Canning Shelves – Maggie Turner Page by Page

They are finished! Last night Attila put in the last screw, then vacuumed up the last of the sawdust from the shelves. And they are ready to fill!

Already most of the quart jars are on the shelf. Attila takes an inventory of the full jars, then I determine where they should be stored and record the location on my “map”.

The new canning jar shelves! These sturdy shelves will hold our full and empty canning jars. The bottom shelf is high enough to store 1 litre jars, and the rest of the shelves are only high enough to store 500 ml jars, which is the size I process most often. The lone jar in the picture is a 500 ml jar of Cranberry Orange Sauce.
This shelving unit is built to withstand an earthquake, which is important since all the jars are glass. The supporting posts are screwed into the floor joists above, and into the concrete floor below. There will be a lip installed at the front of the shelves to prevent the jars from falling off the shelf at the front, and there is a wall at the back to prevent them from falling.
I will keep a “map” of what is stored there, and will also label what is in the rows, on the edge of the shelf, using painter’s tape.
We have waited a very long time for these shelves. We moved here almost ten years ago, and at last we are organizing the basement.

I had a few other projects to work on today. I baked Chocolate Muffins this morning, and this afternoon I finished the laundry detergent. I also created a database to record all my blood pressure readings, to give to my GP as requested, and wrote down my list of things to discuss at my next appointment. And oh yes, I will mention that we voted yesterday, there is a provincial election on at the moment.

Here is the finished laundry detergent, made from a recipe on the internet. The stick is my mixing stick, it easily reaches the bottom of the bucket for stirring.
Simple to make. It had to sit for 24 hours, I had made it in the bathtub, as I cannot lift a five gallon bucket full of water. It sat in the tub overnight. After lunch I gave it a good stir, still in the tub. Then I took a glass one cup measuring cup, and a funnel, and began to transfer the detergent one cup at a time into our containers. We use recycled laundry detergent jugs.

Worldly

Weather

-1°C
Date: 8:00 PM EST Sunday 23 February 2025
Condition: Light Snow
Pressure: 101.9 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: -0.7°C
Dew point: -2.9°C
Humidity: 85%
Wind: WSW 7 km/h
Wind Chill: -3
Visibility: 24 km

Quote

“I am never afraid of what I know.””
Anna Sewell
1820 – 1878

A motivation for lifelong inquisitiveness.