The Summer Kitchen

I am so excited to use the Summer Kitchen I can hardly wait. But wait I must. Too many other things pressing for Tom to take the time right now to hook up my water. It won't be long and I can be patient.....for a minute or two. :-)

Here is the east wall, with the canned goods all neat and orderly. We can find what we need now. Well, we'll be able to as soon as I get the labels made. That's a job I can do while I'm waiting for the appliances, and water hook up. Doing little things in anticipation helps. Hanging the garlic braids last night for example. Makes it look Kitchen-y, and smells even better. Tom suggested hanging dill out there too which I will do. Not only will it smell good , but it's time for the dill harvest.

And this is the south wall. All those windows are so nice to look across the field. Lets ample light in too. The big bench there in the middle....for a price I can afford, Jon says he'll get maple hardwood flooring and make it like a big butcher block for me. I'm excited about that. Hardwood, I recently read has been shown to repel bacteria with no bleaching necessary. If I can find that info again I'll post it here on the blog. It's partly because of the tight grain but there was something else about it too that I can't remember now, that makes it safe to use with food. I'll have to try to remember to ask Jon to give me a little overhang on one edge so I can use my clamp on food prep equipment...the thingy I do tomato juice with and the like.

Here is the west wall. The A/C is in the window there, and works very effiiciently. I plan to put an apartment sized stove, presently not in use but setting in the tree house the kids play in, and the heavy duty 2 burner gas camp stove along that wall, along with the upright freezer, fridge and/or chest freezer. Once those appliances get moved out there we'll be able to get things in place better. Ceiling slants there to the north so will have to figure out how that space can be best used. There is a ventless gas heater so the guys could even use the summer kitchen for butchering all their deer too, and we could just can up the meat right then and there and be done with it.... I do remember having canned venison, and it really wasn't bad. Right below the horzontal florescent light there is one of four nice speakers...I have a SOUND SYSTEM in the summer kitchen! I play my Christian radio station and am so very content working out there getting it set up. I can play CD's too I think unless sawdust has clogged up the CD player. The radio station goes off the air at midnight and sometimes that's my best time to work! Still.

On the north wall, Jon left me the bench he had his lathe on. I think it will work for the oven that we have in the basement to move out. Then counterspace, then maybe the chest freezer or fridge. Again, I'll be able to tell better when things get moved out there. There is a lower butcherblock table in the basement I'll use for the camp cook stove to set on, that'll let me be able to use the big canners without being so high up. Keeps me a little less apt to burn my arms with steam taking off the lids of the kettles.

And now you have had a tour of the Summer Kitchen thus far. Hope you enjoyed that.