Well I am proud to say that the laundry is caught up, as I just finished hanging up a load and folding another, and the house is in good order.  We did all of our weekly cleaning last night as a family.  I am hanging laundry up to dry on a inside drying rack in my hope of saving some money.  Today my focus will get to be on homesteading projects and food shopping/preparation.

I will start out doing my menu planning where I will try to incorporate two items I want to use up - corn tortillas and homemade sour cream, maybe a casserole with turkey.  I also want to try making some whole wheat tortillas with a new tortillas press I bought, so we will probably have beef and bean buritos also.  Then I need to buy milk from the local farm and go to the health food co-op.  I need to bake scones and cookies today and start a loaf of sourdough bread.  I am going to make the kids some fruit leather, also.

Other projects that need to get done are bottling wine, feeding vinegars, and checking peach brandy to consider bottling.  I am going to spend some time on my quilt (about an hour) and start some more seedlings.  I was beginning to feel frustrated that the peas and spinach were not in the garden yet, but it has snowed the last two days and frosted last night.  Waiting a few more days will not hurt anything. 

The last big project for this weekend is doing some organizing and cleaning up in two areas.  The first is in a storage room where I have just put miscellaneous items - like wrapping paper, kid's toys etc.  The canning room is getting so packed that I need to consider removing the extra pots, canners, ice cream maker, etc from there and into the other room in order to get ready for canning season.  The other area that needs to be sorted and cleaned up is the soon to be cold storage area. 

We have a room in our house, in the bottom story of our split level home, that has a concrete floor and an exposed basement wall.  The room has a door to the outside and no windows.  It has an open doorway that leads to the furnace room.  The room is cold most of the time unless the furnace is running and then it warms up.  We currently have our freezers and other junk in the room.  I am going to turn it in to a cold storage room.  Since we have moved to this house I have been trying to figure out what to do about cold storage and this is my solution.

I did consider other options, such as dig out a traditional cellar but it would have to be accessed from outside.  A cellar would have required a quite a bit of time and money to complete and would have been another project for DH and he is already overrun with projects.  Our existing space has good access to move the items in from outside and to access them from the inside during winter.  This does mean I am giving up other possibilities for this room such as a project area for potting plants, wrapping gifts, assembling items; or a canning kitchen.  I am not giving up on the canning kitchen but I'll talk about that more later.

I am really looking forward to having a cold storage as I want to store apples, winter squash, carrots, potatoes, garlic, onions, and pears for winter use.  This is another way to reduce our grocery bill and use more of our own food.  The conversion will require the installation of a insulated door between the furnace room and cold storage room.  It will also require putting in some pipes to allow circulation of outside air in to and out of the room.  I think we should also be able to close these pipes in warmer periods to keep the cold air inside.  Then shelving bins will need to be built.  These will be built along the long exposed concrete basement wall which is built into a northern hillside.  The other walls will house the three freezers we use for meats, fruits, and veggies that don't can well.  The shelves will be three feet deep to four feet deep, increasing six inches with the deeper shelves on the bottom.  They will have an eight inch board across the front to create a bin type shelf.   

Some considerations I need to keep in mind.  Onions like to be stored in a dryer area than most other items so I need to consider a bin somewhere else or pick the dryest area in the room.  When I was a kid I remember my mother storing them with all the other vegetables and canned goods so I am going to try it out and see what happens.  The winter squash will like warmer temps so it can go in the canning room which stays about 65 degrees.  The goal for the cold storage room is 40-45 degrees with 90% humidity.  I believe I also read that potatoes and apples don't like to be too close to each other so I have to check on that.

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Posted by elaine2423

I have been reading some of your blogs and they are full of great information! I am interested in becoming more self sufficient. I have been talking to my husband about cold storage and what I thought will keep well.
I am just starting to learn how to do many homesteading things and have been buying books on different subjects. I wanted to buy the book root cellaring but haven't gotten around to it. I have two really good general books Carla Emery's Country Living and Storey's Basic Country skills.
I live in town right now but my husband are planning to buy some acreage so we can have chickens and a bigger garden and whatever other adventure that we like. We used to live in the country until we relocated for my husband's job. When we moved there were no houses for sale in the country.
I really liked all the info that you wrote about. You sure do seem busy! You are probably tired from everything you do, but your family is worth it. That's why I have been learning all I can. - To make and cook good things for my family.

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