A Tale of a Tree and Tomatoes

Today was a beautiful fall day and a good day for a couple of projects. My hubby has been wanting to cut down this tree. He said it would be in the way when he got ready to paint the house and it has been sort of an eyesore. So being the blogging husband that he is, he said, "honey, do you want a before and after picture?" Of course I couldn't pass up the opportunity for a photo "op".

This shows the progress after the bottom limbs were cut off. I was amazed at the huge pile of branches this produced.

I think he ended up with about 3 wagon loads of branches and trunk. He will burn them over at his daughter's place.

Voila! The tree is gone! One project, out of many that he has, is completed. Before he went out to cut down the tree, Lynn helped me set up the Victorian strainer (I think that's what it's called) so that I could make tomato juice. It took forever for my tomatoes to ripen and now of course they are all ripening at the same time. I made a couple batches of salsa, which is yummy, but it took me a long time and only made 10 pints! Juice is much easier as I can just core and cut them up, cook them and put them through this contraption, and presto--juice.

The only problem was, we only have one canner, and so I had to wait for the canner to cool down in between processing. Apparently I could have just done a hot water bath, but we chose to use the pressure canner.

I ended up with 12 quarts and 1 pint. I actually did use the hot water bath for 3 of them, as the canner only holds 5 quarts at a time. So now I have juice to drink, use in cooking and casseroles, etc. Or, as my son said when he called, "spice it up a little and you'll have V-8"!

I also vacuumed, mopped floors and did some laundry, so my hubby is going to treat me to an "A & W" meal tonight! Yeah! At least I don't have to cook. Oops! I'm not done yet. Just remembered--we're going to a family potluck tomorrow, and I'm supposed to take dessert. I guess it's back to the kitchen for me after all!