just call me Laura Ingalls

We came. We saw. We canned. Me and my Multi-Talented Sister. (I don't have a nickname on here for her yet - suggestions are welcome.)

J-Blue created a photo documentary of this momentous event. We offer it to you for your enjoyment.

First the peaches. You will notice that there are two kinds of peaches. The bold and confident peaches on the right. And then there are mine, on the left. They're wussy and self-indulgent, requiring individual little paper nests in which to rest their fuzzy bodies.

I'm embarrassed for them.

We dumped them all in a pot, sans paper nests. Boiled 'em for awhile. (They didn't mind.)

Then we peeled 'em, and chopped them into brand new jars, making a small pit mountain on the side.

Poured some syrup over them all, so they don't get cold over the winter.

And then popped them in the oven for a bit, tightened their lids and waited for them to joyfully pop, announcing that they were ready to help us through a long, cold winter. (You know, in case we don't feel like driving a few blocks to the grocery store for peaches in February.)

Then we had lunch. An important part of a canning day.

We had to buy more jars, because the beets were starting to multiply when we weren't looking. Fortunately, we had coupons from the peach jars.

We interrupt our regular programming to introduce you to the pets of the family, Slash and Ginwalla. Personally, I'm not sure what they had to do with the canning, but I don't argue with photographers.

OK. Tired yet? I know I was. Grab a Snickers and move on to the beets. That's what I did.

We had a lot of beets. Many, many beets. Beets in bowls, beets in pots, beets in baskets, beets - there were lots! (did you catch the Dr. Seuss feel there? no? go back and read it again please. thank you.)

Boiled 'em.

Peeled 'em.

Sliced 'em.

Brined 'em. Spike says these photos are mildly disturbing, like some weird horror show....

Of course, Spike has a little horror show of his own going on right now, but I'll blog about that tomorrow.

Ran out of vinegar. Ran out of sugar. Pondered the meaning of beets. Came darn close to babbling incoherently, because the beets JUST WOULDN'T STOP.

Here is the finished product. Almost all of it. We had it all packed away, and then I realized we hadn't taken pictures, so I made us unpack all of them. Took this picture. Packed them all away again. Then realized we hadn't unpacked ALL of them for the picture. So this is some of them. Because there was no freakin' way we were unpacking them all again, just for a picture. You can imagine it, OK?