Monday, September 3, 2018

Laboring Into Fall

Labor Day.  The unofficial close of summer, the very official eve of returning to school for students and teachers.  The great irony of Labor Day, in the world of a teacher, is while normal folks use the day as a mini vacation from their year-round jobs the teacher labors like crazy, either in his/her classroom or at home, desperately trying to finish up all the things that somehow couldn't get done during the previous three months of workless bliss.

Which is exactly what this teacher did on his final day of vacation - work around the house and yard.  Summer had a nearly perfect pace through the middle of July.  The days were full but not hectic, the weeks rolled by but didn't disappear without a trace.  Life was good.  Then the blueberries ripened two weeks earlier than usual and ignited a ferocious firestorm of day-filling activities; a combination of food processing, basement finishing, landscaping, and volleyball devoured August.  Gone.  Never saw it coming or going.  Didn't take my boat out of the garage all month, and never once felt there were minutes to spare for writing.  So busy that, in a rarity, returning to the day-to-day grind of a real job will be a welcome relief....a vacation from hard labor, if you will.....

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With today's round of dish washing my produce preservation for the year is complete (unless someone shares fall apples with me).  The canner is cleaned, my kettles are washed, and for the first time in a month every measuring and mixing utensil I own is in its correct place.  In a final flurry of cooking and canning last night the last of the tomatoes became spaghetti sauce, and a remaining gallon of chokecherry juice became two batches of syrup and one batch of berry sauce.

Earlier this summer I wrote about making fruit preserves like jams and syrups...but my kitchen does more than churn out sweets.  Over the last month I froze dozens of quarts of blueberries, several quarts of shredded zucchini, numerous bags of diced tomatoes, and over a gallon of sliced apples.  I canned a gallon of chokecherry syrup and another gallon of chokecherry/blueberry sauce.  I have nearly 20 quart jars of spaghetti sauce on the shelf and 18 pints of salsa.  For the first time ever I tried my hand at making pickles, borrowing a recipe from my sister to make a simple batch of refrigerator pickles which now sit in three quart jars on the top shelf of my fridge.  This all is in addition to the strawberry/rhubarb sauce I made earlier this summer, at which time I also froze several quarts of rhubarb.

A ton of work, yes, but at least August was stiflingly hot so the house could be unbearably warm while I stood over steaming pots on a hot stove.  Admittedly there are (were) many times when I wonder aloud why I spend so much time and energy making what could easily be purchased.  In the end there's really no debate - I do what I do because I enjoy the process and love the results.  Full shelves, full freezers...all by my hand...are year-long reminders that summer was bountiful, reminders that carry with them a little warmth and hope on those long, cold winter days ahead.  And now that the plant life is processed, thoughts can turn to the harvesting of meat....

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So yeah, school starts tomorrow and brings with it a set schedule, a cadence of days and routines that might just save my sanity after the whirlwind that was August.  A new month that begins a new year in time for a new season sounds like a bunch of good reasons to get my fingers flying on some new posts for this blog.  Volleyball season is off and running, deer farming is about to turn into deer hunting, I begin my third decade of teaching....so much to write about!

I hope your summer was memorable, your Labor Day restful.  If you're a teacher, I hope your return to school life is painless and the school year becomes one of your best ever.  If you're a student I hope you enjoy the heck out of the next nine months - these days are some of the best of your life, so don't waste 'em!  If you're a parent of school-aged kids I hope you, too, will enjoy the school year alongside those kids.....my eldest begins her senior year of high school tomorrow so believe me - the years will disappear in a hurry if you let them.

Have a great fall everyone - let's go!