I'd have buckled down and dealt with things on my own if I had to, but having the Bralys drop everything and come over made such a difference. As it was, we did nothing in addition to what I'd already done or planned to do, but with them here my heart calmed down considerably. If the worst had happened and the fire came over the hill, they would have been right there to get the animals out and do whatever else needed doing. Words can't express my gratitude (I think I'm going to bake a cake for them -- it was Hugh's birthday after all).
Yesterday I got dressed in my go-to-town clothes and went to town. I picked up Mama and then we went to have our hair done together (how mother-daughter is that!) and after that we had lunch at our favorite sushi place. Afterwards I came home and made jam from our own nectarines and plums. The plums were fast and easy to prepare, but the nectarines, while delicious, were only the size of large walnuts. By the time I'd peeled them and taken out their pits (the size of large olives), there were only a few small chunks of fruit to drop into the measuring cup. It took a long time and many, many nectarines to get the level up to four cups. It took 3 1/2 hours to produce 4 1/2 pints of jam. Was it worth it? Yes! If summer had a flavor, it would taste just like that jam.
That said, I'd had enough of bending over the sink peeling fruit, so I regretfully dumped the rest of the lard bucket of tiny nectarines onto the compost heap and invited the hens over to have a feast. They set right to work and took considerably less time than 3 1/2 hours to pick off all the flesh and leave nothing but a scattering of pits. I'd say that the girls enjoyed tasting summer too.
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