And the final tally is: 14 half pints of relish, 39 ½ pints pickles, five broken jars. (I must be losing my touch.) Can’t “beet” that for a good stash for winter! Additionally, Jack made 2 quarts of Borscht for supper one evening and we had roasted beets with our supper on another evening. I still have a handful to cook, but I’ve run out of pint & half pint jars, so we will just cook them up and munch with butter until they’re gone.

Now, on to the cucumbers. I found a “new to me” recipe in one of Grandma Anderson’s old cookbooks. It’s for making sweet pickles out of those really large, old and sometimes useless cucumbers that didn’t get picked in time for the 14 day or dill batches.

We will be having Emily’s birthday dinner this Sunday. She has to work at the Hut on her actual birthday. Her requests have challenged my culinary skills, but she had the courtesy to provide recipes. We’ll be having stuffed grape leaves, creamy crab-stuffed portobellos, bleu cheese tomato soup, French bread and chocolate cake. I have her permission to use a mix for the cake, thank goodness! She’ll be 23.

As for the weekend, when I’m done grocery shopping (for grape leaves, etc.) I might go check out the festivities at the John C. Fremont Days in Fremont. They have a nice Chautauqua Presentation and a Living History encampment, which both appeal to the historian in me. A couple years ago they had an eight horse hitch of the Budweiser Clydesdales in town. They were SO AWESOME to stand next to. I also learned there are 5 such teams that travel the country making personal appearances. Unfortunately, they weren’t hiring grooms, handlers, drivers or even stall muckers at that time. Darn.

I got invited to ride in the Chicken Days Parade in Wayne, (see www.chickenshow.com for more info) but that’s a long drive and I’d have to get there by 9 AM. I’m pleading guilty of laziness to get out of that one and of course, the pickling must go on!

I see that today is Friday the 13th. Since last week’s 7/7/7 didn’t prove to be especially lucky, I expect this day won’t be especially unlucky. Anyway, I don’t believe in luck – only blessings.

So blessings to you for this weekend!