Ok, yesterday was a marathon day in the kitchen here at the Ponderosa. I started out by packaging up the dehydrated mushrooms then rummaging through the garden to get a few more Roma tomatoes. I set what was ready in the dehydrator and turned my attention to the green beans.

I had enough of the beans cleaned yesterday to set a canner on to process. Then, Mr. FixIt and I enjoyed rocking in the recliners, watching old Frazier reruns while I finished stringing and snapping the last of the beans between canner loads.

I learned something yesterday. I should have weighed the beans, because apparently I had a LOT more than I thought. According to the weights and measures scale for produce, a bushel of snap beans should weigh between twenty-eight and thirty-two pounds. This should result in a quart of processed beans for every one-and-a-half to two pounds of raw produce. Initially, I figured I would get two canners full with enough leftover beans to cook up a mess for supper. (“Mess is Appalachian for a batch…a dinner’s worth with leftovers.)

I ended up with four canners full! That’s twenty-eight quarts. I did my math and I payed just over a dollar a quart for these babies. AND I got the fun and satisfaction of putting them up for winter. I know, I know…this is nothing compared to what my cousins can every year. They put up hundreds of jars of food. I’m a little limited by supplies this year as I was sort of starting from scratch in the canning department. I’ll get more jars and lids next spring.

When the last canner was filled and on the stove, I got out my fermenting equipment and got two quarts of dill pickles started. They will sit for one to three weeks in the brine till they get to my desired taste. I made one quart with hot red pepper flakes for a little extra pizazz. I would normally use dried whole red peppers from the spice aisle but Walmart didn’t have them.

And that was the end of my day. I was tired…but it was a good kind of tired. My hands smell like garlic and they’re soft from working with wet beans for two days. My hips are sore from sitting so much. But, ohhhhh…..those beautiful jars of bottled summer take my breath away when I look at them!

It was not till I was typing this last night to post this morning that I noticed the date. Today would have been Mr. Virgo’s 70th birthday! It feels so unreal. He will always and forever be 62…a number I passed five years ago. I can’t even imagine him at 70. He would have reluctantly retired. He had no hobbies other than golf and me. I never, EVER would have considered taking off in the camper by myself and having adventures without him. He told me when we were first dating that if I was the kind of woman who was going to leave him alone for long stretches of time, he wasn’t interested. I had been in a two decade marriage with a workaholic who had dinner between 8:00-10:00 every night. I was ready for that one-on-one attention.

Don’t get me wrong…I absolutely adore Mr. FixIt and I treasure every moment we have together. AND, I learned I need some space to recharge from time to time…for my own mental health as well as the comfort of my spouse. Different people. Different marriages. Different expectations. Still…I think of that silver-haired man and smile now.

Seventy.

Wow.

Happy Heavenly Birthday, Mr. Virgo!

❤

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

Colossians 3:23 ESV