Pickles

Very early this morning, a bit after six, I was wide awake and there was no more sleep in me. I threw back the cover, sat up and knew exactly what I needed to do. So, I said, "feet, take me to the kitchen". Not wasting any time, I put the jars I would use for pickles into the big water pot, and had breakfast while the jars were being sterilized. I had delayed making these kosher dill pickles for a couple of weeks, fearing they would not be good to eat. I started by packing the still warm jars with a sprig of fresh dill and garlic, with the cucumber spears standing all around. Pouring the hot mix supplied by "Mrs. Wages", I finished it off by putting on the lids, giving each jar a tight turn and immediately placing it in the hot water. That was pretty easy after all. A five minutes boiling water bath and they were ready to take out.

I felt so good about how easy they were to make that I determined to make another batch as I still had plenty of cucumbers. So, I did just that. Now I have 14 pints of kosher dill pickle spears. If Jim does not like them, or I do not like them, I will give them to "Mikey" !!

Last night I cooked a huge pot of green beans using the ones I got from the fireman at church. They were sooooo good. I put those I did not eat in one person portions and placed them in the fridge to cool before putting them in the freezer. My other accomplishments for the day included planting 3 burpless cucumber plants into the middle raised bed. I had planted these from seed way back in February and they just came up about three weeks ago. One would think I had enough cucumbers but these are the Parks Burpless and are long like the English cucumbers. While in the garden I rigged up the hose with a Y joint in order to water two places at once, being careful not to get it on the tomatoes or beans. I did pick a "mess" of green beans, more cucumbers and tomatoes. One of my Parks Whopper tomato plants had fallen over again so I took measures to be sure it did not happen again, watered the ground well and was tempted to pick the one big shiny blackberry on the Arapaho plant But I resisted. Now, I hope a deer does not see it and take it for himself.

My dentist called and asked me to change my appointment from Thursday to tomorrow, so I did and now I will be free to play bridge at the Senior Center at Shady Grove. I had not expected to be able to do that. Nice surprise !! Tomorrow will be a more restful day (except for the dentist appointment) and I can smell the roses or something like that !!