Welcome to part 6 of my Lehman’s wish list series. I think this will be the last of the Lehman’s wish list posts. I’m kind of getting bored with them. If something really catches my eye in the catalog, I may post about it but I will doubt I will post anymore Lehman’s wish list posts.
We go camping as often as possible. We have a popup camper that affords us some luxuries, but is mostly a tent on wheels. All items on today’s Lehman’s wish list are to camping. Continue reading
Welcome to part 5 of my Lehman’s wish list. The stats still show that these Lehman’s wish list posts are read more than any other posts. Hopefully today’s post will be as well received as the other posts. All the items today are kitchen implements.
Italian Glass measuring Jug
First up is this Italian Glass Measuring Jug. We all have measuring cups, but this one is a little different. It has Continue reading
Welcome to part 4 of my Lehman’s wish list. As I stated in part 3, I’ll keep putting one of these posts out every month or so. As long as you guys want to see them, I’ll keep writing them. At the time of this writing, the Lehman’s posts have been the most read of any of my posts.
Hand-Cranked Radio/Alarm Clock/Flashlight
The must have for today is this Hand-Cranked Radio, Alarm Clock & Flashlight. I have a hand cranked flashlight in the car, but this could be very useful in the house during power outages or while camping. I plan on getting this one to use as my daily alarm clock. I won’t be able to blame a power outage for missing work if I get this. Hmm, maybe that’s a reason to not get it.
Steam juicer
My nice to have item is this 8 1/4 Quart Steam Juicer. We plan on starting our orchard this spring. I doubt that I get any fruit at all next year, but the following year I’ll likely get some. I know that some of it would not be good enough to eat out of hand. Since I don’t use chemicals, I know there will be insect damage. With this juicer, I will cut off the damaged portion and juice the rest of the fruit.
Cider press
Finally, my “money is no object” selection is this Stainless Steel Cider Press with Apple Grinder. At $1300, this is just out of my reach. I do plan on making something that will grind the apples and press the pulp. But I’m sure that it will not look anything like this. This item is likely built to last a lifetime. Grind the apples right into the basket, then just crank the wheel to press out the juice.
Posted in Lehmans
Tagged apples, food, fruit, garden, Lehmans, preserving, vegetables
Awning and connector separated
In one of my Lehman’s Wish List posts, I mentioned that I wanted to get a sewing awl to fix the awning from our popup camper It tore off of the camper. We were lucky that the thread had dry rotted and it the bag itself did not tear. We called a sail repair shop and their price to sew the connector strip back onto the bag was $75. I thought this was a little expensive, so I asked my wife to get me a sewing awl for Christmas.
Speedy Stitcher kit
Instead of the sewing awl from Lehman’s, my wife bought me a Speedy Stitcher kit. The Speedy Sticher is built in the U.S.A., and while everything I buy isn’t domestic, I do like to buy American when I have that option. The kit came with the sewing awl, 2 straight needles, 2 curved needles, a bobbin wound with coarse thread, a spool containing 180 yards of coarse, waxed thread and instructions on how to use the sewing awl.
Needle storage in the handle
One thing that I really like about the Speedy Stitcher is that it is fully self-contained. The bobbin containing about 15 yards of coarse thread is held inside the back-end of the handle. Under the screw down cap at the front is space to store 2 needles. The awl comes with a coarse straight needle and a coarse curved needle in the handle, and 2 fine needles in an envelope. This makes it easy to take the awl along with you, maybe in a backpack, or in a toolbox without worrying about damaging it or hurting yourself on the needles.
Awl threaded
To prepare the awl to sew, remove the front cap, select the needle, put it in the front, thread it and screw down the cap. The thread comes from the bobbin in the handle, out the side and up through cap. Notice in the picture that there is a stud on the side of the handle. The thread is wrapped around this stud to control the thread tension while sewing. The only tricky part of threading the awl is ensuring that the thread passes through the proper channels out through the cap.
The start
To start sewing, push the needle through the pieces of material being sewed together. In my case, I pushed it through the connector strip and then the awning bag. When the needle is through, pull enough thread off the bobbin to sew the entire project, I’ll call this the reserved thread. Since my awning bag is 12′ long, I should pull about 14′ of thread off the bobbin. But that would be difficult to keep from tangling, so I will sew 6 sections of 2′ each. To do each section, I pull about 30″ of thread off the bobbin.
