Thank goodness for only two days subbing last week. I am still not caught up with housework (will I ever be?) and thanks to a head cold probably further behind than I was last week. Dust multiplies quickly out here in the country, sitting on the top of a windy hill with dogs in and out all day long. I try to think of our piano as a dust trap like a crop trap - one that’s planted to attract the bugs and keep them off the ‘real’ crops. Well, the piano sure attracts dust but it doesn’t do a thing about keeping it off any of the other furniture. It just highlights it’s presence when the sunlight shines across it’s sleek wood lines.
Friday night John took me to see “Always… Patsy Cline” at the Sherman Community Theater. It was really good. I’d forgotten how young Patsy Cline was when she died in that plane wreck. Julie Johnson, playing Patsy Cline, did an excellent job singing my favorite, Crazy. Thanks to the head cold I didn’t join in and get us thrown out but I hummed along with her on it. It was a special treat to see Trey, Julie’s son, working at the theater as well. He’s one of my sub-students.
We bartered some eggs for pears from a friend so I could make pear butter. I’ll send a jar back as further payment as well. I cooked the pears yesterday in the crockpot and then ran them through the sieve this morning while 9 pint of carrots were pressure canning on the stove top. I cheat on the carrots. I buy the 5# bag of organic baby carrots from Sam’s and can them for future roasts and stews. I’ve grown our own carrots and canned them but we use so few it’s just as practical to do it this way.
Hopefully, this week a homesteading friend will come over and we’ll make some soap. She and her husband raise bees so she’s bringing some honey to stir into the soap.
The weather is great, finally sunny, but windy out. Too windy to take my sore congested ears out to mow the grass today. It can wait for a calmer day and I won’t have to eat and wear the work of my labor as I mow either.
Mom always made pear butter. We harvested the ‘free’ food from the fields around us and we had an abundance of pears. She would can pears with a light syrup, spiced pears (just a few jars as the spices were too expensive) and make pear butter. I like it better than apple butter myself but try to avoid it’s super sugar content. This year my sister in Ohio commented on making some so I had to try at least a small batch. The neat thing is you don’t have to peel all those pears, just wash, then core them, slice and cook til soft. Run through a sieve and then add 1/2 cup sugar per each 2 cup of pulp, cook down til thick. I added 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon per 4 cup pulp as well. Hot water bath for 10 minutes if you make enough to preserve.
Pear sauce is good, too. Just make as apple sauce and serve either cold or warm. Great on toast in the mornings.
I wish I could can up these beautiful fall days and open them when the weather really stinks to remember these warm home feelings. Dirty or not, it is home - such a comfort.