Tuesday night was pretty cold so decided to light our wood-burning stove. There wasn’t much to getting the fire going because we had all the right tools: newspaper, kindling, and a lighter. Once lit, we added a few pieces of dry wood and within about twenty minutes the whole cabin was nice and toasty. We set a pot of water on top to put some moisture in the air, and for tea as well.
On Wednesday Ryan had his intro to lumberjack class, where he learned about the various elements involved in cutting down a tree to use for firewood, beam construction, furniture, etc. Art explained how post and beam construction is used to build a house, just like the structures on his property. 
Ryan has also been learning a lot about how to use a draft/work horse when working with moving wood and other heavy things. It is really incredible the amount of work that can be done with just a horse and cart, no gasoline, no engines, just this beast.
Thursday morning I canned more tomatoes. A lot of them are coming in right now, so they are quartered, pureed, and cooked. Then into the glass containers the liquid goes, which is then topped with a lid and boiled for 35 minutes.
This preserves the tomato puree for up to a year and can be used for anything from soup to spaghetti sauce.
The mint that we picked a few days ago was finally dry on Thursday. After picking it, the clippings were laid out in the greenhouse and within two days they were ready to have the leaves stripped from the stems. This might well be the best peppermint tea ever taste, which is incredible considering it grows like a weed here. Now Ryan and I have a few large bags of this to take on the rest of our trip!
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This morning Ryan did more work with Art out in the woods to gather more firewood and I got to help Trish make grape jelly. Once we harvested all the grapes, we cleaned them, removed the stems, and then we got to squish them. After that the squished pulp is boiled, then put through a strainer to obtain only the liquid. This liquid is then boiled again and canned. Apparently there is enough natural pectin (mostly in the unripe grapes) and also a little added sugar to allow the liquid to become gelatinized.
After work, we took the dogs with us on a hike. Just down the road there is a trail crossing for the Appalachian Trail, where after crossing a bridge you can go down to the riverbed and go in the water or continue hiking on the trail. On our way to the trail head we stopped at a local staple store and picked up a six pack of pumpkin beer, since it is the season after all. Once we hiked a bit on the trail, we went down to the river, which had a very wide, rocky bed with a comparatively small amount of water flowing, some of it dead ending at various points to form small pools. We found a large rock in the middle of one of the pools, where we sat and enjoyed our time while throwing sticks in the water for the dogs.
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“To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.”
–Mahatma Ghandi
Tonya & Ryan
Just as Free 