Making the stitch
Next, pull the needle completely out of the material. Be sure not to pull the thread out with the needle. Push the needle through the material again. This time, back the needle out of the material slightly. This will make a loop of thread. Ensure that the loop is on the reserved thread side of the needle and not the bobbin side. Pass the reserved thread entirely through the loop. Hold the reserved thread tight and pull the needle out of the material. Grasp each end of the thread tightly and pull to adjust the stitch. Ideally, the point where lock stitch makes contact will be inside the material that is being sewed.
Finished stitches
The final stitches will look something like the shot on the right. Note that this looks similar to a machine stitch. That’s because it is a lock stitch just like a sewing machine makes. The thread that I’m using is a waxed polyester thread. This should hold up pretty well to the elements. This is a time-consuming process, but is a lot less work than sewing by hand with just a needle and thread.
To finish sewing, push the final stitch through the material. Pull additional thread through the hole. Cut the thread leaving enough to tie a knot and pull out the needle. With both ends of the thread on one side of the material, tie a square knot and snip off the excess. Since I am using a polyester thread, I then twist the ends together and melt them with a lighter. Be careful doing this, polyester can catch fire and destroy the stitches we just worked so hard on.
I have not finished sewing the awning. It is a large project that requires me to sit on the floor and lean over it to sew. This is really hard on my back, so I can only work for about 30 minutes at a time. I can sew about 2′ worth of stitches in that time. When I’m finished sewing this, I plan on covering the thread with a clear nail polish. My thinking is that the nail polish will act like a lacquer to keep the thread from unraveling. Hopefully I can find one that has UV blockers so that the UV inhibitors will keep the sunlight from breaking down the thread as fast.
That’s all there is to using a sewing awl. They are fairly inexpensive, this kit is only about $20. They are self-contained, so everything that is needed will safely fit in a pocket. Since they are simple to use, they make a great addition to a toolbox or a backpack. I know that I have a lot of readers that are preppers and have a bug out bag. This would be a great addition to that BOB to make repairs while bugging out.
I was going to stop doing this type of post, I figured that it was just a wish list for me. But based on my blog stats, you guys seem like this type of post. So here’s the next installment of the Lehman’s wish list posts. As with the others, there will be “must have” items, “nice to have” items and maybe an “if money was no object” item.
Sewing awl
We camp a lot in our popup camper. Over the summer we were cleaning the awning and the awning bag disconnected from the side of the camper. I thought that we would need to get a new awning, but I took a good look and found that the thread that connected the awning bag to the part that connects to the camper dry rotted. I should be able to re-sew it. That’s where I will use this Sewing Awl. The repairs at a sail maker are about $75, and a new awning is at least $300. The sewing awl is about $20 plus some of my time. But the benefit of the awl is I will be able to use it for other projects. I plan on making a cover for a couple of tools. I think this will come in handy around the homestead.
Snow & Nealley Pulaski Ax
One of my future projects is to run water down to the garden and to the orchard area. To do this, I will have to dig a trench about 200′ long down the hill. There are some bushes that I have to go under, and I’m sure I’ll have to cut through some of their roots. This Pulaski Ax was designed for this sort of thing. The back side it for digging, the front is for cutting through roots and branches. This falls into the nice to have items. I already have a mattock to do a lot of the digging, and I have an ax and machete to chop through any roots I encounter.
Can sealer
My “if money was no object” item for the day is this can sealer. I am all set up to do my canning into jars with lids. This can sealer would allow me to can into actual cans. The benefit is these cans are unbreakable. But I know that the cans and lids are also expensive. Also, with the jars, only the lid is not reusable. With a can, the entire thing is a throw away item. It would be kind of cool to be able to set aside actual canned produce for a longer period. Jars are good for about a year, I imagine that canning is good for a bit longer than that.
That’s my Lehman’s wish list for the day. I’ll put one of these out every couple of weeks to a month until the stats show that you guys don’t want to see this type of post, but don’t worry, I won’t make these a daily sort of thing. I feel like I’ve settled into the way I want to do these posts, 3 items with my uses for them. If you have a second, please post a comment to let me know why this type of post appeals to you.
Since I enjoyed writing up the first Lehman’s wish list post, I decided to do another. I want enough stuff from them that I could probably do a dozen or more posts about it. But I’m not going to bore you all with that many. Maybe I’ll just do a post here and there when I run out of material. Today I’m going to stick to practical stuff. I’ll likely toss in an item that I’d like to have if price was no object.
