I just knew you would chime in to this thread. Good ol country gal like you are. Those hog killings and all are sure a lot of work. When a kid i got to stir the lard pot..or dehair the hogs or shave
'em when all the hair was gone. It's all hard work. But you are right. Lotta bs'in goes on at them things. I also saw a lot of cannin bee's with the women sittin round a tabel quilting while the beans or corn or whatever was bein canned was aboilin. Mostly the tenant farmer wives but some of the town folks ladies were involved. Lord they had great piles of jars and all. About 4 of them ladies had summer kitchens with a wood cookstove out in the yard(under cover of course) and that is where the bakin and cannin took place. And man..what gardens them ladies had. Hard workin folks that never had much money...but they were good folks. Always treated us kids real nice...but if ya got outta line..they take a switch to ya in a heartbeat. They also had us kids aworkin when we wanted to be arunnin off. I remember one night after the cannin we all got on a hay wagon and went to the drive in theater. Tractor an all. Musta been 15 kids on that wagon. We saw a John Wayne movie.
As far as makin a place to can..get some cement blocks and make a pit the size of what ya need. Pile them blocks around the side in a retangle with a place in the front to put wood in and get a nice 1/4 inch piece of sheet steel. Put across the top and you have a fire pit just made for canning or even cookin. Keep the sheet steel indoors and grease it lightly with bacon grease er lard..or if necessary Crisco. Not much just a little. When ya need to use it again..just clean her off and go to town. You can even put a stove pipe in the cement block part to take the smoke away. Couple of farms had them made up and the women folk did a lot of cookin in the summer out on 'em. BTW..make it bigger than ya think you're gonna need it!
