Congratulations! Enjoy your new climate control.

Congratulations! It's always discouraging for me that the peak time to can is when the weather is at its hottest!

Yes I find it so ironic that as much as I love to can, I've never been able to finagle my dream of having a canning kitchen. So I end up stressing out my electric stove in my air conditioned house. I do some of the processing outside on the gas grill though . . . Hubs has finally fixed up our deck so I don't loathe going out there.

Fifty years ago when I first moved to WV, we had an old log house without electricity, a wood cookstove in the kitchen and another on the porch. That's where I canned. But summers were cooler then and the nights always cooled off--they don't now. And fifty years ago we never had humidity. Never.

We all manage as best we can.

Congratulations and welcome to the 20th century! ;-)

Well, congratulations on the air conditioning, anyway. I like smaller homes, less to clean! Or so I tell Elery, LOL. I really see no useful purpose in maintaining space that I just don't use regularly, so your small house would be plenty big enough for me, if I were by myself.

Less space to heat and cool too. This house is the first house I've ever had with central air conditioning, and since it's geothermal, it's much more efficient and cost effective. And you're right, it makes it so much nicer to can when you have air conditioning. I have been known to freeze fruit and berries and save them until winter to make jam, and I have air conditioning!

Annie

Yes, Annie, the small house is just perfect for one person, and I designed it so that all my favorite furniture would fit perfectly. I hate cleaning and this house is easy to keep clean.

The only canning I do in winter is every few years when I make ketchup. I freeze 7 qts of tomato puree to make 4-5 pts of ketchup. I gave up making jam/jelly years ago when I cut sugar out of my diet.

I love buying scratch tickets and I would love to buy a little 2-bdrm bungalow. I used to crave those huge houses but now I realize that it's just a bunch of wasted space that you're heating and cooling when you're in 1 little room over here and a massive empty house is over there.

To me small houses aren't easier to keep clean because every spot is being used, and I'm bad, if there's a flat surface, there's something on it. My table has papers, recipes, a couple of paperbacks. My couch has my little book that I keep track of my tv shows, and a jigsaw puzzle that I'm debating on setting up.

Anyway, I'd love the basement, that would make a huge difference for me, having my recycling bins out of sight plus some extra boxes etc that are in my 3rd bedroom.

Our Ontario summers are horrid. Humidity galore. A group from Alabama were here partaking in our Ribfest and they said the temperature was a bit cooler but they couldn't stand the humidity.

I have a portable a/c hooked up in the patio door, it helps. We lived here for 4 years without needing a/c because we're on the top floor of a duplex and windows all around, so there's pretty much always a breeze. But summers are hotter, with several days in a row of 30C temperatures whereas we used to get just a few interspersed throughout the summer.

Enjoy your home and air conditioning!

Yes, Jasdip, summers are getting hotter and hotter as the climate ramps up. There's no going back. And we don't really have winter here anymore--and I miss it.

As for the air conditioning, I use it only when I have to. This spring, my first in the house, I did a considerable amount of landscaping, including several small trees carefully sited to provide morning and evening shade in summer, something I recommend to anyone who can do it. The house still gets lots and lots of sun all winter through the windows on the south.

My nickname is Timothy Tighta$$. LOL. I hate spending money unwisely. Re: the a/c I only turn it on when I absolutely have to. I have a friend who heats his house all winter, and a/c after the heat is turned off. 24/7. Never opens the house for fresh air. It's one or the other. That would drive me bonkers.

Plus my hydro (aka electric) bill doubles when I use the a/c.

Oh my! It all depends on what we're used to. ;) I checked the conversion, because I remembered ”hot” starting at 39° C when I was living in metric, and 42° C was miserable, especially with public transportation. :) So I checked that too. ;) (Smiles and winks all around.) At least I lived in a concrete building, so it was okay inside, and the lounge at work had a/c. Nowadays, I'd say 90° F is hot (32-33° C). Though my current house is well insulated, I do keep the a/c set at 78° F, and last night, set it down a degree because it was stuffy. I never minded not having a/c here, with stud and stucco houses, before this house (which came with centeal air), though I do remember some steamy nights. ;) We're a lot drier with climate change, but not particularly hotter, but that's enough to be glad of the a/c ... and solar electric.

Yeah, we're going to have 35C real temp feeling like 42 (because of the humidity) n Wed and Thurs.

Eeew! Where I lived could have been drier, but that's a lot of humidity.

Jasdip, it's very pleasant here because we just had a thunderstorm and it's tolerable at 67F even though it's 96% humidity due to the rain. Saturday it will be 88F, though, with humidity at 86%, that's going to be uncomfortable.

Annie

How's it going, Laceyvail? The canning and all?

It's going well, pillog, though I don't do as much canning as I used to. I think I'm going to can tomato soup again tomorrow. Yesterday I did 3 pts of whole tomatoes. I use a steam canner--not pressure--and it's perfect for someone like me who often has only a couple of jars. I haven't used a water bath canner in over 25 years now. And I haven't used a pressure canner in many more than that.