Bow-knife weed cutter
At the end of my driveway is a culvert under the road. This would be the perfect use for the Bow-Knife weed cutter. It is too steep to mow with the riding mower and I’ve almost flipped the mower over when trying to cut it. This cutter would allow me to get it cut down to a decent height.
Stoneware crocks
Next on the list are these Stoneware crocks. This fall, I made some sauerkraut using a plastic container. This crock would have been much easier to use. Next year, I want to give naturally fermented pickles a try. These crocks are the perfect vessel to make those in.
Apple peeler
The Apple Express clamp on apple peeler would have come in handy when I was making my apple pie in a jar. To make it this time around, we had to manually core, peel and slice the apples. This is a very time-consuming process. This tool would have cut the processing time in half. It would also have allowed me to put more apples in each jar since they would be sliced smaller than the wedges that we cut them into.
Squeezo food mill
The Squeezo food mill will come in handy in the future when we get our fruit trees. Even without trees, making tomato paste and sauce would be much easier with this. When I made my apple butter, I used a manual food mill that looks like a big conical sieve. That works great, but is fairly time-consuming. This is yet another time saver when trying to process a lot of produce.
Primo ceramic grill
Which brings me to the “if price was no object” product. This is the Primo Oval XL Grill. This is a lot like the Big Green Egg grill. This allows you to smoke foods, but also grill it either directly or indirectly. It is very efficient but is still a very large grill, up to 680 square inches of grill area. I also like that this is the only ceramic grill made int he U.S. But at over $1000, this is way out of my price range. If you have the money to spare, this is a great grill, and the ceramic parts have a 20 year warranty on them. Maybe some day, but I doubt I’d spend that much on a grill.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged apples, food, fruit, garden, harvest, Lehmans, preserving, vegetables
Yesterday I received my new Lehman’s catalog. For those of you that don’t know about Lehman’s, they carry a lot of hand-operated items. Most of it is made in the U.S.A. and a lot of it is Amish made. Anyway, I was paging through it at lunch time and wanted a lot of what was in there. I don’t need most of it, but some of it would really make things easier when working in the garden, harvesting or preserving the harvest. I figured I should put up a post of a few of the things I want so I can keep track and work towards getting what I actually need. There’s so many items that I’d like to get, this could become a series of posts.
I’ve known about Lehman’s for years. But it was a commercial I heard on the Self Sufficient Homestead podcast that reminded me that I haven’t looked through their catalog for a while. So I went online and ordered the catalog. I also made sure that I heard about it on Johnny Max & The Queen’s show, that way the folks at Lehman’s know that their advertising is working.
Lehmans corn cutter
The first thing on the list is a corn cutter. I don’t usually grow corn in my garden because it is a resource hog and it is so cheap to buy when in season. We buy quite a bit from a nearby farmer. Then we blanch it and cut it off the cob to freeze. Using a knife is pretty easy, but I used one of these corn cutters when I was a kid and they work so much better than a knife. This also has a reversible blade and is notched to fit onto a pan, so there aren’t a bunch of kernels flying around the kitchen. They also have a wooden model that does not have a reversible blade. I’m not sure which I want to get. I’m putting this in my must have category.
Oriental garden tool
First on the nice to have list is the Oriental garden tool. I have hoes, shovels and spades. But since I plant in a bunch of raised beds, these long-handled tools are kind of a pain in the butt. This little tool will do the same job as all those tools without requiring me to stand up to do the work, then get back down on the ground to plant or whatever. I’m not getting any younger, so any wear and tear on the knees that I can avoid, I do. I have used a very similar tool, and it saved a lot of work. Unfortunately it wasn’t mine and that friend still has it.
HearthStone Heritage Wood Heat Stove
First item on the nice if I had a lot of money is this wood stove. We have a propane heat stove in the family room. It heats nicely, but only that room, and with our propane prices over $3.50 a gallon it is not very economical to use. This stove looks awesome and would put out a lot of heat. We have access to cheap wood, it isn’t free but is pretty inexpensive. It would be cheaper than our oil heat or the propane stove. But this is a pretty expensive stove, so it is just an idea for if we come into a bunch of money.
I thought that I’d be going long on this one. Over the winter, I think I’ll put up several of this type of post. It helps me keep track of what I need or want to get. It also keeps my mind on building the homestead.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged food, garden, household, Lehmans, preserving, tools, weather
