Friday, October 19, 2012

A blessing of Pears....

 I finally finished the pears.  Oh. my. God.  I didn't think I was ever gonna be done with those beauties. All in all, I got 8 pints of pear butter, 21 pints of pear halves and 6 quarts of diced pears. The jars are cooling on the kitchen island and in a day or two, I'll move 'em out.  And then my island will be clear again (for a minute). 

  I have about 15 pounds of onions dehydrating right now (all 3 dehydrators are full). You can imagine what my house smells like...a combination of onions and pears, lol.  I have another 10 pounds left and might pick up more tomorrow. They were really beautiful.  The Irishman helped peel them today....I wouldn't have gotten them done otherwise.

  I picked a gallon of green beans yesterday.  And there are probably more to pick tomorrow. It wasn't real warm today, but rainy, and so I have no idea how that's gonna affect stuff in the garden. I do have green tomatoes to bring in, but the temps are still looking pretty good the next week...so...maybe I'll leave 'em a bit longer. It's a hard call to make...the weather is so goofy...it's 46 one day and 70 the next.  The snow pea plants are vigorous and beautiful, but so far no flowers or peas. Hopefully we'll get something off them before the real winter sets in.

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  I have a new addiction.  It's a dual addiction, really.  I am absolutely positively HOOKED on 2 shows that (I think) are on the Discovery Channel. One is called Yukon Men and the other is The Alaska Frontier or something...about a 4th generation family of homesteaders in Alaska. They are the Kilchers, and homestead  a huge place around nobody else.  Tonight was the Yukon one, it's about a small town  called Tanana  and the families that live there and how they have to battle the elements and fish and hunt and cut wood to ensure that they can survive the winters. Something in those shows strikes a chord with me, and I love watching them.  They come on late in the evening, so they don't interfere with anything I ever have to do, lol.


    It's after midnight and I can't believe I am still awake. I was so tired from being on my feet all day doing those pears that I was sure I'd be in bed by 10 tonight!  But I'm not--still up. Got an early day tomorrow again...the Irishman is going on an all day fishing trip and will leave pretty early in the morning. That means that if I am going to my 10 o'clock meeting, I have to be up early enough to get all the animals fed and loosed and myself fed and ready to leave the house by 9:30 at the very latest.  It's an ordeal.  lol

  I'd really rather just stay home tomorrow, but I told someone I'd be there. sigh...I feel like I have been on the run all week (I have!!) , even though we skipped date night tonight because I just wanted to stay home. We had leftovers for supper, so I didn't even have to cook. It was nice. (And did I tell you?? --THE PEARS ARE DONE !!!!)   SO....I'll go (even though there's a better than 50/50 chance the person won't show herself--she's drinking again and asking for help...but go I will, just in the off chance she actually shows up)  and then hopefully I can come right back home and get some things done here.  Like laundry.  And vacuuming.  And mopping...especially mopping, because I made a light syrup to can those pears in and I can assure you it is EVERYWHERE.  Plus there are muddy dog and man footprints everywhere.  Job security, I guess.


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Oh--one more thing before I head off to lala land...isn't this gorgeous?? It's an allium, gifted to me by a dear friend. All dried and pretty and I have 2, here in the office, where the cats can't reach them. lol


  Have a good weekend all....look for the beauty everywhere...


Namaste.

  

7 comments:

DJan said...

Now that's a LOT of pears. And they were free, right? I can just imagine what it smells like in your kitchen, Annie. Like a real home. :-)

Mariodacatsmom said...

Yikes - I can't imagine cleaning, cutting and putting up that many pears. What job girl!

Beth said...

Those pears look really good!! Great job Annie!

Judy T said...

That's a LOT of pears- and onions! We didn't have pears (or apples for that matter) this year because of the freaky weather. sigh...
Have a fabulous weekend.
Judy

Akannie said...

Djan--yes, FREE! The best part.

MDCM--it was a chore, but so worth it. Mostly my feet hurt from all that standing at the sink....lol

Thanks Beth...they are really nice....only one qt of diced didn't seal for some reason...so there is now an apple/pear crisp in the oven !

Judy..our apples limped by...our peaches did fine and the pears were a freebie from a woman I met that lives up the way from me. The onions came from Aldi's....20 cents a pound !! Couldn't pass those up, and there are 2 dehydrators done and ready to be emptied.

Rita said...

How awesome to have all that stocked away--and for free!! And cheap, good onions, too. Nice!

Did you ever see the miniseries Frontier House? I loved that show and these sound similar in nature. They made some other ones like Frontier House, too, but I can't think of the names of them--where they had to live like pioneers or the first settlers, etc. Very interesting!

I hope the person showed up. :)

Akannie said...

Rita--yes, I did watch Frontier House...but wasn't that like a challenge for them to see if they could live like that? This is real life stuff....the Kilchers have homesteaded that 600 acres for 4 generations...

And NOPE--she was a no-show. lol
IO am happy to have that stuff stocked away...going to get more onions tomorrow...