Beets & Bull

Okay, in my prayers tonight I am asking for all the standard stuff; health, safety, etc., for my family but I'm also asking for more hours in the day! Two trips per day down the river to clean out the nets, cleaning & bagging fish, canning, company, baking, and watching over two kids is starting to take it's toll on me :) Probably because Hubby is out of town working and I haven't seen him in almost two weeks. He usually handles the sprinklers and garbage (yuck I hate taking the garbage out!) so just those two extra jobs seems to make everything overwhelming. Alright, alright, I'll knock off the whining :)

Today I'm canning beets. I pulled the biggest ones out of my garden and then robbed Grandma's garden and, man alive, she had some big ones!

I shouldn't need too many of these to stock my whole canning cupboard for the year! I like them cubed and canned in the pressure cooker. I've pickled them but I think that's more of a snack with supper than part of the meal. And fresh canned beets are soooo good.

So far I have 22 pints filled, and more beets boiling. I've just have to add salt and hot water and these babies are ready to hit the pressure canner!

On a side-note: Hubby called me today to let me know the transmission place has a quote ready for a rebuilt transmission for our truck. He said "are you sitting down?" I knew it was going to bad but not this bad: $4500 (rebuild ours) to $6000 (new) dollars! After choking, I said "give me the info and I'll find a cheaper one." He gave me all the info, and with only four phone calls I quickly found a used one for around $2000 with one day shipping. He also had another guy looking into it for him and he found a new one for $2500. So he called the place back and told them he would be bringing in his own and they could put it in. We didn't have much choice as they have ours laying on their shop floor. They magically dropped the price by $1200 dollars and then told him it would be the same price even if he brought his own in because of install charges. Funny how just a few phone calls can make that much of a difference... but what happens to the people who don't know and accept the first price offered? I also looked this company up online and found a coupon on their site for 200 dollars off, wait 'til they see that when we pay them :) So I figure I just saved Hubby $1400.00, I just don't know what I'm gonna buy (I'm being sarcastic here).