It was a bit of a slow start this particular morning…see post "Saturday 10/23/10." But we started what ended up being a very busy day. Lucky for you my memory is failing me of the details of that day, so an overview it will be. Sometime the evening before or that morning over coffee (me) and tea (Ann) we decided to invite our mothers up to help w/ our canning adventures we'd planned for the day. We had picked the apples the day before, so step one was complete. We also started a frozen tub of apple sauce w/ all the yummy spices in the crock pot that night to be ready to can some apple butter the next morning. And by me, I mean Ann. As there's proof that I had a late night on the 23rd, I was in no shape to be measuring spices.
My mom came out mid morning and Grandma Keast came out later in the afternoon. We ate sandwiches for lunch and then dove into all things canning. Mom put her new apple peeler to work peeling apples for apple pie filling. We did two...TWO…double batches of apple pie filling. Then we canned the apple butter that had cooked in the crock pot. Then not long after Grandma Keast got here, we cut, boiled and then put the apples through the food meal. We did 2 ½ pots of apples and ended up w/ 2 tubs of applesauce to go in the freezer. I think we ended up w/ 16 or so quarts of apple pie filling, 5 pints of apple butter, and 2 tubs of apple sauce. We sent the apple butter home w/ Mom (b/c she eats it right out of the jar from her fridge w/ a spoon!), and a few jars of the apple pie filling. Grandma Keast left after some quilting help from Ann. Mom helped us finish putting the apples through the food mill and then left shortly after. They rocked, I was so glad to have their help and it was tons of fun.
During all this, the guys were in the living room watching TV, and later I learned they turned on the subtitles b/c they couldn't hear the TV and knew they'd get yelled at if they turned it up loud. Hahahahahaha. But we all know they were both sleeping most of the time anyway. It was so nice to have Mom and Gma Keast come up. I think it's pretty darn cool that we are all friends. And I think we can call Mom and Gma Keast "buds."
I'm trying to remember what time it was that we finished. It was still light outside, but the sun was definitely setting. We sat on the porch for a while and Ann decided we needed a celebratory beer b/c the apples where done for the year. I'll continue to can apples every year, but man was I glad we were done. But then I had a thought. I do have those every now and again. I still had a cheap jug…yes jug…of wine in the fridge. So we sat on the porch and enjoyed a nice cup…yes I said cup, so what. There were cats everywhere and I didn't want to break anything…of cheap red wine to finish off the day. Oh, and we might have high-fived.
But the day didn't technically end there. The guys had gone to drop off a bunk they had repaired and the cows who's calves they wanted to wean that weekend (but didn't b/c Josh was a little under the weather…see post 10/23/10…hehe) ended up coming in. And when things just kinda fall in your lap easy 'round these parts, you take it. So they closed the gate, sorted the calves, came back to get the trailer, and brought the baby's to the house. While they were doing this business Ann and I strung a water hose to fill the water tank. I kept an eye on it while she ran to town and got a couple of pizzas. You don't know how glad I am that this little town has a pizza place. By the time the guys got back it was dark and I was starving.
No one had to rock me to sleep that night. Because of the busy day, or b/c of the wine….we'll never know.
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