Sneaking Away

I took a trip to Kamloops yesterday with a quick detour into Ashcroft. I don't tell anyone on the ranch I'm going and threaten hubby within an inch of his life if he lets the cat out of the bag. Okay the reason: I'll get upteen dozen phone calls to run all over the place picking up stuff from "two 20 pound bags of flour at Costco" to "parts for the tractor over at the John Deere store" (a half hour out of my way)! After picking everything up for everyone else, I'm either too broke or too worn out to shop for myself while dragging around two kids! I know I'm mean but I'll make another trip and probably let everyone know then (wink... maybe).
Speaking of Costco, that's the whole reason why I went over. I was over last week (I didn't tell anyone I was going that day either, so keep it under your hat!) and picked up two shelf units. They are pretty heavy duty and I thought they would be great in our spare room. I whipped them together and then cleaned up the whole room. After looking around I thought at least three more would make the room much better... and then why not one in our "gonna be a bathroom someday but has become another "catch-all" room?" And did I mention that my brother and I built a new garden shed and it just has to have shelving units? I ended up buying six! You should have seen me getting them into the truck! The boxes weigh 118 lbs a piece! Between those and a cubby hole shelf unit I acquired elsewhere it was quite the job, I did have the guy from Costco helping me but I think one of the boxes weighed more than he did. They are now sitting in the spare room still in the boxes waiting to be put together, when I get a minute or two I'll get to them :) Tomorrow morning I'm working on a computer and hoping to get up early enough to pick some pie cherries before my client shows up and the heat hits.
The other day when I finished baking all that bread I strolled into the garden and decided some of my beets just had to be picked and canned. They were the first thing I planted this year. I was testing out my homemade seed tape that did not do well last year but I've now chalked that up to the poor soil. Since Hubby dumped four dump truck loads of cow manure in there everything is growing wonderful! So far I've picked six good sized zucchini, had two good feeds of swiss chard, spinach, lettuce, and I'm on my third round of radishes. Tomatoes are everywhere (why do I plant that many??) and I have flowers all over the cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, peas, etc., etc.

Anyway back to the Canned Beets. Wash them really well, leave one to two inches of top and the roots on to prevent bleeding. Boil them up, maybe 10 to 15 minutes. Plunge them into cold water and slip the skins off. Cut the inch or so of top off as well as the root. I then cube them, pack them into pint jars with a 1/2 teaspoon of course salt, fill with boiling water, and pressure can them for 30 minutes. Scrumptious! There's nothing like canned beets right out of your own garden...mmm. The above picture doesn't clearly show how red the water or beets are but trust me, they are quite dark. And whatever you do don't throw out those beet tops! Boil them up, smear them in butter, and enjoy!

Sitting in the sink waiting... handsome devils!