thing is, this is probably the ONE thing we've done at the house that has been a kit, not an insane custom, handbuilt thing. Ha!

There are other cool plant tag ideas on the 'bonus' page online - I LOVE the license plate one.

You call that a score? THIS is a score!

So if that blanket from the last post was a great deal, today I got a tremendous deal. The yard sale gods were smiling.



That's right, that's a box of un-used electrical supplies - enough for a whole basement, we think. The yard sale proprietors had bought it all to re-do a cottage then didn't do the work.

All sorted out, this is what we got for $7.50 (thanks to my hard and fast rule that one simply MUST haggle - it was originally $10, which was just as great a price).



With this find and the sink and three boxes of tile Susie (over at Bangor Foursquare) traded us, the basement project (probably slated for next summer) is coming together well, all by itself.