Preserves

99 jars of pears on the wall, 99 jars of pears. Take one down pass it around, ....
Ok you get the gist.

On Saturday my sister and my niece and I canned up 99 jars of pears.
We had one jar beak so actually we only 98 jars, but still.... It was a long day.
I did learn some things about my family though.

My parents showed up in the middle of the day. They were on the way to the coast. Mom offered a few tidbits of advice, since she has been canning since she was a teen. It was interesting to hear how all four of us had different ways of doing things. I learned some new things, and I kept some of my own ways of doing it.
Off my parents went to enjoy the cool ocean breezes while we slaved away in a very warm kitchen. Thankfully we did the actually cooking outside. Just as we were figuring out when to wrap it all up and if we were going to church that night, my parents show up again. They didn't make it to the coast because of a bad traffic jam. So they came back to our place. My mom helped us finish the pears; and then as I was running back and forth cleaning up and checking the canner, I come in to find my mom down on the floor scrubbing. It's just what she does - help that is. And my floor was pretty sticky. But when it was all done, it gleamed.

And my dad bought us pizza.
It was a great day to put up preserves.