...feeling like a squirrel?

I just thought I would share with you what I've been doing this past month to six weeks. I'm aware that the number of my posts dropped dramatically............well..........for good reason, I think. I'm still not completely finished with all this, but enough so that I thought I would pretend I was finished. How's that? May I just say that I am really ready to have it all done? I was so tired of tomatoes last week that I just about didn't do the "last" batch. Then Peggy told me of her wonderful enchilada sauce so I thought I'd give it a try...........I had to punt though. There is no garlic juice in town. But with all the garlic in the basement why in the world should I go out and buy garlic juice?????? And my tomatoes were already juiced, so I hope I have something slightly similar to Peggy's. I have no idea............but we'll give it a try. Okay! Here goes!!! This is sometime in September.........

A typical picking of cucumbers once they really start to bear well.

After I wash them in the washing machine (I offer a prayer of thanks for my friend every time. It has been such a time saver.) I dump them in the kitchen sink where I sort and check them over. The small ones go in a bucket to brine for sweet pickles, the larger ones in bottles for dills and the largest in a pan to make bread and butter pickles.

Dills.........some in pints for some of the children.

A bucket of sweets and the pan of larger ones..........

A bucket of sweet pickles with the sugar/vinegar syrup on them. The cheesecloth holds the spices. I start doing pickles as soon as the cucumbers start bearing. Bless Roger. He picked most of them this year. That is such a help!

 Some of you may know that we try to go to Idaho for a load of potatoes every year.........well, this year was  no different..........Here is our load for this year, sitting on the truck in front of our house. Nine and a half TONS of them!! Roger and Michael went to get them the day I was supposed to start doing the peaches. 

You'll notice I said "supposed to". I think we did them the next day. A HUGE thanks to sweet Sarah who helped me all day long. We did seven and a half bushels that day!!! I can only imagine how her shoulders must have ached. She peeled and cut peaches all day long! I couldn't have done it without her and we were able to do them all that day! 127 quarts of peaches!!!!!

After the peaches, we did the pears......... I think I did them mostly by myself. Michelle helped as much as she could, for which I was grateful. But there weren't too many of them. I don't remember how many quarts I did...enough to be heartily tired of bottling fruit!

All the children came home for general conference. It's so fun to have them come, even though sometimes we have "bedlam". Richard went out and pulled all the beets. I thought, "Oh no!!" We had a bushel of peaches to do for Grandma! But Richard did the beets almost all by himself!...washed, cooked, slipped the skins, put them in the bottles..........I made the syrup, put the lids on and processed them. Don't they look pretty? (Yeah, sometimes it takes me a few days to get the full bottles hauled downstairs............)

My sweet "daughters" helped me with Grandma's peaches. We had a great time........I think........... I did, and it looks like they are having a good time. Looks like Lisa is sampling the goods..........

 Last week I finished up the tomatoes.........thank goodness!!!! I have made three kinds of soup from the "Ball Blue Book".....well, two are from the book, the third is from a friend. A pint is just right for supper when Roger is away--quick and easy and all in one bottle/dish--doesn't get any better than that, right?

The apple jelly is not all done yet...........OH!!!! And I forgot to get pictures of the 14 quarts and I don't know how many pints of applesauce we did one Saturday a week ago.............Richard came with three boxes of apples--I already had one here--and we made applesauce--yummy, chunky, beautifully white applesauce.

I'm not sure when I will really call it all quits and put the cookers away............well, I put one of them away the other day. But I might have to get it out again if I decide to do something else. I'm not planning on it at this writing, but you never know when I may get a hankering to try something new. And it's really quite a rush to go sit in the fruit room and look at all the beautiful colors of food sitting on my shelves. I sometimes wonder if this is how mother squirrels feel???